Real Radical Love

It's pivotal and crucial! I'm talking about how I live as a follower of Jesus. I'm talking about the church before the watching world. (And, believe it, the world is watching those who claim to follow Jesus and looking for REAL! AND looking for the kind of radical love Jesus has and calls us to!)
In the "Christian world" there often seem to be two choices: living by rules and law OR living in the nebulous Land of Whatever which we may mistakenly call grace..

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. The latest issue of Christianity Today features her and her new book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Crown & Covenant).  (Link: My Train Wreck Conversion (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/my-train-wreck-conversion.html?start=3)

Rosaria's own words are compelling:
As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.

      

Photo by Jimmy Williams

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The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that "knowing Jesus" meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it. ....

 

Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded and naked. In this war of worldviews, Ken was there. Floy was there. The church that had been praying for me for years was there. Jesus triumphed. And I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, he could make right my world. I drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me "wife" and many call me "mother."

I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life.

And my former life lurks in the edges of my heart, shiny and still like a knife.

 

WOW! I know enough theology to know that the Holy Spirit is Who drew Rosaria to Jesus like a moth to the flame and even more surely. But, I am struck by the rest of the story. Like a moth to the flame Rosaria was also drawn to Jesus by the marks of Jesus she saw in Ken and Floy and other followers of Jesus who stepped into her life for just such a time as this.

The radical restoration of Rosaria's heart is a work ONLY God can do but he does use you and me in the process. If we fall down on the side of rules and law, we don't show Rosaria the kind of love Jesus has for her. He takes us just as we are - crippled, lame, blind, deaf and all the rest - especially broken messes! 

What Rosaria saw in Ken, Floy and others was NOT rules and law NOR was it the Land of Whatever! It was true grace lived out in radical love!

Comfort Zones are for Pushing!

I love this story! It doesn't matter if it's true. Actually it is typical of most US Marines I have known. It SHOULD be typical of any heart where Jesus lives!

A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. "Your son is here," she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words several times before the pat...ient's eyes opened.

Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed. All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile. He refused.

Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients. Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.

Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.

Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her, "Who was that man?" he asked.

The nurse was startled, "He was your father," she answered.

"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life."

"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"

"I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn't here. When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed. I came here tonight to find a Mr. William Grey. His Son was killed in Iraq today, and I was sent to inform him. What was this Gentleman's Name? "

The nurse with tears in her eyes answered, "Mr. William Grey........."

Comfort zones are for pushing - pushing to be and do the MOST needed thing whenever and wherever we can!

Catch Me If You Can!

I went to bed weary - very weary - last night --- so weary that I pondered what was wrong. Was it a very busy day? Yep, you betcha! That's pretty much what all my days are. As I pondered I thought of this phrase: Catch me if You can!

Just about every day I blast off to a day that is full and demanding. Do I look over my shoulder as I hurry on my way and shout to God, Catch me if You can! ??? 

Tucked in one of my favorite devotional books - Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles Cowman - is a great quote from which the title is taken:

Thank you, God for weary days, when desert streams were dry. That's when we learned the depths of need Your love could satisfy. Thanks for the rest in You, the weary only know--the perfect, wondrous sympathy, that we must learn below. The touch that heals the broken heart is never felt above. The angels know His blessedness; His way-worn saints, His love (Streams in the Desert).

On the weary days when I'm a bona fide way-worn saint, shouting over my shoulder - Catch me if You can - as I blast off,  what my weary heart and body need MOST is to know His love!  And His love is as close as my next breath! His love will surround me in the blast off and the journey! What I need most is to rest in that love as I hurry on my way!

The Last Laugh!

At times, when life's circumstances feel dark and you are tempted to think the devil has won, consider what James Stewart, the Scottish theologian, wrote,

The very triumphs of Jesus’ foes He used for their defeat. They thought they had God with His back to the wall, pinned and helpless and defeated. They did not know it was God Himself who had dragged them down to that point. He did not conquer in spite of the dark mystery of evil, He conquered through it.

Easter two years ago my husband preached an Easter sermon with the title "Who Gets the Last Laugh?" This was exactly the focus - Satan gloated and thought he had won on that Sabbath after "crucifixion Friday"! But Sunday was coming and - when it came - Jesus arose victorious over sin, death and the grave! He did indeed conquer through rather than in spite of!

What a comfort! He walks beside us through (through the Valley of the Shadow of Death)! How sad that - like the Jesus followers on that terrible Friday evening and Sabbath - we choose to live trapped in the darkness of our own fears rather than living in the reality of Sunday that may be coming but is as good as here!

Jesus the Risen, Conquering King gets the last laugh and so do we if we walk with Him! Choose - with me - to live today safe in this wonderful truth!

What's in Your Heart?

My sweet mother has Alzheimer's.  She often loses touch with the real world. Just last week she woke up and as my sister was getting her up, she sat on the side of the bed and said, "Now give me a report on your daddy." My sister took a deep breath and said, "Mama, Daddy went to heaven on August 5th." My sister says Mother looked at her like she'd been punched in the stomach and responded, "What? Why didn't anyone tell me? I thought he is in the hospital and that you were going to give me an update."

Ruth said, "Mama, the flag that was on his casket is on your mantle." "O, yes," Mother said, "I remember seeing that."

I can hardly imagine the horror of reliving over and over the reality that someone you were married to for over 68 years and in love with for 70 years was gone!  They had an amazing love and next to Jesus my daddy was her world!

Fast forward - same day later. My sister's husband is a pastor and they have a Bible study in their home on Wednesday night. My mother likes to sit in. My brother-in-law told everyone to look up a Scripture verse and Mother immediately quoted the verse before anyone could find it. This happened multiple times. Everyone was amazed.

What a wonder that she who can't process that her beloved Buddy has gone to heaven before her but has God's Word so deeply embedded in her heart that it just flows out!
What's the most deeply imbedded thing in your heart? or mine? It is certainly something to think about!

Gettin' Away with Murder!

Forty years is a LOooooooong time to get away with murder especially in open, perpetual execution! Forty years is a looooooooong time for government and other societal institutions to defend and approve said murder! It's tragically sad but true that in those forty years literally millions of babies have been murdered - some after live birth - simply because it didn't suit someone's expediency for that life to endure!

When I was in Israel I visited the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. There are many striking images to take away but perhaps the most graphic is the entrance that is forever seared into my brain and heart! As I approached the entrance I began to hear names being read - one after another. The entire inside is pitch black except for a single light. As the roll call continues on and on so does the light. The guide says to stay to the right and hold the hand rail. We wound around and around listening to the names in the darkness and seeing more and more candles flickering - lighting the darkness. Indeed the light was pushing back some of the darkness! Actually there was only one candle augmented by many mirrors. The names were the names of many of the children killed by the Nazis during their reign of terror.

This anniversary is no less tragic! The numbers this anniversary commemorates are far greater! But there are no names - no names at all! Millions upon millions of human lives snuffed out with no name!  It is a DARK blight on our nation and our world and society! It is a stain on civilization in our time! Pushing back such terrible darkness will only happen one flicker, one small "candle" at a time!  Jesus called His followers to be light and to reflect His Light - the Light of the World! He is the candle at the center and we are simply the mirrors reflecting His light and love in very dark places!

What's the Answer to Newtown?

Yesterday our collective hearts were broken and our minds were stunned with news of the terrible tragedy in Newtown, CT! There are no words that reach deep enough to encapsulate the grief of parents who kissed their children good-by yesterday morning and sent them off to school never to see them alive again!

Some are making ridiculous statements about the shooter and his life circumstances. Let me be clear: autism (or any Autism Spectrum Disorder including Asperger's Syndrome) does NOT cause someone to do what Adam Lanza did yesterday - if he did indeed was somewhere on the Autism Spectrum. But, Adam Lanza is not where our immediate focus should be!

This may seem controversial but neither should our immediate focus be on the personal and corporate loss in Newtown, CT though my heart and prayers go out big time to the entire community and especially to those who have empty places in their homes and hearts due to this tragedy!

Nor should our focus be on increased restrictions on gun ownership!

Our focus should be on the heart!  The tragedy of yesterday is purely and simply a heart issue!  Sin is ugly - ugly to the bone! Ever since Adam and Eve made a very bad choice in the Garden of Eden, sin has been the greatest problem we face. We may not like that reality but our discomfort doesn't change the truth. The truth is that we need Jesus! We need Him to change our hearts! We need Him to begin the process of restoration - one heart at a time.

I read wise, compelling words yesterday from Mercedes Cotchery:

I do not think gun control is the issue.Man's heart is the issue. People are spiritually depraved on their own. Apart from God any of us can and will do all kinds of things. That is the real issue. We want to worship God however we want to, yet also want to be surprised when things are out of order. We cannot have it both ways. We either abide in his word or sit and watch all hell break loose.

We don't need more laws and fewer guns. We don't need to presume that people who present differently than we do are fundamentally flawed and therefore a danger to themselves and others. We need to focus on the heart - our own first and work from there!

⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Rev. 21:5)

We need to pray that the King of Heaven - Jesus - will begin that process of restoration in me and you! That's the ONLY answer to pain, suffering and loss!