Category: understanding

Polluted Hearts

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

John 10:3

But God’s strong foundation continues to stand. These words are written on the seal: “The Lord knows those who belong to him,” and “Everyone who wants to belong to the Lord must stop doing wrong.”

 

2 Timothy 2:19

Identity is necessary.  We can only prosper if we know who and exactly what we are.  This may seem basic, but it’s coming at us through a culture that is murky and foul.  The world offers up an evil concoction that pollutes and contaminates all that it can.

Our identity is exclusively based on what the Lord has done.  It is we who must ‘catch-up’.  He calls us by name, which staggers us and causes us to doubt.  Who are we, and why us?  We must deal with this ‘calling’ business– their must be some kind of mistake.

But Lord knows.  In spite of all that we know about ourselves, He entertains Himself of a more subterranean assessment of us.  He simply scoops us up, deeper and wider than we can spread out our pollution.  He picks us up beyond our ability to contaminate.  We are His, with all our foulness and evil attached.

We now have an identity.  We have become His possession.  Gummy, sticky decay and all.  We are transferred out of a poisonous and ugly situation to be transplanted into a wholesome and healing environment.  This is radical, and cannot be manipulated by our effort or control.

We find ourself to be transplanted into a good place.  And it is there where we receive our new name.  With that new name comes a new identity, and purpose.  We are no longer poisonous or toxic to others.  We cannot defile them with our concentrated evil.  Our new name begins to affect us and others.  He deals with us in a radically different manner.

He starts to lead us out by name.  This brings us a security and a contentment we have never known.  We belong to Him!  That realization is profound and staggering.  Who are we, that He should be so kind?  Our lives were embedded with evil, and darkness of every kind imaginable.  Now we are His?

He knows all that is His.  He has marked us and led us through the pollution.  We pass through the toxicity and the filth and He intends to bring us all the way out and all the way home.  We do nothing, but say ‘yes’!  It’s then we realize that we can do nothing to save ourselves.  He is quite solitary about salvation and He intends to receive eternal glory for your deliverance.

 

Sunday Photos: A Mish-Mash of Thoughts

 

I can imagine this on the walls of London's 'Underground'
Time to Decide
What a burden we carried
Depression understood

Making some sense of it
The light and the dark

The prodigal returns to his father (Rembrandt)

The Manna Test

Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 

 Exodus 16:4, NIV

 

Just imagine, for a moment, that it is raining bread outside right now!  We got to see this!  We run outside and and are pelted with rye, and caraway and pumpernickel.  Bread!  Its everywhere, all you want, just pick it up.  It piles up like a yeasty hail, and it doesn’t seem to diminish, its everywhere!  We call the kids, ‘Bring buckets, and clean garbage bags’!

God has directly intervened in the life of Israel.  He becomes the exclusive producer of manna to the children of Israel.  He decides to give, and then He pelts them with His goodness– bread, delicious bread, fresh and warm, and they say it comes from heaven!  This is the ultimate!  BREAD!  This is far beyond anything I could imagine.

But if we clear away the piles, and draw near to those whom we assume know something, we will be struck by a sense of the reality of God.  The others grab on the basic idea; but we are shaken, to the core.  We come out, clinging to a God who loves us and intensely cares for us.  ‘He is real, and He loves us!”  And all others can see– are the piles and piles of bread.

 God has done something drastic, something right  ‘on the edge of reason’.  We encounter Him, (or He encounters us) and we get involved, whether we like it or not.  The decision will be a foundational and a concrete one.  It really is much, much more than bread from heaven. But will we connect the dots?

Even though we see the supernatural bread piling up, we need to be aware we are being ‘tested’.  So much of this test, really isn’t one at all.  It’s the sixth day that catches us.  Do we, who have become dependent on this supernatural supply, trust Him to provide on the Sabbath?  Maybe He will he just ‘blink-out’ and leave us hanging?  Maybe we should gather more, before He fails us?

We have to come to this clear and classic place.  I believe it is the real starting point.  Exactly how will you accept “free bread”?  Will I honor Him through it all?  (We are being ‘tested’ folks.  We are on the ‘clock’.)  The rub comes when we just don’t see it.  We turn, not so much as to reject what is obvious, but to take on that which is authentic.  If we will just do this, we will pass the test.

Hiding From the Light

Then Jesus said to them, “Do you hide a lamp under a bowl or under a bed? No! You put the lamp on a lampstand. 

Mark 4:21

 

To hide something means you don’t want it found.  You make an effort to keep it from coming to anyone’s attention.   It’s curious though, that we would go to all this effort to light a lamp, only to turn around and find a place to hide this same lamp.

However, hiding the light doesn’t make it go away.  We do try, however.  But light comes and its effects can not be hidden.  It shines on us, illuminates us, and makes us shine.  The urge to hide light seems to be a regular occurence among us.  We want what we’ve been given to avoid detection.

Adam and Eve had this impulse to avoid detection.  It seems that it is something we do rather well, this ‘camoflage’ business.  If we would stop for a moment and think about it, it does seem ridiculous. The reality is that life has been poured into us, and foolishness should be eradicated by now.

Light simply infuses us, and we become radient by His presence.  We could try to fabricate the light, but it is His work in our hearts.  We must move beyond our reluctance and embrace this display and magnification of His presence.