Fulfilling the Law of Christ

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Jeanie

It was the mid 1980s. There was a spiritual housecleaning going on in the church that made the nightly news, almost every night. Televangelist after televangelist going down, one by one, each grabbing their brothers along the way with an I’m-not-taking-the-blame-by-myself flurry. It was embarrassing to be a Christian. The magazines had pictures and the stories got worse by the second. It was a circus of riidiculousness, immorality, cover-ups, finger-pointing, ministry-stealing and accusation. The Body turned on itself like an auto-immune disease. Instead of protecting itself against the enemy, it started cutting and lashing out and over-medicating, using the Holy Word of God to beat itself.

I have old videotape of the top TV (perfect) preacher of the day saying to Ted Koppel, “[this other TV preacher] is a cancer that needs to be excised from the Body of Christ.” In less than 3 months, perfect-preacher had been exposed, too, for his own sexual sin.

His prescription for the other preacher: Excise him from the Body of Christ. Cut him out. He is gone. Get rid of the sin.

His prescription for himself, you ask? Excision? No. Hardly. He asked for forgiveness. Just forgive me and let me keep my church and ministry.

Gets personal

My sister-in-law, Robin, who is an amazing wife, mother and Word-loving writer and teacher, wrote about Easter on her blog last week, but the lense through which she wrote is a strong word to the Household of Faith. Her family has been through the hailstorm of disintegration this past year (my people, I love them deeply), and they have had to walk it mostly alone, for exposed sin caused their local spiritual family to shut doors, pull in tighter, excise the sin. This isn’t a rant against that local gathering, for they are no different than local bodies the world over who don’t understand what they have unleashed when they handle what seems too hard to handle.

I am judgemental, too. I am black and white. I am right or wrong. I don’t judge this local church in this particular story because I know they are trying to do what is right (though o-my-goodness it is all only by the blood, people). But I challenge them to walk out Galatians 6. Because? I have seen what I have seen. I have experienced what I have experienced. When the “perfect preacher” lashed out against the imperfect, it did him no good. Old enough now to have seen it time and time again.

1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. GALATIANS 6.1-2 NIV

Robin wrote three amazingly insightful and revealing blog posts. Please read them all. If you have ever judged some one else harshly, read them. If you have ever been “shut out” by the “offcials” in the family of God, read them. If you have ever turned your back on some one whose sin seemed too much to handle, read them. If you have ever cried alone, divorced from the family by accusation or because you truly had let them down in sin, read them. Because we have. to. grow. up.

Auto-immune diseases are an inappropriate attack by your immune system against your very own body, against the very cells and tissues needed to live. The enemy cackles to watch us destroy ourselves.

Robin, DAY ONE: Betrayed (Good Friday)

Robin, DAY TWO: Grief

Robin, DAY THREE: Expectation (the tuth vs. the lies)

Restore the one overtaken by sin. That simple. That hard. That messy. That inescapable. Invest in your own future by doing it.

I love you, Robin.

Giving all the ticket money away

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Jeanie

When you throw a million dollar event but give away A L L the ticket money

for the poor, the hungry and thirsty

for the exploited (sex-traded) children of the world

for the orphan (and fatherless), for the widow (and the single-parents in our area),

and

when the Family of God gathers to worship and pray

to sing along, to cheer and worship

and

when you rent out hundreds of acres so Father can call His children together for a little reunion

when you have a day where almost a third of those gathering are people who don’t know Jesus yet, but some one in the fam brought them, prayed over them, is beliving God for their salvation and they got a free admission just so we could introduce them to Jesus…

when 2000 volunteers sweat and work for the glory

and Jesus is the headliner and you see all the races and all the denominations and every age represented and they just forget their dividing lines and join in one song for one God, and one reason

and when 40,000 people encounter the father heart of God and through the gift they GIVE when they walk through the front gate, nations are impacted and

wells are dug and the hungry are fed and

children are adopted

and the suicidal find hope and life and

lives are transformed

and the Name of Jesus is made glorious

Then the money spent was well worth it. Every dollar, multiplied in its’ impact. On real people. Real lives. Changed.

It is not about the concert. It is not about the bands. It is about the love of a Father, expressed to those He loves. On earth as it is in heaven.

400 people giving $3000 over then next 10 months can make this happen.

I am just thinking out loud. About giving away every dollar of admission/ticket money and how we can still do all this more, as family, anyway.

The Highest Praise

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Jeanie

Overheard from an “official” intercessor:

“Then some one explained to me that the highest form of worship [to God], higher than music or anything else, really, is intercession. And it was like – of course!” Followed by a hand gesture that said I-am-called-to-THE-most-important-thing + a way huge smile.

{Well, isn’t she just the greatest in the Kingdom} Ping.

I hate that. I hate that I cannot just hear stuff like that and be ok with it and go on my merry Christian way. Or just think “She is where she is,” and not want to tell her how arrogant that seems. But dang, I find our Western Christian culture of so wanting, just like the conniving-striving-jealousy-position-guarding disciples, to be in the most powerful, important “ministry” irritating. And I know-I know, that is probably because of my own pride and sin and it-takes-one-to-know-one realization. That really IS what aggravates me: it is my own crap glaring harshly in some one else that causes me to want to strangle…them!!! Haha.

So, btw, don’t worry if you have ever aggravated me to your knowledge. I am really just seeing my own unholy reflection. It’s not you – it’s me.

I digress.

So, I knew when I heard Miss-intercessor triumphing in her role as highest-ever-worshiper and I felt ticked, that I shouldn’t leave it there, my attitude, I mean. I shouldn’t categorically now dismiss all intercessors, even though I have known some doozies. Because there are people called and they literally stand in the gap between God and man. I have a couple of amazing (and very humble) intercessor friends who haul my junk out and make a case for me, plead for God’s mercy over my life. When they are standing in the fray – they absolutely are giving God the highest praise, living their most glorious moment – because they are being all He created them to be. And that pleasure, that glory that God receives when my friends pray, it is complete and it is full and it is true.

But that is not the whole of the glory.

For a rose, it is when it has opened fully, released every drop of its’ perfume and is reaching far and wide in total splendor that it reveals the very glory of God.

For the singer, it is a note {the one} or a run echoing to heaven and back again.

For a woman giving birth, that moment when bebe passes, bloody and gasping, from the hiding place (where God has been knitting the child together) into air and bright light – is not that moment one of great triumph, the very glory of God revealed, somehow perhaps even symbolizing death passing to life? Glorious!

For a father in these days, to deliver his daughter to her intended at the wedding altar, pure, whole and holy – it is a moment of glory to our God.

When I am with my grandbebes and I am hearing them and seeing them beyond what the physical senses can pick up, when I am present in their lives and making inroads into their hearts where I deposit a seed of the sweet song of salvation into their tiny hearts and minds because I know I will reap what I sow, oh believe me, it is glory. It is why I was born. When I am long gone, that kind of glory remains.

We still try to get points

It is amusing, though, isn’t it? That even with our 7.4 Bibles per American person, though we have heard of those disciples jostling for position, though Paul writes extensively about the many parts of the one body and how each part must do its’ work so that then we’ll be healthy and growing and truly grow more and more to be like Christ – we are still trying to determine what role we have and how important we can make it seem.

The intercessors think they have the inside track, but if they’d talk to the prophets, they’d know better. The youth pastor is cooler than the children’s pastor and the evangelist can’t figure out why everyone is wasting time at church and won’t get out into the highways and byways this minute!? Pastors pretty much dread the charismatic “revivalist” who can come in and stir the pot but leaves before the mess is cleaned up. There are performance-driven “worship leaders,” who haven’t been in the secret place since they got to be the “leader,” and exhorts who are mad that no one receives their gift.

Please don’t ask me how I know.

How is it possible that the same God who called me also called all of those…weird, prideful, title-seeking people? What on earth? {you know I’m kidding, right?}

Maybe this, like Paul said:

Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.

GOD’S PURPOSE IN ALL THIS WAS TO USE THE CHURCH TO DISPLAY HIS WISDOM in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ephesians 3

It is all for His glory. Your gift. Mine. The weird, prideful people. He knows. He knows that when those people and you and me become all He created us to be, when we are doing the things He planned for us before we were even one day old, when we are being who we are, an evangelist, a pastor or teacher or bread baker or car detailer – in the moment we are who he says we are – we are at our most glorious and we are, in fact {and in richest variety}, giving Him the highest praise.

John Eldredge

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Jeanie

I REALLY like him. I use and regularly share The Daily Prayer with friends and family and young women I disciple. I haven’t read everything he writes, but Walking with God revolutionized me…after The Sacred Romance did (my dad requested I read a copy he’d underlined thoughts in, such treasure!)…after The Journey of Desire did a number of years earlier. :)

I did a whole Sacred Romance thing with my friends on this very blog.

And certainly have mentioned Walking with God …a little.

Then, this!

I hadn’t been to his site for awhile, but the other day I went to catch up and found that he’d posted an entry on his blog on December 26, 2011 called “I am Bethlehem.” {See it here}

And I had, if you will recall, posted an entry in December called “I am the Nativity.” {see it here}

I am smiling as if something wonderful just happened (silly, I know). I want to say something like “John Eldredge and I think alike,” as if! But it is just one of those things. Sorta similar, but not. One written by some one who is read by millions and one who is read by 7 or 8 on a good day. *insert self-deprecating laugh

I re-read the post I did and I certainly recognized my words are so influenced by his writings. What I wrote just came tumbling from my heart in the early dark hours of a winter morning. But they are also words born of the people, speakers and authors whose revelations have pierced my very soul, line upon line, precept upon precept. And John Eldredge is way up there on my favs list as an author! So what felt so powerful and unique to me that day, and for days following, was merely a summary of years of the walk with God and the voices which have spoken in to and impacted my life.

His post was classic John Eldredge. Mine was a tumbling sensory something-or-another. They were different. Yet both inspired by fresh of understanding during the Christmas season of 2011.

And I just kind of think it is cool because I am such a fan. And I feel kind of validated in a very silly way. Because God will reveal Himself to us: wildly famous writer, or not so much. So we shouldn’t be surprised when He does. But can I just {very indulgently} say I am kind of giddy that God did that?

That’s all. Just smiling because the same God that spoke to John Eldredge spoke to me. And to you, too. You know it is true!

Being Right.

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Jeanie

Tested and tried.

For various companies, I have had to endure those tests for personality type or right brain/left brain analysis, so that whichever supervisor at the time could try to figure out how to get more work out of me or whatever (or perhaps why I was so dang amazing). And basically, I have always, whether on a sliding scale or a grid, tested out on the brain thing almost dead-center. One time slightly more in to the right and others just over the left line.

Today I tried again, online. One test scored me this way:

Left Brain Dominance: (11)

Right Brain Dominance: (10)

Another scored me like this:

Left Brain 53%

Right Brain 47%

So see? Close.

But here is the deal. I think truly, I am supposed to be right-brained. And that I am actually right-brained, but that some invisible lid has been placed to squelch it. In fact, I can remember being a little ashamed when the numbers went more right – like I was going to let down the company because of it or something.

I started to do a quick Google search about right-brained people and this is the very negative menu that began to pop up. What the…

When I experience art…

I love zeal and passion and creativity and creative people’s gifts and abilities amaze me. When I hear an amazing lyric to just the most intoxicating melody, or read a poem which strings words together I’d never thought of, or experience a painting with colors that actually make me salivate – first, I go utterly speechless. Just…nothing. Then I start trying to explain it in thousands of words…but can’t really.

And I wish to create like that too. I want to be a poet and a painter, a singer and a writer. I am happiest during inspiration, those times heaven just passes through you and you get all things divine and can suddenly reveal them through whatever your art.

Mercedes-Benz: music

But creativity is only rewarded on Etsy and Pinterest.

I am mostly kidding about that. But you know what I mean. In job interviews, they never ask you what you last created – which would be so insightful, wouldn’t it?

And I think I have unwittingly, at times, succumbed to the right-brain-bashing so prevalent in our logic and reason culture. I actually had a pastor call me forward in church once to speak a “Word of Knowledge”* over me, during which he spent 15 minutes insulting me (and my husband and our two greatest-ever friends) for being creative, saying things like “right-brained people are just ‘differn’t,’ they’re just differn’t.” And believe me when I tell you he didn’t mean that in a o-she-is-such-a-unique-creation-of-God kind of way. I crept back to my seat in shame for being openly creative, passionate and colorful, for daring to live as a multi-faceted, colors-of-the-rainbow, life-filled, green-leafed, curious, and zesty reflection of the Creator. And the lid is tightened.

Mercedes-Benz: paint

Dance like David; Preach like Paul.

There was a contemporary Christian song out in the 70s that I cannot find and I can’t remember the artist or even all the words, but what I do remember of the lyric is this, I wanna dance like David, preach like Paul….

New-Testament-Paul and Old-Testament-David are two of my heroes in the faith. Both strong men, Paul was as good at arguing a case for even the logic in the mysteries of the faith, and quite pragmatic in his understanding the workings of the Holy Spirit - as David was in penning words that that he must surely have heard in heavenly realms. We still sing his passionate prose today, pattern our music after that which so pleased the Lord. One might be able to make a case for Paul being left-brained, and David, right. For Paul being able to make a point by point, logical dissertation on the law and its’ fulfillment through Christ, and for David being able to lead a whole nation in raucous dance and worship before the Lord. In undies.

Left vs right.

So, they say left brained people are more logical, analytical and objective. And they say that right-brained people are more intuitive, thoughtful and subjective. And I just think we live in a culture that rewards one and dismisses the other too quickly. Think school budgets: what gets cut first?

This Mercedes-Benz (passion) ad says: “I am the right brain. I am creativity. A free spirit. I am passion. Yearning. Sensuality. I am the sound of roaring laughter. I am taste. The feeling of sand beneath bare feet. I am movement. Vivid colors. I am the urge to paint on an empty canvas. I am boundless imagination. Art. Poetry. I sense. I feel. I am everything I wanted to be.” And I might add: everything God created me to be + a wild-ox as spoken of in Psalm 92.

And I am just saying

Maybe I am just writing a declaration for myself, but I want to create like the Creator. Can you imagine 6 whole days to create anything you want and then a 7th just to enjoy it all? I want to re-learn to value what I instinctively valued as a carefree little girl (soooooooooooo many years ago), that pen-to-paper and color and glue and mess and trying-something-even-if-it-turns-out-disastrously just in case in the process there is that one moment of glory is not only acceptable, but strongly desired! I want to add wild fits of invention and color into the ordered, mundane moments of my day. And I would like for my left-brain, logical sensibilities to quit hampering my right-brain intuition and wide-open thoughts, which are the beautiful meadow-lands of my dreams. Why the heck must logic and objectivity be at war with dreams?

No right-brain bashing. Not even by my own left-brain.

*Word of Knowledge: This is a spiritual gift listed in 1 Corinthians 12. It is a divine revelation of knowledge given by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes these “words” are factual in nature. An intercessor may impart things God has revealed to them about the person being prayed for, sometimes there is a calling out, like when Jesus told the Samaritan woman she’d been married 5 times and the new guy wasn’t even her husband. In my writing above, I put “Word of Knowledge” in quotations because in retrospect, and with grace for this particular pastor, he was not sharing any supernatural revelation nor the heart of God at all, but rather his opinion that creative people are weird. It was delivered as a Word of Knowledge, but was a sad misuse of spiritual authority, I believe. And that is a huge topic for another day.

The s-i-l in Haiti

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Jeanie

Dave Powers, my firstborn’s lover and husband (and my son-in-love), went to Haiti with Convoy of Hope in early December.

Felix-the-HF-web-guy found this online this morning. This is a part of the why of Heaven Fest!

Dave Powers // Convoy of Hope Haiti Response from Wade Yamaguchi on Vimeo.

www.heavenfest.com A massive music and worship gathering.

www.convoyofhope.com A driving passion to feed the world

The Elephant Story

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Jeanie

In a book by Bobb Biehl, he tells the story of a day he spent “working” in a circus.

A quick phone invitation from a friend and Bobb was on a plane heading for the circus. Just for “fun,” and to “clear out the cobwebs,” Bobb and his friend moved props from ring to ring and got dirty and dusty and tired.

During a break Bobb struck up a conversation with a man who trained animals for movies.

“How is it that you can stake down a ten-ton elephant with the same sized stake that you use for this little fellow?” I asked. The little fellow weighed three-hundred pounds.

“It’s easy when you know two things: elephants really do have great memories, but they aren’t very smart. When they are babies, we stake them down. They try to tug away from the stake maybe ten-thousand times before they realize that they can’t possibly get away. At that point their ‘elephant memory’ takes over and they remember for the rest of their lives that they can’t get away from the stake.”

To paraphrase Bobb’s point – humans are sometimes like elephants. When we are young, some unthinking, insensitive person says “You are not good at this,” or “You’re never going to be able to do that.” Perhaps they decreed, “You weren’t cut out to accomplish [insert-your-dream-here],” or something worse. And just like that – boom, a metal stake has been driven into our minds and our hearts. And even though we grow up and possess many skills and talents and abilities and walk with the grace and favor of the Father in our lives, we are still held back by carelessly-driven or even accidentally-pounded-in stakes, mis-statements placed in our minds so long ago.

In light of this fairly-horrible revelation, we can pray. We need to pray.

God, You have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound, disciplined mind. Let the same mind be in me that was in Christ Jesus. Let my mind be steadfast, trusting in You alone for perfect peace. 2 Tim. 1.7; Phil. 2.5; Is. 26.3

Father, forgive the stakes of discouragement that I may have driven into anyone else’s heart and soul, as I forgive the ones that go unseen in mine, but are affecting my life. Help me remember Your faithfulness, remember Your goodness and help me recall Your everlasting love towards me. Don’t let my pierced heart and memory dictate the life I lead. For even when my heart condemns me, God, You are greater than my heart. Mt. 6.8-10; Ps. 86.15; Ps. 103.17; Ps. 116.12; 1 Jn. 3.19-21

Pentecostal Preacher’s Daughter

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Jeanie

I am a Pentecostal. If I need to be labeled.

I believe in the blessing of the Holy Spirit bestowed in the Upper Room for all times when the promised Holy Spirit showed up on the Day of Pentecost (you can read about it in Acts 2). Right there and then the power to be witnesses and the carriers and couriers of the {good news} became available in even greater measure than what we’d seen through Jesus. Don’t believe it? Read Acts 1 & 2, and John 14.11-13 and verses 15-20, which quotes Jesus Himself!

And I am a Pentecostal preacher’s daughter. Which is a different beast altogether.

From learning to live, walk, act and behave through the checklist-lense of man’s interpretation of an outward-focused holiness, I am still being delivered. People-pleasing, fear-of-man, and all the good-girl, preacher’s-daughter expectations set me up to be the worst of the worst Pharisees. God was always looking at the heart. Yet I was busy collecting perfect attendance pins and memorizng scripture for the sole purpose of getting gold stars on the wall chart.

I am still repenting of terrorizing Sunday School teachers with my know-it-all, superior, eye-rolling, entitlement, arrogant, childish behavior. If only that was the worst of it all. Sigh. It isn’t. If walking with Jesus was just a to-do list, I’d be set. This heart-thing makes it all real, makes me vulnerable. It puts me right in the mess with the rankest of sinners where I stand a chance at being rescued.

I am a Pentecostal preacher’s daughter who is still learning how vast my need for a Savior is.

For the J O Y !

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Jeanie

I’m dark, moody, crabby, hopeless, helpless, broken, undone, flawed and worse. This is why I so need a Savior. Jesus came – good news and great joy {great-great joy}!

“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared.

This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve,

for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

Nehemiah 8.10 niv

“…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

For the joy set before him

he endured the cross, scorning its shame,

and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12.2 niv

On a joy-quest.

Song for a Sunday // He looked beyond my fault and saw my need

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Jeanie

Lyrics by Dottie Rambo, to the tune of Danny Boy

“Amazing Grace” shall always be my song of praise

For it was grace that bought my liberty

I do not know just why He came to love me so

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

I shall forever life mine eyes to Calvary

to view the cross where Jesus dies for me

How marvelous the grace that caught my falling soul

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

1960s. I grew up on Dottie Rambo’s music. This was the anthem of our hearts. A haunting melody, a soul’s reflection, a cry of worship to the One. How marvelous the grace…How marvelous that He looks beyond my fault…

Gets personal

Restore the one overtaken by sin. That simple. That hard. That messy. That inescapable. Invest in your own future by doing it.

400 people giving $3000 over then next 10 months can make this happen.

I am just thinking out loud. About giving away every dollar of admission/ticket money and how we can still do all this more, as family, anyway.

Overheard from an “official” intercessor:

{Well, isn’t she just the greatest in the Kingdom} Ping.

I digress.

But that is not the whole of the glory.

We still try to get points

Please don’t ask me how I know.

Maybe this, like Paul said:

Then, this!

Tested and tried.

When I experience art…

But creativity is only rewarded on Etsy and Pinterest.

Dance like David; Preach like Paul.

Left vs right.

And I am just saying

No right-brain bashing. Not even by my own left-brain.

Dave Powers, my firstborn’s lover and husband (and my son-in-love), went to Haiti with Convoy of Hope in early December.

Felix-the-HF-web-guy found this online this morning. This is a part of the why of Heaven Fest!

In a book by Bobb Biehl, he tells the story of a day he spent “working” in a circus.

“How is it that you can stake down a ten-ton elephant with the same sized stake that you use for this little fellow?” I asked. The little fellow weighed three-hundred pounds.

In light of this fairly-horrible revelation, we can pray. We need to pray.

God, You have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound, disciplined mind. Let the same mind be in me that was in Christ Jesus. Let my mind be steadfast, trusting in You alone for perfect peace. 2 Tim. 1.7; Phil. 2.5; Is. 26.3

I am a Pentecostal. If I need to be labeled.

And I am a Pentecostal preacher’s daughter. Which is a different beast altogether.

I am a Pentecostal preacher’s daughter who is still learning how vast my need for a Savior is.

I’m dark, moody, crabby, hopeless, helpless, broken, undone, flawed and worse. This is why I so need a Savior. Jesus came – good news and great joy {great-great joy}!

“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared.

This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve,

for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

Nehemiah 8.10 niv

“…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

For the joy set before him

he endured the cross, scorning its shame,

and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12.2 niv

Lyrics by Dottie Rambo, to the tune of Danny Boy

“Amazing Grace” shall always be my song of praise

For it was grace that bought my liberty

I do not know just why He came to love me so

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

I shall forever life mine eyes to Calvary

to view the cross where Jesus dies for me

How marvelous the grace that caught my falling soul

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

1960s. I grew up on Dottie Rambo’s music. This was the anthem of our hearts. A haunting melody, a soul’s reflection, a cry of worship to the One. How marvelous the grace…How marvelous that He looks beyond my fault…