The Simplicity Of Intimacy

We are great at complicating simple things. Simplicity is not that hard but it does mean removing a lot of junk. It means cutting out the unnecessary. It means reducing life to the basics. But we like our frosting. We like the frills. We enjoy the clutter. We take solace in the noise. The problem is, simplicity is avoiding the complicated by avoiding the clutter we love.

We say that we want intimacy with Jesus. We say that we want to be strong and sensitive to the Spirit. We say that we want to live for God and God alone, but then we complicate our lives by filling it with clutter. Jesus told us this:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how terrible that darkness will be!" (Matthew 6:22-23)

Sounds all philosophical but it is straight forward. If you want God, seek God. If you want the world, seek the world. If you want God, stop entertaining yourself in this world. If you want the world, don't mess yourself up with God. If you want intimacy with Jesus, stop making love with the world. If you want to be pleasured by the world, stop playing around with God.

It is a really bad place to be, in a relationship with one person when your lusting over another. This best describes most of us in a relationship with Jesus. We want Jesus but not enough to make ourselves unavailable to other lovers. It makes for a bad marriage and it makes for a weak relationship with Jesus. It waters down our worship and makes us liars to ourselves. We convince ourselves that we are okay, that this is normal because we are "only human".

But we aren't only human.

If we had the exclusive relationship we are suppose to have with Jesus we would know that we have been changed by this marriage, that we are no longer what we once were, that we are now a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. Jesus stated to us:

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other." (v. 24)

You can't have two lovers. You can't give your heart to two people. You can't be married and prostitute yourself and expect to maintain intimacy with your husband. In the end, simplicity is only complicated if we are double minded.

If it is intimacy with Jesus that we desire understand, it is only possible when we forsake all other lovers and devote ourselves fully to our Lord. Not complicated unless we make it complicated.

Beware Of The Whisperer

Beware of the whisperers in your life. They are like the snake in the garden, coming alongside to whisper doubt into your life. They can take a human form, a book, a movie, anything at all. The whisperers can come through parents, teachers, best friends. It is anything that says, "Did God really say ..." twisting the Scriptures and the clear doctrine that forms the foundation of your life.

It may be somebody who plays a minor part in the story of your life; only present for a very brief period and then gone again. This is what happened in king David's family. An insidious person named Jonadab was a friend of the king's son, Amnon. Now Amnon had some unwholesome desires for his half-sister but he had not brought it to life; it was just something that was there. But the whisperer came alongside and encouraged Amnon to act on these feelings:

So Jonadab said to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. And when your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me food, and prepare the food in my sight, that I may see it and eat it from her hand.’” (2 Samuel 13:5)

Notice Jonadab did not tell him what to do after that but it was enough to nudge Amnon into a course of action that would bring terrible grief on the entire nation. The enemy did not care about Jonadab, Amnon or Tamar; his sights were set on the throne and causing as much pain as possible. Amnon violated his sister which led to the bitterness of her brother Absalom. In the end it left Tamar in disgrace the rest of her life, Amnon dead, a kingdom divided, hundreds of innocent people dead along with Absalom and caused untold grief to David. All from a simple whisper.

In our age the whisperers are increasing to the point of being shouts. There are a lot of sources that are trying to plant doubt into the hearts of Yahweh's children, causing them to question the King, making them turn aside in rebellion. Open your eyes and take a look. We have preachers teaching there is no hell. We have whole churches accepting and defending immorality (sin) in their church. We have atheists mocking the Bride of Christ and setting up mankind as an idol. We have legitimate followers of Jesus being seduced by the culture of our day. We have immorality splashed across our television and computers screens, contained in every cell phone, in novels and magazines. There is a huge wave of rebellion sweeping across our nations and the whisperers say to the faithful "it's normal, join in".

Beware of the whispers in your life because they are out to destroy you. Their source is the enemy of our soul and he has been working his great deception for thousands of years. I have no new words to encourage you with but I can encourage you with the only Word that matters:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:10-13)

It is not a new war. In fact, it is a very ancient war and our part is to stand against it, not in our own strength but with that which our LORD has equipped us. Take a good look around, it is only going to get worse. But take heart and be encouraged in the LORD because we are on the winning side. Do not allow yourself to fall victim to the whisperer and do not make alliances with anything of this world. The world has nothing to offer us because Jesus has already given us everything. Shout his praises from the roof top in the face of the whisperer and stand your ground.

Homophobic? I Think Not

According to my daughter and a lot of other people I am homophobic and I take issue with this. You should too, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ who understands our mission. I even have issues with the term "homophobic". What it is suppose to mean has nothing to do with a phobia but rather a hatred, but it doesn't even mean hatred any more. It has been used to label anyone who does not agree with homosexuality. It means I do not have a right to disagree, to have a different perspective from the homosexual community.

The reason this is a concern for Christians is because those who understand God's Word and stand by it are labelled as "haters" with the term homophobic. This flies in the face of what Jesus taught, what he has done for me and the transformation I have gone through. I have no desire to hate anyone and I have nothing but respect for human life, even if I disagree with what that human life is doing. I have a long list of things I disagree with:

I disagree with:
    - abortion
    - prostitution
    - domestic violence
    - child abuse
    - smoking
    - drunkenness
    - drugs
    - speeding
    - over-eating

The list goes on. Some of these things are very common and others no so much. Do I hate the people who do these things? No, I don't. I would show them compassion and grace because that is what I have received from my God. I have not walked in their shoes, I cannot judge them but neither do I support or encourage their behaviour. If they walked into my store or my church I would treat them with the same love and respect as I would anyone else; the same as I would treat a homosexual, even if I disagree with their choices.

I am not meaning this as a political statement but a spiritual one. I am not about to allow the false prince of this world to label me with something that doesn't fit. I am not a hater and by God's power never will be a hater. But I am pursuing God's righteousness, the One who has defined right and wrong for us. I cannot agree with homosexuality based on that righteousness. Because of his love for me and mine for him, I have no choice but to be obedient to his love, to what God has defined as right and wrong, and no human being can persuade we otherwise.

God's Word states, from the mouth of Jesus, "God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die." God loved us in our rebellious state so much that he sacrificed himself so we would not have to be punished. However, it does mean we have to walk away from our rebellion by the power he has given us in Jesus. But who am I not to love people in a fallen state when God sacrificed so much for these same people? But just as God does not accept the behaviour of our fallen state, either can the followers of Jesus Christ. This is at the foundation of our belief and the enemy will not rob me of this love by labeling me a "hater".

In this same Word that coneys God's love and the grace he is showing a rebellious world, we are warned that there is a limit; that there will be one day of judgement. We forget that just because we live in this age of grace and free will, does not mean there is no accountability. Remember the Words of Jesus:

Not everyone who calls me their Lord will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only the ones who obey my Father in heaven will get in. On the day of judgment many will call me their Lord. They will say, “We preached in your name, and in your name we forced out demons and worked many miracles.” But I will tell them, “I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!” (Matthew 7:21-23)

And this is what we spend our days trying to convey to people. It is because we love them that we need to share the truth, to warn. They have the freedom to choose but we want to make sure that they understand there is a choice. If I refused to love them I would refuse to tell them the truth. It's like when someone is lost on drugs, they need to be confronted and told the truth. We don't abandon them, hate them, spit on them, call them names, but we don't withhold the truth either.

So I refuse the label of "homophobic" and any other label that our changing society wants to place on me. I am a child of God, a follower of Jesus, a bearer of the Light, a teller of the truth, a prophet of God's Word, a lover of sinners, detesting sin and longing for God's righteousness. Don't let the world bully you into anything less than what our Father has called you to be.