Would You Love Me If...

I recently read an article from Justin Buzzard's blog (www.justinbuzzard.net), and wanted to share parts of it with you guys:

I recently overheard a middle aged woman ask a middle aged man a profound question:

Would you love me if I was fat?

It immediately struck me that this is a theological question, a question at the heart of what it means to be human.

We all live under a sense of judgment. We fear judgment. I don’t just mean ultimate judgment by God, but also the judgment that pervades our everyday lives. Would you love me if I was fat? Do I have what it takes? If people knew the real me, would they still love me? There are judges all around us, in heaven above, and in our own heads.

Life trains us to escape judgment through performance. If perform well enough, stay in good enough shape, study hard enough, etc., then maybe we can receive the gold medal, the A+, or acceptance into the club that would finally remove the fear and the judgment and allow us to rest.

Only Christianity gives an answer of relief to the big question we’re all asking:

Would you love me if _____?

What’s your “if”?

The gospel is a message that brings peace, not pressure. Because of the supreme performance of Jesus, God’s answer to our question (Would you love me if ____?) is a big fat “YES!”

God’s love is unlike anything we’ve experienced (though perhaps we’ve tasted a bit of this kind of love in an unusually healthy family or marriage or friendship). God’s love doesn’t have to do with our performance—our goodness, our badness, our fatness, or our thinness—God’s love instead hinges on God’s performance for us.

This is news from someplace else. This isn’t native to us. This comes from Outer Space—from heaven. Jesus came to us from heaven to initiate this new way of living where sinners, and failures, and people who grow fat may be unconditionally accepted and loved all because someone else, a perfect someone else, was judged in our place.

Christianity is about the Innocent One being judged so that guilty men and women would no longer be judged, would be set free, and longer ask questions like, “Would you love me if I was fat?” You don’t have to ask these questions anymore. It is finished.

This kind of love changes everything. Everything.

(http://www.justinbuzzard.net/2012/08/08/would-you-love-me-if-i-was-fat/)

"Lord, Cut Me Open"

I just wanted to share a chapter from K.P. Yohanan's book Reflecting His Image:

Why haven't we yet fulfilled the Great Commission? Why are we so ineffective in building God's kingdom?

Is it because we lack money or literature or because the Bible is not translated into all the world's languages? No, I don't think so.

The deepest reason is this: We who form the Church- that's you and me- are not real in our walk with the Lord and in our obedience to God's Word. Unless our hearts change and we become genuine, transparent, open and humble in our faith (and through that, in all areas of our lives), we will never make an impact on the lost world!

Many of God's people have felt a deficiency in their Christian lives, especially when they read God's expectations for them in the Bible. In order to fix this problem, they have gone from one seminar, book, conference or convention to the next, always looking for a formula or recipe to become a powerful, effective Christian overnight.

Churches have also recognized that something vital seems to be missing. In hopes of reviving their people, they constantly come up with new plans and activities. They invite the best music groups they can find, the most eloquent speakers and even prophets to breathe new life into their congregations. But after all the excitement is over and everyday life sets in once again, nothing much has changed. So they search for new plans and new speakers, hoping for better results next time.

David had a deep longing to be close to God and to be used of the Lord. He too felt he wasn't all God intended for him to be. However, his approach to meet this spiritual need was entirely different from most of us.

David was a man who didn't go to one of the prophets- Samuel, Nathan or Gad- to ask for a formula. He didn't invite them to hold a seminar at his palace with the hope that some of their anointing would fall on him.

David simply went into the presence of his God with a prayer that shows he knew exactly where his root problem was.

He cried, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24).

David wanted to be real, not only with his outward actions, but beginning with his innermost thoughts. He recognized that his words and actions were only a reflection of his thoughts, and his thoughts were simply the evidence of what he was really like in his heart.

Therefore, David prayed and asked the Lord to try him and to cure those wrong tendencies of his heart that showed up in his thought life.

Many years later, Jesus said, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts..." (Mark 7:21), In other words, we reflect the true reality of who we are by what we think. Everything first happens in our thought life before it is translated into words and actions. What we speak or do is only what has been going on inside of us for a long time. 

Our problem is NOT that we lack Bible information, speakers, or opportunities. Rather, our problem is that we don't want to face the truth of who we really are. We don't want others to know it either, and we even try to fool God. We never ask him to search our heart and reveal our secrets. Instead, we pretend with a spiritual life we don't live, a peace we don't experience and a holiness and commitment we don't possess. 

We will never make any progress in becoming more like Jesus UNLESS we permit God to cut us open, search our hearts, try us, know our thoughts and then change us from the inside. Only then an we become real according to the Word of God.

The reality will make us powerful witnesses for Jesus, even if we don't say a word. We will be so transparent and so genuine that if the world around us tries us with fire, we will come out as glittering gold.

If you truly desire this reality, stop looking to plans and activities as your solution. Begin today to call out to the Lord as David did. Say "Lord Jesus, cut me open. Please search my heart, try me, know my thoughts, reveal to me who I am, and change me, at any cost, to become what Your Word says I ought to be." Believe me, there is no prayer the Lord delights to answer for His people more than this one!

There is no anesthesia for this radical surgery.

All Good Things...

The closets are empty, seats are folded, and the boxes are neatly packed and labeled.

Our church move has finally happened.

I think one of the temptations believers face when they are with one body for so long is that “familiarity breeds contempt.” Yet, when I think of this place I've been worshipping at for the past 8 years, I cannot be more grateful to God and His people. I'm really going to miss this place. It's where I fell in love with the Lord. I'm so glad church isn't defined by a building, but by a body of believers.     

This whole church move is kind of a bitter sweet moment for everyone it affects, but at the end of the day I can say it is a good moment. I take a few steps back just to consider how faithful God has been to those who sought after Him all these years while coming in and out of the doors of this sanctuary. It's been one adventurous walk, but it totally delights me to know that we’re still singing the same song the ancients sang before us: “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” (Psalm 126:3) I am so excited for this next chapter in our journey.

Presently, our ship is faced toward uncharted territories and new ground, but it is my hope and prayer that God may tune our hearts to sing of His grace again and again; that we would never lose the wonder of His generous love for us. That come what may, trying weather or pirate, we will not be shaken because the only thing drowning in that deep sea will be our fears and trepidation. When Christ is our anchor and His Spirit our bearer of hope, so by faith I know He saves.

The Lord gave me two passages to cling to while praying for this ministry:

In Joel 2:25-26 He promises, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten… You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God who has worked wonders for you.”

And in Psalm 126, the psalmist describes the people of God rejoicing when the Lord brought them out of captivity. They “were like men who dreamed,” men “carrying seed to sow, [singing] songs of joy, [and] carrying sheaves with them.”

Praise God! What a refreshing word! God is determined to restore and use this church to reach out to those who need to hear a good word. So, I pray this promise encourages you to open wide your hearts to God, press on, enjoy His goodness, and bear His goodly fruit.

Though it may be an uncomfortable ride for a short while, onward we'll go singing into eternity.

All good things, are yet to come :)

Hallelujah! Glory to God!


Wholly Yours,
Jane

Two Extremes

“There are two extremes in this and both of them are just that, extremes. There are men over here who have no knowledge of the Word whatsoever and they claim to be led of the Spirit. And the spirit that is leading them contradicts the Word. We know that is false.

But then there are men who say, “We will have nothing of that.” And everything is just a proposition and a figuring out and correct exegesis and that is all. And the know nothing of being led and directed by the Spirit of God who will sometimes make men do unusual things to accomplish his end, never things that contradict Scripture, but nonetheless unusual things.

We must be in the Word and grounded in the Word. We must also cry out for the Spirit to reveal God’s will through his Word, but we must be sensitive in all things to follow Him, not only to start our journey into the wilderness, but to be led throughout the wilderness by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

- Excerpt from Paul Washer‘s Sermon, “Pray And Be Alone With God”

Spiritual Atomic Bombs!

They overcame him [the devil]

by the power of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony;

they did not love their lives so much

as to shrink from death.

-Revelation 12:11

It's always an interesting experience going back to our old diaries or journals. A lot of times, i'm sure we embarrass ourselves or wince thinking about everything that happened. But, at the end of the day, I think we all come to a point where we become thankful for where we are & more sure that God will forever be with us.

I encourage you guys to check out EM's 3 year Anniversary Testimonies. I know everyone that is in EM now may not have been there, but it's a blessing to see how far we've come through God's grace. One of Israel's greatest sins was forgetting everything God had done for them. Let's not do the same!

http://picasaweb.google.com/tobibobes/EM3rdYearAnniversary?feat=directlink

Now let's blow up some demonic strongholds!