the big brother blues

From last post, I am continuing to ponder on the parable of the prodigal son. But now it is about the older brother. This guy is the one who stays and works and is faithful to his father. Yet we see that his heart was as offended as ours would be when his younger brother comes back. We don’t know if he was close to his brother and felt totally abandoned when he left, or if they never got on and he was glad
to see him go (and happy to be able to have a legitimate reason to hold against him)..

The sad part of his side of this story is that he was always surrounded by everything and yet didn’t know how to access the benefit and identity of it all. His father said to him that everything he had was at his son’s disposal and yet nothing was enjoyed by him.

He has the polarised view from his brother’s selfish freedom; having the mentality of a worker enslaved.

It seems that both brothers missed the heart of the father and were distant from the security and identity of knowing who they were- free, abundant, hardworking, blessed, family, responsible.

Let us know the true position of our identity so that we can work hard from a place of knowing our identity and not for our identity.

love makes the tough decisions

As I read the Word of God, and also Watchman Nee’s ‘The Spiritual Man’, it is so strongly clear that love is hardly anything to do with feelings and so much more
to do with decisions and the will of man.

We see that Jesus sweated blood as He prayed for the cup to be taken from Him. This shows that the greatest act of Love- Jesus laying His life down and dying a criminals death- was not out of “feeling good” about how gorgeous humanity was; but that He prayed, “yet not My will, but Yours be done”… and submitted Himself wholly to the Father’s plan- a plan in which love was the most painful choice and decision to make.

How many of us (especially in the west) believe that love is more to do with happiness, feelings, emotion…, rather than tough decisions, painful commitment,
faithfulness that hurts, lifestyle that costs..

If we are true followers of Christ then love will cost us everything and be (very likely) painful in the process. It will be mocked, laughed at, cause offence, and cost us more than we desire to pay… which is where our will needs to come into the submission of our lives not being our own.

Maybe that is why marriage is so weak and broken- because we are all looking for something (or someone) to serve us, rather than living with our lives laid
down for others, and ultimately God.

Love has very little to do with feelings and we would benefit to remember this especially when we have decisions to make, or when there are people who are vying to get our attention and affection outside of the boundaries of love. 

Love can also seem to repel those around us who are wanting yes-men instead of honest friendship and relationship.. 

Keep love bold, alert, and ready to engage.

“what if…” to “even if…”

Esther, and the Hebrew boys in the book of Daniel were very clear in their conviction and position that God is the One that they worship over any other and that He is the One to fear beyond any man. This conviction brought them to a place where it meant that their action, or inaction meant that they could perish or were put to death by fire.

This shows us incredible examples of what a life laid down unto death looks like. And this is inspiring and what we would desire (as followers of Christ).

But how about the small decisions in life. How about instead of desiring the bigger gestures, that we begin where we are.. 

I have been thinking that maybe our resolve may not look like “even if I perish..”, but it could look like “even if… I look like a fool.. I will contend for the promise that God has given me”, or “even if… this person does not get healed right here and now, I will pray for them with faith that God is Jehovah Rapha- the One who heals”, it may look like “even if… I am rejected, I will share with those I love that Jesus is their Creator God who loves them”.

We are sometimes fooled into thinking that it is the big gestures that are fancy and meaningful, but actually it is the small and consistent choices that build a whole person and speak louder.

Perhaps we can die for Jesus, but can we die daily for Him? Can we take the small risks of faith that make up steps towards a greater understanding of who He is?

This is the challenge of a life of faith in Jesus Christ; do we believe in Him fully, and will we take risks “even if…”?

Let us not be people who think, “what if… He doesn’t show, I have it wrong, they may hate me, I may look like a total nutcase…” and be people who speak that “even if……”. 

Let us take the small risks/opportunities/decisions that builds a big faith.

Esther didn’t perish at the sword of the king but ended up seeing a total 180 degree turn of events. The Hebrew boys were put in the fire but came out of it! Unharmed and with their king seeing that there was another One with them! This also caused a 180 degree turn around!

Whether we perish or not, or look like fools or not, let us live for the Audience of One.

learn to agree with God

Through life will will go through many seasons, trials, celebrations, etc. And through everything we will be be told various information, given this or that advice, have our own feelings in the mix, and have circumstances and situations try and dictate to us.

We will be told who we are by parents, friends, enemies, culture, ourselves, relatives, community.. But we are not what ‘they’, or our own selves, tell us we are- we are who God says we are.

We need to hear what God is saying and not what circumstance is saying; we need to hear His heart, and not just what we are feeling about a situation.

To know God, we need to spend time with Him. We need to read His Word. And to develop a relationship with Him, we need to agree with Him. This is a lot more difficult than it reads. It means that everything must come under His authority and be submitted to Him; our feelings, our own logic and reasonings, our circumstances and our own desires for what we want in life.

Now this may sound like I am trying to empty myself of me and become robotic, but it is actually the opposite. If God created me and loves me, then He wants me to be the highest version of myself and not crammed under the limits of the mind, or circumstance, or feelings. He desires that I live so largely that He is glorified and I am fulfilled to the highest degree of walking in the very presence of the Lord God Almighty!

What He says must have the highest authority in our lives. If He says that we are loved, we must believe this and not allow people or feelings to speak a different version. If He says we can do this or that, then we must believe Him and go for it. If He says we are to build for something not yet seen (like Noah) we must obey. If He says that we must go and see the known terrorist to tell him about Jesus (Ananias), then we must go. If He says He has this or that destiny for us, then we must agree with Him, even when it looks beyond impossible (Joseph, King David).

His Word is Truth and we are to agree with Him, and align our truth to His Truth.

perversion of submission

We seem to have such a perverted mindset about submission- that it takes away our freedom and we become like slaves and not able to think for ourselves. But the truth is, if submission is to Love then we will be the most alive ever, and the most protected ever as we are accountable to someone who is then accountable for us. But if the submission is to man (human) who has no love, then it is truly an abuse and oppression as this is then about control and power.

We have to understand that when we are told to submit to God then this is the ultimate care that we can come under. This is not an abusive or powerless place, but a safe and protected place.

As man(kind), we have such a thirst for control that submission becomes a horrendous abuse of power in relationships- rather than being safe, it is unsafe.

We must get to know the God of the Bible so that we can see that He hates religion and the hypocrisy and abuse of people. We need to see that when He talks about submission it is from a very different place- which is Love and not control. There is no control in Love. The very fact that we have free will is because God Himself does not want to have us “controlled” into living for Him, “loving Him”, or anything else that is a farce. He is pure and requires our purity of choice- unmanipulated, uncontrolled, unforced.