Archive for Devotional
Do You Love Like God Loves? – Devotional + sermon outline
Posted by: | Commentsby Mikki Lawrence
…love one another fervently with a pure heart. 1 Peter 1:22
Let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1
If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4: 11
By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35
The fruit of the Spirit is love… Galatians 5:22
Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8
If love were always easy, then perhaps the Word wouldn’t give us so many admonitions about it. Over and over again we are told to love. Love God. Love one another. Love ourselves.
The war over love is really a war over our hearts. Many things can fill our hearts. Strife, hatred, anger, lust, greed, bitterness. The Word teaches us that whatever is in our hearts will come forward in our words and in our actions.
Romans 5:5 says that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and then goes on to remind us that God demonstrated His love for us in that WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us.
We can add fuel to the fire of love in our hearts by humbly reflecting on how Christ gave his all to show us God’s love for us. The realization that God loved us while we were completely lost in our sins, when as to yet, we had done nothing for him, yet His pure undeserved love poured out for us and gave Christ as a sacrifice because God so longed to have us, to be in relationship with us – that revelation can and should fan into flame the fire of love on our hearts.
Would you stop for a moment and think about how God gave His love for you? Would you ask the Father to blow on the embers of your heart and fan into flame His love? Would you ask Him to show you who you can love better? Would you ask Him how you can love better?
(by Eddie) Mikki’s devotional provides great seed for a sermon on love. Here is a suggested outline with the above in mind:
4 CHALLENGES OF LOVING LIKE GOD LOVES!
1. IT WON’T BE EASY
2. THE WAR OF LOVE IS WON IN THE HEART
3. LOVE KEEPS FLOWING EVEN WHEN IT’S NOT RECOGNIZED
4. LOVE IS GIVEN NEVER EARNED
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In Search of the Perfect Gift — Christmas Devotional
Posted by: | Comments(The following was written by my lovely wife, Mikki Lawrence, who is an incredible writer. I hope you enjoy it very much. Check out more of her writings at Mikki’s Journey.)
In Search of the Perfect Gift
It’s Christmas time. Time to buy gifts for those I love. So I’ve been thinking about gifts and gift-giving. I am thinking about those on my list and wishing to find the perfect gift for them.
As I think back over my years, a few “perfect” gifts stand out in my mind. I remember the year my parents gave me a birthstone ring shaped like a heart with the word love on it.
I think of one year when Eddie and I were living in Mississippi. There was a big snow and ice was on the roads, but I so wanted to go home for Christmas. That classic old song Home for Christmas haunted me. “I’ll be home for Christmas, you can count on me…” We drove from Mississippi back to north Alabama on a sheet of ice, but I had to be home! Now that was a gift of love from my husband. Needless to say, we were much younger then and maybe not as wise, but I got home for Christmas!
I remember the year my husband hid a beautiful ring in a pair of gloves. I was so discouraged over getting a pair of gloves and trying not to show it. I put the gloves aside for I had gotten more than one pair that year. Eddie kept insisting I try them on. In truth, I didn’t want to take the tags off to try them on because I was planning on taking them back asap. When I finally consented and place my hands in the gloves, there was my ring!
I also remember times when gifts made me feel unloved or misunderstood. And I remember some gifts that were just a way to X me off someone’s list of obligations. Like dishtowels. Please don’t give me dishtowels. I mean, why do women get the gifts that have to do with cleaning the house and cooking meals? I don’t mean to be ungrateful, but for me in order for a gift to be special, it needs to say you care, you know me. It doesn’t need to be expensive, but it needs to show someone cares.
I remember some Christmases that were really hard. Gifts really didn’t matter those years because the pain overshadowed everything else.
Gifts show love when they speak with understanding of our hearts. When they say, I know you and wanted to do something special for you.
When God sent his son as a sacrifice for us, his gift said he knew us. He knew more about our hearts than we ourselves did. He knew the good parts and he knew the bad parts. And he gave Jesus because he loved us so much right in the midst of our sin and imperfections.
The gift of Jesus is the gift of relationship. It is the gift that says God wants to spend all his time with us. Forever. He enjoys us. He wants us to come to his parties; the here and now parties and the future parties. Oh yes, God loves a good party; check out the story of the prodigal son.
You know, I love to give people expensive gifts. I always wish I could give those I love something they would never buy for themselves or that they were not able to buy for themselves. I can’t always do that, but when God gave Jesus, he gave the most expensive gift ever. He gave the gift we could never purchase ourselves. Jesus is a priceless gift; a gift which cannot be duplicated; a one of a kind gift.
Sometimes I have difficulty accepting an expensive gift. I feel as if I don’t deserve it. I have to humble myself to accept it. In the same way, we have to humble ourselves to receive the gift of Jesus. We don’t deserve him. When we accept his gift, we are indebted by love to forever live in light of the gift.
So as I prepare for Christmas with all its gift giving and receiving, I know that God’s gifts are the most beautiful and loving of all and I hope I will be able to give gifts this year that can somehow reflect God’s heart.
For after all, perfect gifts aren’t really things which can be bought. They are gifts of presence. Gifts of time. Gifts of intimacy. Gifts of celebration. Gifts born of relationship.
And Jesus is the perfect gift. Expensive for God to give. Humbling for me to receive. He is the gift I can continue to give to all those whom my life touches. He is the gift of time and intimacy and celebration and relationship, and the gift that always meets my needs and fulfills my deepest desires.
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Can You Identify Yourself? — devotional
Posted by: | CommentsCan You Identify Yourself?
(The following is from my wife’s blog. Mikki is a very gifted writer and always challenges us to go deeper.)
Okay, I admit it. This joke is always told about a young woman instead of a man, but I think that is gender bias so I tweaked it a bit!
Identity has become a huge concern in our world today. We have identity crises. We have identity security. We have identity theft. My only problem so far is that no one has wanted to steal my identity!
Well, seriously, every aspect of our lives requires that we identify ourselves. Whether we are traveling through an airport or checking out at Wal-Mart, we are constantly being asked to identify ourselves.
It seems that from the moment we become deeply involved in our worlds, we are always seeking to identify ourselves in some ways. Often we try to be someone we are not because someone else’s identity seems so much more desirable than our own. During our school days, we long to be in the popular crowd. We long for acceptance and often act like a chameleon so that some one will just accept us. How deceived we are for what good is acceptance when it is based on inauthenticity? Tragically, our opinions and values sometimes change moment by moment depending upon who we are with and how dominant their personality is.
Buying your clothes at Parisians, the local upscale anchor store in our mall, was a status symbol during my high school days. And buying your jeans at the “in” store in
I think of how part of the fun at Christmas for my family is the guessing of the name brand which will be in the box they open at my mother’s house. The one-up-man-ship is a joyful delight as the kids compare who got what brand name and lay claim to the imaginary planting of their flag on name brand land.
Why is it that we struggle so with our identity?Why do we so desperately need others’ acceptance in order to feel at peace with ourselves?
One of the things we learn as Christians is that being “in Christ” is supposed to lead us to being authentic. And yet, we try to make ourselves and our churches into the most acceptable, desirable models of the current times. (Don’t throw rocks at me; I do understand the need to be relevant, but increasingly I find the true need is to be real!)
The dictionary says that the meaning of “authentic” is -to establish as genuine;-to make valid;-to establish the authorship or origin.
I think of a great man I know in his eighties who is still seeking to “authenticate” himself. From his early years, his parents were unable or unwilling to validate him with his unique gifting because it was so different from their own. Here he is, an extremely gifted man, still seeking to find a place of complete peace inside his own skin. It deeply saddens me and at the same time, I find myself on the same journey.
My online university always tells me I must authenticate myself. If I am inactive for too long on the site, I am asked to reautheticate myself. At that point, I always have this inner pondering at what I am being asked to do. How do I reauthenticate myself? How do I prove who I really am?
I have a notebook on my computer desk with a 5 page list of passwords for websites and accounts. I used to keep it on a computer file but then my computer crashed! I don’t even write down the most important ones in order to “protect” myself.
And there, perhaps it is, the answer to our identify struggle. The need to protect the most intimate parts of our hearts. The parts that are too vulnerable. The parts that, if violated or invalidated, would crush our hearts.
Yet as we grow in this journey to be authentic, this journey of identity, the journey to be comfortable in our own skin, we find that this sharing of our true identity is required to live deeply. As we experience this deep level of living, deeply engaged in the hearts and lives of others, our worst fears are actualized. We are rejected. We are hurt. We are misunderstood. Our temptation to once again throw up a mask and hide returns like a roaring lion. And then we find ourselves involved in a struggle of paramount proportions. Having lived authentically, if even for a short time, ruins us for anything else. Now the shallowness doesn’t only feel empty; it feels despicable.
I’ve decided it is a set up. God sets us up. He challenges us to identify ourselves. Yes, in Christ, but on another level, as the unique person he created. Sometimes we Christians get so tangled up. Well, okay honestly, we always get tangled up. I think life is a great big journey to get untangled!
Sorry for that diversion. Back to my point. Not only are we humans who identify ourselves as being “in Christ”, but we are Christians who need to identify ourselves as humans.
The longer I live, the more I see it. God designed us as humans, not only to know Him for the hereafter, but to live in the here and now, experiencing Him and other people in our humanness.
Sometimes I feel Him saying “Would you please reauthenticate yourself?” The challenge of being true to who we are – the realization that no one else’s skin will really fit on our body – the inner knowing that we are loved by God and others for who we are. Could a God who knows all really be satisfied with relationship with us when we are less than true to who He created us to be? Could He deeply interact with us when we try to relate to Him through our facades? He, after all, is the One who really knows we are faking it.
I may have lost you on this thread of thought. I find that my writing is primarily for myself. It is my journey to authenticate. So if you think this topic is totally confusing, just love me anyway. Or not. I am getting somewhere. I am becoming. I am learning what it means to be an authentic Mikki. Not swayed by anyone else’s opinions. Experiencing what might look to be a woman balancing herself while standing on top of a ball. Teetering here and there and learning that it requires my whole self to find balance.
And finding that authenticity is a gift. A gift to others. A gift to God. A gift to ourselves. David Benner calls it the gift of being yourself.
Journey on, my fellow pilgrims. But not only for the day we find ourselves in heaven, but perhaps more importantly, for the days here on earth for those are the only days we have to influence others. One thing I have found about lost humanity is that they are seeking to fill the void inside themselves. And most people quickly reject our offer to fill it with anything less than an authentic experience. If we really expect people to desire to experience life in God, perhaps we better find out what really means ourselves and then I have this inner knowing that it will be irresistible to those who are seeking.
If it ain’t living water, don’t offer it and don’t drink it. The sad fate for all of us is to face Him one day and for Him to say “I don’t recognize you”. The time for fumbling around to guess the password will be over. Hey, I’m not even talking about salvation. I’m talking about the lost opportunity to live the life we had as an authentic follower of Christ who knows that He wants us to be an authentic one-of-a-kind human being.
Can you identify yourself?
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The 7 Ups! — sermon outline
Posted by: | CommentsThe 7 Ups!
(I received this as an email from a friend and it was one of those pass it on emails. It actually contains a good outline for a teaching, so I thought I would pass it on.Thanks to Corrine from Florida for authoring this..)
1. Wake Up !! — Decide to have a good day.
This is the day the Lord hath made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.'
Psalms 118:24
2. Dress Up !! — The best way to dress up is to put on a smile.
A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.
'The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.
Man looks at outward appearance,
but the Lord looks at the heart.'
I Samuel 16:7
3. Shut Up!! — Say nice things and learn to listen.
God gave us two ears and one mouth,
so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking.
'He who guards his lips guards his soul.'
Proverbs 13:3
4. Stand Up!! . . . for what you believe in.
Stand for something or you will fall for anything.
'Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time,
we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good…'
Galatians 6:9-10
5. Look Up !! . . to the Lord.
'I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me'.
Philippians 4:13
6. Reach Up !! . . for something higher.
'Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and lean not unto your own understanding.
In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.'
Proverbs 3:5-6
7. Lift Up !! . . your Prayers.
'Do not worry about anything; instead
PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING.'
Philippians 4:6
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In Season — Bible Devotional
Posted by: | CommentsThe following devotional was written by my wife, Mikki. It is so true and filled with meaning for us all. I trust you will enjoy it.
In Season
by Mikki Lawrence
One of the beautiful things about living in north Alabama is the fact that there are four distinct seasons. Right now everything outside is telling me that springtime has arrived this year. The dogwoods are breathtakingly beautiful. Daffodils and tulips and azaleas are blooming in all their glory. The grass is green and the air smells of honeysuckle.
Springtime is my favorite season. Bring out the short sleeves and shorts and the umbrella! Put the windows up! The ducks are quacking at my neighbor’s pond. The sun warms me as the birds sing and insects buzz. Springtime calls everything and everyone to come forth in newness. The trees and vines begin to give birth to fruit and vegetables. And I just want to drink it in and hold the season just as it is.
Springtime here in the south also brings the threat of stormy weather. Alabama has more than the normal share of tornados and thunderstorms as Alabamians live in what is referred to as tornado alley. I pondered the effects of our recent storms. Dead three limbs are lying everywhere. A few great trees have been blown over, roots and all. Springtime demands that we clean up our yards and make new efforts to kill the weeds in our lives. Plant the flowers that will last until autumn comes again. Every season seems to come with its benefits and its dangers.
I find that life also comes in seasons. Seasons of summer where the sun reigns and the heat changes all we do. Seasons of autumn bursting in color and bringing the hint of the cold which is to come. Winter blasting us with cold air and sometimes snow and ice. And then springtime. Ah, how I rejoice when winter is over for good. Blackberry winter comes and goes and then I can finally say “Springtime is here!”
Springtime is a beautiful picture of hope. Springtime says to me that no matter how cold, how bitter, how dead the season is that I have been living in, it will end. Life will burst forth again. Things will become green and tender again. Fruitfulness will return. And I will grow. I will be stronger than I was before the heat of summer scorched me. I will come forth will more strength and new life than I had before the autumn began to shorten my season of fruitfulness. And I find that winter has killed some of the blights of my soul.
What can we learn from the seasons that will help us become better, stronger, more godly?
1. The difficult seasons will come to an end.
2. God is working in each season of our lives to prepare us to bring forth a lot of fruit. Even though the pruning is painful, the results are worth the pain.
3. Other people are in a “season” also and those who are in winter need our encouragement. Encouragement is tangible. Whether it be by touch, words, gifts, etc., encouragement is a tangible commodity.
4. As a disciple of Christ, I am to offer tangible encouragement to others as I recognize the season they are in.
Isaiah 50:4
The Lord God has given Me the tongue of a disciple and of one who is taught, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He wakens Me morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as a disciple, as one who is taught. Amplified
It is always “in Season” to speak words of encouragement. God will give us the tongue of a disciple, a follower of Christ, which will speak words in season to those who are weary. As we awaken every day, if we will tune our ears to heaven, he will teach us how to speak words to others.
I find the law of sowing and reaping works with our words just as it works in the natural seasons of the earth.
Proverbs 15:23 A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is! NKJV
I find joy in the answer of my mouth as I speak words “in season”.
So, listen up! He is awakening each of us this morning and every morning to hear what he wants to say to the weary and tired around us. Words of encouragement are “is season”.
The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also..
—Harriet Ann Jacob
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Feel the Love — Devotional
Posted by: | CommentsThe following is a devotional posting from my wife, Mikki Lawrence. It is a really good read concerning helping hurting people.
Feel the Love
For several months now, I have been pondering the power of empathy. It seems there is quite a bit of varying opinions on what the difference is between sympathy and empathy. So for the purpose of being sure we are on the same page for this topic today, I want to begin by sharing what I believe and understand is the definition of sympathy and empathy, at least for me.
Sympathy and empathy both have the Greek word “path” in them so they both relate to feeling. Sympathy speaks of how we can imagine the feelings of others. We sympathize when a person loses someone they love to death or divorce. We sympathize when someone has cancer. We can imagine, whether or not we have experienced it, how painful a situation might be. “Sym” is the prefix which means “with”; we feel with someone else. We can sympathize without saying a word, perhaps with a hug or caring look. When we sympathize with someone else, we agree that they should feel bad.
Empathy, on the other hand, is when we feel “into” their pain. In the current usage of the word empathy, as opposed to the historical meaning – for you etymologist types, empathy is superior to sympathy and is “other-focused”. Empathy is deeper than sympathy and not only involves the understanding of a person’s feelings but does something to lessen the pain. When we empathize with someone else, we don’t just agree that they should feel badly in their current situation, we enter into their feelings and understand their feelings or thoughts. We can feel their pain, whether or not we have experienced the same pain.
To sympathize is to give your handkerchief to someone who is crying. To empathize is to cry with them.
In Brazil there is a saying that if you’re stuck in a hole, a sympathetic person will get into the hole with you, and the empathic person will give you a rope so you can get out of the hole.
To empathize is to acknowledge another’s pain AND to help them through it.
This is an important topic for me for two reasons. One is I experienced both sympathy and empathy during this last year. Empathy is definitely superior. Two, because I had a dream where I was teaching the difference between the two, complete with points and illustrations. Wish I’d gotten up and written that down!
The purpose of my writing today is to encourage us all to go beyond sympathy in our relationship with people who are hurting and to begin to express empathy.. Now I do understand that we cannot personally be empathetic with large numbers of people all at the same time so this is not supposed to be a guilt trip. But there are some people who cross out lives’ paths that we need to avail ourselves to in the power of empathy.
When is the last time you personally expressed empathy to another? The last time you gave of your heart, your words, your time in order to give another a “rope” to help them get out of the hole?
I thought of Jesus this morning as I thought of the power of empathy. In the travels of a Jewish person of his day, they would go all the way around Samaria instead of taking the short route through Samaria because they considered the Samaritans half-breeds and unworthy of their association with them. Yet Jesus told his disciples that he “needed” to go through Samaria . He needed to give a “rope” to a woman there.
Jairus came to Jesus begging for the life of his daughter. In the middle of this exchange, a woman touched Jesus believing that she would be well if she could just touch his clothes. She was healed and then Jesus stopped and ministered to her some more. Shortly some people came and told Jairus not to trouble Jesus any more because his daughter was, in fact, dead already. But Jesus went to Jairus home and raised his daughter from the dead and then told the people to feed her.. He gave Jairus a “rope”.
When multitudes of people followed Jesus into a “deserted” place to hear his teaching, Jesus was moved with empathy for them and taught them and then fed them by multiplying the bread and fish. He gave them a “rope”.
When Peter, stepping out onto the sea to walk to Jesus, began to be afraid and sink, Jesus reached out and caught him. He gave Peter a “rope”.
When Lazarus died, Jesus cried bitterly with Lazarus’ sister Mary and then he raised Lazarus from the dead, giving Mary and Martha a “rope”.
Sometimes Jesus offered a rope to people and they did not take it. Even though he knew ahead of time that they would refuse his offer, he offered anyway.
And on the cross, Jesus not only sympathized with us because of our sin, he empathized with us and gave us all a “rope” even though it cost him a season of separation from God, physical trauma and pain, emotional pain, and spiritual pain as he literally took our sin into his physical, emotional, mental body.
As I thought back about the last year, I thought of those who sympathized with me. I remember one fellow minister who told me that he felt sorry for me. It really angered me. Something was wrong with his response. Because of his relationship with me, he should have offered empathy, but he did not. He sympathized about my pain, but he did not empathize with me.
I remember returning home from a two-week intensive counseling experience. I was distraught as I thought about stepping back into a stormy situation. I walked into my house to find that some friends had cleaned my house, redecorated some rooms, and added special touches here and there. On my kitchen table was a huge, huge homemade card that said in big letters, “Feel the love” and inside were personal notes. I was overwhelmed with tears and comfort and empathy. They gave me a “rope”.
And there were many others who offered a "rope" to me during this season. Some friends brought me chocolates and flowers.
One beautiful rope was offered by my daughter who told me I did not have to be strong for her. I cried, and she held me.
I believe more than ever that we in the Body of Christ must do more than sympathize with those who are hurting, whether it be those who don’t know Christ at all or those who do know Him. We must empathize.
For after all, if we are part of His body and He feels the pain of others, should we not also feel that pain? Sometimes we say that we are His hands extended. We love the sound of those words. But perhaps we should look at our hands for rope-burn.
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Samaritan Grace — Devotional
Posted by: | CommentsThis is based on the story Jesus shared about the Samaritan who rescued the guy who had been robbed and beaten and left for dead.
What a powerful story it is! What makes it more compelling is the fact that Jesus awarded the starring role to a Samaritan. This was hard to swallow for his Jewish audience since the feelings toward the Samaritans ran so deep and were so critical.
We will pick up at verse 30 of Luke 10.
Luke 10:30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. (The next verses go on to describe how the Samaritan came along and cared for him and we will address this in a following post).
Jesus told this story in response to a lawyer’s question as to who their neighbor was. We are not told anything particular about the man beaten other than he was in route from Jerusalem to Jericho. From this we can safely assume he was a Jewish man. While on his journey, he was attacked by a bunch of thugs.
-They stripped him naked
-They wounded him
-They left him to die
This is what thieves and thugs do. In one way or another, we all face occasions when we are confronted by thieves who desire to take what we have.
To spiritualize it, there is an enemy of our souls and he has cohorts who do his biddling. Just as the thieves planned their attack on the unwary traveler, these spiritual thieves do likewise. And there are also times when we make it easier for these thieves. We travel in dangerous territory. We take a route we should not take. At other times, we are right where we are supposed to be when the attack is sprung. In either case, the wounding is real.
When the Samaritan came along, he did not decide on whether or not to help the guy based on how the man ended up in the ditch. The story is about the heart of the Samaritan.
Note again, that the thieves stripped Him This is the nature of the thief. To strip us. To unclothe us. To expose us. He revels in leaving us exposed for the world to see. Jesus was hung naked between two thieves. He became our sin. He took upon himself all that sin would bring on us.
The enemy’s purpose is to steal our covering from us.
-He wants to take a husband away from a wife or vice versa
-He wants to take a child away from a parent
-He wants to take us away from a spiritual father or mother
-He wants to take a pastor away from his flock
He strips us of our covering. The result – we are left unprotected from the elements. Parts of our lives that we would desire to remain private are put on public display. In every such situation, this exposure takes place because the person is in the enemy’s territory.
Now there are usually two reasons that this would take place. The first is the person beaten is in the dark place where he should not be. The second is that he is walking through the shadows as he is walking God’s path. The valley of the shadow of death so to speak. There have been times I have been beaten for each of these reasons, and most likely, so have you.
However, regardless of the reason behind the "Why it happened?" the man was wounded and needed help. Those who came aware of his situation had a choice to make. Would they become involved or not? Their decision was not based on why the man was there, but what they were going to do since he was there. We have a subtle way of making something inconvenient into something we consider a compromise.
Jesus told of two religious men who came by and decided not to help the hurting man. One was a priest. The priest were very concerned about personal holiness and being separated from anyone unclean. He served God. Yet it is obvious in the story Jesus tells that his intention was to reveal how the priesthood was missing the mark if they were not serving God in a way that woud help their fellow man.
In today’s culture, the Christian community rants and raves about how animals are given more rights and protection that human beings, particularly the unborn. We should be angered by this. Jesus also knew that even the Law gave men the license to get an ox out of the ditch when it otherwise might be unholy to do so on the Sabbath. Now there was a man, a human being, a person. A person with feelings and a future. A person who would gladly do it differently if he could take the trip over. A person who is hurting and bleeding and has suffered loss and in need of help.
His groans went unanswered by the priest who was likely on his way to "Church" to serve God. Doubtless when he arrived to do his temple service, he prayed his prayers, he lifted his hands, he made his offering to the Lord, he ministered to the other people who came where he was and could see him in his official role as priest. Yet, behind him in his journey earlier in the day, lay a man half dead who was severly wounded. He made the trade off because he may not have wanted to be late for "church" or he did not want to become unclean by touching this dirty person. His other responsibilities and plans where far more public and too important for him to risk loss by getting in the ditch and helping the wounded man. He saw the man and moved to the other side of the ditch in order to avoid a beckoning finger that might have bid him to come help. He dared not risk the accusing fingers of his religious leader buddies who would see him as engaging in an unclean activity by helping the man in the ditch. They all thought, "Leave him there; he got what he deserves for going through that area when he did."
Likewise the Levite came through. of course, the Levite was also from the priestly tribe of Levi. These guys were also students of the Law, the Word of God. This one came and saw and then passed by.We all choose to walk on one side of the road or the other. One side is filled with hurting and wounded people that will require sacrifice out of us. The other is away from the hurt on the way to "serve" God.
This Levite may have been on his way to teach a Bible class. He certainly would have been capable of it. It was his Levitical heritage. Yet, he became aware of the need of a wounded man, thought briefly about it and took off. He may have done a Bible study later that day on "loving your neighbor."
Since I am in a season of pruning and recovery, I am questioning a whole lot of what I have done and what I see done in the church today. It sure seems that like the religious leaders of Jesus time, we also can caught up in doing things only for the public value they offer. We will help if we can mileage out of it. Will it help our ministry grow by telling how many people we help? Will it make us look really in touch with God if we put it in the paper? We have big celebrations because we decided to do something that Jesus said we are to do all the time. We need a big SPANK on our butts instead of a big PAT on our backs. We are fooling ourselves when we only do things to be seen among men. I could have avoided the ditch had I chosen not to be a hypocrite and a betrayer. The enemy knows if he can get our feet to go where they should not go, he can find plently of hands to strip us down and wound us and leave us for dead.
Question–In the eyes of God, will the Priest and Levite carry blame for their lack of response? We all need to beware! There are times, we will hear a cry. We will be positioned to see something God wants us to see. What will we do? I know of 27 orphans in a building in Honduras who need help right now. What will I do? I know there are many cries, but I am speaking about those that God positions you to hear and you know it. You hear, you come and you look and then you….
There are people all around hurting and wounded. The thieves work hard to expose them, strip them, beat them and leave them for dead. The goal of the enemy is for us all to die in a ditch somewhere—-or to live on the "sterile" side of the road serving God and busy with church stuff.
Jesus was willing to lay aside all his reputation to come get in the ditch with us. I will follow with further posts on this powerful story Jesus told. No, I am not being cynical. I am just throwing some truth around.
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The Grace Vision — Devotional
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I have been thinking a lot about vision lately because people have been asking me the question, "What is your vision?" I have determined to stay away from pat answers and cliches that funnel out the mouth without ever fostering the attention of the mind. However, it is important to address the thinking process from the pattern of Jesus. After all, He’s the captain of the ship. Take a few steps with me:
What did Jesus teach about vision?
What did the early church teach about vision?
What do people mean today when they talk about your "vision"?
For the sake of being properly focused, leave the Old Testament out of it for now. There goes the Proverbs 29:18 (a great scripture) which we pull out like a six-shooter and fire away at the mere mention of the word vision. Maybe we do this because it seems to align with what we think about vision instead of what Jesus taught about vision.
If we mean by "vision" what God has given the church to do, then we all have the same vision, right? If we mean by "vision" how to carry out what God has given us all to do, then we are thinking of something more methodical in nature.
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The Grace that Validates — Devotional
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The Grace of God is a validator in our lives. Jesus was full of grace and he validated people in need of mercy and grace. He touched them in a way that their human dignity was restored and they realized they had value. They always sensed that they mattered to him and His Father. My wife wrote a journal in her blog earlier today and I asked her if I could include it in mine. It is such a beautifully and powerfully written piece. Be prepared to be blessed as you read it.
The Validation of A Human Heart
by Mikki Lawrence
http://www.MikkBlogs.com
What does it mean for someone to validate your heart?
I want to define “heart” as the part of us we might call our soul. Our soul is often defined as our mind, will, and emotions. Here is more of what the dictionary renders as a definition of soul:
the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body; the emotional part of human nature; the seat of the feelings or sentiments; the animating principle; the essential element or part of something
So what I am asking you is, “What does it mean for someone to give value to your feelings, thoughts, and actions?”
Value – relative worth, merit, or importance
I looked the word “validate” up in the dictionary and found this definition:
to make valid; substantiate; confirm
I was thinking recently of how someone had deeply validated my heart and the unexpected way that those simple words had impacted me. I realized that I had a hunger to be validated – substantiated – confirmed in my feelings, thoughts, and actions. As I meditated on this, I had a subtle feeling that God was teaching me, not only about myself, but about humanity as a whole.
I guess we all want to believe that somehow we are different from everyone else in significant ways and that our thoughts, feelings, and actions are somehow mystical and can only be opened with some magical key. And of course, we are all unique in many ways so I am not saying that we are all cookie cutter images of one another. However, I do see that there is a humanness that is a basic design within each of us and we all need much the same things.
I just finished reading a book about Adult Children of Alcoholics, of which I am one. I was taken aback to find that in a list of characteristics of ACoA, I had most of them. And I was faced with this reality – I am not a lot different from most of humanity. Any little girl placed in similar circumstances as mine will develop very similar struggles as mine because we are all human.
In the last few months, I have come to see that in my particular “stream” (and please forgive my religious terminology) of Christianity, we have perhaps overemphasized our being made in the image of God (stay with me – don’t jump out yet!) and underemphasized our humanness. As a matter of fact, our humanness was so important, that Jesus laid aside his divinity and took on our humanness. I feel we have too quickly gone past that.
Yes, we are created in God’s image and are to be holy as He is, but we are also 100% human – by His own design!
As we teach about Jesus and think about his earthly ministry, we tend to make him 100% God and maybe 10% human, but that is not what the scripture teaches. He was the God-man. He laid aside divinity to walk in his humanness.
As I read Matthew 9 last week, I asked God to show me the reality of how Jesus really ministered and lived. I tried as best I could to take off my religious mindsets and look at this scripture with new eyes.
This is what I found:
Jesus encountered the paralytic. The FIRST thing Jesus said to him was, “Son, be of good cheer…” Please don’t miss this! Jesus was validating the paralytic’s heart! He called him “son”. To me this is almost like when I called a young girl I was ministering to last week, “Sweetheart”. It was tender.. It was non-religious. It was validating.
Then, Jesus said, “Cheer up”. Now maybe you will disagree with me but it seems to me that Jesus was more concerned with validating the paralytic’s heart than he was with healing him physically. He was healing him emotionally. Think of how much pain and discouragement the paralytic must have had throughout the years! Think of the judgment and condemnation he had endured from the religious crowd who said he was paralyzed because of sin!
I find the same thing later in the chapter as the woman with the issue of blood came to Jesus. Yes, she was desperate for physical healing, but can you imagine her emotional state after 12 years of sickness. Luke 8 tells us that she had spent all her livelihood on doctors and could not be healed by any. Mark 5 says that she had SUFFERED many things from many physicians and was not better but worse. Can you imagine her hopelessness? Yet something in the ministry of Jesus was beginning to awaken hope in her heart again! She said, “If only I can touch his clothes, I can be well.” I imagine she didn’t have a lot of physical strength left. It must have taken everything within her to get to where Jesus was. But before she took that first step, something had begun to happen in her heart.
Jesus again said, “Cheer up, daughter.” Why would Jesus say, “Cheer up” to a woman whom had just gotten healed after 12 years of sickness? I wonder if somehow he was as concerned about her “heart” as he was her “body”.
And again, look at how he spoke to her, “Daughter”. It was endearing, tender, compassionate.
I am so grieved as I think of how parts of the “Church” have used God’s Word to hurt God’s children. We have told them that if they have enough faith they can be healed – so the implication is that if you are not healed, it is your fault. We have told them that others can have enough faith for them to be healed which implies their lack of healing is our fault. Must make God want to curse! Okay, not really, don’t throw anything at me. It must make God very angry! How about that?
We have used these scriptures to make a formula for healing ministries. You know, I think God hates man-made formulas! But we love them! We love to be able to package God into a neat package, but have you noticed that He just won’t get into those packages no matter how we wish He would? We must admit that healing just doesn’t consistently work according to our formulas. Yes, there are principles we can draw, but don’t you think we go off the deep end sometimes with our list of principles? We teach them to people and when our magical formulas don’t work, they are hurt and disillusioned just as the woman with the issue of blood SUFFERED many things of many doctors, people today SUFFER many things from many Christians as we try to make God jump through our hoops and He says, “Forget it! I won’t perform for you.”
It is certainly not that God doesn’t want people to be healed. That is the beautiful message of the cross. God wants us to be healed in every way. He has given His very best so that we might have that kind of complete healing, but we are so pathetic in our efforts to represent God to lost humanity! We represent Him as 100% God, but we forget to represent Him as Jesus – 100% human.
The 100% humanness of Jesus causes people to connect their hearts with God’s. The misunderstanding of his 100% Godness keeps people away. They wouldn’t stay away if they could see God’s heart, but our fears of God in His holiness and power cause us to stay at arm’s length. But when we see Jesus in his 100% humanness and 100% Godness, it makes a bridge in our hearts to cross over from our hearts to God’s.
But we Christians have often blown up the bridge. We wouldn’t admit it, but we have. We have blown up the bridge that God built because we can’t conceptually understand how God could build this bridge and it would have to strength to span an uncrossable river from Him to us. So we totally mess up our explanations of the bridge as we try to reach lost humanity.
Last week, I met a young girl who is 27 years old and an alcoholic. I spent 3 ½ hours with her and listened to her story. I was amazed at how much more I could “hear” than I could have heard a few months ago before my world SUFFERED many things of many people.
I listened as she described herself and I understood. I understood her because in some ways, I was her. Human. The same struggles.
And I knew God was asking me to validate her heart. I listened. I am sick of myself when I see how I have been so quick to give everyone answers for their problems. How many times do they just want us to listen? We really don’t have to have all the answers, but we really do have to care. And Christianity is nothing – it is not appealing to lost humanity – without God’s heart. I listened. I listened to her heart. I cried with her. I held her.
Then I validated her. I validated her struggles. I had compassion. I really did. My heart broke as I heard how many times she had been wounded. No wonder she was an alcoholic!
I told her I’d take her to AA. I didn’t offer her deliverance ministry. It was not appropriate! She needed love at the time, not deliverance. My heavens, how often have we rushed in with our quick and easy answers while God cried as we further damaged someone’s heart? I am not against deliverance ministry. It is important. But people, there is no magical formula to set people free. We have to love others before they can “hear” anything we have to say. It is a much quicker fix if we can just get them “delivered” and there were certainly times when Jesus “delivered” people. But have you ever heard that true adage, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care?” It is so true!
I asked her if I could pray for her. I just intended to pray a really short non-religious prayer for her as within me I was thinking, “God, I am overwhelmed. I really don’t know how to help this girl. She has many serious issues. Does she need detox? Rehab?” She was drinking to keep herself from shaking and throwing up because she is severely addicted. She said, “Well, wait until I finish drinking because you shouldn’t pray while I am drinking.” I assured her that God was not worried about her drinking while I was praying. He was concerned about the process she was beginning. I am becoming very non-religious. As one of my friends said, I might need to have a warning label on my forehead right now.
This young girl, someone’s daughter, became my daughter as I took on her heart and said as with my actions, “I will care about you!” She collapsed into my arms, sobbing uncontrollably, as she told me how many times she had walked up to the doors where the AA meeting would be held that night and was unable to go in because she was ALONE.
So tonight, I will attend my first AA meeting with my young friend. And maybe, I will be more like Christ than I have before. I will be more human. I will be a type of Jesus with skin on.
I know it is a set-up. God loves to set us up! I will be required to face many of my own memories from my past as I walk with this “daughter” in her journey. No accident here. And how ironic is it that my grad class I began yesterday is “Addiction Counseling”.
And God heals my heart as I hold someone else’s heart in my hands. I say with my actions and with my words, “I validate your heart. You are too important to God and to me to remain in this condition. You have a destiny.”
I saw hope awaken in this young girl’s eyes. Then Sunday, I shared about her at church. Afterwards, she came up to speak to me. I didn’t recognize her. She was dressed and clean and had on makeup and she wasn’t drunk. Oh my goodness, I didn’t know she was there. Now, I didn’t share her name or any detail which could identify her, but I shared her story as I asked God’s people to get real. I was horrified. Would she be offended? I said, “I am so sorry. I wouldn’t have shared if I had known you were here.” She looked at me and said, “It is okay. I almost came forward and said, It is me.” And later she told me something that struck deep within me. She said, “I felt like you were proud of me.” Maybe I was getting this thing right. I was speaking life to her by saying, “This young girl is doing something very difficult, and I believe in her.” She “got” my validation. And she told me that her live-in boyfriend who came with her had, as he listened to me share about her heart, “got” it, too. He had begun to move past his own struggles and see her heart as he heard it described by a stranger.
And she wants to bring all her “friends” to our church. She called me yesterday and asked me to talk to another one of her friends on the phone. The friend was hesitant. I could hear their exchange on the other end of the phone. She asked the “friend” if she would come with her to our church next Sunday. I couldn’t help but smile as she tried to explain, “It’s not exactly like AA (her friend had been) and it’s not really like church. You can wear your blue jeans.”
Maybe we are moving toward getting it right. God help us and guide us as we learn to hold the world’s hearts in our hands, tenderly, with compassion and understanding, knowing they are just like us. Human. Humans who need to find the Jesus bridge to God. Humans who need for us to bridge them to Jesus. And may we learn to validate their hearts as Jesus validated the hearts of hurting people whom he encountered day by day.
Value – relative worth, merit, or importance
Validate – to make valid; substantiate; confirm
You have the power to validate the hearts of those around you and lead them in a pathway that will bring life and healing to them. Will you?
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