Fools Gold

God’s Thoughts to Me

Jesus told him, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6, NLT)

Don’t bother! It is not me that matters; it is my teachings that should be propagated and adhered to throughout the world (Buddha’s words, James Fowler).

The Crux of Christianity

Siddharta Gautama, better known as Gautama Buddha, is thought to have lived approximately 400 BC. He was the founder of Buddhism. When he was dying, his adherents wanted to perpetuate his memory.

He was adamant that he didn’t want to be memorialized, but gave his own “great commission” to preach his teachings throughout the world. This sounds so noble and self-effacing.

Yet, it is extremely dangerous and deceptive, for his teachings ushered in one of the greatest religions of all time into the world, Buddhism.

Contrary to the teachings of Gautama Buddha, we find the words of Jesus, who told His disciples just prior to His crucifixion, that HE IS the Way, the Truth and the Life.

He invites us with such tenderness and love when He sees us bogged down and heavy-laden with religion to come to Him. He invites us to follow Him for He wants to give us rest and peace beyond our finite comprehension.

Can you imagine where we would have been if Jesus told them not to bother to remember Him, but only His teachings? That would just have been a whole new bunch of disastrous laws that kill and contain no life (2 Corinthians 3:6).

Jesus did not tell us that He would show us the way to our Pappa. Neither did He teach us new truths about God or gave us a new way to eternal life.

No, He boldly proclaimed, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He boldly proclaimed that many will come to Him on judgement day saying to Him, “Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed miracles in your name” (Matthew 7:22).

Allow me to add another few favorite things that we might want to add today: we were teachers or preachers, pastors or priests, reverends or bishops, leaders of a worship team, taught Sunday School, spread the Gospel, spoke in tongues, didn’t drink … or danced … or smoked.

We faithfully went to church every time the doors were opened, we attended all the prayer meetings, we selflessly served the saints in a church ministry, etc. Oh, the sorrow these ones will experience when He tells them He didn’t know them for they were mining for fools gold.

These things are not wrong in and of itself, but that is building on sand as far as Christianity is concerned. Christianity is built only on the Eternal Rock, the Sure Foundation; our Lord Jesus. He is the capstone rejected by the religious builders (Mark 12:10).

In His wonderful prayer just before He was arrested, Jesus told us that eternal life is that we might know our Pappa and Him (John 17:3). Christianity IS Jesus Christ!!! HE IS the Great I AM.

If this is the truth, which it is, where does the approximately 41000 Christian denominations come from? This “knowing” is such an intimate union of our spirit with the glorious Holy Spirit.

I personally think we will find the answer to this question in the Garden of Eden when the great deceiver deceived Adam and Eve into believing that they could be like God, knowing good and evil! In a human way I think we can compare this union to sexual intimacy between husband and wife; oneness personified.

Denominationalism is the result of that lie and the age-old characteristics of the flesh: pride, selfish ambition and dissension (Galatians 5:20). It seems that every denomination proudly proclaims that their doctrine/teachings of Jesus will show us the way, the truth and give us eternal life.

Not so! The person of Gautama Buddha might not be of much importance in Buddhism, but our living, resurrected Lord Jesus IS the crux of Christianity.

In total contradiction to Gautama Buddha is the story of Sadhu Sundar Singh. He was a Sikh who converted to Christianity. A European professor of comparative religions, an agnostic himself, repeatedly asked Mr Singh during an interview why he exchanged one religion for another.

When Mr Singh answered him that he now had Jesus, the professor became quite impatient and wanted him to be more specific about the different principles or doctrines of the two religions. Mr Singh’s only answer was that the particular Person he had now found, was Jesus (James Fowler, Christ in You).

The words of a friend of mine describes this so vividly, “You cannot eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and expect to live in the Tree of Life”. Thanks Grace Ann!

Much love and sweet blessings.

Mia

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The Shepherd from Heaven

God’s Thoughts to Me

He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry His lambs in His arms, holding them close to His heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young (Isaiah 40:11, NLT).

He Feeds Us

Today is the beginning of the International Fibromyalgia/ME Awareness Week. Although research is only in its infancy, we look forward to progress and perhaps a breakthrough in the near future.

Due to unbelief, many if not most sufferers, received very bad and hostile treatment from the medical profession.

But at least we are finally beginning to be acknowledged as human beings with a real and quite disabling disease.

Isaiah 40:11 reminds us so wonderfully of how well the good Shepherd from heaven takes care of mothers and their children.

He cares for the broken ones, the weak, the sick, the unimportant, the unwanted and the rejected of this world. They only need to come to Him.

When my son, Simon, was in Grade 11, we had to buy text books for Grade 12 when the Grade 12 pupils were selling their old books second-hand at a much lower price than new books.

I recall the week when we had to pay about R600 (around $67) for two text books as well as payment for the initiation camp for the following year’s Grade 12 learners.

It was in the middle of the month and we were stone, cold broke with only a few pennies we had to rub together in any case. Yet, I knew I had a Pappa who promised to take care of all our needs.

The morning the payment was due, we still had not received our Lord’s provision, but I assured my children that the money would be paid before the end of the day.

When they left for school, I had a serious talk with my God, reminding Him that today is D-day and we still were empty-handed (or rather empty pocketed).

He told me to go to the ATM, and of course I stubbornly had to argue a bit, for the previous day when I checked, I was taunted by a big, round zero. Oh, those trust issues!!!!

At the word of our Lord, in the famous Peter style with the fishing nets, reluctantly, off to the ATM I went.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found that double the amount we needed was paid back to us from the Receiver of Revenue. We were overjoyed and my children’s faith grew with leaps and bounds.

One would think that I was now cured of my stubbornness. Oh no, not this one. As a Fm/CFS sufferer, I had my fair share of unbelief, rejection and neglect from doctors, church people and also family and friends.

To such an extent that I landed up in the proverbial pig pen; not because of my foolishness, but because I had no one to care for me when I couldn’t take care of myself. Nobody believed that I was really ill.

But I was never alone. I could hear my Pappa screaming in my pain and suffering. Faithfully He was working in His normal mysterious ways to perform His wonders in my life.

The shepherds of ancient times would break the legs of the lambs that constantly wandered away.

Then he would set the leg and carry the lamb on his shoulder until the leg was healed. After that the lamb would remain by the shepherd’s side for the rest of its life.

Pappa knew of my stubborn propensities to be a master performer to earn everyone’s love and approval.

With my religious mindset, I just could not believe that I already was loved and accepted by our God.

Because of His amazing love, He did what the shepherds did with their stubborn, wandering lambs. Allowing Fm/ME in my life, He “broke” my legs.

With such tender care and love, He gently set it as well and carried me around His neck until I was healed of my stubbornness and insecurities.

I have learned how good it is when my Beloved Shepherd Himself feeds me with the milk of His love… His grace … His life and compassion.

Fm/CFS has taught me how to always walk with our Lord and never ever to leave His side again.

Even though we suffer greatly at times, I am so grateful for the wonder and joy of walking daily with our God … for the privilege of living in His Loving Embrace.

Love and sweet blessings

Mia

We all have experienced how our Lord has provided in miraculous ways. Please, share His goodness with us!

Linking-up with

The Sacrament of Living

God’s Thoughts to Me

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward (Colossians 3:23-24, NIV).

Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act … For such a man, living itself will be sacramental. As he performs his never so simple task, he will hear the voice of the seraphim saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts. The whole world is full of His glory.” (A.W.Tozer – The Pursuit of God).

The Housewife Syndrome

The yardstick of this world is a mighty weapon leaving many, many casualties in its wake. A major disease that is a result of this monster, is the housewife syndrome.

This disease is as old as time and no cure has ever been found. No amount of psychology or common sense is totally able to heal this illness. It has ingrained its lies deep in the hearts of its victims.

Most of us become skilled in the game of comparing very early in life and we soon measure our worth on the scales of performance. And this, at least, is one thing I used to be able to perform with excellence!

Ever since my boys were small, I used to be just a housewife, a wife and a mother. I considered myself to be quite low on the scale of importance and were plagued by feelings of guilt for burying my talents in the ground.

Who will ever consider doing laundry, scrubbing floors, cooking meals, ironing, making beds, etc, etc, etc, to be a noble vocation! Definitely not me for I was quite snobbish.

Helping my husband to keep the pot boiling, I designed children’s clothing. I was an excellent seamstress and worked into the early morning hours sewing the most beautiful clothes. Yet, in my eyes this was still a common profession.

Another cohort contributing mightily to this whole shebang is the world of religion. The religious elite is not innocent in this folly and most have their own set of performance rules and regulations to keep the wheels of the cart rolling!

I recall the time when the medical profession was unable to provide an explanation for my Fm/CFS. Well, my husband did not understand it either. In the beginning he was not supportive, believing this illness to be just a figment of my imagination.

This was a hard time for both of us for I was unable to fulfill my duties and he worked very hard. One day he even dragged me to the stove telling me to stop being such a hypochondriac and look after my family. I could only scream in pain and crawled back to bed.

I needed help and support desperately and went to see my pastor and his wife. In a previous post I wrote about the catastrophic outcome of this meeting for their diagnosis was that my sorry state was actually the result of not serving the saints.

One day I realized that all my striving and comparing were just  as useless as chasing the wind and I heard a voice!! Softly and tenderly it wooed me like a fresh breeze of love to come to Him.

His cure for this foolishness was actually so incredibly simple, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31, NLT). When our Pappa God wrote this cure on the tablets of my heart, I was overjoyed.

My eyes were opened and I could suddenly see why Brother Lawrence considered washing the dishes at the monastry, a holy experience (The Practice Of The Presence Of God).

I realized that if humble duties like eating or drinking, things we share with our lowly animal friends, could be done to honor and glorify our Lord, there is nothing, except sin, that is not important to our Pappa.

Like all the blessings our Pappa bestows on us, the secret for this cure is hidden and available only in Him. As we learn to set our eyes on heaven and to store our treasures there where moths and rust cannot destroy, we soon find our hearts desiring nothing else, but the will of our Pappa.

I often wondered why Pappa hasn’t healed my Fm/CFS until He told me that it is for my own good. This is just a thorn in my flesh to prevent me from surrendering again to this cursed life of earning approval through performance.

Much love XX

Mia

I would like to hear if I was the only sufferer of this performance disease. Please, let me know!

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The Scabbanger Club

God’s Thoughts to Me

But His mother told the servants, “Do whatever He tells you” (John 5:2, NLT).

It is to divide between what is us in fallen nature, and what is Christ, and to get rid of the one to give full place to the other! (T Austin-Sparks).

Water, Wine and Merriment

Onwaba, the Day of Her Baptism

I have a little 5 year old friend. We have been blessed to have Onwaba and her grannie staying with us the last few years.

Onwaba has a great sense of humor. When she does something funny, she is a funny bunny.

But when she is just plain stupid she calls herself a scabbanger. She is quite chaffed with herself for creating this big word.

Onwaba’s sense of humor is just a chip off our Lord’s dear heart. I can just see Him grinning as he looks down at the human race, all honorary members of the Scabbanger Club.

When Jesus and His disciples attended the wedding at Cana, He must have been a bit amused, as well as filled with compassion, for the predicament of the poor bridegroom.

To run out of wine at your wedding was a major faux pas that would cause them to be the latest scabbangers in town until someone else messed up worse than them.

We all know this parable where our Lord Jesus helped the poor groom out of his scabbangerish predicament. But He did much more than merely turning water into wine.

Our Lord never allowed an opportunity to pass without confronting and exposing the uselessness of the Jewish religion; actually, any religion for that matter. It only has the ability to bind us in chains.

He did so in this parable by using the empty clay pots that were used for the ceremonial, legalistic cleansing, instead of the empty wine jars.

After the servants filled the pots to the brim with water, the master of ceremonies gave some to the groom. They were all amazed at the superb quality of this “bubbly” wine and that, only being served near the end of the wedding feast.

The new wine symbolizes the new covenant wine of Jesus’ own life; ever active, dynamic, full of joy and spiritual blessings, replacing the old dirty water of the purification vats of the law.

Jesus’ command to the servants to fill the jars to the brim, shows us the abundance of His provision. There is no short supply in heaven. Unlike the water of religious cleansing, the new wine of His life never runs dry. As we allow Him to restore sight to our spiritual eyes, we become aware of the empty futility of filling the jars of our hearts with religious water of self-effort to clean our consciences and to find favor with our Pappa.

This new delicious wine is only served in abundance when we come to Him and learn how to abide in Him. It is way above and superior to the wine which we drank before.

Some modern-day Pharisees, in defense of abstinence, try to explain this new wine to be diluted grape juice, while others are calling Him a drunkard and a glutton, finding fault with His social life! Preposterous!! Mary told the servants at the wedding to do just as Jesus told them to do. They had the common sense to do just that. Something I used to be in short supply of.

I have been a scabbanger without an iota of common sense for a time. I labored so hard, trying to wash my dirty feet, hands and face with my own brand of religious soap and water.

Yet, with such patience and wisdom our Pappa allowed me to be refined in the refiner’s fire of suffering. He didn’t burn away only the stuff He considered bad and left and refined the good. Not at all!

Paul informs us that there is none who is truly good; not even one who seeks the Lord  (Romans 3). If it was not for His prevenient grace, none of us will ever be able to even think one right and true thought about our Pappa. Only He and He alone is good.

He burned away everything pertaining to my scabbangerish self and replaced it with only Him and His new Life. This didn’t happen without a lot of complaining from my side.

But, He enabled me to realize that giving Him free reigns of my life, was the greatest gift of love I could give myself. He dared me to be brave enough to truly love myself by allowing Him to burn away all the dross of the flesh.

I am immensely grateful that He opened my mind and understanding to the uselessness of the legalistic purification methods of washing with religious soap and water. He gently showed me another way … a better way. Oh, the joy when I was able to hear, listen and heed His still small voice asking my hand in marriage … asking permission to fill my heart with the new bubbly wine of Himself.

Much love XX

Mia

Linking-up with

The End of The Fig Leaf Fashion

God’s Thoughts to Me

He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them (2 Corinthians 5:15 , NLT).

Christ is writing a letter in you each day,
The message, that is Him, must be true,
‘Tis the only Jesus men may see
The life of Christ expressed as and through you.
(Author unknown)

A Letter Being Written

Sigmund Freud spoke of a childish king, reigning in the hearts of SELF in the Kingdom called ME.

He wittily labelled this little pompous tyrant ruling in our hearts, “His Majesty, The Baby”. I would like to add another childish ruler, Her Majesty, Queen Self.

These two tyrants used to hold the reigns of  my life. Queen Self fought valiantly to retain her crown and the throne of her Kingdom of Self.

She was smartly dressed in all the latest fig leaf  fashion of religious teachings she embraced with such delight.

Whenever she read Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, she used to think that serving her God was just business as usual, albeit with another emphasis.

Her thinking told her that God Almighty is so good and aloof that she dare not approach Him without being the best performing religious artist of all times!

She loved titivating and dressing-up in her law-keeping Sunday best before she considered herself worthy enough to go to her Pappa.

The monarch reigning in my heart, drove me like a slave, forcing me to build with bricks of straw like the Israelites in Egypt thousands of years ago.

Just like the Pharaoh in the time of Moses, she didn’t provide any straw for she was convinced that “I” was perfectly able to do everything necessary to build her Tower of Babel as well as producing the building material!

I totally misunderstood the meaning of Paul’s words and was convinced that living for Christ only meant working hard to ensure that I stay on the narrow road of life once I had been saved by grace.

Yes, Her Majesty, Queen Self was convinced she could safeguard her redemption through the deceptive lust of her flesh to become righteous on her own steam.

We often see the lust of the flesh just as those overtly sinful deeds like murder, rape, corruption and the like.

Yet, the other side of this coin, includes all those deceptive, noble, good religious deeds we are so fond of doing and are so proud of.

I was being chained in captivity to the Western theological mindset which is very scared of allowing grace to function freely and unrestrained in every individual believer.

This kind of reasoning considers the freedom of grace quite a risky, dangerous business. Something at best to be avoided at all cost.

I imprisoned the sweet Holy Spirit in church structures … I encased Him in my understanding of the Scriptures … I relegated His redemption to a judicial courtroom in Heaven.

So I had a cupboard full of the most beautiful religious robes made of self-effort; all in different colors and styles, according to the newest designs of the religious fashion houses.

My valiant efforts to be noble, humble, truthful and righteous, adorned me with garish fake jewelry, glittering like the brightest rubies and diamonds!

This selfish lady expected our Lord Jesus to revolve around her needs and wants.  She never spared a thought for the possibility of living for Him alone.

Doing that would certainly rob her of her kingdom’s false security by allowing her life to revolve around the Son of Heaven.

She was so wary of the rays of His love shining bright and beautiful from His glorious countenance into the cold darkness of her heart.

But, my stupidity posed no threat to our Pappa. Through the teachings of men like James Fowler and Michael Clark, He dethroned that despot.

That cruel monarch reigning over my life with his iron fist of deception, keeping me chained to the slave of self.

Of course I never succeeded in covering those two lackeys, shame and guilt, who endlessly pestered Her Majesty, Queen Self, with terrible accusations of worthlessness, fear, rejection, self-condemnation and the whole enchilada.

Our Pappa offered me a new way, a new robe, a new heart on which He writes the Gospel of Grace and Love.

He taught me the wonderful freedom of living for our Lord Jesus by allowing Him to live His life in me, as me and through me.

He destroyed all my filthy rags of SELF and gently clothed me with the Beautiful Robe of His love.

He covered all my shame with His blood that purchased my freedom from the kingdom of the evil one … He paid the ransom for my redemption from Her Majesty, Queen Self.

Much love and sweet blessings xx

Mia

Linking-up with

Knocking on Heaven’s Door

God’s Thoughts to Me

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20, NIV).

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said,”I believe; help my unbelief (Mark 9:24, ESV)”.

Enoch’s Secret

There was a nagging thought that had the habit of pestering me every Sunday after church, “What makes you any different from all the people who walk the aisles of the grocery store when the first thing you do after church is walking with them along the same aisles in the same store?”

My heart was compelled by a persistent still small voice urging me to find the reason for this thief stealing my pseudo peace.

I had no idea that it was our Pappa convicting me through the avenues of my conscience about my hypocrisy.

This peace had the abilty to make me feel smugly superior to these poor lost souls. I know now that it was only a fabrication of the latest great gospel songs we sang at church. Music does have the ability to lull the soul. And today’s gospel music has a great beat and melody.

I envied Enoch who knew the secret of just walking with God and I did the only thing I knew how to do well. I went knocking on heaven’s door, imploring Pappa to teach me Enoch’s secret.

And my Pappa answered!! I admitted to Him and Him alone, alongside many voices through the ages, that I had no idea what true faith really was!

I lamented alongside Mike Yaconelli, “I had totally misunderstood the Christian faith. I came to see that it was in my brokeness, in my powerlessness, in my weakness that Jesus was made strong. It was in my acceptance of my lack of faith that God could give me faith (Abba’s Child)”.

Together with the father of the boy with the evil spirit, I cried out to our heavenly Father,”I believe; help my unbelief (Mark 9:24)”.

Our Pappa tenderly showed me how I desperately tried to manufacture faith through striving very hard, on my own, in the flesh. What a futile endeavor!

He knew of my fear of being included in the crowd who were chided by Jesus, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you?” (Mark 9:19).

He knew of my uncertainties and insecurities that made me believe our Lord was speaking to me in particular. He was well aware that in my vocabulary and my mind, “faithless” meant, “unlovable, useless, nuisance, shameful” and so forth!

When I came to that place where I had to admit defeat, our Pappa showed me the beauty of relationship. He didn’t give me faith as an entity per se; He gave me Himself.

The deep longing to desire Him and love Him, and then to love Him and desire Him even more, was the answer to my persistent prayers of years ago! Truth be told, I didn’t think I was worthy or important enough for Him to listen to my prayers, let alone, respond to my requests.

First, He patiently had to remove the veil of law still covering my mind. The glorious truth and understanding of grace were veiled in my heart.

Like a bridegroom removes his bride’s veil, He removed the veil that prevented my heart from KNOWING His love … His grace … His mercy and compassion.

He gave me the wedding gift of receptiveness to receive Him into my longing heart and taught me the secrets of any relationship of love.

He convinced me that to get to know one another, I had to share with Him not only my life, but also my heart with all its secrets and my depreciating thoughts of myself.

I willingly had to open the door of my heart to the room where a little girl was still hiding in fear, rejection and pain. I had to allow Him to gather her in His arms and heal her with His Kisses of Delight.

I had to dare to believe that He truly loved me unconditionally before I was able to show Him my spiritual nakedness and allow Him to clothe me with His righteous robe of His blood and redemption.

He whisked me off my feet to our private garden where He showed me the beauty of true love … where He overwhelmed me with His grace and forgiveness.

He taught me Enoch’s secret of how to walk with Him, living in His Loving Embrace.

Much love and sweet blessings XX

Mia

Linking-up with

The Empty Tomb

God’s Thoughts to Me

Then the angel spoke to the women, “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as He said would happen. (Matthew 28:5-6 NLT)”.

Jesus told her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25a NLT)”.

He Is Risen

Our Pappa God knows the human race from the inside out. He is the only one that knows us better than we do ourselves. His eyes sees our smallest DNA structure and understands perfectly why we do what we do!

After all, He created us! Even when we are unable to love ourselves and have a heart filled with self-contempt, He loves us nonetheless!

To explain His Kingdom to us mere mortals, He often uses parables for He knows we are slow of understanding when it comes to spiritual things. Sometimes we find a parable hidden in the most unlikely places.

The Sunday morning after our Lord Jesus’ crucifixion, we find such a pearl buried in the happenings at the tomb and the words of the angel. I needed eyes to see and know the signifigance of what happened there.

A worried Mary Magdalene and a few other women went with perfumed spices to annoint our Lord’s body, not knowing how they would open the tomb.

But our Pappa, as always, took care of that when He sent an angel on the wings of an earthquake to roll away the stone.

Yet, not to make a way for the women to annoint the dead, but to release our risen Lord Jesus from the jaws of death that was not able to keep Him in its grip, for He is the sinless One.

I can just picture in my mind’s eye the magnificence of the scene; the bright, marvellous light of our Pappa’s angel, dressed in brilliant white clothes, rolling away the stone. No wonder the guards fainted of shock and the women were frightened.

The ladies were short of memory and forgot our Lord’s words that He would be raised after three days. I seem to have at least a short memory in common with them!

The angel chided them for seeking the Living amongst the dead when he showed them the burial cloth that was placed at the spot where our Lord’s head was lying.

I have been pondering this issue during this Easter season and realized that too often we do the same as these women. We seek the living Lord Jesus amongst the dead tombs of religion, theology and doctrines.

Even before the crucifixion, Jesus told us that He is the Resurrection and the Life, not the crucifixion and the death!

In the past, I also attempted to please our Lord Jesus by annointing the empty tomb of my heart with well prepared spices of nonsense.

I didn’t like myself at all and had a hard time grasping the FACT that my Pappa loved me unconditionally!

But, the better-smelling my efforts, the harder I battled to find the Living Lord amongst the empty, lifeless spaces, amongst the shadows of death.

I had to carry my own cross to Golgotha and crucify the “self” that struggled so hard to redeem itself from the grip of death that was imprisoning my heart in the dungeons of the world. To dare to love myself, I knew this was the first step I had to take.

I hung there, so lost and so lonely, dying slowly but surely from everything that pertains to self. I needed to allow our Lord to kill the monsters of shame, self-condemnation, spiritual pride, guilt and all their cohorts.

Especially their Commander-in-chief, General Self-Hatred, died a slow, agonizing death.

Like our Lord Jesus my heart also experienced the terror of being separated from my Pappa’s presence and I cried out,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:45b)” even though He never, not even for one second, left me.

This is what sin does to us.

Only when I was able to trust our Pappa enough to allow my emptiness to cry out to deep, following our Lord’s example, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands! (Luke 23:46)” could He safely allow me to die to self and enter into His promised rest.

When I breathed my last, our Pappa God Himself, rolled away the stone of my heart, filling me with the eternal life of His Son, allowing me to be reconciled with Him. I was free to love the Source of all Love and myself! What freedom … what peace … what joy!

At long last I was able to say with the centurion and the soldiers, “This man truly is the Son of God (Matthew 27:54b)” .

At long last I lost my life in order to find my new life in Him where I joyfully live forever in His Presence and peace … in His Loving Embrace.

Much love XX

Mia

Linking-up with

Spitting in The Face of God

God’s Thoughts to Me

And they struck Him on the head with a reed stick, spit on Him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. When they were finally tired of mocking Him, they took off the purple robe and put His own clothes on Him again. Then they led Him away to be crucified (Mark 15:19-20, NLT).

Jesus said,  “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34, NLT).

A Spitting Generation

The Amazing Race sported a challenge during an episode in Argentina where the contestants had to dress up a lama by putting a blanket across its back and a scarf around its neck.

It was easier said than done and a few of the teams were blessed with a glob of lama spit in the face. One team used common sense though.

They wooed a lama with tender, endearing words and won its heart and trust completely with their flattery. She was as tame as a little lamb and allowed them to finish the task without any hassles.

The human race can also be like a bunch of spitting lamas. Looking at what the Roman soldiers did to our Lord Jesus just before they crucified Him, we don’t realize that, often, in our ignorance, we do this ourselves.

Their humiliation of our King was made even worse by putting a purple robe around Him, mocking Jesus’ claim to be the King of the Jews.

They mocked His nobility even further by falling down on their knees, making a spectacle of paying Him homage and worship.

Yet, our Lord only asked His Pappa to forgive them for He knew they were totally ignorant of their folly.

There is another kind of spitting in the face of our Lord Jesus, a kind, to be honest, I used to be well trained in!

This kind is much more dangerous and even deadly in its subtlety! This is the “grace +” kind of mentality that seems to be part of the DNA structure of the human race.

In his book, In Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer remarked that Christianity today is miles wide, but only a few inches deep. In the same work he observed,

“When religion said its last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself … We must strip down to the essentials (and they will be found to be a blessed few)”.

Good adivce we will all do well to heed. But it took me a long time to understand how to untangle the complexity of my selfish ways to save myself.

I was an expert in adding a lot of rules and things to the simplicity and purity of our Pappa’s grace.

I found it impossible to understand the working of grace and know now that my mind was still veiled with the thick veil of religion.

All those times I was trying to create a hybrid gospel of grace + law, I was unwittingly spitting in the face of our Lord.

I was adding and adding and adding to the simplicity of Jesus … adding to the wonder of, “Christ in me, my hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

Every time I tried to add rules like Bible reading, praying, doing good deeds, being kind to the poor and so forth, I was also spitting in the face of our Lord Jesus. I was nullifying the finished work of Christ and was deaf to His cry, “It is finished (John 19:30)”.

These actions are not wrong in itself, but they do become a formidable foe once we make them a requisite condition for salvation.

But our Pappa only heard our Lord Jesus’ plea of forgiveness for He knew I was oblivious to this fallacy. He was well aware of my distrustful lama heart.

He gently drew me to Himself by whispering gentle kind words to my heart. He waited until I trusted Him enough to willingly allow Him to cover me with the purple robe of His righteousness. He adorned my neck with the beauty of His grace … His mercy and compassion.

He used another kind of spit mixed with the beauty of His forgiveness … His love … His mercy. He cured my spiritual blindness … He destroyed the veil that blinded the eyes of my heart.

He showed me that all I really needed was just Himself and stripped me of all the extras. He enveloped me in His grace and cherished me tenderly in His Loving Embrace.

Much love xx

Mia

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Taste and See

God’s Thoughts to Me

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God (Psalm 42:1, NIV).

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him (Psalm 34:8, NIV).

Panting Hearts

I grew-up in a family who attended church faithfully every Sunday. It was quite a fundamentalistic kind of denomination.

Even then I could feel the faintest stirring in my heart for a God who was larger than the confines of the doctrines I was taught.

I remember thinking often of the Word who is alive and not imprisoned by the dead letters of Scripture; the One who is living high up in the sky looking down at me with love.

These thoughts developed through the years into a holy desire, a consuming hunger … a hunger for love … a hunger for God.

In retrospect, I realize that my heart was only responding to the overtures of love fom the Lover of my soul as He was pursuing me, beckoning me,”Rise up, my darling. Come away with me, my fair one. (Song of Songs 2:10).”

At first I tried to quench this thirst in the loving embrace of my husband, the sweetness of my children and even studying the works of some excellent Bible teachers.

But all, to no avail. Nothing and no one could satisfy this proliferate hunger that was begging to be stilled.

A.W. Tozer describes this hunger splendidly in his work, In Pursuit of God, when those with that kind of hunger are confronted by theologians who, for once, are expounding the Scriptures correctly,

“They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, ‘O God, show me thy glory’. They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eye the wonder that is God”.

He mentions that the fragrant heart theology of a grand army of saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture.

King David was a man after our Pappa’s heart. His psalms and hymnody are filled with the cries of a longing, thirsty seeker who longed and panted after our God who is Love. We have all experienced that longing he so poignantly described in Psalm 42:1.

And who can remain unmoved by his exuberant joy, praising our Pappa after he found Him. The finding is made so much sweeter because of following hard after God (Psalm 63:8).

We find the same longing in the heart of Paul, who left all his religious credentials behind to follow his Lord Jesus.

The cry of his heart,  the all-consuming hunger was to know our sweet Lord, to be found in Him, to share in His sufferings and to experience the ressurection life of our Savior King.

At the crossroads of my life, I knew I was confronted, just like Paul and David, to choose; either the empty religious ways of the world or to follow hard after Him … to know Him … to taste and see that He is good.

For me there was not much of a choice for where would I rather be than in Him. Luke paints this picture so beautifully, “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

Where can anyone find love that is unmeasurable, love we can taste and see, where we truly KNOW the Lover of our souls is good, love that can only be experienced in His Loving Embrace.

Much love xx

Mia

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Wisdom: Sanctified Common Sense

God’s Thoughts to Me

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault (James 1:5, NIV).

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you (James4:8, ESV).

A God Who Gives Generously

For a long time I have laboured under the potentially destructive religious teaching that we can be the masters of our own future, our prosperity, health and so forth.

Wow, this sounded too good to be true, but I lacked Godly wisdom to discern the truth at that stage of my walk with God. If this was true, my selfish self was definitely not going to miss out.

We only needed to speak positive words and blessings daily, into our and our loved ones’ futures. And that would ensure health, wealth, financial prosperity, career success for yourself and your children, and so the list of blessings went on and on and on.

What a time consuming blah-blah-blah this turned out to be. Common sense then, seemed a rare commodity in my life. Looking at the verses that birthed these teachings makes it look all so plausible and possible.

I remember how I cringed when my husband would use the saying that he was killing himself laughing.

Or even worse, when he would tell me how ill or discouraged or tired or just plain fed-up he was.

I am ashamed to admit that when he needed me to lean on, I would secretly try to break all the curses he was declaring over himself.

I think we are all familiar with the “Blessings and Curses”, the “Speak Life, not Death” teachings and the whole enchilada.

Oh, and don’t forget the angels eagerly awaiting Pappa’s children to speak His words, ready to fulfill our every wish, protecting Pappa’s honor by ensuring that His words will not return void (Isaiah 55:11)!!!

How can we be so gullible? Our Lord Jesus and the Apostles repeatedly warned us against the savage wolves in sheep’s clothing, shearing the sheep for their own profit and gain.

But we eagerly gobble up every teaching that does the religious rounds with no concern for discernment, let alone a bit of common sense.

Yes, we are repeatedly warned and encouraged to test the spirits, but only a few of us do! We are advised over and over not to believe every spirit we hear and that looks can be so deceiving.

And the famous teaching that was created by misusing verses like Proverbs 18:21, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit”.

I know of a lady who was an alcoholic and received the good advice from her therapist at the clinic where she received treatment that if she wouldn’t stop drinking, she would die.

A highly respected and sought-after teacher and deliverance fundi in the religious community where she lived, told her, on the other hand, that the therapist had put a curse on her life and tried very hard to break that curse by speaking “in tongues” that not even he could understand. That lady was me.

With all due respect, I don’t think our Pappa God understood either!

Needless to say, when I came to my senses, and that only through the grace of my Pappa, I knew I needed wisdom. Not just any wisdom, but the godly kind that I could only find by living and abiding in my Lord Jesus.

The letter of James gave me so much hope about a Pappa who loves me unconditionaly, a generous Pappa who would give me all the wisdom I needed, without finding fault!

And through experience, I found fault-finding and favoritism rampant in the congregations I attended. Yet, there are no black sheep in my Pappa’s family!!

Well this to me, sounded, and still do, like very good news! For I was very, very ill and needed to consider this trial a great and joyful opportunity to have my faith tested and refined in our Lord’s refiners fire.

I had to allow my endurance to develop and grow, to become perfect and complete in my dependence on my Pappa for every breath I take.

This secret was unlocked through that wonderful invitation from the same letter, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8).

I have found that drawing deep into the life of our Lord Jesus, allows me to feast from the Tree of Life … to quench my thirst at the Fountain of Living Water … to hide in the shade and safety of His love … to rest in His Loving Embrace.

Much love xx

Mia

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