Our New Painting

Some of you might remember a few weeks ago when I posted this poem to the blog. For Valentine's Day, my wonderful wife turned it into Banksy-inspired watercolor painting which we now have happily hanging in our living room--and which I couldn't resist sharing with you. What do you think?

Progressive Revelation

I was a child once. I waddled my way across short lengths of grass and trees and sawdust leaves. I marveled at the vast adventures, all waiting latent for my ‘strength’ to propel me up great tall trees lifting me closer to the impossibly distant blue roof beyond. But, to my dismay, my waddles didn’t get me very far. For that my Dad scooped me up in his firm arms and placed me in his blue striped pickup truck. Strapped into the back seat we flew down country roads past lakes and forests and deep dark mountains. In my Dad’s care I flew. I’m still flying today.

It’s in the bones of a Dad to grow his kids. To meet them where they are and take them higher. To stretch and strengthen their feet so they can stand firm and tall. Until they mature, kids misunderstand much about the world their parents inhabit. Complex issues are simplified when a Mom talks to her daughter. Gray and murky waters are laid out in clear black and white only to, later in life, give way to the full spectrum of color which reality inhabits. “Don’t pull out the daisies!” is replaced by “Trim and water the roses.” We can understand more, and we’re capable of doing more. So it is with our Heavenly Dad. And this is how I’ve come to see Him when history looks confusing.

There are so many times that God looks confusing and inconsistent in the Bible. He prohibits people from eating an array of items, but later says “all food is on the table." He tells Israel to go to war and yes, to kill, but then later says that if you hate anyone it’s as bad as murdering them. A little odd, don’t you think, God? All of this and so much more confused the pants off me until I heard one little phrase explained that helped me see God’s Dad-nature pop out amidst the confusion: Progressive Revelation.

This idea gives the best explanation of why God seems to be different at different times in Scripture, even though it says He doesn’t change. Progressive Revelation says that God works to meet people where they are in order to interact with and elevate them to a place where they can perceive Him and reality more fully. This stepping down to our level and meeting us where we are is beautifully exemplified in God’s sending of Jesus to earth as a human to teach, show, and bring us the abundant life He desires us to have. Jesus didn’t come in the fullness of His Godness (Phil. 2:5-11). If he did, we couldn’t comprehend Him or what He would want to convey to us. We simply wouldn’t be able to relate to or understand Him. There are countless ways He steps down to accommodate us. He spoke in Hebrew to Moses and Elijah. He gave Israel a religious and sacrificial system similar to other people groups around them. He allowed for divorce when society couldn’t comprehend the place God intended women and marriage to hold.

    One of the most blatant ways we see this accommodation is when Jesus speaks to a crowd gathered around him on a mountain. He says that He has come to fill up the law, not to break it. He then goes on to give teachings that are much different than what was written in the Jewish Law. He says hating someone is equal to killing them; looking lustfully after a woman is as bad as sleeping with her; divorce is not His desire, and much much more. This can be confusing at first hearing because it seems like everything he says goes against what God originally said in the Old Testament. Wait God--you said an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth but now I’m supposed to turn my other cheek and pray good for them? These are very different statements. What’s happening here is God revealing more fully His character and desires. Jesus raises each of these earlier commands to its full stature.

He even goes on to say that God only allowed for divorce in the Law that Moses brought because the people were too blind and immature to hear God's true desire: that there would be no divorce (Matt 19:8-9).

    Of course, this topic could (and does) take up entire books; the nature of God is not something that can be tidily explained away. But it is a comfort and a revelation to know that God is constantly fathering humanity toward life so full it spills over its edges. The larger our capacities grow to perceive Him and His ways, the more He pulls us up into new heights of life. He wants us to have more of Him, more of who we truly are, more of Life to the fullest.

We have this progressive revelation of God throughout Scripture which reaches its zenith in Jesus; He is the unveiled image of the invisible God (Col 1:15). In Him, the fullness of God dwells. When God looks confusing, think of this. Look at Jesus back then through Scripture and today through His Spirit and those whom He pours Himself through. And consider: how might you drink deeper of the life he continues to pour through His Word and Spirit today?

Identity: The Prisoner Set Free

Philippians 3:3

“For we are the people of God if we worship in The Spirit of God and have our confidence rooted in Christ Jesus, not our own strength and abilities (flesh).”

Contrary to popular belief, you are not merely the sum of your experiences, positive or negative. You are the sum of what your Maker speaks over you. You can choose to agree with what He says and live out your true identity, filling out the shoes He's given you more and more day after day, or you can put your trust in your own experiences and let them define you. Many times I find my own self a mix of incongruous ideas pilfered from both of these places, but here are the two laid out plain.

If we base our identity on our accomplishments, successes, failures, tastes, interests, desires or preferences then we build the foundation of our identity on unsettled, constantly shifting, specs of sand. This is referred to as having confidence in the “flesh" in the Bible. And this practice is the sole cause of two seeming opposites who happen to actually be siblings: pride and depression, the most potent destroyers of the overflow of life and joy God intends us to have (Jn 10:10).

See, Jesus died for every person in the world’s entire history. Past, present, and future. “He died for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2)." When that happened, God forgave every sin anyone had ever done or will ever do. He unlocked the prison door that kept us from living fully alive. He knew we could not escape to freedom without His aid. We were made to live united with God and grow ever increasingly full of life, and joy, and solid reality. But the only way to do that fully is with Him, in His power.

So, He shaped His Son in the form of the key for the lock of our prison. His death on our behalf unlocked the door to our freedom. There are many passageways in this prison, many doors we may walk through, but His is the one which leads outside the razor topped walls; most merely take us from one cell block to the next - one man might, in an attempt to flee the prison of self-loathing depression, simply run to the padded room of tolerance where all things are tolerable but nothing is solid or substantial. He is trapped by new walls, but the effect is the same. Many say this is all there is in life, an endless variety of prison walls. But the joy I taste in Christ sings a freer tune. This freedom is not mandatory though. God is a true Dad, full of love and eager to grow His little ones into mature Selves. We have a will. We have choice. Countless choices in fact, which shape the Self we see as us in everyday life.

So, we work with Him. He unlocks the steel barred door keeping me from my real self and I take one step, His strength in my bones; then another, and another, in Him. A voice whispers, “I have sent you The Great Helper. He will guide you through the prison, tell you every turn you need to take and teach you all you need to know. He will empower you to do everything I ask of you. He will supply your every need and lead you to understanding. Receive Him for who He is. Lean on Him, trust Him, turn to Him, and talk with Him. He is my Spirit. I am with you."

When we receive Jesus, we receive his rescue from prison. Not a prison of this world but the prison of our selves - where we are constantly fixated on our own status and pleasure and pain. He opens me up to serve with acts of love, Him, my neighbors, as well as my self, in a way most healthy and beneficial to each. When we receive His Spirit we are connected with God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. His Spirit leads us into all truth and one of the first and most foundational truths is that we are adopted by God; the Father of all creation becomes our Father. And to bring that to full effect we must receive Him as Dad. Speak to him and say, “ I am your Daughter/Son, You are my High Father.”

This is your True Identity. God has said you are His child. He knows True Reality. Receive His words over you. Trust what He says in His Word above what you’ve heard, said, and experienced. He sees all the past, present, and future as they really are. He sees you through Jesus' blood: blameless, pure, and righteous. Trust what He sees.  Speak your agreement with His perspective--actual reality. Receive the identity He sees you as: a dearly loved child of God.

That’s who you are. Receive it. Trust it. study it. Meditate on it. And live it. Then, walk with God and set others free.

The Father Spot

We all want to be loved by our parents. We all have that deep-seated yearning for their affection and approval. It's hardwired into our nature. But, unfortunately, I've never known a single person who's had this desire fully satisfied. Everyone walks around with dull aches and sharp pains from their mom or their dad. Even the best parents make mistakes. I myself had some of the best ones I've ever heard of, but still found my heart aching at certain longings, thoughts, and memories. This part of our self hugely affects the way we develop and function as adults. That may be why psychologists and counselors often explore child/parent relationships when searching for the root of many dysfunctions.

I have a theory that parents aren’t supposed to be parents forever. In fact, the job of a parent is to raise their child up to know and receive their true Eternal Parent, God the Father, into the parental place in their heart. This is the whole reason Jesus came to earth from Heaven; to connect us into a right relationship with our True and forever Heavenly Father. That's why Jesus said, "I won't leave you as orphans when I go, but I will send you my Holy Spirit" (John 14:15-18).

A couple years ago, I found bitterness in my self harbored toward my Dad for missed time together in my childhood. He was a chiefly servant-hearted man focused on working hard at several jobs to provide for his family; a common story among children of loving parents. But a side-effect of his provision focus was that we missed out on a plethora of experiences and times together. Over time, I grew up and went off to college. When I'd come back over summer break the ache of our underdeveloped relationship would rear up and shout at me every time we were in a room together. I brought this up with him and we made an effort to take more time for each other with occasional father/son dates. We slowly grew our friendship, but I still felt a tinge of bitterness for time lost early on with my Dad.

That's when I started asking God what to do about the pain. I felt him say, "Take your hurts to me and let me Father you in those places. This is when I started calling God 'Dad' instead of Father. He wanted to fill that Daddy spot in my heart. As I called Him Dad, He felt more and more like my Papa Dad instead of just 'God'. When I took my pains to Him, asking what He thought about them, He'd wash me with His loving words, calling me son and showing me those hurts from His perspective. I saw my own Dad with more understanding of his history, with more sympathy and love. After a good long while of that I decided to let go of those hurts and not hold onto any bitterness towards him for them, but to take him as he was with gratefulness for what we have in the present, focusing on building the relationship I longed for instead of dwelling on the past.

I was letting the Great Father take His rightful place in my heart and letting my sweet earthly Dad become a friend along the road. I can't tell you what wonders its done for my relationships with both of them!

God Doesn't Make Commercials

Spirituality works differently than I always thought. We are so used to being begged to buy things right, left, and always that below the steady verbal flow of our conscious thoughts, we assume, God must work the same way. We picture him as the admen on Madison Avenue who wine and dine and puff and pitch till they work us into a wanting frenzy or we shove them out of our living room with the push of a button. But God does not make commercials. He’s not trying to sell you something. He doesn't send out mass emails. He won't clutter up your mailbox with piles of paper suited only for starting fires in your hearth. He’s not going to coerce you into closeness with Him.

The Great Father invites. He is inviting you into real life--into joy and friendship and intimacy with His pure-love self, and His people are the instruments of this invitation.

For most of my life I operated under the assumption that if God really wanted something to happen, then He would make it happen. If He wanted me to know something, He would make it so obviously apparent that I couldn’t miss it. I’m not sure where this perspective came from, this idea that I was just an observer whom things happened to. My disposition was, and in many ways still is, to think of life as a passive event and myself an ineffective agent within it. Maybe you can relate to this. I’m daily working to live the opposite of that--to be an active agent with my will. That’s what I am. It’s what we all are.

Several places Jesus uses an odd phrase usually translated, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.” I was puzzled by this saying for the longest time, not really understanding what he was trying to say. When I read it in Greek for the first time it made a lot more sense and served as a catalyst for me taking a more active approach to life--with God and in everything else. To explain it more fully I would translate this phrase as, “You have ears, they were made for hearing, so understand what I’m saying to you.” I always read this as “some people have ears who can hear what I’m saying, let those people hear and understand...the rest of you, well, better luck next time.” But that’s not at all what’s going on here. The latter part of this phrase is not a suggestion or idea. It’s not something he'd like a few people to do. It’s an imperative -- a command to all.

Jesus is inviting us, very loudly, to run after the treasures he has hidden for us to find. Walking with Him is like a kid on walking through the forest with his best friends on a treasure hunt. Just like the Proverb says: “It is the glory of God to hide a matter and the glory of kings to seek it out” (Prov. 25:2). There is a powerful distinction here: God doesn’t hide things from us, He hides things for us. You were made to uncover wonderful things throughout the adventure of your life. And through the process of discovering them we are made into kings and queens.

So look for Him, call to Him, seek His leading, His voice, His Word, His people, His truth, His reality, His Spirit to fill you up to the point of pouring out and spilling over. And don't stop after a few minutes, don't even stop after an hour, or a day, or months, or years. We’ve been trained by our inta-everything culture to have pleasantries beckon us towards them, but life is not meant to be a passive event. Go seek and knock and ask.  He is ever seeking to know and be known by you. There is ever more of Him to discover for those who will continually engage with Him in this mysterious thing called life.

A Dialogue with Dad: Learning to Listen in Prayer

As I've mentioned before, I believe an important part of prayer isn't just asking, or even thanking--it's listening. What might the Father be trying to tell you this afternoon? The other day I asked Him that question and was somewhat surprised with the answer! The following dialogue served to encourage me greatly, but the words He has for me are for you, too--and I hope you find encouragement in them as I did.

Bowing Your Knee

Eph. 3:14:

“Because of His gift, I bow my knee before the Father...”

As I walk through the week, I find my self worrying about what this or that person thinks. NPR or NBC, or some other combination of acronymial letters convinces me of what’s important that’s going on in the world and what should dominate my thoughts and feelings. I find my self constantly thinking about the news that flashes at me from my phone or computer screen. My ever-growing “to do list” constantly begs for my attention: at work, at home. I’m too distracted to notice that my whole life is hidden under the shadow of all these things I’ve deemed “important.” All these “important” things press me down. I’m supposed to filter through it all to find what’s worth my time and attention. But I’ve bowed my knee in too many places. What do I really know?

Our Heavenly Father is the only one we should ever bow a knee to, the only one to whom it’s appropriate to submit our whole selves. He knows all. He knows our hearts and futures, and dreams. He placed in us the beginnings of the great beings we are meant to become; much of which has yet to poke the beginnings of a sprout through our soil. When we bend the knee of our souls to Him we are empowered to do, dream, and become all that we were made for.

He is the One, the Mighty One, who loves and lifts up with His power. There is no other who can do what That One does. He is The One our hearts bow down to and in so doing, grow fully alive, fully their selves.

He is all. He is glorious. He is your Tender Loving Father who carries your best interest dear in His heart. Come near to Him. Receive His High-Father heart into yours and bow your whole self before Him. Take no other in that highest place that so many vie for every minute of every day. There you are His Beloved, child, daughter, son. There you are His low precious humble one. There He loves to lift you up to where you are seated with Him, in Heavenly places.