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Posts Tagged ‘transformation’

Holiness is Within

Posted in Christmas Through Epiphany, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The holiness of Jesus was ultimately proven by his resurrection. That’s the first leap, the real miracle, in believing on this man-God. But what about us? Where is our holiness?

Romans 1:4
…and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

There were many prophecies in the Judaic texts that foretold of the Messiah, his birth, his suffering, his Godhead, his eternity. For Paul, this was the point. By his resurrected life, Jesus proved himself that Messiah and now, we are invited into this life with Him.

Before the day comes when our spirits are released from our bodies and we are joined with the Holy Spirit in that non-dimensional, non-time-anchored place, there is a promise that we can be more like Jesus on earth. I think some people translate that into outward behaviors only. And of course, behaviors can reveal the heart. But the focus, surely, should be on the spirit within. It is from there that the outward self manifests.

This is why we “ask Jesus into our hearts”… into our interior lives, so that we might experience holiness and transformation.

There is a place in Catonsville, Maryland called the All Saints Convent where I sometimes go for personal retreat. Some of the sisters there are blessed with artistic talent and create illuminated prayer cards, greeting cards, book marks, and the like. One of my favorites is a card that simply says, “Holiness is Wholeness.” This speaks volumes to me about the interior life.

This is the true goal of the united spirit to transform the soul and thereby, direct the body.

There are people who are working on holiness in a variety of ways, through a variety of religions, through a variety of practices. But, it is only the Christ, who guarantees the transformation, who guides without condemnation, who leads with grace and love, who unites with us on the way.

The human spirit longs for wholeness… for holiness. That is part of our nature.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal … [Philippians 3:13b-14a]

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Past and Future Witness

Posted in Christmas Through Epiphany, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 31, 2009| Leave a Comment »

When we enter into relationship with Christ Jesus we are also entering into an agreement to be a witness to the acts of Jesus in our lives up until that moment and as events unfold in the future. Much like the cusp of the New Year… we look back, but we also look forward.

Acts 26:15b-16
” ‘I am Jesus, whom you [Paul] are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. …”

When I started on the Way, I was a little embarrassed. I wasn’t comfortable with the trappings of being a “Christian.” There was a whole new vocabulary and depending on the types of believers around me, there were expectations about behaviors. Sometimes, the whole thing just didn’t feel real. Was I really going to carry a bible around with me all the time and wear a cross around my neck and give homage to Christian holidays? Was I really a person who would stop saying Jesus Christ! when I banged my toe or hit my fingers with a hammer? Was I really going to go to church every Sunday or even extra days throughout the week? Would I pray in public? Would I raise my hands and dance in the aisles or would I kneel in a pew and cross myself? Would I pray for people over the phone? Would I ask people to pray for me on the Internet?

Which of these outward expressions would really witness to my faith in Christ?

None. Not really. Somewhere along the way, I realized it was my transformations within that would dictate my outer expressions. And even from the very beginning, there was a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. No matter how I stumbled, there was a wooing that would bring me back to the Way.

I experienced private joy when I walked around my apartment for an hour singing the only Christian song I knew, Jesus Loves Me. There were intense times of forgiveness of my father who died and abandoned me at a young age, and forgiveness of people who had hurt me, and forgiveness of myself for the hurts I had caused others (my mother, my first husband, my brother, my friends). There were testing times too because I wanted to see if God really cared about me as an individual. He did. He does.

Now, what of tomorrow? What will be my witness be for tomorrow? What more will the Christ do in my life? Perhaps this is the reason I write now… to capture today so I can be ready for the next hour, the afternoon, the evening, and then tomorrow.

Yes, I am on the Way. It is a long path that winds ahead. I can look back on that path and see where I took some “long cuts” (opposite of a short cut) and I can see where the path was wide and easy as well as the places that were narrow and difficult. When I turn to look ahead, I can see there are curves ahead that prevent me from seeing very far into the future. But I do see that there is a path. And when I look around, I can see the footprints of others. I am not alone on the Way.

Yes, it’s all good. I am comfortable in my Jesus shoes at last. I am content.

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Power of Grace

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Acts 15:11
“No! We [Peter speaking of Jewish disciples] believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they [the gentiles] are.”

Grace, grace and more grace. It is grace that does all the work. Grace = Jesus.

No human being can operate faithfully and fully within the laws of God alone. It is simply impossible. We are fallible, imperfect, careless, and prone to err. Perhaps we intend the best, but we bring far less to the table of life. We are handicapped in one way or the other. We hurt each other. We fail each other.

My daughter has told me how I am the only one she can trust, that I have been steadfast, that I am her hero. And I tell her… get ready, because I will fail you eventually, whether perceived error or truly just blowing it. I keep trying to bend her trust toward the only One who is totally reliable. It’s not me, I know.

God has poured so much grace upon me already. I am thankful for family, shelter, work, food on the table, transportation, freedom, and health.

Who are the gentiles of today? Isn’t it possible that God will pour out his grace on those unlike us… whose lives are different than our own? Who are we to decide what someone else’s faith walk will be like?

There was much damage done by many well-intentioned missionaries who entered cultures unlike their own and did everything they could to recreate those cultures. Look what the well meaning “whites” did to the Native Americans here in the United States… not just condemning their faith, but stripping Native Americans of their dress, their music, their land, and their history. Or, what of the Africans who were brought to this country? They too were forced into a new life, often under the trappings of “saving their souls” because they were categorized as barbarian or primitive.

Grace is more powerful than anyone’s culture. Grace knows how to integrate into any culture and reach the heart. It is the power of grace that transforms the human spirit. Lives are not changed at my insistence that they worship the way I do or read the text the way I do or pray the way I do.

The Jews who had accepted Christ had to a make a huge shift in thinking in order to embrace the gentiles. Can we do any less to those of other cultures, sexual orientation, or race? Let us trust Grace.

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Conversion in a Vacuum

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2009| 2 Comments »

Acts 13:21b-22a
Then they [Paul and Barnabas] returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.

There were no Bibles for the new Christ-followers in Asia Minor, particularly the gentile converts. There were no “new believers’ kit” and there were no pamphlets. There were no “4 Spiritual Laws” and there were no welcome packets or prayer cards. There were no mentors nearby and no “big sisters or big brothers.” There were no pastors or Jesus-believing rabbi’s.

They had each other.

They had what they could remember from the introductory teachings of Paul and Barnabas. And, if they were lucky, they might have access to a free-spirited Jew who might share with them what he (or she… maybe) knew of the Law or perhaps there was someone who had memorized portions of the psalms and would sing/speak them. Only later, did they have the letters. And still much later, they had a few visits from other believers who trusted Paul and Barnabas and were willing to teach the message of Christ to the gentile converts.

They had prayer, their first and most vital connection to their faith. They had the Holy Spirit.

Their ability to “remain true to the faith” was under girded by the Holy Spirit. And I believe the message was a simple one. They were not dissecting the written word. They had the witness of Paul, Barnabas, and the resonance of truth within.

When I first asked Christ to guide my life, I was alone. I had had the witness of one fallible man, Tom, who had tricked me into reading the New Testament. And on the night I finished reading that Gideon edition of the New Testament, I could not call the essential message a lie. And if it was not a lie, then I had to reckon with the truths.

It is the essential messages that reach the heart: God loves human beings so much that God sent his son-self as a human to teach and show people the nature of the kingdom of God. Jesus proved himself and the kingdom over and over again. He loved and he served and he died (by choice). That sacrificial act made it possible for people to commune directly with God. Jesus then arose from the dead by the power of the Spirit. And that same Spirit manifests the kingdom of God within those who believe to this day. This is how faith operates. This is why we can commune (pray) with God.

But people want to codify the faith. They write, they translate, they extrapolate, they simplify, they complicate, they erase, they add, they emphasize, they minimize, they err, they correct, they change, they rearrange, they chisel, they smooth, they broadcast, they whisper, they blog, they twitter, the IM, they sing, they proclaim, they conceal.

Jesus said, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [Luke 10:27]

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Resurrection Starting Point

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Acts 13:30
But God raised him from the dead…

God raising Jesus from the dead is pretty much the starting point.

This miracle part of the Jesus story is essential to the faith. None of it quite works if this part didn’t happen. Otherwise, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

I mean, if he didn’t die at all and just pretended to be raised from the dead, that would pretty much go against everything else Jesus had ever taught or said. He would be a charlatan and we would all be fools.

If Jesus died and that was the end of the story, then that’s exactly what would have happened: the end of the story. The story lives because Messiah Jesus lives. And what about all those witnesses? They all lied? That doesn’t exactly go with the teaching either. What would be the point of promoting a lie so that you could teach people to love each other, share with one another and ultimately, not lie?

Nope, I’ve never had trouble with any of the miracles. Once I accepted the idea of God in Christ, then I figured anything could happen. If people can be raised from the dead, then people can be healed. If people can be raised from the dead, then a virgin can have a baby. If people can be raised from the dead, then blind people can see, deaf people can hear, and crippled people can walk. If people can be raised from the dead, then criminals can be forgiven and turn their lives around. If people can be raised from the dead, I can be whole.

If we start with the miracles, then our lives become a miracle as well.

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Evidence of Grace

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 3, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Acts 11:23
When he [Barnabas] arrived [in Antioch] and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.

Antioch was a huge city in those years, possibly even 100,000 strong according to Wikipedia. There was a large contingent of Jews there as well. But the point here is that Greeks were hearing the message about Jesus in overwhelming numbers for the first time. It was such a big deal that the Jerusalem apostles heard about the conversions. Probably with some alarm, they sent their best diplomat, Barnabas, to check it out.

What does he find: “evidence of grace.” So what does this evidence look like?

Back then, I would imagine it looked very similar to the early church in Jerusalem where believers gathered together often, worshiped God, and practiced caring for those less fortunate: they fed the poor, the widow & the orphan. There was joy and hopefulness. There were healings and miracles. There was change.

We must remember that grace, by its definition, is a gift given to someone or something that is undeserving. It is hands-on mercy. What Barnabas saw was tangible gift-giving.

But like a “wave” at a stadium, unless everyone does it, the wave falters and fails. Each individual must make the decision to participate. It’s active.

How does the wave start at a sports game? Supposedly, it only takes about a dozen fans to start a wave in a stadium. Isn’t that an interesting number?

But before there are twelve… there is one…. one with an idea and a vision. Where is the evidence of grace at my own house… my street… my neighborhood… my town? Where is the wave? Am I the one to start it? Are you?

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Who is at my door?

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 31, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Acts 10:17, 20
While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate….”So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I [God] have sent them.”

The servants of the centurion, Cornelius, were the last people that Peter would expect to see at the door of the house where he was staying in Joppa. He hadn’t even processed the meaning of the vision he had with the great sheet coming down out of heaven filled with “unclean” foods for a Jew. In the vision, he heard plainly from the Holy Spirit, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” [vs 15] And not just once did he see and hear, but three times. And right on the heels of the vision, the gentiles come a-calling.

So, who is at my door? Who is the most unexpected guest? Certainly, if a Muslim terrorist came to my door and asked to hear about Jesus, I would be shocked. How could this be? Or what about a primitive from some tribe in a third world country or a homeless man or woman? A gay man or woman? A transvestite? How did they even know to come to me? How did they even hear about Jesus at all? And who am I to do anything else but invite them in?

God touches who God touches and it may surprise us along the way. I don’t think we should assume anything. It is God who changes a heart and it is only after the heart becomes soft that a person’s choices can change.

I think we need to stop creating cookie-cutter Christians and stop looking through the peephole before we open the door. Our job is simple: open the door and tell our story.

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