Intentional Kingdom Living

Loving God and Loving People on purpose

“People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. 

“Let these children alone. Don’t get between them and me. These children are the kingdom’s pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.”  

Luke 18:15-17 The Message


More Inside Out.

First, though, I want to make sure and say something: All this Adam and Eve talk could make it seem like I am only addressing male/female relationships.  I am not.

Though God has been teaching me that my job in Dan and I’s heated discussions is not to put up my fists and defend my point of view, Dan is not with whom I am challenged to not be on the defense.  He has proven over and over in our 12 years that he will do anything for me and has fought for me and our family more times than a blog post can communicate.  God has used him to make sure I’m not relying on him for My Source of Life, and we are so very different that differences naturally arise.  But I do not wonder if I can trust him with my deepest heart.

God has also made sure to surround me with other safe men I can trust.  The hardest part for me is to naturally be open and non-defensive with others in the Body I do not know well.  When I am not sure I will be received well or will be misunderstood or my motives questioned, it is hard to not put on a I-don’t-need-you-I’m-fine defensive mask.

Did you notice the focus on when I put on the mask, though?  When I won’t be well received.  Again, that my be a natural survival instinct from the Fall, but it is not what He wants from His Body who are being redeemed.  Mostly because it is not thinking about others.  Whether I’m receiving them well, or making sure to understand them, or not doubting their motives.

See what I mean?

If love is our goal, and the main way the world sees us learning to walk like Him, we have to learn to look outside of our natural defensive strategies.

Okay, that actually took more space than I thought.  And I’m going to teach a class.  So more from the actual book later!

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/216/

Inside Out has been staring at me all week.

Mostly because I don’t want to deal with it.

The funny thing is, I know that when I name some of these things, it’s not as if God expects me to suddenly be healed of them.  He is so so patient.  And becoming more like Christ is a process.

But it still intimidates me.  Especially because I’ve committed to being “out there” with stuff He’s teaching me.

Here comes a few more quotes:

“When God created human beings, He made us male and female.  No one is merely a person…Everything a man does, he does as a man.  Everything a woman does, she does as a woman.

When we’re properly related to God and functioning according to His design, we live with a rich enjoyment of our sexual identity…

Men were designed to enter their worlds strongly, providing for their families, leading them (through servanthood) toward God, moving toward others with sacrificing, powerful love.

Women were designed to courageously give all they have (intellect, talents, wisdom, kindness, etc.) to others in warm vulnerability…wrapping themselves in supportive strength around those with whom they relate, offering all they are as female image-bearers for a godly purpose…

When Adam and Eve fell into sin, they lost the opportunity to fully enjoy all they were as male and female.

For Adam, working now meant a battle with weeds and thorns, a battle he wasn’t able to fully overcome.  He became threatened as a man, as a person designed to productively enter his world on behalf of another.

Eve could no longer count on Adam to respond to her with love.  The support and vulnerability through which she’d expressed her womanliness now endangered her.  She had to become tough and hard in order to handle the reality that Adam was no longer a perfect partner.  She became threatened as a woman, as a person who finds joy in accepting and embracing others but who now feels compelled to defensively control her relationships.” (pgs 208, 209)

Oh boy.  There’s so much here.  The first thing that strikes me is what God has been relentlessly showing me over the past several years:  “She had to become tough and hard…”

While that is a natural reaction to the Fall, as someone being redeemed into His image, it doesn’t have to be my response.  He is showing me that there is a way to be productive and confident that doesn’t make others feel used, defensive, or threatened.

More than that, there is a way to accept and embrace others without defensive control regardless of their response.  I can do that because He is Love and He’s always right there being my Defender.  I can let go.  I don’t have to control.  Even if that makes me vulnerable and threatened, His Spirit in me can help me rest in confidence.

Last night, Caleb was tired and crabby.  Then something didn’t go the way he wanted and on the drive home he cried hard.  He kept saying, “I can’t calm down.  I can’t calm down.”

Finally, as we pulled into the driveway, he goes:

“Mama.  When we get out of the car, can you please help me calm down?”

It totally melted my heart.  We need each other.  But it is very hard to move toward each other when we’re on the defense.  He is not letting me off the hook here.  I’m grateful for my boy reminding me the vulnerable way to promote community.

If self-protection is a sin, then resting in God-protection is repentance.

Father, can you please help me learn this in increasing measure?  I want to trust You.

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/217/

So, after an intro, we dive into verses 2 & 3.

“When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him,

‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.’

So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.” (NIV)

And from NLT:

When the LORD first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him,

‘Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution.  This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the LORD and worshiping other gods.’

So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son.”

The Message version of this makes me cringe, so we’re gonna stick with these two.

We talked in group about how God didn’t tell Hosea which woman to marry.  It leans into some speculation, but do you think he chose her?  Do you think he loved her?

I do.  I don’t think the allegory makes sense any other way.  God loves us.  Don’t hear that the way you usually do.

He loves us.

Extravagantly and intimately.  He wants to meet our greatest needs.  He wants to be the fulfillment of our greatest desires.  And, for crying in the night, He wants to bless us.  But two things He’s been teaching me about that one:

1.  If my character is not adequately developed, those blessings can turn into idols rapidly.  Who I am is more important than what I do or what I have.

and

2.  These blessings, this beautiful, fulfilling relationship was never meant just for us.  Never.  All through the Holy Scriptures He is using people of the promise to draw the nations.  The others.  Those not already in holy covenant with Him.

Blessed to be a blessing.

That is always, always true.

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/218/

Got this in an email update.  Did you know about this?

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/jammu-kashmir-floods-live-srinagar-indian-army-rescue-jammu/1/381908.html

Have you heard Lecrae’s new song Messengers?  My fav lines:

I’ve been a lot of places where the scene ain’t pretty

I’ve seen plenty of hate, death and destruction

Where ignorance kills many

The blind leading the blind

We turnin’ a blind eye

That alone is a crime



We’ve got the power to life

I know that we make mistakes

Don’t let ’em keep you away

Mercy, love, and His grace

The reason we movin’ here



Speak out



Though we’ve never been qualified to do it

I ain’t earned it

I was loved into it

I’m brand new

———————————————–

Love it.

I ain’t earned it.  I was loved into it.




https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/219/

I need to tell you something.

I am really, really bad at video games.

Last night Dan had a thing at school so I agreed to play Mario Kart with the boys on the Wii.

It was ugly.

After the first race, when I came in dead last, both of them rushed over to me with hugs.  They had all kinds of encouraging things to say:

“It’s okay, mama.  I lose too”

“You’re just learning.  You’ll get better.”

“It’s just a game.”

“Don’t be sad.  You can try again.”

Mind you, I was almost laughing at my incompetence.  I was not in the least bit sad.  (But don’t take that to mean I can never get competitive – I can!)

But I was so touched at how quickly they encouraged me.  How I pray they will always be secure enough in their own gifts from the Giver and identities from the Creator that they can come alongside anyone who is struggling and offer help or support or just presence.

Our pastor used a beautiful phrase on Sunday: “We are His Bride, His Body.  Though a wayward Bride and a broken Body.”

That we are.  But I know you’ve seen it too: glimpses of Her beauty; flashes of Her splendor.

He is making all things new.  That includes His Church in our generation.

Can you feel it?  Are you encouraged?

Because it is so beautiful I can hardly stand it.

Photo Courtesy of My Daddy.

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/220/

Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, “There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: ‘My rights are being violated. Protect me!’

 “He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, ‘I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.’”

Then the Master said, “Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?”

Luke 18:1-8 The Message


Wine makes you mean, beer makes you quarrelsome—
    a staggering drunk is not much fun.

Quick-tempered leaders are like mad dogs—
    cross them and they bite your head off. 
It’s a mark of good character to avert quarrels,
    but fools love to pick fights.
 A farmer too lazy to plant in the spring
    has nothing to harvest in the fall.
 Knowing what is right is like deep water in the heart;
    a wise person draws from the well within.

Lots of people claim to be loyal and loving,
    but where on earth can you find one?
 God-loyal people, living honest lives,
    make it much easier for their children.
 Leaders who know their business and care
    keep a sharp eye out for the shoddy and cheap,
For who among us can be trusted
    to be always diligent and honest?
 Switching price tags and padding the expense account
    are two things God hates.
 Young people eventually reveal by their actions
    if their motives are on the up and up.

Proverbs 20:1-11



https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/221/

Hosea Introduction

I realize my concrete-sequential friends probably cannot stand reading this blog.

I’m about to switch topics.

But, both boys are in school, I’m sipping coffee with free wifi, and I have uninterrupted time.  Which means this post has the potential to be quite lengthy.

I told you I was going to teach on Hosea 1 for our small group.  I did and loved learning.  If you’re interested, what follows is an intro to what I learned from Study Bible intros, cross references, and bible.org.

The name Hosea means Salvation.  I love that.  The whole book, God is likening Israel’s spiritual idolatry to physical adultery.  To be frank, often God acts like a scorned, jealous Lover.  He is not like the foreign, statue-like gods among the nations.  He is passionate, jealous, a Consuming Fire.  He wants His people to see only He can satisfy.  And prostrating themselves before anything else is as prostituting themselves away from a holy covenant with Him.

In fact, the audience to whom the book was written would understand likening covenant disloyalty with prostitution.  Some examples from Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible…with which the Israelites would be familiar):

“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods… they will lead your sons to do the same.”  (Exodus 34:15, 16b)

“The priest is to sprinkle the blood against the altar of the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.  They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves.”  (Lev. 17:9)

“And the LORD said to Moses: ‘You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering.  They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them.'” (Deuteronomy 31:16)

That was quite a mouthful.  But as our small group has learned, and is learning, Hosea isn’t a Bible study for the faint of heart.  God is serious about our idols.  As we learn hard lessons in our own lives, it is easy to see why.  He is the only Safe Place onto which we can surrender our entire being.

Scholars do not know who wrote the book of Hosea, but they mostly agree it was written in the middle of the 8th century B.C. and spanned at least 38 years.  I like knowing that because, along with Truth that Covenant Yahweh wants to present to His people, this chronicles a man’s life.  The story actually happened to someone who obeyed what God told him to do.  Reading it quickly could minimize the length and depth of life and emotion involved.

The reason the smarties know this book spanned several decades is because of the kings listed in Chapter 1 verse 1.  They are also fairly certain that, though it was likely directed to Israel (the Northern Kingdom), it was written in Judah (the Southern Kingdom) due to the many references throughout the book to Judah and Judah’s kings.

If you’re not up on this, Jacob (as in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) was renamed Israel and he had 12 sons.  These comprised the 12 Tribes of Israel.  Years later, at the end of King Solomon’s reign, 10 of the tribes split off and became the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Their capital city was Samaria.  Judah and Benjamin, the other 2 tribes, became known as the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  Their capital city was Jerusalem.  There is a lot more to this, but that is what we need to know right now.

The prophet Hosea was a contemporary of Isaiah, Amos and Micah.  The book of Hosea is the first of the Minor Prophets.  If you’re like me and don’t know what that means, those are the 12 books from Hosea to Malachi in the Old Testament.  They got the name “Minor Prophets” because they are not as important as other prophets.  Just kidding.  “Minor” refers to the length of these books.  They are much shorter than Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekial.

Just so you know what Hosea’s audience was going through, the Assyrians were increasing in power as a threatening empire.  And they were expanding westward toward Israel.  These are the kinds of things men would talk about at the city gates and women would discuss at the water wells (in between relational topics, of course.)

Israel as a nation was not thriving at this time.  Should they try to fight?  Should they make a treaty with Assyria for protection?  They were pretty much looking to anything in the physical realm to save them…as opposed to listening to Moses and the Prophets, who assured them if they would be careful to follow God’s ways and worship Him only, He would take care of them.

Can’t we all relate?

If we were chatting at small group, I could ask you all kinds of interrogating penetrating questions about what this has looked like in your life.  Just know I’m thinking of (unfortunately) fresh examples in my own.

Anyway, as a summary of the overall impression of the first chapter of this incredible book, God is judging Israel’s idolatry and He uses Hosea’s physical family as a symbol of what is occurring spiritually.

More soon!

“The purpose of an inside look is to promote [a] spiritual depth.  The more deeply we sense our thirst, the more passionately we’ll pursue water.  And the more clearly we recognize how we dig our own wells in search of water, the more fully we can repent of our self-sufficiency and turn to God in obedient trust.  As we learn to live in confidence that the deepest concerns of our soul are in good hands, both the shame we feel because of our unworthiness and the terror we have one day facing exposure and rejection will lose their power to control us…

New believers change in their conscious direction.  Growing believers learn to love by abandoning their self-protection.  Mature believers begin to grasp the meaning of Paul’s words, ‘For to me, to live is Christ,’ as they shift the central direction of their very being toward God…

When we make a commitment to integrity and openness, and inside look will expose previously hidden disappointments that provoke a frightening level of rage at those who hurt us.  When we admit the pain of disappointment and the rage of betrayal, we can then see how our style of relating has been shaped by a stubborn commitment to avoid feeling the pain and, in many cases, expressing the rage.

At the point where we recognize self-protective relational patterns as a defense against pain, an inside look has done important work.  It has made possible a deeper level of repentance.  Until we reach that point, repentance is little more than an admission of wrongdoing followed by a concerted effort to do better.

When we fully understand our disappointed thirst and self-protective patterns, repentance can involve a deeper shift in our understanding of how life is to be lived and how we miss the mark…

The most profound level of change possible before Heaven requires and inside look at two hard-to-grasp realities:

1.  Since the Fall, every man struggles to regard himself as fully male and every woman struggles to regard herself as fully female;

and

2.  Life between the fall of man and the coming of Christ is so overwhelmingly sad that only our hope in Christ can preserve us from insanity or suicide…”

Inside Out, pgs. 202, 204, 208

More on those last two soon!  I promise we’re getting close to the end of all the quotes.  And I have some personal stuff I’m learning I want to share.

Getting there, getting there.

https://www.intentionalkingdomliving.com/223/

Hardesty’s

Inside Out is kicking my tail.

But I need a break from it today.

I told you I had met someone on our last-minute trip a few weeks back.  His name is Frank and I want to adopt him.

He owns a small grocery store/butcher shop in Oklahoma.

Oh my word.  My sis-in-law knew I would love this place and she was right.

It had one of those old-fashioned Brach’s Pick-A-Mix things as soon as you walk in.

See?  Remember those?

And look at the tile.  Totally original.

Holding a photo of the original owners

This is Frank.  He’s owned the store for 30-some years.  He worked here as a teenager and later bought it.  When I asked if he was the owner, he goes, “Yep.  There are 4 things we do here:

1.  We still sell on credit [He then showed me rows of receipt books with people’s names on them under the cash register.]  People can pay once a week, once a month, whatever works for them.

2.  We are not open on Sundays or holidays.

3.  We still give away free air for tires.

4.  We still deliver groceries for free.  We have a lot of widows who can’t drive anymore and live in apartments and it’s hard for them to get out.  So we deliver to them.  They took care of us all those years as we grew, so now we take care of them.”

I asked permission to take his picture.  When I said, “Smile!”  he goes, “But I ain’t got no teeth!”

He also told us how he has the IRS on speed dial, and he’s on a first-name basis with them.  He mentioned, “You make a lot of mistakes through the years, but they’ve worked with me.”

When some customers walked in they greeted him with a, “Hi Frank!  How are you?”

He replied, “Busier than a one-legged grave digger.”

“That’s pretty busy.”

“Yeah, but it keeps me hoppin!”

Seriously?  I’m so happy this place exists.

Fresh produce

My Mama loves antique Coke stuff.  This place is right up her alley.

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