image courtesy of Dosso Dossi

Many in the liturgical tradition are celebrating Saint Bartholomew today. This is one of the lesser known apostles as he doesn't have a speaking part in the Bible. Tradition of him is also limited although there is some indication that he went north into present day Turkey in the region of that was once part of Armenia. There is also some indication he took a copy of Matthew's gospel to India. What we do know is that he took to the message of Christ out from Jerusalem.

With that awareness the liturgical church takes inspiration from his example and prays for the same behaviors and attitudes in them. I think it is a beautiful aspect of the Christian life that many of us are not exposed to. Below is an except of the Book of Common Prayer for this day. May you find inspiration and help in your prayers through the history of the church that has gone before us.

The Collect.

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach thy Word; Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church, to love that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Epistle. Acts v. 12.

BY the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

image courtesy of FamilyLife

In the garden God said it was not good for man to be alone. Man had perfect communion with God, but God said He was alone. Then He creates woman as a help-mate for him. The answer to man’s loneliness was not more of God; it was woman. Isn’t that strange?

Unfortunately, it did not take long for the oneness between man and woman was jeopardized. The forbidden fruit was eaten, and shame and blame enter the garden. Separation occurs between God and man, but it also occurs between man and women. “This woman, she…”

So many of us thought that marriage would be the answer to the pain in our lives. We saw our spouse as the miracle drug to end all of our loneliness. Unfortunately, marriage is often the source of greater loneliness.

The point is God created marriage for oneness, but sin distorts God's plan. Sin and shame keep us from moving out of our shell we have created to protect us of exposure and pain. As we remain isolated from our spouse, additional pain and shame are added to it. Then we pull even more away into our protective shell. We are on a deadly spiral, and we need something or someone to stop the bleeding.

God in His masterful plan usually puts two people together that are perfectly matched to heal all of the pain. The thing is that in order to enter into that healing there needs to be tiny deaths to self along the way. Are you going to choose to deny yourself to allow healing to flow? When your spouse shares their struggles with impure thoughts, are you going to offer grace or shame? When your spouse tells you about their eating disorder, do you offer love or condemnation? When your spouse confides with you their fears, do you offer words of life or dismiss them as unrealistic?

The right choices above are usually not easy because it is those areas of hurt in your spouse that fed the areas of hurt in your life. You have to choose life for your spouse because even though attacking them feels like protecting you, it will hinder any chance of either of you to find freedom. Take your fears to Jesus. Allow Him to protect you. Then offer life to your spouse.

Jesus is better at protecting you than you are anyhow. Therefore you are able to move toward oneness.

• Additional Resource: When Opposites Attract in Marriage (via FamilyLife)

image used courtesy of Project M: Marriage Blog

Recently God is putting a lot of people in my path that are struggling in their marriages. There is a consistent encouragement that God has been allowing me to share that I think appropriate here.

Many people with marriage issues face an emotional rollar coaster. Good days and bad days. The good days are encouraging, but they are also emotionally draining because you just do not know what you are going to get. Some days your spouse thinks you are the source of everything wrong; other days they are offering hope to something better.

What is going on? Is your spouse bi-polar? How come you do not know what you are going to get?

On those good days, your spouse is living out of their true self. All God’s works are wonderful therefore when our lives reflect the fruit of the Spirit, we are living out of who God created us to be (Psalm 139:14 and Galatians 5:22). Even if your spouse is not a Christian, deep down God has created in them the desire to have a good and healthy marriage with you.

Since this is God’s will for your spouse, the enemy will try to steal, kill, and destroy it (John 10:10). He is feeding lies into your spouse about you, them, and your marriage. Therefore the ups and downs in your marriage are your spouse’s choice over which voice they will listen to.

Now before you think this is only a matter of spiritual warfare, your spouse does have responsibility in the matter. And, choices they have made in the past allow the enemy greater influence.

Let’s say your spouse had a father that constantly berated them saying they would never amount to anything. Therefore they grew up with many lies about God and themselves. One would be that God would never come through for them. What happens when there are difficulties in the marriage? The enemy feeds into those lies saying it is not going to work out. God is not going to protect you. You might as well give up. Your spouse is out to get you. They don’t believe you will amount to anything anyway. You don’t need that kind of pressure.

Because of the events of the past and the lies they already believe, the enemy’s lies are now amplified to a degree that they cannot hear the voice of God.

What are you to do? Choose not to respond in like form. When they speak these lies to you, do not get angry. Do not defend. Respond in love. Always proclaim your commitment toward the marriage. In prayer take authority over the enemy reducing his ability to speak to your spouse and to you. As you deny the enemy’s ability to speak, then the voice of God will be able to penetrate easier to your spouse.

This is not a magic pill. Your spouse still has the choice of whose voice to listen to. But you will be preparing the ground for a better harvest. You can plant the seed, till the ground, and water the plant, but only God causes it to grow. It is the pleasure of God to change lives. And, even if your spouse decides not to change, God blesses those who choose to give life to others. Rest in His ability to protect and provide for you.

• Additional Resource: 10 Things to Pray for Your Wife

"No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him." - 1 John 3:6

Have you ever been reading the Bible and been stopped by a verse? Look back at the verse above. Are you kidding me? I do the best that I can, but I know that I still sin. Am I to believe that I have to be perfect to have known God?

For those familiar with this passage it starts out by the great love of the Father lavished on us and is followed by a call for us to love. in the middle is this section that those who sin are children of the devil and the children of God don't sin.

Now, I am in love with my wife. I know that I have been given a great blessing being married to her. I really do not know how to love anyone else more. Even so, just coming off a move, she asked me to do some things that in the heat of the moment where anger and frustration started to rise. In that moment God was giving me a glimpse to an area in my heart that has not truly seen the fullness of God's love.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." - 1 John 3:16

John, in his inspired wisdom, is helping us to see sin as a tool of growth in the Lord. Before he looks at sin, he reminds us of the great love of God our Father. In the middle, he reminds us of the great expression of love of God the Son. And at the end, he reminds us of the gentle reminders of love from God the Spirit. Bathed in love, John can have us look at sin without the discouragement of condemnation.

What is John trying to say? Do not look at sin as something you need to remove solely on your own! Ask God what is hindering you from seeing Him completely which is leading to sin.

Take a look at the image above. As the sun was descending, mountains started to block the light and colors. In the full light of day, there were no shadows, but as the sun moves throughout the day, shadows comes and go. God works similarly in our lives. He is moving the light of His presence around in our lives to show us areas still untouched by His love. We are not to shrink back in shame when we are exposed. We are reminded of His complete love for us, so we can come to Him for not only exposure, but cleansing.

"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." -  1 John 3:21-22

Cleansing leads us to confidence before God. We have opened ourselves to His correction and felt completely loved. As we move out of that experience, we know we are children of God, and we can ask anything from our Father who has moved every obstacle for us to experience the fullness of His affection for us.

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When I was first on staff with Campus Crusade, we were trained to ask people the following question to initiate a gospel conversation: "Have you come to know the wonderful adventure of knowing God personally?" While I did know God personally, I lacked the experience of it being a wonderful adventure. Sure I was grateful for knowing my sins were forgiven and that I would enjoy eternity in heaven, there was still a little disconnect between eternity and the here and now besides just keeping me out of bad choices and a fall back when I did not know what else to do.

Looking back on my life and experiences, I can say that it is definitely a wonderful adventure. The things God had led me to do and go are for me exciting. As a quick example, I have been married for 13 years during which we have moved 10 times... with several month long stays in between. All this has come up in my mind again because next Monday we are moving yet again.

He may not make you move at all as you journey with Him, but I have found that He is unpredictable in His predictableness. I may count on His love and faithfulness, but the way He chooses to show them to me are rarely the same.

I believe the book of Joshua is a good example of how we are to live out this adventure. Joshua is one of the two spies that go into the promised land and comes back ready to take it. He knew God's call for the Israelites and wanted to move forward in faith. Unfortunately he had to wait 40 years in the wilderness because of others unbelief. Finally, he gets the green light and also gets tapped to lead the people in. He gets the clear directive on how to cross the Jordan in the land. As they followed the clear directives, God miraculously stopped the flow of water. God was leading them into Canaan.

God then delays the first battle to get all of the men circumcised leaving them in enemy territory vulnerable to attack. Again following God's directive and not man's wisdom.

Then as they prepare to take Jericho, Joshua seeks God's direction and finds a new plan. Again Joshua had clear directives and again God worked miracles causing the walls to fall down before them.

Now the Israelites' confidence was running high, so as they went to fight the city Ai, they planned out what seemed best. Unfortunately, this time they did not seek out God's direction and lost many lives. It turned out that someone was carrying around plunder from Jericho that they were told to leave. After seeking God's direction, He lets them know the issue and they correct it. Now they sought God's direction again about how to fight Ai and they completely destroy them.

Feeling good about themselves again, the Gibeonites came up to them and easily deceived them. Not seeking God's wisdom, they make a treaty with a nation they were to destroy. But then mercifully, the other nations find out about the treaty and attack the Gibeonites.  This time instead of trusting in man's wisdom, they sought God and found out that they were to maintain their treaty and go protect the Gibeonites.

The point I am trying to make is that even though Joshua could rest in the promise that God was giving them the land, he still did not know how God was going to give it to them. And the real adventure was not taking the land God had given them, but finding out how God wanted them to take the land.

The Christian life is an adventure because we are following a God that is creative in how He deals with us. Sometime he wants us to walk around the city; sometimes He wants us to go out and fight; sometimes He wants to make the enemies fight themselves; and sometimes He wants to throw huge stones from the sky. We just don't know what He wants to do, so we live the life of faith continually asking Him what is the next step. We can trust that God wants to lead us into winning our battles, but He wants us to win on His terms.

For me and my family, following God has meant a lot of moves. Each step along the way He has had something new and different for us. New people to meet, new experiences to develop us.

Don't be so wedded to your conception of what is next that you become angry and confused when He takes you on an adventure and even more blessing. Others have also been led on crazy adventures, but you only get to the Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11 by being faithful building boats in deserts.

Pete Greig of Campus America wrote a great blog post the other day on the Holy Saturday or ... the day before Easter. He entitled it Where is God When Heaven is Silent? and I believe this is the struggle of many Christians. We are living in what seems to the second day world and trying to generate third day faith. I encourage you to read it.

If you are not familiar with Campus America, here is a video clip of their vision statement. Pray blessings on their ministry. Go after it!

image courtesy of HolyLandPhotos.org

As a Christian you just have to love Easter. It is the celebration of the transaction that defines what we believe. I hope that you yesterday you were able to be reminded of extent Jesus has gone through to show you His love and to show you your freedom.

During the worship time yesterday, the music led into a line about God has moved away the stone. Immediately I thought that this represented the stone God removed from our hearts.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh.” – Ezekiel 36:26

This is what Easter is about. It is when God has removed our hearts of stone to give us hearts of flesh. He has pulled back the stone that has deadened everything inside of us to allow the air of His Spirit in. O Lord, breathe new life into us. May we be awakened to that which You have created us.

In John 11:39 Jesus had another stone removed away, and He follows it up by calling out the dead man.  Our hearts are tombs because it is where all of life dwells and without the Author of Life living inside, we are the walking dead. As Christians we have the stone removed, but we need to come out. We need to hear the voice of Jesus and to step forth into life.

Life does not come from what we can muster or from what we can avoid. Life comes from the connection to the Spirit who has entered the tomb to lead you to your new home – the heart of flesh.

We need to step out of the old ways of thinking. Life does not come from success. It does not come from hiding away from the things that have caused us pain. It does not come from effort or striving or trying to win favor.

Just as your relationship with Christ started by faith, it also continues in faith. Taking on the heart of flesh requires moving out of the heart of stone. The stone has been removed, but you need to move out of the tomb.

Ask for the Holy Spirit to reveal to you areas where you are living out of a tomb instead of new life. Look for areas where you are living out of fear as these are clues that death is present. Ask Jesus what you need to know or experience to help you leave that way of thinking and living. Go to someone you trust and have them pray with you and stand together with you as you make these steps of faith.

Leaving behind old ways of thinking is not easy. Dead men need help. Remember even when Jesus raised Lazarus He still had the others help Lazarus remove the grave clothes (John 11:44). Work out you salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you (Philippians 2:12-13).

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Sometimes I am struck about how important forgiveness is to Jesus. In some case it seems to predicate our forgiveness (Mark 11:25). And other cases it seems that it protects us from the attacks of Satan (2 Corinthians 2:10-11). I recently came to new understanding on the power of forgiveness from the story of the Joseph.

As the story goes, Joseph quickly goes from living under the favor of his father to being rejected by his brothers and living as a slave. His bad circumstances became worse in Egypt as he goes from slavery to prison. We must realize that just because we read this account in a few minutes of our time, Joseph life played out for many years. He had day after to day to think on his rejection... to think of how life could have been.

So finally at the end of Genesis Joseph is second in command of all Egypt and his brothers come to him begging for forgiveness (Genesis 50:18-20). Does Joseph brothers deserve the forgiveness? Does Joseph have the right and power to execute judgement on them. God had elevated him to this position, could he now take his revenege on them? In the natural, we can answer yes to each of these questions. God could have rightly executed his brothers for their sin.

But, this is the part that strikes me... If Joseph had done this, he would he killed the line that Jesus was going to come from. Jesus does not come from Joseph's lineage. It is Judah. If Joseph had not forgiven Judah, our hope would have ended.

Think of Jesus statement on the cross (Luke 23:34). "Father forgive them..." Jesus, of course, has every right to withhold his forgiveness on the those actively killing him. If he withhold that forgiveness, we will all be left without access to God's forgiveness.

What I get out of all this is if I am withholding forgiveness on anyone for anything, I could very well be hindering God's provision and plan for me and/or for those I care about. The path of life is found through forgiveness. We cannot neglect this. It is too important. If you hold anything against anyone, forgive them now. Forgive your enemies, your teachers, your father, your mother, your sibilings, your spouse, your boss, your children, your ex, yourself, etc. Be thorough. Forgive everyone for everything.

In human reasoning, you may have every right to not to forgive. But in the spiritual nothing will hinder you from experiencing the fullness of God more. If you are having trouble forgiving, ask God for help.

As long as you are withholding forgiveness, you are trusting in yourself for your protection. This is a role only for God. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe (Proverbs 18:10). Forgiveness does not mean I will let you hurt me again. It means I will not hold myself as a judge over you. Again, this is God's role not ours. And, if God finds it in His heart to forgive...

This morning I got John Eldredge's newsletter in my email. I felt it went along with the post yesterday on hope: An Anchor for the Soul, so I have included the email text below.

Things Are Not What They Seem
3/17/2010

What do all the great stories and myths tell us? What do they have in common? What are they trying to get across? Wherever they may come from, whatever their shape might be, they nearly always speak to us Three Eternal Truths. First, these stories are trying to remind us that things are not what they seem. There is a whole lot more going on here than meets the eye. Much more. After the tornado sets her down, Dorothy wakes and steps out of her old farmhouse to find herself in a strange new world, a land of Munchkins and fairies and wicked witches. The Land of Oz. How brilliant for the filmmakers to have waited for this moment to introduce color in the movie. Up till now the story has been told in black and white; when Dorothy steps out of the house, the screen explodes in color, and she whispers to her little friend, “Toto . . . I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

Isn’t this the very lesson of the Emmaus Road? You recall the story—two followers of Christ are headed out of town after the Crucifixion, as dejected as two people can be, with every reason in their minds to be so and more. Their hopes have been shattered. They staked it all on the Nazarene, and now he’s dead. As they slump back toward their homes, Jesus sort of sneaks up alongside, very much alive but incognito, and joins their conversation, feigning ignorance—and they not seeing it is him.

We live in two worlds—or better, in one world with two parts, one part that we can see and one part that we cannot. We are urged, for our own welfare, to act as though the unseen world (the rest of reality) is, in fact, more weighty and more real and more dangerous than the part of reality we can see. The lesson from the story of the Emmaus Road—the lesson the whole Bible is trying to get across—begins with this simple truth: There is more going on here than meets the eye. Far more.

(Waking the Dead , 26–27)

I have heard said that the biggest problem in the church today is that it does know how to differentiate the voice of God and the voice of Satan. I would like to argue that this statement is correct.

We know that Satan is our accuser. He is looking to steal from you, kill your desire, and destroy your life. He hates you. How can the church possible mistake that terrible voice with the loving Father?

Easy, we think they are our voice. Have you ever had thoughts of shame, depression, and unworthiness? Where do they originate? Do you really hate yourself? Does God hate you? No, Satan is the one who hates you. He is the one who wants to see you fail and wants to keep you from walking into all that God has for you.

How do we differentiate between the voice of the enemy and the voice of God? The more we know the character of God; the more we will know His voice. God loves us. God is for us. God believes in us. God will lead us to hope and life. (If you doubt any of this read Romans 8 multiple times.)

This is so important because you will live out of the voice you are listening to. If you believe the lies Satan throws at you that you are worthless, a failure, and that those you love would be better off without you, than you will not live out of the unique calling God placed into your life. Instead you will try to be whoever you can that would cause you the least amount of pain. If you believe that if people knew the real you they would reject you, then you will always live your life behind a mask so nobody would ever know the real you.

So how do you know which voice you are listening to? Look at the fruit. If the thoughts are leading you into life, peace and freedom, it is from the Holy Spirit. If it leads to depression, pain, fear, and immobility, then it is from the enemy.

Even conviction can come in either form. True conviction comes not at the sound of God’s displeasure in us, but at the moment He turns the light on brightly enough for us to see our imperfections. His light does not expose us in anger but in love wanting us to correct the errors keeping us from more of Him. He exposes unhealed issues in our hearts, so we can bring them to Him for healing. Without the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we do not change and grow. Satan is the one that points out sin to shame us and create fear that will lead us away from God and others.

It is important to discern the voice of who is speaking to us. The voice of God, even when exposing sin, offers hope and life. The voice of the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. Whenever you recognize the voice of God in your life, embrace it freely. If it is from the enemy, reject it boldly (2 Corinthians 10:5).