Love Unto Obedience

“Just get it over with.”

My 7 year-old daughter got in trouble this morning. For her punishment, I gave her the option to be grounded in her room all day or to just get it over with and get a spanking. She thought about it for a little while, and finally said, “Just get it over with.”

In the aftermath, we sat on the bed together and I told her that I loved her. I told her that my rules were good rules that protected her mind and her heart, and her spiritual and physical well-being. That my rules are meant to teach her self-control and how to make good choices. Then I asked her if she trusted me. She thought about that for a minute, then said, “Yes.” And I responded, “Then you need to trust my rules.”

I’ve heard people say that the high-water mark of a true believer is love. And with that, I do not necessarily disagree. However I would expound upon that and include Jesus’ words, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments”— commandments that are not a yoke upon our neck, but a sword to our heart. Commandments that do not shine the outside of the cup, but deal with the development of godly character within. Commandments that are good rules that protect our mind and heart, and spiritual and physical well-being. Commandments that are meant to teach self-control and how to make good choices. 

Commandments that are followed because we trust that both He and His rules are good. 

(John 13:34,35) A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.

(John 14:15,21) If you love Me, you will keep My commandments…Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.

(John 14:23) Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

(John 15:10) If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love.

(1 John 2:3) By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.

A Purpose And Plan

Crusty. Stale. Inedible. 

I made extra biscuits this morning. I knew that they wouldn’t be eaten. I knew that they would be left in the pan…crusty. stale. inedible. My children would have thrown these biscuits away. But I have a purpose for these biscuits that my children don’t know about. I have a plan in mind that my children are not aware of. 

As I carefully placed these biscuits aside until I’m ready to use them, I thought about the institution of the earthly church…crusty. stale. inedible. Vast numbers of believers are increasingly becoming aware of Christ knocking at the door of Laodicea. Many are coming out of the house that is desolate. They stand on the porch of the desolate house as the creditors come to collect. The bricks that built this house were borrowed from the ways of the world, and the world is a merciless financier. But the Lord will not leave us as orphans on the porch. 

In four days, I will crush these biscuits into pieces and use them to make a delicious cornbread dressing. I will take what is crusty, stale, and inedible, and I will crush it to turn it into something both desirable and nutritious. I will take what my children would have thrown away, and turn it into something else. Because I have a purpose that my children don’t know about… 

…I have a plan in mind that they are not aware of. 

(John 14:16-18) And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.

(Rev 18:4) Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.”

(Hab 2:6,7) Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, speaking with mockery and derision: ‘Woe to him who amasses what is not his and makes himself rich with many loans! How long will this go on?’ Will not your creditors suddenly arise and those who disturb you awaken? Then you will become their prey.

(Jer 18:4) But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.

Grace, Grace, And More Grace

“I’m giving everybody grace this week. And you need lots of grace.”

Yesterday morning, one of my High School students turned in their Constantine essay late. I teach Secondary ELA, but I’m also the High School Bible teacher. While I was out the last two weeks dealing with my mother’s passing, one of the assignments I left for the High School Bible class was to write a facts vs. myths essay about Constantine that was due last Friday. 

When this student handed me their essay, they said, “I probably didn’t write enough.” And I responded, “It’s okay kiddo, I’m giving everybody grace this week. And you need lots of grace.” Then tears immediately welled up in this student’s eyes as they responded, “Yes, I do.” In that moment, the Lord reminded me how we often tend to think that our standing with Him is based on “doing enough,” when really it’s based more on recognizing our need for grace. Our Lord is far more interested in hearts that are devoted to Him, rather than hands that do enough work. 

I can’t share the backstory on this student and their particular struggles with responsibility, with identity, and with other things outside of school. But suffice it to say, that the Lord placed this student in my classroom because Jesus said it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Mind you, not those who are rebellious and recalcitrant in their sinful sickness, but those who are wounded and languishing in it. The smoldering wicks and the bruised reeds…

…and the poor in spirit who need lots of grace. 

(Matt 5:3) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

(James 4:6,7) But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

(Matt 12:19-21) “…He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory. In His name the nations will put their hope.”

(Luke 5:30-32) But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Abiding In The Beloved

“Does a baby reach for its mother when it is in her womb?”

While dealing with my mom’s passing, the last week and a half of my life has seemed like a dream. Each day felt like I was just a body going through the motions of living. I’ve gone back and forth between feeling nothing at all, and feeling everything all at once. The wave of grace that has been carrying me along, brought me and my family back home safely yesterday afternoon. The girls went back to school this morning. And I went out to my barn.

As I sat on the fourth step to the hay loft, I said to the Lord, “I know You have been carrying me through all this. I know you are with me and will never leave me. Yet why do I so often feel like I am reaching for you? Why do I feel like I am frantically trying to grasp your hand in the darkness?” And in His infinite mercy He responded, “Does a baby reach for its mother when it is in her womb?” The voice of the Beloved speaks, and we melt. We cry out, and He responds, and we are undone. 

The Lord speaks because He is alive. He ministers to us because His Spirit indeed resides within us. And in that moment, the Lord showed me a baby in its mothers womb. A baby that may desperately reach out to grasp its mother, not realizing that it abides within her. A baby that dwells in darkness, but the darkness is the mother herself, surrounding the baby in her womb. There is nothing that comes between the mother and the baby in her womb. The baby has no need to reach out…

…because the baby is both nourished by the mother and surrounded by her, because the baby abides within her. 

(John 15:4,5) Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one abiding in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from Me you are able to do nothing.

(John 14:16,17) And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world is not able to receive, because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He abides with you and He will be in you.

(1 John 2:27,28) And as for you, the anointing you received from Him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so abide in Him as you have been taught. And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we might have boldness and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.