There's this verse in the Bible that says that God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. This is great news. This makes me very happy and very glad that I serve a God who has incredible mercy, grace and has placed that much value on me.
However, I've been thinking about how Jesus told us that He came to give us life abundant. And I started wondering. What does that mean? Does that mean that abundant life is struggling to feel His presence, trying to live right, trying to take care of my business and just get to the end of life.
What if God wants to pour out miracles in our generation? What if He wants us to take risks and to live in His abundance. I know that part of that is His grace and discipline and mercy, but I just can't shake the feeling that if the garden of Eden was the perfection of creation, and by that I mean, if it was what God wanted, then I'm led to believe that intimacy with God is what we were created for. His provision. Our obedience, His love, His power, our submission, our acceptance, His transformation.
I'm desperate to know what intimacy with God is like. I don't want to look back on my life and wish I would have been closer to God.
I just needed to get that off my chest.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Challenging prejudice and a little clarification
Okay. God's really been trying to get my attention lately. Sad to say since as we follow Christ we are supposed to be in the most intimate of relationships with Him.
In any case, I have these times where God takes me through things for the express purpose of ridding my heart of more of the blackness that persists and clings to me like death itself.
More often than not, He's not doing it because He's angry. It's almost as if He's saying "Tyler, I need to get rid of this in your life so that you and I can be closer because this is stopping us and it's breaking both our hearts."
Sometimes these revelations are for just me, and sometimes they apply to the world I see around me and this is one of those times.
God has been challenging me to look at my perspective of love.
Backtrack: This story starts at Home Depot Training about 3 weeks ago. We were doing this activity called respect for all people and the HR manager was leading it. So we get to talking about functioning as a team and how inside of that team, we can't be walking in prejudice over one another and God just decks me.
See, it turns out that my HR manager is a lesbian and, my oh my if that isn't the cardinal sin in the Christian world. I'm sitting in this room and I start to think of all the anti-gay protests, all the battle against same sex marriage, all the hatred towards homosexual people and God just says to me, "Tyler, do you love this woman?" He didn't ask it like somehow I was more honorable if I did. He asked it like He loved this woman and if I loved Him, than I needed to love this woman. It was like He said right to me "Tyler, have you stopped to see this woman as more than just someone who is homosexual?"....... I wish I could say yes, but the fact is, I'm prejudiced. I label people..... correction..... the vast majority of us label people. And we have no place for prejudice in our lives as followers of Christ.
God is challenging me to clarify what it means to love. So often, Christians associate love with the salvation of Christ. Not so. Did Christ save us because He loved us? Absolutely. Is that the only way that He loves us? Absolutely not. What about conviction? What about provision? What about leaving the 99 for the 1. These are ideals of the love of Christ that I think more often than not are overlooked or ignored for the sake of us living in prejudice.
We are no better. You can sit there and say that I would never be homosexual, make up lies like this person, pick up a prostitute, get drunk at a party, cheat on my spouse, look at pornography, but, outside of the life of Christ in you, you have no right to be that arrogant. And even with the life of Christ, you have no right to be that arrogant, because it's not even your holiness that makes you function the way you do. It's the Holy Spirit.
We have no idea what has led people to where they are today. Maybe they were abused and they don't know where to find love. Is protesting where they are finding it drawing them close to the love of God? Do you ever see Jesus protesting people's decisions with marches or petitions? Or is He making relationship with the people that He has come to save and clearly and boldly, but also gently and lovingly telling them that they need to find their fulfillment in Him.
Jesus told people very clearly what He required of them. "If you love me, you will obey what I command." It's in the book of John. But us responding in love was not a pre-requisite to Him loving us. Jesus died once for all because God so loved the world. You can't tell me that isn't applicable to drug addicts, abusers, homosexuals, liars, cheaters, people full of pride, the religous. Notice how everyone is in the same sentence. It's because we are all the same in God's eyes. Short of His glory. He's not mad about it though. In fact, He's made a way back to Him, also referred to as life abundant in the new Testament.
That leads me to this question. Think of the person in your life that you dislike most. Would you die for them? That's unconditional love. Would you die for them to experience life abundant? Or would you just make judgments and petitions and protests.
Christ loves us all unconditionally and while that love is associated with redemption and salvation, His love doesn't guarentee those things. What guarentees those things is relationship with Him. Not even deeds. Jesus tells a parable of people doing great things in His name, healing, taking care of the needy and God's words to them are "Depart from me, I never knew you."
Love is His gift to us. It's not then ours to bestow upon those we think are worthy, because we were never worthy of it either.
So stop the prejudice. Stop looking at people and only seeing the one thing about them you know. Stop seeing a homosexual and start seeing a hardworking person, who loves horses and ranching, and who needs the love of Christ and relationship with Him just as badly as you and I do.
Oh that we would actually love like Christ.
In any case, I have these times where God takes me through things for the express purpose of ridding my heart of more of the blackness that persists and clings to me like death itself.
More often than not, He's not doing it because He's angry. It's almost as if He's saying "Tyler, I need to get rid of this in your life so that you and I can be closer because this is stopping us and it's breaking both our hearts."
Sometimes these revelations are for just me, and sometimes they apply to the world I see around me and this is one of those times.
God has been challenging me to look at my perspective of love.
Backtrack: This story starts at Home Depot Training about 3 weeks ago. We were doing this activity called respect for all people and the HR manager was leading it. So we get to talking about functioning as a team and how inside of that team, we can't be walking in prejudice over one another and God just decks me.
See, it turns out that my HR manager is a lesbian and, my oh my if that isn't the cardinal sin in the Christian world. I'm sitting in this room and I start to think of all the anti-gay protests, all the battle against same sex marriage, all the hatred towards homosexual people and God just says to me, "Tyler, do you love this woman?" He didn't ask it like somehow I was more honorable if I did. He asked it like He loved this woman and if I loved Him, than I needed to love this woman. It was like He said right to me "Tyler, have you stopped to see this woman as more than just someone who is homosexual?"....... I wish I could say yes, but the fact is, I'm prejudiced. I label people..... correction..... the vast majority of us label people. And we have no place for prejudice in our lives as followers of Christ.
God is challenging me to clarify what it means to love. So often, Christians associate love with the salvation of Christ. Not so. Did Christ save us because He loved us? Absolutely. Is that the only way that He loves us? Absolutely not. What about conviction? What about provision? What about leaving the 99 for the 1. These are ideals of the love of Christ that I think more often than not are overlooked or ignored for the sake of us living in prejudice.
We are no better. You can sit there and say that I would never be homosexual, make up lies like this person, pick up a prostitute, get drunk at a party, cheat on my spouse, look at pornography, but, outside of the life of Christ in you, you have no right to be that arrogant. And even with the life of Christ, you have no right to be that arrogant, because it's not even your holiness that makes you function the way you do. It's the Holy Spirit.
We have no idea what has led people to where they are today. Maybe they were abused and they don't know where to find love. Is protesting where they are finding it drawing them close to the love of God? Do you ever see Jesus protesting people's decisions with marches or petitions? Or is He making relationship with the people that He has come to save and clearly and boldly, but also gently and lovingly telling them that they need to find their fulfillment in Him.
Jesus told people very clearly what He required of them. "If you love me, you will obey what I command." It's in the book of John. But us responding in love was not a pre-requisite to Him loving us. Jesus died once for all because God so loved the world. You can't tell me that isn't applicable to drug addicts, abusers, homosexuals, liars, cheaters, people full of pride, the religous. Notice how everyone is in the same sentence. It's because we are all the same in God's eyes. Short of His glory. He's not mad about it though. In fact, He's made a way back to Him, also referred to as life abundant in the new Testament.
That leads me to this question. Think of the person in your life that you dislike most. Would you die for them? That's unconditional love. Would you die for them to experience life abundant? Or would you just make judgments and petitions and protests.
Christ loves us all unconditionally and while that love is associated with redemption and salvation, His love doesn't guarentee those things. What guarentees those things is relationship with Him. Not even deeds. Jesus tells a parable of people doing great things in His name, healing, taking care of the needy and God's words to them are "Depart from me, I never knew you."
Love is His gift to us. It's not then ours to bestow upon those we think are worthy, because we were never worthy of it either.
So stop the prejudice. Stop looking at people and only seeing the one thing about them you know. Stop seeing a homosexual and start seeing a hardworking person, who loves horses and ranching, and who needs the love of Christ and relationship with Him just as badly as you and I do.
Oh that we would actually love like Christ.
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