Grief

Grief is such a strange thing. This year I have been reminded of one year ago when my cousin died. I have been wondering why I have been so moody lately, but realizing that this is the anniversary of her death has helped me to get a handle on what I am feeling. It is strange how we can be grieving subconciously, but conciously be unaware of it.

It is difficult to understand how such a tragic and devastating event like that can happen. The one thing I have to remember is that God is good. He does not want to harm us or see us in despair--He wants to give us hope and a future.

Adopted

I had a discussion with a friend last week who was telling me how he finally could see that we as believers are connected to Israel because Jesus (Yeshua) is the Messiah of Israel and we are His children. I don't know how many years I have been trying to articulate that idea to my friends who think I am a little crazy. I thought about the concept so many people have where they think "the church" and "Israel" are two entities that can never mix or else they believe that the former has replaced the latter. Both viewpoints are in error according to Scriputre.

I, as a Gentile believer, am a child of God the Father, who was the One who made covenants with Noah, Abraham, and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. Therefore, if I have been adopted into the family of God (see the writings of Paul), and can call God my Father and am made a co-heir with Messiah, I am in the same family as believing Israel.

As I thought about this more, I came up with the following illustration from my own life. I have two sisters adopted from South Korea. They are part of a very Finnish family. There is no difference in how my parents treat them compared to how they treat me or my biologic brother. They have all the rights and privileges of being in our family, same name, same inheritence, etc. They would not say they are of Finnish ethnicity, but they would say that they feel very Finnish (and for good reason). However, no one could say that they don't belong to our family. Likewise, I would not say that I am Jewish, but I am grafted into the same olive tree through Messiah (see Romans 11).

Waiting for a plane

As I sat in the dusty heat in a Toyota Landcruiser ambulance for a little 6-seater propeller plane to appear in the clouds, I began to doubt. Airplanes in the northern dessert of Kenya are not a common sight. Actually, in the village where I was waiting, one plane lands and takes off only two times a week (Tuesdays and Fridays). The town was about a 2 hour drive in the desert from the village I had been visiting. I was looking in the direction of the "runway," or where I was told it was. It just looked like a flat open space of sand right next to another flat open place of sand. The cattle were walking along a path near it. I guess the people around know that they should chase any animals away when they see the plane.

I was told that the plane could arrive anytime between 11 am and 1 pm (typically). You never know in Africa what type of delays can take place and there is no fast and reliable way to communicate a delay in that part of the country. I got to Korr at a little before 11 am, and we began waiting. I stopped to see someone I had met a year earlier, so I visited with her for about 20 minutes. Then my driver drove me to wait near the airstrip at a Catholic compound where there was some shade. We sat and waited. I kept watching the sky and listened for an airplane. I started to wonder if it was really going to come. What an unlikely place for an airplane to land--in the middle of the desert. There really shouldn't have been much reason to doubt since I arrived in Korr two weeks prior in a little plane operated by the same organization. But for some reason, I really started to wonder. How long will I wait? What will I do if it doesn't come? I started thinking that it really takes faith to believe that a plane will actually arrive. At other airports, a person sees the little monitor telling the arrival/departure times of the plane. We know that those times are obtained through radar tracking and communication with the pilot. I am usually fairly confident that what I see posted on the screen is fairly accurate (unless the word "delayed" is posted behind the flight). This time I was trusting the word of the person I talked to a week earlier.

I realized that day was just a few days before Rosh Hoshana (Sept 2006), where we look forward to the day when the trumpet will sound and the whole world will hear it. I was listening & looking at the sky waiting for a plane...do I wait and watch as intently for the Lord to return? Do I believe God's Word when He says He is coming again? Suddenly, the driver said, "It's coming. I hear the plane." As I listened I started to hear it, but he heard it much sooner than I did. His ear was trained to hear the plane. I want my ear trained to hear the Lord. What a great lesson to learn in the desert.

A Prophet?

Last night I went with a friend to hear a speaker at a "prophetic conference" north of Seattle. We left before he was finished speaking because we were both rather disturbed by what was being spoken. I was mostly upset because he was saying many things that were not Scriptural. Isn't a prophet supposed to speak God's Word?

His main points "sounded right," but when listening closely, it seemed that something was amiss with the message. I get very frustrated with people who act like they are preaching the Word, but only use little bits and pieces out of context to support their agenda. I want people to preach/teach God's Word and not their own.

After seeing these conference go-ers I realize that many of them are just "conference groupies" who travel from place to place chasing after the "next great move of God." I think people should be ready for God to move in your own community in your own congregation. A person does not have to chase after the wind. God will not leave you behind. The speaker last night said his greatest fear was that he would miss out on the next great move of God. I don't believe that someone who is seeking after the Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind will miss out on what He has in store for them. It may not be as flashy as someone else might experience, but God is into tailor-made experiences with Him. He will not leave us behind or in the cold if we are following after Him (which doesn't mean running from conference to conference to "catch the wave"). I would say that if a person is chasing after things of this world, his/her own glory, or pleasures of sin that there is a risk of missing out of being part of what God is doing.

The other thing that was mentioned is that we as believers need to be "culturally relevent." I think this is a great misconception because we are part of the culture, right? I live in this culture in Seattle; I contribute to it. Instead of catering to the cultural norms, I believe we need to be building a culture of Godliness around us. People will notice. If we are living lives of Godly character we will exude his love, grace, and mercy to those around us and it will draw attention. Of course, I believe we need to speak to people in a language they will understand, but I do not think we need to become like the world to win it--that is not Scriptural. We are to "be in the world but not of the world."

Mercy

This past Sunday, my landlady asked me to go to church with her, so I did. I took my big Key Word Study Bible with me because I couldn't find my compact Bible a the time. The pastor was preaching from Matthew 5, and was talking about "blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." After I had my new "revelation" about the word grace, and because I had my big study Bible with me, I decided to look up the definition for mercy in my Strong's concordance as well. The definition of the Greek word ελεέω (1653, 1655) was to show compassion. I wondered what the Hebrew word would be for mercy, so I thought of the verse in Micah 6, that says "...but to do justly, and to love mercy..." I looked up this passage, and the Hebrew word translated as "mercy" is חסד chesed for which one of the definitions is "kindness." I looked at the note in my Bible made by commentator Spiros Zodhiates, who worte on page 1264, "The difference between 'grace' charis (5485) and eleos, is that the first affects the character of a person and changes it. only God can effect grace but we are admonished to show mercy and be eleemones (1655), "mercifiul," to alleviate the consequences of sin."

After further thought on this topic, I believer there are two definitions for each of these words. One definition is related to how we as humans manifest grace and mercy toward each other, and the other more common definition is how God demonstrates these things toward us.

In other words, I can ask God to give me grace to handle a difficult situation, which is asking Him to let His character to be acted out in the situation. That is absolutely wonderful because my own self will typically mess things up. When we show mercy to our neighbor by showing kindness even when they don't seem like someone who we don't think deserves it, we will be blessed.

God's grace toward us is "unmerited favor" or "getting what we don't deserve," while His mercy toward us is "not giving us what we do deserve."

I am amazed that I did not realize until now how God's grace can work in our own lives to show His character to other people. What a beautiful thing.

Grace

A week and a half ago in Bible study, I looked up the Strong's reference (5485) for the word "grace" in a verse we were studying in 2 Thessolonians. The Greek word for this was
χάρις "charis" and one of its definitions was "the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life." This was new insight for me. I had always heard the definition of grace as being "getting what you don't deserve," which is a fine definition, but understanding that grace is God's character being put into action in our lives is really amazing. I pray for God's grace to be poured out in my life.

Alive in Messiah!

A few weeks ago our congregation had a womens' retreat where I had the opportunity to do one of the morning devotionals about the theme, "Alive in Messiah." I felt like the Lord had been little by little putting the message together over the last several years. I will share a little of what the Lord put on my heart to share with the other women.

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1Co 15:22 ESV)

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:4-10 ESV)

What does it mean to be alive? Think about this question for a while.

Have you had times in your life where you said, “I feel alive!?” What were you doing?

Have you experienced times in your life when you felt dead or like you wanted to die? What were you doing?

I am reminded of one person in the Scriptures who went from a major high to major low very quickly. We can read about it in 1 Kings 18-19. Elijah had finished facing off with the prophets of Baal on the top of Mount Carmel where fire came down from heaven and consumed his sacrifice. He slew the prophets of Baal and ran 26 miles to Jezreel where he went into a cave and wanted to die. Why did he go from such a high to such a low? He was a man of God. I believe (this is my own theory) that after this “pinnacle experience” he maybe felt like he had fulfilled what was sent on earth to do. Maybe he thought that there was nothing left for him to do. I think he lost the vision for his purpose.

When we lose sight of our purpose or stop living out our purpose—we feel dead. When we walk out our lives doing what the Lord intended for us, we feel alive.

I will proffer this definition for my question above, “what does it mean to be alive?” I think that being alive means to actively live in the present (not in the past or future) functioning in the way we were designed to function. People have lived in the past and people will live in the future, but they may not be alive right now. Being alive is an active word; it is not passive.