Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! That’s why the prophet said, The old life is a grass life, its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers; Grass dries up, flowers wilt, God’s Word goes on and on forever. This is the Word that conceived the new life in you. (1 Peter 1:24-25)
For the past few days we have been looking intently at God's Word - how it impacts our lives, changing us from the inside out. Today's passage contains another important aspect of God's Word that we don't want to overlook - the ability for God's Word to 'conceive' new life in us. Think for a moment about how 'conception' happens in the natural sense. Two completely separate objects intersect and within that intersection the two become one. This is what God has in mind when he tells us his Word will 'conceive' new life within us - our life intersects with his and when that happens, we become one with him. We assume his character - forsaking our pretty flawed one. We take on his attitude - laying aside our pity, worry, anger, and pride. The 'two becoming one' thing is pretty awesome, but remember - - - it takes an 'intersection'.
Most will assume an intersection is nothing more than a place where two cross paths - allowing for a direction change where appropriate. They wouldn't be wrong in that observation - any intersection with God's Word is designed to bring about a 'direction change' of some sort. We are not to read it casually, so as to be unaffected by the truth contained therein. We are to read it with intention, allowing it to 'intersect' our thoughts, emotions, and willfulness. Did you know 'intersect' is just a fancy word for 'separate'? God's Word is doing the work of separating us from those things we need to leave behind and allowing us to see the things he is creating within us that will make us stronger in the journey.
When scripture references the ability of God's Word to 'separate', we need to remember this: God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one can resist God’s Word. We can’t get away from it—no matter what. (Hebrews 4:12) We are being told his Word is meant to 'intersect' our lives right where we live - moment by moment, not just on Sundays. The 'separating' of the good from the bad doesn't happen just because we have a casual acquaintance with the Word. It happens because we take the Word in regularly and allow it to begin to fashion us into the 'new creation' that was conceived at the point of that 'intersection'. Today could be a very important 'intersection' in your life, but if you are to make the right choices at that 'intersection', you will need to know how God purposes for you to respond. As he stand at that intersection waiting for us to enter, he begins the work of separating us from those things we don't need to carry along - those things we might describes as 'bothersome'. All of God's words have the power to conceive - to separate truth from fiction, holy from impure, good from bad, and peace from chaos. Maybe we all could benefit from a little bit of God's intersections today. Just sayin!
A daily study in the Word of God. Simple, life-transforming tools to help you grow in Christ.
Showing posts with label Separation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Separation. Show all posts
Sunday, November 7, 2021
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
No matter what...
Have you ever lost one of your children in a large mall, or at the park? I have and I can describe for you the moment of sheer panic when I realized they were gone - not just from my sight, but gone! They had disappeared quicker than I was able to appreciate and that moment of panic gripped my soul, sent my emotions into a spiral, and began to play scenes of terror across the screen of my imagination. I wonder what it would be like to see our 'separation' from God through is eyes...would we begin to see the extreme scenes of terror that cross his screen, as well? I think God has things in control, unlike us, but he is certainly deeply affected by any separation between us!
Before I go further, let me assure you the kiddos were safe and sound, despite their momentary lapse in 'staying close to mommy'. They hid out in some hiding spot, thinking it was funny to see mommy go through sheer terror over their absence. When you finally find those kiddos, your emotions race from "I was so worried about you" to "I think I am going to strangle you" in about zero to sixty! While the kiddos might have experienced a moment or two of jubilee for having pulled a good 'gag' on mommy, God isn't all that excited about any of our sinful shenanigans! He is grieved by our separation - he feels that 'time away from us' deep within his heart.
Why is that? I think it is because he loves us so deeply! Why did I panic when the kiddos disappeared, ever so briefly as it may have been? It was because of how deeply I loved them and wanted to protect them from all manner of harm! God is no different - he wants to keep us from all harm. We, on the other hand, seem to enjoy getting ourselves into places where we shouldn't have gone in the first place. Even our 'dangerous' steps into places we were not supposed to go in the first place are watched over by our caring and compassionate heavenly Father. He may not have wanted us to go there, but he knows when we experience that 'panic' of separation from him, we will call out!
Sometime the 'separation' is our own fault - but at others it is because we have an enemy who wants nothing more than to cause us to panic. We cannot always 'mitigate' or 'maneuver around' his attacks, but we can 'manage our heart' through them! We can remain consistently under God's wing and never have anything to fear. That is what I wanted my kiddos to know as they were growing up - mom would take care of them, no matter what. God wants us to know he will take care of us - no matter what! Just sayin!
Monday, April 29, 2019
Getting at the heart of it all
Have you ever seen someone so good with their skinning knife they can just peel away the hide of an animal without a rip or tear, no waste of any of the meat just below that skin? I have seen some fishermen able to fillet their catch with such skill not even one bone is found in the fillet. How do they learn this skill? I think it comes to them through practice and with the employment of the right 'tool' to do the job at hand. There is comfort in knowing that God means what he says and his Word will come to pass. His Word is like the scalpel in the skilled hands of a surgeon or the knife in the hands of the skilled hunter. As a nurse, I have seen the skillful use of the scalpel - dissecting away the finest of tissue to protect the healthy tissue and to expose the tissue that has become devitalized by disease or decay. I have also seen the damage done by a "blade" in the hands of one not trained or at all skilled in its use. The difference is beyond description.
God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it—no matter what. (Hebrews 4:12-13)
Dissection is the process of taking apart the various parts until each part is exposed as uniquely separate from the other. The purpose is to bring separation. In his hands, the Word cuts through our doubts. It reduces our defenses. In turn, it lays us open - not to bring damage through exposure of these parts, but to bring us to a place where we can see the aspects of our doubts and defenses at the "root". It separates our doubts and defenses away from our heart so he is free to get to work repairing the heart! No true analysis of our doubt is possible without understanding what contributes to that doubt - he needs to get at the root of the doubt. When we finally see the roots of our doubt (past hurts, inability to trust based on fear of rejection, etc), we are better able to allow him to show us how to bind up our wounds and to step out in faith. The purpose of exposure (separating those things from their attachment in our heart) was to bring us to a place of listening and obedience.
The same is true about our defenses. Without revealing the real reason we set them up (pride, anger, fear, etc), we will never be successful in seeing those defensive walls brought down. The walls did not go up in one day and they will not come down in one day! There is a process of taking apart the various "pieces" of the walls of our defense until all that is left is the total freedom of passage. That which remains hidden behind the wall is never truly able to be touched by God or others until we are willing for this "disassembling" or separating of the pieces. The reduction of our walls of defense may be catastrophic if a bulldozer simply pushes them down, but in the hands of Jesus, one stone is removed at a time until we no longer "need" to hide behind that wall any longer.
The really good news is that we cannot escape the Word of God. It has an impact in the lives of all that hear it - it has the same ability to separate in me as it does in you. We might not realize the complete impact of the "scalpel" until much later on, but once the health returns to the tissue, the realization of the healing is apparent. We don't realize what has been missing from our "line of sight" until the wall is finally down. That is what God is after when he uses his Word in his tenderly, skillful way. He brings health and he broadens our line of sight. Stop nursing your wounds - allow God to bring health to your life again. Stop limiting your "line of sight" - allow him to expand you beyond measure. His skill in doing both is beyond what you'd ever imagine possible! Just sayin!
God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it—no matter what. (Hebrews 4:12-13)
Dissection is the process of taking apart the various parts until each part is exposed as uniquely separate from the other. The purpose is to bring separation. In his hands, the Word cuts through our doubts. It reduces our defenses. In turn, it lays us open - not to bring damage through exposure of these parts, but to bring us to a place where we can see the aspects of our doubts and defenses at the "root". It separates our doubts and defenses away from our heart so he is free to get to work repairing the heart! No true analysis of our doubt is possible without understanding what contributes to that doubt - he needs to get at the root of the doubt. When we finally see the roots of our doubt (past hurts, inability to trust based on fear of rejection, etc), we are better able to allow him to show us how to bind up our wounds and to step out in faith. The purpose of exposure (separating those things from their attachment in our heart) was to bring us to a place of listening and obedience.
The same is true about our defenses. Without revealing the real reason we set them up (pride, anger, fear, etc), we will never be successful in seeing those defensive walls brought down. The walls did not go up in one day and they will not come down in one day! There is a process of taking apart the various "pieces" of the walls of our defense until all that is left is the total freedom of passage. That which remains hidden behind the wall is never truly able to be touched by God or others until we are willing for this "disassembling" or separating of the pieces. The reduction of our walls of defense may be catastrophic if a bulldozer simply pushes them down, but in the hands of Jesus, one stone is removed at a time until we no longer "need" to hide behind that wall any longer.
The really good news is that we cannot escape the Word of God. It has an impact in the lives of all that hear it - it has the same ability to separate in me as it does in you. We might not realize the complete impact of the "scalpel" until much later on, but once the health returns to the tissue, the realization of the healing is apparent. We don't realize what has been missing from our "line of sight" until the wall is finally down. That is what God is after when he uses his Word in his tenderly, skillful way. He brings health and he broadens our line of sight. Stop nursing your wounds - allow God to bring health to your life again. Stop limiting your "line of sight" - allow him to expand you beyond measure. His skill in doing both is beyond what you'd ever imagine possible! Just sayin!
Friday, December 28, 2018
What? It isn't all about me?
There are commands in the scripture that are not 'optional' behaviors or attitudes. We are to embrace them as a way of life regardless of how we feel. Too many of us are reliant upon 'feelings-based' actions. If we feel like it, we do. If we don't feel the urge, we don't. Don't love the world's ways is not optional. Don't love the world's goods is also not optional. Neither of these commands are 'optional' or dependent on how we feel at the moment. We might want to gloss over these commands, but there is much value in considering them as guiding principles in our lives as the consequences of being too caught up in the ways of this world system or in seeking after what it offers carry some heavy burdens for us. When we are in love with this world and what it offers us, we isolate ourselves from God - although we may align with others in this world, isolation from him is just not good.
Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. (I John 2:15-17)
What is the 'world' in scripture? In the plainest terms, it is that which sets itself against the ways of God. The idea is that of being in opposition to, or living in such a manner as to take one's focus off of grace and love of God. Don't love this world's system of doing things, or treating people, as the world spends so much time just focusing on self is really a means of helping us not be so 'me-focused'. The plain truth is laid out for us - the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure - those things that will please our 'self' while paying little attention to the things another needs. It offers us what will build our pride and what will fill our coffers. In the end, we are left empty - devoid of the connection with God that fills our spirit to overflowing. The world system teaches us that "our way" is the most important - we need to look out for #1 (us). God's way is contrary to this - look out for your brother, and then let me look out for you.
The second command is to not love the world's goods - meaning we are not to be so consumed with getting everything we see, amassing to ourselves great storehouses of physical wealth and "things" that will eventually deteriorate, break, and be of no value in the end. Craving attention is natural to human nature - we like to be the center of our universe! As a matter of fact, we learned this quite young. When we were not considered the center of all that was going on around us, we learned we could throw a little tantrum until we got our own way - until attention was focused on us - even before we could speak, we figured this one out! God's plans and "systems" are different. His desire is that we would place our attention on him - first and foremost. That means that we consider all we do in light of answering a few simple questions: 1)If I pursue this course of action, will it keep Christ central in my thoughts, attitude, and actions? 2) If I pursue this moment of pleasure, will I regret the consequences? 3) If I bring this "thing" into my life, will it add unwanted distraction to my life?
These are not really "rocket-science" kind of questions. They are practical questions that help us to evaluate decisions "in the moment". The world only offers us a continual craving for physical pleasure - what we see and hear is that if it feels good, we should do it. We are encouraged to want what it is that we see - even if we don't really need it. After all, isn't that the concept behind 'end-cap' sales in the stores? The world also encourages us to become puffed up in pride over our achievements and those physical possessions that we acquire or amass. If we ask ourselves those questions (run our decisions through those "filters" before making them), we might just avoid some heartache in our life. The reminder to us is that when we fail to use some "filters" to guide our thoughts, intentions, and actions, we will drive a wedge in between God and ourselves - we isolate ourselves from God's fellowship. Isolation is really disconnection. When something is isolated, it is "set away from" that which it was designed to be connected to. We isolate very contagious people in hospitals because if they were "connected to" others in the hospital without taking the proper precautions to avoid the spread of disease, we'd have an epidemic!
Isolation from God occurs when our heart or mind places anything else in the position of authority in our lives that is designed specifically for God. We are allowing ourselves to be "exposed" over and over to those thought patterns, cravings of our bodies, etc., that connect us more with the "disease" of our sin instead of the "remedy" for our sin. The best thing we can do is to use the "filters" we are provided: the Word of God, our conscience, and the Holy Spirit resident within. When we do, we find that they answer the questions posed above with pretty reliable truth - directing our behavior, our thoughts, and our intentions toward God and away from the world's systems/ways. If you are in a place where you are realizing that your love for God has been "squeezed out" by the things you have been pursuing, it may be the perfect time to begin to evaluate your focus. If all we can see is "us", there is not much room for God. In other words, we have "isolated" ourselves unto ourselves - taking God out of the equation of our lives. It may be time to step out of that isolated place and into the safety of God's arms. Just sayin!
Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. (I John 2:15-17)
What is the 'world' in scripture? In the plainest terms, it is that which sets itself against the ways of God. The idea is that of being in opposition to, or living in such a manner as to take one's focus off of grace and love of God. Don't love this world's system of doing things, or treating people, as the world spends so much time just focusing on self is really a means of helping us not be so 'me-focused'. The plain truth is laid out for us - the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure - those things that will please our 'self' while paying little attention to the things another needs. It offers us what will build our pride and what will fill our coffers. In the end, we are left empty - devoid of the connection with God that fills our spirit to overflowing. The world system teaches us that "our way" is the most important - we need to look out for #1 (us). God's way is contrary to this - look out for your brother, and then let me look out for you.
The second command is to not love the world's goods - meaning we are not to be so consumed with getting everything we see, amassing to ourselves great storehouses of physical wealth and "things" that will eventually deteriorate, break, and be of no value in the end. Craving attention is natural to human nature - we like to be the center of our universe! As a matter of fact, we learned this quite young. When we were not considered the center of all that was going on around us, we learned we could throw a little tantrum until we got our own way - until attention was focused on us - even before we could speak, we figured this one out! God's plans and "systems" are different. His desire is that we would place our attention on him - first and foremost. That means that we consider all we do in light of answering a few simple questions: 1)If I pursue this course of action, will it keep Christ central in my thoughts, attitude, and actions? 2) If I pursue this moment of pleasure, will I regret the consequences? 3) If I bring this "thing" into my life, will it add unwanted distraction to my life?
These are not really "rocket-science" kind of questions. They are practical questions that help us to evaluate decisions "in the moment". The world only offers us a continual craving for physical pleasure - what we see and hear is that if it feels good, we should do it. We are encouraged to want what it is that we see - even if we don't really need it. After all, isn't that the concept behind 'end-cap' sales in the stores? The world also encourages us to become puffed up in pride over our achievements and those physical possessions that we acquire or amass. If we ask ourselves those questions (run our decisions through those "filters" before making them), we might just avoid some heartache in our life. The reminder to us is that when we fail to use some "filters" to guide our thoughts, intentions, and actions, we will drive a wedge in between God and ourselves - we isolate ourselves from God's fellowship. Isolation is really disconnection. When something is isolated, it is "set away from" that which it was designed to be connected to. We isolate very contagious people in hospitals because if they were "connected to" others in the hospital without taking the proper precautions to avoid the spread of disease, we'd have an epidemic!
Isolation from God occurs when our heart or mind places anything else in the position of authority in our lives that is designed specifically for God. We are allowing ourselves to be "exposed" over and over to those thought patterns, cravings of our bodies, etc., that connect us more with the "disease" of our sin instead of the "remedy" for our sin. The best thing we can do is to use the "filters" we are provided: the Word of God, our conscience, and the Holy Spirit resident within. When we do, we find that they answer the questions posed above with pretty reliable truth - directing our behavior, our thoughts, and our intentions toward God and away from the world's systems/ways. If you are in a place where you are realizing that your love for God has been "squeezed out" by the things you have been pursuing, it may be the perfect time to begin to evaluate your focus. If all we can see is "us", there is not much room for God. In other words, we have "isolated" ourselves unto ourselves - taking God out of the equation of our lives. It may be time to step out of that isolated place and into the safety of God's arms. Just sayin!
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
NOTHING - EVER
For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are—high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean—nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us. (Romans 8:38-39 TLB)
Separation occurs wherever there is a point of some type of parting. When I wash clothes, I 'separate' them into stacks of dark, medium, and light colors. Why? Those darker ones have the potential of causing me a great deal of extra work if they get in with the lighter ones because they can actually leave stains on the lighter ones. It makes sense to separate them into these piles because of the potential of one to affect the other in a negative way. I have been at some homes of people where even the cans of food are stacked neatly in rows of whatever is contained within those cans. This may give them an indication when they need to buy more corn or peas, but in my estimation, a stack of canned veggies, whatever they may be is just fine! They all get used up and I know where they are when I need to find them - if I don't have peas, I eat corn! While it makes sense to live with certain 'separations' in our lives, there are times I think we feel like we need to 'separate' some of our emotions, actions, or even influences in life from our relationship with God. The truth is that "NOTHING" should separate us from God's attentive and caring love!
We know the big stuff shouldn't and won't separate us from his love, like the actions of the devil in our world, or the finality of death on our human form. Yet, I wonder if we also realize that no fear should ever cause a separation, nor worry any deviation from remaining consistently engaged in closeness of relationship with him? Like it or not, our emotions can (and will) separate us from God's protective closeness if we allow them to drive a wedge in between us. Worries have a way of causing us to begin to spend a ton of thought and effort on ways to solve whatever issue is bringing that set of worries into our lives. We spin and spin, attempting to find a solution - all the while that spinning is taking us further and further away from the solution - Christ! We might think we are just helping God take care of whatever is leading to this set of worries and woes, but in reality we are allowing them to drive us to a point of separation - we are forgetting that God's love "overrides" any set of present or future worries. If we remain connected to him, the worries begin be rightly dealt with by the one who has all the solutions for whatever it is in the present or future that may give us this sense of emotional unease.
A whole lot of things attempt to steal our joy in life, separating us from God's peace and his presence. We must take a stand against all these 'separating forces' - for scripture declares solidly that NOTHING shall EVER be able to separate us from his love. That doesn't mean NOTHING will EVER try to do so, but we can stand on the truth that as long as our eyes are firmly fixed on him, nothing shall ever be able to bring any degree of separation from his love and care. Just sayin!
Thursday, March 10, 2016
A few degrees of separation
Separation is a place or point of parting having occurred or about to occur. As infants, we grew quite attached to our parent and any degree of separation gave us a sense of panic, lending to periods of fitfully crying until we were once again reunited with that parent. We somehow equated them being out of sight as being unreachable, uncaring, or unavailable to us. It sent us into periods of what some may even call "panic". I wonder if we ever quite experience that degree of panic over our separation from God's grace - maybe that is what draws us to him in the first place and keeps us coming back when we pull away on occasion. Maybe we experience a little separation anxiety when we are 'out of sync' with him - giving us that moment when we "panic" because we see the distance which has been allowed in our relationship.
Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, We are being put to death all day long for your sake. We are treated like sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created. (Romans 8:35-39 CEB)
Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, We are being put to death all day long for your sake. We are treated like sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created. (Romans 8:35-39 CEB)
There are things and people who will try to separate us, but if we read the passage again, we see it is impossible for us to ever be separated from God once we are united with him in grace - we might "feel" the anxiety of not being as close to him as we would like to be, but we are really never far from his reach of grace. That which separates and creates division is to be avoided and requires watchful attentiveness on our parts. All through scripture we find God telling us to guard against things which can bring distraction and lure us into places we should not go. When we depart from where we are designed to attach, we experience anxiety.
Lots of things may lead to detachment in life, but it is important to see that in our relationship with Christ it isn't really detachment as much as it is being estranged. We are still in relationship, but we are just not as close as we should be. We don't need to reattach, we just need to draw closer - the attachment never ended! We need to reconnect - something you might hear me say all the time. I don't think we need more proof he is there - we just need to draw a little closer and we will realize he never left.
The sense of anxiety we feel when we realize we aren't in close relationship isn't really to cause us stress or pain, but to cause to look at where we are, who is absent from us (God), and then to search him out until we find we are near to him again. It is like when we were kids waking up from a nap - we suspected we were alone, but were so delighted to find we were totally wrong when we discovered mom or dad in the next room! We may not have seen them, but they were there all the time - usually doing what parents do and making things ready for us as we were ready to re-engage as we woke from our nap. We may not sense God all the time, but he never is far from us. Maybe he allows a few degrees of separation on occasion to get us moving in the right direction again, or to help us understand he never has really left us - we just need to reconnect with his grace again. Just sayin!
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