How many times have I heard the argument that if God is a God of love, then everyone should be able to get to heaven. Especially if it’s someone they know and love, and if that person is a ‘good person’.
I was muddling on that one recently and a few scenarios came to mind…
A man is applying to the RCMP. He passed the aptitude tests. He passed the interview. Now he is being required to submit to a lengthy assessment – some call it Deviant Testing – to assess his suitability. Is that reasonable? I think we all agree that we don’t want just anybody wearing that uniform! Restricting who can be an RCMP officer is critical given the authority such a person has, and the expectations and trust our citizens place in the RCMP.
People from other countries often seek refugee status to be allowed to come into and live in our country. The immigration department screens their stories, looks into their history, checks on past behavior to see if they are safe and productive, or if their presence would drain our resources, or put our communities at risk. If so, they can’t come.
Couples decide they want to adopt a child. The assessment of criminal and child protection history checks, the many hours of interviews and home study assessments take months before it is decided if they are suitable to take another person’s child and raise it as their own. Again, given the vulnerability of a little one, we consider this a reasonable expectation.
But what of heaven? We look forward to it as the perfect place, where there is peace, goodness, joy… ‘No tears in heaven’! Why then do so many think everyone who appears to be good and kind should be able to go there without any criteria other than the fact that those who love them think they deserve it? How often have people I love gotten into serious trouble, or done terrible things I didn’t know they were capable of? Maybe I’m not such a great judge of character.
Even so, people still think that the God of the Bible who screens entrance into heaven is an unreasonable, judgmental, critical God.
But hold on just a minute! How much more reasonable is He? Our RCMP, our Immigration, our Child Welfare system all say that, based on who your life has created you to be, we have the right to reject you on the basis that you aren’t suitable for a particular position. We say this based on our historical knowledge of how badly things can go for all concerned when a person is allowed access to places or people who doesn’t have the moral character to live up to the expectations of the position.
God is so much better than that, though! God says He won’t reject us based on our history, based on our weaknesses. Instead, He says He’ll put the Holy Spirit in the heart of any applicant, any refugee, any person with a past, no matter how terrible. All that person has to do is ask for it, and He’ll “fit us for heaven to live with Him there”!
How amazing is that!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
MISSIONS: GOD-GIVEN VISAS
There’s a passage in Matthew that I used avoid, and felt very guilty about it because they were Jesus’ words!
Matthew 28:18-20: 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The church refers to this as “The Great Commission”, and it annoyed me to no end. (No, it’s okay. Lightning didn’t just strike me, so I’ll continue with my thoughts.)
Actually, the Lord and I have gone around on this discussion many times. What He showed me was that it was not the commission, but man’s spin on the commission that I was having trouble with. I despised sermons that pressured me to go and talk to my friends and neighbors about the Lord. As a youth I’d been ‘evangelized’ by people who were clearly disgusted with my lifestyle and I was repelled by their obvious repulsion of me. I sure wasn’t going to go and do the same now.
Such sermons left me hollering (silently, of course), “Quit making me feel guilty for not leading people to Christ. That’s His job, not mine!!!!”
Over the years, though, as my conversations with Jesus about evangelizing and missions ministries continued, He has shown me many things that allow me to feel I am capable of obeying the commission Jesus gave to His disciples, and therefore to all believers. The key is to look at missions through the Lord’s eyes and realize how differently He defines them, according to His knowledge of the ‘missionary’. (That would be me… and you!)
I have friends who felt called by the Lord to enter the mission field in the Far East. They were there openly as missionaries, and were funded by churches and their mission society. They taught and preached. They planted churches and shared the gospel message with many of God’s children. They lived the life we typically think of when we consider missions, and they lived that life wonderfully well.
Their daughter and her husband are also missionaries. However, the picture is a little different for them. They are in a closed country where Christians are not welcome. As such, they can’t obtain visas to be there unless they are working at a government approved job. So, while they are subsidized by the mission society, they also work and live ordinary lives in the same manner as the citizens of that country. They cannot openly evangelize as their parents did or they would be deported, or even arrested. Instead, they live their faith out loud. Bit by bit friends and neighbors who get to know them see a difference in them. Some ask about that difference. And as God leads, some embrace that difference, finding their own relationship with Jesus.
Another friend has a husband in the military. They move around a lot. Recently they were posted to a city in Eastern Canada. The lady asked the Lord how she could serve Him in this new city. In her heart she had always dreamed of attending a church nearby, one she could walk to. Lo and behold there was a church just down the block from the home they found, but it is one that teaches only partial truth. The denomination picks and chooses what suits them from the Bible and bases their faith on this. The lady prayed and asked the Lord for discernment. In answer to that prayer, she and her husband felt strongly that they should attend this church. So, in a unique twist of the definition of a mission field, she remains in her own community, but the Lord has commissioned her to proclaim the full truth of God’s word. She loves the people, and they need to learn about the Gospel just as much as those in East Asia do!
My pastor has just been given a visa to a very different, but disturbingly common mission field. In fact, he and his wife were preparing for a short mission trip to Central America when God turned them in this unexpected direction – a mission field just as much in need of the Hope of Jesus Christ as the field they had planned to visit. A few months ago Pastor discovered a growth in his body. Diagnosed with cancer, he and his wife will now enter a mission field steeped with fear, anger, pain, disfigurement, hopelessness… all under the heading of “cancer treatment”. Now they have a choice. Do they join in the accepted and expected mindset of those members of this small stratum of society? No one could fault them if they did. That doesn’t seem to be the case though. From what I see, they are looking at this as a visa to a mission field that is closed to most. Unless you’re a card carrying member, so to speak, you can’t witness to this group with any credibility. It seems that the Lord has opened the door so they can enter in and live out loud His love, His peace, His grace, His hope as they encounter staff, patients, family, friends…
So having cancer is opening a door to this ‘mission field’. Now, all of this is wonderfully noble and righteous. But what of our pastor and his wife? Is it not unfair that after decades of faithful service God is allowing this terrible disease to mar their lives? Should we not pray for and expect miraculous healing? Many people love this couple and will pray that way, I’m sure. And maybe God will respond, as He has in other lives. However, if Pastor is healed miraculously, I wonder how quickly people will forget? How would that help the unbelievers at the Cancer Clinic? We all know that only those who have personal experience of a situation are considered credible. Well meaning people teach and preach, but only one who has walked in those shoes will be considered plausible. If Pastor were to be miraculously healed, who would go to the clinic day after day to share God’s love in the waiting room? Many family members go with their loved one. Who will relate to the unique struggle of helplessness they’re experiencing if Pastor’s wife isn’t there? Yes, this is definitely a mission field.
But there is still one question that begs to be raised. Will Pastor’s life be ended as a result of this circumstance? In my mind, that question isn’t a contributing part to the equation. Philippians 1:6 promises His believers that we can be… “confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Jesus will not stop working with Pastor and his wife until His good work has been completed. A physical growth cannot hinder God from honoring His promise. He’s much bigger than that!
So, I am learning that when things appear, in my worldly view, to go sideways, perhaps it is the Lord sending us into a new mission field. We may suffer culture shock, especially at first! But with His help, we’ll be able to settle in and allow Him to work through us. May God’s name be praised as He spreads His gospel message of Hope in His unique and creative ways! And may I have the wisdom and grace to recognize the opportunities He might be giving me, instead of trying to pray them away.
Matthew 28:18-20: 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The church refers to this as “The Great Commission”, and it annoyed me to no end. (No, it’s okay. Lightning didn’t just strike me, so I’ll continue with my thoughts.)
Actually, the Lord and I have gone around on this discussion many times. What He showed me was that it was not the commission, but man’s spin on the commission that I was having trouble with. I despised sermons that pressured me to go and talk to my friends and neighbors about the Lord. As a youth I’d been ‘evangelized’ by people who were clearly disgusted with my lifestyle and I was repelled by their obvious repulsion of me. I sure wasn’t going to go and do the same now.
Such sermons left me hollering (silently, of course), “Quit making me feel guilty for not leading people to Christ. That’s His job, not mine!!!!”
Over the years, though, as my conversations with Jesus about evangelizing and missions ministries continued, He has shown me many things that allow me to feel I am capable of obeying the commission Jesus gave to His disciples, and therefore to all believers. The key is to look at missions through the Lord’s eyes and realize how differently He defines them, according to His knowledge of the ‘missionary’. (That would be me… and you!)
I have friends who felt called by the Lord to enter the mission field in the Far East. They were there openly as missionaries, and were funded by churches and their mission society. They taught and preached. They planted churches and shared the gospel message with many of God’s children. They lived the life we typically think of when we consider missions, and they lived that life wonderfully well.
Their daughter and her husband are also missionaries. However, the picture is a little different for them. They are in a closed country where Christians are not welcome. As such, they can’t obtain visas to be there unless they are working at a government approved job. So, while they are subsidized by the mission society, they also work and live ordinary lives in the same manner as the citizens of that country. They cannot openly evangelize as their parents did or they would be deported, or even arrested. Instead, they live their faith out loud. Bit by bit friends and neighbors who get to know them see a difference in them. Some ask about that difference. And as God leads, some embrace that difference, finding their own relationship with Jesus.
Another friend has a husband in the military. They move around a lot. Recently they were posted to a city in Eastern Canada. The lady asked the Lord how she could serve Him in this new city. In her heart she had always dreamed of attending a church nearby, one she could walk to. Lo and behold there was a church just down the block from the home they found, but it is one that teaches only partial truth. The denomination picks and chooses what suits them from the Bible and bases their faith on this. The lady prayed and asked the Lord for discernment. In answer to that prayer, she and her husband felt strongly that they should attend this church. So, in a unique twist of the definition of a mission field, she remains in her own community, but the Lord has commissioned her to proclaim the full truth of God’s word. She loves the people, and they need to learn about the Gospel just as much as those in East Asia do!
My pastor has just been given a visa to a very different, but disturbingly common mission field. In fact, he and his wife were preparing for a short mission trip to Central America when God turned them in this unexpected direction – a mission field just as much in need of the Hope of Jesus Christ as the field they had planned to visit. A few months ago Pastor discovered a growth in his body. Diagnosed with cancer, he and his wife will now enter a mission field steeped with fear, anger, pain, disfigurement, hopelessness… all under the heading of “cancer treatment”. Now they have a choice. Do they join in the accepted and expected mindset of those members of this small stratum of society? No one could fault them if they did. That doesn’t seem to be the case though. From what I see, they are looking at this as a visa to a mission field that is closed to most. Unless you’re a card carrying member, so to speak, you can’t witness to this group with any credibility. It seems that the Lord has opened the door so they can enter in and live out loud His love, His peace, His grace, His hope as they encounter staff, patients, family, friends…
So having cancer is opening a door to this ‘mission field’. Now, all of this is wonderfully noble and righteous. But what of our pastor and his wife? Is it not unfair that after decades of faithful service God is allowing this terrible disease to mar their lives? Should we not pray for and expect miraculous healing? Many people love this couple and will pray that way, I’m sure. And maybe God will respond, as He has in other lives. However, if Pastor is healed miraculously, I wonder how quickly people will forget? How would that help the unbelievers at the Cancer Clinic? We all know that only those who have personal experience of a situation are considered credible. Well meaning people teach and preach, but only one who has walked in those shoes will be considered plausible. If Pastor were to be miraculously healed, who would go to the clinic day after day to share God’s love in the waiting room? Many family members go with their loved one. Who will relate to the unique struggle of helplessness they’re experiencing if Pastor’s wife isn’t there? Yes, this is definitely a mission field.
But there is still one question that begs to be raised. Will Pastor’s life be ended as a result of this circumstance? In my mind, that question isn’t a contributing part to the equation. Philippians 1:6 promises His believers that we can be… “confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Jesus will not stop working with Pastor and his wife until His good work has been completed. A physical growth cannot hinder God from honoring His promise. He’s much bigger than that!
So, I am learning that when things appear, in my worldly view, to go sideways, perhaps it is the Lord sending us into a new mission field. We may suffer culture shock, especially at first! But with His help, we’ll be able to settle in and allow Him to work through us. May God’s name be praised as He spreads His gospel message of Hope in His unique and creative ways! And may I have the wisdom and grace to recognize the opportunities He might be giving me, instead of trying to pray them away.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
How can God Allow Suffering?
A story came around through the internet saying that in Haiti, as in all places where natural disasters strike, one of the horrible outcomes is that young girls, and boys as well are exploited as a result. They sell themselves for food or water or shelter, or are sold by others for those same commodities. A friend e-mailed, ”For the young girls in Haiti, where is God?”
It’s a fair question. It’s much easier to believe in a God of love and fairness and forgiveness and joy when we don't have to know about the horrors man inflicts on his fellow human beings. I guess each of us has to come to an understanding of this individually, and for me that understanding required two steps. First, I started praying daily and became serious about not trying to protect God from my thoughts. Second, I finally began asking His opinion after I’d shared those thoughts.
Through my Lord’s teaching, this is what I’ve come to understand. Others may see things differently, but here's my piece.
Back in the beginning God’s Word says that He made a choice. While He has the power to stop or change anything going on in the universe, it was His decision to give man dominion over His creation. I think that means that how we handle this power is extremely important. While it is a privilege from the Lord, we are in a position to make it our right. Everyone - from a disobedient servant girl in Abraham's day to a relief worker in Haiti who reportedly bought a young girl for his pleasure - will answer for what we've done and not done. God's word says that clearly, so it's important that we understand it, and respond accordingly when we make our decisions in handling His creation - from the soil all the way to the people.
So that was my first understanding. God set it up so that we're in charge of our actions and the consequences of them. He does not promise to step in and stop the horrors man perpetrates on his fellow human beings. What He does promise is that He will heal us from the consequences if we allow it. More on that in a moment.
My next understanding came from something He taught me when I was reading in the book of Job. I was right ticked when I read that story and I prayed, "Lord, how could You wipe out all of Job’s children and their families and servants just to make a point? If this is true, then You're a cruel God!" and He said, in answer to that prayer, "Wipe them out? I didn't erase them. I brought them Home." That answer stunned me. I never truly realized that this life is the temporary one - like serving a rotation in the navy, or spending a few years in the mission field. After I’ve done my time here, then the real living begins in the next life, the tangible, enduring one. After understanding that about the story of Job I had to read scripture very differently, remembering what God’s end goal is, and that this life is not the be-all-end-all. It's only the means to the everlasting life.
Means to everlasting life... Once I grasped that, I began to see this life as being very similar to our school system. In many countries around the world, everyone has access to free schooling. There is no cost to us. All you have to do is show up at the door and walk in. Some folk never attend. Some start and move forward for a few years, and then get comfortable at a particular grade and keep living according to what they learned at that level. I think that’s perfectly fine with the Lord. God will nudge them if He so chooses, but they may be serving Him exactly as His will dictates, so that’s fine for those students of the Lord. Some choose to finish a grade and then enroll in the next, and the next, and the next. By definition of learning, each grade is more difficult and entails more challenges and work, more insecurity and unsureness, but eventually deeper understanding and greater skill. (And, as it says in James, greater responsibility!) I believe that in the same way our level of education has an impact on how we live our adult lives in this life, all the learning and field practice we carry out here will have an impact on what our experience will be in eternity. With that in mind, I tend to treat fellow believers as students, and that makes it very easy to not judge their learning experience because I’m well aware that everyone learns at different rates, in different ways, and all of it is valuable.
Back to God. Scripture says that His goal for His human creation is that He wants all to come to Him. Jesus said it doesn't matter what our fellow humans do to us, and it doesn't matter what we've done in the past. Ultimately He wants us to be in heaven with Him. That's why I believe that death row conversions are possible. That's why I believe that the 13 yr old girl in Haiti being bought for a piece of bread can be told in truth that her horror is man-made, and that she has the power to turn to Jesus who can provide healing and spiritual rescue. And as hard as it is to say, I also believe that the man who bought her can be saved and forgiven and healed as well. (But to be honest, I don’t like to think about him! If it was up to me, he wouldn’t have that chance. Thankfully for him, it’s not up to me!)
My own story is not one of peace and tranquility. My childhood saw a variety of evils and chronic suffering that resulted in my attempt to find escape through suicide attempts and cutting. Suicidal thoughts were my default whenever things went wrong, even as an adult. I had two breakdowns, two stints in the psych ward, until I could stabilize. My daughter suffered an accident that left her severely disabled. People who know me and my family know that I’m not speaking Christian clichés here. I’ve lived what that girl in Haiti is experiencing, and I can attest unequivocally that I have been healed!
Because of my own experience, I can truly say that healing is possible, and that Jesus will provide that healing. But there was a cost to me. I had to give up my anger and pain and sense of identity as a victim. I had to accept that I could have a different identity in Him, and give over who I believed I was to see what He'd do with it. It's hard to let go of what you know, what you're comfortable with (even if what’s comfortable is awful!) because you don't know what there might be to replace it. So stepping out and trusting Jesus feels dangerous and brings with it great insecurity. That’s something many Christians don’t get, I’m sure. Everyone says ‘Trust in the Lord! He is your strength!” But the idea of trusting Him when you are a barely holding yourself together in your state of vulnerability and fragility… yeah, that’s difficult.
What began my healing was to take Jesus at His word. He says, “Come to me”, so I did. I started by having daily frank discussions with Him - a good start, but not enough to heal.
The next, and more difficult step was to began to have the willingness to listen to His response. Sometimes I was rather embarrassed by what He was impressing on me. Sometimes I was downright ashamed and I’d push the concepts away for months at a time before I was willing to entertain them. Often His answers to my emotional and spiritual 'whys' came from way out in left field. I had to really think about them, since they'd never crossed my mind before.
That's when healing began to take place. He gave me NEW thoughts, NEW understandings that no human had ever been able to give me, and they were so very personal to me, to my story, to how I’d been damaged, to what I needed to understand, that no human could ever have provided that help and insight - only someone Who knew me as intimately as my Lord Jesus. And always, ALWAYS His understandings were laid on my heart with love.
This is the prayer I began with, to start this change within me.
Psalm 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
May the Lord speak to all our hearts in the way that He knows is right for each of us.
It’s a fair question. It’s much easier to believe in a God of love and fairness and forgiveness and joy when we don't have to know about the horrors man inflicts on his fellow human beings. I guess each of us has to come to an understanding of this individually, and for me that understanding required two steps. First, I started praying daily and became serious about not trying to protect God from my thoughts. Second, I finally began asking His opinion after I’d shared those thoughts.
Through my Lord’s teaching, this is what I’ve come to understand. Others may see things differently, but here's my piece.
Back in the beginning God’s Word says that He made a choice. While He has the power to stop or change anything going on in the universe, it was His decision to give man dominion over His creation. I think that means that how we handle this power is extremely important. While it is a privilege from the Lord, we are in a position to make it our right. Everyone - from a disobedient servant girl in Abraham's day to a relief worker in Haiti who reportedly bought a young girl for his pleasure - will answer for what we've done and not done. God's word says that clearly, so it's important that we understand it, and respond accordingly when we make our decisions in handling His creation - from the soil all the way to the people.
So that was my first understanding. God set it up so that we're in charge of our actions and the consequences of them. He does not promise to step in and stop the horrors man perpetrates on his fellow human beings. What He does promise is that He will heal us from the consequences if we allow it. More on that in a moment.
My next understanding came from something He taught me when I was reading in the book of Job. I was right ticked when I read that story and I prayed, "Lord, how could You wipe out all of Job’s children and their families and servants just to make a point? If this is true, then You're a cruel God!" and He said, in answer to that prayer, "Wipe them out? I didn't erase them. I brought them Home." That answer stunned me. I never truly realized that this life is the temporary one - like serving a rotation in the navy, or spending a few years in the mission field. After I’ve done my time here, then the real living begins in the next life, the tangible, enduring one. After understanding that about the story of Job I had to read scripture very differently, remembering what God’s end goal is, and that this life is not the be-all-end-all. It's only the means to the everlasting life.
Means to everlasting life... Once I grasped that, I began to see this life as being very similar to our school system. In many countries around the world, everyone has access to free schooling. There is no cost to us. All you have to do is show up at the door and walk in. Some folk never attend. Some start and move forward for a few years, and then get comfortable at a particular grade and keep living according to what they learned at that level. I think that’s perfectly fine with the Lord. God will nudge them if He so chooses, but they may be serving Him exactly as His will dictates, so that’s fine for those students of the Lord. Some choose to finish a grade and then enroll in the next, and the next, and the next. By definition of learning, each grade is more difficult and entails more challenges and work, more insecurity and unsureness, but eventually deeper understanding and greater skill. (And, as it says in James, greater responsibility!) I believe that in the same way our level of education has an impact on how we live our adult lives in this life, all the learning and field practice we carry out here will have an impact on what our experience will be in eternity. With that in mind, I tend to treat fellow believers as students, and that makes it very easy to not judge their learning experience because I’m well aware that everyone learns at different rates, in different ways, and all of it is valuable.
Back to God. Scripture says that His goal for His human creation is that He wants all to come to Him. Jesus said it doesn't matter what our fellow humans do to us, and it doesn't matter what we've done in the past. Ultimately He wants us to be in heaven with Him. That's why I believe that death row conversions are possible. That's why I believe that the 13 yr old girl in Haiti being bought for a piece of bread can be told in truth that her horror is man-made, and that she has the power to turn to Jesus who can provide healing and spiritual rescue. And as hard as it is to say, I also believe that the man who bought her can be saved and forgiven and healed as well. (But to be honest, I don’t like to think about him! If it was up to me, he wouldn’t have that chance. Thankfully for him, it’s not up to me!)
My own story is not one of peace and tranquility. My childhood saw a variety of evils and chronic suffering that resulted in my attempt to find escape through suicide attempts and cutting. Suicidal thoughts were my default whenever things went wrong, even as an adult. I had two breakdowns, two stints in the psych ward, until I could stabilize. My daughter suffered an accident that left her severely disabled. People who know me and my family know that I’m not speaking Christian clichés here. I’ve lived what that girl in Haiti is experiencing, and I can attest unequivocally that I have been healed!
Because of my own experience, I can truly say that healing is possible, and that Jesus will provide that healing. But there was a cost to me. I had to give up my anger and pain and sense of identity as a victim. I had to accept that I could have a different identity in Him, and give over who I believed I was to see what He'd do with it. It's hard to let go of what you know, what you're comfortable with (even if what’s comfortable is awful!) because you don't know what there might be to replace it. So stepping out and trusting Jesus feels dangerous and brings with it great insecurity. That’s something many Christians don’t get, I’m sure. Everyone says ‘Trust in the Lord! He is your strength!” But the idea of trusting Him when you are a barely holding yourself together in your state of vulnerability and fragility… yeah, that’s difficult.
What began my healing was to take Jesus at His word. He says, “Come to me”, so I did. I started by having daily frank discussions with Him - a good start, but not enough to heal.
The next, and more difficult step was to began to have the willingness to listen to His response. Sometimes I was rather embarrassed by what He was impressing on me. Sometimes I was downright ashamed and I’d push the concepts away for months at a time before I was willing to entertain them. Often His answers to my emotional and spiritual 'whys' came from way out in left field. I had to really think about them, since they'd never crossed my mind before.
That's when healing began to take place. He gave me NEW thoughts, NEW understandings that no human had ever been able to give me, and they were so very personal to me, to my story, to how I’d been damaged, to what I needed to understand, that no human could ever have provided that help and insight - only someone Who knew me as intimately as my Lord Jesus. And always, ALWAYS His understandings were laid on my heart with love.
This is the prayer I began with, to start this change within me.
Psalm 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
May the Lord speak to all our hearts in the way that He knows is right for each of us.
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