The Power of Words

“Because even the smallest of words can be the ones to hurt you, or save you.” 

                                                 ― Natsuki Takaya

 I don't know about you, but I find that I am often too quick to speak or to text without first examining my heart and my words. The art of speaking is often lost to those who have chosen to bury them within the deepest parts of their soul for the sake of self-preservation. When that person chooses to come out of darkness and into the light, to rip open their sown lips, he finds himself on a journey to self-expression that is wearisome and tedious.

Words are full of meaning. They form us, define us, and betray us. They are the backbone of relationship and of civilization, and the preface to war and heartbreak. I fail consistently in my words. From time to time my words are dramatic, untruthful, demeaning, soul rendering, or even self-destructive. I too often use words for my selfish gain; to manipulate another to do what I want, to make myself sound superior, etc.

But words are also the key to healing, redemption, reconciliation, and encouragement. It is by words that my friends have encouraged me, rebuked me, and brought life and structure to reality. It is by words that God has used me to speak into the lives of others in true and holy ways. It is by words that I am able to begin the process of healing my broken soul and to grow closer to the God of my salvation. The very God who used words to create the universe, to calm raging seas, and to move the hearts of men.

Let us then seek to use our words less flippantly, but instead with great meaning and intentionality; letting God speak to our souls and to filter our words and our thoughts that we might speak life rather than death. To let Christ govern our lips. May truth, love, and purity come from our lips, and may we also know that sometimes it is best to just remain silent...

To Deserve Love

Love...oh boy. It's a crazy word that gets thrown around like loose change these days, and it seems to come with a variety of forms and meanings. The spectrum of cultural usage of the word covers everything from "Give me sex!" to "I would die for you!" Being individual humans who are affected by experience and emotions, we often misuse and mistranslate the word in it's use. It also doesn't help that we are detached from each other in such a way as to be unable to feel the emotions or hear the thoughts of the speaker.

In my neverending desire to over analyze everything, I started thinking about love and it's biblical definition. It came to my attention that I am no expert on loving. Sin, in it's never ending distortive nature, has greatly diminished my understanding and expression of love. In my pride I even had the thought "I deserve to be loved!" and "After all that I've done for _____ (God, friend, family, etc) I should be loved more than I am!" These are false statements on multiple levels. 

First, love that is given for the sake of love received is, in fact, not love at all! Love is given without expectation of return; anything done with the demand or with the goal of a return is not love. Love is not currency, and therefore you do not spend love for love. If it something that is not to be demanded and, by it's very nature, doesn't demand anything, how can we possible "earn" or "deserve" love" We can't.

A child doesn't earn his/her parents love. Either the child is loved or the child is not loved. Satisfaction and affection is often earned, but love itself is not; satisfaction and affection are often naturally given sub components to one's love for another but can be withheld for personal health and emotional safety from the person they love. 

So knowing that love can not be earned by means of action or the like, we must then begin to look at how we treat others and how we understand Christ's command to "Love God and love your neighbor as yourself." Love is more than chemicals, but it is also action and choice. Love is struggling and wrestling. For some it is easy to give and for some it is not. It is struggle because of sin, but God is sinless! God loves perfectly and without the hindrances of sin and distortion. 

Being that God loves perfectly and we don't, we cannot begin to comprehend the fullness of God's love or the actions that His love produces. It brings a whole new level of awe to the death of our Lord and forces us to rethink about our beliefs about salvation and the relationship between God and man.

God loves us regardless of our actions because our actions do not generate love and that is beautiful reality. We are loved perfectly by the great Creator of the universe despite all our flaws and our sin nature. God choose to bestow upon us His perfect love and out of that love paved a way for us to be reconciled to Him through the cross. The cross is an act of grace. We can rest assured that though God will one day judge our works, our evil will not diminish His love for us.

Grace and Peace,

Stephen

God: Faithful to the Faithless

“Lord, make haste to save us…”

In Friday’s readings (Psalm 69, 73; Genesis 43:1-15; I Corinthians 7:1-9; Mark 4:35-41) we were bid by Isaiah to seek God, to forsake our sins, and to turn to God. We were then given a promise of reconciliation and redemption from God as result of our repentance. Lent is a time in which we are drawn to repentance, but it is also a time to meditate on the attributes and characteristics of God.

As I read the assigned readings for Friday, I found myself drawn to meditate on His faithfulness to His people. David cries out to God for help and speaks the heaviness of his despair and the many troubles that he faces. In the midst of his lamenting, he speaks of the goodness of God. He does not ask God to be good, but instead asks that, in light of His goodness, God would act out of His very nature.

In the New Testament reading, Christ saves His disciples from the wrath of the storm, and they are amazed. He then convicts them for their lack of faith, and they are amazed. It is important to point out that Christ did not wait until they had faith to act upon their situation. He did not hesitate. This is a major testament to the nature of our God!

We know not whether David was full of faith when he wrote Psalm 69 or not, but we know that God is faithful to come to our aid even when we are faithless. The cross is proof of this fact! He came “while we were yet sinners” and out of His nature He delivered us. He does not rely on us, but instead sees our lack and calls us to faith that we might know and be known by Him.

Look closely at your life, and I promise that you will see a thousand places where Christ intervened; a thousand times He was faithful even when you had all but lost hope that He would come through. Let us not forget the faithfulness of God, especially as we stand in the shadow of the cross and as Resurrection Sunday lies just a few weeks away.

Praise God for his faithfulness despite our brokenness! Let us repent, not that we might earn favor, but because He is deserving of our obedience and love! Let faith well up in our hearts in the knowledge that He is our God. He will never abandon us in the darkness, and death will never overcome us.

Grace and Peace

To Exile And Be Exiled

One of things I hate the most is when a preacher starts breaking down the Old Testament stories into "stages" and says "this is what every Christian goes through. These are the stages of our Spiritual journey!" The truth is that there is a measure of truth to what these preachers say. I do not think, however, that it is as cut and dry as many make it out to be and I often think they take it to the extreme, but there is truth nonetheless.

Israel was lead into a time of exile. 40 years in a desert just wandering around in circles before God took them into the promised land. It is important to remember that this is the history of a nation of people and not about individuals. It is not the rule that God leads His people in deserts, and to look at this passage and say "well this is a physical example of what God does spiritually for us now by leading us through spiritual deserts" might be a bit of stretch, and even a misuse of the text. It is, however, showing us that God is willing to lead us into times of great struggle and pain: a concept not very often talked about in prosperity-gospel churches.

We also learn from their exile that God is faithful to provide, just as he did with King Nebuchadnezzar that He sent into exile to be as a wild animal for 7 years and with Adam and Eve after the Fall. God leads us into periods of exile for the purpose of our growth and purging of sin.

Jacob went into exile for the sake of protecting himself from his brother whom he robbed of the birthright, and God met him there in his exile and changed him. When the time was right he was restored to his brother and peace was made.

Elijah too threw himself into exile to escape the wrath of an evil queen, in which God never rebuked, but instead provided him with the strength to travel to where He would reveal Himself to Elijah and ask "Why are you here?" God, knowing all, asked Elijah why he was there, gave him the opportunity to engage with Him, and to experience Him in an incredible way. From there God led him on to anoint those who would take his place and then took him up into heaven.

Exile often is painful, but it is also the tool by which God mends our hearts, changes our desires, and grants protection. It is the tool that keeps us safe from broken and destructive family situations until such time as reconciliation can be achieved.

Sometimes exile is necessary, even if it isn't exactly desirable or even causes one to sacrifice something precious to him or her. There are times where God exiles us, we exile others, and we exile ourselves for the sake of holiness, healing, or even love. It's rarely ever an enjoyable venture, but is more often required than we are willing to admit.

The question becomes, if exile becomes necessary, will we follow the Spirit's leading by going into exile or by commissioning another to exile? Or will we resist Him until He forces it upon us?

Grace and Peace,

Stephen

The Beauty of Ruins

My favorite type of games to play growing up are what are known as "real-strategy games." My brother and I both played these games, but we had very different ways of playing. While he would do what he could to build up his forces quickly and wipe out his opponent without mercy and without patience, I would often do the opposite. I was defensive in my strategies. I loved building up walls and structures and creating strongholds. I wanted to make cities of refuge and flawless defense. Nothing was to get through. I would become frustrated whenever my walls fell or if I experienced invasion. Inevitably, I would lose a match because I would spend all my time and resources trying to keep the walls intact and perfect instead of taking action.

I am but dust...

Turns out that my strategy for playing video games was not so different than my strategy for life. I've lived my entire life as a wall builder and a perfectionist, desperate to keep control over what people see and don't see about me. Wanting to keep myself impenetrable and free of hurt. Wanting to make myself safe and to appear perfect and whole, even when I wasn't. My efforts proved to be in vain time and time again, and yet I never changed my strategy. I followed through with my building castles and fortresses, and over time my walls have been breached, burned, and found wanting.

I am but dust, and to dust I shall return...

What I have realized recently is that God has been playing a significant part in the destruction of my defenses. Why? Because locked away behind my castle doors I would have died of starvation and disease
. I need my defenses destroyed so that I might grow and that I might know Him more. I needed to be free of my own trap and begin living a different life.

I have been humbled. God took my self-perceived perfections and laid them bare. He took the things I was proud of and shattered them before me, revealing the flaws and showing me who I really am...a sinner; a flawed human being in need of grace. He has seem it fit that I might suffer for the sake of being made pure. To not be caught up in perfection and the safety and comfort of control, but instead to be real and to be vulnerable in the ways He wants me to be. Vulnerable that I might provide love, healing, and shelter for others who are in pain and in need. I can't reach out to other and run to their aid when I'm too busy cowering behind my whitewashed walls.

 I am but dust, and to dust I shall return. Lord...

I have found beauty in the ruins of my soul. In my destruction I am being made into place of refuge. My greatest defense must be God, not my works and my efforts; not my reputation or in opinions. My greatest good is God and my perfection is Him and Him alone. Let the storm come; let the walls be obliterated and my ivory towers break. I know It is for my strengthening and my purging. Let them fall. I know my God is with me and He won't abandon me. Take what I have, I deserve none of it anyway.

I am but dust...
And to dust I shall return...
Lord, Make haste to save...