Discovering the perfect hiding place

What God has said isn’t only alive and active! It is sharper than any double-edged sword. His word can cut through our spirits and souls and through our joints and marrow, until it discovers the desires and thoughts of our hearts. (Hebrews 4:12)

There is a science to the "dissection" process of butchering meats - much like there must be a "science" to getting at the desires and thoughts of our hearts. God doesn't just go about "butchering" our mind, will, and emotions to get at those things which need to be revealed and separated. He has a skill in what he does and how he does it. He isn't going to yank and pull - creating a case of "tug-a-war" within - but he is going to gently "part" what is responsible for keeping those "deep crevices" of our lives hidden and bound up until they are exposed to his careful attention.

Can a dead thing resist? All it takes for death to occur is the right opportunity and environment for death, decay continuing to do the work which had begun when it was first removed from that which gave it a life source. Sin yields a type of "decay" in our lives - hidden away in the places we don't think can be easily reached; it is allowed to continue the process of death until it is discovered under the careful attention of our Lord's hand. It remains hidden, allowed to continue its work of decaying because sin is really a part of our lives where "separation" from a good life source has occurred. When we are separated from the righteousness of God, death begins to occur. The longer that area is allowed to be hidden in the recesses of our hearts and minds, the more it will "rot" where it is hidden.

This is why God uses great care to get at those recesses of our hearts and minds - so he can help us uncover what is bringing about the "decay" in our lives. It brings a "putrid" kind of "stench" to our character which must be dealt with in order for us to be rid of it. Great care is taken to get at the reason for the decay. We know something exists which is contributing to that odor, but it won't just jump out at us! We have to go after it! Sin isn't just going to "own up" to its hiding place, my friends. We need the tools God provides in order to discover its hiding place and to finally rid ourselves of the putrid decay it has been creating within our inner man.

God's Word is a skilled tool in his hands. God doesn't just "clean house" - he inspects what is there, identifies what doesn't belong, and then sets about to finally and completely remove it. It is done with care - through the revealing power of his Word. God's Word helps us to not only "take inventory" of what is in our lives, it helps us remove what doesn't belong there anymore - those things which will only give off a stench and produce more decay as a result of their presence. Grace is the healing instrument in the process of God separating that which belongs and that which must be removed from our lives. Through the Word, he exposes. By grace, he begins to replace that which was decaying with that which comes with a new life source and with a fragrance only reproducible because it remains attached to that new life source! It is already a dead place in our hearts - that which is dead doesn't belong in the place where we want to reproduce life. 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!

Hiding from grace

I was listening to a Christian song the other day that made me ask if we really do make 'mountains' out of molehills in our lives simply because we won't let go of our shame. Dare I admit it, I probably do this more than I actually realize? How about you? Do you have trouble letting go of your missteps and things you've already confessed to God, but somehow just feel like you need to 'keep confessing' them to him? It is likely you and I do this because we don't really trust God's grace to be complete, final, and trustworthy. Somehow we think we have to do more, confess harder, get worked up a little bit, or just beat ourselves up with our sin just a little bit more if we are ever to be free from the load of guilt we carry because of it. The opposite is the truth, but we hold onto our mistaken beliefs because we don't fully understand grace. Grace isn't just an action in our lives - it is a person - Christ. Where Christ dwells, there is no room for our shame!

When wickedness arrives, shame's not far behind; contempt for life is contemptible. (Proverbs 18:3)

Have you ever heard the saying, "You are making mountains out of molehills"? In the purest sense, this describes our tendency to respond quite "disproportionately" to something right there in front of us, or niggling in the recesses of our conscience. We all have a tendency to exaggerate a situation once in a while - no matter how pure our motives are. Yet, as it comes to our shame over misdeeds, I think we start out standing on a molehill and before long it advances to an almost insurmountable mountain. We don't have moles in my neck of the woods, but we do have prairie dogs or gophers. Those tiny mounds of dirt they push up as they burrow into the ground are certainly not very "ominous" or "intimidating" in appearance. Yet, if you are the ground hog, those very small mounds of dirt serve some purpose and give evidence of something going on just beneath the surface.

They provide a barrier against the forces that seek to invade their burrows, such as rain water. They act as small "dams" to keep out the waters. They provide a vantage point for them to spy out their territory. As they perch on the top of one of these mounds, they can scout all around. Only problem with this 'mound viewing' is that their view is limited to this very "low" perspective. There are all kinds of "overhead" viewpoints which clearly expose them even though they feel their are cleverly blended into their environment. Lastly, they provide something to hide behind and to scurry away into if they are 'under attack' or fell 'threatened'. They can just barely peak their wee noses over the top and begin to "sense" if there is safety in the immediate area. They can quickly retreat back into their hole if a threat is sensed. If the mounds are 'fresh' we know there is activity or life beneath the surface. If the mounds haven't been refreshed in a while, we somehow make the assumption there is no life beneath. The burrowed holes remain even when life seems to have ceased - making it easy for the littlest thing to find 'shelter' inside their tunnels if the need arises. The only way to be free of what no longer exists is to get rid of the places of hiding totally - destroy the burrows!

How could prairie dog holes actually refer to shame in our lives? Rain comes in our lives in the form of "healing" and "cleansing" rain - direct from the throne of God. We will call this "grace rain". If we build dams against the "grace rain" we never really expose ourselves to the very thing which will cleanse us! The barriers we place between us and God in the form of our walls of shame actually serve to keep us from receiving the very thing that he provides for our much needed healing. We also think we have a good view of our sinfulness - seeing our shame as this huge mound of guilt we stand upon. Problem is we don't have as good of a vantage point as we think we do! God sees our shame as molehills - we see it as mountains! Silly us! Our shame looks like an impossibility to overcome - we have worked so hard to get those walls built, after all! We hide so cleverly behind those mounds! We think they cover us and our guilt from everyone's view, but guess what - - it is hard to hide behind a molehill! Try it - you will find you have very little "cover" in the scheme of the Almighty's vantage point. There is nothing that covers sin and the load of guilt it produces like the blood of Jesus. Whatever "cover" we try on our own will be futile.What you do with the molehill determines if you will stand upon true mountains! Just sayin!

Counterfeit or real?

Counterfeit - not genuine; purposely set forth so as to look like the original, but pretend in all ways.  Wow!  I have to ask myself how many times I have put forth "counterfeit" love - you know, the kind where I tell someone something, but I honestly mean something quite different from what I tell them!  I think there are times when we are just not honest with ourselves, let alone others.  We put up a good front, for one reason or another, but really it is still a "front" - it is pretend.  The problem with "pretend" is not in the amount of sincerity behind the "front", but in the intense work it takes to maintain the front!

The whole point of what we’re urging is simply love—love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God. Those who fail to keep to this point soon wander off into cul-de-sacs of gossip. They set themselves up as experts on religious issues, but haven’t the remotest idea of what they’re holding forth with such imposing eloquence.  (I Timothy 1:5-7 MSG)

Paul writes to Timothy, encouraging him to live a life "out in the open" - not holding out some "imposing" and "impossible" lifestyle of "faith" like the religious leaders of the day had done for quite some time.  The idea of genuineness, even when it came to admitting one's failures, was almost foreign to a truly "religious" person of the day.  Paul's idea of not being "counterfeit" is really a term quite similar to being "two-faced" - behaving one way out in the open, another behind closed doors.  Look at what he says about the one who chooses to live a "counterfeit" life:  They wander off into cul-de-sacs!  Do you know what a cul-de-sac really is?  It is a situation in which no further progress can be made!  So, Paul's instruction is designed to keep Timothy from facing dead-ends in his life!

Truth be told, we all need to hear how it is we live above "dead-ends", don't we?  We have a tendency to head into places which seem okay for the moment, but we soon find they are really avenues where we can no longer make any progress in our lives simply because we are boxed in by the limitations of our choices!  Paul tells us as long as our focus is off of ourselves, with our lives lived out in the open, we should be able to avoid some of these "wrong turns".  

I know there are times when I have chosen a "wrong turn" in life, then found ways to blame others for the turn I clearly took!  If you have tried the same, you are probably in good company - for a lot of us venture into the "convenience" of shifting the blame for our bad decisions to another on occasion.  I think we do this because it helps us with our "front" - we take the focus off of us, so we might keep the appearance of "being okay".  Whenever we work so hard to maintain the "appearance" of being okay, we are presenting an impossible "religious front" - a counterfeit to the real.  It becomes an "imposing" lifestyle which makes it seem impossible for others to ever attain themselves.

When we are not real with others, we are presenting an image of God's love which may make it just too hard for others to grab hold of.  You see, most people look to God's kids to display God's love and to connect his grace and love to our needs in life.  He made us for this purpose.  Whenever we display an image of being "perfect" all the time, others see only the "perfection" we display and not the true tragedies of life which are brewing just beneath the surface.  Those tragedies, and how God works within them to bring us out of them, are what connect others to the love and grace of God.  

Real people attract other real people - with real life issues, real life tragedies of their own.  Real people connect other real people to the resources of God's love, grace, and peace.  Real people spot the counterfeit a mile off.  They become good judges of the real!  Just sayin!

You find my hiding place!

Running away from God is seldom the answer to our problems.  In fact, the harder and farther we run, the worse the problems seem to be magnified in our lives.  Try as we might, God really cannot be escaped!  There is just no hiding place from God!

⁸ Then they grilled him: "Confess. Why this disaster? What is your work? Where do you come from? What country? What family?"  ⁹ He told them, "I'm a Hebrew. I worship God, the God of heaven who made sea and land."  ¹⁰ At that, the men were frightened, really frightened, and said, "What on earth have you done!" As Jonah talked, the sailors realized that he was running away from God.  (Jonah 1:8-10 The Message)

After boarding the ship to Tarshish, in clear disobedience to what God had asked Jonah to do, there comes a huge storm.  Amazingly, Jonah is able to sleep through the calamity his disobedience seems to be bringing into the lives of the others!  Have you ever stopped to consider this?  As I read this passage today, I had to stop and pause over this one.

Look at where we find Jonah - in the depths of the ship.  He is not just content to "get away from God", he is in deep hiding!  This is probably more telling about what really happens when we run from God - we feel the need to "duck and take cover" wherever we think we will not be discovered!  This has been the pattern observed since the beginning of time.  Adam and Eve ducked into the bushes and "made cover" in order to take cover!  What comes as a surprise to me is just how comfortable Jonah was in his disobedience!  He actually slept through the storm!

It is truly a dangerous place to find oneself - so comfortable in our disobedience that we just don't see the effect it has on those around us!  Sometimes we think our disobedience only affects us, but I want to challenge us here a little.  Truly, our disobedience has far-reaching effects, sometimes unrealized by us.  We may not fully appreciate the impact it has on those God has placed in our lives - our loved ones, our friends, and even those God just brings across our paths for brief periods of time.  Jonah did not know these folks on his trip to Tarshish - they were just innocently headed to the next sea port, unaware of the hazards which lay ahead for them.  The truth is quite plain - no man is an island unto himself!  Sin has an effect - on us and others!

Here's the thing I want us to see this morning - Jonah was discovered by those on the journey with him.  The moment comes when we will be discovered - the question is really who will do the discovery.  Will it be God, personally touching us, and us responding to him?  Or will it be someone God brings across our path, opening our eyes to our "running"?  Either way works, but I tend to think the first way is a little better!  

The grace of God cannot allow us to hide forever - God will find a place, a time, and a way to bring the discovery of our "running" to light for us.  I know this for a fact in my own life - every time I have "run for cover", the discovery of my hiding place is assured.  I also know this - God's grace is sufficient!  Whenever we realize we are running from God, the opportunity also exists to run "directly into his open arms" of grace!  No sin is too great - no amount of disobedience too far reaching for his arms to encircle us.  No shame is too deep - no amount of sin's effect too hard for him to restore!  It may be your moment of "discovery" today.  If so, don't turn and run - reach out and be embraced!  His grace awaits.

The final piece of the puzzle

^10-11Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.

(James 5:10-11 The Message)

The very last sentence of this passage is my focus this morning.  Yet, to understand the importance of a passage, one must understand the context of that passage - so I give you the rest as a gift of "context".  James is concluding the letter to the churches.  He writes about some very practical "rules" of living that will keep us in solid relationship with Christ, build meaningful relationships with each other, and help us to exemplify Christ in all our dealings.  Now, in concluding, he reminds us of the importance of having solid examples - mentors we can look to.  For that, he points us to the prophets of the Old Testament times.  His reason - they developed a lifestyle of trust.  They went through much because they had come to know with a certainty that they could trust God with the course of their lives - the outcome was in his capable care.

The simple statement that God brought it all together in the end is often the story of our lives.  It is indeed God that does the bringing together of our lives.  We, left to our own devices, have a tendency to allow it to fall to pieces!  God, based on his intense love for us, brings the mess we call life together for us in the end.  You know, I think God is kind of like the master jigsaw puzzle champion of the entire universe!  He knows how all the pieces will fit, carefully finding just the right piece for the next step in completing the puzzle, then goes about this process until the very last piece is laid into place.  We need a "pattern" to follow in order to get a puzzle put together, but even then, we struggle to find the right pieces in the right order!

If we take time to look at how God "fits" the pieces of our lives together, the exact order he brings things into "play" within our lives, and how carefully these "pieces" all fit together to bring about the desired effect, we will be amazed at the wonder of his care.  I think that is what James had in mind here - an awareness that God cares!  Not just on the surface, but right down to the nitty-gritty details of our lives.  Not one detail escapes his care.  When James refers to the "care" of God, he is pointing us toward the protection and oversight God has taken.  He is not "slack" in his protection, nor is he "missing" any of the details from his watchfulness.

The prophets had learned to "trust" God.  Trust is a reliance upon the integrity of the one who is in control.  The integrity of God had been proven in their lives over and over again.  They came into a place of determined trust that even when the puzzle of life did not look like anything they could recognize, they would still trust the one putting the pieces in order to bring it all into a recognizable thing in the end.  We sometimes don't know how to trust God with the pieces of our lives - holding back some piece or pieces because we aren't sure what he is "fashioning" from the pieces.  When we do, the puzzle is incomplete, does not present what we can recognize as a "good outcome", and therefore, we resist the process.  

I think we are pointed to our "elders" in the faith because they had the same struggles and came to the conclusion that God could be trusted.  Sometimes we need someone to encourage us to "give over" those missing pieces into God's capable hands.  He may not be ready to "use" them right away (fit them into the puzzle), but he carefully places them in his sight until he is ready to fit them exactly into the framework of our character.  So, if you find that God is asking for some "hidden" pieces of your life today, trust him.  He will not throw away any piece.  He doesn't "trim the edges" of a piece to make it fit.  He won't damage what he has in his hands in order to accomplish the "fit".  Instead, he already sees how it fits his design perfectly and will "fit it" into the framework of our lives in just the right order, in just the right time.