Beware the foxes

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5,8)

John Calvin said a dog barks when he sees his master attacked. Why would we ever think God wouldn't raise a ruckus when the enemy of our soul even attempts to snatch away one of his own? Those who remain in him can always be assured of his protective oversight in their lives. We have a protected relationship and one that is intended to be quite productive. It is no wonder our enemy wants so badly to get at us! 

To remain indicates a specific state is met and maintained. In other words, we don't move from where are because it is a place specifically designed for us - a place designed for his presence to dwell. If we want to go beyond that protection, we will find ourselves kind of on our own - outside of the place where the best fruit can be developed in our lives. Maybe this is why we haven't produced fruit - we have 'detached' ourselves from the vine long enough that we are drying up.

Some think 'remaining' means you will be 'stuck' doing the same things, in the same way, in the same place. To God, 'remaining' means a vital, growing relationship. We don't remain the same - we are always changing. A branch attached to a tree doesn't remain the same year after year. It lengthens, thickens, grows new leaves, drops old ones, and even produces some type of 'fruit' while attached. It is a 'life-cycle' that is being 'lived out'. God asks his kiddos to 'live out' this spiritual life-cycle close to him.

Much fruit - not just a little here or there, but a bigger and bigger harvest as long as we remain in him. This only happens because we make a place for him in our lives at the center of our lives. The vine produces fruit because it has a good root. The vine is important, but the root is foundational to all growth. "Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grapevines are blossoming!" (Song of Solomon 2:15) There will always be 'little foxes' attempting to disturb that connection between the vine and the root. God's instruction to us is to be alert to their presence, then to catch them before they go to work!

We might not realize just how hard our enemy is working to sever that relationship of connection but be sure that he is there. The foxes aren't easily seen in the vineyard, for they can hide deep within the vines. Sometimes sin hides deep within our hearts - working to destroy the root of grace, freedom, and peace that God plants there. Don't forget to look for the foxes - their presence is never welcome! Just sayin!

Curtains anyone?

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. (Galatians 6:1-3)

Would you help a friend clean their house after they had surgery? Most likely. Would you prepare a meal for someone after they just brought their newborn baby home from the hospital? Sure. Would you sit by a friend who was deeply saddened after the loss of a loved one? Absolutely. Would you be open to hearing about your friend's greatest struggle? That one may be a little harder to answer, because when you say you are willing to do it, you open yourself up to being a little vulnerable yourself. How can we become vulnerable when someone else is sharing their pain or struggle? It happens when we let our guard down just enough to get a little bit 'real' with the other person. To 'get real' with them, we must 'get real' with ourselves first. Too many people go through life 'covering up' what they feel is 'uncomely' or 'uncomfortable' and 'messy' in their lives. In turn, there is very little opportunity for us to help each other walk out our issues together. Why? People who are not willing to be vulnerable just continue in their own struggles and mess, making it hard for them to actually be of any help to others with similar issues.

When was the last time you were willing to share your 'mess' with another? If you find you have a hard time actually recalling a time, you most likely have been living behind a curtain most of your life. You find it hard to open up, thinking others will judge you because of your failures, quirks, or misgivings. You talk a good talk, but your walk isn't really all that genuine. God's words to us today are quite clear - we need to gently and humble 'get into each other's lives'. Why? To help both of us get on and stay on the right path! Share the burdens you bear - easier said than done. When we are surrounded by godly people who love Jesus first in their lives, we find this gets easier. Why? They aren't judgmental like the world might be. They might even share how they have similar experiences that they have walked through, aren't all that perfect themselves, and how deeply they need to be connected with others in order to walk out this 'salvation experience'. We don't ever grow alone - we need connection. Who's your most 'vulnerable' connection? Chances are that connection didn't happen by mistake. It was divinely arranged by a loving and caring God who knew you'd need each other to walk things out in this life here on earth. 

We probably crave connection more than we know. I went years without a close friend, living a very lonely life. When I finally made some connections with others who seemed to be walking through similar struggles, I realized I was not in this alone. I knew I could learn from them, and they came to count on learning from me. The 'curtain' had to go, though. We could not hide if we were to heal. Healing always requires an 'uncovering' of the nastiness and then a careful washing away of all that 'mess' that doesn't belong there any longer. Just sayin!

Not impressed with weak excuses?

If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place. Rescue the perishing; don’t hesitate to step in and help. If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,” will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know—someone not impressed with weak excuses. (Proverbs 24:10-12)

Ever get that eerie impression of "being watched" - finding yourself looking over your shoulder, trying to see who may be seeing you at that very moment - almost a subtle form of paranoia brewing inside? Others are watching your every move, but you may not even realize it! What happens to us in the midst of a crisis is sometimes a matter where we are being observed by others - watching, waiting just to see if we will fall apart or keep it all together. When we actually rise above the crisis, it doesn't escape their view! When we see another struggling with a crisis of their own, stepping in quickly to render aid, do you think it escapes the view of others? Even if you think you have done it in secret, at least one other person sees the action - God himself. What makes someone fall to pieces in the midst of a crisis? If we were honest, it probably stems from a root of pride. Pride keeps us from asking for the help we really need. It centers us on our own strengths and abilities to figure out a solution to the problem, totally missing that God has another way for us to solve the issue. 

There is a bullheadedness within refusing to admit we cannot stand alone. When the crisis comes, we head into it with every intention of "showing it who is really boss" and then we wonder why we fall. It probably is because the crisis was designed specifically to allow us to see who is "really boss" in our lives! It isn't God. Pride keeps us from connecting with God and with others. It drives us AWAY from relationship, not toward it. I am speaking from experience here, my friends. There is nothing as hard to do than face a crisis with the wrong "boss" in control of the movements we take in the midst of the crisis. Several years ago, as a much younger woman, I faced the need for some surgery for what appeared to be a couple years of worsening test results. There was suspicion of the dreaded "cancer" diagnosis, and I was a single mother with two young teens. In the stubbornness of my pride, I walked alone through that crisis. God heard my silent tears in the shower that morning, as I stood allowing the water to flow over my head, the tears streaming down freely, and my heart asking "why". It was the why me, why now, why this - the kind of talk we all probably have at times. The biggest why I think God wanted to answer was "why are you trying to go through this alone"!

I didn't want to be alone through it, but I had isolated myself so much from relationship after my divorce, I was indeed "walking alone". I had acquaintances, but no one really "tight" I could just walk with through the scariness of the crisis. Within minutes of arriving in the hospital for my scheduled surgery, a fellow pastor and his wife were at my bedside, holding the hand of my daughter, loving on my mom, and praying over me for God's peace to fill me as I went into the OR. I saw first-hand how much I had been presenting the "image" of being able to "manage my own crisis", but they knew the reality of me not managing very well! Thank goodness God knows us better than we know ourselves! The procedure over, as I was recovering in my room, I knew all was at peace in my world. That day stood as a turning point for me. In just one brief act on the part of two people I had no idea were "watching me", who recognized my deepest need, God began to turn my world around.

When I was diagnosed with a fast-growing thyroid tumor sometime later, I had friends at the ready to help me walk through the crisis. I was not going through it in my own strength, because my strength was faltering terribly. It was theirs and God's which bolstered my faith, renewed my determination, and kept me positively focused through it all. Some of those closest friends weren't even believers, but they knew my faith and they were consistently pointing me toward my center (Jesus), even when I was coming unraveled and losing focus! They had been watching when the crisis wasn't there - so they knew where to point me when the crisis came! People will see us, how we respond, what we do with what we know, and how we handle life's challenges. They ARE watching - our testimony matters. We may undervalue the importance of how much pride keeps us from relationships which matter - especially those who will speak life into the midst of our crisis. We may not realize how many are watching when we aren't faced with challenges outside of our ability to handle - but they are. We may think there is no hope in the midst of the crisis - but you never really know who will come alongside to help "center you" on the one who really matters in the midst of it all. No more lame excuses - get connected! Just sayin!

A slip of the mask

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. (James Baldwin)

Jesus’ primary concern was his disciples. He said to them, “Watch yourselves carefully so you don’t get contaminated with Pharisee yeast, Pharisee phoniness. You can’t keep your true self hidden forever; before long you’ll be exposed. You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known. You can’t whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day’s coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town. (Luke 12:1-3)

A great many of us fear being 'exposed' for who we really are - believing ourselves to be unwanted, unappreciated, and perhaps even under-valued - so we hide behind some mask. What's worse is that Christian believers hide behind a mask of 'religious piety', all the while attempting to hide their very real struggles looming just behind that 'pious hypocrisy'. I know these are strong words this morning, but I did this for many years, so I am the first to admit my own sin! We cannot hide our real selves behind a mask of religion. All that does is terribly confuse those who are observing our lives for the evidence of the difference Christ can make in a life lived for him.

The point Jesus made all those years ago remains true today. The Pharisee paraded their piety in an attempt to be 'judged' as worthy or important. What they failed to recognize was the inadequacies of good works and 'religious performance'. The point Jesus made was one of relationship - learning to be 'real' at all times and allowing God to express his goodness through us even when we don't always do or say the right things all of the time. He was asking us to be 'truthful' with ourselves and others. In other words, don't conceal our shortcomings behind cleverly created 'religious masks'. 

I am probably going to step on some toes here, but I am going to do it anyway. Have you ever been around someone who is so 'heavenly minded' that they are no 'earthly good'? They say all the right 'phrases' like, "Be Blessed", "Praise God", and "May God be Glorified". Life is coming at us pretty hot and heavy, but somehow those words don't 'ring true' in the moment. The fact is we needed to hear, "I am here for you. What can I do to help you right now?" We needed to see faith put into action. We likely really needed to hear them admit they struggle with similar doubts, fears, or misplaced trust, so we didn't feel like we would never get our life together.

I will be the first to admit it - I don't have my life together. I don't have all the answers, but I am willing to live this life right there alongside others of you who also don't have your lives together. I am willing to roll up my sleeves, get a little dirty, and even pull you along when you don't want to move. I need others in my life who will the do the same for me. That requires you and I to rid ourselves of our religious masks and just get real with each other. It may not seem like much, but when we are open with each other, God can move amongst us - using each one of us to be his messengers of grace. Just sayin!

No cover-up required

God isn't looking for us to have it all together in worship before him - he is just looking for us to be ourselves and to be together in the worship of him! Our worship has to engage our spirit - and it has to be genuine. It is impossible to have a truthfully 'engaged spirit' if we are not truthfully ourselves in spending time with Jesus. Jesus was never looking for the 'polished' and 'perfect' in his ministry - he always engaged with those who were far from perfect and mostly those who were 'dirtied' by their pasts.

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” John 4:24 MSG

If I were to ask you who you 'really are', would you know how to answer that question? Most of us live with some 'made up' image of ourselves and aren't entirely honest about who we are - making it harder for us to be truly ourselves in relationship with others. For some strange reason, we create an image of ourselves as we think others see us rather than accepting the image of ourselves as God sees us. If we were just free to be exactly as God sees us, we wouldn't need to spend so much time maintaining our facade!

When we are transparent with each other, we don't have spend a whole lot of time trying to connect the dots between who we are and the way we live - it just flows naturally. We aren't one way in public, another in private, and still another 'in church'. Some of you will get my meaning there - for many of us put forward our 'very best' in church, because we think that is what others in church demand to see from us. The truth is that the others in church are just as messed up as us and would love it if we could all just be ourselves instead!

Simply and honestly ourselves - these are the individuals God finds very engaging - because in our genuineness he is free to really begin to help us face up to what needs to change in our lives so that we won't need those facades any longer. It takes a lot to let down our guard before God - it takes even more, it seems, to let down our guard before others. Why is that? It is likely because we know there are those who will judge us based on what they see. I found it quite frightening to realize the things I find I am most critical of in others are usually the things I have to deal with in my own life, as well.

While it may not always be comfortable being our real selves, there is a connection made that is genuine - there are no layers of complex 'cover-ups' that get in the way of our relationship. This is the way it should be in our relationship with Jesus - no cover-ups required. If that genuineness begins there, it is sure to begin to spill out into the other relationships we have with each other. Instead of hiding behind cover-ups, we will finally begin to make 'direct connection' with each other. Nothing is more rewarding than being your real self with someone else who is also their real self. Just sayin!