Here is a prayer we can pray for people...
'God. Please don't give that person what they deserve. Then use it to open their eyes to Your mercy and grace.'
The mob never cries out, 'Give mercy! Don't hurt them!' but we are not ones to join the mob. If a person is 'a user' and they don't repent people will eventually be lining up for their pound of flesh. Isolation is inevitable. We can be the ones who represent a divine mindset. We can have the great privilege of being 'mercy people' because God has had mercy on us.
Jesus asked his Father to forgive the people who were crucifying Him while it was happening. What the mob was shouting at Him was dark but the words Jesus uttered were a ray of light in the darkness. His mercy words will be remembered forever.
I don't think we are called to be doormats. We set boundaries and enforce them but it all can be done living in an attitude of love, mercy and grace.
In the mission in Florida where I received Christ the policy about drugs and alcohol were very straightforward. If you show up drunk you won't be spending the night. You are going to have to sleep it off somewhere else. God loves you and we care about you but that isn't happening here. We need to protect the people who are staying under this roof and hanging on by a thread. We can't let you drag them down. If you still need a place to stay tomorrow you are welcome here and the past will be gone forever. If you fail again we won't chide you about last week... but you won't be sleeping here if drugs or alcohol are in your system.
I didn't understand it at first. It seemed cruel but it wasn't. It was Love.
Sometimes it was me who had to send them off into the night and I learned to pray, 'Father, Have mercy on them. Protect them. Help them. Save them from what is out there and from themselves.'
These are good prayers to pray, aren't they? I think they are.
God is the One who can change hearts. We are the ones who can ask Him to do it.
--
Showing posts with label Boundaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boundaries. Show all posts
Monday, March 5, 2018
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
The Elders Who Were Carried Away Captive
I'm reading Jeremiah chapter 29 again and again this morning and it is very instructive to me. This letter is to Israel and Israel is a unique nation. It isn't the Church. The Church comes from the same root but that is a different message.
We can look at Israel's cycles and see similarities to the cycles and mentalities of an individual human being. Israel is a survivor. God has caused them to survive.
"Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive--to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. (This happened after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.) The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters--that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace." - Jeremiah 29:1-7 NKJV
Perhaps we look at the life we had and the one we have now and wonder, 'What parts have me have survived and what parts haven't?' Our cells die and are replaced and we change as we grow. For many life has taken them captive... or it seems that way. Actually, God sends us all into captivity but it isn't to hurt us. It is to grow us up.
"Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already). And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them." - Exodus 1:1-7 NKJV
Why God does this is mysterious but it clearly has to do with our free will. He wants us to choose freely but fallen people need limitations or they will destroy themselves. We need a tower of Babel as much as we need a Savior. We just don't know it. We long to be free but God sets boundaries and says, 'Live here with these restrictions.' and we fight against those boundaries.
If I kept writing today my post would be 100 pages long because there is so much here in this chapter. There are false prophets in our captivity and all kinds of obstacles but Israel was told to focus on God and the salvation that was coming.
"For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive." - Jeremiah 29:10-14 NKJV
Our salvation is a person. We focus on Him.
Survival mode comes in seasons for us. There is no shame in it. Guilt and shame have real remedies in Christ. Sin, failure and just plain falling short are resolved in Jesus' time on the cross. Shame is self hatred. None of that. No. Never. God loves us and He isn't thinking that way. His thoughts are peace.
"He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days." - Psalm 102:23 ESV
Yes. It happens to all of us but God has a well-timed plan that we will see unfold in due season. Don't despair if you feel trapped. God will release you when the time is right and you will thank Him for all of it. Yes. All of it. We don't know what we need. God only knows that.
--
We can look at Israel's cycles and see similarities to the cycles and mentalities of an individual human being. Israel is a survivor. God has caused them to survive.
"Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive--to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. (This happened after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.) The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters--that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace." - Jeremiah 29:1-7 NKJV
Perhaps we look at the life we had and the one we have now and wonder, 'What parts have me have survived and what parts haven't?' Our cells die and are replaced and we change as we grow. For many life has taken them captive... or it seems that way. Actually, God sends us all into captivity but it isn't to hurt us. It is to grow us up.
"Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already). And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them." - Exodus 1:1-7 NKJV
Why God does this is mysterious but it clearly has to do with our free will. He wants us to choose freely but fallen people need limitations or they will destroy themselves. We need a tower of Babel as much as we need a Savior. We just don't know it. We long to be free but God sets boundaries and says, 'Live here with these restrictions.' and we fight against those boundaries.
If I kept writing today my post would be 100 pages long because there is so much here in this chapter. There are false prophets in our captivity and all kinds of obstacles but Israel was told to focus on God and the salvation that was coming.
"For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive." - Jeremiah 29:10-14 NKJV
Our salvation is a person. We focus on Him.
Survival mode comes in seasons for us. There is no shame in it. Guilt and shame have real remedies in Christ. Sin, failure and just plain falling short are resolved in Jesus' time on the cross. Shame is self hatred. None of that. No. Never. God loves us and He isn't thinking that way. His thoughts are peace.
"He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days." - Psalm 102:23 ESV
Yes. It happens to all of us but God has a well-timed plan that we will see unfold in due season. Don't despair if you feel trapped. God will release you when the time is right and you will thank Him for all of it. Yes. All of it. We don't know what we need. God only knows that.
--
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Property Lines
Justice respects jurisdictions. It respects both sides of a boundary.
Lawlessness ignores boundaries.
Mine. Not mine. It belongs to us. It belongs to them. Who does it belong to?
Who decides? Is it the one who has leverage or brute force on his or her side?
Ultimately it is God's choice. He decides the true boundaries because He is the One who owns everything.
I think that little stretch of land in the middle of the middle east is a perfect example of this principle that goes beyond the boundary of humanistic morality. It resolves the chicken and the egg dilemma with a spiritual trump card. Does the land belong to who came first or occupied longest or does it belong to who God gave it to?
If we respect God's boundaries then we respect God. If we respect God's property then we respect God. Respect then fills the space of the relationship.
God does not have a problem with lust because it feels good. It does feel good. God has a problem with lust because it ignores property lines. The lusting person is a trespasser.
"I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin? What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high?" - Job 31:1-2 ESV
If our inheritance is land and we will not respect territorial rights then we devalue our own inheritance.
Grace is God's beautiful heart that let's others play on his lawn. It does not make the lawn public land where anything goes. The ownership remains firmly in place. The father gives His Son full access. We have become sons and daughters through the life of this same uniquely begotten Son.
So. Do we own the details of the day today? Do we own ourselves?
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
"You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men." - 1 Corinthians 7:23 ESV
Our ownership is the ownership of a steward. Good stewards respect true ownership.
A Biblical world view draws a different map then the world does. It always will because each side sees ownership in a different way.
If we see the real property lines in our job then we can function in them. When we see the real territory in our family then we can live a civilized life in our home. When we honor God's boundaries we will live in true freedom. Man's fences will only keep us bottled up.
We stake claims by faith. We say, 'God owns this land and this is where God has drawn a line. Now I will live in agreement with Him.'
That has such power in every area of our life... if we make those claims by faith God will honor them.
--
Lawlessness ignores boundaries.
Mine. Not mine. It belongs to us. It belongs to them. Who does it belong to?
Who decides? Is it the one who has leverage or brute force on his or her side?
Ultimately it is God's choice. He decides the true boundaries because He is the One who owns everything.
I think that little stretch of land in the middle of the middle east is a perfect example of this principle that goes beyond the boundary of humanistic morality. It resolves the chicken and the egg dilemma with a spiritual trump card. Does the land belong to who came first or occupied longest or does it belong to who God gave it to?
If we respect God's boundaries then we respect God. If we respect God's property then we respect God. Respect then fills the space of the relationship.
God does not have a problem with lust because it feels good. It does feel good. God has a problem with lust because it ignores property lines. The lusting person is a trespasser.
"I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin? What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high?" - Job 31:1-2 ESV
If our inheritance is land and we will not respect territorial rights then we devalue our own inheritance.
Grace is God's beautiful heart that let's others play on his lawn. It does not make the lawn public land where anything goes. The ownership remains firmly in place. The father gives His Son full access. We have become sons and daughters through the life of this same uniquely begotten Son.
So. Do we own the details of the day today? Do we own ourselves?
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
"You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men." - 1 Corinthians 7:23 ESV
Our ownership is the ownership of a steward. Good stewards respect true ownership.
A Biblical world view draws a different map then the world does. It always will because each side sees ownership in a different way.
If we see the real property lines in our job then we can function in them. When we see the real territory in our family then we can live a civilized life in our home. When we honor God's boundaries we will live in true freedom. Man's fences will only keep us bottled up.
We stake claims by faith. We say, 'God owns this land and this is where God has drawn a line. Now I will live in agreement with Him.'
That has such power in every area of our life... if we make those claims by faith God will honor them.
--
Friday, April 25, 2014
Bridging The Gaps
Thinking this morning about 'heart wedges'... gaps that form or are forced to form between people that were once close but cease to be at some point. How do these separations form? Can they be mended or prevented?
"Wealth makes many friends, But the poor is separated from his friend." - Proverbs 19:4 NKJV
Resources play a part in this process. Some people have vast relational resources and others have little. That is one factor. Separation happens when the resources run out.
There are also boundary issues which can be very complex and invisible. One party may not know the real consequences of passing into territory that the other party sees as unacceptable.
The garden of Eden is our original and most profound example of separation.
"And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'
But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate...
He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?'
The man said, 'The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.'
Then the LORD God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?'
The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'...
Then the LORD God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever -' therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." - Genesis 3:2-6, 11-13, 22-24 ESV
Wow. there is so much here in just these few excerpts. God is a holy God and his boundaries are just. He was right and we were wrong. We still are much of the time... wrong with God and wrong with each other. We step over invisible lines and gaps begin to form.
The thing God used was a bit strange wasn't it? A tree. Where is the right and wrong in eating from a specific tree? In a way it is not so clear cut. It needs explanation.
Forgiveness has a big role in maintaining closeness and restoring it again. Like the tree it has elements that have no clear moral connection per se.
"Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands - remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility." - Ephesians 2:11-16 ESV
The blood killed the hostility. The labels of 'us' and 'them' are taken away. Christ's blood purely represents forgiveness. Life that is rightfully hidden and inside a person is exposed to the open air and poured out on purpose.
A part of us recoils at that exposure.
A holy God cut us off and with good reason. But, That same holy God reconciled us in a way that separation is not possible anymore. Once reconciled to God by the blood of His Son we are brought permanently near... near as far as He is concerned anyway.
"As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:36-39 ESV
God's methods give us great insight into our relationships. We are made in His image after all.
God revealed grace and truth in His Son. Jesus proved to us by example that even dead relationships can rise again if there is a place for the forgiveness He provides.
I want God to teach me and open my eyes so that gaps can be filled between relationships. The separations no longer have to form in my mind if I see the blood of Christ as my resource and not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We are made ministers of reconciliation. All of us are... if we have the spiritual resources to be.
--
"Wealth makes many friends, But the poor is separated from his friend." - Proverbs 19:4 NKJV
Resources play a part in this process. Some people have vast relational resources and others have little. That is one factor. Separation happens when the resources run out.
There are also boundary issues which can be very complex and invisible. One party may not know the real consequences of passing into territory that the other party sees as unacceptable.
The garden of Eden is our original and most profound example of separation.
"And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'
But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate...
He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?'
The man said, 'The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.'
Then the LORD God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?'
The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'...
Then the LORD God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever -' therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." - Genesis 3:2-6, 11-13, 22-24 ESV
Wow. there is so much here in just these few excerpts. God is a holy God and his boundaries are just. He was right and we were wrong. We still are much of the time... wrong with God and wrong with each other. We step over invisible lines and gaps begin to form.
The thing God used was a bit strange wasn't it? A tree. Where is the right and wrong in eating from a specific tree? In a way it is not so clear cut. It needs explanation.
Forgiveness has a big role in maintaining closeness and restoring it again. Like the tree it has elements that have no clear moral connection per se.
"Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands - remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility." - Ephesians 2:11-16 ESV
The blood killed the hostility. The labels of 'us' and 'them' are taken away. Christ's blood purely represents forgiveness. Life that is rightfully hidden and inside a person is exposed to the open air and poured out on purpose.
A part of us recoils at that exposure.
A holy God cut us off and with good reason. But, That same holy God reconciled us in a way that separation is not possible anymore. Once reconciled to God by the blood of His Son we are brought permanently near... near as far as He is concerned anyway.
"As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:36-39 ESV
God's methods give us great insight into our relationships. We are made in His image after all.
God revealed grace and truth in His Son. Jesus proved to us by example that even dead relationships can rise again if there is a place for the forgiveness He provides.
I want God to teach me and open my eyes so that gaps can be filled between relationships. The separations no longer have to form in my mind if I see the blood of Christ as my resource and not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We are made ministers of reconciliation. All of us are... if we have the spiritual resources to be.
--
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