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Why Wait? You Can Start Now.

Published on by Christine WyrtzenLeave a comment

They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32

I’ve been praying on and off for days ~ wondering how to finish this series. I wanted to give some parting word to inspire us to pursue the love of God that is real and accessible to us now as His daughters.

I thought ahead to what it will be like to be with God. Near death experiences (related by a few believers who claim to have visited heaven) talk about the light, the warmth, and the love that enveloped them when they were in God’s presence. When you and I are finally with Him, we will also experience the depths of His love. I believe we will look back at life here and say, “How could I have doubted it? Why didn’t I believe before now? He said He was my Father but why didn’t I let Him get close enough to me to be one? He said He was always with me but why did I complain about feeling abandoned? He said His love was faithful but why did I accuse Him of failing me?”

The day Jesus rose from the dead, He joined two men who were leaving Jerusalem on their way to Emmaus. They were vigorously discussing the events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection. While walking, Jesus joined them but He blinded their eyes from recognizing Him. The three of them walked and talked on that 7 mile journey and He opened up the scriptures to speak in a manner only He could. Finally, just before leaving them, Jesus opened their eyes to see who they had been talking to. And then it clicked. They knew! They said to one another, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as He talked with us?” In retrospect, it’s always easy to see it. Right?

So, I say ….. let’s not make the same mistake and miss what can be ours right now! Let’s not wait until then to know what is true at this very moment. Let’s not play it safe and continue to live like orphans. We are daughters and we can live like the chosen and cherished daughters we are. We don’t have to wait until heaven to know what it’s like to walk in the light of His favor.

What happens on the days I’m not feeling it? God’s Spirit reminds me that I am a daughter who walks by faith. I verbalize, out loud if need be, who God says I am. When I do that, God is pleased with my faith and is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. When I’m tempted to walk in my old default orphan-pathways, I stop myself short. I will not place my feet in orphan territory. I am a blood bought, forgiven, chosen and cherished child of the King.

As this series comes to a close, drive a stake in the ground of your faith. Draw a spiritual line in the sand. Let this moment be a defining one. Get up and live, girl! You’re a much loved daughter.

Finish your time reading this by engaging with this song.

The Daughter’s Profile #10. I Have A Father Who Respects Stages of Development

Published on by Christine WyrtzenLeave a comment

Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. I Timothy 4:15

How well do you remember the stages of your life? Earliest memories usually come from toddlerhood. I remember my first doll, learning how to write cursive, learning how to jump on a pogo stick up and down the driveway, learning to play the piano, and learning how to leave home early.

We each grow up in graduated degrees from infancy to adulthood. The same is true in God’s family.  There are kingdom principles that are difficult to grasp if the maturity level is absent. There is the milk of the Word and there is the meat of the Word. If you feed either to the wrong person, there will be indigestion. You can’t expect an infant to walk, or a two year old to cross the street safely. You can’t expect a kindergartner to solve a calculus problem and you don’t believe a teenager is competent to run a company. Expectations of a person must match their maturation level. So it is with the maturity level of God’s children. A fifty year old woman may look like she can handle the meat of the Word but because of her age as a new believer, she can’t yet. Try to speak to her of ‘testing by trial’ and you could bring on full blown panic. She must first start with a milk diet.

spoil.baby_.facebookWith a baby believer, God has to start at the beginning just as new parents spend the first year of their child’s life holding them, rocking them, and cooing to them. God always teaches us elementary precepts first. The first one is, “I love you and this is what My love is like.” There are no shortcuts here. It takes as long as it takes and that depends on the previous life experiences of the believer. If they have only known distorted love and abusive authority, this initial stage will take some time.

One more dynamic comes into play and I know it from experience. I was raised in a Christian home but was never given the time to experience God as a spiritual infant, toddler, then adolescent. I was thrown into graduate level courses, all head-stuff. For three decades, my Christianity was as dry as a philosophy class and I couldn’t figure out why God wasn’t more real to me. Then God allowed a 22 year wilderness to bring me to a place where I reached out for Him and asked Him to start over with my spiritual growth. “Do you really love me? I’m not sure.”

The spiritual desert was a time when God took me back to the basics. I learned how He loves me, what His voice sounds like deep in my Spirit, and how to let Him guide my steps through the truth of simple scriptures. I learned that such lessons are really the foundations of doctrine. When the heart of my Christianity finally plugged into my life-long Christian education, the result was a firestorm that has never fizzled. It is still growing and though I’ve grown up a lot in the kingdom, I ask God daily to help me retain a childlike spirit.

Thank you for starting over. You taught me how to be Your daughter. Amen

How We Get Home Again

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Make me know Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.  Lead me in Your truth and teach me.  Psalm 25:4-5

                I love variety.  I rarely take the same route across town twice in a row.  I’ll see a street I’ve never traveled and say, “Hmm, I wonder where this goes.”  My husband laughs at me and calls me the ‘queen of back roads’.  But one thing I’ve discovered ~ It’s pretty easy to end up in unfamiliar territory.  It starts with a small detour and a belief that I can figure it out on my own.  Lost, I have to re-trace my turns but that is often difficult.  Before GPS, I had to stop and ask for directions back to the main road.

               Spiritual wandering works the same way.  I take a detour by substituting my need for God with other things.  I don’t make a course correction because the idols satisfy me for a while.  I feel good and I sense no impending crisis.  There are few clues that spiritual prostitution leads to a dead-end street.  I’m on a journey to no-where and end up  lost and far from home.

            My circuitous path is not hidden from God.  Though I am off course and disoriented, He has memorized my wayward excursion.  He remembers each fork in the road and each choice I made.  Though I’m feeling like a rat in a maze who can’t seem to find its way back, God knows the map. He takes me, in reverse, to each intersection in the road; allowing me to review my choices.  Wisdom is birthed as I understand where I went astray.  Choosing the right way the second time opens my eyes to the meaning of redemption for there is joy as the lights of home slowly come into view.

            Don’t you find that we often think we have strayed too far?  Making things right with God seems out of reach and the memory of our first-love feels like a distant dream.  We have forgotten that God’s arm is long and His mercy is deep.  He calls us home and offers a second chance no matter how far from our roots we have traveled.  The way back starts with humility and an admission that we’re lost.  The author, Brennan Manning says, “I cannot receive what the crucified Rabbi has to give until I stretch out my arms till they ache.”   

I’m so glad that You have consistently led me home when I’ve strayed, Lord.  I reached for You. On the journey back, You gave me wisdom in exchange for my foolishness.  Thank you.  In Jesus name, Amen

Hippies

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Some of the teachers of the Law of Moses were Pharisees, and they saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors. So they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard them and answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to invite good people to be my followers. I came to invite sinners.” Mark 2:16-17

Many were upset about the company Jesus kept. The Jewish elite had become ingrown. They were blind to their own spiritual need but pretended to know the spiritual needs of others. You would think that would have sparked their compassion but it didn’t. Jesus went where they were unwilling to go. He went to where the sick could be found.

Though I grew up in a country Baptist church, my parents were not stereotypes. My mother reached out across our community of 900 with acts of mercy. Nurturing, baking, sitting with the dying; these defined her ministry. My dad broke the mold as well. He was a principal, then guidance counselor, in our local public high school. (Yes, my sister and I couldn’t get away with anything.) He watched the emergence of the hippie movement. I was a teenager at the time. Moved with compassion instead of judgment, he found a way to reach out to them after school hours. He went a couple of times to their local meeting place, an abandoned house in the middle of town, and spent time talking to them. After they called him ‘cool and groovy’, he asked if they’d like to learn the book of John from the Bible. They were accepting to the idea and considered that a ‘cool and groovy idea’ as well. For a year, he met with them weekly. A few came to love Jesus and they walk with him to this day. One is a pastor in Boston. They are all in their 60’s now. Many live locally and still tell stories of how this cool principal came to find them.

Have you ever noticed that when one believer breaks the mold, he leaves the warm acceptance of the fold? Just like Jesus. He entered a no man’s land. The religious elite wasn’t comfortable with him nor did his lifestyle match the sinner’s lifestyle. Nonetheless, He was willing to be solitary and take the Gospel where it was needed.

Dad did it right, too. He didn’t draw attention to his ministry. He didn’t scold others in the church for not caring. He went about his life quietly. When his outreach cut across the grain of others’ pride, I never remember him lashing out. He was a gentle soul.

Today is my day with my grandsons. The day started sitting at the kitchen table with my grandson, Andy.  He asked me if I knew what hippies used to say. (I was surprised he had heard of them.) I asked, “Hmm, what did they say?” He answered, “Groovy!” I laughed. That sparked many stories from my adolescence, including the story of my father teaching hippies the scriptures in their local hangout. Andy sat wide-eyed. My father’s legacy lives on and challenges descendants he never even got to meet. How ‘cool and groovy’ is that!

Let Dad’s generational legacy live on, Lord. Make Andy a fisher of men, casting his net among the spiritually sick. Amen

To Whom Am I Grafted?

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

I am the true vine.  John 15:1

For a vine to produce fruit, it must first be planted in the earth.  God knew that and placed his Son here.  Jesus lived, laughed, wept, made friends, and was betrayed here.  Through it all he became our friend.  If we cultivate a relationship with him, we will enjoy spiritual riches.

Because he was planted as the Vine, he made it possible for us to be grafted to him.  When we are, we flourish and begin to bear the spiritual fruit for which we were born.  This brings a profound sense of well-being not found anywhere else.

If we are grafted to any other vine, the fruit may look good but will eventually be revealed as counterfeit.  Time spent attached to the wrong vine will result in a river of tears when its fruit is finally exposed.  We will grieve over wasted years and suffer disillusionment.

The vine of other relationships will leave us wanting, for other people cannot give all that our souls need.  The vine of prestige will be satisfying momentarily, but the fickle public will replace us with someone new and better in their eyes.  The vine of materialism will offer us trappings that look good, but they will become obsolete or wear out over time.

Only the true Vine can nourish us with everlasting life.  “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.  I will betroth you in faithfulness.”  Hosea 2:19-20  Such connection to Christ will bear fruit identical to his.  WE will be righteous, just loving, compassionate, and faithful.  If we lack anything of Jesus, we may be grafted to a wrong vine.  Time to do some gardening.

Jesus, I want to be completely grafted to You.  Amen

Picking Through My Past

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterspouts; all your waves and your billows are gone over me. Psalm 42:7

The waves of trouble that passed over the head of this psalmist have, by his own admission, passed through the hands of God first. In speaking to God, he labeled them ‘your waves.’

The theological precedent is set. All the troubles of my life have also passed through the hands of God. Satan was given permission – not free reign! God ached with the evil that would ensue but triumphed in the redemption that would follow. Knowing that God was ultimately in control was a comfort and the peace of that knowledge has only grown with the years. I once feared becoming a sad old woman who never made peace with her past but today I can say, with years of hindsight, that I am struck by the kindness of God.

I can muse endlessly about my yesterdays. As I rehearse my choices, I play the ‘what if’ game. What if I had chosen differently and been spared the consequences? What if I had trusted others wisely and escaped betrayal? What if I had been born into another family and dodged the wounds of childhood? What if I had chosen another career path and done what I dreamt of doing instead of what others expected of me?

Focusing on ‘what ifs’ bring torment. I never stop to consider how each wound ultimately saved me. Each piece of suffering sent me further and further into the abyss from which there was no escape without God. To finally wrap my arms around my Savior was worth any price.

What piece of thorny history are you resenting today? Perhaps the past keeps repeating itself and you believe that you deserve what’s happened to you. Whether your suffering is due to poor choices or the result of injuries others inflicted, the results are the same. Bruises of the soul are invitations for God’s saving intervention. Every thorn is a saving thorn if it leads to the arms of God.

I don’t want to re-live any of it but I have lived long enough to see You reveal the treasures of the darkness. I wouldn’t change anything. I can trust Your sovereignty ~ past, present, and future. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Hanging On To What Others Ridicule

Published on by Christine WyrtzenLeave a comment

You make us an object of contention to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among themselves.  Psalm 80:6

Those who live without Jesus hope for things they cannot see and have no assurance of ever getting.  “I hope I get picked for the team.”  “I hope things work out okay.”  “I hope I will be loved in my new marriage.”  They watch us live by faith and taunt us as we assure them that our Father answers prayer and keeps His promises.  We’re human though ~ and we ache as we seek to hang onto our hope.  It’s easy to lose it in the company of those who try to talk us out of it.

Children of God hope for things they cannot see but know that what they hope for already exists.  They have a Father who has promised it.  They hope for heaven; knowing it will be there when they take their first gasp of celestial air.  They hope for deliverance; knowing that there will be one whether on earth or in heaven.  They hope for healing; knowing that the Healer is vested in them and will provide it.  They hope for redemption; knowing that no pain is ever wasted.  Why?  God said so.

Waiting patiently is not passive but pro-active.  In order to keep hope alive (and keep the lies of hopelessness at bay), I must be reviewing the promises of my Father.  I re-read the stories of my spiritual ancestors and their similar dark times in order to be reminded how God was faithful when onlookers ridiculed them.  I find scriptural promises that relate to my struggle and live in the hope of them, knowing that promises are a sure thing because of “who” it is that made them.  I hang those promises on my mirror, on my walls, and post them in a prominent place in my car.  This is the fight for faith.

Loss, grief, betrayal…these all visit the lives of Christians and non-Christians alike.  Though weeping visits us all, the nature of our tears differs greatly.  The laments of God’s children are temporary and though they cry, they cling to the robe of their Prophet King and recite the promises of His good will.  Resolution of the heavenly kind is just around the corner.

If I harbor disappointment today in any area of my life, it is only because my deliverance has not yet come.  I know it will and my hope is sure in You.  Give me grace while I wait.  Give me strength to fight for my faith by speaking Your Word to the lies of my own soul.  Amen

The Secret of Joy

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”  Psalm 126:1-2

Jesus came to show me what God was like.  That He came is a miracle.  That He would leave heaven so I would know His Father is a miracle.  That He would die in order to show me the vastness of His Father’s love is a miracle.  That He would be so radical as to forgive all my sins and never bring them up again is a miracle.  That I would have nothing to feel guilty about is a miracle.  That I could dare go behind the veil and approach God intimately is a miracle.   There are enough grounds here to rejoice all day, every day, no matter how well or poorly my day is going.  King David only dreamt of such intimacy with God but in spite of that, he knew laughter and joy.

Yet, I’ve lived much of my life without joy.  What has been the problem? I have found, for me, that no joy means one of two things, and how I wish someone had told me this thirty years ago.

1.) I have not allowed the truth of God to impact my heart. Symptoms?  I know a lot but feel little.  I can pick apart doctrinal stands on issues but never let the truth of them affect me.  I can preach humility but be arrogant.  This is the fruit of study without meditation; about knowledge void of experience.  The cure?  I come to God everyday with the Word in my hand and ask Him to awaken my heart to the message.  “Search my heart, do surgery on my heart if necessary and let me feel what You feel, Lord, about this passage.” This begins a transformation that, over time, produces joy!

2.) I believe things about God that aren’t true that block joy. I can be full of contradictions.  I say that I believe Jesus came to save sinners but then I have trouble admitting that I am one.  I can easily give testimony that God is love but privately believe that He is punishing me when things go wrong.  I must ask God to make me self-aware, in touch with my emotions.  When I feel helpless, what do I believe that is causing me to feel helpless?  Therein lies the lie.  When misjudged and feeling outrage, what lie do I believe about God’s justice and His sovereign rule? I must name it before I can know freedom. I must hold up my emotions, the beliefs behind them, to the truth of God’s Word.  My beliefs, and the feelings which mask them, must be subject to Truth, always.

Joy begins when I know the truth.  Joy begins when I feel the truth.  Joy begins when I am delivered from misjudgments about God.  Joy begins when my heart of stone is touched by King Jesus and begins to beat hard with passionate responses to His glory.  I was made to feel joyful about God, not a shortsighted kind of joy that is dependent upon in my circumstances.

Some who have been martyred walked to their death singing.  Help me know what they knew.  In Jesus name, Amen

Save

Do Something! They’re Getting Away With It!

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To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.  O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me.  Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed.  Psalm 25:1-3

The only way I can bless those who persecute me is to have faith in the justice of God.  I have to trust that my Father does not take sin lightly and is anything but passive when His children are righteously persecuted.  Otherwise, I will see the command to ‘bless those who persecute me’ and believe that God shrugs His shoulders and fails to care about how much I may have been hurt.  The only thing I’ll perceive He’s concerned about is keeping the peace between enemies.  Does He love peace more than He loves truth?  Does He love reconciliation more than He angers over injustice?

These are the questions that can keep a child of God up at night ~ especially if they have been raised in a home where pain was not acknowledged.  Parents saw their children’s tears, heard them cry, and may have even heard the story of what caused the tears, but then walked away and appeared unmoved by it all.  “Pray for your enemies” is a hollow command in the halls of stoic homes.

 Against the backdrop of loving my enemy however is the reality of imprecatory passages, like Psalm 69:23-24 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.

Paul loved this Psalm and quoted it several times in Romans.  Jesus loved this Psalm as well and quoted it twice from the cross. Putting those who hurt me into God’s hands is to be assured that there will be justice served.  Either our enemy will come to the cross, repent, and Jesus will justify them through taking the wrath they should suffer upon Himself – or – at the end of the age, God will pour out His wrath and indignation upon them to the fullest extent.  One way or the other, no exceptions, sin must be dealt with.

God rules with justice and mercy.  He is passionate about mercy; about sinners coming to Jesus to have their sins forgiven and to experience a Savior who takes the wrath of God upon Himself.  And He is also passionate about justice; bringing down wrath on those who persecute the saints, perpetrate evil, and shun repentance.  His plan is perverted when I get in the way and try to wear His crown.  Justice is God’s business and never should I usurp His jurisdiction and take matters of revenge into my own hands.

Imprecatory Psalms and praying for our enemies are the practical applications of God’s justice and mercy here on earth.  If I am more bent toward one than the other, I misrepresent the nature and character of God.  If I’m soft on sin and have no righteous anger, then mercy stands alone and God’s holiness is in question.  If I live angry and cry out for justice, then the radical love that Jesus showed on the cross is obscured.

Dangerously, I am more bent toward one than the other.  God must work in me to make me balanced.  I am in prayer about this in my own heart.

Lord, you know my personal obstacles and only You can show break through my confusion and conflicted heart.  I wait for Your wisdom.  Amen