Mercy received begets mercy given

"Set the mercy seat on top of the ark 

and put the testimony that I will give you into the ark. 

I will meet with you there 

above the mercy seat, 

between the two cherubim 

that are over the ark of the testimony; 

I will speak with you from there 

about all that I command you 

regarding the Israelites.

Put the bread of the Presence 

on the table before Me at all times.”

Exodus 25:21-22, 30

God meets with us on the mercy seat.  

How sweet is that?  His words are from the seat of mercy, though His heart and treasure of life is in the testimony inside the ark, yet He meets to deal with us not from rules but from mercy. 

He is not wanting to give us rules for the sake of giving rules (even if the rules bring us life), but He wants to approach us from a place of mercy as He explains the commands that lead to our life in abundance, because He knows that we are so resistant to the Words of life.  

He meets us in mercy because He is willing to put in the effort of working through our resistance.  

If He does that for us, and we see that going on, how can we not do that for others?  To work through their resistance with mercy, patience and kindness.  Yet most of us usually give up on difficult people who don't listen to us or who go against us or rub us the wrong way, but if we know the mercy we have been given we would not withhold that same mercy towards others who are difficult just like us.  We, too, would work through that mess in order to bring them life but work through the mess with mercy.  Mercy means forgiveness, which means that when we work through the mess of others we take hits, painful hits to our pride and our sense of self-value, and we let them do wrong to us if and only if it means we are having mercy on them.  We don't let them walk all over us, because that is called self-pity, but to have mercy means we take hits that we don't deserve and we humbly acknowledge that our very own Savior did this for us too.  The seat of mercy is an attribute of God, which means that the way of mercy is the way to life, because if God does it we should too.  He is perfect in all of His ways. 

He has the right to punish us for not following His commands, yet His commands are also from mercy and not from rules.  So even when we know we have the right to be upset or to get angry at someone for wrongfully treating us, God shows us that mercy is the right we should choose over getting justice.  Because that is what He chose when dealing with us!  That is what He continues to choose when dealing with us, and I thank God for that!  I never want God to deal with me according to the standard of what is just because I would be in Hell then!  I want Him to deal with me from mercy.  If I want that from Him then that means I acknowledge that He wants that from me too when I deal with others.  

This just struck me, because God is telling the Israelites to build this ark, and it characterizes His very own presence with them.  This display is still how God works today!  

God still speaks to us from the seat of mercy.  

Yet how many of us show mercy to those who resist us?  The world operates differently.  Usually when someone rejects us we reject them.  But God sits on a seat of mercy and when we reject Him He is merciful not to give us rejection in return!  The way we treat those who reject us will show us whether or not we have truly come to believe in the God of mercy.  

If God has forgiven you for a debt of 2 million wrongs, and your fellow person has a debt of 4 wrongs done against you--how absurd is it to ask for their repayment to you in full justice when you yourself have been forgiven 2 million wrongs?  It would not make sense.  It only means you have not truly come to see the reality of how much God has forgiven you for.  

“Then Peter came to Him and said, 

“Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? ” 

“I tell you, not as many as seven,” 

Jesus said to him, 

“but 70 times seven. 

For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. 

When he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before him. 

Since he had no way to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt. 

“At this, the slave fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything! ’ 

Then the master of that slave had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan. 

"But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. 

He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, 

‘Pay what you owe! ’ 

“At this, his fellow slave fell down and began begging him, 

‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 

But he wasn’t willing. 

On the contrary, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. 

When the other slaves saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. 

"Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, 

'You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you? ’ 

And his master got angry and handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. 

So My heavenly Father will also do to you 

if each of you does not forgive his brother 

from his heart.”

Matthew 18:21-35

That last part: "if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart" is so real.  It's not just the words or the facial expressions of forgiving but it's forgiving from the heart!  Is that even possible? No.  It's impossible to forgive from the heart, because we have no power to do this.  We need the power of God to forgive.  And without God's help to forgive we will not be able to forgive from the heart and will end up being unforgiven by God!  

It is a desperate and utter cry of helplessness!  We need God.  We cannot even do what we need to do without His help!  Yet this parable is not about being able to forgive someone so that we too can be forgiven, but this parable is about showing us how our un-forgiveness toward another indicates a disconnect with our forgiveness from God.  If we find in our lives a person that we cannot forgive then this parable is speaking into that as an indication that we have rejected the forgiveness of God for our sins!  I shudder at the thought that I would reject God's mercy for the forgiveness of my wrongs done against Him and His authority.

This is not so much about forgiving someone as it is about our own sins having been forgiven!  Have you been forgiven?  

If so, you would not withhold forgiveness from another who owes you much less!  It would be ludicrous!  

May God soften our hearts and bring us to the reality of who we are and of how much we have been forgiven!  He sits on the throne of mercy, and Christ on Him and our inheritance is to sit on the seat of Christ, which is the seat of mercy.  

“The victor: I will give him the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also won the victory and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

Revelation 3:21

We are being shaped into the victor everyday and with every person we meet.  The victor is the one who shows mercy because mercy has first been given to them by God.  

Jmegrey

The pattern of fear

Fear is strong.  

Strong enough to bend our wills. 

“Moses responded to the people, 

"Don’t be afraid, 

for God has come to test you, 

so that you will fear Him 

and will not sin.”

Exodus 20:20

Our usual approach is to skip the "fear God" part and focus on the sin we are trying not to do. 

We try to resist temptation or we try to practice self control so that...SO THAT... The product is no sin.  

Our approach is all wrong and it's no wonder we fail time and time again.  The pattern we use is not the pattern we were given by God!  Only His way will give us the result we are seeking. 

So what is His way?

Shouldn't we stop sinning? 

I mean, obviously sin is bad and when we sin we are doing something that goes against God's will. 

But when have you ever stopped doing something you really wanted just by hearing or reading the words "stop it."

Those words are weak and powerless without authority behind them.  

You can hear "stop it" or even "do this good thing" a million times and even concede that stopping or doing something would be good, but if those words do not come from a place of authority then they will not affect your will to obey. 

God gives us the pattern we need to be able to stop sinning.  This pattern is not in the words "stop it" but rather in the pattern of who we are giving the power to.  The more powerful a person is the more of an impact they will have on us.  For example, if a man with a gun walked into my house and pointed it at my face, I see that he has the power to kill me and I will stop willingly and do whatever he says in order to save my life because he has the power to take it!  So if he says to get on my knees and close my eyes...I will willingly get on my knees and close my eyes!  However, if my brother walked into the house and simply told me to get on my knees and close my eyes I would ask why?  And if his reason was not good enough I would not, because I know that if I don't do what he says there's really no harm (that I can see) to me.  Because to me, he is powerless in the sense that I know he wouldn't take my life if I didn't listen.  But a man with a gun would take my life if I didn't listen so I listen.  

Fear is more powerful than reason. 

The pattern God gives us is the pattern of fear not of reason or understanding.  Those are all handmaidens to the pattern of fear.  Reason and understanding are useful only if they lead us to practice a right pattern of fearing of God.  This patterning of fear is crucial in cultivating our right approach to God.  It is not because of sin that we cannot approach God since Christ died to take that away (and in the Old Testament God had Christ in mind when He directed the people to offer the life and blood of animals as a representative of what only Christ could and would fully do), but it is because of the one we give the most power to, the one we fear most will have the most power over our wills.  In the garden, Eve had received a command from God, the figure of authority in her life, but then the serpent came along and made her question God's power by telling her that if she disobeyed what He said she wouldn't really die.  The serpent was trying to convince Eve that there was nothing to fear in what God said.  Removing the fear removes the power and a powerless God cannot protect.  The moment Eve stopped fearing God was the moment She willingly stepped out from under a his protection and the devil made his move.  Her actions not only killed her but killed her other half, Adam, too.  Because sin is never isolated, it is a poison that affects everything and everyone as yeast does in a batch of dough.  It doesn't matter who sinned first, because all it takes is one...and everyone and everything is affected...the entire world was affected by the sin of one.  

God told Moses to tell the people:

"Don’t be afraid, 

for God has come to test you, 

so that you will fear Him 

and will not sin.””

Exodus 20:20

The test will come again

The test of who holds the power to kill you.  Having a fear of God is life giving because He loves you, and the power He wields is for your protection and not to harm you.  However, it is power nonetheless.  The greater power will have the greatest authority over you will.  This means knowing who is more of a threat to your life is important.  Are you obeying the one with more power or the one with less power, because in the end there is only one power who will be God.  The one with the all the power is to be obeyed and feared, not like a brother who walks into the room and tells you to do something but like a man with a gun aiming it at your face.  God is the one with the power to truly kill, yet when we disobey Him it's because we don't fear Him the way we should!  We treat him like some Joe shmo who simply walked into the room handing out flowers and hugs, so if we happen to feel like we are in the mood for his words we will listen, but there's no real fear in that we must listen.  When our fear is displaced our lives are in danger.  

"and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Matthew 10:28 

The reason we are called to fear God is because God is powerful and can save us from all harm, but we remove ourselves from His protection when our fear of Him is displaced by a fear of something else: fear of missing out, fear of losing out, fear of running out, fear of not being liked, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of relationships, fear of getting fat, fear of becoming homeless, fear of being ridiculed, fear of getting old, fear of being seen a certain way, and all those other subtle fears that masquerade as "reasonings".  

We don't need more reasons to obey God.  

We need more fear. 

God has called us to work on our pattern and approach to what we truly fear.  

"Don’t be afraid,"

--> but we are so we need help in the area of fear. 

"for God has come to test you,"

--> God helps us by coming to us and testing us, which is the same as training us so it's like we take multiple exams in order to increase in the knowledge of Him.  We may fail at one, but having failed the first helps us spot our mistakes so that the next exam we might do better.  And from there we take the exam again, and spot another different mistake and are able to gain correction for the next one.   Each exam is bringing us to the truth about who is the one with the most power.  These exams come in the form of fears.  All day long there is a world of fear taking place, and we are learning that each one is an empty threat the more we face them that are not God.  We are standing before our fears with their guns pointed straight at our faces, but they are not God and the only way to know who is more powerful is to wait for those fears to pull the trigger.  Bam.  

And nothing.  

"so that you will fear Him"

--> Once the trigger of our fears is pulled straight at our faces, we can see that they were indeed powerless.  And God will gain the glory for being the truly more powerful one.  So that the next fear that comes around we can stand there a little less anxious than the first time we stood before a fear that was not God and BAM! 

Another fear bites the dust. 

This is the pattern God gave to us through Moses.

-->"and will not sin.”

Jmegrey 

"Tiny Little Stabs"

"Tiny Little Stabs"

Ever seen the face of a friend 

As it changed into something else?

Now no longer what it had been,

Becomes a tiny little stab within.

The subtle move feels like surprise,

Though you knew it could take place

But in a moment, and on their face

It's a tiny little stab within. 

What once was strong and bright as day,

What once took those clouds away, 

Has now drifted and gone astray. 

Leaving a tiny little stab within

Oh to leave and protect yourself!

Why stay if this is how it will be?

These tiny stabs they may not kill,

But why stay to wait and see? 

Another tiny little stab within. 

The pain of change is a bloody mess,

These tiny stabs all over my dress,

One wonders why go through such stress

Until one day you hear them confess,

Apologies and thankfulness 

Eyes filled with tears 

The lost is found, 

Stay because you know they're bound,

The tiny little stab within, 

Are nails on the cross to Him. 

By Jmegrey 

"But He was pierced 

because of our transgressions, 

crushed because of our iniquities; 

punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds."

-Isaiah 53:5

When the past comes back!

Exodus 13-15

"I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. 

Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, 

and the Egyptians will know 

that I am Yahweh.” 

So the Israelites did this.”

Exodus 14:4

God intentionally used the enemy as the means of revealing something to His people.  

I repeat, God used the enemy as a means of revealing Himself and His power and His glory and His awesomeness to His people.  The Israelites had been oppressed for 430 years!  Oppression means that these Egyptians made them work, work, work to gain and earn their meager comforts, which never lasted very long.  They rarely got a moment to enjoy and rest in life when they were under the oppression by their enemies. Life was not good when they remembered their enemies, yet here they are again!  Their enemies are showing up, and they are probably being reminded of the life they suffered under the oppression of their slave drivers!  Yet it says....God was using the faces of their enemies to show up again because this time....THIS TIME it was different.  

Same enemies, same oppressors, same faces, but this time God was using them as a means of showing His people that the memories they had of them were to be redeemed, renewed, rewired and remade to now fear God.  It was those embedded memories and experiences of oppression and pain that God was wiping out of His people by using them again to show up so that God could prove that they no longer had a power over them! 

I imagined my own struggles and bondages to be in pursuit of me when I walk away from them, how they look so soon to be upon me again, taking me back into bondage, and my heart becomes so hardened and afraid.  I become stricken with fear and doubt because those faces are the faces of what once was killing me.  The faces of my struggles are the faces of my enemies, and in war the enemy is the one trying to kill you.  So it seems very counterintuitive to let it come close!  But God reminds us that in order to show us He is greater He will use the faces of those we once considered an enemy to approach us, but this time it won't be to take us back into bondage.  This time it will be God on our side showing us that what we once feared is no longer to be feared because God is the one using our enemies' faces as friendly rather than fearful.  Just as a Father would show his child there is nothing under the bed by first going under the bed himself and then directing his child to look and do the same so that what once haunted and scared him can be exposed as the empty threat it really is.  God uses our past enemies and struggles to confront us again until we see them for what they truly are: threats in our minds that need to be untangled and renewed so that we fear God alone.  

“But Moses said to the people, 

“Don’t be afraid. 

Stand firm and 

see the Lord’s salvation 

He will provide for you today; 

for the Egyptians you see today, 

you will never see again. 

The Lord will fight for you; 

you must be quiet.”

Exodus 14:13-14

So while they are being chased by their enemies God is saying "be quiet" which sounds like "be still" and pretty much stop trying to figure out what will happen.  The Lord sent these faces of your past oppressors to you for His purposes because He has something He wants to show you, but you have to be quiet.  Don't be afraid.

But being quiet in those moments is never a peaceful thing.  The reason it's not peaceful is because the wiring in my mind is still connected to memories of pain that quickly resurface when I see the faces of my enemies like "Ugliness-Ursula," "Rejection-Raymond" "Loneliness-Larry," "Betty-Boredom," and "Worthlessness-Wilma" those faces remind of me of the pain that each one brought me at some point in time or that have been threats of pain for me that I feared before they ever even happened!  I feared something that either existed in my past or that never even existed except in my own mind about the future. So when those enemies begin their approach from a distance, the last thing I want to do is be quiet and be still... I want to yell at them to go away and run!  

I don't hang on the prior fact that it was my good Father who sent the enemy in the first place!  My good Father is in control! He is training my physical and emotional senses not to be afraid in this life.  

Just as God was doing for His people in the story of Exodus.  My training is one of first, being quiet when I'm being chased so that soon enough I can be doing good when I'm no longer fearing the past or the future of being chased ever again.  There are days I can willingly work for the glory of God and praise Him while I serve because I taste His goodness and His love which enable me to serve from an abundance!  But there are days and moments when I begin to serve from a need or a fear rather than from an overflow of Him.  I burn out, I see the enemies approaching and I freak out, and those are the days when I am called to be still again.  To face the enemy and be still, because this time God sent them to remind my mind, to renew my mind, that what once made me afraid--loneliness, rejection, worthlessness, ugliness, and boredom--is now being used by God as a means of showing me that there is nothing to fear.  He uses that which once gave us so much pain to deliver us from the bondage of those memories.  

We must be still until we know that He is Yahweh, and once that fear is broken we can rejoice and do life with an abundance of Him!  

“But You blew with Your breath, 

and the sea covered them. 

They sank like lead in the mighty waters.”

Exodus 15:10

This passage reminded me of:

"Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being"

Genesis 2:7

Breath of death and breath of life come from the same God.

He holds the power of both meaning that nothing can harm the ones He loves, not even death.  So that even when my enemies and struggles pursue me, like Pharaoh pursued the Israelites, even when it looks like I've been captured by my struggles and that I'm doomed again, again, and again, I must remember that God holds the power of whether or not I am doomed because doomed means death.  And so perhaps it is in those moments of feeling completely hopeless that God is showing me to be quiet and to stop despairing for no reason!  I am His and because I am His, I cannot be overcome.  So be still and know this truth.  Be still in the face of your enemies.  They are empty threats. 

So honestly, the question deep within is, "God am I truly Yours?"  

And I hear a soft tender whisper:

"Yes Jamie, you are Mine." 

Everytime I hear that soft whisper. 

I cannot despair when His voice reminds me of who I am.  And then the peace that surpasses all understanding washes over me, because though the faces of my enemy are upon me once more, approaching me closer and closer, I hold on to the prior truth of the matter: that God is using them as a means of assurance for me.  To be more sure of Him and who I am. 

I need only to stand firm (basically just stay put) and be quiet.  

"Don’t be afraid. 

Stand firm and 

see the Lord’s salvation 

He will provide for you today; 

for the Egyptians you see today, 

you will never see again. 

The Lord will fight for you; 

you must be quiet.”

Exodus 14:13-14

The Lord fights for me everyday, and He uses the empty threats of my enemies to tear down the strongholds of fear in me until they are completely obliterated.  

If the faces of your past enemies are in your rear-view mirror today, consider the Word of the Lord and stand firm...know that your mind is in need of being renewed, be quiet and stand firm.  

The Lord fights our battles for us everytime.  We just keep winning. 

Jmegrey

Prayer for the students in my care

Lord,

What are we to do with the children? 

Today I felt Your heart toward me, your good heart, as I heard about one of my students willingly walk into the trap of sin...a seemingly small and innocent one, but I know that no sin is small because every sin is attached to a great one...all it needs is the subtle small sin to make a small incision for the greater ones to get through in time.  Sigh.  It's heartbreaking because I know how ineffective telling them to stop is, and I can only hope and pray and love them through the pain they will go through because of these decisions.  It's heartbreaking!  

But in that moment I heard You speak to me as well, as Your own child.  All those times and minutes throughout my day when I know what is good and right in Your eyes, yet I lean more on my desires and my ways because I'm impulsive and I don't know what I'm doing.  I just know what I want or what I don't want, even when I hear You speak ...I don't always listen.  How heartbroken it must be for you to see me, Your child, as I allow sin to destroy me and make my life miserable thinking it's something I want!  I see these students of mine, and I watch them make these same choices even when I direct them toward life and fullness of joy, yet they must make their own decisions, and it breaks my heart to know what they are doing and to not be able to stop them....is that why You sent Your Son? 

You knew about me? 

You saw me and I wouldn't listen...instead I kept choosing the sin that enticed me yet that very same sin was waiting to bring me down to my destruction.  It hid behind impulse and desire, and I fell for the bait because I chose it over Your Word.  You saw me and it broke Your heart.  Although I can do nothing much to ensure that my students be secured and safe from those miseries hidden behind those seemingly small sins, I pray that You protect them.  Although I'm powerless You did save us.  You gave up Your Son's life to give us life because all we choose are the sins that entice us but are coated in deep misery.  

So as they fall into these sins, Lord, and as the misery begins to poison their hearts, remember Your Son's blood and use even their bad choices and the misery that follows due to those choices to somehow help them see You so that they would turn from their sins and live for You.  Lord, You've been so faithful to me even after all the misery I brought on myself from following my desires and impulses over Your Word, and You brought me here...You changed my heart, so I know that even though the students may not always listen, You are good.  You have Your way, but still I pray that You would quickly bring them closer to You so that they would have a better life sooner.  

You reminded me today of Your goodness and Your intentions for me when You tell me something and I don't want to listen.  You helped me feel Your heart toward me as my heart was feeling for my students and I remembered that You speak to bring me life and not destruction.  Lord, we are Your children and we make mistakes!  Thank You for the cross.  You embraced me through the pain and misery of the consequences for my disobedience, so lead me to do the same for my students.  

Jmegrey 

How close is God?

Hey Father,

What is going on in Your heart now?  Unconditional love?  Wrath?  What are Your plans?  Where do I belong in those plans? 

I want to be close to You, yet I pull away from You.  I want to know You, yet I ignore You.  I want to sit at Your feet, yet I wander from Your presence restlessly.  I want to love you, yet I reject You.  I want to change into Your image, yet I turn into dust right away.

Take me deeper Lord.

Your daughter,

Jamie 

Who I am today is who I will be for all of eternity, so today I need to know who I am if I am going to live eternally. 

Perhaps we are living a lie about our identity, thinking we need something or someone more than who has given Himself to us.  Do we need more than God Himself?

It can sure feel that way when I open Instagram, Facebook or snapchat.  It feels that way when I'm single, and it feels that way when I'm with someone.  It feels that way when I'm alone at night, and it feels that way when something bad happens between a friend and me.  I need something in those moments, and although I know that I have God, He is not enough.  

I need something real.

I need someone real.

So internally, either God is not enough or I have been holding to a fake god rather than the real God.  If it is the former than there is no hope, because what is more than God if He is and has everything?  So it is the latter:  it is being with a fake god that causes us to get bored, needy, and discontent.  

“Lord, hear my prayer; 

let my cry for help come before You. 

Do not hide Your face from me 

in my day of trouble. 

Listen closely to me; 

answer me quickly when I call. 

For my days vanish like smoke, 

and my bones burn like a furnace.

He will pay attention to the prayer of the destitute and will not despise their prayer.

Long ago You established the earth, 

and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; 

all of them will wear out like clothing. 

You will change them like a garment, 

and they will pass away. 

But You are the same, 

and Your years will never end. 

Your servants’ children will dwell securely, 

and their offspring will be established before You.”

Psalms 102:1-3, 17, 25-28

So Father speak to me clearly and open my ears so that I can hear and respond to You.  

What do You say today that I may respond to?  Speak Father, and have grace on my hardened heart by softening it so that I hear You. 

----

And then I wait.  And I try my best to listen for God in the still small voice within.  And all of sudden I feel the urge to cry.  It's strange how quickly it happens, it's as if I've lifted the lid off of my heart and water starts to trickle out.  

Water has been on my mind a lot lately.  Every time I turn off the shower a little bit of water continues to fall from the shower head and I like to put my hands under it and watch the water flow over my hands.  I become mesmerized by the clearness of the water over my peach hands.  It reminds me that I'm clean and that I'm covered in something yet it does not cover me as a blanket because it's transparent.  I'm transparently covered.  It's very soothing to see, but most of all it's been catching my attention a lot lately after almost every shower.  

Water reminds me of God's presence.  It's a transparent covering that exposes me yet cleans me at the same time.  Being with God is to be with His transparent nature, and my peach hands and red heart are covered by Him, yet not covered in the sense that I am hidden.  I am exposed while covered. 

Amanda Cook from Bethel is a worship leader who wrote a song called "The Voyage" which has also made an impact in my thought life lately. 

The song goes:

-----

What if the path you choose becomes a road...

The ground you take becomes a home...

The wind is high, but the pressure's off

I'll send the rain wherever we end up

Wherever we end up

Set your sights, 

sailing far beyond familiar

In the rising tide, 

you'll find the rhythm of your heart

And lift your head, 

now the wind and waves don't matter

What if the path you choose becomes a road

The ground you take becomes a home

The wind is high, but the pressure's off

I'll send the rain wherever we end up

Wherever we end up

I am the wind in your sails

I am the wind in your sails

I am the wind in your sails

-----

At first I remember thinking "what does she mean by "I'll send the rain wherever we end up?"  And I shared the song with a friend of mine (Liz) who said the same thing, albeit admitting to the song being really epic because it's got a grand kind of sound.  

Now, I don't know if Amanda Cook meant for her song to mean what I've now found it to mean for me, but God used this song to speak to me about the things He has been showing me on a day to day basis like my moments in the shower.  

"I'll send the rain wherever we end up" translated into "Jamie, wherever you go my Presence is not only with you, but covering you as water covers your peach hands after a shower."  In other words, all the choices I make, the paths I choose, the roads that become my life...they will no doubt have waves and winds, but no matter what decision I make God reminds me that He will be with me, covering me in the refuge and safety of Himself.  This makes the pressure vanish because now I sense the adventure before me under His protection.  The truth of knowing I can choose to live a big life without the pressures of fearing the consequences, and I don't mean living a stupid life.  I mean, taking those big risks like when you lay yourself down to give someone time and your energy without fear of losing out or missing out in your own life.  Taking risks of giving more than you feel is safe without fear of being unprovided for or uncomfortable.  Taking risks of obedience and enduring without fear of pain or suffering.  Because everything I just mentioned describes the life of a hero and true friend.  The point is that when we watch movies like Lord of the Rings or Captain America, we admire and are in awe of such great characters.  Yet, we know that when we come back to reality, exiting the theater, that was a great show, but that's not me.  Why?  Because we don't have that kind of character or life, the kind that lays aside oneself for the benefit of another.  We might see that we just don't have that kind of money or those opportunities to be like that, but more than money or opportunities it is the character of the hero that makes him a hero, not his strength or his money or even his opportunities.  It is his character. 

God is shaping us to be like His Son Jesus, the hero of the world.  The life He desires to give us is that which is big and adventurous because it is the life of a hero, the life of one who lays down their life in order to take up another kind.  

However, this isn't by our decision making or our abilities, but it is in knowing that He Himself is with us wherever we go.  There is no fear or pressure to make good decisions or to earn His promises.  The way and the truth to this life is a person, a noun: Jesus.  In other words, having a relationship with Jesus and going deeper and deeper into that relationship is our means of living.  

What if the path you choose becomes a road?

The ground you take becomes a home?

The wind is high, but the pressure's off,

I'll send the rain wherever we end up.

Wherever we end up.

If you knew you could choose the life of a hero and not fear losing or missing out on the desires you have now, would you take it?  

The path you choose is the one where God will be with you. 

The ground you take today will become a home for you. 

You are free to choose the life you know will be heroic and full of great relationships, love, adventure and awesomeness!  But the real question is are you truly free in this matter?  Or have the winds and waves brought to wake Jesus up and ask Him if He cares about what's happening to you?  

The winds will rise and things will get stormy, but the pressures off, there is no fear....because God sends the rain, His presence covers you. 

You are getting to where He is taking you, to the other side, and no storm or winds will be able to stop the God who is taking you there.  Choose to take refuge in Him for every decision you make, because when you entrust your life's choices to God's protection, He will be the one defending and protecting you throughout its course. 

Just as in Mark 4:35-42, when Jesus's disciples fearfully woke Jesus from His nap when a storm was upon them, Jesus was like "why are you afraid?"  In other words, you are fearful about nothing.  I'm here, I'm with you, so why are you afraid?  Know the One who is with you in the storm and you could take a nap through it too instead of getting all worried and anxious.  :) 

“On that day, when evening had come, He told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” So they left the crowd and took Him along since He was already in the boat. And other boats were with Him. 

A fierce windstorm arose, 

and the waves were breaking over the boat, 

so that the boat was already being swamped. 

But He was in the stern, 

sleeping on the cushion. 

So they woke Him up and said to Him, “Teacher! Don’t You care that we’re going to die? ” 

He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still! ” 

The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 

Then He said to them, 

“Why are you fearful? 

Do you still have no faith? ” 

And they were terrified and asked one another, “Who then is this? 

Even the wind and the sea obey Him! ””

Mark 4:35-41

They asked "who then is this?"  We don't know this guy very well.  If we knew Him we would not have feared the storm. 

Wherever you go and whatever you do today, do so knowing that God's presence covers you like water when it rains.  How do we do this?  By knowing the one who dwells in the stern of your heart.  I feel a strong call to sit at His feet today and get to know Him by talking to Him in prayer and listening to His response and then responding back. 

Conversations with God.

Lord, hear my prayer and speak.  What is going on in my heart and in the restlessness I feel?  Why do I get bored or anxious when I have the world before me and You are always with me?  Help me remember that I am called to a bigger life than I could ever have imagined, and that I need to know You more deeply and intimately in order to be able to continue taking risks and resting through the storms.  We are getting to the other side together and that is final so let's add as much adventure to journey as possible!  

Take my life and give me Yours, 

Jmegrey 

The Offender, the Victim, and the Child

"The Offender's mistake"

You've made a mistake with someone in the family, the body of Christ, the church, of which we are all members as adopted children.  You've hurt one of your brothers of sisters, now what? 

“I assure you,” He said, 

"unless you are converted 

and become like children, 

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Only God's children will inherit God's kingdom. 

"Child at heart" just means a tender heart.  Remember who you are when the temptation to offend or the sin of offense comes up.

A childlike heart easily trusts their parent because they have an openness to the parent.  We all started there once, but we probably got burned sooner or later along the way and slowly began to harden our hearts, but when we meet God and He calls us His child and we realize He is or good father, it is a new relationship with the heart of a child afresh.  Only this time, our parent is perfect in all His ways, rather than a broken sinner like our earthly parents.  The point is not that our first parent was a mistake, but that they were a glimpse and preparation for our union with our true parent.  You've been hurt before and that shows you how sin destroys us and why Jesus had to die, but now with that similar childlike heart we once had toward are parents, we bring that before God in how we relate with Him as our perfect and true parent. 

"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child — this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

It does not mean they don't make mistakes!  Children make many, many, many mistakes!  It is regarding their humility, in that they know they need help, protection, love, and care. 

"Like a child" or "childlike" is different from "childish".  To be like a child here is referring to a child's humility only.  This includes such things as the weakness and dependence of a child's disposition.  

Whereas to be childish, we all know, is often the negative connotation we use to mean things like whining, selfish, petty irresponsible, etc.  

"And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me."

How we treat one another is how we treat God Himself!  

That needs to sink in...sink in deeply.  The way you treat another person in the family of God (and this is something you cannot easily judge, so it might even be best to say anyone) is a direct dealing with God Himself.  You are, everyday, encountering God in the people you meet with, see, hear, and talk to or talk about.  So it begs the question: how do you treat God?  And the answer lies in how you treat other people.  We bear the image of God in us, and that is not something to be ignored. 

On the positive side, if you've ever found yourself praying that you "welcome God into the room" or that you desired Him to be with you or anything like that, then the surest way to welcome God into your life is to welcome the childlike-hearted person into your life!  Find them because those kinds of people are far greater than treasures of wealth!  

How cool is that?  

God gave us a way to find Him and to welcome Him into our lives, and this is by seeking and searching for those who are like children in the world....the needy, the dependent, the weak, and the tender-hearted person who humbly recognizes their condition.  

This is quite a contrast to what culture deems as the "in crowd," yet here are the words from the very mouth of God Himself!  Who are you welcoming into your life everyday?  Do you search out the people of treasure or the people of trash?  I'm not saying we can know if someone is trash or treasure, but I'm saying that the criteria for which we consider giving our time to someone should be based on this very method of seeking people who have a childlike heart not people who are merely rich and beautiful or admired by people...although these can also be children at heart, it is the way in which we look at people that matters.  Do you look first at their exterior or do you search for what's inside?  Do you have a trained intuition for seeking out character rather than clothing, reputation rather than rank, that kind of thing.  Consider the things that draw you to a person and be aware of certain areas in your own character that God might be transforming you in.  

That was a tangent! Haha I'm personally very passionate about that sort of topic because I was once full fledged in the work of the enemy by placing trash over treasure when it came to the criteria for which I measured other people.  I wanted beautiful people who were rich and smart and popular to be my friend, and I looked down on the timid people who lacked in those areas.  Glory to God I have been redeemed!  Haha.  Back to where I was going with the text:

If you have ever sought after God this is a helpful measure of your quest in that you have sought after the broken-hearted.  For that is where you will find God.  

*hint: going back to the first verse, all of God's children are such as these, meaning the one you seek is the one who is just like you." 

"But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!"

Last night, conveniently (in preparation for this talk), I had a dream where a friend of mine got into a quarrel with someone and I urged him to apologize because I knew it would only spoil his day and his relationship with God if he let that moment fester inside of him because of pride or his emotions.  In my dream I accompanied my friend who, after some time to cool off, agreed with a feasible amount of contriteness to saying sorry.  However, as he delivered his sincere words of apology to the person an unexpected firing back took place on the person's part and my emotions of wanting to protect him for doing the right thing (justice) made me call her a "b#%ch!" in fury! 

I realized afterward that I was now the one who needed to say sorry, because my own emotions took over.  Now if injustice does that much to someone like me who does not see the entirety of what is going on to make judgment calls, how much more will actual injustice do to the God who does see all things!?  Don't mess with God's children, or He will mess you up and you don't want to be going up against God.  This passage is declaring just that kind of thing when Jesus says:

"But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!"

He means business people.  You mess with His family then you're gonna wish you had a heavy rock tied around your neck, flung into the sea, and drowned!  If you think He's joking, think again. 

"Woe to the world because of offenses. "

God is serious about His family, and that's why when we belong to God we start to get serious about our family too.  If someone messed with your loved one (mom or dad or sibling) what would you do?  Get angry in order to protect them?  Well, imagine if the family messed with was God's....he says "WOE to that man by whom the offense comes"

"For offenses must come, 

but woe to that man by whom the offense comes."

God is saying, I know people are going to make mistakes everyday, but if you're on the side of being okay with bringing down My family rather than humbly admitting your wrongs like a child then you're going against God's beloved ones...and that will not go over so well with you.  You go against one of God's children then you go against God.  Because family protects family and no one in My family gets messed with.  You're either for Me or against me.  

We've all been given a bag of endless sorry's not because they're neat, but because they are one of our greatest weapons against the enemy!). We make mistakes even to our own family, but the family of God is not one to be okay with causing offenses, which is why we are called to cultivate a character of forgiveness toward one another.  God is raising up His children for the purpose of being one family. 

How serious does God take this raising up of His family?...

 

"If your hand or your foot causes your downfall, cut it off and throw it away. 

It is better for you to enter life maimed or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. 

And if your eye causes your downfall, 

gouge it out and throw it away. 

It is better for you to enter life with one eye, rather than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire!”

Matthew 18:3-9

How serious? Hellfire serious.  We are talking about eternity here. 

“See that you don’t look down on one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of My Father in heaven.”

Matthew 18:10

The person with a childlike humility is the person who knows their Heavenly Father.  

"The Victim's response"

“If your brother sins against you, 

go and rebuke him in private. 

If he listens to you, 

you have won your brother. 

But if he won’t listen, 

take one or two more with you, 

so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. 

If he pays no attention to them, 

tell the church. 

But if he doesn’t pay attention 

even to the church, 

let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you.”

Matthew 18:15-17

In other words, we are called to develop a childlike humility, but those who are offended must also recognize that God takes this to be a humility of depending on God for your protection.   

If someone offends you then if you offend them back, whether by committing a sin in return or by failing to care to mend the division, you are the same as the offender.  You went from victim to offender in a matter of seconds!  (Which means you now have to read the above section again haha) 

God calls us to have a childlike humility not because we are without help, but because we are helped by our Father!  So as a "victim" of offense in any given situation we, too, are called to be aware of whether we are living as children of God by seeing whether or not we desire or desire to desire for our offender to be unified back to us.  And pray accordingly for help. 

Jesus even gives us the very steps to take which include a private confrontation, but if that doesn't work we try again!  The point here is that we care, and we don't just give up after the first try of reconciliation.  We go at it by bringing two or three more of our mutual family into the matter because it helps when someone sees that more people can be present to give a more unbiased presence in the matter.  Then if that still doesn't work we care enough for that person (despite being our offender) that we bring the matter before the church as the final authority to help bring this person back into unity.  However, after that person still refuses to be corrected, it says "let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you.”

Now, this is the point I think many people mistake to mean, cut them off!  Do we cut off the unbeliever?  Do we go around in life only sticking to our holy huddles?  Not at all!  I believe this very last call to consider that person as an unbeliever and tax collector is not a call to finally let all your evil feelings toward them flow freely, but a call to be EVEN MORE gentle and understanding of them, because they are the lost.  We can have compassion on such souls because we, too, were once hopelessly lost and it was His kindness that lead us to repentance.  

"The Child"

So my final encouragement to the victim is to be a child of God just as my encouragement to the offender is also to be a child of God.  For whether we are more prone to offending or to feeling victimized, both are simply conditions for which the enemy uses to turn us away from our identity as God's children.  Some days we are the offender and other days we are the victim, but in everyday we are called to be the child of God. 

This process of knowing who we are is tumultuous because there are many mistakes, fails, sorrows and pains along the way, but we are called to such a journey in order to receive the prize of getting God.  There is no higher love or greater joy than to know God and be with Him forever.  Keep your eyes on prize.  

Jesus prays for you and me in John 17 and repeatedly emphasizes our being one with each other.

“I pray not only for these, 

but also for those who believe in Me 

through their message. 

May they all be one, 

as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. 

May they also be one in Us, 

so the world may believe You sent Me. 

I have given them the glory You have given Me. 

May they be one as We are one. 

I am in them and You are in Me. 

May they be made completely one, 

so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. 

Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am. 

Then they will see My glory, 

which You have given Me 

because You loved Me 

before the world’s foundation. 

Righteous Father! 

The world has not known You. 

However, I have known You, 

and these have known that You sent Me. 

I made Your name known to them 

and will make it known, 

so the love You have loved Me with 

may be in them and I may be in them.”

John 17:20-26

Not an offender and not a victim, 

but a child of our Heavenly Father,

Jmegrey 

Do you gather or scatter?

“God also said to him: I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you, and kings will descend from you. I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. And I will give the land to your future descendants.”

Genesis 35:11-12

“And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

Galatians 3:29

This is a repeat of the first words God said to Adam and Eve, to be fruitful and multiply.  

Gen 1:28

"God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it."

God never changed His mind nor did His character and heart grow in stages as ours do.  He didn't go from mean and senile to meek and gentle in the New Testament through His Son.  The same God of the First Testament is still the same one in the New, and both testaments together help us understand and know God.  What He wanted from His people in the First testament is still what He wants from us today.  

In fact, a theologian named John Goldingay put it quite well saying: "we need the New Testament to give us hope for resurrection life, but we need the First (Old) Testament to remind us of the importance of this life, and to give us hope for this life." 

In other words, the Old Testament is actually more relevant for our lives in the now than is the New, because the New Testament focuses our gaze on what is to come when Jesus returns, but the Old Testament shows us who God is and how we relate to Him in this life now.  

In the Old Testament God began His self-revelation to us ...meaning the Old Testament helps us understand how God relates to us today!  It is not irrelevant after Jesus came as if now animal sacrifices have no significant meaning in helping us understand God.  Quite the opposite.  The stories in the Old Testament are just as important to knowing God as our past stories are when we share them with others.  I shared my history or my life map (significant events in my past that were good and bad) with my friends and it helped them understand and know me better, and in the same way, God is sharing not only His life map and story with us, but our own human life map to help us better understand and know ourselves!  The Old Testament helps us know God more as well as know ourselves more. 

This makes me want to study the First Testament all over again.  

“God also said to him: 

I am God Almighty. 

Be fruitful and multiply. 

A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, 

will come from you, 

and kings will descend from you. 

I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. 

And I will give the land to your future descendants.”

Genesis 35:11-12

God had it in mind to use Abraham as the starting point for bringing the nations to Him, not just to keep His people confined into one nation of the Jews, but God is the God of being fruitful and multiplying.  However, in order to get to many He had to begin with one.  You can't start getting from one point to another without first taking one step, or you can't build a house before laying down one stone.  It always begins with one for the purpose of many greater things.  So here we see that the First Testament reveals God's plan for humanity before Jesus or Paul even mentioned the Gentiles as being part of God's family.  God already revealed that!  Haha. 

“And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

Galatians 3:29

Then Paul reiterates the First Testament's promises as being the starting point and reason for why we are here when he mentions that the promise of Abraham is the promise we are entering into.  God's promise to Abraham has been in effect to this day.  We are being fruitful and multiplying from what started out as one man (Abraham) to now the countless nations and people who have entered into that promise!  

That same God is still the same!  His plans are for us to be fruitful and to multiply.  This means that people are important to God. 

Our dealing with other people matter to God, and that means our lives are not just our lives, but we affect others around us all the time with our lives.  There is no such thing as being someone who does not affect people.  You are either working to affect people for the kingdom of God or you are working against God.  

Matthew 12:30 says:

"Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who does not gather with Me scatters."

Gather or scatter.  Are you someone who gathers people around you or scatters away from people? 

God's heart from the very beginning has not changed, He had desired for many nations to know Him by using Abraham first and proceeding from there to get to others.  He simply picked one nation because that's how things start: with one.  And from there He shows us the way to be fruitful and multiply.  

It all starts with one. 

That is how God has always worked with mankind.  He uses one person who is willing to bring about the great plans He has that will happen, which is to increase and gather people to Himself.  And when one is willing, God uses that person as the starting point for His work: being fruitful and multiplying!  

Everyone wants the riches of being fruitful and the greatness of multiplying in an abundance of goodness, but they forget that it begins with one.  It always begins with one.  Even now and today, it begins with one decision, one heart (mine and yours) to begin the journey with  God of seeing His hand work in our lives to bring about fruit and multiplication of the grand Kingdom of God...through one person!  Me.  You.  Him or her.  Each of us have the ability to live with God, which is a big life of good things in abundance or a life without God which is a name in a lineage that will one day be boring and pointless.  (See lineage of Esau in Genesis 36?) haha

That chapter was full of names that seemed pointless, but as I read them I realized they probably did not feel like their lives were pointless!  It's funny how we all are so affected by what happens to us, what people say or think of us, and our circumstances, but in reality, we are the son or daughter of someone who was the son or daughter of someone and our lineage reads just like the ones I read about of Esau.  In the greater scheme of things our worries are probably pointless, but our relationship and belonging to God is not.  

Who we are in this life will one day turn into a pointless lineage that others could care less about (the way I could care less about Esau's lineage, haha). However, who we are in relation to God, our understanding of Him and our love for and from Him will be what remains constant and never fading.  I get caught up in this life as if I needed to matter, but I'm a name among names that will one day not matter in terms of what I did or how much I accomplished for the building up of my own name.  

What will matter is where I end up after my place in the lineage is read.  After the things of this life have passed away into boredom and pointlessness, it will reveal the life I carried inside that was not visible: my life with God.  

My identity in Christ.  

The promise I walked into by faith.  

The promise of eternal life and glory. 

With my mind set on the glory of His will, and with my heart open to being used as a starting point in some way for God to bring about fruitfulness and to multiply His growing body (the church) I not only see that I have entered into the growing seed of Abraham, but that I am being used to further that growth!  

Be fruitful and multiply. 

Love of God and others is the fulfillment of the law of God, which was never meant to rescue you from sin, but to guide you into the life God has given us through His Son.  

We have been saved, that is why we can love.  Not the other way around.  No amount of loving others will save you.  Only Jesus can save you by His blood, but once we have been saved we will realize that now we can love.  Love comes from an abundance not from a need. 

Live life and live abundantly! 

Jmegrey

John 10:10

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. 

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

A Word for you today

Today God has a Word for you. 

The thoughts we have 

become the life we live.  

God gives us the power to assess the thoughts we have that are not from God and demolish them!  If you have thoughts of guilt/shame, of self-glory, or of fear, look for those and go D-Day on them!  

There's a difference when you take hold of a thought or if a thought takes hold of you!  

But God says we live by what He says not by what those terrorist thoughts say...whether sweetly poisonous or strictly condemning. 

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

"2 Cor. 10:5

When a thought goes against what God says, take that thought down like sniper.  Why?  How?

Because the God of peace gives you the peace of His, and He lives!  In you! 

You take those thoughts that are not of God and you meet them face to face with the Word of God. You basically bring God with you toward that thought and see what He says that overrides that thought.

"And the peace of God, 

which surpasses every thought, 

will guard your hearts and minds 

in Christ Jesus"

-Philippians 4:7

Wooooooooooo. Take em down.  Live in the truth.  Love you guys.

Something to take action:

Write down some terrorizing thoughts you have and then write down what God says in demolishing them!  (HINT: it helps to know what God says by reading His Word). 

Jmegrey

Hearing God's voice

How do I hear the voice of God? 

John 10:27

"My sheep hear My voice, 

I know them, 

and they follow Me

One of my students asked me this week:

"How can I hear the voice of God?"

I remember thinking first, (because thinking first leads to actions next) 

I absolutely love that you are asking me something, and that you're talking to me, because you give me opportunities to make God's glory be lifted higher when I get to talk to you about how gloriously awesome and beautiful He is...making my life a living story of glorifying God.  It's fun talking about God because the truth is powerful, and power is cool. 

Reality matters.  Alright moving on. 

Secondly, I looked at my mom across the table (that's when I got this text) and told her the question and we both shared a look and she said "that's a hard question."  I agreed because what was being asked was basically "how do I know God?"  Before I unravel that very strong relationship between knowing God's voice and knowing God, although it may now appear obvious, I want to write about why that question was hard to answer right away.  

It's not hard because it's complicated, it's very simple, it's hard because it takes time and we live in a culture that thrives off of instant gratification and quick fixes.  

Fast food that you drive thru and proceed to eat in the car rather than at a table because ain't nobody got time to actually sit down and enjoy their food.  Or addictions to drugs, sex, gaming, alcohol, food, clothes, attention, shopping, whatever!  Anything that you feel you just got to have it now!  It's right there! You can have it so culture has conditioned us to think that if it's available you should take it.  Fomo. 

The bible, Jesus, who is the truth says something different.  He says if it's available you should still ask Me.  He says if it's something you got to have otherwise you will die then that's called being a "slave" to that idol, being in bondage to anything or anyone other than the one true king is living in lies.  Living in a lie is living a lie.  It's not truly living.  Nothing about a lie is true.  It's foggy and convoluted.  

So when my student asked me this question it was because they thought they heard God's voice about something and they wanted to be able to verify right then and there that it was, in fact, God's voice they heard.  They wanted an answer and they wanted it now.  Basically they wanted to the truth about God from me about something He might have said to them.  Haha.  Do you see where this is going?  Clearly, the question they are asking me is not a question I am suited to answer because it has nothing to do with me, That conversation was between that person and God, and so asking me if that was really God is like asking me if I can read God's mind.  I can't.  I can, however clear out the weeds and get to work on being lead by God to help this person know God, because if you know God, you know His voice.  The question was how can I know God?  Because if you know God you will know His voice when you hear it.  So if you are already asking "how do I hear God?" then it's likely that the answer is to take a step back and answer the question that goes before that one which is how do I know God?  

How do you know God? 

Is it through other people? 

Is it through scripture?

Is it through a conniption experience you had one day?

Is it through a feeling?

Is it that one time or that one thing? 

Relying on anything other than a real relationship will not get you into a real relationship with God.  Relationships are hard, but as we walk in them with one another on earth we simultaneously strengthen the one we have in heaven.  God is #genius. 

How do you know God? 

What good has ever come from you assuming you knew someone because of something they said or did once or a few times?!  Jumping to conclusions based on a single event or even a few events?  How do you know you really know someone? If you know their heart, you know them.  And the heart is something that cannot be known from a single instance or by your assumption.  The heart can only be known by the Spirit of God who searches our hearts.  

So it's a hard question to discuss with my student, whom I am growing to love through our conversations, because I know that when I talk to any one of them there are a million different hurdles and filters that are in place to block me from getting to their core, blocking me from knowing the real them.  The core of who they are is the real them.  But the core of who we are is often hidden behind a lot of stuff.  

Filters are not necessarily bad because they can keep the junk out.  Hurdles are not bad either because they keep the lazy and careless out.  However, because we all have filters and hurdles, some of us use them to serve purposes other than God's purposes and His plan.  We use them to serve our plans and purposes, to make us feel safe or make us feel loved.  Rather than using them to keep our minds clear of the junk --we might be using them to bring junk in because we are feeding the junk at our core (which is anything or anyone other than God!). The throne of your heart is a seat meant for the King of your heart.  You are not the King.  You belong to the King, which has all the same benefits you can enjoy as His child, but you are not The King. 

So not only do I have to acknowledge that my student has filters and hurdles, but I have to ask the Holy Spirit if their filters and hurdles are the kind that are filtering out junk or the kind that take junk in because their King is not the real King.  Only the Spirit knows and if the Spirit dwells in your heart then He can tell you as a reliable source.  

Now what I'm about to say might sound tricky, but there's a difference between being tricky to trick you like the devil who wraps up an addiction with a coat of instant pleasure only to suck you into a destructive cycle beneath appearances compared to "tricking" your guard dogs, those junky filters and hurdles in your mind, to get past them and bring down your slave master, the idol controlling your thoughts via these junky filters. Because it's the inner idol that's controlling all the other parts of you, so if the idol is destroyed the whole network goes down.  God aims at the real issue, your heart.  It is the core of who you are that God is concerned with.  That's why the bible constantly reminds us that God sees our hearts, not the outward appearances. 

So when I heard the question I was agreeing with my mom that it was difficult because of the time it would take to work past the filters and hurdles.

It would take a lot of time.  And time is always difficult to work with because "ain't nobody got time for that."

But God has time, He has eternity in His power, so I give Him my time to remind myself that He has all time in His hands.  

So here's what I plan to teach my students this Sunday about hearing God and knowing God. 

Let's say one of you received a message from some stranger at your school who came up to you and said "jamie, your youth big sister (because I just refuse to call myself a youth pastor haha), said to tell you that she thinks your worthless and dumb, and she hates you because you never do anything for her."  Now, how valid is that message?  How would you know if it's from me or not?  

That depends on how well you KNOW ME PERSONALLY.  Would I say that?  How do you know that it's MORE LIKELY that that message was not from me?  Only if and because you know me.  I don't say things like that in front of you or even around you or behind your back.  In fact most of the experiences of me and encounters with me that you've had, I hope have been the opposite of that!  (If not, then that's another issue!)

Now let's turn it around.  What if some stranger showed up at your school and told you "Jamie told me to tell you that God is for you and that she hopes you're heart is resting in God's love, and she also wanted to encourage you to take some time to breathe and sit in the presence of God sometime today because you can.  Oh and she also said that she loves you."

Same level of unfamiliarity with that stranger, same time of day, same method of delivery...but different words.  Different message.  

How do you know that that second message most likely did come from me?  Because that's something I would probably say, from how much you know me and have heard me speak, and have experienced from being around me.

This post is being written for someone who's been wanting to hear from God about something in their lives.  

John 10:27

"My sheep hear My voice, 

I know them, 

and they follow Me."

So in response to my student's question I wrote back a bunch of different ways that hopefully would get past any filters or hurdles in order to infiltrate the idol and bring it down.  I have to be as shrewd as a serpent but as gentle as a dove when I am with my students because God gave them into my care.  I love the person's heart because it belongs in God's loving hands, therefore I hate the idols that will try and appear as if they are taking control.  We are not fighting to keep the devil from snatching souls up, because no one can snatch a soul from God's hands, but we are doing what God leads us to do because He uses our words, hands, feet, actions, attitudes, and abilities for His purposes that always win.  

Isaiah 30:21

"And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left."

God usually speaks for today and not about the whole month or year...but just about today and each minute.  You are sent into today for His purposes and those plans never fail. 

How do I hear God's voice?

By listening. 

The more I know God the more I know His voice, and the voice of a stranger I stop following.  

Jmegrey 

Don't do today on your own

The Way, Truth, and Life

Jesus said....and if Jesus speaks a word it's not a lie.  Because God cannot lie. 

“I came from the Father =life 

and have come into the world. =truth 

Again, I am leaving the world and 

going to the Father.” = way

I have told you these things 

so that in Me you may have peace.  

You will have suffering in this world. 

Be courageous!

I have conquered the world.” 

John 16:28, 33

“This is eternal life: 

that they may know You, 

the only true God, 

and the One You have sent — Jesus Christ.”

John 17:3

Jesus prays for you:

“I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name that You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are one.

I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message. May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.

I made Your name known to them and will make it known, so the love You have loved Me with may be in them and I may be in them.”

John 17:11, 15-18, 20-21, 26

----

I'm all over the place, thinking this and that about now and the future, about my past, and about all of the problems in my life that I'm trying to detain from causing more trouble for me: my bad habits, my stubbornness, my unmet desires, my addictions, my selfishness, etc!  I'm thinking about the good things and the bad things.  I'm thinking about what if I do this or what if I do that and about should I do this or should I do that?  My thoughts are a million per half hour, and by the time I realize how many I have I am crushed by the weight of my inability to care for myself.  I have too many issues and too much of a chasm to be where I want to be from who I am now.  And as I fold all of those thoughts up into a bag and mush them all together, squeeze them all into a trash bag, I throw them into the chasm.  None of those being fixed or detained are going to get me to the other side, only Jesus.  So while I have many issues and many weaknesses, the more problems I have the more I will be awed and amazed when Jesus carries me to the other side.  We are all getting there by grace not by our strength, but by our weaknesses.  

I want so many things to change about me, my bad habits, my addictions, my attitude, my laziness, my self-critical disposition, my greed, my selfishness, my sinfulness!  

Who will save me from myself?

Only Jesus.  He prays for me, He saves me, and He walks with me by His Spirit each moment of every day.  There may be a million concerns before my eyes, but there is not a single one for which Jesus will not be with us, seeing us through to the other side.  Moving past the forgiveness of sins, let us move on to maturity that the things we are going through  as Christians are not about being saved or redeemed, but about being transformed into a person who has the character and likeness of Christ.  We are learning to feel what He feels, see what He sees, hear what He hears, and love the way He loves.  Today you may be lead by Christ to see what He sees and it might look terrible, but He might be showing you so that you feel what He feels, which is the pain and heartbreak, and with that He may then be preparing you to reach for what He reached for: the broken and the lost.  Or perhaps Christ is speaking to you about something else, maybe He wants you to untangle yourself from fear and to cleave yourself to grace, because in doing so you free yourself from shame and guilt and avail yourself to confidently do what is needed to be done in love rather than in fear.

Each day we have our troubles, and each day The Holy Spirit is leading us into the truth, on the way, and toward life.  

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  We are, in everyday, walking with Jesus.  Doing life together not to be saved since He finished that on the cross, but to be transformed.  What is God changing in your heart?  An attitude or a perspective or disposition or opinion.  Open your heart to the Spirit's truth today. 

Know what is going on and then know what God might be doing today to transform that part of you into the likeness of His Son.  We are all children of God and He is making us into a people who will walk in that truth.  

We don't ask "what would a child of God do in this situation" and then do that, but we ask "Lord, what is going on in my own heart right now about this situation?"  And from there open our hearts to the truth of who we are and then to the truth of who Christ is and what He has given us.

Know who you are, and know where you are going.  You were lost but now you are going home to the Father.  That is the truth!  So why are you worried about this and that?  What lie has infiltrated your truth? 

It's not a formula or an appearance that you need to follow, it's a relationship with the Father, through Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. 

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come." -John 16:13

Isaiah 30:21

"And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left."

Each moment He is with us.  Open your heart to live with God by your side everyday.  Don't do today on your own.  

Jmegrey 

Completing our Joy: Ask

Robbed of joy? Or joy being made complete? 

Anytime God writes that He will do something or that something will happen, you can be sure that nothing can stop that from happening if God had said it will happen.  I meditate on all the "will" happenings to be God's promises that are certain and immovable since they are in the future tense.  They mean that although they are not happening now, they will happen inevitably, which is as good as saying that they are happening.  For example, although I am 28 years old now, I will be 29 years old soon enough, without a doubt, and therefore it would be safe to say that my being 29 is happening.  

(Jesus confirms):

"So you also have sorrow now. 

(No one needs sorrow to be felt or understood because it is here and we all have it.)

(Jesus promises):

But I will see you again. 

(Our futures hold this in store for us.  This is certain.) 

(Jesus promises):

Your hearts will rejoice, 

and no one will rob you of your joy. 

(This is certain and happening despite what we see and feel right now.)

(Jesus promises):

In that day you will not ask Me anything. 

(We will ask the Father directly!) 

(Jesus promises):

“I assure you: Anything you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. 

(So what does it mean to ask the Father something in the name of Jesus?  It must mean that somehow we have the identity of being in Christ in order to ask the Father something directly instead of asking Jesus to ask for us!  Somehow we are given whatever rights Jesus has in relation to the Father so that when we ask the Father it is as secure as when Jesus asks the Father, but it will be us asking and not Jesus.  Jesus makes it clear that we will be asking the Father and that we will not need Jesus to ask for us, because after Christ took all our sins He gave us His righteousness.  So that we have what Jesus has, which is relation to the Father, and if the Father loves His Son, then the Father loves us who have what the Son has.  We have been given the relationship to the Father that Jesus has with the Father!  When we ask the Father for anything in the name of Jesus, it is asking the Father with all the same relational connections that Jesus had with the Father but that we now have in our possession.  We were given the name of Jesus, which is more than just a name, but the name is the relationship.  Jesus is not just a name, but He is the son of God!  If that is what His name means then that is what we have been given.  I am given the name of Jesus which is to be given the relationship of God as my Father, so that now when I ask God for something, I am asking as a child and not as a person.  Although I am still a person which means I was made by God in this way, I am a child in relationship to God.  Just like an exclamation point is symbol in grammar it means to be excited or heightened when used in a sentence.   We are persons in the world, but now our existence means we are loved by the Father.  This is so strange and glorious.  If we are loved by the Father then our Father is good because love is the best and highest valued relational connection any two persons can have!  And if our Father is so good as to love us then He is worthy of all our praise and love in return!  As John Piper has said, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.") 

"Until now 

you have asked for nothing in My name. 

Ask and you will receive, 

so that your joy may be complete.”

John 16:22-24

It says "until now" meaning before Christ we did not ask in His name because we did not have that direct relationship with God given to us.  We could not be God's children because we were sinners.  God and sin cannot be together.  Relationally we were separated from God.  Although God is omnipresent, meaning He exists everywhere, the separation we had with Him was relational...not physical.  We were strangers from God...enemies with Him because we carried the sin of humans in our core.  We despised God because of who we were in relation to Him.  When I go under water as just myself without an oxygen tank, eventually I will want out because I cannot breathe. I cannot exist underwater because I am not capable of remaining there without eventually dying.  In the same way, we despised God before Christ took away our sins because we could not remain with God because of sin.  Our sin made us hate God because it made us unable to live.  We hated and we despised God because we could not stay alive in relation to Him because He is incompatible with sin.  So we had only to live in the world, but because nothing exists outside of God...we had no other option but to die.  It was only a matter of time.  Even now we see that death in our physical bodies will happen in a matter of time regardless of one's will.  

Until now, or before Christ, the world and all of humanity was in this place of God's mercy as God sent prophets and priests to speak to us and lead us toward repentance and life.  But that was always only meant to be a temporary preparation for the grand rescue and cure for our sinful states!  The whole book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy are extensive to show the requirements that were necessary to be helped, but even all those sacrifices were not adequate to remove one's sins completely because we would sin again everyday!  Those were just to show us our true condition.  Our relationship with God, before Christ, was severed by us having sin in us.  God in His great mysterious mercy and grace had bypassed some of that only because He had planned to send His Son to complete our salvation.  Jesus became a human but He also became our sacrificial lamb offered for our sins, just like the sacrifices offered in the Old Testament, but God's Son had blood that was incomparably stronger than the blood of animals.  His blood covered all of our sins.  

So that His death meant our cure and our life.  We could now exist with God relationally as children without sin.  

"Ask and you will receive, 

so that your joy may be complete.”

This last passage is sort of befuddling.  Jesus says to now ask and I will receive, which I understand since I am now asking as a child of God who relates with God in the same way that Jesus does.  And if there is no sin in that relationship then nothing I ask for will be asked in or with sin, but everything I ask for will be good for me.  However, I still ask for things I have not received at the time I wanted them.  But God does not say here that we will know the time we will be given these requests.  He simply says that we are to ask and that we will receive.  No mention of time is given, only that it is certain we will have all that we ask the Father in the name of Jesus given to us by His blood.  So I see that most of my complaining or discontent has much to do with God's timing.  Yet I know not what will happen to me 3 minutes, let alone 3 years, from now...but God does.  If God sees all of my years and all of my days then He must be good to see to it that all my requests arrive in a manner most timely for my good. 

 

"So that your joy may be complete."

Ask God because it is in asking our Father that we begin to be reminded that He is in truth our Father now.  It is in truth that we have been given life eternal with our Father who is God whereas before we were only waiting to die.  Ask God for anything because He is your Father, and begin to gain the joy of having come from sin and death into a new trajectory of going to live eternally as a beloved child of God!  

I can ask because He will. 

Don't be afraid to ask nor disappointed when it does not come at the time you expected, because God cannot lie nor can He be cruel to those that He loves.  He will do what He has promised to do, because He cannot lie, and He will give us what we ask in His time because our complete joy is His aim.  God never misses the target...He controls the wind and the objects and everything we see as out of our control.  

But we are to ask. 

We are to ask God directly in Jesus's name. 

You and I can now talk to God as our good, good Father.  

I will talk to Him now!  

Because I can now, thanks to Jesus who made the way for me. 

 

Jmegrey