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Our Thoughts on the Journey
When I was young I hated to go shopping at Kmart with my grandmother. It seems we spent hours wandering the aisles searching for the best deals, just waiting for the next blue-light special. My young eyes and mind and hands would start to wander toward the candy and toys. I’m not sure how the toy car found its way into my pocket, but it was fun to hold it and think about what I might do with it if it were mine. Once we had finally loaded the car down with everything from paper towels and peanut butter to grandpa’s favorite wife beater style t-shirts, I settled into the back seat and pulled the car out of my pocket. Suddenly, I was full of dread to discover that I was a thief!
Where does such condemnation come from anyway? I read Romans 8:1 this week:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2)
When I read this verse in the past, I automatically assumed that before I was “in Christ” I was condemned by God. Many of us have pictured God as an angry father glaring down at us with disapproval, ready to hurl thunderbolts from His throne whenever we sin. But Jesus gives us a different picture of God when He tells us that He and the Father are one. Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is “the exact representation of the Father.” The very words Jesus said to an adulterous woman were, “I don’t condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11). In John 12:47, Jesus says that He will not even condemn those who reject Him. It will be the words Jesus spoke and the life He lived that will bring condemnation. Matthew puts it this way: “By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned”( Matt 12:37).
It wasn’t Jesus or the Father who condemned me for stealing that toy car—my feelings of condemnation came from my own selfish choices and the knowledge that I was choosing wrong. Our own words and actions, contrasted with the example of the loving and non-condemning life of Jesus are what create this turmoil within our hearts, but it is God’s plan to heal and restore, not condemn and punish.
In Ezekiel 36:26 God explains that what we need is a heart transplant. He wants to take away our cold and stony hearts and make them warm and responsive. When we receive this new heart from God, the nagging voice of condemnation is silenced and replaced with a peace that can only come from the reassurance of knowing our Father’s everlasting love. We are given the choice to continue resisting His love and living with such condemnation or we can surrender our hearts into a full and satisfying relationship with God.
For people with guilty consciences like us, that’s really good news!
©2010 Raleigh Clough
www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com
I’ve been spending the week contemplating Romans 7. Who hasn't experienced the dichotomy between the person we want to be and the things we too often find ourselves doing? How many nights have we gone to bed resolving to eat less, exercise more, and set aside more devotional time, family time, personal time with our spouse? The next morning all those sincere plans are so easily forgotten in the stress of the moment. So which is the real me? The one with the wishes to be better or the one that continues to subvert those plans? Some days it seems that my sense of identity is coming apart at the seams!
Maybe that’s the problem. I recently heard a definition of Integrity that spoke to my heart. It’s the process of integrating all our different parts – or personas – into a cohesive whole. Until we can do that we are literally dis-integrating… a frightening thought!
That’s where the good news about our heavenly Father makes such a difference. He already knows everything that we struggle with. He sees us not as the mess we are, but as the complete creation He knows we can become. In Psalm 139 David concludes his rant against his enemies with these words:
“God, examine me and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any bad thing in me.
Lead me on the road to everlasting life.” -Psalm 139:23-24
These words from the man “after God’s own heart” reveal a level of trust in the One who knows all about us and loves us anyway. When we learn to trust our Father enough to bring our WHOLE selves to Him, He promises to bring all the parts together into a cohesive whole. Perhaps that is part of the process described in Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
So this week when we are faced with yet another reminder of how far short we have fallen from our best intentions, let’s not become discouraged or gloss over the reality with rationalizations or excuses. Let’s bring our broken hearts to God and let Him bind up those wounds. He’s the only one with the vision, love and power to rebuild the shattered pieces into an integrated whole. We have a Father in heaven that we can trust with both the good and the bad in our hearts.
For broken children like us, that’s very good news!
©2010 Raleigh Clough
myfatherinheavenisperfect.com
“He drew a circle that shut me out—Heretic, rebel and thing to flout,
But love and I had the wit to win, We drew a circle that took him in.” -Edwin Markham
Most of us have been shunned before—whether it was for wearing the nerdy clothes in fifth grade or the silent treatment for disobeying our parents or the silence from so-called Christian friends when we disagree with their ideas.
I don’t think many of us have enjoyed being shunned, but we have all probably been on both ends of the shunning. How many of us have said, “Oh he or she is at the checkout counter, I’ll just wait five more minutes and avoid them?” What might seem like a way to avoid confrontation and stress could also be a form of self-exaltation. When we have a need to shun other people what does it really say about us? Are we trying to coerce others against their will and thus acting like spoiled children because they won’t conform?
When we are shunned, Jesus brings comfort and understanding because He has been shunned too. He also gives us hope because He came to show us that our God is a God of relationships and shunning has no place among friends. Jesus broke through all the shunning rules. He welcomed people that the church and society disapproved of. He forgave adulterers. He allowed a bleeding woman to touch Him. He touched lepers. He ate lunch with the crooked and despised. He even spoke to demons and healed demoniacs, but most of all—He forgave.
He forgave the crowd who had eaten His bread and accepted His help, but turned their backs on Him in His hour of pain. He forgave those who spat on His face and beat His back until He bled. He endured all of this to draw a bigger circle. To show us that our parents, pastors or neighbors might shun us—but God will NEVER shun us! We can choose to shut God out, but God will never shut us out!
Like Markham’s poem, God drew a circle that took us in!
"I'll make the country a place of peace—you'll be able to go to sleep at night without fear… I'll eliminate war…I'll give you my full attention: I'll make sure you prosper…I'll set up my residence in your neighborhood; I won't avoid or SHUN you; I'll stroll through your streets. I'll be your God; you'll be my people. I am GOD, your personal God who rescued you from Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I ripped off the harness of your slavery so that you can move about freely. Leviticus 26:10-12
For outcasts like us, that’s really good news!
©2010 Cherilyn Christen Clough
myfatherinheavenisperfect.com
Have you ever been in the middle of a crowd and felt completely alone? For me, this is a common experience. While God designed us to be in relationship with Him and each other, the true intimacy of brotherhood is not common with today’s busy schedules and superficial associations. One of the feelings that most people work hard to avoid is loneliness, but if we would just take the time to listen to our lonely hearts, we might discover that loneliness is a gift—a doorway to our feelings that will ultimately lead us back into the deeper desires that our Creator gave to us.
To avoid loneliness, many of us fill our lives with people, tasks and clutter so that we never actually experience the beauty of solitude. Maybe if we allowed ourselves some time alone, we might actually hear the voice of the Spirit speaking truth to our inner pain. I have often found myself challenged to create and maintain a space of time for quiet introspection and prayer. Stopping my inner dialogue and allowing myself to just be present with God has been a painful, yet beautiful discovery.
It’s God’s desire for us to experience true intimacy with Him. Perhaps we were given loneliness as a gift to remind us of our deep need to be known just as we are and loved unconditionally. While we live under these constraints of time and space, we often cry out for the ultimate consummation of our relationship with our Father. But even now we are invited into spiritual union with the One who knows our every thought, counts the hairs on our head and carries our sorrows. If you ever doubt how intimately you are known, spend a few silent minutes with Psalm 139.
Our problem is not so much being known, as it is NOT knowing the One who knows us. According to Jesus we do not really live until we come to know God.
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” –John 17:3
How incredible to comprehend that we are known and loved, that we are never really alone, and that if we will take the time to get to know Him, our Father offers an intimate relationship that never has to end!
For lonely people like us, that’s very good news!
©2010 Raleigh Clough
myfatherinheavenisperfect.com
It’s summer on the Oregon Coast! The fragrance of flowers wafts through the gentle breeze and the birds sing their songs with joy. Sunlight shimmers off of the water like a million crystals while the grass and berry vines have overflowed their boundaries. Inside the house, our two cats are competing for the shape of the sky light on our living room floor. The coastline has suddenly filled up with tourists and surfers calling themselves “sun worshippers” and considering everything the sun does for our bodies that seems like a pretty good idea.
There is scientific evidence that the sun changes everything. When sunlight hits the back of the retina, it causes our bodies to produce serotonin putting us in a better mood. Most of us have heard about the health benefits of the hormone we call vitamin D which is made when the sun hits our skin. Whether plants, animals or people—all living things on this earth crave the sun!
One early morning in Jerusalem, Jesus was talking with His friends when the sun rose and cast a golden glow over the temple walls. Jesus used this opportunity to explain that He is the light of the world. Of course Jesus was not saying that He is the sun itself, but just as there is no light more profound to our natural world than our physical sun, the light of Christ’s life is spiritually essential to our understanding of God’s character.
Many Christians will testify that the Son changes everything. Being afraid of God suddenly vanishes into respect for God when we look into the loving eyes of the Son. Selfishness, lies and hatred all disappear when the light of Christ’s love hits our lives. Just as life on this earth requires the physical sun, eternal life requires the Son. Just as the sun brings health and beauty to our physical world, the Son brings health and healing to our souls.
“But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.” Malachi 4:2
For Son worshipers like us, that’s really good news!
©2010 Cherilyn Christen Clough
myfatherinheavenisperfect.com