More on redemption

Another favorite movie, especially in Christmas time, is the old classic "Scrooge". It has such a redeeming message. In the movie Scrooge meets the spirit of Christmas and he gets to drink deep from the cup of kindness. It says in the Bible that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4). This is when Scrooge is starting to melt and repent from his negative attitude and he eventually changes completely and becomes a new man, canceling people's debts left and right. This is exactly what God has done for us. He canceled our debts and our only proper response is to celebrate and say: "THANK YOU VERY MUCH. That's the nicest thing that anyone's ever done for me!"

Redemption

I love movies that picture forgiveness and tell a redemptive story. One of my favorite scenes of redemption of all times is from The Color Purple. I saw this movie at least three of four times when it first came out when I was a teenager. Still, every time I watch this scene I just cannot keep it together.

In the church I last attended, CTF in Raleigh, they used to lovingly refer to God as "Jehovah Sneaky", meaning that He sneaks up on you when you least expect it to surprise you with His love or tell you something. He is speaking all the time, we just miss a lot of it because we are not tuned into the flow and we might expect Him to speak in a certain way, not so much in our every day, ordinary, messy life. That is also why I love this clip from the Color Purple. God is definitely trying to tell us something ALL THE TIME and He has good things to say. Words of redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, encouragement, love...

Choices

I have started to work at a Christian school as a First Grade teacher and I am learning about choices. We tell the kids all the time that they need to make good choices and I always thought it sounded kind of harsh and religious because it is not always that easy. There are so many circumstances playing in. But today as I was meditating on this I realized that it does not mean that we need to be strong and fix everything ourselves and do everything right but we always have the choice to lean into God and His help or we can choose to hold on to our own pride and our own ways. I always have the choice! But I might have an ungodly belief that tells me that I am a helpless victim and cannot do anything about certain things. There might be addictions, emotions, circumstances I cannot control. But there is always a choice! I am actually TREMENDOUSLY POWERFUL WITHIN because the Holy Spirit lives inside of me. The same power that raised Jesus from the death is in work within me. It is pretty powerful thing to be raised from the dead but it does not stop at that in this passage (Ephesians 1:19-21). It goes on in the following verses and tells us that this power within us is the same power that

...seated Christ at God's right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything...

Now that is pretty powerful!!! Am I still seeing myself as a helpless victim? Am I still buying in to lies like "I cannot help it" or "He drives me crazy". The truth is that no one can drive me crazy or make me do anything. No one in this world can have that kind of power over me. Not if I get to know and believe in that mighty strength that God has put within me.

Mercy and truth

The more I read the Bible in different translations, the more it makes sense to me. Different verses come together. Aha - this means this. And those words are the same as these other words, just a different twist.

For example in Proverbs 16:6

Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for

(NIV)

In King James the words love and faithfulness are translated mercy and truth. Because it is the same thing!


The truth of God is not hard or harmful. Just because he knows the truth about us does not mean we need to fear him because he will reveal who we really are, the sin in our lives etc. That is completely not according to his character, although some people who don't know the Father heart of God can use him as a threat: "You better behave because God sees you (and he is going to punish you if you don't behave)".

Jesus, who perfectly reflects the character of the Father, is full of grace and truth.

The Word 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
This word "truth" has more to do with faithfulness, that he is true to us. He is faithful even when we are faithless (2 Tim 2:13).


I actually learned today that there is a special word in Hebrew that describes all the love, favor, goodness, kindness, mercy, and compassion He shows us in the blood covenant He made with us. The word in Hebrew is chesed. Wow! I want to dig deeper into this. God is soooo good!

Wisdom

Sometimes I ask God for wisdom and revelation but I tend to pray that when I have something I don't understand or a special problem in mind that I think I need wisdom for. I kind of memorized Ephesians 1:17 but it is always good to pick up your Bible and read it again in its context. Why do I need wisdom and revelation? Aha - to know Him better!

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better

Eph 1:17

Wisdom is to know God, to seek Him, to love Him. In Proverbs it is talking about fearing the Lord (Prov 9:10), but it is all the same thing. To fear God does not mean we are afraid of Him, but that we are God-fearing people that count on God, rely on Him, believe His word, have a healthy respect for God and His power, not treating Him like He is our little pet that we keep in a box for our benefit and comfort as it suits us. (By the way - God is never kept that way, but we might think we have Him, when it is only our own version of Him, what the Bible calls an idol.)

Wisdom is in Proverbs described as a person, a woman actually, that we can interact with and get to know. She is calling out to everyone to come and eat at her table (Prov 9).

For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Prov 2:10

This does not happen automatically but takes some activity from our part. There are eight steps described in Proverbs 2:

1- accept God's words, humility, willingness to say that He is God, not think that we know best all the time and set ourselves up as judges over His word
2- store up His commandments within us, not just read the word but actively meditate and digest it
3- turn our ears to wisdom, a repenting attitude on our part, we realize our need for wisdom, we are turning to Him
4- applying our hearts to understanding, put all our hearts in it, all our strength, our will, our power, not just halfheartedly, this is the priority for our lives, it is not only about us becoming wise people, it is about knowing God and becoming like Him, finding our destiny and purpose
5- call out for insight, the search intensifies, becoming loud now, public, it is not just a private thing anymore
6- cry aloud for understanding, - I don't care what people think, I am desperate, I am hungry, I got to have it
7- look for it as silver, we really value what God values and prioritize accordingly
8- search for it as a hidden treasure, we are not giving up but keep looking and we realize it is hidden, a mystery, but it is worth spending our lives on.

Pretty intense! That is the kind of attitude we are to go after Him with!

then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.

Prov 2:5

and we will delight in the fear of the LORD.

Is 11:3

Peace

As I am reading the Bible in English instead of Swedish certain wordings stick out to me in a new way. This morning as I was reading First John, I found a number of "This is how..." statements and one in particular stuck out to me: This is how (...) we set our hearts at rest in His presence.

The following verse is very well known to me but I somehow had missed the connection between verse 19 and 20.

If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

1 John 3:20

To be at rest in his presence, to really know that there is no condemnation for me when I am in Christ (Rom 8:1), to have peace of mind - it has everything to do with my relationship with the Father. We know that he is not angry, upset or disappointed with us. He sees us, as he sees his Son. Jesus said, as one of the last things he was sharing with his disciples before his death, that he left them with peace as a gift. "My peace I give you" (John 14:27). It is not just peace in general, peace and quiet, a peaceful life, happy circumstances. Actually, he did not promise any of that, quite the opposite, but he promised us the peace of Jesus Christ, that kind of relationship with the Father. Or not just that kind of relationship but we actually enter into their perfect relationship, we are in Christ, included. We have the mind of Christ, the peace of mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16).

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

1 John 4:13,16

The peace of God will guard my mind and this happens in our relationship, when I focus on him instead of myself or my circumstances, when I trust him, when I pour out my heart to him in prayer and praise and present my requests to him boldly (Phil 4:6). My restless thoughts can find rest if I direct my thoughts to him instead of worrying. I have to take my thoughts captive and make them obedient to the love of Christ (2 Cor 10:5), knowing at all times that I am loved, unconditionally, limitless, complete, no matter what. And that brings peace. Such peace, or conviction of righteousness, also moves me into action. It makes me focus outwardly rather than questioning my heart, asking if I am okay all the time. This peace is like a pair of shoes of readiness and willingness that equip me and prepare me to move forward, stand upright and kick butt in the spiritual war we are in (Eph 6:15).

You can

My daughter is now in that age when she wants to be very independent and do everything herself. Very confidently she keeps on telling me "Du kan" which in Swedish means "you can". (She has been calling herself "you" since she started talking about herself because that is what I call her all the time.) She does not want to sit on my lap anymore when we read books but next to me on the couch. She is determined to put her shoes on herself and buckle up with the seat belt in the car etc. I have to secretly help her without her noticing. When I am cooking or doing something in the kitchen she brings a chair and wants to "help" and I will find tasks that are just on her level that she actually can do like pouring flour into a bowl or stirring in a pot. I guess I am feeling somewhat what God must be feeling when He is cooperating with us. We are not actually "helping" God with anything but He enjoys having us around and doing stuff together with us. Although we have no clue of what is going on, or no concept of following a recipe or where things are going to end up He will let us stir in His pots just because He loves us. He enjoys our time together. It is all about the relationship and He wants us to feel good about ourselves. He is lavishing encouragement and love upon us for our "achievements" just like I do with my daughter and we are actually growing in the process. And this is just the beginning!

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2