What's Your View of Lamaze?

S - Luke 1:37-38, 45 (NLT): "For nothing is impossible with God." Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true." And then the angel left. … You are blessed, because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.""

O - Abraham was the first to hear the words from God about God that nothing is too hard or impossible for him (Genesis 18:14). It was spoken in reference to the long awaited and physically impossible birth of a son. Mary hears these words and though the means of conception will be very different the impossibility is the same. The conclusion of Elizabeth, heaven and the Scriptures is that Mary is blessed (like Abraham) because she BELIEVED the Lord not because she bore the Christ (the entire human race will be blessed because she bore Jesus). The distinction is NOT subtle nor a semantically inspired exercise in theological hair-splitting. While faith will always lead us to certain actions and activities, the God-pleasing is always in the person to person believing. Many people act "for" God and yet are full of unbelief. Their actions may even be the very same of those who do believe (babies have been born since Adam and Eve) but the reality here and hereafter will never be the same (Hebrews 11:6).

A - The question is not what am I willing to sacrifice for God nor what am I willing to do for him … the question is will I take him at his word and believe that NOTHING is impossible, too difficult nor too wonderful for him to do? This believing is not relegated to certain times, events or situations. This believing is about every day while it is called today … and this is the God-pleaser because it keeps our hearts as open to him as his is to us. This faith brings us face to face with him who wants us and calls us to live with him, work with him, live in him for ever and ever. This faith is us taking him at his word the same way he takes us at ours … if we repent, he forgives; if we worship he receives; if we pray he will hear us. He does not call me to figure out what I can do for him … he calls me/us to believe that he can do anything and then calls us to do it with him. Jesus makes it clear that the work of God is to believe! This is the life of faith that Jesus lived and the life he calls all who follow him to live as well "As Father sent me so I am sending you."

P - Lord of all including the impossible,

Today is my only day, my only touch with you, eternity, faith, mercy, and forever life (vibrant, refreshing, irrepressible). This is my day to welcome you and your will on earth into that which is impossible, difficult and too wonderful for me. Lord, I do believe! I will do the work of believing and ask that I may understand/see what you are doing so I may do it with you. Thank you for NOT calling me to work for you but with you via faith … just like Mary and Abraham. I turn to you the face and throw open my heart, my very little life and all that is in my sphere of influence and say … my answer is yes … I welcome new wineskins, mulberry trees in the ocean and that which is too wonderful for me.

Thanks for wanting me,

Steve

Wanted: Forget Dead, Only Alive

S - James 2:20-26 (NLT): "Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless? Don't you remember that our ancestor Abraham was declared right with God because of what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to do. His faith was made complete by what he did--by his actions. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: "Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous.” He was even called "the friend of God." So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. Rahab the prostitute is another example of this. She was made right with God by her actions--when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. Just as the body is dead without a spirit, so also faith is dead without good deeds."

O - While the good deeds of faith includes how we respond to the poor and to our neighbors it is not limited there. Abraham's "good deed" was taking Isaac up Moriah. Rahab put her life at risk and this is the faith which engaged the righteousness God gives and accepts. Faith, without which we cannot please God, is pervasive, all-encompassing and always required of us (from first to last). It is by grace but not without choice and the choice of faith will always lead to action. Faith, genuine faith (i.e. living faith) will always engage:
1. obedience which puts the command of the Lord above his promise.
2. fierce personal loyalty to the Lord above his greatest blessings.
3. the need to obey today above the hopes and dreams of tomorrow.

Both Rahab and Abraham took their futures (and the futures of their families) into their own hands and believed God. They took him at his word. Faith really is acts of obedience followed by acts of God and if God doesn't act we're COOKED (Romans 1:5).

A - Without acts of obedience faith isn't faith at all. Since everything in God's Kingdom lives (living stones, bread, water, sacrifices, hope) my faith must live too. Faith without deeds is not even existing … the Scriptures identify it as dead, regardless of the information it contains or the truths it affirms. With Abraham and Rahab I am in such a season of intentional activities which require God's acts too. The bouts of apprehension, pain and fear are actually signs of life rather than doubt or unbelief. The dead feel nothing at all. Doubt and unbelief rationalize obedience away to inspire disobedience or a compromise of partial obedience which is not obedience at all (e.g. Saul and Agag - 1 Samuel 15). In spite of how it feels, living faith acts in the obedience which demonstrates the fierce personal loyalty the Lord gives and deserves. Living faith will say with the Shepherd King "the time I am afraid I will trust in him." This is my assignment today, in this challenging season and every day while it is called today.

P - God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rahab, David and James,

Thank you for being my God too! Thank you for your gift and requirement of faith and for giving me the opportunity to live this out loud in this season of time. Abraham and Rahab demonstrated the faith which results in righteousness by their acts of obedience. Such acts not only confirmed their faith in you but brought about the affirmation of your friendship and secured their future in your awesome will. Lord, for me, my Jan our Jake and Heather and for all with whom we have to do, please let me live out the faith you give and require. I am waiting with you, not just on you. I am welcoming your promises from afar and mixing them with faith. I am asking you for new wineskins, mulberry trees in the ocean and for that which is too wonderful for me. The time I am afraid I will trust in you.

Steve

Hard not Broken Hearts are Really a Problem

S - Exodus 9:27-30, 33-35 (NRSV): "Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Pray to the Lord! Enough of God's thunder and hail! I will let you go; you need stay no longer." Moses said to him, "As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your officials, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God."…"So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and stretched out his hands to the Lord; then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down on the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned once more and hardened his heart, he and his officials. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses."


O - This exchange between Pharaoh and Moses happens as a result of the plague of hail. Barnes notes: "With the plague of hail begins the last series of plagues, which differ from the former both in their severity and their effects. Each produced a temporary, but real, change in Pharaoh’s feelings." And this is exactly the point. The fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord which is actually life giving, life sustaining and vibrantly effective in and through human beings is NOT emotion or circumstantially based, though it can inspire very strong emotion. The fear of the Lord is based upon the Lord; the Lord who never changes, who is almighty and all merciful, who is awesomely brilliant, powerful and good. Emotions change; circumstances change; but he does not and neither does this requirement. The failure of Pharaoh is the failure of many people from the poorest of the poor to the rich and powerful; the human heart is headed toward hardness all on its own and will inspire the tragic misperceptions that leave lives in ruin … the presence of this essential quality (the fear of the Lord) is the only cure and preventative. My Working Definition of the fear of the Lord: the wholesome dread of displeasing the One I love.

A - The most painful condition for us humans is a broken heart, but it is not the most serious. The hardened heart is the most serious and this is one which only has one cure. The cure is not reserved for "bouts" of hardness but must be a consistent element if one is to gain and maintain a healthy heart. The fear of the Lord (not emotionally based), the humbling of self (not circumstantially based on good or bad events) will soften a hard heart and keep a healthy heart soft. Like most things in the Kingdom of Jesus, the truth is straightforward and the challenge is in the application. I need to choose and the Holy Spirit needs to empower my choice … it's all by grace but not without choice … I choose.

P - Lord who fashions and shepherds the heart,

I do choose to engage the wholesome dread of displeasing the One I love because you have loved me first, most and have refused to change your mind. I ask that you will put the Holy Spirit on me, in me and cause Him to flow through me unto real life, refreshing, vibrant and resilient. As I continue to follow you into the unknown and uncharted ways of this new assignment I need my heart healthy and in-tune with you and your purposes to me and through me. I need to humble myself under your mighty hand and not allow circumstances to drive me but your greatness, brilliance, goodness and power to lead me. There is so much I do not know and many new circumstances which are coming my way. Lord you know how I am made and the way I will naturally default to … even trying to do it as you would have me to. Let me be one with a soft heart, a vibrant heart, a heart where you feel at home -- regardless of my current emotional status. I ask again for open doors and open heavens; for you to do wonderful things, things far beyond me. I welcome your promises from afar today while it’s called today and embrace the unchanging truth that you are purposeful in everything you cause and in everything you allow. Thank you for letting me love you back and letting it mean something to you:).

Steve