FULLY ALIVE!

Your life will be as bright as the noonday sun. Job 11:17


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Life, Interrupted

In the late 90s two famous actresses, Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder, starred in Girl, Interrupted, a film about a young girl who ends of in a mental institution and befriends a band of other troubled residents.  The question central to the movie’s plot was whether this girl, Susanna, would “drop anchor” at the institution or pull it together and move forward with her life.

Isn’t that how it happens for us?  Life, as we have imagined it and planned it, gets interrupted.  We may not end up in a mental institution, but sometimes we end up way off track from where we would like to be.  Out of school.  Working a minimum wage job.  Unemployed.  Back at home with our parents.  In an apartment that rivals a college dormitory.  Divorced.  Friendless.  Our lives, interrupted.

Interruptions.  At the very least they annoy and frustrate.  Sometimes they completely derail us to the point that we don’t even recognize ourselves.  We are angry or fearful or argumentative.  Our minds are forever foggy and we struggle to think coherent thoughts or make decisions.  We are depressed and lethargic just wanting to sleep.  We are always teary-eyed, on the verge of a full-blown, unraveling breakdown.

But interruptions can be a good thing.  Most often it is in hindsight that we think this – like when we didn’t marry that love of our lives or didn’t take that job or didn’t move into that house.  After the fact we realize that it was a good thing that we were interrupted, that our interruption actually proved to be an opportunity, a blessing even. Why must it always be “after the fact” that we come to this realization?  Why can we not welcome an interruption?

Consider the Wise Men, Mary and Joseph in the second chapter of Matthew.  The Wise Men had crafted a plan based on their observation of a star.  King Herod summoned them and gave them clear directions to return to him with news of the Christ child.  Their plan was interrupted because the Scriptures tell us in Matthew 2:12b that they departed another way.  In this same chapter we learn that Mary and Joseph’s lives were likewise interrupted.  Shortly after Mary had given birth Joseph was warned in a dream to take mother and child and go to Egypt.

Interruptions. Surely.  But how did the Wise Men, Mary and Joseph respond?  Scripture says of the Wise Men that they “departed to their own country by another way.” (ESV)  In response to the angel’s directive for Joseph to “rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt,” Joseph did just that.  Verse 14 says, “And he rose and took the child and mother by night and departed to Egypt.” (ESV)

These weren’t really interruptions you argue; these were divine interventions that saved their lives.  I won’t argue with you on that, but I will argue that your “interruptions” might well be divine interventions, too.  But if we are not readily obedient like the Wise Men and Joseph and Mary, what might we be missing?  Life?  Fully?


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Thirst

“Man cannot live by bread alone.”   That is Scripture and that is life.  You have to have water.  (I have to have ice cream.)

The truth of the matter is the human body needs food and water to survive. 

One can go for more than three weeks without food (Mahatma Gandhi survived 21 days of complete starvation), but water is quite a different story.   The body is mostly water, and every living cell needs water to keep it functioning.  Water acts as a lubricant for our joints, regulates our body temperature through sweating and respiration and helps to flush toxins and waste.  The maximum time it seems that an individual can go without water is a week, less under certain conditions like extreme heat.

Some of us do not drink enough water – don’t like the taste, prefer soft drinks, get too busy, forget, – we have a lot of excuses).  We can go along for a while until our body cries out for nothing but water.

With a water loss of just 1% you begin to feel thirsty and show signs of dehydration such as fatigue, dry mouth, dry eyes and darkened urine.  If not hydrated, skin begins to lose elasticity and blood pressure drops.  Because water is key to the delivery of oxygen, with dehydration comes diminished blood flow to tissues.  Severe dehydration results in weakness, shock, coma and, eventually, death.

But the water from our taps and from all those bottles we buy (Americans spend more than $4 billion annually for bottled water) only temporarily quenches our thirst.

We need “living water.”

In John 4, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water…So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ““Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”  (ESV)

The eye-opener comes in the simplicity of verse 28 – “So the woman left her water jar…”  In a dry land one doesn’t leave behind her water jar.

Unless her thirst has been quenched.


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Choose Life

Somewhere I read this quote:

What is Life?

They say it is from B to D – from Birth to Death.

But what’s between B and D?  It’s a C.  So what is C?

It is a Choice.

Life is a matter of choices.

And, if you are like me, sometimes that is good and sometimes that seems not so good.  For example, there are days when I wish someone would just make all the decisions for me from what to put on in the morning to what to eat for lunch to what to do about a problem at work and, surely, what to serve for dinner.  (How many ways can you cook chicken!)

My pastor preached a sermon once about our stuff and how much of our time, energy, mental faculties, etc. are consumed by our stuff.  I remember him saying that if you only owned two shirts, chances are one would be on your back and the other in your closet.  Not a lot to think about there – you’re either wearing one or the other. (Hmm, definitely a message there for us ladies, but I won’t touch that one today.)

The fact of the matter is that we have choices in life.  In America, we tend to have the luxury (or the headache) of a lot of choices.  Our closets, for the most part, are full.  Our pantries are full.  Our days are full.  We are constantly bombarded by choices.

When it comes to life, I think the “choice” is whether to choose to live or just to exist until death.

And, yes, even in this we have a choice because Our Father has given us free will – the ability to make certain choices.

Consider Deuteronomy 30:11-20. (Please read the full text; I’ve shared an excerpt here.)

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven… Nor is it beyond the sea… No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. “But if your heart turns away and you will not obey… you shall surely perish. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants – by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days. (NASB)

I love this text!  It seems to have in mind those of us who simply don’t want the pressure of another choice, another decision.  This is essentially a no-brainer; “what I am commanding is not too difficult for you.”  There are but two choices – life and prosperity or death and destruction.  Like those two shirts, you’re either choosing one or the other.

For years I struggled to have children.  After many pills, procedures and prayers the time seemed right.  My OB/GYN told me to act immediately, but a lot else was going on in life, so I told him I wasn’t ready to decide.  I will never forget his response – “By not deciding, you are deciding!”  Wow!  That bit of wisdom is apropos for much of life (maybe all of life.)  By not deciding, we are deciding.  The author of Deuteronomy tells us to love the Lord, to walk in His ways, to keep His commands, to obey His voice, to hold fast to Him.  This is life and the length of our days.  And the opposite (the other choice) brings the opposite – death.

What is Life?  It is from B to D by way of C – our choices.  Choose life!


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If Christ is in You…

Slowly but surely I have been navigating Seminary in pursuit of a Masters in Theology. I am loving that this is not a degree that I “need” but rather this is a degree (and learning) that I want! My very first course was in Bible Exposition. The class, Bible Study and Hermeneutics, was described in the course catalog as an introduction to inductive Bible study involving four steps – observation, interpretation (hermeneutics), application and correlation. It was rightly a required prerequisite to all other Bible Exposition courses because the learning was powerful and provided, I believe, the lens necessary for reading and understanding Scripture.

It sounded easy, but several of my fellow students and I struggled with the first step – observation. We found it very natural to rush to interpretation – at least to our style of interpretation which was drawing conclusions based on what we already knew or thought that we knew. Gentle (and some not so gentle) correction from our professor helped us develop the habit of observing what the Scripture says and what it does not say – without any interpretation.

Let’s apply a little exposition (or a variation thereof) to Romans 8:10-11.

10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (NASB)

The first word of this text is the first word that literally jumps out at me. “If.” You might want to pause right there and work that one out because the promises in this text are for those who have Christ living in them. If defines a condition of the first class or one that is presumed to be true. Again, the promises that follow are true for those for whom the condition is true.

“Christ is in you” means that Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Himself is in us. (Do I really need to say anything more here except, Wow!)

“[T]he spirit is alive” may refer to your spirit or the Holy Spirit as some translations use a lower case s while others use an upper case s. I’m thinking, any way you slice this, this is good news! With Christ in us, our spirits are alive. With the Christ in us, the Holy Spirit is alive within us.

“[A]live,” as we discussed in an earlier blog, means lively, full of life, vitality, vivacious, etc. We are alive with the life of God within us. How great is that?

Years ago in one of the zillion books that I have read, there was a great illustration of this Scripture using a small slip of paper, three envelopes of different sizes and a marker. You can try to picture this, but I encourage you to get a slip of paper, three envelopes and a marker so that you can really “see” this.

  1. Write the name of JESUS on the small slip of paper and place it inside the smallest envelope.
  2. Write YOUR NAME on the outside of this smallest envelope and seal it.
  3. Place the sealed envelope inside the medium-sized envelope.
  4. Write the name of JESUS on the outside of this medium-sized envelope and seal it.
  5. Place the sealed medium-sized envelope inside the largest envelope.
  6. Write the name of GOD on the outside of the largest envelope and seal it.

 

Now, stop and reflect. Where are you (the envelope with your name on it)? You are in Jesus who is in God. And even beyond that, Jesus is in you! Psalm 27:5 says, “He will conceal me…,” and He does – inside and out.

If Christ is in you, yes, you are fully alive.  Enjoy it, share it and be blessed!


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What does it mean to be fully alive?

Webster identifies the word alive as an adjective and defines it by identifying synonyms such as  animated, alert, active, energetic, vigorous, sprightly, vivacious, buoyant, exuberant, ebullient and spirited.  Does that sound like your life?  Does that sound like anybody’s life that you know?  All too often we feel anything (and everything) except alive, much less fully alive!  But fully alive is just what our Father desires for us.  John 10:10b reminds us that Christ came that we might have an abundant life (NASB).  I especially like some of the other translations for this particular Scripture such as that we might have life “to the full” (NIV) or that we might have a life that is “rich and satisfying” (NLT).  The Aramaic Bible in Plain English translates John 10:10b as “I have come that they may have life and have whatever is abundant.”  That’s something to ponder – what is abundant to you?  What is fully alive?

I wish that I could tell you that I had an answer for you to either of those questions, but I don’t.  But I do have the next best thing to offer and that is what is the source of an abundant life!  We only have to back up a few verses from John 10:10b.  Verse 9 reads, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved…and find pasture.”  Join this verse with verse 10, and you have the answer.  Jesus is the source of an abundant life – the only source.  Not a career.  Not a person.  Not a place.  Not a time or season.  Jesus is the door, and He came that we might have life and “whatever is abundant!”