Our Brand of Righteousness vs. God's

As the Lord was working in me but I was having a hard time putting words to how He was moving, the Holy Spirit took me to Romans 10:2-8 (especially verses 3-5).  The Holy Spirit was showing me that the battle in my life was to establish righteousness but what was at war within me against the righteousness of God was the righteousness I learned as a child.  Righteousness is a big theological word but what does it mean in real life.  I have heard some say it is right living, yet others say it is right relationship with God, or still others say it is purity or holiness.  These still leave me somewhat lost looking for true revelation and freedom.  What the Lord began to reveal to me is that when it comes to our view of righteousness, the way we find a place of acceptance and love growing up is our version of righteousness.  Righteousness on a human level seems to be more caught then formally taught, although many religious organizations have formal ways of making people comply.  It was a revelation to me that like the Jews in this passage who were "seeking to establish their own" righteousness that I had done the same thing in my life (Romans 10:2-8).  The Holy Spirit revealed that being "right" and avoiding mistakes was part of the righteousness I had sought to establish.  This type of righteousness (or way of living) makes you wound pretty "tightly" and not a whole lot of fun.  My daughter tells me that God is fun, some times I think she knows Him better than I do.  Also the righteousness I sought to establish was to avoid real or perceived rejection, yet a part of me comes alive when I step out in being authentic and open to others who could reject me.  Through the Holy Spirit's light I also saw that the righteousness I sought to establish was about seeking perfection in the things around me and sometimes sadly the people (the most damaging aspect).  In Romans 10:3 the Word says, "For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God."  The phrase in italics in the Greek means- to place, put, set, fix establish, to stand (of the foundation of a building).  Interesting that it is like they were seeking to build a building (or monument) of their own righteousness and this was the very thing that was blocking them from receiving the Righteousness of God which comes by faith.  The second phrase (which is in bold) says that they did not "subject themselves" which means in the Greek- to submit to one's control, to obey, or to arrange in a military fashion under the command of a leader.  The contrast is of a group of people building their own righteousness through their own establishing or submitting to an authority that you obey or yield to.  Sounds like the difference between seeking to obey rules/standards in an effort to be accepting versus yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit who is now in us through the finished work of Christ.  Our version of righteousness seems to be these internal set of belief systems that run our life but only use relationships and are not based on a relationship.  When Christ enters the world He comes bringing a new form of righteousness that is wholly different than the Laws that Pharisees sought to follow to be acceptable before God.  Now we don't go around trying to follow the Law (well some are being deceived to go back to Jewish Law for living) but most of us followed our parents way of being right.  Parents by design are to be conduits of unconditional love but God is the source.  Subjecting ourselves to God's righteousness through Christ means that we receive God's unconditional love and acceptance through Christ and ongoing encounters with Him.  This word "subject" implies that we can position our heart in such a way to receive or continue to establish even my own way that I come to God but I find that religion and even my own form of righteousness leaves me empty and frustrated.  God's righteousness means we come the way that He guides (through His Word and His Spirit) and not my way to meet my own needs (flesh).  I am so thankful that this New Covenant "in Christ" allows us to come as we are and receive from the God who has everything and is full of grace and truth.

In Abba's Love,
Bret

Father's Day

Link as a resource:  http://www.familydads.com/

It is such an amazing reality that earthly fathers have the opportunity to reflect their Heavenly Father to their children.  I believe fathers are under attack not physically but in the unseen, they are pulled by the need to measure up to their own father's expectations, by society who has an increasingly negative picture of dads (as dumb, deadbeats, or just checked out), and even under attack by religion that they aren't doing enough (stepping up to the plate, providing, being the spiritual head, etc...).  I can testify that it is easy to look at myself as a father through the eyes of measurement, performance, and some shadow of the father I should be that I am boxing with.  Yet as the Holy Spirit touched my heart I saw that my own earthly father had judged himself as an inadequate father with inadequate love which was part of what led him to suicide.  Abba spoke into my heart that what He was looking for from my dad was to let Abba love me through him, when love becomes performance and measurement it ceases to be love.  Our Abba did not measure His love for us but was willing to bankrupt heaven, have His own Son die, and risk everything to display His love to a people that may not return it.  This kind of love is not just sacrificially and costly but the ultimate expression of the very heart of God for us.  The Word of God even says that we are "...heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ..." (Romans 8:17), we heirs of God Himself!  What an amazing gift, God gave us Himself not just the benefits and blessings that are ours as an inheritance but God is the ultimate gift.  There have been many amazing self-sacrificing fathers who have been celebrated in history and we need to celebrate them.  But can any of them compare to the Father of Glory who has expressed such a love that comes to fill the deepest voids in the heart of His people.  We all need a father, yet through unforgiveness of the fathers who have hurt us the Enemy seeks to undermine us looking into the very nature of our glorious Abba.  We have a choice we can rejoice in the nature of Abba and His presence receiving healing (ongoing) or we can continue in the pattern of walling off our hurt from the things we hold against our earthly father.  All of our earthly fathers failed, which hurt deeply but their main role was to point us to the perfect Father.

In Abba's Embrace,
Bret

Building Up or Tearing Down

As I was recently on a hike with my two precious children, I realized I am still prone to see their mistakes and be overly sensitive at times to things being done a certain way.  I realized that I have a critical eye and can use that to tear down two growing and wonderful little saplings.  So as we were hiking I asked the Lord to show me what this critical attitude looked like on me, I almost immediately saw a black pointing glove on my hand that was menacing.  The Lord showed me that I used this glove to be in control and to protect myself because this critical attitude had been used on me in earlier life.   There is a desire within being human (the best sense of the word) where we want things and people to grow who are around us.  Yet when we fail to understand how to help people grow, then there is a turn towards discouragement, anger, and criticism which then comes out on those we love.  I sensed the Lord was leading me into a deeper place of learning how to nurture, encourage, and grow the the little people I love so dearly.  So as I took off the black glove of criticism and destroyed it, I then asked the Lord what He had for me to put on it's place.  The Lord gave me a set of green gloves (like having a green thumb), then I sensed He put words in my mouth (to build up and not tear down).  I had been encouraged that my son, Joshua, who normally doesn't like hikes and often complains.  Maybe it had to do with that I decided to let him choose the points in the hike to stop for snacks and I let him carry (and thus drink) his own water.  In the past I would just get frustrated by his complaining but now I was seeking to build him up and help him have a good time.  I am amazed at what the Lord can teach us when we are available to listen to Him and learn His ways.  When we live in the fleshly land of criticism, complaining, discouragement, and frustration we are living at a very low level of experience.  These things are all very common to this human condition (after the Fall) without the invasion of God's love in Christ.  The Holy Spirit is very straight-forward in Galatians 6:8, "For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."  Notice you need to connect Romans 8:1 that says there is no condemnation, so in other words there is no condemnation but freedom means there are still consequences to our belief and choice.  I believe the Father is inviting us to live and experience a whole new dimension of life (Zoe= the life of God Himself) but we have freedom in what we choose.  I believe Ephesians 2:6 is an invitation, "...and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,.." and not simply doctrine.  The atmosphere seated in "heavenly places" is much different than the normal everyday run of the mill type of earthly life.  Let's let the very life of Christ flow through us to build others up in love.

In His Love,
Bret

Abba's Will

There are times that we are familiar with a verse of Scripture but the richness of it's meaning seems to be hidden like some great mystery, then all the sudden in a moment of illumination and light the words on the page become real in our heart.  I was deep in prayer to God crying out to Him from my heart, when the verses when Jesus said, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." (Luke 22:42) were opened up in a new way.  What came crashing in on me in that moment was that the Father's will was to have Jesus die as the sacrafice that would atone for my sin and reconcile me back into a relationship with the Father.  I knew this concept in my mind but when the Holy Spirit highlighted it to me that from the Father's heart He so wanted a relationship with me that His Son was worth the price, I was again flooded with the love of the Father.  I love the Word of God but the Word combined with the touch of the Holy Spirit who wrote the book is what I was created for, real relationship with my Abba.  I pray that as the people of God we will not settle for proper theology, playing church, and wrote prayers but will cry out for real encounters with the "Living God".  This deep cry coming from our new spirit united to Christ leads us into to divine encounters, our mind can't lead us there and neither can religion.  Know today that the will of Your Abba was for His own Son to die as the final sacrafice that give us into intimate access to the Holy of Holies and real relationship with the God Almighty.  You may have heard something like this in church many times but "familiarity often breeds contempt" instead of the wonder and the awe when the Holy Spirit breathes life on something we have only seen as a shadow previously.  As we understand that Abba's will was that Jesus sacrafice His life to reconcile us to our Father, we must see that there is so much behind "God's will".  There are thousands of propehcies speaking of the Messiah and His sacrafice, it is even propehsied in the book of Genesis after the Fall.  The point is that "God's will" is not some passing wish but a burning desire birthed in the very heart of God over thousands of years to be reconciled to you.  I believe for us to experience Abba's will personally is so critical in a world where we can easily generalize or depersonalize something to apply to the masses.  The Gospel is personal, even though John 3:16 says that the invitation is to the world.  Yet God seeks an intensley personal and intimate relationship with each unique person, losing this reality means that we become legalistic, stale, and mechanical.  I love to see how God encounters people uniquely, lovingly, and personally to win the affections of their hearts and make them His own.  I believe the Father longs for us to encounter Him being caught up by His loving, restorative, and life-giving words which make our soul come to life even more.  Are you willing to push past the barriers of unbelief, doubt, shame, guilt, lies, and the ever present to do list to have this kind of encounter with your Abba?

Learning His Love,
Bret