IOW: A Quiet, Yet Deliberate, Rebellion

Miriam at Miriam Pauline's Monologue is hosting In Other Words. Visit her to view more posts and to add your own take on today's quote.

But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.” Jonah 1:3

What a strange time I am experiencing right now! What an appropriate quote for me to ponder...

My home is empty this summer except for my husband and myself. I never thought what "empty nest syndrome" really meant. Our children are all grown and on their own life paths. When our son left for USMC boot camp just over a week ago, my house and my cell phone became very quiet. I, who dearly cherish alone time, am finding myself at a loss as to how to fill my moments.

How do I redefine myself? Gain a new identity? I am still a mother, yet have no mothering responsibilities. How strange this is...something I have done for 25 years is no longer necessary to the extent I have previously known. Part of me is excited for the opportunities ahead, part is shaking with the thought of becoming an afterthought to those in whom I have invested more than half of my life. Yet, it is right that this should come.

When I look at Jonah, I see a reflection of myself. I had so much filling my days that it was easy for me to drift off to Tarshish on a ship of full of responsibilities. If some call from God seemed difficult or time-consuming - well I had meals to cook, a house to clean, little hands to wash, soccer games to attend, Sunday school lessons to study, books to read, new TV shows to watch, phone calls to answer. My life was overflowing with important things, good things, mundane things.

Yet, how often did I hear a Voice whispering for me to stop and listen, to kneel and learn, to prepare for His call? And how often did I let myself judge the task (or recipient of the task) unworthy of the precious time I had available?

Is a full life a life fulfilled?

But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from God. He went down to the port of Joppa and found a ship headed for Tarshish. He paid the fare and went on board, joining those going to Tarshish - as far away from God as he could get. ~ Jonah 1:3 The Message

How did Jonah, a prophet of God, think he could escape the Presence of the Lord by changing his location? When a task God gives us seems distasteful, is there a way to remove ourselves from His gaze?

One of my favorite Latin phrases is Coram Deo - living before the face of God. When I am walking on the path I know to be the one on which He is leading me, I rejoice in the idea that the omnipotent Creator of the universe is watching me and walking with me. Yet when that path seems filled with potholes and mud... I tend drift to the path of soft grass and no responsibility. What makes me feel like God doesn't see my rebellion? Or perhaps a better word is defiance.

Dictionary.com defines defiance as "intentionally contemptuous behavior or attitude." Wasn't that how Jonah acted? He openly disobeyed God because he decided that the people of Nineveh didn't deserve a chance to repent. His attitude conveyed the idea that God doesn't have the right to offer salvation to whomever He pleases.

In my full life have I ever deliberately turned away from someone God has put into my path? Yes.

Not too long ago I arrogantly turned away from someone who asked me for money. I detest panhandling. I told this person I had seen him earlier in the day doing the same thing.

As I self-righteously walked away with my $5 coffee in hand, his response reverberated in my ears, "I live here." There are no houses or apartments where I was...just a square filled with entertaining distractions and the river-front park. This man had no home other than a blanket under a tree by the river.

Did this man know that God loves him? I will probably never know - the city cracked down on homeless living by the river...they were driving customers away from the entertainment area. Will he have another opportunity to hear the Gospel? I pray it will be so.

Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age. ~ Matthew 28:19-20 The Message

Father, please forgive me when I disobey. Make me sensitive to Your call. Help me live a life worthy of that call. Amen.

IOW: A Quiet, Yet Deliberate, Rebellion

http://patriciamariewarren.blogspot.com/2009/07/iow-quiet-yet-deliberate-rebellion.html

IOW: Remembering Your First Love

Debbie at Heart Choices is hosting In Other Words. Visit her to view more posts and to add your own take on today's quote.

To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid "big" sins - is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?

~ Francios Fenelon, The Seeking Heart

In every new relationship there is an initial sense of exuberance. The joy of being together drowns out all other distractions. Spending time with each other is the most important thing in the world.

When we are children we seek out every opportunity to be with our friends, even as the initial intensity of the friendship wanes and other friends come into our lives.

When we fall in love for the first time, we are consumed by thoughts of the object of our affections. Sometimes even minor separations feel like excruciating pain. But eventually, even that intensity also fades with familiarity.

If we truly care for the other and our feelings are reciprocated, we make deliberate effort to grow the relationship into one with strong and steady communication that includes daily contact.

But there comes a point even in the deepest relationships where we become so comfortable that we begin to take the other person for granted. Our excitement dims into expectation. The passionate farewells turn into quick kisses and an automatic "I love you" thrown over the shoulder as we go on to more interesting activities.

As we get older, we may see this as a normal progression. Maybe we are at a level where the intensity has dimmed and our relationship is one of simple contentment with little effort required to maintain it.

There is a very serious danger to allowing our relationships to become that comfortable.

We may discover a distraction or new relationship that stirs our sleepy passion, causing us to neglect or turn our backs on the relationship that once consumed us.

...and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Revelation 2:3-4

The church at Ephesus experienced the all-consuming intensity of first love when the apostle Paul came to them and established the early congregation there (Acts 18:18-21).

The next time Paul went to Ephesus, he stayed three years and his ministry to them helped the Ephesian church become a center for evangelistic outreach in the Gentile world.

And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all...So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. Acts 19:18-20

The faithfulness of the Ephesian church even sparked a riot among the pagan business people in the city because so many were being drawn to Christ through the passion of the Ephesian believers that the pagans were loosing their businesses due to a lack of customers for their idols.

What drew the metropolitan people of Ephesus to leave their popular and politically correct pagan worship practices and follow a Carpenter from a dusty little town in Palestine?

It was not the believers' habit of reading a Proverb a day.

It was not the church's great programs and fellowships.

It was not the members' good deeds and honest living.

Although these things will get people through the church doors...

Only a dynamic, passionate relationship with God is enough for a person to give up a comfortable "good" life and turn to a life of holy living in Christ.

Yet we know that even the Ephesian church let themselves get comfortable.

They took for granted their security in the salvation from Christ.

They turned from their first love and let themselves be consumed with

going through the motions of worship...

singing all the right praise songs...

doing all the right things...

I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and found them liars; and you have persevered... Revelation 3:2

The danger of becoming content in mediocrity and routine is real for Christians today. Jesus was specific in what the consequences of that is -- we will no longer be useful to Him in bringing others to Him and therefore

I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place. Revelation 2:5c

Our salvation is secure in Him (Ephesians 1:13-14), but our usefulness is completely based on our

"passionate, wholehearted love for God"

Jesus told the Ephesian church

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works. Revelation 2:5a-b

We also must REMEMBER:

And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God... Ephesians 3:17-19

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Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2

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...speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ... Ephesians 5:19-20

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Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints! Psalm 31:23a

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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37

IOW: Remembering Your First Love

http://patriciamariewarren.blogspot.com/2009/07/iow-remembering-your-first-love.html

In Other Words: Wild Love and Extravagant Mercy

I am hosting In Other Words today. Please share your thoughts through comments and your own posts on today's quote in Mr. Linky at the bottom:

What I believe is so magnificent, so glorious, that it is beyond finite comprehension. To believe that the universe was created by a purposeful, benign Creator is one thing. To believe that this Creator took on human vesture, accepted death and mortality, was tempted, betrayed, broken, and all for love of us, defies reason. It is so wild that it terrifies some Christians who try to dogmatize their fear by lashing out at other Christians, because tidy Christianity with all answers given is easier than one which reaches out to the wild wonder of God's love, a love we don't even have to earn. ~Madeleine L'Engle

The yard next to ours has been neglected for years and the elderly owners have passed away. The new owners have a lot of work yet to do to make the house livable. So it stands sad and ugly except...

Smack against the front wall are several rose bushes.

The size and color of the roses on one bush captured my attention from half an acre away. This scraggly neglected bush boasts blooms that are a stunning pink. I looked at the roses for days, admiring them. Finally I grabbed my by-pass pruners and cut a stem with a fully open bloom and one bud.

I stripped some of the thorns off the stem, dipped it in rooting hormone and placed it in a pot on my rooting table. The open bloom is spectacular. I am becoming quite tiresome to my family as I continually point it out and try to convince them to get in close to inhale its heavenly fragrance.

I am not normally a rose person, as rose bushes require a level of attention that I have never had time to give. But this rose has special meaning to me. The man who planted it lived a life that will soon be forgotten...he drank heavily throughout his life, was mean and mouthy most of it until he developed brain cancer in his latter years. Suddenly, he became a humble and meek man-dependent on others for help in the simplest matters.

This man planted the roses at a time when he was prideful and boasting. He carefully tended them so they would present the best show in his landscaping. He cut all the trees out of his yard so that there was a unobstructed view of his house. Now all that is faded away with peeling paint and crumbling foundations. The new owner has already ripped out the front shrub border and he might need to yank out the rose bushes during his renovations.

Such exquisite beauty reduced to weeds....... I had to get a cutting and try to recapture the glory of these fragrant roses.

I have to confess that I am unable to take most important step necessary to preserve the plant and assure it roots successfully. In order to focus the plant's energy on developing a strong and deep root system, I should cut off the bloom and the bud. I am finding the sacrifice of the beauty too much...I can't do it.

"the wild wonder of God's love"

God did not hesitate to do whatever was necessary to bring to Himself and root us firmly in His love.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ~John 3:16-17

The beauty of an ordinary babe, born in the ordinary way--grown into an ordinary Man living an extraordinary life to redeem His creation:

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends... ~John 15:13-14a

"All for love of us..."

This Creator knew from the beginning before He created anything that we would betray Him. He knew that the creation He breathed His own life would one day desire to kill Him. And yet He loved us:

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. ~Isaiah 53:5

"a love we don't even have to earn"

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us...made us alive together with Christ...For by grace you have been saved through faith...it is the gift of God. ~Ephesians 2:4, 5, 8

"so magnificent, so glorious"

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ~Ephesians 1:13

So then Pilate took Jesus and scouraged Him And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head...

Pilate...again...said to them..."I find no fault in Him."

And He, bearing His cross went out to a place called...Golgotha, where they crucified Him.

So Jesus...said..."It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. ~John 19 selected

No "tidy Christianity with all answers given"

...Because this Wild Love and Extravagant Mercy defy definition in any way other than the cross of Jesus Christ!

While I am finding the idea of destroying the blossom on my rose cutting difficult, ultimately I will--probably within the next few days. To sooth myself, I will preserve the petals to use in potpourri or tea. But I know that the only way I can have an abundance of the Beauty is to do the right thing now, even though it means giving up the beauty I already have.

Lately, I find myself looking to a freer form of worship. So much demands my time and attention that I don't feel I have a moment to waste tied up in dogmatic Christianity. I desire to notice everything--to not let even a single joy or wonder go unrecognized. I don't have the patience to suffer the foolish separation among the churches of God caused by differences of interpretation.

Only two things matter:
1) Christ did not come to earth, take "on human vesture, [accept ]death and mortality, [be] tempted, betrayed, broken" to make a divided church--He came to give us unity and love through the Spirit.

2) Only two kinds of people exist - those who know God in an intimate fellowship and those who are completely separated from Him.

My responsibility is to share with those who know God the blessings He gives me and to tell those who don't know Him that He loves them wildly and extravagantly--and to love them as He does!

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***1:30 p.m. eastern: Just a note to clarify any misunderstandings from my words today (as I responded to Deborah in the comments)--

I am not advocating giving up fellowship in church...more giving up the idea that anything more than the truth of the Gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and how we respond to it, have any importance.

When it comes down to the dogma --- how one dresses, jewelry... tattoos... the music one listens to (I like praise and worship music and lite Christian rock)... those should not affect how we welcome fellow believers into our midst. I believe we should spend more time learning to walk like Jesus did than worrying whether to cut our hair or cover it! And I believe that we should focus on getting into the Word daily...not worrying about whether the version someone else uses is KJV, NASB, NIV. etc.***

In Other Words: Wild Love and Extravagant Mercy

http://patriciamariewarren.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-other-words-wild-love-and.html