We received this abbreviated life story from David in New Zealand. Hopefully, you will find it encouraging because as he puts it, “there have been some very significant non-normal occurrences amongst it all”

It is valuable and encouraging to be reminded that Jesus wants to be Lord of our lives and He often does that by taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary!

GOD BLESSED LIVES

Introduction

Expressing the depth of God’s blessing over the past forty five years is like trying to explain colours to a blind man.  Words don’t hack it.  But I know for certain that if anyone is bold enough to entrust their life to the Lord Jesus Christ then He will show them colours!

Brief Resume

I gave my life to the Lord Jesus when I was nine.  It was a simple prayer “Lord Jesus please come into my heart”.  He did!  Since then life has given the appearance of “normality”.  I grew up, left home, got educated, was married, had children, bought a house, and held a job as a teacher.  I now have grandchildren, and am still teaching.  But in reality there have been some very significant non-normal occurrences amongst it all.  Here is an attempt to categorize some of those blessings.

1.   Spiritual

a. In my late teens I suffered inner turmoil caused by a relationship that had ended unhappily.  Two years later I prayed for God’s help to deal with the issue.  In response he filled me with the Holy Spirit (lots of people were experiencing this at that point in time, but I had no idea what it was all about.)  The inner peace and tranquility was unbelievable, and it went on and on.  READ MORE…

This question has been with me for some weeks now. It was prompted while thinking about a statement in John 15, “Live in Me. Make your home in me just as I do in you.” [The Message]

What does it mean to live in Him and to make our home in the God and Father of Jesus? It may be   difficult for us to understand how He can assure us, “…just as I do in you.” That the God and Father of Jesus chooses to live within me is a seemingly unreasonable statement which only makes me feel even more honoured, privileged, blessed, encouraged, amazed and awestruck at His master plan. How good He is!

He knows me

He knows me just as I am – and He still loves me unconditionally because He has purposed to reveal Himself to me out of  His nature  of  pure love. His longing is to share fellowship with us and this happens most when we are relaxed with Him and open and available to His company. Jesus longs for us to be like children with him -  receptive, utterly dependent and totally reliant on His power and grace.

Because He knows me I can feel totally safe with Him, assured that in spite of where I am at He wants to be with me. Brennan Manning has said, “Adam and Eve both hid from the Lord and we use them as role models!” Our most natural inclination is to hide from him and yet  He seeks daily intimacy with us!

A personal question

I had felt that this was a personal question Father was asking of me. It was not a call for me to run off and study the scriptures and return with a pat answer. We may think that because we are Christians and read the Book and therefore know a great deal about God, therefore we know God. It is not so, for we need an experiential knowledge of Him. We do know much about Him but He calls us to Himself that we might know Him personally.  Learning to cultivate intimacy with Christ will not only become a joyful experience but will bring amazing freedom to our lives.

How do you see Me  in everyday life?

When we have people visit our home we often find ourselves saying, “Please make yourselves at home!” And we do that because it is in our hearts for them to feel relaxed enough to be themselves. When people feel relaxed and cared for they are far more able to share their lives with you. That awareness of being at home with someone is what Father calls us to. When I am at home I speak freely and honestly. I am relaxed and available to chat and listen! I want to be involved in all that is going on in the home.  All this of course is a simple picture of what Jesus is wanting us to experience with Himself.

Being at home with Jesus helps us to understand what He is like. What He enjoys! His care and concern for us as well as knowing what pleases Him is all part of being “In Christ!”  He in me and me in him. It may be that we need a shift in our understanding. We can ‘be at home with Jesus’ today without waiting for heaven as some believe! It was John Wesley who said, “Best of all God is with us!”

Encouragement

Look what David has to say, “I thank you, High God – you are breathtaking!” and “Your thoughts – how rare, how beautiful! God I’ll never comprehend them!”

Let us renounce our illusions of God and surrender to Him today because - “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”

Have you heard people  comment that so and so is a balanced teacher or the book they have
just read is declared to have a balanced point of view!  In my experience we view being  balanced as someone who believes much the same as “I” do. It makes us feel safe and gives us some assurance in our beliefs!

This person or book or teaching or church group can then be viewed as ‘acceptable’ for our consumption. What does balance mean?  It  is seen as being neither too liberal but also not too legalistic! In other words it is like walking a tightrope! And is this what Jesus calls us to? I think not!
In practical terms we would all prefer God’s gracious work within us to be neat and tidy with no blurred edges and
if it ‘works out OK’ praise the Lord because He answers prayers. On the other side of the coin I have heard people complain that they are angry with God because it did not work out as they had wanted it to.

These two streams of thought lead many  Christians to believe that Christianity and respectability or compromise  are one and the same thing! We may not admit that but we certainly practice it.
This is so far from the truth! We have picked these thoughts up from a distorted Gospel and a lack of understanding
of the character of God.

Jesus – Our Example

When we read about the life of Jesus in the Gospels we find that Jesus is neither ‘balanced’ [as described earlier], nor is He in any way respectable. He is a Father pleaser! When I follow Him on His journey along the dusty roads of  towns and cities He has a way of  making me feel quite uncomfortable at times. He rattles cages and challenges us deeply because He does not fit into our ‘Christian cultural view of  life!’ Why? He turns everything upside down and the right way up at the same time!

We are not called to walk a tightrope of ‘our best efforts’ based upon human endeavour. Thomas thought like that when he said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?” [The Message] Jesus tells him that it is not about being balanced or respectable or dependent upon human effort. Living for God is all about a Person called Jesus. “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life.” [The Message]

Listen carefully to Him. “Someone told Jesus, ‘Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you!’ He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” Wow! Does not this statement offend our sensibilities. Today He would be called abusive, slanderous and uncaring! He does away with sentimentality and goes straight to the heart of the matter. Pleasing the Father! We would probably want to finish off what we are saying and then go outside to see our family. He lifts our focus higher!

What about this statement – “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Again, He appears to rock the boat of our ‘respectable Christian viewpoint’  and yet all He is doing here is giving us real perspective on life. He does this over and over! Thankfully, there is always the grace to embrace what He is saying. The problem comes when we resume the ‘balanced’ state of mind and living within the perimeters of a religious mindset!

The Kingdom

The Kingdom of God has come when those ‘respectable’ cozy relationships we cling to are put into perspective through Jesus’ words. He has a simple yet profound way of sharpening our focus. In these very challenging days Jesus leads the way by demonstrating how life is to be lived.
He does not fear man and challenges His disciples to forgive 490 times. He talks to a Samaritan woman at the well and makes it clear who He is. Even his disciples are taken aback when they return from buying some food!  He tells this woman He has water for her and she will never thirst again if she drinks it. Finally He breaks with ‘political correctness’ and tells this Samaritan woman that she worships in ignorance [obvious discrimination] but the way ahead is to worship the Father from the heart! “ These are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks out”

Jesus does not say and do these things just to be different or awkward but rather because He knows He is right! And, because He is right He knows what is best for us. When He speaks something that might appear difficult or challenging it is at that point we realise that unless He helps us with this matter we are sunk! And so we learn to be dependent upon Him all of our lives.

It is not about being seen to do right but rather following The Master’s example – “I never do unless the Father shows Me” We need men and women in this hour who walk humbly dependent upon Him away from respectability and balance as we experience the power of His life working within us. And, never recover!

You may have been experiencing some problems accessing Hislife over the last couple of weeks. The reason for this has been our search for a new hosting package. The volume of traffic to the site had created some problems and so we changed once and then due to further problems we changed again!

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May 2010 be a year of fresh passion for Jesus linked to renewed receptivity to His purposes.

“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.”

“…he went to the meeting place. When He stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, ‘This is God’s year to act!’ “

“You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.”  [Luke 4, The Message]

In the early days of Jesus’ ministry He stands up and declares something which Isaiah had prohesied. TODAY!…. again we read how Jesus’ life and ministry moves away from the predictable and respectable to giving all but the religious gang a sure and certain hope! A reason to be glad.

The religious  response to this declaration and subsequent discussion was…..wait for it. They wanted to drive him out of town in order to push him down a cliff. Why?  Because they did not like what He was saying. He was announcing to them that salvation was to be offered to the Gentiles. This is far too radical and hence their response to him. Change can bring uncertainty and fear may follow but who better to trust if He is leading the procession!

Other ‘unpredictable’ actions

Jesus went on to Capernaum and on the sabbath began to teach the people as one having authority. And then he drove out a demon with a word in the same meeting. Eek!! This is not the kind of experience we want to have in our meetings! 
Ernst Kasemann, a German scholar remarks,
“What causes most trouble for Christians of all ages is not legalism or lack of faith or theological controversies; it is Jesus Himself, who bestows freedom so openhandedly and dangerously on those who do not know what to do with it. The Church always gets so panic-stricken for fear of the turmoil that Christ creates when He comes on the scene; and so it takes His freedom under its own management for the protection of the souls entrusted to it, in order to dispense it in homeopathic doses when it seems necessary.”

I am deeply moved over and over again as Jesus’ feet are washed by a woman ‘who had lived a sinful life’ I revel in the fact that I too can do this in my gratitude to Jesus for all He is and what He is doing in my own life. Her act of pure worship and appreciation through outpoured perfume and the washing of Jesus’ feet affects us all.
The greedy and self-focussed see it as a waste of money! The religious fear it and frown upon this as something to be avoided!  While for those who have learned to enjoy Father’s extravagant love see it as the simple expression of a forgiven woman!

These acts of mercy and grace make the respectable squirm. Jesus Christ today drives out demons, heals the sick, feeds the hungry and has time for little children saying that we must become like them if we want to see the Kingdom –  just as He did when He walked on the earth.

All of this in the course of life!

We are so glad that our Father knows exactly what we need for each day. Some of you will know because of our chats that in the last few months we have been captivated by two statements in The Message.

“Steep yourselves in God-reality, God-initiative and God-provisions!” The other in John 15 “Live in Me. Make your home in Me just as I do in you.”

God at home in me? Wow! And yet that is His promise. These are daily realities and move us further towards walking in the kind of relationship with Jesus that He desires for all of us and includes you!

In his book ‘The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus,’ Brennan Manning tells the story of  an old Dutch professor who told the following story:

“I’m one of thirteen children. One day when I was playing in the street of our hometown in Holland, I got thirsty and came into the pantry for a glass of water. It was around noon and my father had just come home from work to have lunch. He was sitting at the kitchen table having a glass of beer with a neighbour. A door separated the kitchen from the pantry and my father didn’t know I was there. The neighbour said to my father, ‘Joe, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time, but if it’s too personal, just forget I ever asked.’

What is your question?”

“Well, you have thirteen children. Out of all of them, is there one that is your favourite, one you love more than all the others?”

The professor continued his story: “I had my ear pressed against the door hoping against hope it would be me. ‘That’s easy,’ my father said. ‘Sure there’s one I love more than all the others. That’s Mary, the twelve year old. She just got braces on her teeth and feels so awkward and embarrassed that she won’t go out of the house anymore. Oh! but you asked about my favourite. That’s my twenty three year old, Peter. His fiancee just broke their engagement, and he is desolate. But the one I really love the most is little Michael. He’s totally uncoordinated and terrible in any sport he tries to play. The other kids on the street make fun of him. But, of course, the apple of my eye is Susan. Only twenty four, living in her own apartment and developing a drinking problem. I cry for Susan. But I guess of all the kids…’ and my father went on mentioning each of his thirteen children by name.”

The professor ended his story saying: “What I learned was that the one my father loved most was the one who needed him most at that time. And that’s the way the Father of Jesus is…

Be deeply encouraged to know that you are so loved by Father and knowing this love will bring change and transformation within our lives!  Let us not be afraid to take time to dwell on these wonderful truths away from the noise and busyness of life. If we learn to cultivate our relationship with Jesus we will realize that we are deeply loved and be wonderfully refreshed.

With the pace of life increasingly ’speeding up’ and tiredness, anxiety and the ‘no-time for the important  syndrome’ ever being heard around us I found this quote very refreshing and challenging.

This is a quote from a book called, “Gift from the Sea” by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“As far as the search for silence and solitude is concerned, we live in a negative atmosphere, as invisible, as all-pervasive and as enervating as high humidity in an August afternoon. The world does not understand today, in either man or woman, the need to be alone.

How inexplicable it seems! Anything else will be accepted as a better excuse. If one sets aside time for a business appointment, a trip to the hair dresser, a social engagement, or a shopping expedition, that time will be accepted as inviolable. But if one says, ‘I cannot come because it is my hour to be alone,’ one is considered rude, egotistical, or strange. What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect; when one has to apologise for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices solitude – like a secret vice.”

Let us take time to steep ourselves in God-reality by drawing aside with Him!

I know that we have written about this author before and the book which has been a blessing beyond words, which has taken many believers beyond the borders of their own experience. It continues to be such a tool! And for this we are grateful to the One who builds His Church so well. Here is another video with a couple of familiar faces involved in the conversation.

May our hearts be thrilled that Jesus IS building His Church, in His way! Enjoy the clip…

If ever there was a time to be cultivating an awareness of the Lord with us – it is now!

If ever there was a time to be alert to His desire and responsive to His ’still small voice’ – it is now!

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts!”

How easily we can be distracted by well meaning things, activities and pursuits which fill our lives day after day and yet leave us feeling empty and drifting. Jesus desires first place in our lives and longs to hear from you.

If I wanted to get to know someone better I would spend more “attentive”  time with them. Relationship with God needs to be cultivated. Our marriage would be in trouble if Jenny and I spent time with everyone else but neglected each other! Yet, Christians ignore the Lord apart from a few glib, shallow requests and then wonder why they do not sense His presence with them.

He is with you  right now and longs to be  in a ‘first priority love relationship’ today.

Remember Peter, who was called by Jesus with his brother Andrew while they were fishing. He was later adamant that he would never disown the Lord. Oops! He failed that test! As we do so often. But, Jesus was not finished with Peter.

Peter went back to ‘what he knew’ as we all do when things aren’t right! Over breakfast Jesus asked Peter a simple but life changing question.

His longing and deep desire for you and me to walk in intimacy together day by day requires us to answer the same question – “Do you love Me?”

As we take time to reflect on all that God has done for us in Jesus we will grow in our appreciation of His affection. Let me emphasize this point, ‘Take time to reflect!’

“Behold what exotic [foreign to the human heart] love the Father has permanently bestowed upon us, to the end that we may be named children of God.” [Wuest]

As we then delight ourselves in His depth of affection we begin to grow in the knowledge of who He is! And – we are called to this – “an experiential knowledge of the only genuine God.”  This work of grace that takes place in our lives is a pure gift from God.

Jesus our Pattern, our Strength-Giver, and Satisfier reveals to us His relationship with Father.

“And the manner of His outward expression was changed before them, that expression coming from and being representative of His inner being.” [Wuest]

This mountain-top experience gives us insight into the reality of the  ‘heavenly realms’ – flooded with kingdom glory! We long to experience more of this dimension.

His purpose in all of this is revealed in Paul’s writings to the Christians at Corinth.

“My jealousy over you is the right sort of jealousy, for in my eyes you are like a fresh unspoiled girl whom I am presenting as fiance to your true husband, Christ Himself!”