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Posts Tagged ‘Romans’

Hostile Selfishness

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 10, 2014| 1 Comment »

me and me and meRomans 8:7-8 says this, “So the attitude that comes from selfishness is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s Law, because it can’t. People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God.” [CEB] And never once did I think of selfishness as being offensive; I just thought being self-centered wasn’t “nice.” I suppose another reason I missed this truth is the translations I’ve used over the years where the phrase “living in the flesh” was used. I allowed that to mean a carnal life and I figured I had that one pretty much under control.

But no. I have fooled myself into a comfort zone.

Selfishness, self-centeredness, self-indulgence, and narcissism, they are all threats to the free-flowing of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, I am also living in the age and culture of the “self” and the “selfie.” [Our pastor is starting a series at Restore Church called Me, Myself & Selfie, this weekend — that’s no accident either.]  And worse, when I’m in that selfish place, I am actually preventing myself from entering into the secret places of God. I am putting up my own roadblock. I am shooting myself in the foot, as the saying goes.

None of us likes to take the blame for things that happen. It’s simply no fun to make mistakes and then own up to them. But I’m thinking this is a big one.

There are a few simple test questions for this: Do I think about the other person first before I act or speak? Do I register my thoughts within, with the Spirit before I indulge them further? Do I choose consciously or am I living out of a habit of selfishness?

I’m going to take this quiz today.

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Live a Life of Love

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I have a friend whose life phrase is “live loved” which she has adopted from the God Journey folks. It deeply resonates because of its simplicity and promise that we are loved and called to do the same for others.

Ephesians 5:2-3
Be imitators of God, a 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.

It’s a two way process actually, but substantially begins with being loved (or recognizing that we are loved). Usually, we experience this love first as small children in the home. The better our parents were at loving and creating security in love, the better start we have. If that love is absent, then the search is on. We all search because we all know, inherently, that we are creatures of love. It is part of our DNA.

So much of what we do as young adults and teenagers is asking, “do you still love me?” If the answer appears to be “no,” then the search for “feeling loved” expands further. And if there is no model for being loved, the chance of picking up a counterfeit increases exponentially.

Although my father loved me, his age and alcoholism prevented him from being consistent. As a child, I forgave him everything (as children do), until he died when I was nine, and my heart interpreted that as the greatest betrayal of love ever. My mother, handicapped by her own losses and mental instabilities, did the best she could, but her love always seemed to carry a proviso, a burden, a condition.

So, I performed well to merit love, from her, from my friends, from the men in my life. I became an expert chameleon, the consummate actress in life as well as on the stage. Theater and acting seemed like the perfect solution: applause equaled love. All the while asking, am I worth loving now?

Even when I met God in Christ, I was still programmed to perform and earn love. I worked through the motions and the rules. I went to church. I married a Christian man. I wore Jesus jewelry and talked the Jesus talk. I lifted up my hands at the right times and depending on the setting, I danced and swayed.

Similar to the Verizon commercial, my heart would say, “Do you love me now?”

But with each year of performing, the mistakes piled up as well. There was that inner critique, the reviewer whose assessment was always harsh and blistering.

When was the release moment? I can’t really say. I think it started when I learned about “performance-orientation” from Elijah House. And then, from there, a counselor helped me accept the truth of Romans 8:1 (Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . . . ). And eventually, I came to really believe God loved me, failures, disappointments, and all.

And only then, I will truthfully say, did my journey to love God back begin in earnest. Only then, did I understand and experience freedom in my faith.

And what does loving God look like? I’m pretty sure it’s loving others and letting them love me. Today. I’ll start with today.

(Fast Day 2)

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Revelation of the Mystery

Posted in Time Up to Pentecost, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 8, 2010| 1 Comment »

Do people actually prefer a mystery to the unveiling of that mystery? I think so. As long as something is a mystery, an unknown, then our imaginations can fill in all the blanks. We can make it up. But once the mystery is revealed . . . well, we’re stuck with the truth of it.

Romans 16:25
Now to Him Who is able to strengthen you in the faith which is in accordance with my Gospel and the preaching of (concerning) Jesus Christ (the Messiah), according to the revelation (the unveiling) of the mystery of the plan of redemption which was kept in silence and secret for long ages, . . . [ Amplified]

A good friend of mine was adopted in the old days when records were sealed and adoptions were something to hide. He found his original birth certificate by accident as a young teenager (not a good way to discover one’s birthright). No one would answer his questions about the circumstances of his birth and so his imagination ran wild. He said he would look at people all the time to determine if they might be related. He imagined his birth parents as rich and sophisticated. He imagined they traveled the world. He imagined they wanted to know about their long-lost son.

When adoption records started opening up in the 80’s and 90’s and registries were created for adoptees to look for their birth parents, my friend began his search. This was the great mystery of his life and he wanted answers.

In the end, he did find his birth mother and although the physical similarities between her, his half-siblings, and himself were striking, the rest of the story was heart breaking. His mother was not rich or sophisticated. In fact, she and her many children were living on the edge, living from welfare check to welfare check, from one catastrophe to another. They were a family in crisis all the time. His birth father had been a one-night stand and long gone. He would never be found.

My friend went through several years of a new kind of struggle: embracing the truth.

Jesus was the revelation of the mystery that was laid down in the prophetic writings. He didn’t match the picture that many had created in their minds of the long-awaited Messiah. When he claimed his own birthright, it was simply too hard for many to grasp or accept. It’s no different today.

In the end, it takes more energy to perpetuate a mystery and a secret than it does to walk the truth. This I believe.

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Working Hard

Posted in Time Up to Pentecost, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

What does this look like . . . working hard “in the Lord?” I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday. I’m thinking the essence lies in the word sacrifice – a sacrifice of time and energy.

Romans 16:12
Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord.

Truthfully, there isn’t much we can “give” to God since everything we have is gift from God already. Except for time. Granted, time is also part of God’s creation, and yet, we have free will in our use of time. It cannot be repaid and it cannot be controlled. Time marches on. Time is the qualifier to all of our lives. Time is our ultimate measuring stick.

How do I use my time?

To work hard within the constraints of the time given to me is, according to Paul, worthy of acknowledgment. The time I give to the things of God has more value than the time I give to anything else.

To work hard in the Lord then means I use my time for God. There are no surprises here: prayer (in all of its forms); helping the poor, widows & orphans; practicing koinonia with other believers; sharing our story (our witness); studying; teaching; and loving the unlovely.

Working hard in the Lord is not setting up church programs or retreats, cooking and serving a ladies’ luncheon, practicing skits, or building a building.

Instead, working hard is going against the easy way. Working hard is the way of the seed in soil or the caterpillar in its chrysalis. Working hard is transformation.

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You Go Girls!

Posted in Feast Days and Holy Days, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

On Easter morning, we need to consider this detail: women played a key role as messengers of truth. In fact, from the visits to Bethany through Jesus’s Paschal journey and on into the days and weeks after the resurrection, women were players: devoted, faithful and strong. They still are.

Romans 16:1-2, 6, 12-13, 15 and more
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church . . . Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus . . . Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. . . . Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. . . . Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman . . . Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.

At first blush, Romans 16 appears as boring as Matthew’s genealogy used to be for me. But a closer examination reveals the same mystery: the powerful women! There are lots and lots of women mentioned here and in most cases, they are clearly cherished by Paul.

The genealogy in Matthew 1:1-16 was such a sleeper for me until I experienced an epiphany and saw the reason behind mentioning the women in those verses (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary). They had a message for me: if God could use them, he could use me. And out of that revelation, I created a one-woman show that I toured for several years called Pente.

Now, in this chapter, I see another group of women with very little story to illuminate their place in the timeline, and yet, they are there: Phoebe, Priscilla, another Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus’s mother, and countless unnamed ones since households were listed by the head of house alone. But women were there, serving, loving, praying, and working in tandem with their families to illustrate the message of Jesus.

Scholars assume Phoebe actually carried the letter of Paul to the Romans. Was she allowed to read it? Did she travel from church to church (there were many house churches) in that great city? Did she carry additional personal messages from Paul? She was from a coastal city of Corinth, at least 600 miles from Rome. That was no gentle expedition. I’m not saying she was the Pony Express, but it’s amazing for that time period for a woman to travel with this type of a mission.

I know, there are other places where Paul seems to give women the back seat. I struggle with these sections too. But as I study those areas along my New Testament trek, I want to remember this Paul, who sent Phoebe with a critical letter to the gentile believers in Rome.

All of the women to whom Paul is sending greetings are commended for their “work.” I doubt he means “woman’s work” either. He is talking about the same work that all of us are called to do: being a witness in word and action: fulfilling the call of Christ in our lives, equally distributed by grace.

Oh yes, this is a day to remember and celebrate that Jesus’s work on the cross included a great emancipation for women of faith. Amen.

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Signs and Miracles

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Signs and wonders don’t just happen haphazardly. They are a huge responsibility: heady stuff to experience a miracle (either on the receiving end or the giving end). Can you imagine being the conduit for one? Or have we grown cavalier about it?

Romans 15:19
[Even as my preaching has been accompanied] with the power of signs and wonders, [and all of it] by the power of the Holy Spirit. [The result is] that starting from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel [faithfully executing, accomplishing, carrying out to the full the good news] of Christ (the Messiah) in its entirety. [Amplified]

Fortunately, Paul understood and was intimately acquainted with the source of power. He knew and trusted the Holy Spirit to do what was needed for the sake of another every time. Every sign, every wonder, and every miracle was a focused expression of God. Paul was just the hands and feet to bring that miracle to the right moment in time.

I have often wondered what it would be like to be used in the healing ministry. Initially, it sounds fantastic, to lay hands or pray for someone and then witness that person’s healing or recovery. But a trap is in not respecting the full source of the power. Except for Jesus, a healer is nothing but a vessel that has learned to pour out pristine force. But how does one keep the pour untainted? How do I avoid tampering with the flow, adding my own hopes, desires, and interpretations? How do I keep myself from holding back a small trickle for myself? How do I avoid pride and uber-confidence?

In my earlier years, I would lay hands quickly, ready to give that miracle-working stuff a chance to operate. Looking back, I see it was too much about me and not enough about the other. I am not so quick today. I sense a greater responsibility in praying for another. There must be faithfulness to the moment and connection to the source. I must be transparent and authentic. I must be clear.

Prayer is serious business. Let me not be casual about it again Lord. Every prayer is an opportunity for signs and wonders. Every prayer can be direct contact with the greatest power of the universe.

And with that in mind, I think about Paul when he commands us to “pray without ceasing” [I Thessalonians 5:17]. Accordingly, we must have the ability to be in continual contact with the Source, not just saying a lot of prayers out loud or repeating affirmations, but a genuine unity of spirit, connection, mindfulness, and awareness.

That’s the first miracle . . . and it happens within.

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Overflowing Hope

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , on April 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Hope is already powerful in itself. There is a sustaining energy to hope that is unlike any other belief. With hope, anything and everything is possible. Now, imagine hope flowing over a glass like a carbonated drink. It’s exhilarating, really.

Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus came into the world and revealed himself to a poor and hurting world, he was a beacon of hope. In our culture, unless people are fighting serious illness or sudden loss of livelihood, we don’t have as much appreciation for the power of hope. We have replaced the potency of hope with desire. But hope is much more dynamic than mere desire.

Hope is so strong it can live and grow in the worst circumstances. Hope needs no proof, no logic, no reasons. Hope needs no group and no training.

Hope begins with two simple words: I believe. And hope expands with two more: I trust.

I believe in a sovereign and loving God. I believe circumstances can change. I believe anything is possible. I believe in miracles.

Today, I want to re-imagine myself with undaunted hope. That kind of hope would, indeed, produce peace and joy. Yes, I can imagine that, even for me.

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