Lost Coins

When Jesus Throws A Party!

2011-07-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

A Celebration of Luke 14:7-24

When Jesus throws a party, he'd rather celebrate His creative genius through honoring His guests than being in the limelight himself. As a matter of fact, every person He sees carries enough unique potential in his or her being worthy of a real celebration. He is totally excited about spotlighting you at his party and anyone who may have been missed. Yes, the people who are most important to Him are usually at the fringe of the crowd or camouflaged in the shadows. He's just itching to show off His brilliant creativity through each one of them and to enjoy the warm smile of the Father over their lives. His best celebration is you! Why do you think He endures all the mess on this globe? Because He knows our potential and where we are headed. He knows our spiritual DNA, the genetic imprint of the divine upon us. It’s more than spectacular!

But I wonder if Jesus did throw a big shebang of a party, would we really show up? Remember, the party is all about enjoying Him through us and us because of Him! But might'nt we squabble for the best spots or, even worse, be too busy to realize we are already highly honored guests? It’s even more likely we'd forget to invite a few who attend the local children's outreach because their parents are drunks. Or, what about the lady down the street who has been divorced for three years because her husband used to beat her? She's still not very friendly, and frankly her frown is all we know about her. Those very folks may be our high dollar ticket to all the fun and feasting. Bringing the "unlikely" with us is a sure sign we understand what kind of party we are showing up to in the first place: it's about celebrating the Father's love over others. The more we do that, the more we get celebrated ourselves! That's why Jesus, who is putting on all the festivities, doesn't mind being the best servant to every guest there. The more He celebrates others, the more wild joy about who He is rocks the entire crowd. Have we ever considered a drug-addicted killer from a cartel in Mexico may be on God's Top 10 "Rescue and Love" list in Heaven? Let’s bring someone like that with us and watch the raging celebration erupt!

A Kingdom MLM works something like this: the more unlikely people you invite, the more God is able to highlight the work of His Most Famous Son in them. As we celebrate them, essentially honoring Jesus in them, it elevates our status as guests of honor. Then, all those folks bring their friends, and the party grows to be huge and the joy becomes massive. Because the Father’s palace is extremely spacious, the saying, “the more the merrier” fits well. And for every new reveler, some of their gladness and heaven's increase comes back to you! All of us introverts don't need to worry at the thought of crowds and noise…there are plenty of nooks and crannies and hidden garden alcoves if you'd rather have some quiet moments with a few friends. Papa God does His parties right.

Guests of honor are like Jesus: they celebrate others first. They come to serve, not to be served. They see the Father in the most unlikely. They live in a raging current of heaven's gladness!!

An Interplay Of God’s Attributes

2011-03-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

The characteristics of the Godhead are mutually intelligible. What I mean by that is to say that even though some of them appear to be different on the surface, they all make sense in light of each other and are compatible and complementary. None of them contradicts the rest and all of them are sub-dialects of central characteristics of God such as “God is Love” (1 John 4:16).

An attribute like solitariness is very similar to holiness when applied to God because holiness means set apart as wholly other than and entirely different from the “norm.” Whenever something is uniquely set apart, it also becomes at that moment solitary. When something is solitary, it is no longer like a tree in the forest, but a tree outside the forest, and its vision is vast and far, which reflects God’s ability as sovereign to see and act from a much different perspective than humanity.

God’s holiness, His “wholly other-than-ness” is most distinct in that He is a relational being who enjoys immutable love within the Godhead. Mankind has been relationally dysfunctional since the fall. We struggle between man and man and God and man and are rarely consistent or equitable in showing or sharing love. God is perfectly fulfilled and content within His triune fellowship, never reflecting a hint of friction or dysfunction. He has no need of us within His inner circle of absolute love that makes Him wholly unique and other than us, yet it is exactly because of this holy fellowship that He shows us mercy.

Holy love focuses its attention inwardly and outwardly. Because love is both of these and God is unchanging, it is part of God’s eternal nature to create objects of His love. Though the Godhead is forever happy and complete in the divine rhythm of the love of the Father, Son and Spirit, He also reaches outside Himself to give still more. He delights to show mercy because the nature of love is to give abundantly. Though there is no actual shortfall or need in God, He will always give and create more than He needs because holy love is extravagant beyond measure.

Mercy, then, is an act of one who has no obligation to act on behalf of another, yet still chooses to do so. Mercy is not driven by God’s need, but rather by the overflowing holiness of a God who is free of internal conflict and abundant in complete love. God is the “cup that runs over.” He is more than simply 100% full. He is 100% in overflow. All of His divine characteristics come in extreme measure: He is super-unique and ultra-abundant.

So mercy is the Niagara Falls of God Himself reaching out to His creation through Jesus, whose name is Savior. “God Saves” (AKA “Jesus”) is our most common name for God in the flesh. To save means to rescue. To rescue, in God’s case, is to show mercy, since He has no actual obligation or debt towards mankind. As the One whom the Father sent to save, Jesus is passionate about rescue…which creates a mandate for His people to become rescuers, too.

It is my privilege to work and minister under this rushing, overflowing cascade of God’s mercy. Our mission at Divine Inheritance involves rescuing child soldiers in some of the darkest corners of the earth. It is God’s mercy to us that we can experience the exuberance of heaven in every rescue. I pray that as you read this, you too will pursue a lifestyle of rescue and ride out upon the mighty, thundering waters of God’s mercy.

Jehovah Jireh –God Sees (Goodness Part Three)

2011-01-31T13:18:00.000-08:00

"A good name is to be desired more than great wealth” (Proverbs 22:1). We are the Father’s children and all God’s names are like family surnames we all can gladly and proudly wear. In an earlier post, I examined how God descriptively named himself “El Shaddai” to disclose his goodness. Now I’d like to look at a second name of God that, like El Shaddai, is one of the very first revealed names of God. It is also a conclusive name of God like El Shaddai (the Lord Almighty) in that it appears again alongside Shaddai as one of the very last names used in the New Testament. This name is Jehovah-Jireh, which I propose, is the Old Testament’s forward-looking description of Jesus, the Lamb.

You know the story of Isaac’s “almost” sacrifice and how at the last possible minute an angel intervenes and shows Abraham a lamb that God has provided to redeem a nasty situation. Genesis 22:14 says, “Abraham named that place ‘God-Yireh’ (God-Sees-to-It). That’s where we get the saying, ‘On the mountain of God, he sees to it’”(The Message). It was at this moment God first named himself Jehovah-Jireh and gave us a new name in which to take refuge (Proverbs 18:10).

The concept of “God Sees,” however, is first presented in Genesis 1:3-4 after God spoke, “Let there be light,” then “he saw” that it was good. This was more than a casual observation; this seeing was clear comprehension and understanding. The first time God saw the light, the prophetic implications blazed in his heart. The first act of creation was so powerful, so saturated with latent goodness that it still has impelling impact all the way into the distant day when the Lamb will be unveiled, brighter than 10,000 suns (Revelation 21:23).

One clear reason why God can claim his thoughts are not our thoughts is that he understands the power of goodness; he views the entire scope of history and how even “one cup of water…will not lose its reward.” (Mark 9:41) Yes, don’t lose heart my friend: God makes sure our small efforts count. Abraham’s encounter with God was smack in the middle of his own culture. Biblical sociologists believe that Abraham could have been acting out a ritual offering common in that day: a custom of sacrificing the firstborn to God that even the firstborn would believe held great honor, similar to how a young jihadist may consider the honor gained by being blasted into charred hamburger as a living bomb.

Yet even in the midst of something so very dark and evil in a culture, God saw: he looked beyond the surface to a heart cry for redemption. In those moments, Abraham gained revelation of a God who sees into the murky place where humanity struggles, ill-equipped to right evil. Abraham comprehended that God saw far-reaching goodness when He spoke “Light!” as Creator into that young, moonless, sunless creation.

Abraham then realized the forthcoming time the Lamb of God would walk on the earth and he was elated (John 8:56)! He even saw the day of the Lamb as the centerpiece of the heavenly city, according to the author of Hebrews 11:10. He saw a future time which John the Apostle also saw and recorded in Revelation 21:22: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”(ESV) He saw all of this because unexpectedly, on an isolated hilltop in a moment of “almost-child-sacrifice,” God named himself “Jehovah Jireh" (the God who Sees).

The succeeding verse in Revelation 21:23 proclaims the fulfillment of God’s “seeing the light was good” at the dawn of creation: “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”(ESV) The great Lamb is now the Lamp of the heavenly community so that they can also see the beautiful power of goodness with the same cleared-eyed vision he has.

There is a heavenly courtroom scene in chapter 5 of John’s Revelation. The courtroom is a whirl of commotion as they are frantically looking for someone to open the last will and testament of the cosmos. John is distressed. Suddenly the entrance of the worthy one, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the great and long-expected messianic warrior is announced. John looks up and to his shock sees not a warrior lion but a young, sacrificial lamb on the throne. Its throat is severely slit and blood is seeping out.

For John, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is now redefined as the Lamb of God. He is a worthy Judge because he has borne all evil, yet never once become tainted or distorted from overexposure to its toxin. He is the Lamb who has seen humanity’s darkest moment when they killed their Creator, yet has forgiven all men. He has forgiven them so utterly that there is absolutely no hint of corruption in him. From here on out in John’s apocalypse, the Messianic deliverer, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, is never mentioned. Instead, the Lamb of God (i.e., Jehovah Jireh) is now the terrifying conqueror. But he is a conqueror we can trust. He has seen our worst and forgiven us.

It is because the Lamb of God has emphatically given us the perfect picture of absolute forgiveness by His conquered cross that he possesses the right to justly and mercifully bring his rule of peace. It is because he has seen the evil of the human heart and still chose to die, redeem and deeply love us. In Abraham’s day, he saw the solution to child sacrifice and today he sees a way out for a young mother considering abortion. We have a Jehovah Jireh who sees right into our “now.” Into the very circumstance of our lives that lock us down and defeat us. He knows the way forward. He is the burning Lamp of God’s people.

If we could encourage our little hearts to grow hugely larger in the belief that El Shaddai and Jehovah Jireh are at work in our world, what kind of people would we be? What if you believed in a Jesus who really sees you right now in a deep, scary and intensely kind and merciful way? How about a Father God who easily masters overwhelming chaos for our unimaginable good? A heavenly kingdom, perfect in beauty and goodness that wills to fully fuse its presence into the physical realm? “If God is for us, who can be against us?” This is truly what Paul means when he reflects in Romans 8 how nothing could tear us from God’s spectacular love. Goodness is too powerful.

The Lord sees and all is well with my soul.

An Assassin Turned Rescuer

2010-12-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

Stories of Rescue 4th Installment

I know at first glance it feels distracting to hear a story and care for somebody on the other side of the globe. You don’t even know them, so why should you care? God uses a multitude of stories about people we don’t know. They are threads creating the weave of scripture. Life stories that warmly yet sometimes painfully make us care as we realize someone cares for us. My hope as we cross into the New Year is that we would be inspired by fresh stories of rescue and redemption that elevate our faith for even greater exploits in the coming days. Edgardo’s story is one such example (name changed for security).

One side of my head was having a conversation with the other as I listened to Edgardo’s story. “This guy should really be in jail,” I thought. “He’s extremely dangerous!” I observed the cautious glances of his eyes, the conditioned and controlled motion of his body. He was a professional. He had assassinated so many people that he should be a hardened shell. But instead, I watched him continually tear up as he told his story. You see, Edgardo is a former child soldier and assassin who is now one of our key workers in the Philippines. He was instrumental in helping us launch our child soldier rescue project there in early 2010.

Edgardo’s constant training as a killer began at a very young age. He spoke of the day his father pulled him by his small hand to the riverbank to gaze at the bodies of his three aunts who had been raped and killed by the opposition army. It was in those broken moments he plunged down the precipice of hatred for the outsider “Christians.” Every day, his father would take him to the beach and have him shoot bottles out of the air. When he missed, he was punished. By 12 years old, Edgardo was a skilled gunfighter and sniper. He recalled his triumphant assassination of a 40-year-old “Christian” at age 14, which he carried out by emptying all 30 rounds of his M-16 magazine into the man.

He then shared about how a decade later a different Christian from his own culture spoke simple words that jarred his soul. This man was a senior leader among his people, so he was required by honor to listen to him as he told the story of Messiah who triumphed over the need for revenge and offered a path to heaven that was not earned by giving death to the “unbeliever.” This micro-narrative was the story that not only had ultimate cosmic impact, but it was the one that gently crumbled his resolve as a hardened killer as well.

Back in my head again, I heard another side of my internal argument as I began to visualize the story of Paul the apostle. Paul made more than a few people in the Jerusalem church uncomfortable, too. A few of them could have said, “Hey! That man killed my daughter!” Or, “The fiend beat my brother bloody, what is he doing here?” As I considered Edgardo’s story in light of this, I couldn’t help but notice how it really is a story of the kingdom of light plundering the kingdom of darkness: the former child soldier and assassin is now a rescuer of the same.

Doesn’t Edgardo’s story retell the power of the crucial story of scripture? The Good News that our God forgives and his vibrant gift of forgiveness through Jesus is strong enough to redeem and rewrite every story in the world into a celebration of love. These stories of rescue belong to us. Rescue is in our blood. Our DNA is of Jesus. The majestic blood that flows in us is from a Savior, a Redeemer, and a Rescuer. That is His name and so also it is ours!

You can visit www.DivineInheritance.com to learn more about our work.

Stories of Rescue (Installment 3)

2010-12-29T12:38:00.000-08:00

Today I'll introduce you to former child soldier, Peng, in a simple yet profound story. It is a short story—only a couple minutes’ read. This story struck me as so profound when I first heard it because in a moment of desperation for a young boy, the grace of God intervened…all because his people were engaged in bringing justice.

Peng (as we’ll call him) is another young man who had a story to share. Peng’s parents had been forcibly conscripted into the army to pay off taxes levied by wealthy landowners, at which point his entire family became slaves of the army. Shortly after, Peng’s parents were shipped south to the warfront in 2003 while Peng stayed in the care of his 15-year-old brother. His parents both died in a firefight, which Peng and his siblings learned some months later when a soldier showed up at the door of their hovel in the military camp. Since the army had custody of him, Peng had nowhere to go and was shuffled over to serve as a water boy for a military officer. During that time, he saw hundreds of other kids suffering as they trained for war. After losing both his parents to war, the harsh life of a soldier was the last thing he wanted. But soon Peng heard the dreaded news that he too was to enter training as a soldier. His life was already difficult enough with little food, having to sleep on a wet mud floor at night and hauling heavy water buckets for hours every day.

A teacher connected to the military/government base happened to live a couple houses from where Peng worked. One day out of desperation, Peng mustered up the courage to visit the teacher and tell him boldly that he felt he could serve his country better by going to school. Little did Peng know, our team was already in negotiations with the army at this point, and the teacher recommended Peng for our education project since he had received little training as a soldier. So, missing soldiering by the skin of his teeth at 11 years of age, Peng came to us with the 50 other children we officially received through our initial negotiations with resistance and drug cartel armies in 2005.

Though I’ve heard more dramatic stories from child soldiers, what struck me about this boy’s life was grace. He was orphaned because his parents became enslaved to an army because of debt. He himself was at extreme risk of becoming a soldier as a child, but we happened to be there at the right moment by God’s grace to spare him from what would have been much more difficult story, filled with the horrors that accompany child soldiering.

Yes, I see the amazing grace of Jesus written all over Peng’s story like the red ink of an extraordinary editor. God sees what happens in one child’s life in a remote jungle of a forgotten corner of this earth. By the mercies of heaven, may we somehow see too.

You can learn more about how to help at www.DivineInheritance.com

Stories of Rescue (Installment 2)

2010-12-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

What is it about rescue that rocks our world? Those times when we felt that there was absolutely no help for us…when someone stepped in, took our hand and helped us find hope and a true friend. Who is this “half-crazy” God who leaves the 99 sheep at risk of predators in the mountains to rescue the one? He is the same God who throws a massive, joyful party when the rescue of that little one is accomplished.

In continuation of our installments of micro-narratives, I am sharing some stories from our interviews earlier this month. May they pierce our deep places with truth and be God’s sword of love in our souls and spirits. These stories came from an interview with our country director, who has worked with us since 1998. After we listened to stories directly from the children, he also reminisced about the time in 2006 when he and more than 30 of our key leaders were imprisoned in a military prison compound for distributing bibles and preaching the good news.

The circumstances were dismal, but he labored all day—every day—without complaint and scrounged for weeds to eat in the evening, sharing what he had. Bit by bit, he cleaned out the dirty hovel that was their shelter and continued encouraging his team members to serve willingly and trust God. He gradually gained the trust of the guards and was allowed to hold small gatherings to worship and pray. His joy was infectious and it piqued the interest of the young boy soldiers that lived at the army base. Every night, they would drift in to visit after his toil in the fields. He said the one thing they asked him about over and over was, “How do we escape?” It was their constant dream. He was released after a month and a half of the negotiations our team leveraged through a local government leader. He recalled that when he began his hike out to the pickup point, the young soldiers threw their guns aside, chasing after him, weeping and calling him father, begging him to not forget them. Their cries and questions of escape still echo in his ears.

During their captivity, our director and team shared their quarters with a lady who had been imprisoned for buying young children in Bur-ma and shipping them into a human trafficking ring in Chi-na. As this woman grew to trust him and the leaders imprisoned there, our country director experienced the wonder of leading her to the feet of Jesus. She explained a lot about how human trafficking rings work in the region. Her own role was to find about 10-15 young kids a year to sell to the middleman she worked for. Because she had a long-term sentence, this lady’s hands and feet were shackled. Our country director spoke again of his release and how she also ran after him weeping with the child soldiers. She stumbled every few meters as she ran and fell facedown in the mud because of her shackles, but she got up again and again to run after him, crying out for mercy and for him not to forget her.

I am sure you can imagine a portion the depth of what stories like these do to the person who lives through them. Perhaps through these narratives you can begin to understand why it is necessary that we live a little bit too much on the edge and why I bawled my eyes out (again) while retelling this story of the former trafficker and child soldiers. These stories paint a small part of the picture of why we partner with Project: AK-47 to sell dog tags at www.ak47tags.com so that people like you can tell the stories of these unrescued children who have no way to tell their own stories. Maybe stories of this sort make it clearer as to why I’m willing to travel all over the globe instead of being home every night with my awesome family. Stories like these are the reason why we find it necessary to continue the conversation with you, our friends and fellow advocates in the rescue and prevention of children being trafficked and caught in armed conflict.

I don’t have all the answers to injustice, but I do believe we need to let these stories touch our hearts. If they don’t, something is wrong. If they do, something is still wrong, but we have the opportunity—even if we don’t have a clue yet as to how—to be part of the answer.

Thank you for engaging with these stories, and please be on the watch for the next round of stories on their way to you very soon.

Marcus Young

For 2010 End of the Year donations please visit www.divineinheritance.com

Stories of Rescue

2010-12-17T15:22:00.000-08:00

The power of micro narratives (short, local stories that impact us as individuals) is clearly demonstrated throughout the compendium of stories that paint the macro canvas of scripture. I had the opportunity to hear some micro narratives on my trip to Asia earlier this month. Similar to those found in our scriptures, these stories have the power to turn my heart inside out and leave me hyperventilating and in wonder of "Jehovah Sneaky" who suddenly plunged me into the whitewater rapids of this Kingdom river.

During the trip, I was with a team from Traffic Jam (www.trafficjam.org) that was doing a film treatment for a longer documentary that will be in theaters around 2013. At their request, we brought in a few former child soldiers from our projects in Bur-ma (My-an-mar) for interviews, as well as a few children who had been on the ragged edges human trafficking and sexual slavery before we took them into our home in Thailand.

Some of the stories that ensued reminded us of our own history in Southeast Asia, such as the time surrounding the resettlement of Bur-ma’s Southern Shan States that began in 1999 and involved the forcible relocation of nearly a quarter of a million people with only what they could carry on their backs. This conflict created some border tensions with Thailand, as fighting came and went for several years, peaking in 2002. We clearly recall our city becoming a ghost town overnight, with mortars landing in town and machine guns going off like strings of firecrackers. Many children were orphaned by that war, so naturally we started a home for some of these children.

Khun, one of the children we received, was the first child soldier we ever rescued. We did not have to negotiate his release, as we have done for the other children, since he was a deserter in hiding. As he told us the story of his time as a soldier, it was reminiscent of the stories we have heard all too often: long hours of labor and training, floggings for any slight hint of insubordination or inability to perform, hunger pains with only three small bowls of rice in vegetable broth a day. He also spoke of ill-fitting clothing or lack thereof and being jammed into dirty, narrow barracks with 50-60 other children with one threadbare blanket apiece. And even years later, he still has no earthly idea how to find his parents.

With terse, emotion laden words Khun shared of how he made a desperate escape late one night with his 13-year-old accomplice who knew the way across the mountains in the dark of night. By God’s grace, one of our village pastors found Khun a few days later and brought him to us, since he was wanted as a deserter and needed a safe place. Khun is now a thriving young man 8 years later. He is close to finishing high school and is grateful for God’s intervention in his life.

At this point in our ministry, we have access to several hundreds—even thousands—of child soldiers, children in armed drug conflicts and young girls who were raped by soldiers and discarded as products of their society and war (many of whom now have unwanted babies). I don’t really know how to communicate to you that these are not typical rescues. It is highly unusual for us to have access to so many children like this in multiple countries. It is extraordinary, actually, but I think that it should be normal…meaning that the church should be so engaged in pursuing justice that we would normally be the ones to have access to the least accessible and darkest places.

So, what do we do now? Do we rescue all the children that have become accessible? I don’t know. All I know is that I’ve encountered the dunamis (dynamite power) of God’s love once again through the children’s micro narratives of suffering and redemption. When God said in Exodus 20:2, “I am the Lord God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt,” he was essentially saying, “I AM the LORD GOD who RESCUED you from slavery.” This rescue was a formational time for Israel, and it is still the way we meet Jesus: he radically rescues us who are slaves to sin and evil. He is the God of rescue, which is why I believe the abolition of slavery is central to the heartbeat of this generation. Slavery is a physical institution that reflects the spiritual reality of the whole world, but it also heralds our call to amazing freedom as the sons and daughters of an absolutely good Father.

It takes people with resolve and Holy Spirit boldness to rescue these kids. If God has put it in your heart to partner with Divine Inheritance, please feel free to visit our website by clicking here. If that is not what Holy Spirit is prompting you to do, then he has surely stirred your heart if you’ve read all the way to this point. Our prayer is that you would let the divine wrestle begin until you encounter God through finding your own stories of triumph over injustice in the world as Papa’s chosen and beloved family.

God bless you this Christmas Season,

Marcus Young
Founder of Divine Inheritance

El Shaddai –A Name of Goodness (Goodness Part Two)

2010-11-19T17:05:00.000-08:00

In Genesis, we see a God who, from the onset of creation (macro level that impacts the micro) and throughout the story of the flood and finally of the patriarchs (micro level that impacts the macro), addresses and brings order and function out of the chaos and evil afflicting the earth. In this story that spans centuries, God shares his name with the patriarch Abraham as God Almighty, “El Shaddai,” identifying himself in terms of his engagement on Abraham’s behalf for good. The heart of this story flows from Joseph’s lips near the end of the narrative when he refers to the horrid slavery and affliction he endured. “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

While there is a subtle undertow of wonder at the destructive capacity of evil, God’s message to us through his name, El Shaddai, strikes resounding awe in the hearts of those who would consider the life-giving potency of good. Abraham’s life and his three following generations form an illustration of how man can resurface from the dark and hopeless places and progress into friendship and purpose with God. Genesis chapter 17 is where God first introduces himself as “El Shaddai” and renames the patriarch Abram (revered father) as “Abraham” (father of a multitude). There, he affirms that he is a God who multiplies goodness, promising to bring Abraham a miracle child as a momentous generational blessing of goodness to the entire world.

We are left to ponder how one tiny child or even a grown man could ever manage to bring such a blessing, but such a day has already come and run past us: when Jesus walked this earth, he brought ultimate goodness through his clash with hell and the grave. That event may challenge our intellectual side, but those of us who have encountered that Almighty Word in some way have lost all our feigned dignity, as our spirits anxiously rumble to encounter Him still more.

Some translators have traced the etymological roots of Shaddai to shadah, “the many-breasted one.” This suggests a comforting picture of God, but contextually, following a derivation from shadad, the God of “an overpowering destruction,” it arrives closer to the picture of what Genesis is trying to communicate. As a scholar of unknown origins comments, “The truest definition of El Shaddai is, ‘I am the God of (over) utter ruin and devastation and I am here to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.”

Fast forwarding across time, the Omega of the final days and the Alpha of a new age continues on as God Almighty, El Shaddai, in Revelation 21:22: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (ESV). These amazing words announce the consummation of creation when Eden is reinstituted by fully integrating heaven and earth (observe the Edenic symbols at the end of the Apocalypse like the Tree of Life and the River in Revelation chapters 21-22).

El Shaddai is present at the end like he was in the genesis of the world, reigning above all the ruinous, destructive evil of the world. In Eden, Pandora’s box was the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the future, El Shaddai gathers all evil and puts a tight lid on a container called hell. God’s presence then becomes so integrated into the earthly realm that no temple is needed (Revelation 21:22). El Shaddai and the Lamb are fully accessible in all of creation, light penetrates everywhere and nothing is hidden. There is no shroud: no fleshly tent bars the way. The physical realm is no longer estranged from the spiritual, as El Shaddai displays the compelling fruit of his goodness. Wow!

When Joseph said in Genesis chapter 50 that God “meant it for good,” that word “meant” signified God looking at something and coming up with a creative idea, a eureka, that would create a masterpiece of goodness instead of a smoldering carcass of evil. God is looking for people that will walk with him just as Abraham trod across a vast promise land for decades when the only note he held on the property was faith. He is looking for a person just like you who is willing to look beyond all their history of failure and personal chaotic dysfunction and trust that the one who said, “let there be light!” will speak it over your life too.

The Power of Goodness Part One: Titanium Jesus

2010-09-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

We must believe in the power of goodness, or we will lack faith in the constancy of the goodness of God. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21) is an underlying premise and theological anchor of the scriptures. We love to say, “God is good…all the time,” but if we don’t believe this, we gradually assume God has it in for us.

In our world of life and death, it is hard for us to imagine a character that is firmer than the mountains. The day of evil will come. All stumble. All fall. But then we are introduced to this man, the Chosen King of God, the Saving One. The man Jesus, whose rightness is of titanium permanence. The question his life challenges us with is, “Can good overcome evil?” Of course, this is more than a question: Jesus is the hinging point of God’s answer to evil. All history swings off his peg either to fall gradually into chilling, dark evil or to move towards a euphoric blaze of goodness.

“But where sin [and evil] increase, grace increases all the more” (Romans 5:20). Wherever evil exists, goodness will emerge stronger and grace will grow greater.

By nature, evil erodes and subtracts. In contrast to this, goodness strengthens and expands. Both are building techniques that at first glance may appear only subtly different, but their underpinning philosophies are completely antithetical. When evil builds, it pursues strength. Its action is akin to digging new tunnels in an already existing structure to carve out functionality that ultimately weakens the whole, including itself. Goodness is the opposite: it values the weak in its “creationary” process of producing or improving functionality that ultimately strengthens the whole. Evil is locked into the time-space continuum. The brush strokes of goodness are unbounded by time.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” says two things:
1. Stand and do not be overwhelmed by evil but hold your ground.
2. Win using good to overpower evil and take new territory.

Charles Hodge once said, “Nothing is so powerful as goodness.” Even though at first glance it seems nearly impossible to use acts of kindness to turn the gritty, dark and evil places into strikingly beautiful, good places, it nonetheless remains the message of the cross. Jesus forgave mankind from the cross in their darkest moment of sin and so erased sin’s death sentence over the entire human race. One seemingly weak act of goodness triumphed over all powers and principalities.

Our natural tendency is to focus on holding turf instead of taking new territory in the power of goodness. Scripture passages like 1 John 5:4 are clear that we should wear the name “overcomers.” Without taking the offensive action of overcoming evil, the church’s stand to hold ground gradually crumbles over the decades. The best way to hold our current ground is to move forward on the offensive, aggressively taking God’s kingdom of goodness wherever evil exists.

During such offensives, the most important targets are not the possible places but the impossible. If we fight a war we can win, it proves to be nothing fresh or life-giving to our spirits or to the world, but if we choose to fight evil in the very darkest recesses of our globe and win our battles there, we have proved the power of goodness and laid hold of a faith that is full of life.

So, can I prove that goodness is more powerful than evil by simple logic? I’ve chosen to believe I can prove it by following Jesus. I’m employing my faith in the power of God’s goodness at work in me by facilitating rescue and care for child soldiers in remote and aggressively violent regions of the planet. From my actions as a peacemaker will come a demonstration of Jesus’ magnificent goodness that is so virally potent, it wins beyond suffering and the grave.

There is plenty of assurance from daily life and the scriptures that we will face negative events, but we are a new creation of goodness. This is God’s promise to all who believe: “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

The Rest of Creation

2010-06-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work, which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work, which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work, which God had created and made. -Genesis 2:1-3

Six times God examines his creation and finds it good. The seventh time, he looks and finds it is especially good, “over the top” good. After this, God rests from ALL his work.

Hebrews 4 admonishes us to enter the rest of faith that receives life from Jesus instead of trying to take life for ourselves, as we did when we took from the Tree of Knowledge in Eden. Verse 3 tells us in even more decisive terms than Genesis 2 that, “all his works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

How can this be? How can God be finished working until now when so much seems to be being done and much more still needs to be accomplished? And how did the work of the cross and resurrection take place if it was not God’s work since he was done working?

May I suggest the power of goodness? When God created the cosmos and found it complete, not lacking in goodness, he created a day of rest called faith – but faith in what? Faith that God’s work had already passed the examination, that it was good and therefore could never end in misery and evil, but instead that good would gloriously overcome evil.

In creation, we not only find physical foundations or principles, but spiritual ones as well. The goodness of God was greatly manifest by creation from the beginning, and that very goodness is a living foundation that launched the history of the world into forward motion. It is likely that evil was already present at the time of the created world as we know it, and that creation was God’s response to evil’s presence. Humankind, fashioned in God’s image, was his emphatic “lid on the canning jar” in the war on evil.

The idea that arises here is that goodness is not static or impotent, but dominant and everlasting. When creation was completed, it set things in motion that only God understood. Even God’s beginning statement, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light,” in Genesis 1:3 was a prophetic declaration (See also John 1:1-4). When God spoke these simple, profound words, Colossians 1:15 was set in motion: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” The purpose of God in Jesus Christ was born in that moment, and the pinnacle event of the cross was already certain (2Cor 4:6).

The strategy didn’t have to be as clear as the moves in a game of chess, though it may have been; it was logical from God’s perspective that Creation would move towards redemption. This is regardless of whether God had foreknowledge about the fall of humanity in Eden or not. With the simple words, “Let there be light,” God’s everlasting, omnipotent goodness travelled across the universe.

Not only was it clear that one day the cross, as God’s ultimate display of light (Acts 26:23), would make powers and principalities a public spectacle (Col. 2:15), but that God’s wisdom and goodness would be manifest through his people to the heavenly powers. (Eph. 3:10 & 1Cor. 4:9) Because of this, we who are rescued and claimed by the love of Jesus should stay motivated to walk in all godliness, knowing its tremendous reward. As Paul writes in Galatians 6:9, “Don’t lose your motivation in doing good, for at the appointed time we will gain a harvest if we don’t give up.”

The idea of potent goodness goes far beyond a ribbon or trophy concept, fulfilling for a short while, then forgotten on a shelf or in a box. What is promised is found in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15: works that are of gold, silver and precious stones are everlasting, while others of wood, hay and stubble, are crisped to nothing. What we do either counts or doesn’t count; there is no in-between. Our righteous acts are not a little blip on the screen. In the eternal scheme of things, they continue to be fruit bearing forever. True goodness bears eternal fruit, but evil can only bear death and must come to an end.

As the author of Hebrews 4:10 says, “For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” This word “rested” is in the aorist tense, an indicative mood denoting “a snapshot on a past time.” The rest we enter is God’s rest in Genesis 2 when he first paused in his own display of goodness. When he said, “Let there be light” it was really, “Let there be Light!” In one summary statement the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and the Finisher of our faith was born, died and resurrected, making a way of faith for a glorious bride (Heb 12:2, Rev. 22:13).

When God said, "Let there be light!" the full purpose of God was begotten in Jesus. It raced across the centuries, from the cross to the Resurrection. It wed a beautiful bride called the Church. The Word overcame every evil, displaying stunning love and amazing wisdom. The universe kissed His feet in bliss at the freedom of: “Let there be LIGHT!” That word has reached from the moment light first twinkled at the dawn of newborn stars and into your personal time and space...into your “here-and-now” in history.

Your existence and awareness of life, death, purpose and destiny is proof that the same word of goodness exists and is still at work. You serve and add beauty to what God has already established. You add value to the creation. You are part of God’s good works longed for since creation dawned. You are a branch growing out of the Tree of Life. You are part of its amazing, potent fruit. We all have a bright and glorious future because goodness has no expiration date: it will always bring amazing and permanent returns. Be at peace this day, and rest your heart in our Papa’s great goodness!

In Wrath, REMEMBER Mercy (Wrath Part 3)

2010-05-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

The Lord is gracious and merciful;
Slow to anger and great in loving-kindness.
The Lord is good to all,
And His mercies are over all His works.
Psa. 145:8-9

Goodness and Mercy Are Inescapable
The scriptures never say, “God is impatient and full of wrath with everybody, quick to anger and slow to show love and kindness.” They emphasize the opposite and even state, “God is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.” God is clear that He will destroy the wicked that persist in wickedness, which is a very different thing than random destruction or spiteful punishment. This kind of destruction addresses injustice that refuses to cease, and is especially associated with redressing the suffering of the righteous (Psa 145:19-20),

“The Lord is good to all:” Not some. All. Everybody. The tyrant. The sex trafficker. The American congressman. Wise. Foolish. Kind or mean. Rich or poor. It doesn’t matter, because He is good to all. And furthermore, “His mercies are over ALL his works:” Not a few. Not a lot. All. Everything he has made. 400 billion galaxies. Hundreds of billions of stars and novas. Tens of thousands of innumerable angels. Six billion plus living human beings. Fifty thousand species of vertebrates. Ten quintillion squirming insects. And even every grain of dirt and sand whose atoms number approximately 133,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Whew! All of creation is saturated with eternal, constant and unchanging mercy, but the most stunning day of mercy (and wrath) ever to break across history was when Jesus chose the way of the cross.

Wrath is a Place and Jesus is the Way Out
Wrath is a brief, decisive response to the ungodliness and injustices of men (Rom. 1:18). Not the men and women themselves, but their destructive alignment with what is at odds with relationship with God and creation’s freedom from the curse (Rom. 8:21). When Paul speaks of wrath he usually says, “The wrath,” not “God’s wrath.” In many ways wrath is distinct from God in that it represents a place that is as devoid of God as a place can be that is still within His reach. When we occupy a position that is outside of relationship to the Creator and His creation we have really slipped into the trap of living where wrath is already engaged in its terrible work. Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, paved an indestructible superhighway from that deathly place where we were stuck. It offers escape from our mired position in injustice, which is in the cross-hairs of the wrath of God, and into the arms of our warm-hearted Father in heaven.

Wrath may be God’s instrument but it is not His friend. That the wrath of God demands sacrifice to be satisfied may be true, but Jesus satisfies justice by compassionate mercy: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:11 & Hosea 6:6). God knows full well that we feel guilty as a consequence of sin and that we feel the need to offer a sacrifice to alleviate that. Clearly, the Law engenders guilt and requires atonement. So, covering our need to be atoned, not God’s “need” for sacrifice, Jesus acted distinctly apart from the Law (Rom 3:21), and offered Himself as a mercy sacrifice. Fulfilling the Law, He moved us from rules to navigate our brokenness into a grace that enslaves us to the glorious freedom of fabulous, covering love.

The Cross is More About Mercy and Less About Judicial Wrath
The judicial act of the cross is focused on a potent demonstration of restorative mercy, not the punitive satisfaction of God’s wrath, as many of us were taught in Protestant circles. The Atonement was meant to give us an ultimate, unclouded picture of Father God in the face of Jesus’ forgiving love and compassion on a cross. It was the satisfaction of God’s mercy! It was a masterpiece demonstration of justice by giving complete restoration of our access to the Father’s Spirit by which we cry, “Daddy, Daddy!” So, God cleansed all humanity through mercy (Rom. 3:23-25) in one massive act of forgiveness shown through the cross. He sent Jesus not to judge, but to save and to offer us a real way out of the dark place of judgment by simple faith in an amazing God (John 3:16-21).

The governmental wrath of God is a reality we should not deny, nor should we allow it to become the centerpiece of the cross. Now, I wouldn’t want you to draw the wrong conclusion here and think that I believe God never felt anger about the Atonement. The day Jesus was fastened to the cross may have been one of the angriest moments of God’s existence. He could have been outraged that humanity just killed His perfect and loving Son. He should have been livid at the devil, the evil powers and all the fallen angels. He may have been explosively furious when He saw the sins of the entire earth and death itself burying Jesus. But the fact is that God the Father radically chose to forgive us through Jesus’ humility and mercy while He was suspended on that dead tree. The resulting promise of resurrection that Jesus attained for us is simply mind-boggling good news!

Conclusion
So as the Psalmist says, “Surely goodness and mercy will pursue me,” we are the pursued on this earth. Not by wrath but by divine goodness from which all things spring. Though we face tremendous evil in this world, God’s passion is to rescue and give us help. And even if we may find ourselves in a dark place where wrath dwells, never forget His wise mercy: “His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime” (Psa. 30:5b). There was room for a moment of the Father’s own godly anger over Jesus death. But that dark moment has passed us as we run into the Father’s outstretched arms of favor, which the cross of forgiveness represents. It will cover our lives by Jesus’ resurrection life in mercy and grace all our days.

The 3D Lens of Wrath (Wrath Part 2)

2010-04-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

3D LENSES – Introducing the three dimensions of wrath.

The scariest, most uncomfortable word attached to God is his wrath. In the following sections, I’m going to assemble a 3D lens for us that will hopefully remove some of our very flat and restrictive ways of viewing God’s wrath. God’s desire for justice creates the framework for this lens. The three targets of wrath are: individuals who avoid their calling as deliverers, societies or people who are unjust oppressors and the church when it breaks covenant with God. The context of wrath within that framework of justice becomes a lens to help us see into God’s dimension of activity.

Any time a theological concept is first introduced in the sacred writings, we would be wise to pay attention. If we define wrath simply as a destructive activity, then there are plenty of case studies such as the great flood following the antediluvian period. But the first three actual times wrath is mentioned in direct connection to God’s name are what I will use to construct the 3D lenses for understanding wrath. These three categorical groups, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, will incite wrath when they directly or indirectly (sin of commission or omission) oppress and marginalize people.

CALLING – Our personal calling or identity as deliverers.

In Exodus 4:13-14 God’s personal engagement via wrath is the first “lens” introduced into the divine drama. In this passage, Moses receives a heavenly mandate to deliver a million and half slaves from Egypt, which he tries to pawn off on his more eloquent brother. God’s wrath ignites. Here, God is focused on the individual He has groomed to be a great deliverer, who is now ignoring his divine calling.

Just as Moses, who was called as a great deliverer of slaves, brought in the old covenant, Jesus, who was called as the great Prophet-Deliverer of humanity under spiritual oppression, brought in the new covenant by purchasing it with His eternal blood. Many NT scholars assume that Jesus’ reference to “take this cup from me” was a reference to passages like Jeremiah 25, which speak about the cup of God’s wrath in a global context. But even if we should choose to call it a cup of wrath, the more powerful aspect of this cup is that it was for the sake of covenantal love. That fatal night when Jesus broke the bread and dipped it in the cup of blood-red wine for his disciples, he demonstrated a clear fire escape from our unwitting battle against God and into a trusted place as sons and daughters.

Jesus’ call was to step into the crosshairs of God’s governmental wrath when He experienced death on the cross so that He would be “perfected” (Heb 5:8). But that was really a divine decoy for the sneak attack of heaven’s colossal mercy; meanwhile, the devil got both barrels of the sawed off, 12 gauge shotgun instead. God’s wrath could never harm the Perfect Man, but divine mercy will always catch the devil off guard.

Because Jesus humbly positioned Himself as our Deliverer from wrath, He is therefore worthy to be the Judge of all that stands in the way of friendship with God (Rev 5:5). Each of us, as followers of Jesus’ example, can follow His high call as deliverers of those who are oppressed. We are “a kingdom of priests to God, reigning on the earth” (Rev 5:10).

OPPRESSION – Those who don’t know God and perpetuate injustice on others.

The second occasion where God’s wrath appears as our lens is Exodus 15:7, as God destroys the Egyptians in a final act to free Israel (which represents an entire people group’s escape from slavery). A celebratory song of deliverance by the wrath of God emerges when the Egyptian army is drowned in the Red Sea.

Moses judged Pharaoh’s domain, and Jesus judged Satan’s. Both set the scene for a broader battle: Moses towards taking Canaan, and Jesus towards conquering the kings of the earth (Psa. 2) and destroying Babylon when it drinks from the cup of wrath (Rev 16:19). There, and in Paul’s reflections in Romans 1:18-32, we see that evil is self-destructive, and that God’s wrath is His allowing people to self-involve into that self-destructive process by taking Him out of their picture.

The Old Testament writings of the prophets are rife with allusions to and dire warnings of judgment and God’s governmental wrath for those who oppress the poor. Isaiah 56-58 promises major societal restoration that is contingent upon our care for the poor, marginalized and oppressed. Ezekiel declares that Sodom’s ease was tied to their forgetfulness of the poor, which was their greater sin. In another story, God withheld His wrath after Jonah preached and an entire city repented. Nineveh, the great Assyrian city and enemy of Judah hastily cried out to God for mercy after Jonah’s prophetic début. Jonah was angered, thinking destruction was a better course, but God pointed out to him that 120,000 innocent children and even many animals would have been destroyed.

COVENANT – Our corporate call as God’s people to just community.

Completing our 3D lens, the third time God uses wrath applies to the Bride in covenant. We find this lens placed in Exodus 22:21-24, where the Law clearly warns against oppressing the stranger, the alien, orphans and widows. God clearly says, “You came from such a place of oppression, so don’t fall into the behaviors of the oppressors I rescued you from.” From Moses at Mt Sinai (where the Law was given) onwards, God works with Israel on the basis of covenant relationship, and His wrath kindles when that covenant relationship is broken.

From the advent of the Messiah onwards, the church walks in betrothal covenant with Jesus, and His concern remains critical that we would continue to remember the poor. Instead of being given the Law by Moses, we are given the Holy Spirit, who leads and liberates us to be slaves of love and deliverers of those enslaved to evil. In Matthew 18, Jesus warns his disciples that good treatment of little children is essential to their growth as His leaders. In Matthew 25, Jesus speaks of societal responsibility to care for the poor and equates helping the poor with encountering Him.

Among the NT writers, James has one of the clearest messages to the church community regarding honoring the poor and using mercy to fulfill the kind intentions of judgment. This message is similar to oracles of the OT prophets about Israel caring for the poor and remembering justice as his covenant people or encountering God’s wrath. In James’ letter there are only inferences to this wrath, especially when he says, “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19-20) This insinuates that God’s wrath can achieve righteousness where humankind’s anger cannot.

LIBERATION –The final intent of wrath.

The fresh words of the NT broaden the heavenly view requiring that God’s people not only be considerate of the poor, as in the OT, but that we all pursue our individual and corporate identity as deliverers of those who deal with any kind of oppression. We are to contend not only with material abjection and sin, but with disease, evil spirits and even death itself, attacking anything that signals the handiwork of the evil one, who is reserved for God’s judgment alone (Jude vs.9).

Stating it more clearly, Paul tells us that God’s wrath is very much God’s job and is absolutely not ours. What is clearly our job is to overcome evil with good. Jesus is the only safe choice for the world as the One to act out governmental wrath, since only He could drink the full cup of God’s wrath…and resurrect in vibrant life! That was His personal, magnificent statement of overcoming evil with good.

The final biblical word on wrath in Rev 19:11-21 offers an essential glimpse into the divine plot of God’s goodness at work through history. Jesus comes garbed in blood to bring liberation from oppressors (blood in this instance meaning life). His followers are clothed in righteousness, which means rightness with creation, other people and especially God Himself. Their righteousness reflects a resurrection body that is like a new skin: one that is not at odds with the earth. Jesus and His saints go out as deliverers of the oppressed, warring with kings and armies and using the Word of God effectively with all flesh that is under the curse.

The birds of the air symbolize Creation as they join in this redemptive wrath. The Word of God that slays is a word of life, and love and peace. The intent is never destruction but liberation, the glorious freedom of the sons of God (Rom. 8:21). Jesus is dealing with a defiant element of humanity that refuses such amazing gifts like a resurrection body: a body he won by overcoming evil with goodness. Our new, uninhibited body that is not in conflict with creation like our current body, which is limited in its ability to serve and protect the earth. (Gen. 2:15 & 3.17b).

So, these three, our divine call, the oppressor, and the covenant of the bride bring the 3D lens of God’s governmental wrath into focus. Now that we can understand when wrath comes, one or more of these three is in play, let’s become a people that is not scared of wrath. Instead, let’s lift our eyes to heaven with confidence in thankful conversation with the Father, marvel at his gentle yet terrifying wisdom and trample injustice wherever it crosses our path!

Redefining Wrath Without Minimizing It

2010-03-31T21:04:00.000-07:00

Wrath is more of a theological term than an emotion. Not that wrath doesn’t have an emotional connotation—it does—but it also carries a sense of a king’s or a “god’s” appropriate position to deal with and mete out justice that allows a land to prosper and be at peace. At first glance, it is similar to a divine attribute, but not like love or joy, which flow from God’s person. Wrath is more like a tool, and anger is the common emotion we attach to it.

To assume hastily that anger catalyzes wrath is to forget that God is always in love with people and seldom angry with them. In other words, God’s attributes of love and goodness are stronger drivers than anger ever is. What if there was a Being so perfect, that he could choose to be angry only when his anger would increase things like peace and joy? You could call this God’s big-picture perspective. It is similar to the story of evil entering the world in Eden: creation was a stupendously good act of God that powerfully displayed a simple truth: that a good act is always more powerful than an evil one. God allowed evil, knowing that at the end of history, Jesus’ wisdom and grace would infinitely supersede sin (evil). So, as tragic as evil’s entry into the human race was, evil has a negative ability to compete with the power and far-reaching effects of God’s goodness, which we will know in all its fullness someday.

Ok, back to anger. We know that anger is not sin. Anger can be godly when it is applied with the golden rule and is focused on wholesome relationships, not self-promotion or self-preservation. When God is angry and he chooses to unleash his governmental wrath, it is far more focused on removing obstacles that blockade justice than on punishing sinners. Wrath is more intent on finding goodness and rescuing it from evil than destroying evil itself. While evil is awful, it is nonetheless finite. The human race has been poisoned with evil, so we erroneously perceive that evil is huge. It is similar to the poison of a scorpion sting: it is only a small sting, but the poison immobilizes our larger body with pain. So, while evil is significant enough to rouse God’s anger, the real driving force of his wrath is exponentially larger than anger and infinitely greater than evil.

Judgment, or God’s wrath, is concerned with three things: righteousness, peace and joy. According to Paul, these three things signify the kingdom rule of God. Jesus experienced the wrath of God on the cross because of the “joy set before him.” Because his faith latched onto future joy, he was able to endure a cross in that context. When God’s wrath comes, it is to establish his kingdom. When his kingdom is established, it ”sets right” injustice. Peace governs the land. Joy is in every relationship.

God, being the ultra-visionary creator and author of human destiny, sees beyond the terror of His wrath to the incredible fruit it brings. Remember: his love lasts through eternity, and his anger is “but for a moment.” Wrath is not God’s daily bread; it only comes in short, strategic and specific moments in history. God’s daily bread is his divine will, which is that we would be one with him and be free to enjoy and care for his creation. He desires that we be fully alive in the same amazing, free and pure love that Father, Son and Holy Spirit experience infinitely.

Is God Judging Haiti?

2010-02-05T06:37:00.000-08:00

Haiti: a country of 10 million desperate people. Some statistics state that 85% of Haitians live on less than a dollar per day and the country ranks third in the world for hunger. In fact, IMF states over half of Haitians survive on 44¢ a day! On a normal day, we would be surprised to see Haiti top the headlines of the New York Times. But today is not normal because people in Haiti are still at risk of dying from the after effects of a 7.0 earthquake.

Here is the odd thing, though: Haiti has a 50% literacy rate. It has at least 225,000 children in slave labor, owned as servants of wealthy households. At least another 400,000 live in terrible poverty conditions in Cité Soleil, where most residents in the city are children or young adults. Nonetheless, Haiti has had minimal media coverage of massive human rights issues for decades. Haiti’s vicious cycles of hurricanes, military coups and food shortages give clear case studies of what is happening in many of the world’s poorest countries.

Why is this odd? Because even though I am totally excited to see the U.S. and the rest of the world respond (especially the Church), I can’t help but cringe at the fact that Haiti was already in extreme crisis before the earthquake on Jan 12, 2010. Most of us don’t notice injustice issues unless they are set in front of our eyes. I think this is wrong, and it must change. But, instead of moaning over the broader issues of injustice, let’s lock eyes with the one that is directly in our face and ask some pointed theological questions.

I like good theological questions. Theology should draw out something better in us and call us to action. In this article, I’m not going to ask the common questions like, “Why did God allow tens of thousands of Haitians to die?” and “What is the eternal state of the souls of the deceased?” Right now, I am more interested in understanding these questions: How is God’s justice at work in the world, and how can we partner with it in the present tense?

Haiti was a slave colony in the early 1500s and by the 1700s the island was established as one of the most brutal and “effective” slave colonies in the world. In August of 1791, during a voodoo ceremony, a slave revolt broke out that continued into the dawn of 1804, at which point the country was actually named Haiti. Violence has continued till today with numerous wars, over 30 coups, several dictatorships, foreign occupations, genocides, etc. In 1957, voodoo became the official religion of Haiti. From a Christian worldview, we are forced to pause to consider the demonic foundations of voodoo and devastation it invites into a society.

This earthquake’s devastation broke indiscriminately through all echelons of Haiti’s society, whether through government, businesses, gangs or slums. Even family and social structures have been fractured. But, when old foundations are removed, new ones can be built. Similarly, when people are desperate, they are ready for change. And the VERY good news is, if the Church really responds en masse, we could begin to lay some new foundations to rebuild at the heart of this society. Especially so if we were to take all the children orphaned by this disaster and give them real love, care and education. Maybe this moment is judgment, but it is our opportunity in the “now” to use it as mercy[i]. Judgment is never the objective, but is rather the means to the end. Mercy is the end…it is what God intends.

The more God’s people respond with both wisdom and compassion to judgment, the more God’s kingdom can be demonstrated and established. What if the earthquake was allowed because even though there would be devastating consequences, God knew it was a Pearl Harbor event that would motivate us to take on a great evil? Maybe we needed something to make us engage with Haiti instead of our economic problems at home.

But isn’t a 7.0 earthquake terrible evil to begin with? Why would God not stop it? Again, World War II is a good example. The war stopped when men and women engaged at great personal cost. God has chosen not to treat humans like puppets, but rather like agents of free will. And yes, I do believe that God has absolute, unstoppable purposes, but those are based on consequence of good (the primary one being Jesus’ love on a cross). Just as evil has consequences for a short time, good (godliness) has consequences that reach firmly into forever. That godliness has far-reaching outcomes is one of the surest scientific laws in the universe, and we can come to know such principles through God’s divine wisdom.

What if there is so much evil in the world that it is only God’s grace that restrains disaster (which is a consequence of sin) in the first place? What if the fact that we are breathing today is an act of God’s guarding grace? And what if at certain well chosen moments God removes that grace just a small bit to allow us to experience even more grace? Just like the lack of food creates a hunger pang and subsequently a greater enjoyment of a good meal. Similarly, a terrible moment often creates a stronger bond between two friends. Or consider what happens when flowers are crushed: they release even more aromatic fragrance.

Why God has chosen to bend evil or hardship to his will instead of immediately destroying it is material I wrestle with a bit in some of my other blog posts. In this particular post, I’m simply trying to show that God, who is active in our world, acts most clearly through relationship with people who choose to hear his heart (or a piece of it) and align themselves as his friends. When he lifts the guard of his grace which restrains the full fury of evil, our reaction should always be to bring God’s mercy into the situation as swiftly as possible. If we do, a triumph or testimony of Jesus’ goodness can emerge, and his kingdom is established. If we do not respond, then the dividing line that judgment brings will never be bridged by God’s life, and people will be lost in the great divide between wrath and love.

When wrath or judgment comes, it is because sin has effectively blocked the way for grace to penetrate, and God is allowing a path to be opened back to the Father’s love. If there are blockades keeping his life from healing a society, be assured, God would like to remove them. God is never random in his judgments. Evil may be a random tyrant but God is always strategic and focused in pursuing us through very organic, relational ways. He is ultra alert and keenly aware of suffering but he is most acutely concerned about people being in such darkness, there is no access to his love.

So, if what I am saying is true; that God is giving mercy a chance to break into Haiti, a country that has been desperate for help many centuries, then is it not the time to act? Who are God’s heroes of the hour? I’m thinking about ordinary people who cross over into the extraordinary, not just those who make the headlines of CNN or Fox News, but the unknown soldiers. They are the pioneers and builders who are so amazingly free, that they are willing to plow through any hardship and bring hope into the darkest moments. They are people who are so branded by Love, so famous in heaven and so passionate about God’s creation, that they attack injustice head-on with innocence and joy. People who, when severely battered in their conflict with evil, are like a happy child tossed about in Papa’s safe arms.

Even now there are hundreds and probably thousands of incredible stories emerging from God’s people who are arriving from around the world to offer assist on the soil of Haiti. The local church also remains one of the best grassroots infrastructures to work through in any country when a crisis hits. The two combined as the global and local church are a force to reckon with.

So, are you going to be one of God’s warriors that engage with injustice and bring their Father’s amazing kingdom? Now is a good time to say YES!

[i] For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:13

2009-12-23T18:25:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

Thanks so much for partnering with us. Every prayer of yours, even a short phrase, helps us move forward in ways we could never attribute to our own strength and natural ability. We are so excited about what is to come in 2010, but will be able to do so much more with your help. If you do already sponsor a child, would you consider marking off seven 5 minute spots each month to focus on praying for child soldiers and their rescue throughout 2010? You will be amazed at the stories we receive back as result of YOUR prayer!

Our family is counting the days ‘til Christmas, of course. The kids are out of school, and there is the usual flurry of sending off cookies and presents to family, the ongoing game of monopoly (to house rules), art projects, little girl dressup, and meal prep that go along with winter break. Frankly, all of us are as excite

d about the down time as we are about Christmas itself. Sleeping in and not accomplishing much are about as high a goal as I want to set for a while...

We also have the special...ummm...blessing of 2 December birthdays. Both Rooke (now a solid 11) and Samara (now a flamboyant 5) celebrate theirs the week before Christmas. Usually, we do a combined party for the two of them, which is small—just family—that kind of thing. But, sometimes in childhood you need a birthday to remember, so this year they each got their own party, complete with homemade piñatas (since Rooke’s party was populated by preteen boys, we made his piñata out of duct tape!). So we are well-feted this week!

Adrian (our TEENAGER!!!) started playing basketball this fall and is actually pretty good. He loves it, and it is so fun to watch him play. Marcus hasn't been able to make a game yet, due to his travel schedule, but that is ok, since I yell loud enough for the both of us.

Akhasa is such a complex person. I am enjoying (most days) watching her unfold into the woman God created her to be (yes, even at 7, she shows that kind of maturity). She loves rocks, especially precious stones, song writing and snuggling.

AND, as an added bonus to us, she is a great masseuse...she would win the "best massage by a seven-year-old" award, hands down!

I cannot say thanks enough for you partnership. I pray you have a merry and safe Christmas and that you remember the children that aren't safe this season: the trafficked, the enslaved, the child widow, the soldier, the street child, the begging 8 year old glue addict, the dump child, those used in films...the list goes on. Allow your heart to know their plight and ask what you can do about it. You would be surprised....

Much love and Merry Christmas from all The Youngs...

Marcus, Alyxius, Adrian, Rooke, Akhasa, Samara, Smokey the cat, Bluey the rat, Lisa the lizard, and 10 of the cutest chickens on the planet!

Giving or Taking

2009-11-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

There is confusion in the church about the distinction between giving and taking. It is a disorder that traces all the way back to the Garden of Eden (of course). Man chose to try and do God a favor and take being like God into his own hands. You know, helping God out in a small way by taking from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It looked so helpful on the surface, but when man stepped towards the Tree of Knowledge, he stepped out of relationship.

All relationship is positional. There are always boundaries that indicated proper relating. Like the two trees of Eden and the gender distinction that God put in place by forming woman from man’s side. We reflect God’s image best by being positioned in right relationship with God, just like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all secure in their position. They are a perfect, set apart trinity of relationship, so that Jesus can say, “My Father is greater than I,” and the Father can give Jesus “a name which is above every name” (Phil 2:9). And the Holy Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus and the Father and reveals it to us, not speaking on his own initiative (John 16:13-15).

God is three and one in perfect trinity because he is purely functional and properly positioned in relationship. Everything he does emanates from this place of honor in his person. He is totally other than us and is wholly holy in One perfect relationship. He calls us to be holy and to enter into that divine love. We are dysfunctional and divided beings that don’t know how to walk in community, so it is sometimes a long journey home.

When man ate of the wrong tree, his ability to interface relationally with God was misaligned. He lost his position by trying to be like God and fell into the great void between…that space that God rules, where he separates light and darkness, water and land, man and woman and even good and evil, creating definition and position in the universe. So man stumbled into that place away from his positional ability to know God’s life, that great divide of relationship represented by the Tree of Knowledge. Trapped in the world of division that God had tried to protect him from, where good and evil, pleasure and pain constantly contend and prey on man’s inborn design for eternity. There, he was stuck outside of his position of relationship as a son and became lost in the outer darkness. So, Jesus came to earth and became the spotlight, the way back out of the dark divide and into relationship with the Father, repositioning us where we could be sons and eat of the tree of life yet not perpetuate evil.

The present difficulty is that we still live in a compromised and corrupted world that is stuck in the death cycle, so we are constantly interfacing with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This confuses us, especially how its good side could bring death, since God is good. The only safe way to interface with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is from being localized and grafted into the Tree of Life. If we say yes to the position of relationship with the Tree of Life and the positional restraints that brings, we can be positioned to receive the entire Amazon-River flood of Life that God gives, and we have enough pure life to drown out the confusion of living in the great divide. And we do look forward with passionate desire to the day when heaven will come down to earth, with all of its weighty influence and glory, and the curse of the divided tree will be silenced in our world.

Our world tells us, “An eye for an eye.” It claims reality is harsh and “The strong shall live.” But the new lens is: “Does whatever I am putting my hand to or walking in give the life Jesus speaks of?” “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). The lens is a giving lens. We give. But it is a receiving lens, too. We also receive. It is not, however, a taking lens. That is what the other (wrong) tree does. Taking is not relational. Giving and receiving are relational. Relationships are what build healthy societies. Healthy societies are indicative of emotional well-being and prosperity.

Jesus has helped us cross a great divide that we have all been wandering in as lost souls, where death was always demanded of us whether we tried to turn to good or evil. “A eye for an eye” was the law we lived under. But now, one eye taken is replaced by an “I” freely given, and the old cycle of death, an eye taken equals another eye taken, is defunct. We are givers instead of takers, and a fresh economic paradigm that actually accelerates our own world of happiness forward rumbles onto the scene.

Are you willing to risk being a giver and not a taker? God seems to be willing. He made this world and gave us breath and freedom. There is lots of risk involved in being giving when we consider the emergence of evil and pain. But maybe there are rewards that far outweigh the conflict? That is what the Holy Scriptures claim.

Why Did God Create A World Where Evil Exists? Part Four.

2009-09-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

Evil is a persistent problem: it is here with us right now and is something that existed at the foggy beginning of time, as the early scribes recorded in what are now our scriptures. Evil is also something that exists beyond time as we know it. So, the resonant, prophetic voice of the apostle John still comes through today in his final oracle, Revelation.

Our first glimpse of evil possibly begins with the statement in Gen 1:2 that describes the world as “formless and void.” These two Hebrew words, tohu and bohu, which could be translated as “chaos” and “waste,” were the features of the primeval deep waters where God’s Spirit hovered. Some scholars believe this choice of words indicates that a great battle had already been waged between the fallen angels and Michael’s host. Our first full encounter with evil was in a perfect garden, where a tree called The Knowledge of Good and Evil thrived near the Tree of Life.

Mankind’s future story still interfaces with evil in an eternal place called the Lake of Fire in Rev. 14:10 and 20:10. It is not my purpose in this episode to cast my vote either for or against eternal punishment in fire—we’ll save that for another day and leave you wondering—but I am going to review how Jesus works as the end-time Judge, so we have a context for God’s heart as he deals with evil.

In Revelation chapter 5, we see a courtroom scene with a scroll of seven seals, the last will and testament of creation. Much to-do is made over finding a one who is worthy to open the scroll, when suddenly the herald comes that only the Lion of the Tribe of Judah has been found worthy to open it. The graphic shocker John shows us is a bloody scene: a perfect little lamb with its neck ¾ slit appears, when we expected to see the mighty, triumphant lion. For the rest of the book of Revelation, it is always the Lamb of God who walks out the acts of judgment. Our picture of the Lion of Judah is now redefined, offering a fresh way of perceiving our Messianic deliverer.

It is from the Lamb’s position of loving sacrifice for the entire world that he is a worthy (and, might I add, trustworthy and safe) person to judge the earth and right all wrongs. He is always working from a position of giving life (which is what his death brings) and never from a position of taking life. If he judges with a terrible and fearsome judgment, be assured that it is to give more life to his creation, not to take that life and beauty away.

That said, I would like to point out that Rev. 14:10 says those that wear the mark of the beast (evil incarnate) will be tortured IN THE PRESENCE of the angels and the Lamb, and smoke from their torment will rise forever and ever. Smoke isn’t actually fire, but it is the lingering effects of an eternal, persistent expression of God dealing with evil.

The word torture denotes a sense of judicial examination, whereby the truth of a situation comes to light. The word torture (βασανίζω) in the Greek text originally referenced a coin tested in the fire against the proving stone to find if the coin had authentic value. The word’s usage over time began to include the testing or proving of men through buffeting or torture on the rack. In Rev. 14:10, the proving stone is Christ, and the coin is man who has been minted by evil instead of Jesus’ life.

The uprising smoke from this encounter offers us a constant affirmation of life. How? That fiery Love does overcome evil and bring life—it doesn’t just check out or ignore the pain evil has caused. I really don’t want to develop this too much right now, because it would require a deeper examination and is way more than enough material for another post. But let me briefly say that according to 1 Cor. 3:10-15, no man is exempt from this proving fire. God will test every man’s mettle because he is interested in drawing out the best, the fullness of his own life in a people created to reflect his own beauty.

So, just as the Lamb has wounds and scars from his sacrifice that are still evident in heaven, affirming his decisive victory over evil, so is the smoke evidence of the decisive and final judgment of evil in the world. The stigmata of Jesus are brands on his body, saying that his love for us is complete. The lingering smoke of this “testing by fire” is a similar statement. The Lamb is addressing evil in people who cause others to suffer, who are the takers in this world instead of the givers: those who diminish goodness instead of enriching God’s creation with vibrant life. And because of this, we see the slain Lamb acting out redemptive judgment from his position of love with all those who are stubborn gaping holes of bitter evil in his creation.

This smoke is a symbol of the Lamb of God’s contention with evil. It is 100% apropos for him to contend because it is he who freely gives all he has and lays down his life for the burdens of humanity, who came and is coming as the Man of Justice to right every wrong and wipe away every tear of the oppressed. With the ever-rising smoke, questions remain. the mystery of evil remains, as does the mystery of God (i.e. good). If you take mystery out of the picture, you also remove things like adventure and challenge, which create pizzazz in life. What John the Revelator offers us is not a complete annihilation of the memory of evil, but he does let us know that though evil may be persistent, love is always, at the end of the day, triumphant.

Why Did God Create A World Where Evil Exists? Part Three.

2009-08-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

If God is truly God, why didn’t he (or doesn’t he, right this instant) snap his fingers and create a perfect world? Couldn’t he have decreed, “No evil, only good will exist in this world?” And if evil somehow has a legal right to be here, why can’t God call a time-out, change the rules and give evil the boot? He is God, isn’t he? From my limited human experience of God, I believe he would have created a perfect world. But that world obviously is not our present-tense world…

In “Part Two,” we settled that the world was designed by a good Creator, so now let’s consider why his world contained an evil tree. Let me give a few initial disclaimers: I am not asking in these next paragraphs if there was a war in the heavenlies before evil fell like lightening to earth. Nor am I trying to address where evil came from. I’m inquiring as to why we, as a crown jewel in God’s world, encounter evil and struggle with sin. Let me just say right now that I do not have the solution to this problem; rather, I am simply trying to give us a few new half nelsons to use as we wrestle with it.

Let’s imagine here: suppose that creation is, first and foremost, founded on what God likes, not on what is “best.” Now, “likes” and “best” may be one and the same. But taking “best” out of the equation for a moment, what if God, being completely good and loving, played all the scenarios out and decided that out of all the alternate realities, a universe where he created a perfect world was not going to give him as much of what he really liked? What if he saw that an imperfect world would reveal the depths and heights of goodness on a battleground forged by the challenges of pain and sin? What if he saw that the clearest stories of love—the ones with the sweetest, most passionate endings (I mean the ones he liked best)—could only come from great and agonizing birth pains?

You know that when you hear a good song or see a vibrant painting, the artists probably derived their inspiration and emotional energy from a place where they encountered either intense goodness or tragic evil. Now, assume again with me that what God likes and what is best are really synonyms. So, building a world that gives space for the pain and suffering that stem from free human choice (but then climaxes in a final triumph that sets everything right) wouldn’t be too bad, would it?

I’m not going to shove my two-year-old’s finger in an electric socket to teach her not to get shocked, but neither am I going to keep my 13-year-old from playing football so he won’t get hurt. Most children end up getting shocked once or twice and learn their lesson, even though we warned them the best we could. Most boys playing football have to experience the tough knocks and tackles and overcome the pain to become good players and enjoy the game. If we protect them from injury and failure, they won’t become good players. God does not stick our fingers in the socket to teach us, nor does he fully protect us from the hard knocks of evil, because we were created like Him, to overcome evil. To live wholly good.

To say that evil doesn’t exist is blatant denial. To say that God doesn’t “use” evil for good is flight from reality. To say that God’s first choice is for us to suffer evil is a poor assumption. For example, I don’t like to see my boy tackled, but I do like to see him catch the ball! Similarly, God is not in agreement with or in partnership with evil, but he is able to “work all things for good.” And good coming from God is not half good or mostly good because of evil’s existence. God’s good is 100% the genuine article. Not 60% good, 40% rayon.

I don’t think evil troubles God like it troubles us. Yes, he hates it more than we do, but he also sees it as a momentary blip on the screen of our lives as eternal beings. What is seventy years of hardship to make our lives the best stories ever compared to 7 million years in eternity? Just as the atheist says, “If God is really God, he should have made a perfect world,” I would say, “Assuming God is really God, one day our world will make perfect sense and be more splendid than we can conceive.”

God may have decided that although we would constantly misunderstand him in the pain of our present-world scenario, the end result will bring him (and us) the most pleasure in the future. If God’s character is 100% good, loving and pleasing as Creator, he has no need to make a different universe than the current one. The existence of evil in God’s very good world was not a miscalculation. He is God and can make all things right in the end. So much so, that everything then will be 10,000 x 10,000 better than we can now comprehend…because it will give a flawlessly good God what he likes most on that final day.

The end (and new beginning) of the story will also give us what we like most: the most fulfilling ending and clean slate beginning a human being could ever dream up or concoct. It will be a final evolution where heaven comes down to earth. Where love’s triumph over suffering is as plain as full sunlight, and all confess the amazing wisdom of God in Jesus.

Why Did God Create A World Where Evil Exists? Part Two.

2009-07-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

You don’t need to be an ivy league graduate to see it took a designer—a creator—for our solar system and the earth’s macro and micro ecosystems to mesh perfectly into the single most amazing, artistic invention known to man: nature. An amazing Architect laid out this world, applying governing principals to form and maintain the earth that are way beyond what any random process could create or sustain. To claim otherwise is simply illogical and implausible. If time and chance could create without a creator/designer, then it follows that time and chance would have just as much opportunity to un-create, and our universe would indicate far more chaos.

As it is, we know that nature can and does create random, destructive phenomena like droughts and hurricanes. As an integral part of nature, people can also create awful forces such as pollution and war. In May of 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed 250,000 people, potentially. Another million plus may have died in food and water shortages afterwards because the Western world didn’t know how to interact with the Burma government, so officials in power refused to let aide in.

Our world has a few screws loose and is off kilter somewhere, which causes us to question the validity of a good God or Creator. Some people say He’s just checked out. These catastrophes create unimaginable suffering and tend to bring out the worst in people, but they can also bring out the best in us as our spirits rise to overcome tragedy and society becomes richer through the pain of our shared experience.

This unpleasant problem of tainted beauty is the question of an atheist, too. You’ll find their real argument—and they may have many good ones before you sort to the bottom of the pile—is regarding an offense. They are offended that God could create a world that contains the chaotic fruit of “The Tree of Good and Evil.” That evil could corrupt creation and be found in humans who are in the image of God is offensive to them! Atheism subsequently becomes a moral argument, not a scientific one. It typically doesn’t do you any good to argue about evolution or the existence of God—that is a waste of time with an atheist. Go to the root. Deal with the offense: God allowed evil…

Deep down, the kind of God we all want to believe in is a good and kind God. Looking through our world, at first glance, it looks like God made a big mistake or forgot to be kind. There is too much evil and way too much suffering and death! It’s a royal setup for an offense. Atheists then deny God because He appears NOT to be what their hearts really long for: a good God who should have created a good world that is free of evil; and so, they take offense with God.

This offense—because we buy the lie that God has compromised—is the base of all rebellion and sin acted out by people on our planet. Offense with God and offense with our brothers. When the serpent had a conversation with Eve, he introduced an offense: that God was holding back from Eve and Adam. Satan started Eve and Adam on the treacherous path of offense by first blaming God for withholding good (and evil). Then Adam blames his wife. Eve blames the snake. Cain then is jealous and kills his brother. It is all rooted in offense.

For those of us who think we are beyond offense, be advised that disappointment is the common backdoor offense uses to enter our hearts. But for those of us who choose to be aware that offense in our hearts is the fruit of the wrong tree, we choose a path of life that travels between vistas of beauty and pain. And on that journey, we can choose whether the tension these views create will breed vibrancy or jadedness.

Why Did God Create A World Where Evil Exists? Part One

2009-06-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

There are two great mysteries in the world: the mystery of God (good) and the mystery of evil. God is a mystery and is above explanation. Evil is also a mystery; the scriptures are not clear about the origins of evil or whether it always existed as the antithesis of what God is. In humanity, evil seems to have the same footing or better than good. In God’s realm, however, evil shrinks to the size of a veritable pinhead, and the present contrast is massively reduced.

As the family of God, we would do well to be more concerned with our response to evil than our understanding of evil. Because evil is an elusive enigma, there will always be another corner to turn in comprehending it. It is fine to ask the questions like, “why suffering?” and it is healthy to seek understanding, but it is most important to focus on our attitude and what we make of Jesus’ life within us.

Frankly, a greater measure of understanding will unfold if we will engage in the battle for justice. A greater measure of life will also ensue when we actually join the mêlée. It may seem at times that the fight wears us down, but just remember that muscles only gain strength and tone by being torn down and rebuilt repeatedly.

Bottom line: we already know evil is wrong, and we have many effective weapons of warfare at our disposal now, the greatest of these being love. If you dare to believe it, at the end of the day, love conquers all. Humanity, from top to bottom, becomes part of the warp and weave that Jesus turns into a living, breathing masterpiece that would make your heart ache and captivate your attention for 10,000 centuries. It is hard for a single thread of a tapestry to see the big picture as it weaves its course with millions of other threads. But one day, our time will come…to see even as we are already known in heaven.

Alyxius' Family Update May 2009

2009-05-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

I thought I (Alyxius) would post a little update to the Divine Inheritance “Lost Coins” blog, so you all could stay in touch with the family. It’s hard to believe May is upon us, and our summer break is quickly approaching!

Our oldest, Adrian, just turned 13 last month and is growing up quickly. He still loves history, reading and anything to do with World War II, but has added Play Station and football to the mix. We had a joint party for Adrian and Marcus to celebrate the passage of significant birthdays for both of them: Adrian’s 13th and Marcus’ 41st. Adrian’s passage into manhood and the teen years is obvious, but what is special about Marcus’ 41st? Well, for one thing, he was actually here for it! You may recall he was traveling last year to help start a home for child soldiers when he turned 40. So, this year we tried to make up for it, and he got 2 parties!

Rooke is doing very well in school. You wouldn't believe it is his first year there, given the number of friends he has already made and the kind of influence he has in the classroom. He won the 5th grade election to be mayor of the Biztown (a marketplace simulation) field trip this Friday. He is very excited!

Akhasa is all about animals right now. We have 16 baby chicks, so if I ever have trouble finding Akhasa, I know to look in the chicken coop. She has recently acquired a rat that lives in a cage in her room…AND she keeps snails too. ☹

Samara is bright, funny, sweet and loves to talk about Jesus in her heart. She and I get to hang out the most, since she is only in school 2 half days a week and spends the rest of the time with me. Sometimes, she gets bored with me and goes to wrestle the cat for a while. I think the cat usually wins...

Marcus and I are doing well. Both of us are fighting to keep islands of Sabbath rest in our hearts and schedules. Some days we do it well, other days not so much. I started working in the children’s ministry at our church and am also growing in my knowledge and proficiency as a part of a healing prayer ministry called “Sozo” (the Greek word meaning salvation in every aspect of life) at our church.

This all keeps me pretty busy, along with football and brownies and play dates and school projects and hospitality and, and, and... (though, not too busy to enjoy some beautiful weather here recently). Winter is past and I am so glad…all I can say is, “IT'S ABOUT TIME!”

Much love to all of you, our friends and family. Let us know what's up with you and your family!

Alyxius

A Short & Ugly Word

2009-04-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

Looking Beyond Sin

Sin is that short ugly word we all like to avoid. It’s a word that gives pew warmers the titters. Even “sinners” don’t like that word. They may label it “just fun” or “a sad necessity” or “ lesser addictions” or even “rights.”

Reality is, those in the church are just as plagued with the pesky, sometimes gruesome disease of the human race the church calls sin. And frankly, it is downright embarrassing how many leaders in the church are right up there in the A ranks of the most skillful sinners! What to do? Many of us in the church community grew up with the notion that the best way to deal with sin was to get a healthy dose of “hell-fire and brimstone.”

That kind of “fear of the Lord” is to miss the real picture. The fear of the Lord gives life, makes us “strongly confident,” wise, clean, and more. The fear of the Lord is more about having respect for a very good king than a fear of a mean tyrant. And yes, because of this infusion of life from fearing God, we do hate evil.

The intention of hell-fire and brimstone is justice to right wrongs far more than punishment of sinners. And justice is not about being mean, but about corralling those who insist on remaining mean themselves and restoring life to the oppressed.

The word sin as we use it today has its entomological roots in the idea of being singularly guilty. The Hebrew and Greek languages of the scriptures both more generally define sin as “missing the mark” or “getting off the path.” Repentance is about getting back on the path of life again. And life, well that is the very thing you were created for; breathe in God’s clean air and enjoy the awesome love of Jesus.

Guilt is a negative word in our western culture but missing the mark is not really so negative. If we miss the mark we are encouraged to try again. We are raising the bar and calling people to a higher place. Guilt however, is associated far more with; you have done something terribly wrong. “Shame on you!!!”

Guilt is almost singularly spoken about in the context of the crucifixion in the NT. The OT is full of references to guilt but most are in reference to sacrifices to remove guilt. The very thing Jesus steps forward to do by his death and life! He removed all guilt. He killed all sin and started a new race of humans. That is why we call him the second Adam. Where is that new race anyways? I’m still looking for it!

I’ve contrasted guilt and sin just a little here to give you a context to consider how we could shift our paradigm and have the ability to say no to sin more often. We are often guilty (there’s that evil word again) of trying to be followers of rules about right and wrong instead of pursuers of life.

Let me go just a bit further: Before you said yes to Jesus and traded your messy life for his amazing one, sin was like a plague. It was always there, engaged and active. And frankly, you could enjoy it. Problem was you were an empty soul. When you said yes to God, you may have found some issues fell off in a blink. But horror! Others were still lurking in the closet 10 years later. Sin didn’t all disappear as you had hoped.

Now there is a distinction between being a slave of sin (addicted to the wrong path of life) or a slave of righteousness (addicted to the right path of life). Now, sin’s ability to fulfill you is empty, no matter how much you sin, it’s not the same as it was before you met God. Drats! And now you can’t escape that new pesky thing called righteousness. It is always lurking, calling to you, pulling at you. Aghh! You’ve got a new addiction and if you feed it, it will grow.

It’s almost like you traded one problem and got two. Now you still find yourself sinning but sin’s lost its fulfilling edge and on top of that you really find yourself wanting to do good things, mostly because of God’s love flooding your heart but find yourself still missing the mark of doing them well. Yep, guilt seems to still be active as ever huh?

So let’s end this ramble and take some action. I’m going to define two things that should help us break the back of sin in our lives. Two motivations that help us say no: One is removal of condemnation or guilt. The other is a conscience that is sensitive to what pleases God.

Very simple yet very core is this - God’s pleasure over our lives. Living free from guilt is our saying by faith, “God loves me (unconditionally/absolutely) therefore I have strength to please him.” Having a clean conscience by faith proclaiming, “God loves me (unconditionally/absolutely) so I have an authentic desire to please him. “

No condemnation means our status has been permanently moved to sons and daughters of God. Permanent family. A clean conscience means we are walking in really close friendship with God and care what He thinks about things. That is, real and transparent friends.

When we are feeling guilty or condemned it’s like subtle whispers in the back of our subconscious, “God is disappointed with you.” When we are hardened in our conscience, often it is because we are disappointed with God and don’t have a heart to listen right then…He is always talking.

• Not condemned = God is pleased with us.
• Clean conscience = We are conscious of God.

Be honest. It’s a good way to start with God. He may surprise you. It may help some of you to pray something like this on a daily basis:
“Even though I feel like a total mess today and even though I like sin a whole lot more than I like what I know about you (God), would you show me your love so I could maybe love you better?”

And then, make this confession of faith: (It takes faith to say this.)
“I believe because of Jesus that God is totally pleased with me right now and that He is actively engaged in my life because he really, fully loves me.”

The Love Chapter

2009-04-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

1 Corinthians 13 - An Interpretive Paraphrase

Love translates heavenly cadence into the mother tongues of men. Love believes in destinies, love delights in mysteries, love conquers the highest peaks…

Love is extravagant with the poor, she burns for those who “lay it all down” for Jesus sake; great is loves reward.

Those empty, self-focused folks want it all right now; they think the world revolves around them. They hide behind grand words, wear big names and idolize achievement.

But Love has no identity crisis. She abides and obeys.
Love forgives without reservation. She doesn’t keep a tally.
Loves always speaks truth. She never accuses.

Love bears up under brutal injustice
She believes in the face of callous cynicism
She anticipates goodness beyond crushing disappointment
Love stands though thousands lay scattered around her like fresh cut grass

Love shines more eternal than the sun.
She kindles prophecies of vibrant hope. Her flaming, heavenly tongue penetrates fresh dimensions of expression. She gracefully shatters the limitations of knowledge. All things are perfected by Love and every creature remains unfinished without her.

Love takes all the gifts and guides them from their child-like form into the full stature of her own image…mature love crowns all things with fullness.

Love’s vision is not dim, no, it has full-blown site of God. God is Love.

These three things are eternal; the spiritual senses of faith, the living expectancy of hope, and the radiant confidence of love. But soaring heavenward above her sisters, is the mountain peak of love.