Category: Recovered Blogs

Help from Above

One of the most uplifting scriptures in the entire Bible is Psalm 121.
Psalm 121 (ESV)
121 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
The writer is not actually looking for help to come from the hills. After all, what can rocks, minerals, and a few scrubby trees, do for us in our hour of need? He was saying that the very act of lifting his eyes to the majesty of a mountain range caused him to remember his help comes from the Creator of the jagged peaks. It caused him to look above and beyond the heights!
Colossians 3:1-2 says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
Now and then, we need consciously to grab ourselves by the chin and tilt our heads to the sky and LOOK UP! Higher than our current chaos, our overwhelming trial, our deepest need, or even our sometimes-trivial existence, there are things that are above, namely Christ seated at the right hand of God.
Hebrews chapter four describes the wonder of that. “14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Christ gives us access to the throne room of God where we can come to receive grace, mercy, yes please and lots of it, but also wisdom because eventually we will have to go out and deal with our situation.
James 1:5 is so encouraging, “5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” This is not just any ordinary wisdom.
James 3:17-18 “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
That harvest of righteousness seems to be uniquely something from above as Isaiah points out in this beautifully poetic verse.
Isaiah 45:8 “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the Lord have created it.”
LOOK UP! God has not only sent righteousness and salvation, but also so much more!
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
The truly good and perfect gifts do not come with price tags and cannot be bought in stores
The privilege He gives us to participate in creation through giving life to our children.
Even those rare, through a glass darkly, glimpses He gives us of true love.
When we feel overwhelmed by flashes of joy, beauty, and wonder that inspire us to keep going, and to keep believing.
The greatest of all gifts He sent was the closer-than- a- brother, forever Friend who more than anything today would like you to look up to Him, and talk to Him. About…whatever…He understands you.

A Place to Stand

This has been one of those weeks. You know the kind, when everyone you truly care about seems suddenly to be faced with something overwhelming or difficult. My sister’s surgery and her continued battle to overcome cancer, my son’s sudden flare-up with his lifelong struggle against chronic allergies, our parents declining health, a loved one’s struggle with faith, a difficult pregnancy for another, as well as important decisions that have to be made in spite of personal exhaustion; it all brought to mind a phrase from an old hymn. “When all around my soul gives way.”

There is only one place for me to stand. No human rescuer has the answer when the storm comes.

  1. My hope is built on nothing less
    Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
    I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
    But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
    • Refrain:
      On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
      All other ground is sinking sand,
      All other ground is sinking sand.

So often, when we are faced with an unexpected crisis our stress reactions, adrenaline, etc. take over and our ability even to perceive God in the midst of our situation is clouded. There is nothing to DO at that point. The answer is simply to rest and surrender on His grace. We do not deserve it, cannot earn it; we can only throw our anchor deeply into it and hold on tight!

2. When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Instead of trying to figure out the plan of God, which we could not hope to comprehend with our limited understanding, now is the time to rest on the truths we believe. We can believe His oath that if we have confessed our sins- He has forgiven them. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

We can believe He covenant that He will never leave us or forsake us. Hebrews 13:5 “for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

His offering of Himself for us was enough. Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

He is our hope!

3. His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

Ultimately, when it is all said and done we will stand before God, and our feeble efforts will not mean anything. The robe we wear will be the righteousness that He alone could give us. He is the only one who can make us faultless before God.

4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

So to all those I know who are struggling, brace yourself on the solid Rock, take your stand, watch all the rest of the non-essentials swirl around you and fall away.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

Matthew 7:24-25 24“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”

Giants!

Sunday morning the pastor of the church we attend, Rev. Neville Tan made a statement that got me thinking, “Giants in our lives can blot out the image of God.” How often in my life that has been so true.

There are times even now when the giants in my life loom so large I feel dwarfed in their shadow, and it seems difficult to see beyond them to the face of the Father.

Circumstances can seem so complex to my feeble understanding that I forget He knows the plans He has for me. Jeremiah 29:11 “11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

He is also still in control. Psalm 103:19, “19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”

Sometimes the giant takes on the face of the opinion or the criticism of another person, which grows so large that I forget whose opinion really matters. Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

 Please God forgive me, and bring healing to those I have wounded, when I have been the face that blocked someone from seeing You!

Hungry giants of need or want can grow so large that I forget the Fathers promise in Philippians 4:19, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Decisions can become giants if I forget that even if I do not always choose well, God can somehow redeem even my stumbling by his grace. Romans 8:28 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Failures are monstrous giants because they cause me to see only myself, my faults, and not my Father’s good plan, which He alone is able to perfect. Philippians 1:6 “6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

The face of a giant can make us fearful because fear is the granddaddy of them all! However, living intimidated by this giant is not what God has provided, 2 Timothy 1:7, “7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.”

What can we do when we find ourselves suddenly in the shadow of a huge threat? We can pick up those small number of weapons we know how to fight with…pebbles…our small store of pathetically learned scriptures… our few feebly sung praise songs… our weak and sometimes wavering mustard seeds of faith…

But we can take those few pebbles and turn to face our monster and shout in his face,

“Who are you to mock my God? I will take you down because my God is greater than whatever giant I face!”

We can start running at the thing we fear with all our might swinging and slinging our pebbles! Because it is not about the strength of our arm, it is about the perfect aim of a God who knows no giant can stand before His child who chooses to believe God is greater!

Down with the giants! (Please be assured, I am not referring to any particular US sport team…)

When I don’t know what I am doing…

Being an introverted person, I have often found myself in social situations where I felt out of my depth. However, I have also enjoyed playing parts in dramas, and amateur church theatre productions; so even if it the settings were uncomfortable I could usually fake it. Maybe the demands of living in another culture have made it too much of a constant challenge or I am just getting too old to keep up the fronts, but I seem to be failing at it miserably lately.

I find myself in more and more settings where I seem to fit like a square peg in the proverbial round hole.  For a person who chronically struggles with attempting to please people and live up to their expectations the result is that I feel perpetually like I am failing God and others. I just could not find my footing, my place to stand; my way to be that did not disappoint and aggravate those around me.

As I walk away for yet another social debacle, I find myself thinking of Christ’s words from the cross when He said, Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If Christ could forgive those who were killing him because they thought they were disposing of another traitor; surely He can forgive me. I know I have not been what others expected me to be; I just did not know what to do!  Every attempt to fit the prescribed box has left me feeling frustrated, and others irritated. I could not figure out the role. In the process, I have let people down and tarnished my witness of the love of God. Can I be forgiven for not knowing what to do?

There are times in life when the way before us seems so confused that to move in any direction seems impossible. In these moments, I long for a Joshua encounter.

Joshua 5:13-15 (ESV)

13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

It has become irrelevant who is right or wrong, who is on what side; please God just show up and take over this battle.  My shoes are off, and my face is in the dust. I confess I do not know how to tear down these Jericho walls. Please forgive me, when I don’t know what I should be doing! 

So, I must trust, Romans 8:26, 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Please Spirit of God; intercede according to what is the will of God for I don’t know what to do!

Take heart my friend, we’ll go together
This uncertain road that lies ahead
Our faithful God has always gone before us
And He will lead the way once again

Take heart my friend, we can walk together
And if our burdens become too great
We can hold up and help one another
In God’s love, in God’s grace

Take heart my friend, the Lord is with us
As He has been all the days of our lives
Our assurance every morning
Our defender in the night

If we should falter when trouble surrounds us
When the wind and the waves are wild and high
We will look away to Him who rules the waters
Who spoke His peace into the angry tide

He is our comfort, our sustainer
He is our help in time of need
And when we wander He is our shepherd
He who watches over us, never sleeps

Take heart my friend, the Lord is with us
As He has been all the days of our lives
Our assurance every morning
Our defender in the night

Take heart my friend, the Lord is with us
As He has been all the days of our lives
Our assurance every morning
Our defender in the night

By Fernando Ortega ©2011

Because I said so!

For the past three days, I have been attending a conference on Christian Counseling and Spiritual Direction. One of the speakers Rev. Dr. Siang-Yang Tan, made a comment that immediately reminded me of a comment another great thinker and former roommate of mine, Gwen Sweeny, had said recently in response to my last post Loves you the Most. 

Dr. Tan was commenting that it is often important to help people find meaning in their suffering. Recent studies have shown that those who rebound more quickly and even experience personal growth through suffering are those who could determine some purpose within the experience. That does not mean that God will answer all our “why” questions. Dr. Tan said the final answer to all Job’s questions was not an explanation. It was a creation-wide demonstration that Job’s mind was too small, too finite to be able to comprehend the answers even if were God to provide them. “Where were you?” when the I AM simply spoke and every molecule of the entire universe came into being! Dr. Tan compared it to the tried and true parental response to the “why”. Because I said so!

I immediately thought of Gwen’s comments,

“Because of my kids I understand my Father better. Why He allows and does the things He does. Because of my kids, I have become a better child to the Father. In that alone my kids have given me more then I could ever claim to have given to them. They have answered so many of the “why” questions of my youth. As a mom, I understand better the answer to the “why”. “Because I said so” does not sound empty and uncaring, but more- I do not have the capacity to understand and just need to trust in the love of a caring Father.”

Amen Gwen!

If only in the midst of our struggles, we could relax from our fevered thrashing in the Father’s arms (Like trying to hold a tired, fussy two-year old!) and just let Him hold us and carry us. Isaiah 30:15“For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength”. But you were unwilling.” What can we learn from those moments when we have to slow down; we have to be still, or our hearts are broken open from having experienced loss or betrayal?

  1. We are not really in control of our lives, or our future. Heb. 2:8 “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.”
  2. We are not indispensible, irreplaceable; the world will keep spinning even if we are not running our little hearts out on the rat wheel of life. Ps. 103 15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
  3. Faith is believing in the love of God as a constant in our lives especially when we do not see or feel him. 1 Peter 1:8-9, 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
  4. Hearts that are hard, brittle with bitterness break more easily. Hearts surrounded by a rigid shell cannot give or receive love until the shell is broken through. Ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
  5. The fellowship of His suffering is the place of experiencing the deepest most intimate moments of the love of God.
  6. What is most important in this world is not what we can gain, accomplish; it really is all about who you know…

Philippians 3:10 (Amplified) For my determined purpose is that I may know Him that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power out-flowing from His resurrection, and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness even to His death.

Yes Father, because you said so…Thanks Gwen and Dr. Tan!

Loves You the Most!

Tangled [1]by Disney was a fun animated movie; I confess I liked it, except for one part. After the evil villain bogus “mother” sings her Mother Knows Best song, they have the following exchange:

Evil villain mother: I love you very much dear

Rapunzel: I love you more

Evil villain mother: I love you most

This dialogue offended me greatly coming from the evil villain “mother” since it has always represented an affectionate moment between my children and me. However, since nothing in our family can remain only a pleasant exchange without becoming competitive, each child attempted to find a better superlative to add to the dialogue. The final winning version ran as follows,

“I love you the most of the best to infinity, to googol, ha ha, I win.”

From that point on, the competition became who could still remember this phrase. (Yeah… we are weird) My youngest gave up recently on even attempting and it made me sad.

I have a son who will be graduating this week, barring disaster and unforeseen circumstances. This son is my true middle child, not the oldest, not the first boy. Since that was also my position in my family of origin there is much I can understand about his struggles. However many parts of his personality come straight from his father. He has a tremendous wanderlust. Checking off new countries visited and new stamps in his passport is a game to him. In fact, everything becomes a game or competition to him, also a trait that comes from his father. He also shares his father’s intense love for all things historical. He loves to debate international politics, but you need a degree in geography to follow his conversations. I assume this would explain why, similar to his father, he has an excellent sense of direction. That should serve him well if he continues to tramp the globe.

He is my skeptic and my risk taker, my Mr. Charisma, which explains why I have been much in prayer for him recently as he will very soon be making his own way in the world. As I prayed today I repeated words that I have prayed many times before, “God, I know you love him the most!” However, this time the answer returned in my spirit,

“Yes, I love him the most, I showed that when I died for him

I love him the best, which means I will always do what is “best” for him, even if that seems difficult at the time.

I love him to infinity and beyond! My love for him will never end!

I love him beyond even googol; I will show my love to him in more ways than you can even count!

Yes of course in any competition of love for my boy, I win!”

 So I sit here with tears on my face committing another child, who never in reality was mine to keep, back into the hands of the Father who “loves him the most of the best to infinity, to googol, ha ha, God wins.”

…but I will still cry at his graduation…

[1]

Tangled. Dirs. Nathan Greno and Byron Howard. Disney. 2010. Film

How do you tell your Mom, “thank you”

My mother is an amazing woman, and today just happens to be her birthday. She never wanted to marry or have children, yet somehow managed to raise seven children. When I think realistically about how difficult it was for her; that feat becomes even more incredible to me.

The church my father pastored was small, the congregation was not wealthy.  Dad had to work a full-time secular job as well as pastor. In the early days, my mother would clean house for his boss’s wife. I still do not know how they managed to feed us. I do know we had a garden, we picked berries, my brother and Dad went hunting for small game. She baked bread and stretched everything to the absolute limit. Even now, my family has decided when the apocalypse hits, we are going to Grandma’s; she will be stocked up and ready.

One of my earliest memories is of my grandmother rocking me to sleep in her old wooden rocking chair. The reason is for that memory is that my mother and father were both working in either the shoe factory or the pickle factory at that time. Olfactory memories are also some of the strongest earliest memories. I remember my mother’s hands always smelled like wet tissues because she had been crying. It was hard, and there were conflicts.  Somehow, God enabled my parents to stick together in spite of it all. Perhaps as children, we should have been shielded from the realities of what they were facing, but there was no way for them to do that. It was our reality, and we just had to deal with it.  

Somewhere in the chaos of trying to keep us all together, my mother, out of desperation I believe, came to a place of total dependence on God. If we were going to survive, God was going to have to intervene in our lives. Each of us was given a Biblical name that had a promise connected in some way to it. We were intentionally dedicated to God. She always prayed that if we were not going to follow God as adults, He would take us to heaven as infants when we were still innocent. We are all still alive, so therefore, we had better live up to her, and God’s expectations.

She also learned to pray continually, fervently, and wholeheartedly. Someday, as one of my favorite preachers says, “I want to see the video” of the lives that have been impacted by her prayers. My mother does not tell people lightly that she will pray for them and then forget about it. She carries them on her heart and lifts them to God continually. She also, whenever it is in her power, puts feet to her prayers. She has taken people into her home, fed them, counseled them, nursed them and covered them with prayer– literally, she crochets blankets for people and prays for them while she makes them. She has never been too busy for anyone in need.

How do you thank someone for being this sort of mother? Impossible really.  However, now that I have adult children myself, I feel I have a different perspective. What would make me feel most blessed by my children?  I know my mother would be blessed if her children would do the following:

Surrender our lives to God and actively follow His will, completely.

Live with awareness and compassion for the needy people around us.

Do not whine and complain, recognize that all we have is a gift from God and be thankful.

Accept the mantle to pray for our children with the fervency and faith that she has shown in her prayers for us.

Share our lives with her. So, yeah, call her more often; visit her as often as humanly possible.

Promise her that she will see us in heaven someday.

Proverbs 31:28-31

“28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women have done excellently,
    but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,
    and let her works praise her in the gates.”

Thank you, Mom!

Keeping it Clean

“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.” ― Phyllis Diller

Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled; the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day. —Simone de Beauvoir

Laundry is, of course a state ,of being never a completed task. The perpetual requirement of housework can be a bit of a grind. No matter how spotless it was five minutes ago, unless you live alone, chances are good it will not remain that way. It seems every time you turn around, chaos theory explodes before your very eyes.  You want to hunt down that bothersome butterfly!

It would seem wise to keep things clean, rather than indulge in sudden manic attacks of OCD. Keeping clean requires a vigilance to detail that does not seem to come naturally to any of the members of my household. Then I face the Shakespearean question- to do (it myself) or not to do (wait for teenage boys to suddenly feel the need for order and cleanliness).

I was thinking of this in a spiritual context today, while I was pondering the futility of cleaning the glass door to the laundry room.  While I was growing up in the church there seemed to be a very great emphasis on initial experiences of salvation, sanctification, total surrender, being filled with the Spirit etc., and precious little on how to maintain and grow in one’s spiritual life. I remember feeling clean on the inside and thinking…what now?  To the best of my remembrance, I was told to read my Bible, pray and share the good news with others. Therefore, I started reading a chapter a day to keep the devil away, prayed until I fell asleep and would have shared with someone if they had asked and I could not find anyone else to help them.

Needless to say, this particular way of Christian living did not lead to overwhelming growth and tremendous spiritual fruit in my life; it also, unfortunately, went on for way too long. Sudden manic attacks of conscience resulting from life pressures would lead me to clean up my spiritual life, but I was not keeping it clean.

Temple cleaning is described in 2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1 (ESV)

For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
    then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you,
    and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”

7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Let me make some suggestions for consideration:

We are more aware of what might be defiling to our body, but what might be defiling to our spirit? What entertainment, fantasies, critical spirit, judgment, prejudices, and plain old mean-spiritedness are putting dark smudges on the windows of our temple?

The other lesson I wish someone had told me is that I was responsible for my spiritual growth, not some other preacher, or teacher. I could be as close to God as I wanted to be, but it was up to me.

James 4:7-9 (ESV) says it well,

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

You draw near and He will draw near.  Whatever works to challenge you to seek God, do it! I found I needed the discipline and accountability of weekly in-depth Bible study. If I am teaching or facilitating the group, I work even harder.

There are also the footsteps of the great followers who have gone before us. Obviously, they figured something out or we would never have heard of their lives.  I started finding my heroes and putting my little size fives into their big footsteps.  At first, when my children were small, I did not have time to sit down and read, so I listened to audio recordings while I worked and cleaned and cooked and drove (well you get the picture).  My children would probably find the voice of Elizabeth Elliot, Corrie Ten Boom and several others familiar if they heard them today. Challenge yourself with those who make you take big steps not just those who make you feel comfortable. 

Everyone needs discipleship, even if they have grown up in the church and heard the stories all their lives. Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I think we sometimes skip over the fact that we will need to be taught to be able to do what He has commanded us. We need to be taught and we need to teach others. Ahead of us on the path of life, someone’s light is shining that we can follow. Behind us, someone is desperately straining to see our light. Let’s keep the glass clean so we will shine brightly before them.

Putting my face on…

It is time for another confession. I am a Christian woman who uses cosmetics. My Asian friends are scratching their heads wondering why that would be a big deal. The do not understand my conservative western church upbringing where wearing make-up put you in the Jezebel and Delilah category. Although, I would hasten to point out that my biblical namesake used cosmetics to her advantage and managed still to intervene and save her people. (See Esther 2:8-9) It all began when we lived for eight years in Mississippi. In that setting, a woman just did not go to work without putting her face on first.

Now, at my age, it has become a matter of alleviating the concern of others. The few individuals who have seen me makeup-less have remarked that I looked very tired. One even asked me if I was ill. Seriously. Therefore, for the good of humankind and the prevention of Yzma-esque reactions from my fellow human beings (living proof dinosaurs once roamed the earth. Look at those wrinkles! What is holding this woman together?)…I choose to indulge in some relatively harmless forms of image manipulation. Although, I will confess to feeling more than a little deflated when one of my beautiful young Chinese friends felt compelled to present me with a gift of anti-aging transforming eye cream, I did recover after a few hours of mourning my lost youth and skin resiliency. After all, it is pretty good stuff and more expensive than I would buy for myself.

The problem with the makeup prone mindset results if allow we that philosophy to infect us spiritually. If I allow the opinions of others to determine my worth based on the youthfulness, or not, of my face; rather than on the ability of God to use me even in my more mature state.

Take Anna for instance. Luke 2:35-37 36 And there was a prophetess, Anna…She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

At eighty-four, she still found a place to serve in the temple and more importantly, she was still watching for the Lord to come. 38 “38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

The other problem is that spiritually if we are never “real”, always putting on a face, we are never willing to be vulnerable and confess our faults, hurts, failures to one another so that others can pray for our healing. (James 5:16) If we never allow others to see us suffering, we miss the support of those around us and deny them the ability to be the hands of Christ to us. (Romans 12:15)

The chief concern would be the idea of presenting a face to God, as if He could not see beyond my pretense of togetherness into the quivering mess of insecurities inside. Hebrews 14:13 says it rather bluntly, “13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” No amount of make-up will ever hide who I truly am from God.

How much better it is to come before him openly, freely, hiding nothing, and as this scripture states, come unveiled.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (ESV)

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

There is only one way to become more beautiful in an aging body; that is to behold His glory and be transformed into His image. Nothing is more beautiful than looking like Jesus. 

Brothers and Sisters

I once had a conversation with a Chinese Christian friend regarding her frustrations with some other members of our local gathering of believers. Attempting to explain the apparent pettiness of the behavior she was observing, I responded that they were acting like siblings in a family. She looked at me blankly. She had grown up under the one-child policy in mainland China as had most of her acquaintances, and she had no context to understand the behavior of brothers and sisters.

Scripture is abundantly clear about how we should be treating one another as the family of God.

Romans 12:10 (ESV) Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

1 Timothy 5:1-2, Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

Unfortunately, many children in the family of God struggle to put into practice the self-sacrifice required to love in this manner, myself included. What prevents us from living this out within our fellowships? I grew up as the middle child in a family of seven children. Often I felt as if I were sitting in the eye of the hurricane as it all swirled around me. However, here are a few observations I have made about siblings that I think could serve as a warning to brothers and sisters in Christ.

  • Siblings can be territorial. If you grow up sharing your room, your clothes, your food, your parents etc., you can long to carve out a space that belongs to you alone.  

Within the fellowship that can mean that, you feel your specific ministry, focus, or cause should have priority when it comes to resources, space, and exposure.

  • Children may bond with one particular sibling at a time. Depending on the child’s needs for a playmate, confidant, defender, or whatever, they may be drawn more closely to one sibling over another. No one could beat my brother Joe for imaginative play, but if I wanted a quiet conversation, he might not have been my first choice.

Within the fellowship, on the positive side, this should mean that we could find someone who will help us with whatever area of struggle we are facing. Negatively, it sometimes means that we only stay close to those who make us feel good about ourselves, which can lead to cliques that exclude and isolate others.

  • Siblings can be brutally honest, even harsh in their criticism of one another while still feeling that they love one another. I am frequently appalled at how harshly my teenage sons can criticize each other’s politics, choices, and ethics (The question last night- who would you be responsible for saving after an apocalypse – nearly developed into one!). Yet how often, privately of course, they express concern about the well-being and future of the other. The philosophy seems to be as follows: I disagree with everything you say, but I love you because you are my brother.

The enemy is determined to divide and conquer our fellowships, by magnifying the minutia to destroy unity.  What we are willing to “die” for, should be the essentials of doctrine and faith, not just our desire to be right and win the arguments. Most importantly, remember, we are blood relatives, by the blood of Christ; we must love one another.

  • Families can develop an isolationist, us against the world, philosophy.  I do remember some epic battles involving swinging purses, battering flute cases, and me ending up with a black eye. While a family may seem to insult one another with abandon, no one from outside the family had better try it! I feel that my own personal family lines were a bit blurry; since we tended to adopt and include others into our clan on a regular basis. There was so much togetherness going on that our friends wanted to join us.

Within our fellowships, yes, we have been called out to be separate from the world; however, there needs to be something that attracts others. The family lines need to be blurry enough to let others into our togetherness regardless of whom, where, or from what they may have come to us.

  • Siblings are forever. At some point, most people will lose their parents, but for the most part, our siblings will be with us throughout our lives.  In these days of social media, it is possible to stay as connected as we are willing to be. Myself, I find great comfort in that fact. Like walking through the wild world, knowing someone’s got your back! Yes, I do realize how blessed I am to have siblings like that.

However, that is exactly my point about the family of God. No matter where you are if you can find another follower of Christ, you have found family. When we first moved overseas, and I was overwhelmed with culture shock, I would find myself weeping whenever I attended church. I know the locals thought I was crazy, but it felt safe; it felt like home.

In spite of the multitude of divisive issues these days, but I found myself wanting to sing this gospel song,

We Will Stand

Sometimes it’s hard for me to understand
Why we pull away from each other so easily
Even though we’re all walking the same road
Yet we build dividing walls between our brothers and ourselves

But I, I don’t care what label you may wear
If you believe in Jesus, you belong with me
The bond we share is all I care to see
And we can change this world forever
If you will join with me, join and sing

Oh you’re my brother, you’re my sister
So take me by the hand
Together we will work until He comes
There’s no foe that can defeat us
When we’re walking side by side
As long as there is love, we will stand