The Intimate Love of God

Half of 2021 has been harder for me personally than the whole of 2020 was. While I love writing and sharing with you on this blog, sharing has seemed next to impossible at times, even to those closest to me. I’m grateful you are here after all this time away. In the past 14 months, I’ve found amazing solace outdoors, taking in the beauty to be experienced on nature walks. Nature somehow has a way of putting me back in the present moment, and it (usually) helps to drown out the noise in my mind.

I remember one day on one of my walks this spring, a particular daffodil caught my eye. It was not yellow; no yellow at all, just all-white petals. I stopped to look closer. The daffodils all around it were either all yellow, or had white petals surrounding an egg yolk-yellow center. Even the inner trumpet was a pure white. Now, maybe this is completely ordinary to you and you’ve seen many a white daffodil, but it struck me as particularly beautiful. I just stood and stared for a while, in awe of what I’d found. It felt special to behold, like seeing a four-leaf clover, or a black squirrel. It felt meaningful somehow, and I was grateful to be there (and present) for it.

I don’t often mind walking alone, but a couple moments later, I felt a pang of loneliness, wishing I could share the beauty I had found. Feebly, honestly feeling a bit silly, I asked Jesus as I walked toward home, “Did you see that?” Immediately, He was there. This unexplainable knowing of His presence came over me, one I’ve had rarely. Somehow, I knew all at once that Jesus had been and was present with me, I knew He’d heard me, and I just knew the answer was yes, He’s seen it too. “More than that, I see you seeing it,” He seemed to say in my heart. And just like that, I had shared in the wonder I’d found, my longing fulfilled.

When we draw near in faith, Jesus is quick to fulfill our longings with His love.

Being loved by God and loving Him is so foundational to faith because it allows us to stop trying to fulfill our longings with anything but Him. Faithfully trusting His love, we grow in our own ability to show true love, even when we don’t want to (there are plenty of times when this is the case!). Within God’s love, we are set apart as Holy with Christ, aware of and operating from a place that draws from the well of His deep, complete love, completely different from the partial elements of love we may seek after in the world. I’d like to share a few beautiful passages that illustrate God’s incredible love for us.

A question God asked was about, arguably, the most damaging decision of all time. Not an obvious choice to show God’s love, but perhaps that is why I find it so remarkable. In Genesis 3:13, God asks Eve, “What is this you have done?,” when He knew she ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. But, did you know that this question isn’t only asked of Eve?

Many years later, after establishing the nation of Israel through Moses and Joshua, God also asks the same question of the wayward Israelites (Judges 2:2). God used the faithfulness of Moses and Joshua to set the stage for the next best version of Eden possible. Eden, after all, represents God’s set of ideal circumstances for humans to thrive in. However, the Israelites could not keep God’s commands or stay faithful to the Lord.

When God asks “What is this you have done,” again, hundreds of years later after He had freed His people from slavery in Egypt, built up their character through trial, and established everlasting covenants with them, I read this question with a tone of heartache, not just anger. With bitten-back tears, not only wrath. God wants the best for them, but He does not make decisions for people, or have faith for people–He opens Himself to the vulnerability of true relationship with humanity, and asks what we’ve done, perhaps not for His benefit but for ours. His love is apparent for Israel; even in their whoring against Him (Judges 2:17), this heart-wrenching question may be read from the heart of a Teacher, guiding the people to search their own hearts and ask it of themselves.

God heartbreakingly models what it looks like to love even when we don’t want to.

Hosea chapter 11 is quickly shooting to the top of my list of favorite Scriptures. In it is, to me, one of the most beautiful love letters in the Bible, straight from YHWH Himself to His beloved people Israel, here referred to as Ephraim, who was one of Joseph’s sons. I love to read this chapter as a love letter from our Father directly to us.

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love…” (Hosea 11:1-4a).

God’s love for Israel is given imagery, and reading on we see that His love never stopped, no matter what the people did. In Hosea, God continues, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? … My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” (Hosea 11:8-9). God’s compassion for us is so clear in this passage. Despite His “burning anger,” which unchecked would destroy them, God’s compassion makes destroying His “child,” meaning His people, an impossible option due to His loving character.

The force of God’s love is stronger than anything, and will never fail because He is God.

Other passages that directly express God’s deep, intimate, and devoted love for us include this one from the prophet Isaiah who writes, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold I have engraved you on the palms of my hands . . .” (Isaiah 49:15-16a).

Again we read the comparison of parent and child when it comes to the compassion of God. But I love this passage because it may refer to the nails driven through Jesus’ hands when He was crucified on the cross. Regardless, we are remembered by God on the very body of Jesus, by the scars from the nails that after His resurrection still engrave His hands (John 20:27), even as He is seated at God’s right hand. That is how intimately God loves us.

Remembering relationship with God is a recurring theme throughout in the Bible. Jesus can never forget us as this passage from Isaiah states, for we are engraved, if not on his body then on His heart. In turn, God implores His people not to forget what He has done for them, who He is, and who they are because of Him. He asks the same of us, to remember the ways in which He has been and continues to be faithful to each one of us.

Remembering Whose we are is a vital part of living in relationship with God.

“Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20). Because we read that God’s heart actually yearns for His people, even when they constantly are unfaithful, committing idolatry against Him generation after generation, I invite you to ponder for a moment the weight of the fact that David was referred to as “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22). Of calling Jesus, David’s descendant, His Son, “with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11), God shows us that personal devotion to our relationship means everything to Him. Yet, we must remember because we are so prone to fall in line with the Israelites’ way, living in a state of pride and attempting autonomy on our own strength apart from our fiercely loving Father.

In Christ, we no longer have to be afraid of the closeness of God’s love. I admit, Jesus’ presence can be difficult. For me it sometimes seems too good, and too close. But intimacy with God is something that we were made for before sin entered in. What does the enemy know of intimacy? It is innately human to feel the the pull of intimacy we were all born with. May we allow it to drive us to, like David, seek after God’s own heart for ourselves.

Intimacy with God is more innate to us than our sinful nature.

After I found the white daffodil, that same night I was talking to Jesus about the beauty of the experience, and I felt His almost-too-good presence near again. He spoke to my heart, “Yes, it was beautiful. I saw you seeing it. That’s the way I see you, you know. The way you stopped to see the beauty of that white daffodil is the way I look at you. You’re so beautiful, I stop and point at you and say to my Father and the Holy Spirit, ‘Look! Isn’t she beautiful?’”

Well, I just about lost it. Maybe you can imagine what hearing that meant to me in a season of isolation, and the intense intimacy of that. It was deeply personal and unique, and yet this is Jesus’ heart towards everyone, even with a “silly” faith the size of a mustard seed that feebly reaches out to Him, He is there for us. Please hear my heart and know that I am not sharing this to brag by any means, but to express the intimacy with which He loves and knows you just as well, and certainly immeasurably more. We are seen, known, appreciated, and loved deeply by Jesus whether we have a relationship with Him or not, and when we reach out to connect with Him, there is truly nothing better. He fulfills our need for love both in the ways we can understand, and far, far beyond them as well. For me that day, it was through a flower. For you, I hope you remember today that He loves you with an unending love, and experiencing that is only ever a reach of your heart in faith away.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. …” (Romans 8:1-3a).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

October 10, 2020October 10, 2020

Characteristics of God: Faithful Friend

What makes a good friend? A lot of things come to mind about different friends I’ve had in my life, but I don’t often stop to consider how God has been the most faithful friend to me of them all.

This post continues the Characteristics of God series where we discuss, Who is God and What is He like?

God is our faithful friend because He is closer to us than anyone, He loves us beyond measure and wants the best for us, He doesn’t leave when things get messy, and He affirms the truth, that our identity is in Him.

You and I were designed to be with God, yet my tendency is to isolate, withdraw, and pull away from intimacy with Him. Perhaps especially because on His part, there is only goodness and love, deep care and concern for my well being.

It’s hard for me to allow myself to be loved like that, with nothing held back. All my sin is exposed and I want to hide it. Maybe you’ve felt this way too. But God wants us to hang in there even though it’s uncomfortable sometimes. He longs for us to push past this feeling and walk in the truth, that we can’t hide anything from Him, nor does He want us to. He invites us into close friendship with Him every moment of every day.

Jesus paid the cost for us to draw closer than close to Him.

God is faithful to guide us day by day, sometimes even when we aren’t paying attention, into learning His love and how to give it to others. But then, how do we be a friend to God?

A faithful friend is someone who doesn’t leave when things get messy. When one falls apart, the other doesn’t get scared off. They stay present. They don’t agree with negativity and they remind us of what’s true and who we are.

That’s exactly what Moses did for God Himself.

But wait, you might be thinking, God wanted to leave when things got messy? He did! Moses talked to Him about it, in Exodus 32. I didn’t really understand why Moses was called the “friend of God” until I recently read this incredible story.

The Israelites had turned to idolatry, putting their desires first, and that made God extremely angry. God became so angry, in fact, that He wanted to kill them (Exodus 32:10). Who can’t relate to that feeling? That moment when our blood boils and all we can see is red; God said to Moses, “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you” (Exodus 32:10).

I suspect God wanted to be left alone by Moses so that Moses wouldn’t be near the line of fire, but I also think of how anger can get more intense when we’re alone. We have time to sit and revel in how angry we are and dwell on all the reasons why our anger is justified. I can understand wanting to be alone when angry.

But Moses didn’t leave God alone!

When God told Moses what He was thinking He wanted to do in anger, Moses was calm enough to reason with God. He interceded for the Israelite people, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self…” (Exodus 32:13), reminding God of the bigger picture of redemption from sin, and how His plan to preserve Israel was in line with His character.

In Exodus chapter 33, God was still angry with the Israelites, even after He had sent due punishments on them. His friend Moses then coaxed Him to draw near the people again. God seemingly preferred to send an angel (33:2) instead of going with the people Himself. But Moses reminded God of their friendship (33:12), and reminded God of who He is, and who He is to His people (33:16).

Moses encouraged God to act in His identity as their God, which Moses said was “in [His] going with [His] people” (33:16). And He did! Moses’ friendship was so strong with God because he knew God’s heart. Moses, and we too, are MADE for this deep friendship with Him.

That depth of friendship with Him is what God invites us to do today, right now.

Because Jesus made it possible, we are under a newer covenant with God than Moses and the Israelites had; one that is defined by faith and intimacy with God, instead of works and sacrifice. Jesus paid it all so that we could always draw near, and so that He could always go with us.

Think of your best friend. Someone you wouldn’t mind being around all the time, someone who you’d always enjoy having at events or during travels. That is how God feels about us.

God moved heaven and earth when He became flesh to be with us, to be friends with us, to be present with us in our midst, and to make it possible for us to be with Him in unhindered friendship.

Is a friendship with God, like Moses had, really possible?

Rest assured that it is not only possible, but God longs for it! God is deeply moved by us and our faith in Him. The state of our hearts and what we do matters to Him because He loves us. He truly wants the best for you and me. That is the best kind of love a friend can give us!

God is certainly not an impersonal, unmovable force that pays no mind to our prayers or pleadings, as the conversation scene in Exodus illustrated so beautifully. Instead, He allows us to influence Him, just as Moses did, by our faith in and knowledge of His character. That’s why knowing who He is and what He does is so important! God influences us, but because He desires authentic relationship with us, we also are able to influence Him, including in prayer.

God is our most faithful friend.

In the Bible, friendship often implies a treaty (Deut 23:6, Ezra 9:12)–an agreement of peace and mutual benefit; give-and-take. For much of His ministry, Jesus gave to His disciples as a master to a servant, but in John 15 after the Last Supper, Jesus distinguishes a change in their relationship. At last, after knowing, following, and walking with Him for several years, the disciples are no longer just servants, but Jesus considers them His friends: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

Our friends not only know what we do, but why we do it. Jesus admits that His hand is tipped, so to speak, that He let them in to the intel of God’s plan. Even the prophets saw it only in part, they didn’t see or know it all. Jesus not only revealed God’s plan in full, He fulfilled that plan.

That changes how He relates to us, now in a more intimate way than any other time prior. Through the Holy Spirit in us, God is closer to us than our breath itself. We are able to be even closer to God than Moses, whose face was radiant from being so close to His presence (Exodus 34:30)! Remembering how God has been a faithful friend to us can greatly inspire us to go and do the same.

In Merciful Master, I talk about bringing the Kingdom of God to earth by showing mercy. We also bring the Kingdom to earth by being a faithful friend–to others, to ourselves, and back to God.

A faithful friend won’t let us forget our true identity.

Our true identity is secure and unchanging because it lies in God. Though the world often tells us the opposite, our identity in Christ is worthy, enough, and loved. This truth of who we really are has the power to bring us back to life when discouraged, and friends can speak this truth to us. Jesus can do this most powerfully and fully because He IS life and truth itself.

Investing in friendship with Him is never a regret. God is such a faithful friend that He named Himself “God with us,” Emmanuel (Matthew 1:23), naming Himself (yet again) by His relationship with us (eg: Jealous, I AM). Still, we forget all the time what our true identity is. Thankfully, God is faithful to remind us as we walk in friendship with Him.

In His friendship there is no concern that He will leave or forget who we are, even if we do.

Our true, faithful Friend Jesus loves us beyond measure. Despite how hard it can be to accept untainted, unselfish love from God, we are called to lean into it. He is faithful to make His character clear when we are willing to see past our own.

May we have abundant faith that Jesus paid the full and final cost for us to enter into close friendship with Him.

“The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent” (Exodus 33:11).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to the blog, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing about Life with the King. Grace and peace.

August 8, 2020August 8, 2020

The Fear of Death

Death is the last topic I thought I’d be writing about to kick off my blog’s second year. Yet, here we are; the highest highs always seem to bring to my mind the lowest lows right along with them. And perhaps that’s just as it should be.

I’ve been taking morning walks lately, and one morning this week I walked to a park I haven’t been to for years, just outside of a well-manicured neighborhood. The park is all woodland, with a creek running through it. Once inside under the completely shaded canopy, I saw that the park itself seemed a completely different world from the sunny neighborhood just beyond. Instead of neatly trimmed grass, there was a mess of moss and fungi blanketing rotting logs. Instead of bushes full of blooms, there were downed trees with their roots exposed, brutally ripped up from the earth beneath. Instead of small blue jays or cardinals hopping about, there were two large, hulking black vultures, still and silent, perched in a pile of fallen leaves above the creek.

These starkly different scenes just yards from each other perfectly illustrate how death and reminders of it are consciously kept out of sight and ignored as much as possible.

Death is uncomfortable to think about.

Given how prevalent and obvious death is in this world, I’m interested in why this remains so. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I do know that we all have an innate sense of the fragility of our lives and our loved ones’ lives.

Even so, we have to keep surviving, right? No time to think about death when we’re trying to survive. However, there comes a point at which facing death becomes absolutely key to fully embracing our humanity.

According to the Bible, humans gave up the option to ignore the knowledge of good and evil long ago (Genesis 3:6); we simply don’t have the luxury anymore of being unconscious of it. In a podcast interview, psychologist Jordan Peterson posed the idea that perhaps the remedy now is to be fully or “all the way” conscious of good and evil, since we can’t go back to being “unconscious.” I like this idea, but whether it’s correct or not I think it holds true with the Good News of Christ.

Along with the knowledge of good and evil comes a responsibility to face the good and evil in us.

To face the evil in us could also be described as becoming conscious of our own sin. This is exactly what we must understand before we can sincerely repent; C.S. Lewis talks about this in Mere Christianity. We realize the extent of our sin (evil) and the extent to which we need God’s grace (good) to free us from death’s grip.

For repentance to come, we need to do something God didn’t design us to do–to stare death in the face. It is when we really see that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)–and that death forces us into something we were not created for–that we can understand all that we’ve been saved from by Jesus and how truly amazing His grace really is.

Turning from our willful ignorance of death to follow Jesus, the Master of death, means we will stop avoiding it and trust that He’s bigger than death itself, as well as every one of our fears.

If we knew the Master of death better, we wouldn’t be so afraid of our own death.

Jesus came to master death and set us free. To use the woodland analogy, Jesus came to lay His life down, like a fallen tree in the forest, that we might live like a newly sprouted seed from the soil He provided by His act of love.

Yet, death is still worthy of being sad about, something to deeply mourn and to grieve. Separation from loved ones, though temporary for believers in Jesus, is still deeply painful and still very much a loss. I want to be very clear that it is okay to grieve, mourn, and be sad when it comes to death, no matter who it is, whether or not they were believers. Grief is not something to be brushed aside or ignored.

When my Jewish grandfather passed away years ago, I was able to experience a community that faced death together in a beautiful way. The love and support of my grandmother’s friends and family was hugely beneficial, even for me in my own grieving process, as they came to simply be present and literally “sit” with her. Shiva following a Jewish burial typically lasts for seven days, providing not only community support but food for the grieving first-degree relatives.

There is great value in appreciating the seriousness and weight of death and taking time to acknowledge what our hearts are feeling.

While our culture has lost the skill of being open about death and understanding of grief, we don’t have to when we stay close to Jesus and understand the truth He brings–that death is not the end. Jesus Himself spoke openly about death. He was not afraid to do so, predicting his own death several times. People who had experienced death also came to him in a state of grief. He didn’t turn them away but even grieved with them (John 11:35). He even chose to raise the sick girl (Matthew 9:25), and His friend Lazarus (John 11:44) back to life.

While I don’t think it is healthy for death to be excessively avoided as a topic of conversation, I also want to make a point to say that an excessive focus on death is not the answer to any problems either. It is only by understanding how God intended life that we can understand death and see it for what it is, no more, and no less. Romanticization of death glorifies the wrong god.

Life is a gift from God.

Examining our feelings about death along with the truth of the Bible can give us a deeper appreciation of life and its meaning. Reading Genesis, we find that death as we know it was never meant to be. We were not built for it! We were created to walk with God and eat from the Tree of Life. Death was not in the original plan.

It is no wonder that it can be so devastating to us psychologically, physically, and spiritually! Knowing this, it is completely natural to avoid death, and it makes perfect sense that we would brush traces of death aside because innately we know what we were intended for.

Facing death is so hard because God never intended for us to experience it in the first place.

Death may never stop being hard to face, but it need not take us by surprise, as it so often does. With Jesus’ wisdom and grace, we can explore our knowledge of good and evil.

We can let Him help us through to the other side of fear as we examine what He says about life and death. We can begin to safely open ourselves up to facing the realities of death when we trust Jesus and His love for us, for there is no fear in love (1 John 4:18).

Christ and His love sets us free.

The bigger the debt of sin we have been forgiven from, the more we will love Jesus for canceling it. The story in Luke 7 gets me every time, when Jesus forgave the sinful woman with the alabaster jar of perfume.

Her display of gratitude for forgiveness led Jesus to tell those in His company, “...Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:47). When we are conscious and aware of our sins, fully acknowledging our need like this woman, gratitude for our canceled debt leads us to a life full of love and peace.

As I was headed back from that morning walk in the decaying woodland park, walking once again past neatly spaced out trees and colorful blossoms, these words came to my heart, “All that was lost will be restored to you.”

That is what God does; He restores what is lost, damaged, sick, even dead, in and for us.

The very first book of the Bible that was written was Job, which speaks to and confirms this simply, “If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored . . .” (Job 22:23).

The last book of the Bible speaks of the restored life that God will bring to His people: “[His servants] will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4). How amazing that the story (which is not ours but God’s) that is unfolding will end in God calling us, servants created to glorify and enjoy Him, by His own name.

Think of the intimacy of giving someone else your name, or of taking someone else’s. That is the intimacy God intends for us to have with Him. What vulnerability and trust to be called by His name! Death is not the end, but rather this beautiful picture of restored, everlasting life in the family of God.

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to the blog, it helps me continue writing about Life with the King. Grace and peace.