The greatest of these...

It has been a distracting week and I haven't blogged as much as I had intended and quite honestly I haven't been as focused as I would have liked on a regular time of reading and reflection. But in spite of myself, I am on a good road as my heart is melting before His presence and His love, and that is the ultimate point. As always, start out anew on the journey with one foot in front of the other in obedience and suddenly the path takes a course you could have never imagined. As I have noted before, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, he directs it like a watercourse where ever He pleases." Proverbs 21:1

So, now I am several days behind in my Lent devotional but I am sure that somehow it is all "right on time" in His plan. And then I pick up the devotional and right there at the top of the page is "Our Greatest Lover". A perfectly natural place to pick up from the last blog entry. As I think about the upcoming trip and the fact that I will have the chance to physically sit in the Garden of Gethsemane, the opening scripture for today's Lent reading takes on a whole new reality.

"...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our Faith,
who for THE JOY set before Him endured the cross,

and suffered its shame..."

Hebrews 12:2

It is so easy (or perhaps so convenient) to minimize the true magnitude of what Jesus knew He was facing at His death. In the garden, he wrestled with the enormity of the task before him. The man who had walked on water, brought people back from the dead, who breathed and seasoned Roman soldiers fell back in front him, who went into a desert to fast for 40 days and face all the temptation that Satan could throw His way, this man was asking the Daddy that He loved if there was any other way. May I make no mistake, the death He willingly faced caused Him to sweat blood that night in the garden with the anquish of it all. But what was never questioned was why He was doing it. And if there wasn't another way, which obviously there was not, the path was clear and He was resolute. Resolute because of the JOY set before Him. This is the wonderous part of it all. I am that JOY. You are that JOY. It was our faces that He pictured as He walked down the Via Dolorosa. Do I allow the extravagence of this love to move beyond the confines of my logical mind and fill my heart? Based on how I respond to God so much of the time, I would say not very often.

I love the scripture describing Jesus as the "visible expression of the invisible God." What we see in Jesus is what is true of the Father. Our Heavenly Daddy loves us like nothing we can imagine. If we could just grasp a fraction of it with our hearts, how we move throughout our day would be radically different.

"I have called you by name; you are mine. You are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you" Isaiah 43:3-4

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He takes great delight in you; He will quiet you with his holy love, and rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

"I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion." Hosea 2:19

David, described in the Bible as "a man after God's own heart" says, "Your love for me is better than life itself." Psalm 63:3

In the Song of Solomon, a picture of our relationship to the God who loves us: "I am my Beloved's; His desire is for me." Solomon 7:10

For I am convinced that neither death nor life,

neither angels nor demons,

neither the present nor the future,

nor ANY powers,

neither height nor depth,

nor ANYTHING else in ALL creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God

that is ours IN Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

Ty states in 40 Days of Lent, "To learn that God is in fact our Lover and to come to Him as our Lover, seems to grow in awareness for us as we see Jesus go to the cross for us. When Someone dies for you, you no longer analyze their commitment to you or wonder if they truly care for you. You no longer question the intention of their Word to you. You assume the best. You know you are loved. So, you trust."

Ahhh, trust....now there is a big five letter word....

To Take On

The Word [Jesus] became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor 5:21

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Phil 2:1-8


That the God of the Universe would take on all the limitations of human skin to rescue me from the other side of an otherwise impassable chasm that relationally separates me from Him because of my dark heart is something too large to imagine, too elusive to grasp, too lavish for my heart to receive. That I am the prize, the goal, and the purpose driving the hero of the epic story, is more than I can enter into. I am the object of God's great affection

I have truly enjoyed reading some of John Eldridge’s works over the last few years as he is such a great story teller. I have been most touched by his attempts to paint the picture of how I do fit into an epic story that has taken place over all space and time with powerful forces of Good and Evil waging war for possession of my heart. Times of connecting with this TRUTH have been largely contained to fleeting glimpses that yield moments of a melted heart that is filled with love, gratitude, and wonder. Nothing has tasted sweeter. That the entire Bible is a living document proclaiming God's passionate and relentless love is so often lost in the perceived "rules" of religion. And despite the clear communication time and time again that the greatest of all is love, we so often want to make it about something, anything else. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (I Cor 13:13)

And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood!
Died he for me? who caused his pain!
For me? who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

'Tis mystery all: th' Immortal dies!
Who can explore his strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
to sound the depths of love divine.
'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
let angel minds inquire no more.
'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
let angel minds inquire no more.

He left his Father's throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature's night;
thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in him, is mine;
alive in him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine,
bold I approach th' eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th' eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ my own.

-Charles Wesley

To Give Up

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2



What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31-32

To Prepare

I haven’t spent much time thinking about Lent before. In the past I have taken some half hearted steps to do something to observe Lent, but to my knowledge I have not gone through any kind of focused process for a true 40 plus days. I am looking forward to what God has in store for this time. I have tasted how much sweeter the Resurrection celebration can be when you have prepared spiritually for that time, but by comparison, that was a relatively short period of preparation starting on Palm Sunday and including a very special worship time on Good Friday called the Service of Shadows, which was a moving time of reflection on each of the Stations of the Cross, which I will get to walk on the Via Dolorosa in several weeks. So, how much more can God do with that much more we give him?

Speaking of that, last night at church, Pastor Greg preached on the feeding of the five thousand. The disciples had just returned from going out into the surrounding villages by twos to preach and heal. They had just returned and Jesus had suggested they get away to a quiet to place to rest and recharge after a time of hard work. It would seem that basically upon arrival to that remote place the crowds found them and wanted to hear from Jesus. Surely not on the disciples’ radar for how they envisioned this time of rest, they encouraged Jesus to send the people away that evening to get lodging and food in nearby villages (I am sure if I was them I would be thinking, “So, I can get some time to have some food and get some sleep!). Yet this was not Jesus’ plan. He asked the disciples how they were going to feed the people. As the disciples scrambled to come up with a plan, they asked who had food among them. And you know how the story goes… a little boy holds out his lunch and offers two fishes and three loaves of bread. And we know what Jesus did with that humble offering. He feed thousands and thousands of people with food to spare…all from a little boy’s lunch. God takes the ordinary things we offer up to Him and He transforms it into the miraculous. I come into this time with faith that what is offered during this 40 days will be transformed within my heart into the miraculous so that I would be overwhelmed by the height, and width, and depth of my Lord’s love for me and that my posture would be total surrender in worship with tear soaked hair on dusty feet.

Ben is joining me on this 40 day journey and He suggested that one of the things we could both do would be read a devotional especially designed for the Lenten season, which I thought was a great idea. Ty Saltzgiver, a friend from Young Life over many years, has written a small devotional called 40 Days of Lent: Scripture and Reflection on Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection which we started yesterday (well, technically, I started it today). Here are a few highlights from the first two days reading as it relates to understanding the meaning of the Lenten observance. Apparently the word Lent comes from an old English word for “spring” but obviously this will be far from the case as I am talking about observing this Lent during the height of heat and humidity in Charleston! Ty explains that there are two ways to observe Lent. You can “give something up” which would be a “discipline intended to make us aware of how earthly things can have power over us and to remind us that our true pleasure is in following Jesus.” During this time, “at the moment of inner longing for the ‘thing given up’, we are reminded to turn our hearts toward Jesus in gratitude and in surrender." The second way to observe Lent would be to “take something on” which would help nurture our soul such as daily journaling (or blogging in this case), a walk each evening in reflection, or “anything which helps make us ‘aware’ of Jesus’ nearness." As a form of worship, “Lent is meant to be enlivening and deepening, not another legalistic rule.” As I pointed out yesterday, it lasts for 40 days not counting Sundays. Ty explains that the 40 days was settled on because this was the number of days that Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting, praying, and entering into a time of solitude with His Father in preparation for His ministry on earth. I have come to find that God always seems to have deeper meaning to all that He does and all that He chooses. Everything is by design. What does this period of time mean to God? I am not sure, but it obviously is significant. It was 40 days that Noah waited on God's promises to be fulfilled as he scanned the horizon for dry land. And it was 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness waiting to enter into the Promised land. Come to think of it, I believe it was 40 days that Moses was on the mountain with God before bringing the Law in the form of the 10 Commandements. Hmm, perhaps more research on the topic is warranted. Perhaps tomorrow? However, in the meantime, Ty states,

“It is then fitting for us to have a 40 day period to prepare to celebrate Jesus and to let His Death and Resurrection be central in our lives. Lent is a time for sacrifice and self-examination, for increased self-awareness and God-awareness, for spiritual refocus and renewing of our conversion, for seeing our own need for Grace, and for opening our hearts to be more captured by Jesus’ love.”

Ah, yes, that is the ticket!

40 Days

I was driving up to NC the other day for my father's 70th birthday party and I was thinking about our upcoming trip to Israel in September. Ben and I will be joining my parents along with several other folks from Greensboro and High Point, NC for a 10 day trip to the Holy Land. The group is being led by my former pastor from one of the churches I attended while growing up in Greensboro. He no longer pastors a church but he continues to serve in a pastoral role as he leads many community Bible studies around that area. Intellectually, I know this will be an amazing trip, but it is hard to really grasp what it will mean. However, if history is any indication, I suspect I can play a significant part in the degree to which the trip impacts me, most especially on a spiritual and emotional level.



I am not saying that what I do or don't do affects God showing up...He is always there, as consistent tomorrow as He was yesterday, and He is always right on time. No, it all has to do with my spiritual attentiveness. And apparently, it is not something that I can just turn off and on at will. It seems to be an organic thing that I can feed or starve and it waxes and wanes accordingly. I would say over the last several months I haven't been feeding it very well. So, I was thinking in the car about how I want that to change, most especially given the fact that I am being given an incredible opportunity to experience God is some really amazing new ways come September. I want to be on the edge of my seat, spiritually speaking, when those wheels touch down in Tel Aviv.



While I don't go to a particularly liturgical church and I am loathe to subject myself to rote religious practices, I do find that there is a richness of worship that comes from spiritual traditions when you go to the core of why they exist and from where they grew. A few examples would be a very timely discovery of the meaning of a lyric in a hymn that became very dear to me at a time of spiritual searching...."Here I raise my Ebenezer". We now have raised our own Ebenezer...see if you can find it when you come visit ;-) Another would be the deeper understanding of all of the layers of the Passover and how it connects so powerfully to the blood painted around the door to my heart. So, I started thinking about what spiritual tradition or discipline could I connect with that would provide some focus to a time of preparing for this upcoming trip? And quietly the word floated up in my mind...."Lent". Interesting, so as I was driving, I grabbed a quick glance at a calendar. (Before you send me my lecture, I know I am not supposed to do such things while driving. Now, in my defense this was before all the buzz in the news the last few days when we were informed by doctors that we should pay attention when we are walking or driving because bad things could happen if we don't, like car accidents or falling off sidewalks...thank goodness for doctors. So, I am now properly informed and without excuse. Just like McDonalds adding the warning that the coffee is hot and could burn you!) As I started counting off the days to my trip, I discovered something interesting. It would be EXACTLY 40 days from the upcoming Sunday (today) to the day we touch down in Israel. Now Ben might be able to tell me what the odds are for this, but it doesn't really matter to me. You see, God knows that I love that kind of thing and I have learned not to question the fact that it was mysteriously intended. I love the fact that He speaks my language. And even more so, I love the fact that He meets me right where I am at the time. Case in point, I learned from Ben's discovery today that while Lent does last for 40 days, it does not include Sundays. But given the fact that I didn't know that while driving along I85 on Wednesday, God ordered it Jen-size. So, I am observing my own Lent (with Sundays included) in the summer and turning my heart and my face towards my God who always waits patiently for this posture. And I love how He promises, even in the timing of discovery, that He will eagerly meet me there. So, I invite you on the journey through this blog and I hope to be able to include you on it while I am overseas, as well. How awesome is it that I can commune with the author of Time!