Free Will?

Does Free Will actually exist? What can we do versus the will of God? Is Free Will merely a matter of perception? The choices we make cannot circumvent the intentions of God, so why does it feel like we have the power to direct our own lives? Maybe that is the point entirely, that we feel like we are in control without actually imposing our own will. I think it ties in directly with the notion of submission. Submission is letting go of our own desire for power and control and bowing before and gladly accepting the total authority of God. 

As a clever parent I can make my children think that cleaning their room was their own choice. They feel better about the chore when they feel like they are making the choices that lead to a clean room. The feeling is real, but the reality is that the room was going to get cleaned regardless of my children’s desires. They aren’t really fooled by my rouse. Instead they have made the choice to go along with my will for their own contentment. It feels good to do what is right, what needs to be done, especially if you can do it before someone asks you to do it. They certainly have a choice to fight the process and make themselves miserable and waste an enormous amount of time. The bigger point is not that I can get my kids to do what I want them to, but rather that both their lives and my life is better when we are of the same will. They have to be able to trust that I want the best for them. Is this simplistic view a good analogy of our free will with God? I certainly don’t want to make God out to be a cosmic taskmaster. He in fact loves us and wants only good for us. All good things come from God and if we are in line with his will, goodness can flow to us and through us. Contentment can be found in difficult circumstances because we have chosen to submit our will. Free will is not a matter of changing fate, but altering our resistance. The Law was given to Moses to give a clear example of the expectations of God. However, there comes a time when we choose to follow the will of God and the Law becomes irrelevant because we are in tune with what is good and right. As Jesus said, he came not to abolish the Law, but fulfill it. When things are right, God has written the Law on our hearts and we obey without effort, because it was our choice and desire to do so. It is God’s desire as well. 

I picture God standing in water up to his chest. His arms swing and direct the water into waves, channeling the waves where he wants them to go. We are tiny creatures in the wake of the water. If we resist the wave we will struggle and gasp and possibly drown, but still end up where God intended. However if we recognize that God is in complete control and go with the wave we can flow with God. We can actually ride the crest and enjoy the process and end up exactly where God wants us.

Adam and Eve lived in Gods immediate and personal grace. They made a choice. It wasn’t the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that changed everything, it was the decision to eat it that did. It was the decision to turn from God. That was a choice of will, to turn away from what you know the will of God to be. Eating the fruit sealed the deal and gave them nothing but doubt and toil. Doubt may be the resulting reality of Free Will. Love is God’s method of getting us back on the wave. Faith is the representation of our belief in that Love. Salvation is the mutual goal for God and Humanity (whether through our own Free Will, we accept it or not). 

Mustard Seed.

Matthew 13

³¹ He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. ³² It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

Jesus illustrates that the size of faith is not as important as the decision to carry faith, to sow it.  Furthermore, the decision to carry faith is not as important as the object of the faith.  Indeed the object of that which we have faith in trumps all.  When we carry this mustard seed, as small as it may feel, we must carry the vision of the towering tree and have faith in that.  Even this small remnant can establish roots in the places where we have the courage to carry it.  Your own faith is important, but it is the object of your faith that matters.  God will choose the smallest of vessels to make his will known. Your seed may remain a seed forever, but that will not prevent a forest from flourishing if it be God's will.

A tree, of course, starts as a seed.  Take that seed and dissect it.  It is impossible to make the logical leap from the apparent nothingness inside the seed to a thriving, nourishing forest.  But because of what we observe, we can reason that this is so.  That shouldn't take away the wonder and the mystery.  We can explain the process, but we can really never get to the "how?".  A fossil of possible million year old bacteria on Mars is enough to make the world gasp at the possibilities and ramifications.  Yet, right under my foot is more life than is evident in the entire solar system.  Under my daughters dirty fingernails is LIFE (lots of it).  We haven't even discovered all of the life here on our own planet.

"Earth is the only planet we know that has a biosphere. This thin, membranous layer of life is our only home. It alone is able to maintain the exact environment we ourselves need to stay alive." Edward Wilson NGM

We should all collapse in awe at the wonder and the mystery of this unthinkable multitude of life on this planet.  As broken as we are, man and woman are the apex of this creation.  The capacity to ask why and how is a privilege and the Joy given to us by a loving God.  Our ability to create and discover are an expression of his very nature, his image.  Our actual physical likeness in God's image is less amazing than the things that really matter: Love, Justice, Mercy, Forgiveness, Joy, Wisdom.  God hasn't given himself the choice of loving us, by creating he loves.  This is how we are different, we do have the choice, even if it means our decay, we have the option of not choosing God. 

The seed remains.  My faith was torn and tattered.  I questioned the goodness of God and thought that if he really did exist and really did love me, then he was a fool.  I came to the end of myself though and found that I still carried this seed.  As low as I was, I could not shake the awe and wonder of the universe, or of life on earth.  Or a tree.  The simple beauty of a tree has as much to do with my faith as anything.  The vastness of the universe and the immensity of persistent beauty should have made me feel insignificant.  However this seed that I could not shake, this evidence of a God that was seeking me (more accurately, was waiting for me to seek him), made the universe feel personal.  If there was order to the universe, to a tree, to a seed - then it must have been intentionally created.  If it was created, then there must be a creator.  If there is a creator, then there is a possibility of order in my life...that would seem consistent with the universe.  That made it personal.  I'm using some reasoning here to explain, yet faith of course isn't really about reason.  It is about observing what we see and feel and how we interact: what delivers and what remains silent.  I believe in Jesus Christ, not because of a blind leap, but because he has delivered.  His words live and those words make sense of why things are the way they are and more importantly why we should hope in him to make things right.  Holding on to the the possibility that the creator of the Universe came to Earth for me and loves me may feel like the tiniest of seeds.  But I sow that seed and I hope and I hold the vision of the full grown tree: Heaven on Earth, Jesus living with us.  Redeemed!

Distinctions.

Distinction 1.
The body is not "A" Temple.  It is not "Your" Temple.  Your body is "His" Temple.  This is the distinction that matters.  Fitness or fatness, it doesn't really matter if you do not understand who you belong to.  It is Christ the Creator that means to use you for his glory and your joy.  In the Temple of your body, if you prepare a place for him, he will prepare a place for you.

1 Corinthians 6
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.


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Distinction 2.
It is not the bright and flashy things that tend to lead us astray.  There will be no warning signs that say, "Be Careful, this is the road to your destruction.", it simply looks like an easier path.  The things that slowly pull us away are comfortable, familiar and feel good.  They look good and are easily justifiable.  The counterfeit is effective because it acknowledges authenticity, yet fails to deliver.  When our rebellious days are gone, rebellion seems silly.  However we are still tempted to stray. In our maturity and "wisdom" we make a case for the counterfeit.  When we rebelled we were merely fools and stubborn, now we are more sophisticated.

Matthew 7
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Sons and Daughters

In my house, I am the last to go to bed. Sometimes it’s because I am working late. More likely, it’s just the way I am wired. I avoid going to sleep in a way that my wife will never understand, it is the complete opposite of how she is wired. When I finally do make my way upstairs I pause midway up on the landing. There on a shelf my wife has pictures of our 3 daughters, current and toddler pictures. I like to sit on the step in the dim light, in the heart of the house, in the quite and I pray as I look at these pictures. I pray for our home, that it is a warm environment meant for bringing others in. I pray for my wife and our marriage, that it is warm and meant for serving others and providing guidance for our children. I pray for my daughters, that they would learn just how much Jesus loves them and that that fact would be the guiding light of their existence. My mind wanders in this time of prayer to both relevant and good things, but also distracting and selfish things. I worry. I fret. I hope our 100 year old home can keep from falling apart. I hope my wife will continue to be patient with me. I wonder what my daughters lives will be like. I wonder for what things they will resent me. I wonder what my son-in-law will be like. Afloat in this mental drift, God gently brings me back to his heart and his mind.  Sometimes I wonder if there is another Father out there, watching over his son, praying for him as he sleeps. As he stands outside his Son’s room, he marvels at the man his son is becoming: how funny he is, how stubborn, how tender and how thoughtful. Is this other Father praying that he can raise a Godly son, who will learn how to lead and care for his future wife? The other Father’s heart gallops for a moment as he glances ahead and wonders if there is a young girl out there that can appreciate his son. What does he hope for in a daughter-in-law?

Is it my protective parenting that kicks in when I hope for a strong man to marry my daughter or is it a recognition of the nature of things. I believe in a Biblical worldview of how men and women should relate, what marriage looks like and how men and women should compliment each other. I believe men should be the leaders of their family. In our culture, many bristle at this type of thinking and if you bring up the phrase “Wives submit to your husbands…“ you may be in for a fight. I can’t deny my own bristling as we consider the roles of men and women. But as I mature I have come to understand things differently. As I hope to lead my family and also lead young men and women in my career it means that I serve them. God wants me to serve others, not lord over them. This decidedly puts me in a position of submission. I submit. In order to do this, I need support and I need the nurturing of a partner who understands this. The one I serve, supports me. In the many women in my life I see this amazing strength, and often I struggle to understand it. It is not a lesser nature. To be a helper is not a lesser role, it is a compliment. To submit means we both agree that we each have different roles. This does not look the same in every marriage and there are a variety of ways in which this relationship of mutual compliment will play itself out, but my mind and my heart lean towards (gulp) a traditional view of marital roles.  However, now I feel I have a more complete understanding of what that means.  Men and Women are different in nature and purpose.  When lived out with understanding, the strength of one lifts up their partner, it does not push them down.  Our strengths make each other more, not less.

I pray for a man that can lead my daughter. I pray that she can support him. I pray that in leading, this man will acknowledge and bring out the very best and strongest qualities of my daughter. I pray that my daughter will give him confidence and build him up when he has been crushed. . I cannot escape how my own life shapes these things and how I view them. I have four older sisters and a mother. These are strong women, leaders to a great degree in the professional fields they have chosen. They lead companies, divisions, offices and each one is a highly valued and trust leader in their work. They are each a picture of success. They are strong women, but they are also a very traditional nurturing sort. These women raised me. They are all completely different, valuing different things and living their lives in unique scenarios. As I consider these women, and my daughters, and my aunts, I don’t consider them less than any man. Probably quite the opposite. Because of their value, my heart desires that they would have a good partner to lead them.  My Christian beliefs shape how I view things, but more than cold hard doctrinal beliefs I am guided by what I observe and what my heart longs for. I want great things for my daughters. These women are world changers. They possess qualities of strength, compassion, joy, reasoning and counseling that the people in their lives will depend on in great measure.  It is not because I want less for them that I want them to submit to a husband, it’s because I want more.  I want them to teach the men they have married how to be husbands and fathers only they way a wife can do.  And if both parties submit to following Christ and give their marriage to him, then they have access to a divine power that gives them access to the endless patience that is required to make a marriage work.  Not to mention: Forgiveness, Joy and Comfort.  If the two participants are forced to figure things out on their own, with no role models, no set of guiding values but only their own emotions and desires to guide them, then I fear they will fail.  Sadly, I can guarantee this failure.  And, alas, my beloved daughters may do everything "right" if there is such a route in this tricky endeavor,  and still have failed.  In this too, there is submission, a beautiful submission to a loving God who means to pick up the broken pieces of our failures and forge something more glorious than we could have chosen for ourselves.  

Freedom 1.

Freedom is over-rated. To be free is a blessing. To have unlimited freedom is a curse. We tend to cry for freedom at all costs, focusing on the concept of freedom itself and rarely think about in what context. (I realize I sit here in a place of privilege, a point in time and history of unbelievable freedom. I’m not speaking of politics and policies, but more of the human heart. ) Freedom without tethers, without boundaries, without discipline and without direction is enslavement. You are in a sense giving an incredibly powerful weapon to a person or a generation or a culture that has no sense in how to use it. Choice without consequence breeds destruction. (our hearts are incredibly depraved, that left to our own devices we will only consume more and more and never give.) If a child is given complete freedom from a young age to choose whatever they wish, they will slowly but surely shape themselves into a selfish, insufferable monster. They will only know how to please themselves and that will be their only driving thought…gaining more pleasure, more freedom with no sense in how to use it: enslaved to their own freedom.

If freedom is told as a lie, Love is the truth. Love, at it’s best is binding and it is full of choices soaked with consequence. Freedom tells us to only be concerned with ourselves, our choices. Love tells us to only think of others. Love is most useful, most powerful in the context of sacrifice. Many fight for the freedom to Love whom they wish, but ultimately they are aching to be bound to someone or something. While freedom focuses on the choice, Love focuses on the object of that choice. Choose wisely.

Legitimacy.

According to the story, Karl Barth was fielding questions from the audience after a lecture in Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University Chicago in 1962. A student stood and asked him if he could summarize his life’s work in theology in one sentence. According to the story a gasp went up from the audience–responding to the student’s perceived audaciousness. Also, according to the story, Barth didn’t skip a beat. He said (paraphrasing) “Yes. In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so’.” Olsen

I'll make a confession.  That song has always bothered me, ever since I can remember.  I think I must have been too analytical from an early age.  I didn't find it comforting because I felt it was a circular argument.  I couldn't express that as a child, but I could feel it.  I felt that this song about Jesus' love wasn't big enough.  In my mind, it was the equivalent of  "Jesus Loves you this I know,  Because I said so."  This small example highlights my life long struggle with both authority and the search for authenticity.  Wrapped up in these thoughts is a longing for legitimate authority.  

30 plus years later I now believe that Jesus loves me.  I also believe that the Bible tells me so.  It has been a slow work that has begun in me, to simultaneously feel things at a deeper level so the simplest of statements can be revealed as truth.  What felt before like a weak argument, is now a concept that is an anchor of belief.  I will try to explain how I got here.  Let me start with the simple beauty of this truth:  You cannot separate Jesus from the Bible.  He simply did not leave that option.  You can argue that he is not God and that the Bible is fiction, but you cannot pull him out of the context of the Bible.  

Christ Came to Fulfill the Law

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

In Matthew 5, we find the fullness of this relationship. In the Beatitudes, just before these verses, Jesus is further clarifying: what it means to love and serve God, and why he is here. After these verses, Jesus goes on to explain that of course murder is a sin, but furthermore anger in your heart is a sin. Not only adultery but carnal lust. With these expansive sections of scriptures Jesus gives hope, but also convicts and essential takes the pious and the depraved and puts them all on the same level before God. He lifts the poor and broken and makes them first in the Kingdom of God and he knocks down the religious hypocrites and makes them last. Jesus' entire ministry is steeped in the scriptures. He quotes scripture constantly and he in fact is the fulfillment of the prophecy of scripture time and time again. (for brevity sake, I won't go into examples, but it's all there) His disciple John, rightly describes Jesus this way: The Word became Flesh

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So that all only explains the depth of Jesus' connection to the Holy Scripture, The Bible.  It doesn't explain why this simple song is true.  This is where I really fail to make a concise argument.  You see, I really want my friends and loved ones to understand the fullness of The Bible.  I want them to see the depth and the beauty and the consistency of all of it.  I want to change their notions of what they think the Bible is saying and see what is really there.  I want them to know that because God is Just, things are they way they are: broken.  It is because God is good and merciful that things will be made right.  This is the story of the Bible, it's not about us, it's about Jesus.  It is the authority of Jesus and his legitimacy that makes the Bible true.  If he is not who he says he is, if he is not the promise, then the Bible fails to live and have context.  If you don't know who Jesus is, if you don't believe that he came to rescue you, then the Bible will fall short and sit on the shelf with The Odyssey, The Illiad, and the Complete works of Shakespeare.  I can read these other books and glean their truth, but their legitimacy is not dependent on their author.  You can get entertainment and inspiration from the Bible, but if you cannot see that the dozens of God inspired authors over thousands of years are telling the story of The Creation, The Fall, the Rescue and The Restoration of us through Jesus Christ then it will all fall short.  

Numbers on a page look like nonsense until we learn simple addition and subtraction.  We progress to geometry, algebra, calculus (not all of us) and greater understanding  of what these numbers can do.  But we must first acknowledge the truth that rings within us, that there is order in this seeming chaos.  God has built within us this search for him, to seek out his plan, to discover his creation.  He bids us to look in every direction.  Frightened religious folk may tell you to be careful where you search, but God does not.  If you seek truth (truly and not just your own will and justification), you will find God there waiting to receive you.  My own search for truth has been marred by my own desires and my own depravity.  I wanted to be right without acknowledging truth.  It is only in Christ that I have been able to step outside my own agenda and really seek the truth.  Anchored to him, I have the freedom to ask really hard questions, to be vulnerable, to be hurt, and to let things come to me.  I was blinded by my own constructed worldview where I was the center of all things, but now I see.  

Again, I fail to escape this seemingly circular statement that lingers in that child's song.  I have heard it said that "Heaven is only Heaven because Jesus is there."  This is the same, if you don't understand who Jesus is neither Heaven or The Bible is particularly convincing.  Jesus is God, who came to Earth to begin a work to redeem his beloved creation.  Because of his resurrection (cannot stress this enough) he has overcome, returned to Heaven and is making a place for us, his Beloved.  In this process, he has given us his Word.  We can't live off of experiencing him only in creation...we need his Word.  His voice in The Word will reveal his voice in The World.  Jesus loves me, this I know, and because I can accept this Love I see his fullness and beauty in Holy Scripture, I see that this book has been shaped by God, through history to reveal himself.  This book gives me the maturity to grow and receive more from the God I love.  

If you are compelled by the person of Jesus Christ, seek him.  Seek him in creation, but also seek him in the discomfort of The Bible.  I'm not saying it's easy, but if you step out in faith he will reveal himself.

Life: Response.

It is likely that we won’t agree on abortion.  It’s not that you can’t see my point of view and understand it and it’s not that I can’t see your point of view and know why you feel the way you do.  It’s that there is a rift in the way we talk about things.  That is what I was trying to address.  I don’t like the way the discussion is framed and I tried to change the premise.  I had a revelatory thought on abortion about 4 years ago and it’s been driving me crazy ever since.  I don’t want to talk about abortion, it is a can of worms I didn’t want to go near.  But this thought persisted.  The thought was this:  what if no one really wants abortion.  Maybe I have been naive, but I thought that at everyone’s heart of hearts, they would wish that these choices didn’t have to be made.  If a person could somehow erase all the circumstances that were leading up to this decision for abortion, that they would.  I wanted that to be the starting point for discussion:  no one wants abortion.  What if we started things there and then worked backward to truly address what it would take to make this happen.  (Politics and legislation is not the answer in my opinion.  I’m not interested in taking away anyones rights or asserting my own will.  I’m interested in thinking about things differently.  I’m interested in worthwhile discussion.  I’m not interested in assessing people’s past decisions and forcing them to justify their actions.  We are all doing the best we can with the situations we’ve been given or landed in.  It seems reasonable to me that a forward thinking society could look at this and instead of accepting things as they are, we could work towards giving our children better options.  Let’s put everything on the table and figure out what processes and institutions are contributing to these situations.)

The flaw in my process is that I am idealistic and broad when it serves my needs and I can be painfully matter of fact when I know the effect it will have.  But I am also driven by my faith, and this persistent thought that things aren’t as they should be won’t leave me alone.  I felt I had to try to make this argument.  

Catherine's Points...

1. It is called "choice" because the anti-abortion folks started using "pro-life" deliberately to imply that people who support abortion are "anti-life". We are not. We believe that women have rights and that at times those rights supersede the rights of an embryo.

I guess I don’t disagree with anything you say here.  You are clarifying what you believe.  Your last sentence illustrates the impasse that two sides of this discussion often end up at.  I’m going to move on from this without addressing it.

2. Please give evidence of "The damage done physically, mentally and emotionally to a woman..." not necessarily. Many women have carefully thought through their choices and are not traumatized or scarred by abortion, which is not to say that they take it lightly.

I was making assumptions here that I didn’t even know I was making.  It never even occurred to me that this wouldn’t be one of the most traumatic things a woman could go through.  I guess I will withdraw my conclusions about the effect of abortion on a woman.  Consider me stunned.  

3. Why do we always have to talk about the woman's role in supporting all conceptions? How about a post encouraging responsible men to have vasectomies?

Because that is where the pregnancies are taking place.  Reality overrides basic fairness and we must deal with things where they are.  It’s disingenuous to say that women don’t have a greater responsibility for their own bodies than someone else.  No one will ever consider what happens to their own body more important than that person.  But to your point, yes of course men need to stand up and be accounted for, they have a huge responsibility in this.  That in fact is part of my point.  I think we should all be thinking about this on different terms.  

Almost 100 people have viewed my original post and that blows my mind.  I take it very seriously that people would give their time and thought to the things I write.  This was a subject that I could no longer avoid.  I pray that understanding and compassion prevail and that relationships might be strengthened because we are bold enough to talk about the important things that affect us.  This discussion, while uncomfortable, has helped me to further clarify why the hell it is that I’m writing this blog.  My intentions are to acknowledge the beautiful and broken things in this world and present the Gospel of Jesus Christ as an answer to both.  I may fail, but he will not.  

Life.

We get caught up in the wrong arguments.  We dig ourselves into position.  We argue over which life is important, which life is most important.  We argue about when is a life a life.  We fail to pause on the important question of: Does life matter at all?  Of course Life matters would be the obvious answer, but we fail to let it frame our discussions.  We talk about whether life begins at conception or birth or somewhere in between.  Are we really so dull?  Does it matter?  We know how life happens right?  Can we ignore that a living breathing baby with the full rights of a human comes from a fertilized egg.  The miracle of how that happens is hard to accept, but not the evidence of the reality that it does indeed happen.  We fall short of the important discussions so we can argue the things we want.  We avoid the important distinctions and instead we have made "choice" more important than life itself.  

Deuteronomy 12
31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

Ancient peoples sacrificed children to their "gods".  This practice was abhorred by the God of Israel.  But even in this practice we have a declaration of what is most precious.  A life is the most valuable thing you could offer.  In the context of burning your child alive to appease or gain favor this practice of sacrifice seems unthinkable.  We think ourselves so much more advanced today, but really isn't our child sacrifice just more efficient, more advanced, more full of justification.  At least the savages valued the lives they gave.  For them the sacrifice mattered because life mattered.  What matters to us is choice.  Within the mechanics of Pro-Choice and Abortion, we declare that convenience and choice outweigh life itself.  We are a society that says we are not willing to be burdened.  An ancient society sacrifices their children because of the inherent value of those children, foregoing the bonds of love and legacy.  We sacrifice millions of unborn because we fail to consider love, legacy or life itself.  What gets sacrificed is our conscious and the condition of our souls.  

I can fathom how abortion would seem like the best option, especially considering some of the heart wrenching circumstances of those that choose it.  However, to suggest that abortion is any kind of solution is absurd.  The damage done physically, mentally and emotionally to a woman and the culture she lives in is incalcuable.  As a society we should strive for the more.  It may very well be harder to bring these children into this troubled world and terrible conditions.  I can't argue that everything will be great if the unborn are given a shot.  There will be horrific outcomes.  But it is the more noble path.  It is a bold statement that says Life matters.  It is choosing Life over Death, even when we know the hard road ahead.  We are smart people that should work toward a real solution.  Abortion is not a solution.

Genesis 22
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Even for the most devout Christian, the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son is hard to take.  But buried not so subtly in this story is the story of Jesus Christ, God himself expressing the value of a life:  how much he values our lives, what the cost is to sacrifice and what lengths he is willing to go to save us.  

Genesis 22

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

On that mountain, instead of the sacrifice of Abraham's only son, God provided a sacrifice.  And God did so again in the offering of his only son.  Except in the case of Jesus the knife was not spared.  And Christianity only matters if Christ was resurrected.  Hope lies in the resurrection.  This is why we are able to choose the harder road, because we have hope in a risen savior.  It will be impossible to find a way for all of these lives to thrive, but if death is the only other option, let us choose life.  In the process we may find that our only choice in the hopelessness is to choose Christ himself.  In our God is the answer, the one who knows what sacrifice means and what it means to give his life and if we choose Life, "The Lord Himself Will Provide."

A woman that gives her child up for adoption or has an abortion has a terrible burden.  She must spend her life wondering about that child she gave up.  She must feel the pain of grief and loss and guilt.  But that's good isn't it?  Aren't these the reactions of what it means to be human, full of compassion and love?  Why should we try to eliminate this from our human experience?  I'm not a woman, I realize that I am speaking about things that I will never have a full understanding.   But I do know about loss.  I do know about the loss of an unborn child.  To suggest that this life had no value because it was unborn is unthinkable to me.  I do know about comfort, too.  These things are all very personal, which makes the existence of a personal savior all the more relevant.  Christ came to overcome these things.   Forgiveness is available to all.  Redemption is not dependent on the level of loss or vulgarity of the sin.  The possibility of Redemption is dependent on the one who is redeeming.  All we must do is turn to him to receive it.  We will all fall short, sometimes in really harsh and painful ways.  Those around us will fall short of God's expectations and our own.  Let's not let this be our determining traits.  But instead let us choose the noble path and retain hope that God Saves.

New Years Day 2013.

In each of the last 6 years I have been blessed to grow closer to my Savior.  This has been my only resolution, to be nearer to God, but it encompasses everything.  And while I have failed so often in self improvement attempts, God never fails.  When we ask for good things from our Father, he delivers.  He delivers in his power and with spectacular results.  There have been some hard, painful years, but in those times he drew me nearer.  We can't avoid pain or loss in our resolutions, but there is peace to be had.  It doesn't come from our own efforts, but rather from our surrender to the one who Loves us most.  I am not above wanting to be healthier, wealthier and wise.  But when I attempt these things in my own power I end up wheezing, broke and dumb.

 Believing in God is not hard.  Even the most hardened cynic has a hard time shaking the notion that he/she was built by and for something greater.  Trust is hard.  Trust in God comes from believing that he Loves us as much as his promise says he does. The road to trust starts by focusing on who the person of Jesus Christ is and moving away from self focus.  We find our purpose in surrender to him, not propping ourselves up to self glorification.

To be closer to God, means to be vulnerable and willing to be weak.  When we step forward in obedience to serving others and giving of our selves, we become dependent on God.  It is a step out in faith, and growing closer to Jesus means expecting him to deliver.  Being open and available with our neighbors is to be vulnerable.  It is uncomfortable and if we are to be of use to him, we must be willing to be uncomfortable.  But if we trust in the one who made us, we will find that he is creating in us a home for himself.  We are becoming a new creation, built to receive and distribute his Joy.

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”  ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

My resolute hope to that I reflect more of Jesus this year and less of me.  I trust, and it has been proven time and time again, that when God gets his glory, we get Joy!!

Hebrews 10:19
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."