Tag Archives: faith

Eyes to See

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One reason I quit wearing contact lenses was that I was always losing them.

But in one of those days when my absent-mindedness was still propelling me toward the inevitable decision, I stood at the window. One eye had a contact lens. The other was legally blind.

I looked out with first one eye closed, and then the other. The near-sighted eye could clearly see the screen, the dust, the cobwebs. Obviously I needed to clean. Beyond the screen was only a hazy blur of green, too indistinct to give more than a passing glance.

Then I looked through the corrected eye and found that the screen faded almost completely from view. I knew it was there, but what I saw, what my eye was able to focus on, was the beauty of the vista beyond the screen: flower and trees, even individual blades of grass. I marvelled as if I had never looked outside before.

I played the game for a minute. Bad eye, screen. Good eye, beauty. Thank God for corrective lenses, to look beyond the screen.

What was David thinking when he looked at Goliath and said, “I’m going to feed you to the buzzards”? What did he see beyond the giant?

How was it that Hudson Taylor could come to the end of his life, after losing a wife and child in China, after multiple hardships and broken health, and in the spirit of Hebrews 10:34 say, “I never made a sacrifice”? What could he see beyond those hardships? What had happened to his spiritual eyes?

How could Moses turn his back on the riches and pleasures of Egypt? How could he, as Hebrews 11 says, turn his gaze away and fix his attention on something no one else could perceive with physical eyes?  What could he see beyond those physical attractions?

What did Paul mean when he told the Ephesians in chapter 1 that he wanted the eyes of their perception to be filled with light? Can spiritual eyes, even the eyes of Christians, be legally blind? What are those things he talks about, those things we’re supposed to see? Are they worth begging God for corrective lenses?

Lord, fix our vision to fix our gaze—beyond the Cares of this World and the Deceitfulness of Riches. Fill our eyes with light to see beyond the Giants.

Spirit of Christ, give us eyes to see your Beauty. Your Power.

Beyond the Screen.

Thirsty yet?

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Ho! Every one that thirsts! Come to the waters . . . Drink!

New Year’s Resolution #2,011: Drink more water.

Have you ever noticed that you can systematically drink less and less water, way less than your body needs, without feeling thirsty? Counterintuitive, I know. But that thirst mechanism behind your throat sort of atrophies or something.

And lots of people, when they do feel any thirst, go to coffee or soda to try to assuage it. Of course those beverages actually drain water from your system.

And as that thirst mechanism shrivels up, sometimes when people are thirsty they think they’re hungry, and then they eat . . . and eat . . . and eat . . . while they’re actually dying of dehydration.

Thirsty yet?

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? . . . O God, You are my God; I earnestly seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You, as in a dry and weary land without water.

At eleven years old, I developed a life-threatening kidney condition that hospitalized me for two weeks. My parents made me drink two quarts of water a day, and I became the healthiest I had ever been in my life.

Did I mention that I was a very sickly child? Besides asthma and stomach problems, I had this weird skin disease all over my hands and feet that made me become unable to walk normally or do pretty much anything. I dropped out of sixth grade. My mother took me to one doctor after another. I suffered much at the hands of these physicians, and rather than growing better, I actually grew worse.

But then I got the kidney disease and got well.

It was only as an adult, married to a man who knew the importance of water, that I understood what had really happened. Throughout my childhood, I never drank water. I mean I never drank water. Since I was almost never thirsty, I drank one or two cups of milk a day, and that was it. I was dying, and my skin was trying to let me know. Finally my kidneys gave the red alert.

None of those wise skin doctors, with their pills and potions and lotions and creams and plastic bags and soaking solutions ever asked my mother, “How much does she drink?” Never. Nope. Not once. Even though probably every last one of them knew that the skin is called the third kidney.

Thirsty yet?

As an adult, when I drank more and more water, I found myself becoming thirsty more often. Drinking even more. And becoming more healthy.

Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. . . . Everyone drinking of this water will thirst again; but whoever will drink of the water that I will give him will never ever thirst, because the water that I will give to him will become a fountain of water in him, springing up into everlasting life.

Oh, my soul, be Thirsty. Be very Thirsty. Don’t forsake the Living Water to hew out broken wells that can hold no water. Drink the Water. Long and deep.

Through the written Word, drink long and deep of Jesus Christ. You’ll find your Thirst Mechanism kicking in. And your Thirst can continuously be satisfied, because the Water will always be there. The Living Water. Drink, and find that you become a river.

Ho, everyone! Are you Thirsty yet?

What kind of salvation did we get?

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So what did Jesus do to secure our salvation?

If you answer, “He died on the cross,” I would say that I think you’re maybe about one-fifth right.

Jesus died a sacrificial death. He took the penalty for my sins, changing my destination when I look to Him in faith. This is the part that even the smallest child in a Christian family can repeat.  But in order for me to live a life of complete salvation, I would say that four other accomplishments are equally crucial.

Jesus lived a sinless life. That means He kept ALL the Law completely for me. When I am in Him, I no longer need to look to law-keeping (or even principle-following) to live a Christian life that is pleasing to God. Instead, in faith I look to Christ.

He rose from the dead. Not only to gain victory over death for Himself at that time, which is what we all know. But just as crucial, to gain victory over the night of the living dead for me, here and now. To insure my own resurrection in Him today, so that when I look to Him in faith, I will walk in newness of life by the power of His Spirit in me, right here on this earth.

He ascended back to heaven. Though some branches of Christianity celebrate Ascension Sunday, in the evangelical churches His victorious ascension seems to get far less press than it deserves. Jesus wasn’t just going back where He came from in order to get home. He was ascending the flight of stairs, as it were, like a Crown Prince, in order to receive His crown and His rightful place as King. And when He ascended on high, as Ephesians 4:8 tells us, He led captivity captive—the sin and death that He conquered in more than just theory—and gave gifts unto those that look to Him in faith, the greatest of which was the Holy Spirit, Christ in us.

He sat down at the right hand of God the Father. This was more than just because He was all done with His job. It was because He was reigning. How well I remember studying Hebrews and thinking, “Why in the world does the author keep talking about Jesus sitting down? This must be important.” It was probably years before I finally understood that the sitting down Jesus did is the same as the sitting down I have by faith done in Ephesians 2:6, in the heavenly places. Is that only theoretical Christianity? Does it have no practical application in my life now?

Understanding these truths—I would even say believing these truths—makes a powerful difference, moment by moment, in my life on this earth. Not only is my destination changed. But my desires, my delights, my duties, my direction, my determinations, my day to day.

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9). A powerful truth to help those spirit-oriented New Year’s Resolutions be accomplished through something beyond teeth-gritting dogged will power.

But rather, through the Spirit-empowered life of Resurrection in Christ.

Note to self: Stop saying “I can’t”

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At some point in my life—not that long ago, I’m afraid—I realized I said these two words a lot.

I can’t memorize like I used to. I can’t keep anything in my head for more than about ten seconds.

I can’t take on one more thing. Really, I would love to, but I just can’t.

I can’t do this by myself, people.

I just can’t break this sin pattern.

At some point—don’t remember what God used to turn on the light—I realized I shouldn’t be saying that.

After all, do I believe the Scripture? And doesn’t the Scripture say, I can do all things through Christ, the one Who strengthens me?

I can fudge around it and say that this Scripture doesn’t really mean that, which I suppose I’ve always done.

But instead, I’d rather think it through.

How about if I remove “I can’t” from my vocabulary and instead choose to say “I don’t want to,” or “God doesn’t want me to” (which might translate to “I shouldn’t”). Or maybe, “I don’t really believe God.” Because really, when you get right down to it, that’s the real story of almost all my “I can’ts.”

Are these words important? You’d better believe it. The words that I choose to use shape my thinking.

I probably still say “I can’t” sometimes without realizing it, because it’s a habit ingrained over many years. But if I do, please correct me. Make me acknowledge “God doesn’t want me to.” Or make me admit “I don’t want to” or “I don’t believe God.” I’d rather deal with the truth.

And maybe I’ll acknowledge that what I’m dealing with is simply a lack of faith. And maybe I’ll say, “In Christ, I can.“

Where does your mind go?

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I was a young mother. She was an older woman. Her question was rhetorical, addressed to the whole group. But maybe you’ve had one of those moments where the question addressed to the whole group zings like an arrow right to your own heart.

Where does your mind go . . . when you let it go?

I knew the answer. At that time in my life, the answer was food. Definitely food. The chocolate chips in the cabinet. A little smackerel of something.

At other times in my life, when I’ve let my mind go, it has gone to anxieties. To the long list of things I probably ought to be doing. Even to places that aren’t quite as acceptable as food or anxieties to talk about in polite company.

While I pondered that question and the answer that I knew, I cringed. I so wanted it to be different. “Oh God! When my mind is free, when it’s not occupied with other things in the business of life, I want my mind to naturally run to You!”

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.

My heart and my flesh cry out for the Living God!

When will I come and appear before God?

Oh, my Lord Jesus, You alone are all my righteousness. . . .

Last weekend I had the privilege of returning to our old church in Indiana and seeing that dear lady again. Helen Weirich is now in her eighties.

I had the privilege of giving her a hug and thanking her for speaking the Word like an arrow into my heart, oh so many years ago, of challenging me with a question I’ve never forgotten. A question that caused me to cry out to God and seek a deep changing work of the Spirit.

When your thoughts are free . . . whose slave are they?

I have been made free from sin. Now I am a willing slave of righteousness. Holiness and eternal life are the promised fruit. Amazing truths. Great joy.

How can I be pleasing to God?

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Though I’m not big on controversy, I aroused some when I guest blogged on a friend’s website. Ostensibly about church attendance, the underlying question was one I’ve thought about, pondered, and prayed over many times and much over the past months and years: How can I please God in my day-to-day life?

The Bible describes actions that are pleasing to God. Does that mean that He’s always checking up on me to see how well I’m doing them? That I’m gaining His smile or His frown based on my efforts rather than on what Christ has done?

The thought was abhorrent to me even before I fully understood it or could put it into words. How can I say that my efforts (be they church attendance or something else) are pleasing to God if they don’t spring out of faith in Jesus Christ? After all, Enoch pleased God not because of his efforts but because of his intimate relationship in faith. Because without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.

So I’m posting here some of what I wrote at the very end of that post on my friend’s website.

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Can a woman who has a sterile relationship with her husband decide that she’s going to produce a baby to please him? She could produce a lifeless doll (dead works brought forth out of dead faith) and pretend that it’s a baby. Maybe many people around her will even pretend along with her, because they’re all carrying their own lifeless dolls. Maybe that’s all they know.

But the real baby, the fruit of the womb, will be produced when the wife gives herself fully to her husband in joyful, trusting submission, in that intimate trusting relationship born of mutual love. The loving husband is pleased, really pleased, in that intimate relationship. Then, ultimately, the husband is pleased in the beautiful fruit born out of that intimate relationship: a living, breathing human being. Living works produced by living faith.

Though there is effort involved in having a baby (just as there is effort involved in the outworking of the Christian life), a woman cannot produce that fruit of the womb in her own strength: that fruit of her life is a gift of God. Just so, the fruit of my life that is well-pleasing to God is the works that are born out of my intimate, loving, trusting faith relationship with Jesus Christ, “Christ in you.” The Holy Spirit of Christ works within me to grow this fruit, to bring forth these natural works.

Those works, those living works, pouring out of a life of intoxicating love, result in a sweet savor in the nostrils of God. This isn’t because I have produced them from my own efforts, it isn’t because I try to discern the will of God and then try to carry it out. Instead, it’s because they spring out naturally, produced from the intimate relationship of mutual love.

Though church attendance or any other effort might ultimately be wood, hay, stubble or a filthy rag, my confidence can rest assured in the truth that in Christ my life really can be pleasing to God.