Where's Your Plan B?????

Last week I wrote about people who persisted in pursuing Jesus until He met their need. They, like many in Scripture, did not have a "plan B." It seems to me that people who "keep a plan B" in their minds, "just in case" don't often see God's breakthroughs. I think that's because having a plan B, although it seems prudent, tends to erode faith. Just a thought.

Think about how tempting it must have been for some of the folks in the Bible to ask God for a "plan B." I think of Moses and Israel as they were backed up against the Red Sea with the entire Egyptian army bearing down on them. God told Moses, "Tell the people to move on..." I can picture me as Moses saying, "Ummmm, excuse me, LORD, but there's this little problem of the sea in our way." "Oh, you want me to hold up my staff all night, right? Yup, that will work!" "Say, LORD, shouldn't we at least arm the men and put them where they can fight (Plan B)?" Nope, no plan B this time!

Or how about Gideon when God told him to pare down his army to 3oo to face multiplied thousands? Again, I can picture myself as Gideon trying to come up with plan B. "Excuse me, LORD, but 300!??? Can we maybe call those other guys back and have them stationed about 500 yards away, just in case?" Nope, no plan B this time either.

Then there's David, of course, going out to face Goliath. Others around him even offered him a plan B (Saul's armor), but David chose to go with plan A: trusting in God alone.

Note here that I am not advocating presumption or recklessness as we pursue the things of God. Each of these examples had a clear word from God as to what to do and/or a clear conviction about, and in David's case a long experience of, God's faithfulness. And in the New Testament examples from last week, each of these people had Jesus clearly in front of them and His perfect track record in healing available to them. So refusing to have a "plan B" is not reckless but is the sanest thing we can do: trusting in God alone and allowing Him to unfold His plan as we listen to His voice and follow Him wherever He goes (even if it's off the map or through the sea!).

Yes, I will admit that lately my mind ("understanding" -- that thing we shouldn't lean upon) has screamed at me to prepare plans B, C, D, E, F and G, but each time that fear-filled voice has been quieted by God's invitation to listen to Him, rest on His word, trust in His promises. So... I have no other plans... :-)

Tom, one of Abba's little boys

The Other Side of Collapse: Chasing Jesus

Last week I wrote about faith as collapse, and this week's entry may sound like I am contradicting myself, but I'm not--honest! Faith is not something that can be described with one or two metaphors because trust is not a commodity but a living thing that grows in us as we get to know the one we are trusting. So there is a part of faith that is resting trust and collapse. There is another part of faith that pursues God because we know He is good and generous and loving and...

So this week as the battle for Jettie's health heats up even more, I have thought a lot about the people in the Gospels who chased Jesus and pursued Him until He met their need. There are many examples, of course, but some that God has raised up especially are Bartimaeus (see Mark 10:46-52 and Luke 18:35-43), the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30 and Matthew 15:21-28, ), the woman with the issue of blood (Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-33 and Luke 8:43-48) and the Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39). What strikes me about each of these individuals is their persistence in pursuing Jesus in the face of opposition or obstacles. Each of them knew that "If I can just get to Jesus, I will be healed." In fact, the woman with the issue of blood essentially said that, "If only I may touch His clothes I shall be made well." (Mark 5:28 NKJV), so she pressed through the crowds (despite being "unclean" because of her issue of blood), even interrupting Jesus on an urgent mission, in order to touch the edge of His robe! Bartimaeus also faced opposition as He pursued Jesus with those around him warning him to be quiet. But Bartimaeus shouted all the louder until He captured Jesus' attention. The Syro-Phoenician woman is really amazing in her pursuit: even Jesus (to draw out her faith) put her off, but she wouldn't give up until He granted her request. But perhaps the most amazing one of all in this group is the Gadarene demoniac. Both Mark and Luke tell us that this man dragged his many demons along with him to run to meet Jesus (Mark even says he worshiped Jesus!). Can you imagine the level of satanic opposition this man had to overcome to get to Jesus??? Amazing!

I see in all of these stories an encouragement to pursue Jesus until He grants what we need. Yes, theologically I know that as believers Jesus is already with us, in us and we in Him, but there is also a coming to Him that, however you wish to describe it, brings the powerful response of healing that we need. Each of these people pushed past obstacles and opposition (human and demonic) to chase Jesus until they received healing/deliverance. But I wonder how many others in Jesus' day didn't chase Him? It seems to me that even back then there were many folks like those who urge us to be "realistic" about things like sickness and disease. They are the ones who didn't see the miracles because they stop chasing the One who would have readily granted it (Jesus never turned away anyone who sought healing from Him).

So here I am, collapsing and pursuing. Others may suggest a more "realistic" view of things, but the last time I checked miracles come to those who don't give up their pursuit of the One who loves to do them!

Pursuing Him,

Tom, one of Abba's children

Strategic Collapse, Refreshing Words, and God's Fingerprints

     "I don't understand." I have said these words quite often over these past few months as I have watched my wife wrestle with illness and pain. Recently as I thought those words, God brought to mind one of our theme passages for the journey to healing, Proverbs 3:5-6. I was as if He were saying, "Of course you don't understand. That's why I invite you to trust me and not your ability to understand." And that led me to remember Graham Cooke's frequent statements about not placing confidence in what God is doing but in Who He is, His character and nature.

     So does that mean we can never grasp what He is doing at the moment? Not at all. Jesus Himself obviously was able to see what Father was doing because that's what He Himself would do (John 5:19). But the key, I think, is to be content with whatever He chooses to show us (which He usually does because He is inviting us to join Him in it.). The rest of what He is doing, which we cannot see, is where the invitation to trust Him comes into play, eh?

     But this is easier said than done, of course, especially when someone you love is in a lot of pain. In fact, I am beginning to think that pain is one of the things that is most likely to turn us back to our own resources. When it persists longer than we think it should, we begin to look at ourselves and wonder what we are doing wrong, etc. This, of course, is a totally useless action since it turns us away from the only One who can help us. But it seems to happen a lot in my experience. I guess it's because pain makes one feel so helpless, and that leads to fear, and fear leads to attempts to "do something," and that turns the focus back upon me (and leaning on my own understanding).

     So what am I to do when my mind is screaming for answers? Three things come to mind. The first I have written about a lot. This time I will call it "strategic collapse." Psalm 56:3 is the key verse for me in understanding this: "When I am afraid, I will lean upon, collapse into You." Note that this is not resignation, which is succumbing to circumstances. This is rest through surrendering to God's embrace and focusing on His face. I like the way Graham Cooke describes how this works in Towards a Powerful Inner Life:“When the soul comes under the rule of the spirit, life and peace are the result. Suddenly, we don’t have to know everything; we just become wise about where to stand at any given moment. We don’t know how everything will pan out, but we learn to be happy with the process of getting there. We become fixated on holding God’s hand, and not worried about the trouble around us.”

     The second thing that helps me is to refresh (more accurately, have the Holy Spirit refresh) the many promises God makes to us from the Scriptures. I have lost count of how many strategic scriptures He has given Jettie and me for this current journey, but because many of them are memorized or at least very familiar to us now, they form an almost constant stream of communication from Holy Spirit to our spirits and it is a stream that always leads to Father's embrace and the peace that comes therein.

     The third thing that helps me is to look back at "God's fingerprints." Although we cannot see the present things God is doing with much clarity, we can see the traces of His activity in the past. One reason I keep a journal is to trace His fingerprints. It's amazing how encouraging it can be to look back and see one evidence after another of God's work in our lives. And I call them fingerprints because we see only the smallest glimpse of what Father's Hand was really doing! But those fingerprints are enough to restore assurance that He is indeed working "in the dark" in the present!

Collapsing often, living refreshed, marveling at His fingerprints.

Tom, one of Abba's little boys

Prayer, Faith and the Goodness of God

My week has been disrupted more than usual with things related to Jettie's healing journey, so I am late and I am also posting something that I lifted from a journal entry I made one year ago today. As I read this entry this morning, I thought there might be some things in it that would benefit others. So here you have it: my reflections in God's presence about prayer, faith and learning to look into God's face.

I am beginning to see more and more that your goodness is beyond our comprehension and that grasping your completely loving ways is the key to faith. If I just remember how kind and good you are when I pray, I will pray with expectancy. I have tended all along to focus on either the need or on my “praying right” and have missed this key (which Andrew Murray made primary!). Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths! So much more here to ponder, Papa! You want to bless, to heal, to set free. Why is it so hard for us to hold onto that? Tozer’s words, “Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God” takes on new meaning for me now. Ah, Father, you do it again! Last night I awoke at 3:45 and you brought Psalm 34:5 to mind. This morning as I look for and find the page with the Tozer quote I see—no surprise here—Psalm 34:5 referenced! And Young’s literal translation essentially says, “They looked expectantly to Him…”

Father, I see that you have planted the seeds of this in me for a long time. Most recently there was the repeated readings of Andrew Murray’s reminder that prayer must “always begin in the patient love of the Father,” and even more recently the picture you gave me of you and I sitting across from one another and placing the person I am praying for between us. Papa! Please help me hold onto this! There are so many areas where we already know your will and looking into your face as we pray will cause faith to rise up as we consider these. No wonder, Lord Jesus, you started the incredible faith passage in Mark 11 by putting the emphasis on trusting Father! As long as I look for faith as something that begins with me or as something generated within me, I cannot move into biblical faith!

Father, understanding continues to flow. I wonder if it’s not true that when we miss your good purposes (which we must do often) because we don’t understand faith and pray accordingly you simply recalculate our course based upon your ever-pursuing-us goodness. Like a GPS, you are patiently and persistently “recalculating” to get us to your destiny for us. When we miss a turn, you simply pick up from there and invite us to get our eyes back onto you. Yes, there are consequences for our missing things—certainly if we do so because of rebellion—but for those who sincerely are seeking to follow you, you get us back on track the moment we turn back to you. Father, once again I am beginning to see that you are infinitely more loving than we can grasp, infinitely more good than we can imagine, and you are always working. Teach me, Papa, how to join you!

So there you have it. Maybe something in my musings will touch a chord in a few of you, eh?

Tom, one of Abba's children who is still learning to trust His goodness

No Eagle Flies by Fighting the Wind

I can't seem to find a rhythm to write these days with my need to care for Jettie, but there is a pause today that allows me to write something that touches the very core of my understanding of life with the Lord Jesus: the place of surrendered abandonment to Him and His purposes.

I have been thinking much about surrender of late--the most recent time came the other morning when I realized how little I even thought about living surrendered just a few years ago. Because of that a lot of garbage came into my life and a lot of pain was inflicted on others, methinks. But because Father has told me never to live in regret, I don't dwell on things like that but instead allow them to propel me into the present moment. And when that happened the other morning I found my heart very much wanting to yield and yield an yield to my loving Abba. And that led me to think about others who have written about surrender and the absolute necessity of it (how else can one be led by the Spirit if s/he isn't listening and surrendering to the nudges of the Spirit?).

I thought of Andrew Murray's story of how he came to write about his incredible book, Absolute Surrender. "Absolute surrender. Let me tell you where I got those words. I used them myself often...but once in Scotland, I was in a company where we were talking about the condition of Christ's Church, and what the great need of the Church and of believers is. There was in our company a godly Christian worker who has much to do in training others workers for Christ, and I asked him what he would say was the great need of the Church--the message that ought to be taught. He answered very quietly and simply and determinedly: 'Absolute surrender to God is the one thing.' Andrew Murray then goes on to tell how this dear saint described that if followers of Jesus are sound on that point, everything else follows, but if not, they would often abandon their work in the Kingdom.

Then I thought about a young Russian whom Smith Wigglesworth describes in one of his messages. "As the wonderful manifestations of the power of God were seen, the people pressed upon him to know the secret of his power, but he felt it was so secret between him and God that he should not tell it. But they pressed him so much that he said to them: 'First God called me, and His presence was so precious that I said to God at every call I would obey Him, and I yielded and yielded, until I realized that I was simply clothed with another power altogether, and I realized that God took me, tongue, thoughts, and everything and I was not myself but it was Christ working through me." (The Wigglesworth Standard by Peter Madden, pp. 60-61).

Then the lights come on and I weep and say, "Ah, Father, we are such an unsurrendered people! No wonder your people today are so lost, so broken, so similar to the culture around them! Even those who think they are 'serving God' often do so from their own initiative and strength. And many don’t even think for a moment about yielding everything, all the time. (Not in slavery, but in childlike conversation with you as Abba). Ah, Father…no wonder we are so powerless! How can you entrust us with your power and glory?"

And now my heart cries out, "But let it not be so any longer, O Most High! Woo us with your love into abandonment to your will! Blind us with your brightness, stun us with your goodness, purge us with your holiness, but don't leave us in our stubborn state!"

I close with a short quote from my journal just a few days ago. It begins what I sensed Father saying to me (in blue text followed by my words in dark red).

"Yes, little one, when men yield and yield to the adversary, he takes them over—possesses them—by force. How much more then will I possess those who yield and yield to my gentleness and power? Yielding is the key to fullness, and I am taking you there. Don’t dwell on that which is past except as I lead you, little one. What I am doing, what I always do, is new and fresh. Yield to me, child, but don’t despair as you learn this, I will make your yes a true yes! Fly on My Wind! Eagle’s fly by yielding, by positioning themselves to catch every subtle nuance of the Wind!”

Father, I am realizing as I sit and ponder this yielded life that the old prophet had in The Quest for the King, has much to say to me. He is described as “possessed by Another’s holiness” and as one who was sustained by Power beyond himself. That is evidently how Smith Wigglesworth lived, isn’t it? And it’s where you are taking me. Oh, Lord God! Keep leading me there, I pray! As the Hillsong music says, “I give my life to the Potter’s hand.” Ah, Father, no eagle flies by fighting the wind!

Not sure what you think of all this, but this is what is on my heart these days...

Leaning into absolute surrender.

Tom, one of Abba's children

Quotable quotes

Many of you may know that George MacDonald, Scottish author (and clergyman), was very influential in the lives of prominent Christian authors, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolkein. I have known this, too, for quite some time and since these authors have deeply influenced me, I thought it was about time to read some MacDonald for myself. When I found the complete works of this author available for free in a Kindle version, I knew my time had come.

I have discovered a treasure chest of wonder as I have worked through a number of his novels. The man was incredibly ahead of his time in terms of truly catching the heart of God. In contrast to the dark, oppressive, repressive and negative extreme Calvinism in Scotland at the time, George MacDonald revealed a God of love and kindness who revealed Himself joyfully in all of creation and who pursued every single person on the planet with goodness and mercy. And since my week has been quite strenuous, I thought it wise to share someone else's treasure rather than trying to find any of my own! Consider the following quotes and see what you think.

First, some thoughts from Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood. (an Anglican vicar's memoirs of early years in his parish).

"If I can put one touch of a rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman of my cure, I shall feel that I have worked with God." (Think about this!)

"People talk about special providences. I believe in the providences, but not the specialty. I do not believe that God lets the thread of my affairs go for six days, and the seventh evening takes it up for a moment. The so-called special providences are no exception to the rule--they are common to all men at all moments. But it is a fact that God's care is more evident in some instances than in others to the dim and often bewildered vision of humanity. Upon such instances men seize and call them providences. It is well that they can, but it would be gloriously better if they could believe that the whole matter is one grand providence." (a providence is a gracious act of God, particularly related to His provision. MacDonald believed that all of life was one continuing stream of God's gracious acts).

And I love this dialogue later in the same book.

"telling his flock that God loves them, and that they will never be happy until they believe it."

"They may believe that too soon."

"I don't believe anyone can believe the truth too soon."

And just one more (I have hundreds marked!)

"Until we love the Lord so as to do what He tells us, we have no right to an opinion about what one of those men meant (TW note: the authors of the books of the Bible, especially the NT); for all they wrote is about things beyond us. The simplest woman who tries not to judge her neighbor, or not to be anxious for the morrow, will better know what is best to know, than the best read bishop without that one simple outgoing of his highest nature in the effort to do the will of Him who thus spoke."

I am not sure that these even begin to capture the wonder you can find in this man's works, and I recognize that his writing style is quite challenging for many in our "instant" world, but perhaps you of childlike heart will have your appetite's whetted for more. MacDonald "claimed to have written for the 'childlike,' both young and old." (Listening to the Heartbeat of God by Philip Newell, p. 61). Perhaps you share in that childlikeness and will with me and many others catch the wonder in moment, in the ordinary, and in the others around you. I have found that authors like MacDonald help me to do so.

Pausing to wonder in the midst of pain,

Tom, one of Abba's little children

Inspector or Loving Father?

So when God asks you a question, do you hear invitation or accusation? The past few days I have been thinking about how easy it is to put a negative spin on the questions God asks me (or people in the Bible). For example, "Why are you afraid?" may sound to me like I am defective because I am instead of an invitation to trust Him when I am afraid (Psalm 56:3). And "Where is your faith?" may sound like an accusation about unbelief instead of an invitation to explore God's love and power in ways that increase my trust. You get the picture, I think.

I think that we tend to put a negative spin on what God says because we still very much need our "paradigms" adjusted in terms of who God is and what He is really like to those of us who are His children. Recently I reviewed some words by Andrew Murray, from With Christ in the School of Prayer, that helped me return to a healthier understand of who God really is. He is not our heavenly Inspector, He is our loving Father! See what you think.

We are afraid to take God as our tender Father. We think of Him as a schoolmaster or an inspector, who knows nothing about us except through our lessons... We aren't supposed to learn to be holy as a hard lesson at school so we can make God think well of us. We are to learn it at home with the Father to help us. God loves you not because you are clever or good, but because He is your Father. The cross of Christ does not make God love us. It is the outcome of His love to us. His love lies underneath everything. We must grasp it as the solid foundation of our religious life, not growing up into that love, but growing up out of it.

Meditate on the words “our Father.” Say them over to yourself until you feel something of their wonderful truth. They mean that I am bound to God by the closest and tenderest relationship, and that I have a right to His love, His power, and His blessing in a way no one else could give me... Imagine the boldness with which we can approach Him! It means that all His infinite love, patience, and wisdom reach down to help me. There is infinitely more implied by this relationship than the possibility of holiness.

We are to begin in the patient love of our Father. Think about how He knows us personally, as individuals with all our peculiarities, our weaknesses, and our difficulties. The master judges by the result, but our Father judges by the effort.

Don't you love that last line? But please don't read into it that God's first response to you is judgement! The point is that God as Father is always for us and not against, never looking for reason to condemn us but always looking for reasons to commend us. Will correction come? Yes, but if it comes it will bring hope and power to change because He is our loving Father, not the Heavenly Inspector!

Just reflecting on our loving Father...

Tom, one of His little children.