Tag Archives: love

Day 3: Verse 2—For the Broken Christian, Restoration

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I love Thy cross, Your surgeon’s knife cleans deep each poisoned wound
By suffering all our maladies, sin’s cursed thorns You prune
Take heed, disciple, bear thy cross, by His stripes we are healed
And in those wounds we carry still, His glory is revealed

I hope to shepherd the hurting with this verse and the Cross’s restoration. The profound significance of the cross’s impact is vitally important to the Gospel because every one of us has been wounded beyond our own repair, and not one of us has been wounded as deeply as Jesus. This is difficult to accept, especially for those who are still going through the anger, depression, and soul-sickness that our wounds bring. Here, I hope to offer you a light for your journey in this dark tunnel.

When Jesus died upon the cross, He took upon Himself all the brokenness and wounds of all the world—the verbal, emotional, and physical abuse of close and distant enemies who were supposed to love him. In a moment in time, He showed what the Father has endured for millennia. The more you look at the grotesqueness of what He endured there, the more comfort there is in what you endure. But like those bit by the serpents in the wilderness in Numbers 21, the only way you can be healed is by choosing to look up at Him on that cross, and look hard.

Every blow He took was for your healing, and the healing of the ones who wounded themselves by hurting you. He experienced the depth of life’s sorrow and loss to be with you in the depth of your own loss and sorrow. He did not cheapen it, like some who pass over the cross to the resurrection. He didn’t let what He experienced be forgotten. His glorified body still bore the marks of His betrayal, His agony, and His humiliation. But now victorious, these scars bear a greater glory in life eternal. His story is immortalized not only in our memories but in His own body at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us still.

And for the suffering to come, He also offers greater grace. Sin’s cursed thorns tear at every aspect of our lives—relational, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, but they are no longer rampant or unchecked. There is a bottom to the abyss from which He arose. There is a refuge in the thicket where the animals hide in safety. There is a cleft in the rock. And because Christ’s suffering came to mean so much forever, there is joy and hope for us that our stories will result in something greater, something more truly glorious that presently makes no sense at all. But this can only be if we are willing to commit our wounds on our own, our suffering for others’ sake, our unconscionable memories to the Lord, and trust Him to bring about something good. As Joseph told his retribution-fearing brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” We won’t be told why, but we will be shown His glory when we see and touch His wounds in person at last. Until that day, let our hearts be kept tender by recognizing His suffering, so we can recognize and sympathize with others in their suffering, so that they might see the glory of total trust in Him ablaze in our still-beating hearts.

Reflection Questions:

  • What have you suffered that you feel like nobody else can understand?
  • What makes it hard to look to God when you’re hurting?
  • In what ways have you seen God bring good out of the terrible things you have suffered so far?

“Have You No Decency?”?

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This news article from this past Tuesday, March 11, 2025, on Straight Arrow News contextualizes the title of this essay.

The question of the question comes repeatedly to my lips as I marvel at the collision of two worlds over my head in that government chamber. One World is a place in which there are only two genders designated by God, and so the most respectful thing is to call people by the gender of the body God gave them. The Other World is where human beings have the right to determine their own identity and to expect that fully informed, well-adapted human beings will address them according to that self-declared identity. The point of contact of this collision is encapsulated beautifully in this word “decency.”

The cursory Google definition that popped up on my phone for this word is: behavior that conforms to accepted standards of morality or respectability. This definition lays out the trajectory for collision between these two worlds: behavior that conforms to accepted standards of morality and respectability. These two worlds of the representatives from Massachusetts and Texas do not have an accepted standard of respectability to conform to. The result in this issue is that so long as there is no agreement, there is no decency to be had.

Or is there?

One is doing the most respectful thing they know by calling a transgendered representative by the title of their gender given at birth because God gave them that gender. The other is doing the most respectful thing they know by correcting someone who is not recognizing a representative’s own personal designation in this public government setting. Personally, I chuckled at the actual representative’s response referring to the Texas male delegate as, “Madaam Chair.” While it was not “decent” for that human being to do so, it kept the dialogue going, because there were more important things to discuss. Perhaps that is all we can do.

Or is it?

I watch these worlds collide and recognize my own place in one of them. One world was created by a loving God, the Other World is created as an imitation by God’s human offspring whose relationship with the Creator is estranged and hostile.

And despite what some may say, I propose that this estrangement is not the Creator’s fault. I think the fault lies at the feet of those who claim to be that Creator’s “ambassadors of reconciliation.” Their lack of willingness to carry Christ’s cross is the reason this Other World persists so, spinning on an axis centered upon the self as the highest god: because there has been so little vision of the True God represented as a New Humanity.

It is not a sad fact that only one of these two worlds will last longer than the other. After all, the way of renewed life is the One World, not the Other World. What is truly sad is that the citizens of the One World are not inclined to lovingly pursue the citizens of the Other to the point of laying down their lives for them. Decency can only exist in the One World and not the Other, because the Judge at the center of the One world is not fickle and imperfect like self, but rather is fundamentally and perfectly compassionate and inexorably justice-oriented.

I just wish that more citizens of the One World understood what “justice” means. Jesus knew, and he showed us that it looks like a cross: A cross surrendering the precious self to abject humiliation for the sake of others because the whole of all our sins merits such a gruesome spectacle.

This is the offensive glory of the cross by which only the humble can be transformed. But those who are transformed, after these two worlds are finished obliterating one another, will find an eternal place in the New Heaven and Earth where righteousness dwells. This transformation is necessary because the One World and the Other World are both doomed, and those in the One World, though it be stronger, will not escape the wrath to come unless they go the way that Jesus paved out of both of these two worlds: the cross. The cross that says, “I lay down my own identity (in the right or in the wrong), and submit to God’s desire and design to love those who do not deserve it.” And to the tender heart I think this, dear reader, better represents the true meaning of “decency.”

Home

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What do you think?

An invitation. I open it, and it’s a blank card inside the envelope. It glows with golden light.

I answer, taking the feather pen from the inkwell and I begin to write:

I think there are a lot of worldly thoughts on my mind: responsibitlies, opportunities, future difficulties, present uncertainties. Of what are you uncertain? Simply the strangeness of living in a place that doesn’t feel like home, for so long: a restlessness. But what is supposed to feel like home? The place I grew up, or the place I long for that is furnished with the perpetual furnishings of fellowship, light, and truth? Is it because I have wandered like a bird from the nest, or that I am flying beneath an open heaven, free and wind-borne. Or is it that I am just in between homes? My first home which felt like home because I was loved and where I belonged, and my everlasting home which will feel like home because I am loved and belong there. It is a bit like being a tree in strange soil, a cat in a new house, a planet on the colder part of its orbit. A wanderer I once aspired to be. Now, all I want in life is home.

Do I go back? Shed the growth which God hath wrought, abandon the quest to gain more than could be if I stayed? Do I attempt to stop the movement of the glacier sliding ever towards equilibrium, or try to teach the tides to play catch up? Do I let the fire die by leaving off the stoking and letting the heat slowly diminish back to ashes? This I cannot do, for much is before me still to do.

Do I run forward? Pass each milestone like a mile marker on the interstate? Do I bury my head in the end, seeing only what is possible in the age to come? Shall I take the helicopter up to the mountaintop? Shall I read the the final chapter of the novel rather than let the story unfold. Do I cast my thoughts ever to the distance, neglecting the present reality? Such a decision would, doubtless, spoil the journey.

It is windy up here, flying like a sparrow over a vast countryside as the sun sets. Home is where the winds of change are warmed by the present love of the ones with whom we share our lives. Therefore, though I am wandering, let us wander together, so that as we too live between homes, we can keep our hearts ripe for the feast that awaits us when our tired limbs have carried us the last league. For now, as we settle into the cadence of our footfalls, let us put an arm out to steady one another, and in good time, we will be home together.

His Face

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Someone on Facebook asked the question: “What made Jesus compelling to you?” My answer was, “His Face.” He said that he was “interested to hear more!” I asked him if I could give him a long answer as to why. This is my long answer as to why I find His face compelling.

How do I know Jesus’ face? I’ve been collecting a kind of mosaic.

  1. In the Scriptures in the original languages. My Dad wrote this for me in my first Greek New Testament. It’s from A.T.R. “A Grammar of the Greek New Testament” pg xix. “There is nothing like the Greek New Testament to rejuvenate the world which came out of the Dark ages with the Greek Testament in its hand. Erasmus wrote in the Preface to his Greek Testament about his own thrall of delight: ‘These holy pages will summon up the living image of His mind. They will give you Christ Himself, talking, healing, dying, rising, the whole Christ in a word; they will give Him to you in an intimacy so close that He could be less visible to you if He stood before your eyes.’” I personally have found this to be true not only in the New Testament, but also in the Old. The Face of Yahweh, is revealed at last in the divine human face of Jesus. “He who has seen [Jesus] has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
  2. Visions. He has let me see something of Him, which of course is appropriated to my being enabled to receive, and the purpose He has for me according to which any revelation is designed to conform me to Him. This is submitted to Scripture. Also, all of this is in relationship with God, as I seek to engage with God with a “pure in heart” (they will see God) and “clear conscience.” (1 Tim 1:5)
  3. Scripturally exemplified relationships. When I see Jacob’s story of wrestling with the “man” I see how he engaged with Him, and afterward went to see Esau. When he saw Esau, Jacob says, “. . . I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably.” Gen 33:10 This is translatable as “I have seen your face like seeing the face of God, and you have favored me.” How did he know what seeing the face of God was? He recognized the favor in Esau’s face according to God’s face. So, I recognize Jesus’ face in love and relationships. As the musical Les Miserables ends, “To love another person is to see the face of God.”
  4. Interest. I am a very interested person, because I know that through Jesus everything was made, which means everything that exists has come through Jesus, and I like tracing it back to him. As G.K. Chesterton says, “There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.” I have an open face to see the world, to know what it all means as coming from Him. This open face is what I love about children (I’m a school teacher) because their hearts are so full of wonder. And when I welcome them in His name I welcome Him, and I recognize Him. (Mark 9:37)
  5. Art. When I see a painting that answers what He has revealed to me through His word, through the Holy Spirit, through relationship, and the world around me, I do not worship that “image” or “idea,” I take it to God as I seek to know Him face-to-face personally not eidetically or un-livingly. Examples: The famous picture by Akiane Kramarik, the Nathaniel Hawthorn Story: “The Great Stone Face,” Michael Card’s Song “His Gaze” are all parts of the mosaic, which bear some likeness to the One I know personally!
  6. Glory. Not the glory of man, but as I worship Him, I know His glory, and that glory is the revelation of Christ. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” And the more time we spend “seeking His face” in worship, the more the light of His face will shine through us.

So, I know His face by pure heart, clear conscience, and sincere faith in His Word, by His Spirit, with love, throughout creation, from his revelations, and as worship. And it is beyond compelling. It is beyond compare. It is . . . altogether lovely.

The King and His Champion

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Once upon a time in a Kingdom ruled by a very wise King, there was a certain knight who was famous for feats of gallantry in battle. This knight was the best sword fighter, best with a spear, best with a bow and arrow, best at jousting– All the Kingdom knew and saluted this champion and praised and cheered each victory.

But under the armor, the knight was very unhappy. Every day this knight would ride into battle with this fear: “I am not worthy to be loved just for me.” This champion also had one weakness carefully concealed: being incredibly slow at running. Because of this, could you guess how many foot races this knight entered? That’s right. Zero!

Until one day, the King made a proclamation that he was holding a footrace in which every knight in his service must compete. But as a peculiar twist, one knight was to wear the King’s own colors. Can you guess which one? Yup. our very own best-at-almost-everything champion. How do you think that knight felt?

The day of the race arrived, and the King’s champion was sick with worry. Soon the whole kingdom would see just how unworthy this knight was to wear the King’s colors. The race began. Very soon every other knight had passed the “champion” who at this moment was feeling like anything but a “champion.” The race concluded and every knight crossed the finish line, but last of all, a whole minute later, in front of the whole laughing crowd of the kingdom, and in front of the King, hustled the Knight who carried the kings colors.

How embarrassing! Can you imagine how that knight felt then? That knight was so mortified with shame, that off came the kings colors, and left off was the armor of a knight, and our hero went home and stayed inside too ashamed to be seen in the kingdom again.

Then one day, a knock came at the door of the knight’s house. It was the King himself! The knight blushed for shame. What could the king want with such a disgraceful, unworthy champion.

“I want you to come back into my service as my own personal assistant.” said the King.

“My Lord, why? Why would you want such a slow foot-soldier in your service? And why would you have ME run in the race wearing your colors?”

The king answered, “I have watched you fight so hard to prove to everyone and yourself that you are worthy of admiration and love, but I organized the race to teach you that love is something you cannot win. Love is a gift. I do not love you because you’re the best. I choose you and love you because I see your heart and I treasure it. You will be my errand runner if you will accept my love.”

The knight was speechless and from somewhere deep inside tears streamed down. The King came near and embraced the knight. From that day on, the champion happily became personal assistant for the King and did not care about being the best fighter or the fastest, because of this truth: he was loved just for him.

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This story is was written for a friend who I recognized was struggling with tendencies to cover feelings of unworthiness with achievement. The ending can also read: she was loved just for her.

Application Pathfinder: Nail it to the Cross

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“Each soul that would enter into real life. . . must go out through the Gate of the Cross.”
 ~Parables of the Cross by Lilias Trotter

  • First ask the Lord to reveal what is in your heart.
    1. Honestly answer: Who or what in my life that if I lost it, my life would be meaningless?
      • Wait for the Lord to reveal something to you anything or anyone big or small.
      • If you decide you want God to be most important in your life, follow these steps.
    2. How to “Nail it to the cross”
      1. Nail it. (Choose one which feels that can be done most genuinely from the heart.)
        • Verbal processor—Tell God out loud what it is, and verbally give it to Him.
        • Writing processor—Write out to God what it is, committing it to Him.
        • Art processor—draw or paint it on paper, write poetry, craft something.
        • Eidetic processor—Imagine your hand nailing it to the Cross.
        • Kinesthetic processor—Get a hammer and nail and take something representing it and nail it to a block of wood, or just swing your hand.
        • Actors: Take an indefinite break from it.
        • Other: Decide to nail it with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and do something to represent that.
      2. Thank God for it, and worship Him (Choose one which makes sense for you)
        • Verbal—Sing a song like, “I Surrender All” or “Take My Life and Let it Be.”
        • Writing—Write a psalm or praise poem for God, or a Love letter to God.
        • Art—Create a work of Art that Arises from Scripture.
        • Eidetic—Elevate God in the loftiest place He can be.
        • Kinesthetic—Dance for/with God.
        • Actors: Do something that is exclusively for God.
        • Other: Do something else to glorify and enjoy God as He leads you.
      3. Bring it before God again and wait for God to lead you in what to do with it. (Yes, He does still speak today, if you believe it and are humble and want Him to.)
        • Voice—God speaks inaudibly inside the heart, or externally outside the body
        • A Word—God can give a “word” in your mind. Give every word back to him to see if it’s from Him.
        • Impressions—A general sense, or an artistic form can come to mind that makes sense in the heart
        • Dreams/Visions—Separate the actual dream/vision from its interpretation, ask God to show you what He wants you to know.
        • Situations/Signs—God works in the world around us, see what He’s doing.
        • Guided Actions—He can give you peace, motivation, or a slight nudge in the direction of a decision.
        • Other: He chooses how He wants to speak.
      4. Check: You will know it is nailed to the cross when your heart feels brighter for God than that thing.
    3. Nurture that bright heart for God by doing this with your whole life regularly.
  • Scriptures on this theme for personal Bible Study
  • Matthew 10:32-39
  • Mark 8:34-38
  • John 12:23-25
  • 1 Corinthians 1:17-31
  • Galatians 6:12-16
  • Ephesians 2:14-16
  • Philippians 2:5-11
  • Colossians 2:9-19

God’s Rules Interpreted for Kids (A GOSPEL!)

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God is the One who made everything, and he loves everyone. He needs us to do the right thing and stop doing bad things. These are His rules.

  1. There is only One God: Him. No other gods are allowed.
  2. Don’t make statues of God or worship them. God is represented by living humans, not nonliving stone or wood or metal.
  3. Treat God’s name respectfully.
  4. Make sure to take a day to rest to remember what God is really like.
  5. Respect your parents, so you’ll have a long life.
  6. Don’t kill someone, or want to kill someone, value other people’s lives.
  7. (This one is *mainly* for grownups) Don’t share your deepest heart or body with someone other than the person you’re married to.
  8. Don’t take what doesn’t belong to you, but respect other people’s stuff.
  9. Don’t try to get people to believe things that aren’t true; instead help people believe the truth.
  10. Don’t wish you had what other people had, but be thankful for what you have.

Above all the two most important rules which sum these up are: Love God with your entire being, thinking, and doing, and Love the person next to you as much as you love yourself.

And for the most advanced rule followers: As Jesus Christ has loved you, love other people in the same way! (This one requires a bit of study and experience to follow, because that’s how you learn all the ways that Jesus Christ has loved you.)

Why this is important

The reason why all of this is important is because all of us have done wrongs things, and the older we get the more wrong things we will do. Remember that God has to punish people who do wrong things in order to be fair. He will judge everyone in the whole world unless they are willing to ask God to forgive them, to say they’re sorry, and to stop doing those bad things. The punishment for sin is death and God’s standard for who gets punished is if they match up with Jesus’ perfect obedience. I can’t obey God perfectly like Jesus did, and neither can you.

Now, He is fair, but He is also merciful. God sent Jesus not only to set the standard, but also to give his life on the cross to take the place of anyone who wishes for God to forgive them. That way God gets to be both fair and merciful. Those who ask Him to forgive them, He forgives. Not only that, but He also gives his Holy Spirit to those who ask for him, to help them do what is right. Only those who have the Holy Spirit living in them are able to obey God perfectly.

God has a plan for all of this. God wants people to be filled with his Spirit so that He can bring people everywhere back into a good relationship with Him. Then once he’s got all the people who will stop sinning, and start obeying on board, He will burn up this old earth and sky and make a new one where there are no bad things and no people who do bad things anymore. If you ask God to forgive you and give you his Holy Spirit to help you do the right thing, you too will be allowed to be in that New Earth and Sky. And God will build his house on earth with them, and they will all live and reign in the new Earth like Kings and Queens forever and ever. If you don’t, there is an fire that never dies that will burn up all who do not ask God to forgive them, and receive his Holy Spirit. But if you do this, you will be called a Christian.

Now, the life of a Christian is hard, because the rest of the world is sinning against God and doesn’t want to serve God, but if we do what Jesus did, we will show the rest of the people in the world how God really loves them and wants them to repent so they can have a good relationship with Him again.

Change

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It’s something many people do not appreciate. On my way home from work, I was thinking about how the choir at my old church sang with a very heavy alto because there had been no change in the choir and had lost soprano members. But altos seem to outlast soprano.

There are always changes happening. If we don’t have change of something new, we experience the inevitable change of decay as things get old. Change is like weather. Weather makes our world fresh and new by precipitation and also breaks it down by erosion. Our world is not very unlike us: it is subjected to futility, and the unchanging nature of change.

We who seek to preserve constancy in this world will find it to be hardly a passive battle. The ground will keep waxing old, and we will need to dig for new fruits. The one who builds a house will need to maintain it or it will change to corruption. The one who tries to be faithful to his word will find he needs to sacrifice to keep it true.

One principle of how change works I realized on my way home from work. I will share it in parts and then as a whole.

Before change, something is okay,

Because of the principle that all is decaying, if something has been the same for a while, it is probably out of date or expired. To simply do things a certain way because you have always done them thus you will find things achieve mediocrity speedily.

but after change things get worse

Transition means that parts of the problems grown in situations left unattended by good leadership need to be cut out so that the good can be grown. It will get worse first.

So that things can get better than before

But if all the dead weight is cut out, and new vigor about the new ideas is infused (and they are good ideas) Then things will improve. Even here, this will not happen naturally.

Under a good leader.

Here’s where Trust, Integrity, Wisdom, and Value and a whole other host of dynamics come in. We who resist change are often seeking to preserve our own value both of ourselves and the things that matter most to us. What we seek is a leader who has the integrity to stay true to his word, who has the heart to recognize the things we value, and has the wisdom to cultivate them skillfully.

I believe change is a risk and what determines whether the risk is a good one or not, is if the leader is a good one or not. If he is good, if he is on the Lord’s side, if he is a servant, and is carrying his cross, trust him and follow him. If he is not on the Lord’s side, beware the effects of the changes that come.

E.M. Bounds said, “Men are looking for better methods. God is looking for better men.”

The Sun of God’s Love

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How bright the Sun is shining always!
It keeps the earth alive, renewed.
That even when the storms are raging,
And thunder rolls like hammers crude,

Still constant burns life-giving love
To sift the seasons of our souls,
And storms that rage against our surface,
Cannot deny this central truth:

He is mighty in the open sky
The heavens round him circle,
That when it’s gone, small evidence’s fly
And dazzle the eye with new emotion.

The weight of glory bends all time
To circle us around his globe
That we being pulled in the vortex of God’s love
May sustainably run across the empty universe.

The planets wobble and shatter to asteroids,
Still the Sun remains.
Though the world fall to pieces and all life crash down,
Still God’s love will keep us in orbit.

The darkness of night, and the shadows of storms
Beat against the surface with its bitter cold,
Still there is a love beyond our own making
Which holds the life for a thousand worlds.

How majestic and radiant the love of God!
It changes the very nature of the heavens,
It casts its generous heat all around,
And only a fraction reaches this planet.

Eclipses cannot Eclipse the weight of his glory,
And the Sun is but a shape.
In contrast God’s love takes all shapes
And makes them good according to his purpose.

O love of God, all life is in you,
How can I but rejoice in your light.
Apart from you I die,
I cannot see, nor can I feel.

But all this I rejoice that You, O God,
Have given me many ways to see it.
Forgive my stubbornness to be blind
And my fear which does not trust how good You are.

Opinions and Truth

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Everyone has an opinion.
Few hold the truth.
I know where to find it,
But it’s very hard to get there.
Mainly because it’s where I have no power
Only accountability
Only a glaring ugliness of all the lies I love

Opinions muck up the works
The Truth brings simplicity
Few know it when they hear it
But it’s very hard to ignore
Mainly because of it’s quiet immovable power
It is only submitted to His authority
He who loves me and hates my proud Babylons

I am tired of opinions
My heart aches for truth
Where can I find it?
It’s worth the difficult search
Mainly because it can give me the power
To face my accountability
For the problems in my life that are really my own fault.

Oh God, I submit my opinions
I yearn to be shaped by Your truth
Can you find me?
Am I worth the search
Mainly because You have given me the power
To be accountable for your Truth
To the one who loves me more than all my failures.