Love

 

            Faith, hope and love.  I’ve written about faith in the last two entries of this blog.   I briefly touched on hope in the blog entry about serving a life sentence.  But I would like to address love in this blog.   The many expressions of love I experienced this week have buoyed me up.   I was speechless as so many reached out in love to me.  A friend built a beautiful water feature in our back yard as I lay in the hospital.  Another friend I haven’t seen for several years called to assure me of his prayers and desire to come see me.   Another young man took time from his vacation to come by and pray for me.

            But when I think back, this week is really no different than most weeks.  My church family surrounds me with assurances of their love constantly.  My children tell me of their love regularly.  My grand children also express their love for me in some amazing ways.  And my dear wife of 46 years tells me she loves me every day.

            As grateful as I am of all these assurances of love from people, I have to say I have been most surprised by the depth of love I have felt from my Father in heaven.  I have known the Lord all my life.  I never went out into a life-style of rebellion.  But growing up in the Family of God all my life, I got used to God’s love and probably even took His love for granted.   I don’t think I really appreciated the depth and power of His love toward me until recently. 

            Taking time to be in His presence in a special way the last few weeks has opened up a whole new world to me.  I’ve always known God loved the whole world enough to send His Son to redeem it through His sacrifice on the cross.  And there have been moments when God’s Spirit broke through to me and I have had a revelation of God’s love that has overwhelmed me.  But there is something about walking through pain and trusting my Father in a whole new way that has opened up new realms of God’s love I never knew before.                                    

            Man was designed for intimacy with God.  It was the chief activity of Adam and Eve in the garden—to walk with Abba Father in the cool of the evening and just be with Him.  This surely is a lost art for most of us.  We are never silent long enough to hear Him speak.  If it is not the television, it is the ipod or the computer that fills our ears and minds with clutter.  This inability to be quiet before God creates a vacuum in our spirits that is not content with the noise of the world.  How long has it been since you took a half hour, turned off every appliance, read His Word and just listened?  That last part—listening—is the crucial part.  Even our daily time in God’s Word can be cluttered with thoughts and “insights” that, valuable as they are in themselves, still do not satisfy that place in the heart that can only be filled with focused intimacy with Father God who loves you.  This is one of the things He is looking for:  Jesus said there will even be those who call themselves by His Name, but who will be turned away because they never “knew” Him.  And the Father earnestly seeks those who will worship Him.  Why?  Because He is a megalomaniac on steroids?  NO!  Because He knows that is what we are created for and what will fulfill us best.

            I urge you to take a new look at some old, familiar scriptures about the love of God.  Take out your concordance and begin looking up every scripture that mentions God’s love for us.  Of course, start with John 3:16, but really meditate on the profound depth of that verse.  So often our view of Abba Father gets tainted by the world that looks at God as a tyrannical judge who can’t wait to mete out punishment.  But the point of verse 17 is that Jesus didn’t come for that purpose—He came to show us God’s love.

            Have you ever thought about how close Jesus is to His Father?  Is there anything they wouldn’t or couldn’t share?  What do you think their time together looks like?  John 17 holds one of the most amazing promises of the entire Bible:  Jesus says of you and me: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them that they may be one, just as We are one;  I in them and You in Me that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."

            Amazing!  God the Father, Creator of the universe, Eternal Lord of all, loves you just as He loves Jesus, His Son.  Stop and consider that.  Love is at the core of your existence and it comes from your Father God.  Have you taken time to just soak in His love?  If you find it hard to accept that love because of past hurts in your life, ask Holy Spirit to heal those wounded areas so that you can live in this reality of God’s love.

            Now faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love.

What is Faith? part 2.

            I feel like I barely scratched the surface of what the Lord has been teaching me about faith in my prior blog entry.  I won’t try to repeat all those points here.  You can go read Part 1 if you’re interested.

            What more can I say about faith?  One point I mentioned earlier was that faith is a gift from God.  God gives to each person a measure of faith and it is up to us to increase the “size” of that faith by taking in large doses of God’s Word, because that is God’s conduit to increase our faith.  I’m not sure what “big faith” looks like compared to “little faith”.   Rather, I tend to think of faith in terms of how effective that faith is. 

            Now that brings up a crucial point.  If I have “effective” faith, does that mean I always get what I am believing for?   This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in this journey I’m on.  No, I don’t believe that you can measure my faith’s effectiveness by whether I'm healed instantly, something I have asked God to do.  If we measure faith by our "instant results mentality", over half of those people listed in the great “Faith Hall of Fame”, Hebrews 11, should not have been included in that list because they did not get what they were believing God for.  So what was the mark of their faith that qualified them as great examples of Biblical faith?

            I believe what qualified them as great faith people was the impact God’s promises had on their outlook on life.  They heard God say something, and it forever transformed how they would approach daily living.  They spent the rest of their lives living in the confidence that God was going to do whatever He had promised them He would do.  It totally changed the way they lived their lives.  They lived from a place of faith, of trust, of confidence in God.

            This is a major paradigm shift for me.  I believe that God is going to totally heal me of cancer.  I believe He has given my wife and me the promise that cancer has been cancelled.  If you replace the “r” in cancer with an “l”, you have the word “cancel” and the last two letters of that word, “-el” is the name of God.  When El shows up, cancer is cancelled.

            What this has done for me is to change the way I look at every day.  I am coming at today from a stance of “faith” that God is healing me.  Now I know that many other people have claimed the same “faith” that God was healing them and instead of the dramatic turn around toward health, they worsened and died.  What if that is true in my case?  What if I get steadily worse and finally succumb to the ravages of cancer?  I will still say that standing in faith made a dramatic difference in my life because I lived my life from a paradigm of believing God is for me, loves me, and is with me.  It gave me hope every morning when I got out of bed.  It kept the demons of fear away.  I eagerly looked for God’s fresh Word of encouragement each day.  Instead of dwelling in fear with each new round of pain, I turn to God's Word--and not once does He say in His Word that sickness is His judgment on me and I should just succumb to it.

            So what is faith?  For me, faith is suddenly making the connection between Matt.  8:16-17 and  Is. 53:4-6.  This one revelation has done more to build my faith than almost anything else.  Many people say Isaiah was talking about “spiritual healing” and that our redemption is the focus of Is. 53:4-6.  They exclude physical healing and spiritualize those words “infirmities” and “diseases” to mean spiritual disease, sin.  But Matthew, under the inspiration of Holy Spirit, does not give us that interpretation.  Matthew clearly connects Isaiah’s prophesy with the physical healing Jesus was doing.  His interpretation of the words “infirmities” and “diseases” cannot be “spiritualized”.  Jesus was literally fulfilling Isaiah’s prophesy by the physical healings he performed.

            When I saw that application by Matthew, my own faith took a giant leap forward.  Now I expect God to heal my body, just as he healed lepers, blind people, etc,   I believe I will see God’s complete healing in my body.  And until He does, my attitude about today  is one saturated with faith, excited to see what all God is going to do in me and through me.  For me, faith is a change of attitude, expectation, and confidence in the character of God as a compassionate God Who can’t wait to send His Word and heal people.

Faith is....

            What is Faith? 

            Faith is so basic to our relationship with God.  Without faith it is impossible to please God.  So how does one go about getting faith?

            Faith is a gift God gives every person. 

            Faith grows by hearing the Word of God.

            Faith is the “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

 

            Okay, so much for the standard Sunday School answers and stuff I memorized in seminary.  The battle I’m currently in with cancer has taught me more about what real faith is than all the theology classes I attended put together. 

            Several years ago I attended a conference in the Mid-West, just after I had been diagnosed with my first bout with cancer.  The attendees were so gracious to pray for me as a group.  I was in a great deal of pain at the time, and in fact had to use a wheel chair to navigate the airport going and coming from Central Oregon.  Toward the end of the conference, one of the brothers “had a word for me from the Lord”, which he had taken time to write out on paper.  I was glad he had transcribed it as I would never have been able to remember everything he “shared” with me.  Boiled down from about four, long pages, the message was pretty clear and simple:  “Brother Wes, if you had enough faith, you wouldn’t be suffering this pain and you would already be healed.”  Clear. Simple. To the point!

            That was like being dunked with a bucket of ice-cold Gatoraide (I guess—having never had the joy of that experience either.)  Suddenly all the bouyancy I had felt as the several dozen other senior leaders had lifted me before God’s Throne in faith that God would heal me was, if not gone, at least greatly diminished.  I came back to Central Oregon sobered by the contrast between the precious spirit of encouragement I felt from the leaders of the conference with this one critical brother who seemed to have “all the answers”.

            In the seven years since that time, I have had many other opportunities to think and pray about what faith really is.  Is real faith: “I refuse to be in pain because that is a symptom from the Devil”?  No, because I’ve been through enough pain to know it is not a figment of last nights’ nightmare.

            Is real faith just taking the Word of God and repeating it over and over, ten-thousand times over, until the pain just gives up and goes away because it can’t stand to hear me say one more time:  “BY HIS STRIPES I AM HEALED”?

            Please don’t misunderstand me.  I am not making fun of standing on the Word of God for healing.  Anyone close to me, especially my family, know that is not in my heart.

But the Word of God does play an important part in obtaining healing from God.  How else would we know that God wants to heal us unless we saw it in His Word?  Before I began this long battle with cancer, I could quote three, maybe four scriptures about healing—you know, all the favorites:  Is. 53:4,5, Mark 16:18 and I Peter (or is it James) 4:14 about any among you sick calling the elders to lay hands on the sick and the Lord will raise him up…”  (It is James.  I just looked it up.  Again.)

            But when I was faced with a health crisis that laid me flat on my back for two months with another 3 months before I could return to work, I got serious about finding out what God had to say about this “faith for healing” thing.  I ended up with three type written, single spaced pages of God’s direct words about healing. 

            Did you know “Healing” is one of His names?  Jehovah Rapha.  He likes to be called that. 

            Did you know that it was the compassion of Jesus that prompted Him to heal those who came to Him in faith?  And that He didn’t even have to be aware of their need for His GREAT COMPASSION to flow out and heal a woman who simply had faith to believe she would be healed of a 12 year flow of blood if she could simply touch the fringes of his garment through the crowd?

            What is faith?  For me, a working definition is:  Coming to a place where I know what God’s will is and then holding on to that no matter what—in the face of overwhelming odds.  This, of course, involves being immersed in the Bible so I can know God’s mind and heart on a given thing.  It also involves listening carefully to Holy Spirit so that I correctly understand the issues at hand.  Then it is standing on the confidence that I have heard from God and He will act on my behalf.         

            What is faith?  I feel like I’m just learning to scratch the surface.  Enough for this installment—maybe more another time.  All I know is, I want to please my Abba in Heaven.  For today, I choose to believe His Word is true, active, dividing between my places of unbelief—strengthening me in those places where I am weak.  Thank You, Holy Spirit, for Your faithfulness!

Pain and Love

            From my perspective of walking with the Lord for over fifty years and seeing some things clearly, seemingly for the first time ever,  I’m surprised that the Lord can still teach this old dog some new lessons.

            I have been in a mano-a-mono battle with cancer for over seven years.  Looking back, it has been more than eight years, but I was not aware of the diagnosis until seven years ago this month.  I’ve had months of freedom from pain and thought I had conquered it, only to have pain slowly, and sometimes quickly, return.  The last two months have been especially focused and if I just accept what doctors are saying, it would be easy to move into fear, anger, self-pity.  There is something about having every movement filled with pain that cuts away extraneous thoughts and brings into clarity what is important in my life.

            Just today I had an amazing insight.  At least it was amazing to me.  And I’m sure it was not original with me.  The insight, boiled down to its simplest form is this:  pain sharpens love.  We throw the word love around too loosely—expressing love for a certain kind of pizza or the latest movie, then use the same terminology to say “I love my wife and my kids and grandkids.”  But the two kinds of love expressed here are universes apart. 

            When I watch my wife suffer second-hand suffering as she has to endure my groaning or sees the pain in my eyes (even though I try to buck up and not let it show), I am overwhelmed with love for her.  She has never considered herself a “nurse” so there have been times in these seven years when she had to bite her lip, take a deep breath, and change a yucky dressing one more time in the middle of the night.  That, THAT is one of the best pictures of love I can think of.

            The insight God gave me today is that “pain sharpens love”.  But it is not an automatic outcome.  Pain will sharpen and bring love into clear focus IF we embrace it and bring it under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.   If, however, we do not accept the Lordship of Jesus over our lives, pain becomes one more reason to be angry and disillusioned with God.  I know so many seniors my age who rage against God, shaking their fists toward heaven—demanding to know why God has inflicted some pain on their lives.  The result of taking that path is bitterness of spirit that blocks God’s grace and mercy.  They are left with an emptiness of soul and spirit that is truly tragic to watch.

            When I think of those who suffer persecution for their faith, especially in other countries where Christianity is openly oppressed, I stand in awe of their focused love of the Lord.   When I read accounts of pastors or other church leaders who are thrown into the most horrible jail conditions, deprived of basic health care for the torture they have to endure, separated from family, living day by day wondering if their spouses and children have enough to eat or if they are suffering persecution also—I am brought up short.  I hear their testimonies of suffering, sometimes year after year, but how much they love the Lord and find great comfort in the face of suffering, just experiencing God’s love surround them.  The darkest prison cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ.  If that kind of suffering only sharpens the love of God one can experience, how much more should the minor suffering I experience getting out of my comfortable, warm bed increase my love for the Lord and the love He shows me day to day. 

            I choose to reject judgmental thoughts toward God.  As an expression of that choice, I choose to not be judgmental toward minor things that I have no control over.  But that is where I need the prayers and support of the Saints God has placed in my life.  I need them to pray that I will experience God’s grace on a daily basis to reject a judgmental attitude and embrace His humility.  If Holy Spirit will give me that grace, I know pain will only increase love in my heart, love toward God and the love I receive from Him.

I'm serving a life sentence

I’m serving a life sentence.  Two weeks ago the doctor informed me that the cancer that caused removal of my left kidney last July has returned as indicated by new spots of cancer on my liver, in my lungs, and a tumor on my spine at L2.  That explains the lower back and hip pain I’ve been experiencing the last couple of months.

            That’s what the doctor says.  But God….

            God speaks into my spirit a different diagnosis.

            God says: “Because the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in me, His Spirit will give life to my mortal body.”  Rom. 8:11.

            God says: “Jesus healed all who were ill to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet ‘He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.”  Matt. 8:16-17.

            God says:  “As many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become the children of God…”   John 1:12

            God says:  “…whoever believes in Him (Jesus) shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

            Finally God says through apostle Paul:  “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life…nor things to come, nor powers…nor any other created thing (including doctor’s diagnoses) will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Rom. 8:37-39.

            I’m serving a life sentence.  No matter what happens to my physical body, I will continue to live for eternity because Jesus purchased me through His blood.

            None of us knows whether we will survive, physically, another day.  I may live in this body for another month, another year, another twenty-five years.  What matters is that I live for His glory today, tomorrow, this month, this rest of my days on earth—because I am serving a life sentence that will never end.

            He is risen!  HE IS RISEN INDEED!  “…because I live, you will live also.”  Jesus gave us this promise in John 14:19.

            I’m serving a life sentence!  Join me?

 

Sukkot

            Oct 1 began the Feast of Tabernacles.  This joyful fall celebration of seven days is commanded in scriptures as one of the “appointments” God wants to have with His children every year.  It is the time to remember how the Israelis lived in temporary “booths” for 40 years after fleeing Egypt.  It has come to be a time to celebrate with family by eating and even camping outside in a temporary structure built with a roof covered with natural branches so one can see through them into the sky and view the stars at night.  Sukkot is also called the Feast of Ingathering, a time to celebrate the harvest and remember all the blessings God has reigned down on us over the past year.

            Sukkot is also marked by great joy.  We are commanded to be joyful in the succah!  Joy usually is an emotional response to something good or something we like.  But in this case we choose to be joyful in obedience to God’s instructions.  We can command our emotions to be thankful, joyful. 

            The final day of Sukkot is the most joyful day of the year—Simchat Torah.  This is the day when Jews finishing reading through the Torah for the year and begin reading Genesis 1 for the coming year.  It is a joyful celebration of God’s gift of His Word to us marked by huge celebrations of music, dancing with the Torah, food, etc.  There are many other layers of meaning and symbolism that surround the Succah.  It is a picture of our bodies being a temporary dwelling for our spirits while we sojourn on this earth, but our real home is the eternal body we will receive when we step into eternity. 

            I believe we ought to join with our Jewish Cousins in celebrating joyfully God’s great gift of the Word.  The Bible is the greatest source of wisdom and life to us and is God’s love letter to every Believer.  But we ought to take this celebration to new heights by celebrating the Word made Flesh, Yeshua,  Messiah.  Here is the greatest reason for joy.  Here is truly our harvest of the heart.

            May you be joyful this Sukkot!

 

Practical Politics

            When we lived in Jerusalem for six months, I would often walk six or eight blocks from our apartment to the Promenade, a popular park on the South edge of Jerusalem from which I had a perfect view of the Old City, the Kidron Valley, and the new parts of Jerusalem.  What an awe-inspiring place to sit, read my Bible, pray, and intercede for Israel and the Messianic Believers there.  I often hoped that Yeshua would suddenly appear and set foot on the Mount of Olives, just across the Kidron Valley while I was having my quite time. 

            One of the vacant lots I passed as I walked to the Promenade was purported to be reserved for the U.S. Embassy.  It has been seventeen years since both the House and Senate approved the building of an embassy in Jerusalem by the end of 1999.  But a small loophole has allowed every president since then to delay its construction—that loophole is a short sentence in the bill passed by congress allowing the President of the U.S. to delay by executive order for six months the location of the embassy in Jerusalem.  So far, no President has had the back bone to stand up to the Arab countries and do so and so every six months the embassy is kept in Tel Aviv.

            What a travesty.  In no other country, except Israel, would we or any other foreign government, dare to do such a thing.  By not locating our embassy in Jerusalem, the capitol of Israel, we are bowing to the pressure of the Arab bloc.  The Arab countries want Jerusalem designated as the capitol of Palestine, which is not yet even a country.  But for 64 years, since Israel became a State, we, along with the rest of the world, have refused to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capitol of their country.

            The pressure is not just from the Arab countries.  The real lack of fortitude is found in the halls of our own State Department and White House primarily.  There has been a long and ugly anti-Semitism that has tainted the State Department of the United States.  This is seen in various key leaders of that department over the years refusing to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol.  When questioned as to what State the city of Jerusalem sits in, Hilary Clinton replied:  “That has yet to be determined.”

            Until our national leaders get a Biblical understanding of God’s covenant with the Jewish people and its link to the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, there is not much hope of change.  The Jewish people have looked to Jerusalem as their homeland, their capitol, for over 3000 years.  Jerusalem is mentioned hundreds of times in the Bible but not once in the Koran.            

            May God open our eyes and hearts to agree with His plans.