Mango Jelly

Indifference

Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers? Far from it… Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference. -Becky Pippert

I heard this quoted in a podcasted sermon by one of the most dear spiritual teachers in my life. I’m conflicted about how I feel about this quote, especially when it comes to people of different beliefs, lifestyles, and (especially in light of Andrew Marin’s talk) the LGBTQ community. But for the most part I see how this is very true when it comes to my personal struggle to love others: when I encounter someone that’s hard for me to love, it’s easy for me to take on an indifferent, ‘whatever…’ sort of mindset.

One clear way I saw this recently was in how in one friendship where I had promised to keep a brother accountable. After awhile, I felt pretty frustrated with the way he was responding, and thought to myself, “What the heck am I supposed to do? Forget this, what’s the point…” Eventually what resulted was a confrontation and an accusation: “You don’t care, do you?” And of course, I was guilty as charged.

As a senior with graduation just on the horizon, I realize the temptation to take an indifferent attitude has only grown. When I have a problem, when I find it hard to get along with someone, my default mindset is say to myself, “Don’t worry, dude. After graduation it won’t even matter. Just wait it out one more month and it won’t be you problem anymore. You don’t have to see this person ever again.” Screw trying to love when it’s difficult - I’m graduating, suckers.

It’s an attitude that just reaps of a decayed and rotten heart.

The less i love someone the more tolerant I am with them - that if I see them saying stuff that I don’t agree with.. that if I see them doing stuff that might harm them.. that since I don’t have that equity in their life.. since I don’t have that space in their life, I’m just gonna let it go. I’m not gonna really fight for that. But if I genuinely and deeply love you and I want the best for you, I am gonna speak up, I’m gonna fight for you, I’m gonna shake you up, I’m gonna ask you the tough questions, I’m gonna make you feel awkward, I don’t care if you hate me because this is not about me here; it’s about you. And I just want you to know that the only time, the only reason I’m angry with you right now, is because I want the best for you. I don’t want to see these lies destroy you. I will step into your life. -Kensen (podcast speaker)

Jesus, teach me how to love again.

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If you’re struggling with how to love and interested in listening to the podcast
mp3: http://www.parkcommunitychurch.org/mediafiles/april12012kensennn.mp3
video: http://my.ekklesia360.com/Clients/embed_video_preview.php?moduleRecordId=1474299&CMSCODE=EKK

Sick

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick - and it is the sick who shall see the doctor.

How hard it is, sometimes, to be the sick.

Deliverance and Forgiveness

“Forgiveness, by the grace of God, is the only thing that will set these children free…”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-pdNgQr-I6w

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The quote above and the youtube link were posted together by a friend on my facebook newsfeed. The video is a response to the Kony 2012 campaign and the testimony of how Charles, a kidnapped child soldier, found Christ and freedom in the gospel’s message of forgiveness.

As I watched this video and read those posted words, I couldn’t help but think about the great divide amongst Christians concerning social justice. On one side, there’s Christians who respond to global brokenness saying, “These pour souls are in such terrible situations of need, but still their greatest, most desperate need that must be addressed the rest of the first world: More than anything, even the deliverance of their terrible situations, they badly need the deliverance of their souls.” On the other side, there are Christians who look at passages like James 2:16 which says, “If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” and conclude that the immediate physical needs must be addressed first, while the spiritual comes later.” The former results in ministries where all the money goes towards funding missionaries empowered with the message of the gospel but powerless to effect or change physical conditions. The latter results in ministries where all funding goes towards aid, awareness, and advocacy while the gospel is hardly mentioned.

For the most part, these are two extremes, and ideally we have ministries that address both the physical and the spiritual. Even so, I feel that all ministries inevitably make a decision on which to prioritize and to what degree whether they’re fully conscious of it or not. This decision manifests in how programs are designed, resources are allocated, and strategy is discussed.

The question I’ve been wrestling with is ‘which is better?’ If there’s one side that’s better to err on, which is it? Does God delight more in the helpless receiving justice from their oppressors or in the sinner finding life in Christ?

To bring it back to the issue we started with, is it the freedom that comes from capturing Joseph Kony that these children need most or the freedom that comes true forgiveness which Christ alone can offer?

If anyone has any thoughts, I’d like to hear them. Seems to me, there’s support in scripture for both. Personally, I lean towards wanting to say prioritizing the spiritual is best. Maybe it comes from seeing my own need to repeatedly experience the forgiveness of the cross and never having experienced anything greater.

In ending, I found this quote from the video description incredibly powerful:

“You may wonder if we believe Kony should be brought to justice. Absolutely! We praise God that Invisible Children has helped bring these atrocities into the light once again, and we pray that this campaign will help end Kony’s efforts to steal, kill and destroy. But more importantly is the transformation only God can bring to the lives of the numerous children scarred by the actions of Kony and the LRA. Truthfully, if healing and forgiveness doesn’t take precedence in the hearts of these former child soldiers, then we can expect revenge and hatred to rule and Kony’s own victims to rise up in his place.”

Honeymoon Days of Israel

“I remember the devotion of your youth,

how as a bride you loved me

and followed me through the desert,

through a land not sown.”  -Jeremiah 2:2

I was listening to an interesting sermon where the speaker Dr. Steve Lee describes this verse as God speaking about his honeymoon days with Israel. Though for Israel, wandering through the desert for 40 years may have been the most painful and harrowing experiences, for God they were the most beautiful because of how closely and faithfully Israel clung to God’s side like a newlywed bride. In their time of need, they were finally able to see with unhindered vision that Yahweh was the only hope they had. And during this rare time, they walked in that hope.

It’s not surprising God speaks of these days with such longing as he prepares to bring Israel back to a new wilderness/exile in the days of Jeremiah. Perhaps it is that same deep longing that drives him to lead his people through wilderness today.

Pray for the victim who’s from our church, the attackers, our church, our community.

http://www.suntimes.com/10055237-417/brutal-bridgeport-beating-captured-on-youtube-video.html

I’m glad people from our community are stepping out to publicly identify these guys on the internet for the police to use. But it’s scary to see your newsfeed full of people talking about using that information to “pay them a visit” or take justice into their own hands.

Pray that vengeance and justice is the Lord’s hand and not ours. Pray for healing. Pray for Christ to be found here.

“Morning by morning new mercies I see”

what if seeing his new mercies begins with allowing him to lead us to places where we are at his mercy

Distance

“It makes us feel farther away from God”

This summer, I’ve been helping teach Sunday school for 3rd and 4th (and sometimes 6th) graders. As a follow up to our lesson, today I asked them “What is the consequence of sin?” As expected, i heard expected answers like ‘you get punished’, ‘you go to hell’, and ‘you go to jail/get in trouble’. But then I was quite surprised when one kid, who i mis-judged as not being all that bright, perked up with this response: “It makes us feel farther away from God.” Pretty good theology for a 6th grader.

Sin separates us from God.

I feel that’s sometimes difficult to remember as born-again believers. We understand how sin separates those who have not accepted the blood of Christ, but surely sin is irrelevant for those whom God has paid the price? But while it is true that there is no sin great enough to nullify the saving work of Christ and remove our gift of salvation, sin is far from irrelevant to the believer. Even within an established personal relationship, it creates distance. Habitual sin that is left hidden and unresolved has a way of hardening our hearts toward His voice and choking out intimacy with a holy God.

Lately I’ve been struggling with thinking about sex a lot more.

With a Summer spike in media exposure, I feel that I’ve been especially tempted by the world’s idea/presentation of sex - pleasure without rules or boundaries. I became increasingly nagged by doubts in my lifestyle choices - that my convictions and beliefs about sex as a Christ follower may be causing me to miss out on something golden.

Where are you God?

I couldn’t help but to feel a bit burdened and weak. I decided to do my routine devotional. The heaviness grew worse. I had planned to get a lot done that night, but the feeling had become debilitating. I couldn’t help but feel as if a cloud had come between the Lord and my soul. As I spent the rest of the night praying and listening to sermons, though it was good, I couldn’t help but to still feel an unpleasant sense of distance.

God preceded his presence with his truth

As my mind fumbled over and over my cleaver student’s one-liner, it suddenly hit me: It was my sin that was hindering me from enjoying close fellowship with Yahweh. How could I expect to feel close intimacy and peace with God’s presence when my heart wasn’t at peace with his ordinances and plans, especially concerning sex. How could I expect to have his spirit satisfy me when I had allowed myself to become dissatisfied with his ways and teaching? At that moment, it was as if God was saying to me, “If you want to draw near - if you want to feel my gentle whisper on your cold heart again - let’s start by addressing this. Let’s resolve what is unresolved. Let’s begin with repentance.”

“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,
   nor his ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated
   you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
   so that he will not hear.”  - Isaiah 59:1-2 NIV

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” - 1 John 1:9 NIV

So you want a king?

This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you in that days.

- Samuel the prophet when Israel asks for a king (1 Samuel 8:10-18)

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

- (1 Samuel 8:19-20)

Sometimes I wonder this is the same way we got on board with having God as our king. We asked for his reign hoping he’d “lead us” where we’d want to go, “go out before us” and do the dirty work before we get there, and ultimately “fight our battles” for us so we can sit back and relax.

And for a while it seems to works because God is a merciful and loving king. So healing comes easy. Grace comes cheap. Peace on demand.

For a moment, it might be easy to think that it is we who are kings.

And then we meet the real king, an unrelenting one who refuses to bend his will before ours.
Suddenly healing no longer comes on our terms, but with demands of repentance and obedience.
Suddenly that grace we once felt entitled to comes with the stern call of discipleship.
Suddenly peace is as good as a dream to any who refuse to bend the knee in unconditional surrender.

“How dare this king take as he pleases without consulting my plans and desires?”

The king has claimed his rights.

Remember, you asked for this king. And this king will do what is right and good at the expense of even your personal rights.

faith is

“being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”

—

at the risk of discovering that hope and certainty have been misplaced

for the possibility that absence of sight leads to being swindled

—

to consider the prize worth a thousand contingencies

and all that may be gained more than infinite loss

—

faith is

wretchedness

In giving generously, I feel entitled to be reciprocated in appreciation.
In receiving generously, I become accustomed toward expecting more generosity.

In being deprived, I become upset as if something long due has been withheld.
In being avaricious, I lose sense of why anyone else should matter.

How is it that such distinct opposites should lead to the same wretched outcome?