Overcoming Prejudice - Women

It is hard for many of us in the Western world to understand Kingdom mentality because we have never lived in a Kingdom. As the children of God we need to allow Spirit to create a mindset so that we move from a democratic thinking to a Kingdom thinking. This takes a lot of surrender and the acceptance that it is a steep learning curve that we will not always succeed in living. Mistakes will happen.

A Kingdom takes on the character of the king. If he is a cruel king then the kingdom will be dominated by cruelty. If he is a kind king then the kingdom will be dominated by kindness. If he is a generous king then the kingdom will be dominated by generosity. So we can understand by these then that the Kingdom of God will reflect the attributes of our King.

We should note that there has been a lack of training in this understanding and revelation. We have many good people sitting in churches and living out there lives who have no concept that they are citizens of the Kingdom and that being such affects their entire thinking and approach to life. They have been recreated but are living according to the old habits because they do not understand the new habits of God's Kingdom.

I preface this blog entry with this explanation because if I do not then we will miss the significance of Jesus' actions. One of the various reasons Jesus came was to demonstrate the Kingdom. Sometimes we reduce this demonstration to the power that enabled miracles. But Jesus also demonstrated the mentality of the Kingdom, which is revelatory-knowledge of Father's heart.

One of the extraordinary things Jesus did was "see" women. This was a time when the Jews treated women very poorly. There is a whole list of things they did to put women down and treat them worse than cattle. The Pharisees were the worse examples of this culture of prejudice. 

How significant is this in understanding the Kingdom? Well, keeping in mind the treatment of women in Jewish culture, consider how many famous stories of Jesus were centered on a woman. Consider his acknowledgement and treatment of the women in his lives. Is it not significant that the recorders of the gospels left these encounters with women in the story of Jesus?

The Samaritan woman at the well was a dramatic encounter that probably is one of the first to come to mind but the one I want to highlight for you today is the woman who broke into Simon's home to wash Jesus' feet with her tears and hair. Simon was a Pharisee. But this woman had been so touched by Jesus that she needed to worship him regardless of the risk. To consider the significance of the moment we need a little background.

Women were not allowed to eat with Jewish men, especially when guests were over. On top of this, Pharisees, real women haters, would never acknowledge a woman, not even so much as a glance. Now realize what this woman of low repute, a prostitute, did. She broke into this Pharisees' home, entered into the dining area and began to touch Jesus. But how could Simon put a stop to this without acknowledging the presence of the woman? He tried to ignore her at the same time condemning Jesus in his thoughts.

There is a lot to this incident but considering all that I have mentioned maybe you can understand the significance of what Jesus said, "Look at this woman Simon".

WE know in reading the Scriptures that Jesus used this woman to teach Simon the proper response to sacrificial love and then he pierced this Pharisees' prejudice, lack of love, that encased this his heart and demanded him to look past his prejudice and see this woman : Simon, look at this woman". Jesus spent every day "seeing" the "unseen".

If you can get past the familiarity of this incident you will be awestruck by the actions of our King. There is no room for not "seeing" in the Kingdom. It is hard to believe that to this day women still have to fight to be seen. Nowhere is this more true than in some parts of the Church which is crazy. Instead of learning from our King and living the character of the Kingdom we have copied the behaviour of the Pharisees. Shame on us.

Now using this as our diving board, we jump into our current history.

The Church should not be in the background of this growing movement of "Black Lives Matter" because we should have been fighting for them to be seen from the beginning. That is our Father's heart, to fight for the "unseen". But it is more than that. If this is the character of the Kingdom, in the body that represents the Kingdom in this world they should never have been unseen. In our King, our Lord Christ Jesus, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. We can add, neither white nor black, settlers nor indigenous because in Jesus we are all one. 

Does this mean that some will get special attention over others? You bet. Jesus loved Simon but Simon did not need the attention this woman did. She was "unseen" and needed to be brought into the light. Simon was "seen", privileged, and needed to be humbled. It did not lessen his value in the eyes of Jesus.

Black lives matter. That is rightfully the anthem for today because black lives need the attention right now. We all have the same value to our King, he loves us all very much. But many of us are in a position of strength, privilege, in our society and we need to give over some of this strength, privilege, so a disadvantaged group can rise up to their designed place. After this anthem cry there will be another group and we will need to give our strength to that group but for today it is "black lives matter".

Just a footnote : We should all understand that the vast majority of our world lives in rebellion to God's Kingdom. The only way to truly change a heart and a broken mindset is through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. So, it is good to see these shifts in our society but the underlying problem remains as long as Jesus is rejected as King. 

 

Overcoming Prejudice - Friends

In the previous posts we have already established that there is no room in the Kingdom of God for prejudice. Simple verses such as we find in Proverbs where Solomon wrote that the one thing the rich and the poor have in common is that God created them both. We also have James writing that a person has no faith if he favours one group of people over another. But the greatest condemnation of prejudice is Jesus' life.

It goes beyond the "whosoever believes" of our salvation. Jesus demonstrated Father's attitude toward the unseen people of the world. These are the people who are easily ignored, disfavoured, trodden upon. Jesus took great delight in putting the spotlight on these people because that is what Father does. He lowers what is getting too much attention and lifts up what is not getting enough so that there is equality. Just read 1 Corinthians 12.

In the previous posts titled "Touch" I pointed out Jesus' treatment of the leprous man and how he did not just speak the healing but purposefully touched him. Jesus knew he had authority over this disease but he did it to make a point in a culture that isolated this poor suffering man. Now consider those who he chose to hang out with him, who he called to leadership.

This Jewish culture had a lot of prejudices. It wasn't just with the Romans, Greeks, and Samaritans but people within their own group. Galileans were a rough, hardy, determined working class of people. They did not pursue the book learning and finer aspects of life but instead were the fishermen and farmers of the day. They were highly educated in their own right but not recognized by the rest of society. They put food on people's tables but were also the butt of jokes.

Consider that Jesus chose people like Peter, James and John from this looked-down upon people. In fact, these three became his inner circle. They were so prominent that the whole group of disciples were considered Galileans. That was meant to be a derogatory label. It is not exactly a move that someone would make when trying to establish their ministry. Today we would only choose the best looking, best educated, most talented, most widely accepted people to help us reach success. Jesus was making a point that everyone in the Kingdom is valued and that Father has purpose for each person no matter the opinions of culture. But it was not just Galileans he chose.

Tax collectors were considered traitors. They were local agents of the occupying force. They not only forcefully collected the tax of this occupying army but they also took extra for themselves. So here is Jesus throwing all convention to the wind, choosing Matthew to be one of his students and future pillar of the Church. Remember the Church is the manifestations of God's Kingdom on earth, and we are that Church. Can I belabour this for a minute more?

In most churches today they have a standard for leadership and acceptability. Leaders must be professionals, highly esteemed and educated. They must be beyond reproach. Depending on the culture of that church, leadership is chosen from an acceptable group within their church. There is a lot of prejudice involved and the denial of the anointing. Father does not choose according to human ability, race, creed, education, good looks or colour. Also consider for a moment that Matthew, traitor to his nation, was also highly favored by being chosen to write one of the four gospels. Jesus saw him as he sees everyone else, marked for redemption. Everyone has value. But Jesus is not done yet.

Consider Judas. He was a Zealot. The Zealots wanted to throw off the Romans by force. This is not an attitude that would line up well with the tenants of the Kingdom. Not only that but Judas had a tendency to steal, placing his own needs above those of the community he belonged to. Jesus knew him. Jesus knew his heart. But Jesus showed value for every person he met. He knew that Judas had the same potential for redemption, the same potential for love, the same potential for grace. Judas' failure is his own. People will fail us. That is no reflection on their people group but on them as an individual.

This could be one of the most challenging things about overcoming prejudices in our life. We cannot afford to look at people with the eyes of this world. To love, respect and honour everyone we need to see with Father's eyes. We need to see the unseen that lay within each person. We have this ability to see. Since we are a new creation we have been given the seeds in us to bear Father's image, to see like him, to think like him. As Scripture tells us, we have the mind of Christ.

The way we overcome is first to confess our desire to love and respect like our Father has loved and respected us. It is a life of surrender, where we surrender our old way of seeing, thinking, feeling and understanding. So when we know we are getting it wrong we confess it and then surrender it. This allows Spirit God to overwrite the old habits with Father's heart. If we try to deny the old habits nothing will change but when we bring the old into the light then everything shifts.

Does your selection of friends demonstrated the value Father places on all people? Maybe you need to have a conversation with Spirit God on this one.

 

The Spirit Is Here To Help Us

If you are a Christian it should come as no surprise that we are living in a hostile environment. We don't fit in and we are not meant to. We are not given to compromise but instead we stand our ground. Not always easy because many of the elements that are against us because of Christ in us are also attractive to our flesh. But we are not alone.

Somehow we need to develop the mentality that we are not alone. Jesus did not give us new birth, anoint us and send us out as secret agents on our own. He did all that in plain sight of the enemy and stands with us. We are not alone because the life we have is in Jesus and he lives in us. We are never alone and we do not fight in our own strength. We do not stand the ground we have been given by using our own strength but instead we use the strength that is lent to us by our Lord. He knows exactly what we need for this fight.

What we can take courage from is knowing that Jesus knows what is going on even when we don't and he understands our limits:

In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words. (Romans 8:26)

Faith is trust. We cannot say that we have faith when we demonstrate so often that we don't trust. We are not required to have complete understanding of every situation but we are required to trust. When we trust we move forward in faith, never turning from the course set out before us. Trust says, "I know I am not in this alone, that I represent the King who I walk with, and that he is my strength and he will see me through everything I face." This is our confidence. This is our joy. This is our peace.

Whatever you are facing, whatever resistance, whatever persecution, whatever hardships, know you are not alone. Know that Jesus is lending you the strength and ability to overcome these things. Know that with Jesus we win. So don't give up but push through; fight on; keep pressing in. The Spirit is here to help us. Trust.

Thriving Not Surviving Life

Life is life. Good things happen in life as do bad things. Some days will be fantastic, ones you want to live over again. Other days will be horrible, ones you wish you had never gotten out of bed. You will go through seasons of great blessings, when everything you touch seems to blossom. You will also go through seasons of great dryness, when you seem to be surrounded by nothing but desert. These are the tides of life, the seasons, the changes. The question is always about perspective and approach

For Christians the perspective should be an easy thing; Yahweh is sovereign. We have purpose in this life, left here, not to serve ourselves and our self interest, but to serve our King. We serve him in whatever season of life we are experiencing because it is not about us or the season; it is always about obedience and service to our King. He strengthens and equips us in every season so that we can serve those who are being destroyed in their experience of life. That is what we must settle in our hearts, that Jesus is present to lend us the strength to go the distance in our service to him. I really appreciate this passage from Isaiah that reminds us who we serve:

Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable. (Isaiah 40:28)

Constantly reminding ourselves of the greatness of our Lord also helps us in our approach to life. If our perspective is that we are here to serve the King and he will keep us in all situations then our approach to this life should be one of great boldness and bravery in the Spirit. We should be those who fearlessly throw ourselves into any situation, never being afraid for our own well being but filled with love and concern for those perishing in the storms. We can do this because we have confidence in him who sent us and abides in us:

He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength. (v. 29)

That`s us at times, having exhausted our strength on the battlefield, in the storms, under weighty circumstance, doing good, we just want to lie down. But the Spirit renews us, increases us, fills us with great strength, so we can press on in our service. We all grow tired from time to time because we forget to operate in Jesus`strength not our own; we all look at the storms on occasion and lose heart, we all get overwhelmed at the thought of things, but that is the beauty of our Lord; he never leaves us there:

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint. (vv. 30-31)

Too often we read this from a selfish perspective, as if the Lord is renewing our strength so we can enjoy the pleasures of this world. He renews us so we can run and walk in our continued service to the King. He renews his love in us so that we can set ourselves aside and love without obstacles, without prejudice, so we can pour out our lives for others like a drink offering. His strength is like a river flowing through us, not to be dammed up and kept selfishly but to flow through us into the lives of others.

This is true for all the blessings, such as love, that they would flow through us into others. We need to see ourselves as conduits. We are not the stars, Jesus is. We are not the source of hope, Jesus is. We are not the source of healing, strength, wisdom, salvation, Jesus is. But he has chosen us to participate in the process of rescuing others. He does not want us bogged down in life, distracted or lost. He renews us every day throughout the day so we will be constantly refreshed and strengthened in all the seasons of life. So abide in him and you will discover your wings. Trust him and love with great abandon.

We Have Nothing To Fear When We Walk With Jesus

Do you want to walk in faith, be filled with the power of Jesus and be used by him to see hearts changed? Then the Word of our God has to go beyond words, becoming greater than flesh, if we are to walk in faith. We have to allow the Word to have greater substance than the chair we are sitting on, the clothes we are wearing or the food we are eating. We have to be more assured by it than by what we are seeing right now with our eyes. We have to become more confident of what we cannot see than of the things that would cause us to fear.

I am sorry but you will never step into the fullness of Christ as long as you are trying to get there by the thinking process of man. You cannot argue your way into greater inspiration. You cannot think your way into greater faith. You cannot get there by any means of the flesh. Let me show you why.

Hezekiah was another of the great kings of Judah, one for whom I have reserved a great deal of respect. He had a great and growing relationship with Yahweh. Yet, here before him was the great Assyrian army. The Assyrians were ruthless, vicious and destroyed anything they set their eyes on. No nation or city had been able to stand against them and here they were about to come against Jerusalem. What does the flesh say? Fear of course. Perhaps despair, suicide, hopelessness. If you had a greater survival instinct perhaps you would be looking for a back door, a way to escape. But that is the difference between the spirit and the flesh.

Hezekiah was a man who had become so close to Yahweh that he discerned the truth of the matter. He did not see with his eyes but with his spirit as he looked out at this terrible enemy that out-muscled them significantly. Hezekiah, in full confidence of Yahweh, stood before the people and simply stated:

Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him; for there are more with us than with him. (2 Chronicles 32:7)

You and I may have been tempted to count heads and then disagree with the king. Yet, all the great men of faith, the one's who trusted the Lord and were used greatly by him, saw this truth every day. Remember Elijah on the roof with his servant when the enemy surrounded him? More are with us than with them. We remember the statement of faith in the New Testament: greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Hezekiah continued:

With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” (v. 8)

If we do not see that the flesh takes second place to the Spirit we will never learn to trust, and trust is the great component of our relationship with Jesus. The fact is that the flesh will always look greater. The odds will always be against us. Circumstances will constantly threaten to derail our faith. The enemy will always be looking to scare us away from Jesus so he can devour us. But victory is always ours in Jesus because the Lord fights our battles.

Christians should be the most confident people walking on this planet. Not self-confident to the point of arrogance but confident, as in confident in our Lord Jesus and the promises he has given us. We have to be confident when we are up against Goliath with all his strength and threats. We have to be confident when the numbers are against us and we are about to be swallowed up in a sea of opposition. We have to be confident when the world shows its ugly face of hatred and threatens to destroy us. We have to be confident when the bills are more than the income, and our health is heading in the wrong direction. We have to be confident when we are walking through the valley of failure and we don't understand what went wrong. We have to be confident that Yahweh is sovereign in all things, everywhere, all the time, and he knows what he is doing.

There are more with us than with them. With them is an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. If you feel weak in the face of the enemy do us all a favour, strengthen your relationship with Jesus. Cut out the unnecessary distractions in your life and fill it with relationship building moments. Bathe yourself in prayer, worship and the Word. Walk with him, talk with him, sing with him, dance with him and soon you will discover how confident you have become in him. Read Acts 1:8 and realize how you have been equipped. Hezekiah did not honey coat it to calm down the people, using religion to do so. Hezekiah spoke the truth to the people, the truth he had experienced for himself in his relationship with Yahweh. I encourage you, let your relationship take you beyond words and into a life of substantial faith.

How Are You Doing With Sin?

How are you doing with this whole sin thing? It's not the easiest thing to avoid, considering how long we have bathed in it. Sin was as natural to us as breathing. It is not something we had to think about as we did it without a thought about what we were doing. Oh certainly there were certain sins that our parents had warned us about that we had to consciously make a decision to enter into, but most of the time they were little things, like hating someone. Even wanting what someone else had, being envious, prideful, boasting, a small lie, a lustful look, an unjust decision, all seem so little and did no real harm and yet are still held in the same category as murder according to God's law. Sin is sin and the only way that its authority becomes less is when Jesus becomes more.

First of all, Jesus died to break the hold that sin had over us. We have to accept that sacrifice, repent of our past, and declare Jesus as Lord of our lives. This means that we die with him on the cross and are raised to life with Jesus. We are dead and the only way we can live is through Jesus. Without him we are just dead. He is our life today and in the next life to come. Now, because the power and authority of sin has been broken and we are no longer slaves to it we are free to make a choice. We can choose to live according to the righteousness of Jesus, becoming a slave to it, or we can consciously decide to submit ourselves once again to sin. This is the reason the writer of Hebrews exhort us to:

... throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1)

I really get inspired by this passage. Throw it off, the writer tells us. Make that decision to cast it aside, not to get entangled in it any more. We can't do this by ourselves because we don't have the ability so it is a good thing we died and are now living through Jesus because he does have the power. He not only overcame sin, he empowers us through the Spirit in us to do the same. The Spirit is our source of life, the source of God's power that enables us to do all things through Jesus. It is this that the writer continues with:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:2-3)

Fix your eyes on Jesus who has beaten sin and has empowered us, who have died and been risen with him, to do the same thing. We have the resurrection power pumping through us by the Spirit of God in us. "None of us and all of Jesus", has to be our every waking thought. Paul also encouraged Timothy in this:

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. (1 Timothy 6:11)

Notice the action and effort in all of this. We have to actively "flee" from sin. We know what causes us to fall. We know our own weakness. We know how to "flee" from sin, so now we need to put all our effort into that and the power of God will strengthen us to overcome. Flee from everything that is not of the character of Jesus Christ and instead actively pursue right living, the character of Jesus, faith, love, the ability to go the distance with Jesus and gentleness. It is great to love Jesus and to worship him but actively pursue to live your life for his glory. Throw off the stuff that robs him of his glory, that denies his power in us, that sucks the love out of our life and instead fill your life with the pursuit of all things Jesus.

That means you may have to decide to cut certain things out of your life, things you enjoy but things that rob you of God's power and your love for Jesus. An athlete may really enjoy candy but candy will not enable him to win the race. The desire to win that race will cause that athlete to cast aside his enjoyment of candy. Perhaps for us it is certain music or bands we need to flee from, or perhaps certain TV shows that promote sin instead of righteousness. It might even be some parts of social networking like Tumblr, which has no filter for righteousness and is filled with tons of things that can destroy a man's resolve to go all the way with Jesus. I don't know what it is for you but I do know that the enemy has made sure that it is close enough to attract you. Throw it off, flee from it and make your life focused on Jesus. Paul writes:

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12)

Fight! Fight the good fight of faith. It is all about faith, trusting God, trusting the promises of Jesus. He has promised that you have been set free from sin. Don't listen to your flesh, put it under the authority of your spirit. You may be weak in the flesh but you are not weak in the spirit; you are a mighty warrior. You are strong in the Lord, empowered by the Holy Spirit, a child of righteousness, wholly saved and given the task to glorify Jesus before the nations. Sin is never worth it but Jesus is. Fix your eyes on him and run the race that is marked out for you with all your passion and strength. Do nor grow weary because the Spirit will enable you when you are weak. It is in your weakness that you will find God's power shining through. Go for it!