A Broken Vessel - Poured Out

One night, after reading John 4 (the story of the Samaritan) and allowing this wonderful story to work through me, the following "poem" came to me. I immediately turned on the light and wrote it down. Then, after lying back down, it dawned on me that this could be read from either perspective. Christ or the woman. Read it as if it were Christ - then as if it were the woman.

I’m thirsty

So I come here

Alone

Tired

I feel so . . .

Human

You are here

Your very presence

Stirs my soul

I cannot

Ignore you

We speak

And my heart is touched

I am broken

And poured out

By you

For you

It is a divine emptying

Of everything that I am

Finally

Someone who sees beyond

What the others see

You see who I really am

And there is salvation

Even my closest friends

Don’t always see

Who I am

There is more to me

So much more

Than they know

Because of you

Living water flows through me

Bringing healing

Freedom

Release

The others

My friends

They come

They see you

They see me

In a different way

The walls break down

They begin to understand

The harvest

Of the lost

Begins with me

The Eternal Security Blanket Statement

I believe in eternal security. I believe once saved, always saved. I believe that you can't undo a true 'born-again' experience just as a child can't be unborn from his family.

That being said, it really bothers me when people use this as a security blanket for someone who claims to have the experience but evidences no fruit - not even a desire for fruit - yet feels that they still fall under that decision. I think that this mocks what it means to be truly born-again, to have an encounter with Jesus that rips your insides right out of you and you are never the same again.

It's not just some eternal security blanket statement that you make that covers you forever.

I don't mean that there are no stumbles and falls. The Bible never teaches that - as a matter of fact most of Scripture is directed to the stumbling child of God, not to the unbeliever. But when you are truly 'saved' I believe that His Spirit is sealed within you (Ephesians 1:13) and that even through the stumbles you are constantly pricked in your heart by Him. You can't really 'get away' with these things, He doesn't allow it.

But there are many who don't have this inner grief over their failures. These are the ones that I wonder about. In our desperation to get everyone on the salvation bus, we cut way too much slack for those who make a claim but never have an ounce of desire for Christ and holiness after that.

In my humanness, I want everyone safe and settled, but it's not called "The Narrow Gate" for no reason.

On another note: this is a follow-up from last night's Bible Study - the more I read Romans 9,10, the more I realize what Paul is saying. He's saying that though he is desperate for his countrymen to be saved, unless they can acknowledge that "Jesus is Lord," they have missed and are out of the hand of God. No amount of zeal or good intentions will allow them to cross that border. They must be funneled through Christ and Christ alone. One moment of simple faith of a Gentile is worth more than 75 years of good intentions from a pious Jew. This basically puts to rest the struggle I have with the "Good people" vs. "Bad Christian" argument. It's not a question of goodness - it's a question of being in Christ or out of Him.

This is a hard pill to swallow from the outside. That's why it's called foolishness to the Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews. (I Cor. 1) But again, it isn't called "The Narrow Gate" for no reason.

Just Men

There is a mistaken ‘face’ to Christianity today. It is a screaming face. It is a political face. It is an in-your face. It is the face that the public sees in the newspapers and on television. It’s the preacher who rants against sins that he himself is living. It’s the holy crusader who fights battles against machines while his very human neighbors die in their sins. It's the face of the sign-holding warrior hell-bent on his cause. That’s the face that ‘they’ see. It's the "issue" face, not a "personal" face.

But this is not the face that I see. I see men and women who live quiet, humble, holy lives before the Lord. Men and women who love God and love their neighbor, who seek the good of their God, not of their own agenda. I see ‘just men’ who live righteous lives without demanding this same righteousness from their government or their media. (It's a face that doesn't feel the need to blog so that everyone can know what they're thinking!)

Why don't we get that face out into the world? For two reasons: One, the world is not interested in the normal Christian life - it's not glamorous or controversial. Two, that face goes out one person at a time. To their neighbor. To their co-worker. To a friend or relative. It's a face that seeps into the world bringing Christ to individuals, not into the mass-media.

It's the face of Christ being worn out on His people. It's a beautiful face.

The Almighty Duller

I was reading a wonderful story last night on the life of Oswald Chambers. He struggled from years 23 - 27 with an inner turmoil that was hindering his walk. Everything on the outside looked great, and people were constantly praising him for his spirituality, but he was struggling with spiritual pride and an inner sinfulness (like Romans 7) that was killing him from the inside out.

As I was reading this, a flash of spiritual enlightenment and desire gripped me. I understood! I knew his struggle, I felt his pain, I desired the deeper/fuller walk with Christ that Chambers ultimately found while walking the hills of Scotland. In spite of the praise that pastors often receive, I know my own tendencies. My entire being was awakened and I fell into prayer and it was wonderful. I could feel God ripping apart things and drawing me into a deeper understanding of Himself.

And then . . . TV. I could hear a show on in the other room, my mind drifted to it and I ended up going in and watching it. I could feel the stupor coming over my entire body as my senses became dulled to His Voice. The light was gone. The edge had been smoothed down. I was sunk - and I knew it.

Satan, you will not "dull" me to sleep!

I write this as a reminder to all (3) of you who read this. Do not let Satan use his dulling techniques and cause you to lose those 'flash moments of light" that God gives us once in awhile. You know the ones - where you're reading, or praying, or just meditating and all of a sudden you 'get it.' You shake, you stand up, you pray, you write - you want to do something that keeps the moment alive.

But Satan will fight this with everything he's got. And TV is one of the best weapons in his arsenal. I've written in the past about the "Faint Blue Glow" that emanates from houses up and down my street at night. The glow of the television as people are steadily and often irreversibly dulled to sleep each night, isolated and alone, thinking about nothing.

This is no deep-thought blog - just a warning. I think if you're honest you know exactly what I'm talking about. Keep your senses sharp - stay in His Word - and stay away from the Almighty Duller.

Christian Robots

I'm reading the story of Saul's conversion in Acts 9 and I'm struck at how God takes the intense personality of Saul and uses it for His own purpose and glory. He doesn't change Saul, or soften him, or mold him into the "good Christian man." He picks him up, cleans him off, repurposes him, and lets him loose. The same zeal that brought him into Christian homes to kill them brought him into non-Christian homes to save them.

I think about this a lot as a parent. I have four kids with four very different personalities - personalities that simultaneously drive me crazy and bring great joy to my heart. I don't want them changed - I love who they are - I want their minds transformed so that these wonderful personalities can be infused with the Spirit and used for God's good and perfect will. (Romans 12)

I see too many parents / churches / schools spend all their time quenching the spirit out of kids and trying to create a race of Christian robots, where all thoughts, mannerisms and personalities are the same. Look this way. Think this way. Act this way. And heaven forbid if anyone steps out of the church box - panic ensues among parents and church leadership. They love the safety of the conformity.

I love the personalities of my kids - and I hope the Christian world doesn't snuff out their uniqueness. What a boring Christian world we have when we do this.

A True Conversion Chart

As I was preparing the eulogy for my Aunt Kay, I began thinking about different funerals I had seen. I once attended the funeral of a young person who I was not sure was ever truly saved. Their parents were clinging to the hope of a claim their child made when they were in elementary school. But the fruit . . . well, I’ll let God judge. I hope that this person was saved, and certainly believe that they could have been. But the uncertainty weighed very heavy upon me during the entire process.

What causes anxiety and depression in your life? What causes a lack of peace? It is uncertainty, when we just don’t know the answer to something or how something is going to work out.

Certainty = Peace

I came to realize that in all the grief over Kay’s funeral, there was a peace that hung as a covering over it. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” I knew that she was a Christian. How? Because of her life that followed her conversion. There was a clear, marked change. She was living proof of a true conversion. All uncertainty was removed.

It started me thinking about conversions. You are not expected to walk in uncertainty – you need to know that you are saved. So I developed the following conversion chart. Where do you ‘lie’?

Grade 3 Conversion: Emotional and Empty

This is some quick decision (usually made in about the 3^rd grade, thus the title) and is followed by the signing of a card, a walk to the altar, a 3-step prayer – maybe even a baptism. But there is no fruit that has ever followed, no hungering for more of Christ, no change in life. It was an emotional response that had no real substance to it. I do not believe this person is truly saved.

Why? Because Jesus said so. “A good tree will bear good fruit.” (Matthew 7:17)

Grade 2 Conversion: Anger and Agendas

These people display all the ‘gifts’ but have no ‘life’ to match it. They move mountains, they clang the cymbal, but there is no love, just anger.

I Corinthians 13 is not a reality in their lives. They spend their church lives pushing agendas, not Christ. Are they saved? That’s between them and God – but again, the fruit is not there.

Grade 1 Conversion: “I’ll take it from here.”

This person is one who may be truly saved by the grace of God. They have a real ‘moment’ of conversion, but that moment is followed by a lifetime of ‘effort’ to prove that they are saved. This person begins in the Spirit, but spends their entire lifetime in the flesh. (Galatians 3:3) To be truly victorious, you must submit your life to His Spirit – after you’re saved.

True Conversion: A Clear Point of Change

With this person, there is a definitive point of change. The ‘moment’ is followed by a life-time of hungering after God and a Spirit-filled walk. Not a perfect walk, but one that is sensitive to His Spirit at all times. All of their thoughts are of God, all of their conversation will naturally center around Christ. You can see Him in them.

Why do I bother with this chart? Because I’m worried. The older I get, the more I walk with God, the more I realize that nothing else matters until you know that a person is truly saved. You need to know – you are expected to know. God does not want us living in uncertainty. Please-examine your life. Are you simply relying on a ‘moment’ - a Grade 3 conversion? Or have you really, truly had a life-changing moment with Jesus Christ. It’s too important not to know for sure.

I John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”