In the recent past, I read Grace Walk by Steve McVey and found it to be an absolutely awesome book. I am a person who defaults to relating to God as judge which leads to legalism and thinking that I need to earn His forgiveness and love. Grace Walk is McVey’s transformation from a similar lifestyle of action and works into someone who walks in the Spirit and does things because they overflow from his understanding of how the Christ system works. I can’t say I was transformed in the same huge way but my default mode of relating to God certainly changed for the better.

I am currently reading another McVey book in the Grace series, Grace Rules. “Rules” in the title is a verb, not a noun. Think of a surfer yelling “You rule, dude!” It’s that kind of rule.Grace Rules focuses more on Grace vs. The Law. I just finished a chapter that uses an analogy of marriage to highlight McVey’s point. I’ll put a few of the paragraphs that jumped out at me below. Hopefully they will entice you to get the book but mainly I hope they get your mind churning and cause you to ask yourself where you live on the continuum between grace and legalism like they did me.

Trying to overcome sin by changing one’s behavior is typical of a person whose life is ruled by law. Remember that law is a system whereby someone tries to make spiritual progress or gain God’s blessings based on what he does. In a life where grace rules, victory over sin is experienced by the expression of the indwelling Christ within us. The mere absence of expressed sin is not victory. Jesus Christ within us is our victory. Until a Christian understands his union with Christ, his default setting will be a legalistic lifestyle. His whole life will revolve around rules.

The bolded sentence really hit me because I thought that the absence of sin (a particular one or many/varied ones) is the goal, the state of victory.

When a Christian gets frustrated because Jesus won’t give him a list of rules, he may turn back to Law and ask, “Will you tell me what to do?” Mr. Law is always ready to make a connection with a Christian with wandering eyes – one who looks away from Jesus. So a believer may find himself married to Mr. Grace (Jesus) and yet involved again with Mr. Law. What is it called when a person is married to one partner but involved with another? Spiritual adultery. That’s what a Christian has when he builds his life around rules. The Bible clearly teaches that we are dead to the law. We have no relationship with rules anymore. Our life is Jesus Christ. 

Wow, McVey gets right to the heart of things! 

So why do many Christians live by laws? In Colossians 2:23, Paul says it is because “these are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion….” The religionist loves rules for one simple reason – they make him look good. It’s all about appearance. A legalist enjoys the special status he holds among his peers because he seems to keep all the right rules. It is a matter of pride. 

Again, some hard-hitting truth.

Like I mentioned above, these two books have made a huge impact on my understanding of what the Christian walk is supposed to look like. McVey brings up another point regarding forgiveness but discussion of it warrants another entry here. I’ll get going on it ASAP.  All of the points McVey makes are right there in scripture, things most of us have read numerous times. I pray that we will read God’s word slowly and purposefully so as to let it sink in and stick in our souls. 

Have a merry Christmas and let’s cherish the best gifts of all, Jesus’ birth and our adoption into His family! Jeff

Andrew Murray can be very difficult to read; just now during lunch, I struggled through Chapter 12 of his book, Humility.

I had to read each sentence at least twice to get the message and sometimes I think I only got a glimpse of the depth of his writing.

One section really jumped out though, partly because it was easy to understand, but mostly because of the analogy and meaning.

The highest glory of the creature is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be all. Water always fills first the lowest places. The lower, the emptier a man lies before God, the speedier and the fuller will be the inflow of the divine glory.

There is a large dose of humility that comes with living in Tehran. We talk like three-year-olds, our sense of humor is lost on Iranians, and the culture often plays tricks on our trusting nature. In the midst of this, I still find myself looking for ways to exalt myself and claim higher ground in my own strength.

We deserve residence permits, we deserve not to be robbed, we deserve the right directions to a store (or a truthful “I don’t know where it is.”), we deserve to be served our food in the order that we requested it.

Thoughts like these are easy to think when I forget that I am just a vessel to hold the water that God pours in. I pray that I will lay low and empty before God so He can fill me up with divine glory. Then I can overflow in a land that is as dry as a desert.

May we all desire to be low-down vessels so God can fill us and get all the glory from our overflow!

The complete chapter is here: http://www.unveiling.org/Articles/humility12.htm

Jeff

During our time in Turkey last November we read Joshua 4, the miraculous crossing of the Jordan. After the crossing, God told Joshua to have each tribe get a rock from the river and pile them up nearby. Then when their future generations asked about the big pile of rocks by the Jordan, they would be reminded of how God stopped the river from flowing so the tribes could cross.

In the same fashion, God has blessed us in numerous ways by leading us across Bahrain in our journey to Iran. I don’t think we can know if the blessings were miraculous but many of them were way beyond what I’m “used to”.

While we are happy to be moving to Iran, we thought it would be fitting to make our own monuments that will remind us of God’s provision. The Steeles came over one evening and each family filled a 10×13 inch picture box with mementos of our time here. Our monuments are a little more mobile than a pile of rocks thankfully so we will take them with us and hang them on the wall wherever we live in Iran.

In our box are things like:
-pictures of our friends
-various coins
-ticket stubs from trips to Iran
-duplicates of our local ID cards
-a little vial of sand from our villa
-the logo from our church bulletin
-Tad’s first ultrasound

Most of these things (if not all of them) are answers to the prayers you prayed for us over the past two and a half years. When we walk by our monument on the wall, we will remember this blessing as well.

Jeff

It’s been over a month since I last blogged and God has been doing a lot in me.  I have thought about writing so many times, but I just wasn’t ready yet.   It’s interesting how in times of suffering or difficulty we are tempted to go it alone.  A classic symptom of depression is isolating one’s self.  Why is it that when things are hard we prefer to take it on our own? That’s certainly not everyone’s tendency, but it is something I struggle with, even in my relationship with God.  Two nights ago when I was feeling down, tired of the waiting, I was tempted to just wallow in my mood…to “feed” my sadness.  But I knew that wasn’t the right thing to do.  I quietly, almost half-heartedly, asked God to give me some form of encouragement.  He prompted me to open my devotional book and spend some time with Him.  I was reluctant but chose to do so.  The passage for my devotion was Psalm 107.   It spoke to me so clearly, particularly verses 4-9. 

 Psalm 107

 4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
       finding no way to a city where they could settle.
 5 They were hungry and thirsty,
       and their lives ebbed away.
 6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
       and he delivered them from their distress.
 7 He led them by a straight way
       to a city where they could settle.
 8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
       and his wonderful deeds for men,
 9 for he satisfies the thirsty
       and fills the hungry with good things.

It does feel as though we are wandering in desert wastelands and to some extent that our lives are “ebbing away”.  It’s easy to doubt that God has us out here for a reason.  It’s easy to doubt that we’ll ever make it to Iran.  It’s easy to question God’s methods or timing.  But He is encouraging me lately that despite the fact that it feels like this waiting will never end, there is coming a day when we will again settle.  The above passage speaks to that and that He will satisfy. 
What really gives all this extra impact is that a little over a week ago, as I was praying to God, He brought to mind Jeremiah 29:13:  “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart”.  I went to look up that passage, but started back in verse 4 and was struck by these verses:

Jeremiah 29:4-7 

 4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

God has now led me to two passages within a week of each other that talk about settling. He knows my heart and my needs and He is providing just the right encouragement.   

But wait, there is more.

Today during my time with God my devotional led me to Psalm 16 and asked me to think of a place of refuge…what visual images come to mind when you think of God being a refuge?   I began to visualize a courtyard with lots of grass, or a park with lots of flowers and trees, and memories of parks and gardens that I had been to came to mind.  All of the sudden I realized the images in my mind were from the parks and gardens of Iran.  I hadn’t consciously thought of Iran these were just the images that came to mind.  And tears filled my eyes as I realized how God is transforming the desires of my heart.  Because although we’ve long had our sights set on Iran, I can’t say I ever would have said that I saw it as a place of refuge. 

And so I can speak with great confidence today that God is good.  He meets us where we are.  His Word can speak powerfully into our lives and His Spirit can transform our minds and hearts.  We just have to put ourselves aside and ask Him to. 

I came across this in a packet of different essays and articles dealing with reclaiming Christmas. It’s from a book by JB Philips called New Testament Chrsitianity. I thought it was neat how it reveals a big-picture view of Christianity.

The site I got this from allows for reposting text as long as I include the URL.

http://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/JBPhillips.htm

Jeff

==========

Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown round the splendours and glories of the universes by a senior and experienced angel. To tell the truth, the little angel was beginning to be tired and a little bored. He had been shown whirling galaxies and blazing suns, infinite distances in the deathly cold of inter-stellar space, and to his mind there seemed to be an awful lot of it all. Finally he was shown the galaxy of which our planetary system is but a small part. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.

“I want you to watch that one particularly,” said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.

“Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me,” said the little angel. “What’s special about that one?”

“That,” replied his senior solemnly, “is the Visited Planet.”

“Visited?” said the little one. “you don’t mean visited by ——–?

“Indeed I do. That ball, which I have no doubt looks to you small and insignificant and not perhaps overclean, has been visited by our young Prince of Glory.” And at these words he bowed his head reverently.

“But how?” queried the younger one. “Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince, with all these wonders and splendours of His Creation, and millions more that I’m sure I haven’t seen yet, went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?”

“It isn’t for us,” said his senior a little stiffly, “to question His ‘why’s’, except that I must point out to you that He is not impressed by size and numbers, as you seem to be. But that He really went I know, and all of us in Heaven who know anything know that. As to why He became one of them - how else do you suppose could He visit them?”

The little angels face wrinkled in disgust.

“Do you mean to tell me,” he said, “that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?”

“I do, and I don’t think He would like you to call them ‘creeping, crawling creatures’ in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him.”

The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension.

“Close your eyes for a moment,” said the senior angel, “and we will go back in what they call Time.”

While the little angels eyes were closed and the two of them moved nearer to the spinning ball, it stopped its spinning, spun backwards quite fast for a while, and then slowly resumed its usual rotation.

“Now look!” And as the little angel did as he was told, there appeared here and there on the dull surface of the globe little flashes of light, some merely momentary and some persisting for quite a time.

“Well, what am I seeing now?” queried the little angel.

“You are watching this little world as it was some thousands of years ago,” returned his companion. “Every flash and glow of light that you see is something of the Father’s knowledge and wisdom breaking into the minds and hearts of people who live upon the earth. Not many people, you see, can hear His Voice or understand what He says, even though He is speaking gently and quietly to them all the time.”

“Why are they so blind and deaf and stupid?” asked the junior angel rather crossly.

“It is not for us to judge them. We who live in the Splendour have no idea what it is like to live in the dark. We hear the music and the Voice like the sound of many waters every day of over lives, but to them - well, there is much darkness and much noise and much distraction upon the earth. Only a few who are quiet and humble and wise hear His Voice. But watch, for in a moment you will see something truly wonderful.”

The Earth went on turning and circling round the sun, and then quite suddenly, in the upper half of the globe, there appeared a light, tiny but so bright in its intensity that both the angels hid their eyes.

“I think I can guess,” said the little angel in a low voice. “That was the Visit, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, that was the Visit. The Light Himself went down there and lived among them; but in a moment, and you will be able to tell that even with your eyes closed, the light will go out.”

“But why? Could He not bear their darkness and stupidity? Did He have to return here?”

“No, it wasn’t that” returned the senior angel. His voice was stern and sad. “They failed to recognise Him for Who He was - or at least only a handful knew Him. For the most part they preferred their darkness to His Light, and in the end they killed Him.”

“The fools, the crazy fools! They don’t deserve —-”

“Neither you nor I, nor any other angel, knows why they were so foolish and so wicked. Nor can we say what they deserve or don’t deserve. But the fact remains, they killed our Prince of Glory while He was Man amongst them.”

“And that I suppose was the end? I see the whole Earth has gone black and dark. All right, I won’t judge them, but surely that is all they could expect?”

“Wait, we are still far from the end of the story of the Visited Planet. Watch now, but be ready to cover your eyes again.”

In utter blackness the earth turned round three times, and then there blazed with unbearable radiance a point of light.

“What now?” asked the little angel, shielding his eyes.

“They killed Him all right, but He conquered death. The thing most of them dread and fear all their lives He broke and conquered. He rose again, and a few of them saw Him and from then on became His utterly devoted slaves.”

“Thank God for that,” said the little angel.

“Amen. Open your eyes now, the dazzling light has gone. The Prince has returned to His Home of Light. But watch the Earth now.”

As they looked, in place of the dazzling light there was a bright glow which throbbed and pulsated. And then as the Earth turned many times little points of light spread out. A few flickered and died; but for the most part the lights burned steadily, and as they continued to watch, in many Parts of the globe there was a glow over many areas.

“You see what is happening?” asked the senior angel. “The bright glow is the company of loyal men and women He left behind, and with His help they spread the glow and now lights begin to shine all over the Earth.”

“Yes, yes,” said the little angel impatiently, “but how does it end? Will the little lights join up with each other? Will it all be light, as it is in Heaven?”

His senior shook his head. “We simply do not know,” he replied. “It is in the Father’s hands. Sometimes it is agony to watch and sometimes it is joy unspeakable. The end is not yet. But now I am sure you can see why this little ball is so important. He has visited it; He is working out His Plan upon it.”

“Yes, I see, though I don’t understand. I shall never forget that this is the Visited Planet.”