The Best Invitation

And like a consumer I’ve been thinking
if I could just get a bit more -
more than my 15 minutes of fame
then I’d be secure...
-Caedmon's Call

My wife was just talking about one of the greatest lies of the Evil One that causes our steady walk with Christ to become a schizophrenic and desperate search for life outside of Him. That is the lie that life is somewhere else, somewhere outside of God. It sounds often like, "I would be happy if only I had fill in the blank. More money. More friends. Maybe a little fame. Maybe even just a little peace.

It's not that any of the words that fill in that blank are bad in themselves, its just that that sentences more than any other causes us to divert our eyes, if even just subtly, from God. We begin looking in a thousand places for something we think we need and divert our eyes ultimately from Life himself, forgetting the secret that Pascal discovered, that our hearts will remain largely empty until Christ Himself fills them.

Something from the verse from Hebrews that mentions "setting our eyes on Christ, the Author and Perfector of our faith" speaks volumes regarding this. I was taking a picture of something the other day, and I needed to focus on the object within the viewfinder. We all know what happens next, of course - everything else became blurry. But the photo was a beautiful turn-out. The object in the picture became brighter and easier to see.

Saying "yes" to God's invitation necessarily means we will be saying "no" to everything else. That's how Rich Mullins once put it, succinct and direct as it sounds. But saying yes to Him necessarily means saying yes to life and freedom and the most extraordinary adventure of a lifetime, of intimacy beyond our wildest imaginations of a God that has wooed us from before time began.

I think Peter put it the best when he wrote in 2 Peter 1:3, "Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!" (from The Message).

Another version has it, "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness..."

Everthing for life and godliness. To that... what else could we say, but (trembling, with sweaty palms and much anticipation) "Yes, Jesus, yes...."


The fine print:
There is a final element to this that is possibly the most staggering truth of all. Pay careful attention to what Peter says there. "Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been... given to us..." So, if you want to know how to please God and what a life that pleases him look like, check this out, follow along, read further... "by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God." So, our getting to know Jesus is exactly what pleases God. And, to finish off the verse, our getting to know Jesus intimately and personally is "the best invitation we ever received!" Another way to put all of that is that what our hearts most desire (knowing Christ intimately and personally) is the mind-blowing invitation already given to us by God himself, and what He most desires and what most pleases Him is our simple acceptance of that invitation. Our hearts' desire and pleasure and hope fulfilled is God's greatest delight. That is awesome.

Extravagant Promises

I was praying over these, thinking maybe someone needed to read them as much as I did. At any rate, I remember that 'all the promises of God are 'yes' in Jesus' and that He will never break His promise ('He has written it upon the sky!')...

Proverbs 16:3
Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.


Psalm 91:1
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

Isaiah 40:28, 31
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom…
…but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Jeremiah 33:3
'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

Psalm 32:7, 8
You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Selah
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go
I will counsel you and watch over you.

Stretching to a True Height

I love my heart. I mean, I love the treasure that it is, the imprint of the Living One there. More than an imprint - his Life, with all the fullness of Him in his desire, his passion, his love of life and risk and me and his bride. That it looks different than everyone else's, that it's unique in that it has nuances and quirks and a story all its own and words spoken to it personally that bring it to life like some spring rain for the barren fields, that it likes what it likes and dreams and beats its own slightly different rhythm... this is not its shame, but rather its glory. It's like those mighty pines stretching on the ranges of the Rockies - they're made from the same stuff. And from afar, they all paint the scenes some brilliant green. But close up, they are all unique, bearing different scars from the wildlands and some curvature from restless winds. But they are all mighty as they dive straight into the sea of high sky above. They clap their hands in adoration of their Maker.

I want to step out today. Have you noticed the nearer you draw to the edge the louder the voices of condemnation and accusation become? Good grief. I know it's His voice calling me out of the cave, out of the shadows, but I can't remember now what it sounded like (and I just heard it yesterday, but today it's only an echo, which just shows me how much I can lose in one night). I feel like that boy whose house caught on fire late one night. His parents grabbed him and ran with him downstairs to safety, but fightened, he pulled away. His parents made it outside and screamed for him, only to see him on his 2nd-story window's ledge. His room now consumed with flames, the only way to freedom and rescue was a freefall into the night. His dad below yelled for him to jump. Gagged and blinded by the billowing smoke, the son could only choke out, "But Daddy, I can't see you!" "I know, son. I know," he cried, "But I can see you. Now, jump!"

It's time to come out of the shadows. Time to stretch to my true heigth and stature, next to the enormity of this Awesome God, desperately dependent upon him to come through, for his breath and living water. "And like a volunerable bud on a wide western plain, whose hopes outreach its strength as it streches for the sun and laments for the rain..."

This is my heart's cry in this day, Lover of my Soul. Rescue me.

All Eyes, All Ears

I've been thinking about a Bible study I went to several weeks ago per a friend's invitation. I was excited to go, excited to really dig in and learn some things. More than that, though, I wanted to go for this friend of mine. He hungers for God, but he came into the church through fear of his own flesh and never really got past that. The meeting took place in a man's garage (so far, so good). There are 6 others, my friend, and myself. Great guys. We get to know each other a bit, laugh, tell some stories. And then we get all serious to read a chapter of Ruth and go down this list of questions like "Why did Naomi tell Ruth to go to Boaz?" "What character traits does Ruth possess that are good?" "Have you ever given up something you wanted in order to server God? Explain." And the whole time we're going down this list of questions all serious-like, I'm getting the feeling that we're really missing something amazing here. One man, Rich, pipes up and says sort-of out of the blue in a real moment of honesty, "I don't have faith in God like Ruth did in Naomi." Seems like that made some men uncomfortable. I was like, "Hell yeah! That realness sets me free! Way to be done with the religious bullcrap!"

Then, something awesome happened. God showed up. Several of the men kept taking these rabbit holes to talk about hearing from God, discerning His voice, all that, which had nothing to do with the topic at hand. The leader was trying to get everybody back on course, but couldn't evade the desire set out there to talk about walking with God and hearing from Him. There was a lot of weird stuff said, like, "I know when God talks to me because what he tells me is the very thing I most don't want to do in the world."

Huh?

Then I decided to pipe in. To one guy's thought, "Wouldn't it just be cool if God would just speak to us? I wish He would." I said, "But isn't that exactly what Jesus promised? I mean, check out the disciples. These guys walked intimately with Christ for three years. Granted, most of the time they were dumbfounded, but they walked with Jesus, learned from Him the art of living. Jesus taught them to live in the Kingdom and to be His own. He called them his friends. To Peter, he gave a name and a place and restoration to his heart. To John, he invited him to recline against his breast. And Matthew - this scalawag got to leave all his money-minding hustling on a dime and follow the Living God up and out and into all that was real and true and most alive. And Jesus Himself said it was better if He go so that the Spirit would come and be with us, teach us, remind us, counsel us. That sounds pretty damned intimate!" And then I talked about how David walked with God like this. One of my favorite Psalms says, "Lord if you wake me in the morning with your loving voice, then I'll go to bed at night trusting in You. I'm all eyes, all ears before you." And then again in Psalm 119, something about "God, I'll remember ever word You've spoken to me about life; I'll treasure them; I'll not let go of them." Finally, I just talked about some of my own experiences with hearing from God and how intimate it gets and how inviting it becomes. Yeah, I'm taken by Him. Yeah, I want to go down to the village. Hell yeah.

It was a thrill to see where God wanted to take things, and then just go with Him there. Other men started speaking up about the same thing, about their own experiences walking intimately with Christ, as if they had permission finally to actually desire communion and friendship with God.

I love pushing past the religious bull that I see around me most days, push past that into something Real.

Nothing 'Till I Give It To You

Christ, I have learned so much of the ways of this world. I have seen things I wished I’ve never seen, learned secrets I wished I’d never learned. I’ve learned how to lie, how to scheme, how to fake it.

But I’ve also learned how to dream and how to face the truth and what it means to be made real by your love.

All that I’ve learned, everything that I know, well it’s nothing till I give it to you. These words from Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” is my prayer to you...

I know just how to whisper,
and I know just how to cry.
I know just where to find the answers
and I know just how to lie.
I know just how to fake it,
and I know just how to scheme.
I know just when to face the truth,
and then I know just when to dream...
And I know the roads to riches,
and I know the ways to fame.
I know all the rules
and then I know how to break ‘em,
and I always know the name of the game...

The beating of my heart is a drum, and it’s lost
And it’s looking for a rhythm like You.
You can take the darkness from the pit of the night
And turn into a beacon burning endlessly bright.
I’ve got to follow it, 'cause everything I know,
Well it’s nothing till I give it to You...

With Loud Cries

I’m wanting to awaken tonight. Or better, reawaken. I want to wake up to all that is real and lasting and eternal, to take at heart what Thoreau once said, that "we must reawaken and learn to remain awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn."

Dan Haseltine, the lead singer of Jars of Clay, wrote that there are three things in the universe that are eternal. God, of course – His overreaching reign, His infinite (in both quality and quantity) love that He lavishes on His own, His pursuit… that pursuit that rocks the religious and knocks the prodigaled off their feet, His desire that names him a "jealous lover." The other two are the human soul – that part of us most living, and the human heart – that deepest and truest part of ourselves, which is constantly expanding (2 Corinthians 6:11).

But I’m not wanting to write about that. In fact all I want to do, all I feel I can do, is just utter a plea to the Eternal One born from longing and molded loosely by words like some bit of moist clay on a wheel. I want to pray.

My Lord Jesus Christ,

My greatest desire is to be with You. You are the Bread of Life, who came down from heaven in order that I might live, the Living Water for my parched and weary soul. You offer Yourself as the Living Hope, the Only Way, the God of my heart and soul. In You, and in You alone, my Christ, do I find all that I have ever longed for and desired but have never found in this world or in myself or even in others.

I attest that you are the Sovereign Lord of my heart, the creator of the Universe and my soul, the One who knit me together in my mother’s womb. In You, Jesus, is Life… and that Life is the light of men. And by You and by You alone do I see.

Lover of my Soul, Holy One, Almighty God, here and now I die to my flesh and to the world. I am crucified with You and yet I live. Not me, but You who lives within me. I die to my fears and denials and regrets, to my pride and unbelief and idolatry. I crucify upon Your cross my shame, guilt, blame, and deadness of spirit. And I live to You, my Lord.

Thank you that the Kingdom of God is really here, really here, within me. Because You have come and have bridged the gap that would have forever separated me from You. Now I am convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And I rest in that. Though I cannot contain You, and though I cannot fathom such a foolish kind of love (such a ruthless, reckless, raging, furiously tender kind of love like You show and like You are, that You would care so much for me and delight so much in me, that You would call and equip and make and surround and delight in and rejoice in and dance over me and give everything to ransom me), I rest in it. I trust in You. I lay here at Your feet, face first, because I know that I am empty, and having nothing to offer You except my heart and my life and my affection.

And I am painfully aware of my need of further grace from You. I desire so much more to abide more deeply and move more freely in your Spirit. Open my eyes again, Jesus. Reawaken me deeply. I press on, ever more, toward the prize… which is You, my reflection in Your eyes. I set my heart on home, my face heavenward like flint, my soul alive in Your hands. I lay all down for and to You. You have loved me with that awesome, everlasting love (that I don’t understand but know I am made for nonetheless).

Lead me on with Your love. Shake me free and blow through me. You have called me. You have opened my heart to Your deep love. Come, fill it. Bring the full ministry and presence of Yourself here, right here.

You are Lord, Life, Love, the Way, the Truth, the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth, and the Lover of my heart and soul. You are a wild God, and I am Yours (because, in all Your wildness… or maybe because of all Your wildness, You have rescued me). I love You and cry out for You. I come home – limping and hungry, desperately hungry. I come home.

I ask for Your abiding Spirit and Your grace to abide more restfully, more deeply, more presently in heart and mind and spirit in You. Here I am, O’ I Am.

Amen.

And now, I want to pray with the way I live this night out. With how I treat the most startling image of God I can know outside of Christ – my wife, and the depth of beauty she brings to me and to this world. With what I do with my time tonight. With how I treat my next-door neighbor. With what I do with my heart, that little treasure of the Kingdom for which Christ died. Will I open up to the freedom and life offered to me tonight by God in the face of Christ? And how will I live in the Kingdom tonight? Will I run free "because [the Lord] has always stood up for me" (Psalm 63:7, The Message). Will I bring down strongholds and trample on the snakes and scorpions of this present darkness? And what, ultimately, will I do with Jesus, that one who gave His everything to be my everything?

All of heaven awaits, with, I think, bated breath.

It’s time to pray.