Any counsellor will be able to point to those clients, FUBAR’s to a person, who are impervious to change. No amount of genius on the part of the counsellor, no amount of compassion and caring, no clever turn of a phrase or the “implanting of insight” is enough to bring about healing and resolution. It can be tempting at this point to turn on the client, to reject h/her, to blame and walk away from the relationship.
This of course only happens when the counsellor has lost the big picture; when s/he has lost perspective on h/her own place in the scheme of things.
The same thing happened to Martin Luther.
Shortly after setting a course correction (leaving the Roman Catholic Church) Martin Luther turned his energy on bringing the gospel to the Jews. Certain that the freedom to be had in Christ would be grabbed at by anyone who hears the message, Luther was eager to point the way to salvation. When they rejected what had become HIS message, rather than the message owned and dispensed by Jesus at His discretion, Luther turned on the Jews in such a way that even Hitler was able to use Luther’s writings as a pattern for the Jew’s destruction.
“If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully the thing I want to life for. Between these two answers you can determine the identity of any person. The better answer he has, the more of a person he is.”
Thomas Merton
“What am I living for?” “What keeps my from being fully alive as I seek that goal?”
These are big picture questions. Like all of us from time to time, Martin Luther lost sight of the big picture. Rather than being a player in the big picture story, Martin began to see himself AS the story.
Don’t be a Martin Luther.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Taliban kills Christian Missionaries
It's old news really. Muslims kill ten Christian Missionaries in Afghanistan.
Well, they weren't really missionaries. They were aide workers who were Christians. They knew the rules about proselytising and the rules were not violated, not verbally anyway.
However, when Islam (which says to "kill infidels where ever they may be found") is confronted by Christians who are literally loving their enemies and doing good to those who hate them, well, actions really do speak louder than words.
The Muslims only did what pure Muslims are supposed to do.
Well, they weren't really missionaries. They were aide workers who were Christians. They knew the rules about proselytising and the rules were not violated, not verbally anyway.
However, when Islam (which says to "kill infidels where ever they may be found") is confronted by Christians who are literally loving their enemies and doing good to those who hate them, well, actions really do speak louder than words.
The Muslims only did what pure Muslims are supposed to do.
“Am I Good?”
After retiring, my wife worked for a time as a Teacher’s Assistant. One little boy who came from a really troubled home was barely tolerated by the teaching staff. He was a real pain in the butt - very disruptive. For whatever reason, my wife connected with this kid. She could see the awesome soul that remained hidden underneath the hyperactive, increasingly hard and annoying exterior. Against school rules, Wendy would place her hand on Todd’s* shoulders, stroke his hair, rub his back. One day, as she put her arm around him, Todd looked up at my wife and with a puzzled yet hopeful look on his face, he asked her, “Am I Good?”
Shame and guilt are such ubiquitous parenting tools. In many cases we even use those things to keep ourselves in line.
“What an idiot,”
“That was a stupid thing to do,”
“How clueless can you be,”
are just a few of the comments that people make to themselves when mistakes happen.
Even Christians are not immune. I’ve encountered many Christian clients who would be shamed, even repulsed to say to themselves, “Because of Jesus I possess greatness and glory.”
It’s as though they say, “I’ve been born again,” and not even know what that means.
Weird.
* I’ll call him Todd since that’s his name.
Shame and guilt are such ubiquitous parenting tools. In many cases we even use those things to keep ourselves in line.
“What an idiot,”
“That was a stupid thing to do,”
“How clueless can you be,”
are just a few of the comments that people make to themselves when mistakes happen.
Even Christians are not immune. I’ve encountered many Christian clients who would be shamed, even repulsed to say to themselves, “Because of Jesus I possess greatness and glory.”
It’s as though they say, “I’ve been born again,” and not even know what that means.
Weird.
* I’ll call him Todd since that’s his name.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Extravagant Love!
This series will give real life examples of where our Creator shows us how to love extravagantly. In like manner we are told to give our lives away, to die to self.
A verse from a song by the Newsboys says:
“Dance like no one is looking
Sing like no one can hear
Love like you’ve never been hurt before
Live like you’ve nothing to fear.”
The example of Jesus of Nazareth, our Creator, is to love extravagantly.
It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, He embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.” From Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Church - 2:1-6
Hosea 4:14 - "I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes - a people without understanding will come to ruin!
THIS is love!
A verse from a song by the Newsboys says:
“Dance like no one is looking
Sing like no one can hear
Love like you’ve never been hurt before
Live like you’ve nothing to fear.”
The example of Jesus of Nazareth, our Creator, is to love extravagantly.
It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, He embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.” From Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Church - 2:1-6
Hosea 4:14 - "I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes - a people without understanding will come to ruin!
THIS is love!
Friday, August 6, 2010
No Compassionate God Here
On a blog about Christopher Hitchen’s walk with cancer, and on his article in Vanity Fair, one comment was,
“[Hitchen’s cancer] is further proof that a compassionate God does not exist.”
I couldn’t disagree more.f
IF God exists and IF hell exists, then grabbing someone who is on h/his way to hell and shaking him until You get his attention is the most compassionate thing a loving God could do.
Unlike a car accident, a heart attack, a stroke, or falling down stairs, or being crushed in an earthquake, or being caught in random shooting or any number of ways that our ability to make a decision for God can end suddenly, cancer and almost exclusively cancer gives a person time to contemplate the only two eternal options set before you.
Remember, this cancer will be just the latest, albeit the most dramatic of a long line of warnings that Hitchens has received and ignored over the years.
Hitchens is so far down the “Deny God’s Existence Road” that if there is ANY hope for return, he will need as much time as possible. I can think of few other options besides cancer that will give Chris:
a) a reason to think about the end
b) the time to think about the end, and
c) hold his attention until the end, like the severe mercy that is cancer.
May Christopher Hitchens accept the forgiveness and salvation that is being offered to him right now by the God of all mercy and kindness, patience and grace, compassion and love before it’s too late.
“I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation."
Christopher said he thinks that many people are eagerly awaiting his demise. There may be some. He’s made a lot of money out of creating deliberate offense. This I do know. God is not eagerly awaiting Mr. Hitchens’ death.
“I take no delight in the death of the wicked. So turn from your sins and live.”
To date Chris Hitchens has portrayed himself as someone who will glibly step of the dead body of Jesus just to prove that he is accountable to no one, not even his Creator. My prayer is that Hitchens experiences spiritual healing as soon as possible so that not only his remaining days on earth but from today and on into eternity he may truly rest in peace in the glorious presence of his Creator.
Even after a life-time spent in blaspheming God and mocking, ridiculing and outright hating His followers, the offer of forgiveness from a compassionate God is still on the table -
Only Chris can keep that from happening.
“[Hitchen’s cancer] is further proof that a compassionate God does not exist.”
I couldn’t disagree more.f
IF God exists and IF hell exists, then grabbing someone who is on h/his way to hell and shaking him until You get his attention is the most compassionate thing a loving God could do.
Unlike a car accident, a heart attack, a stroke, or falling down stairs, or being crushed in an earthquake, or being caught in random shooting or any number of ways that our ability to make a decision for God can end suddenly, cancer and almost exclusively cancer gives a person time to contemplate the only two eternal options set before you.
Remember, this cancer will be just the latest, albeit the most dramatic of a long line of warnings that Hitchens has received and ignored over the years.
Hitchens is so far down the “Deny God’s Existence Road” that if there is ANY hope for return, he will need as much time as possible. I can think of few other options besides cancer that will give Chris:
a) a reason to think about the end
b) the time to think about the end, and
c) hold his attention until the end, like the severe mercy that is cancer.
May Christopher Hitchens accept the forgiveness and salvation that is being offered to him right now by the God of all mercy and kindness, patience and grace, compassion and love before it’s too late.
“I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation."
Christopher said he thinks that many people are eagerly awaiting his demise. There may be some. He’s made a lot of money out of creating deliberate offense. This I do know. God is not eagerly awaiting Mr. Hitchens’ death.
“I take no delight in the death of the wicked. So turn from your sins and live.”
To date Chris Hitchens has portrayed himself as someone who will glibly step of the dead body of Jesus just to prove that he is accountable to no one, not even his Creator. My prayer is that Hitchens experiences spiritual healing as soon as possible so that not only his remaining days on earth but from today and on into eternity he may truly rest in peace in the glorious presence of his Creator.
Even after a life-time spent in blaspheming God and mocking, ridiculing and outright hating His followers, the offer of forgiveness from a compassionate God is still on the table -
Only Chris can keep that from happening.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
True Story
A couple we met at the lake have a grandfather (82) for whom “Joy of the Lord” hardly describes his cheery outlook on life. One day, as he was whistling his way through a hardware store, a clerk asked if she could help him. As she was walking with him to the wooden dowel section she commented on his apparently happy mood and asked him, What's up with that? He replied,
“I have the joy of Jesus in my heart. Do you know the joy of Jesus?”
To which she replied, “No, I have to work Sunday.”
True Story
Her answer of course is both funny and sad. Funny, cause, well, it just is.
Sad because we live in a world where commerce is worshipped to the point that we dare not pause from making money for even one day a week.
Sad because people who have never been told about Jesus, may not even get the chance to hear about Him in Church.
“I have the joy of Jesus in my heart. Do you know the joy of Jesus?”
To which she replied, “No, I have to work Sunday.”
True Story
Her answer of course is both funny and sad. Funny, cause, well, it just is.
Sad because we live in a world where commerce is worshipped to the point that we dare not pause from making money for even one day a week.
Sad because people who have never been told about Jesus, may not even get the chance to hear about Him in Church.
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