The right image

Did you ever dream of being someone else? You observe a famous sport's star performing so well in his sport and you begin to imagine all the glory and grandeur he enjoys. You see one of those shows on TV where what is depicted is some lifestyle of opulence and magnificence. You note the admiration a particular teacher receives from her students and you imagine being so well-liked someday by all those who you will touch in your profession. We all 'admire' another from time to time, or consider 'what it would be like' to live in their shoes. Did you ever stop to consider what it is like (truly like) to be the President of the United States, a U.S. Senator, or Prime Minister of a great nation? Imagine being the Son of God, come to earth, leaving behind your divinity, knowing that your entire purpose for being there was to endure the ridicule of people and the ultimate end of death on a cross. Not exactly the same image is created, is it? You might not want to walk in his sandals as much as you may want to walk in the shoes of the sports star or admired teacher!

If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! (Romans 8:31-32)

The rest of the passage that follows these two verses ends with a statement of fact: I'm absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Nothing and nobody - nothing in heaven, nor in hell - can remove us from the love of God! Whenever we begin to allow thoughts to enter into our mind that we can lose our relationship with Christ, we are really not considering the context of these verses. When we are doing this "questioning" of our salvation we begin to doubt OURSELVES - our worth as we are. No act of salvation is based on anything good in ourselves, any good deed our "self" can perform, so why do we allow the doubts we have about ourselves to be those that we focus upon? We are accepted exactly as we are - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

God has declared us worthy of his love. That is something that many struggle with - a sense of worthiness. This is because we equate worth with what someone has done or is doing / achieving. God insists that we do not determine our worthiness because whenever we do that we are getting into the realm of religious efforts and not intimate relationship with him. Whenever we feel we have to "prove" ourselves worthy of someone's love, we work overtime to convince them that we are worth loving. The simple fact is that we are intensely loved JUST THE WAY WE ARE! Romans 8:29-30 goes on to say that God knew what he was doing from the very beginning - deciding from the outset to shape our lives along the same lines as the life of his Son, Jesus. The fact is, Jesus is our "mirror". We see the original and intended shape of our lives IN HIM. It was all God's work that set us on a solid foundation - his intense love for us is the basis of that foundation. The fact is, God not only STARTS the project of restoring us to wholeness, he COMPLETES it! That means we can be assured that what has been declared "worthy" by God (that is you and me) will stand that way forever!

The part we play in the salvation experience is pretty limited. God calls, we listen. Our part is hearing and responding - he does the rest. Don't miss what I am saying here - we don't even seek - he seeks us, calling out to us so that we can find him in the midst of our chaotic mess of life! Our part is to just "hear"! It is in hearing that we come to a place of acceptance - we are no longer bound to our sin nature - there is an exchange of nature. Someone once asked me the question, "Which one of your sins did Jesus take to the cross that day on Calvary?" You know how we each are when it comes to admitting to this truth - we begin to list off this sin, and maybe that one! The fact is, Jesus took ALL our sins to the cross - those we had already committed and all that we might commit down the road. He didn't just die for the sins of our past - he knew there would still be struggles with sin in our future and he died for those, too. Our salvation is through a repeated gift of grace in our lives. Grace can never be added to - we don't ever add works to grace! Grace allows do-overs in life! His grace pursues us until we get it right! So, don't think of your salvation experience as a point in time, but as a progressive act of grace upon grace in your lives. It is in the extended grace that we become the image of the one we behold! Behold the right image of who we were meant to become and we will! Just sayin!

See or Behold?

Albert Pike once penned a reminder to all of us: "The eye of the cheerful and of the melancholy man are fixed on the same creation; but very different are the aspects which it bears to them." In other words, we all see the same things, but we see them in quite different ways. The way we interpret things is often based upon the circumstances we find ourselves in, or the experiences we have amassed over our lifetime. We "see", but the similarity of what we "behold" is different. It is quite possible to gaze at God's creation one day, seeing one thing that captures our attention, then see it totally differently the next day. Why is that? Today's perceptions may be 'colored' or 'clouded' by whatever is occurring deep within our mind, body, and soul at that moment in time. It is good to see, but it is even better to see as God sees - with freshness, renewal, and grace!

What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations. Oh, look—the deep, wide sea, brimming with fish past counting, sardines and sharks and salmon. Ships plow those waters, and Leviathan, your pet dragon, romps in them. All the creatures look expectantly to you to give them their meals on time. You come, and they gather around; you open your hand and they eat from it. If you turned your back, they’d die in a minute— Take back your Spirit and they die, revert to original mud; Send out your Spirit and they spring to life— the whole countryside in bloom and blossom. (Psalm 104:24-30 MSG)

We have a whole flock of love birds that live in the wild in the area of our work. When my BFF and I take our afternoon walk after lunch, we oftentimes will see them in flight, or repeating messages across the tree tops at each other. It is as though one calls to the other and they are just not satisfied until all of them have joined up in very close proximity to each other. I wonder if that is the case with you and I? Is God's creation calling to us to draw nearer to him? To each other? It could just be we won't fully appreciate God's creation until we are near enough to him to fully see it as he sees it! You do realize scripture declares that even his 'creation' gives testimony to who he is - meaning that even the love birds in the trees, or tiniest of hummingbirds calling out can be a reminder to us to draw near to him!

As we walk along, my BFF may point out a tiny head peeping from a mound way across the open field. The wee gopher perched just far enough out of his hole - allowing him to see just enough to keep him safe - yet so far away from us that he will not find the grapes we toss his way. There are times we stay so safely 'perched' so as to just barely see, close enough to quickly escape anything appearing as a threat to us, but in so doing we often miss the greatest of pleasures God has prepared for us! It is possible we miss much - maybe by our 'not looking so as to behold', but merely to 'observe'. There is a great difference between 'looking' and 'beholding', my friends.

Let us go through life, not just 'seeing', but really 'beholding' what it is God has put in our midst. When we hear the calls to come closer, to draw in and be with him, let us heed those calls. When we find it is time to look with fresh eyes on something we have seen only one way all our days, let us be open to seeing, really beholding, that thing in a different way - through 'fresh eyes'. Just lookin!

Look, don't touch

As a member of the human race, I speak as one fully aware of how we are so consumed with what "looks good" - many times judging a book by what we see on the cover without inspecting the pages to see what is contained within. The perception of eyes often becomes the only method we utilize to determine the "goodness" or "evil" of a certain thing or person. We set ourselves up for accepting things that are clearly outside of God's best for our lives when we are only "cover readers". While the surface may be soft or hard, bold or muted, or even seemingly impenetrable, it remains just that - the surface! There is ALWAYS something beneath the surface - sometimes begging for discovery, other times hoping no one will ever know!

Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good; God probes for what is good.  (Proverbs 16:2)

Surface or real? David and Bathsheba - David was King of Israel, his troops are out fighting the battle to take more territory in the name of Israel, and he is at home, enjoying the view from his rooftop. He gazes upon Bathsheba, a beautiful woman, bathing on her rooftop (a custom of the day). What he saw "looked good" - what he saw, he wanted and so, he took her as his own. What he failed to do was to consider the reality that under the surface, she was another man's wife - she had already given her heart to another. He looked only at the surface, became enamored in what he beheld with his eyes, and engaged in his plan without further thought.

Surface or real? The Rich Young Ruler - a man of wealth, holding a prominent place in society, approaches Jesus and his disciples one day while they were ministering to the crowds. He proclaims to Jesus that he wanted to be a follower of Christ - one of his disciples. To this he adds a long litany of "credentials" he hopes will show Jesus just how "qualified" he was for the role. His "credentials" are all "good" - kept the letter of the law, observed the feasts and holy days, studied the scriptures, and the list goes on. Jesus asks him to sell all he has (a substantial amount), give it to the poor, and then come to follow him as his disciple. Beneath the surface of all these 'shiny works and accomplishments' this is too much for this man, as we see him leave and never return again.

We often see what we are looking to see - not what is actually there to behold. David saw the "woman of his dreams" - or more accurately, the woman of his fantasies! He never stopped to listen to the niggling of his conscience that she was another man's wife! She looked good! He wanted her and he never looked back until it was too late. The rich young ruler saw a life of tremendous fame in front of him if he could get on this 'inside track' with Jesus' band. He had attained all he could attain in the society in which he lived. Now Jesus and his disciples, thronged by crowds, filled the streets with miracles, signs, and wonders. He wanted what they had, but wasn't aware there would be a cost to obtain it. I am not sure that he actually saw what they had as "fame" or "renown", but he is called upon to go deeper than he has ever gone in his obedience before - and he is unable to do so. What he saw "looked good" to him - but he had failed to count the cost of such a life of service.

How do we begin to "look beyond the cover" of what we see? We are to "probe" deeper. When we probe, we look into a matter with the intention of seeing all there is to see (just like when we read the pages of a book rather than skimming it or only looking at the pictures). This type of "examination" allows us to see beyond the surface appearance of "good" to what actually is at the root of a person, a circumstance, or a pleasant appearing opportunity. God's invitation to us today is to look deeper than we ever have before - to learn to see the heart behind the action of another; the temporary satisfaction of an immediate gratification of our longings or lusts; or the indicators of integrity that give us insight into the heart of another. We need to learn what it is to "examine carefully before we buy"! We "buy into" much that God would rather we never consider in the first place! Sin has an enticing cover - we need to learn to look beyond the cover to see the trap contained within. Just lookin!