The Word is light

Psalm 119:130 The unfolding of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.

We know that God is the Word. The Word is love. It sheds light on all situations and gives us understanding - even to the simple.

In my 35+ year walk with the Lord, the Word is still unfolding. I see new things and even the old things that first impressed me, I now see with fresh eyes.

Lord, let my hunger for you continue that I would be fed and that your Word would be planted in my heart.

They will know you by your love

John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you may also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

So often we look at the outward things - even the religious things (going to church, study and prayer) as measures of our service. But those can all be done with an impure heart and self-centered motives (pride) and as such are not effective. He wanted us to mirror His behavior, His love.

I need to look at my heart and my motives for each act of service. I need to love without condition as He loves me. True service comes out of the heart, not out of the action itself.

Lord, may your love be visible in me. I pray that those that you have put in my path will be touched by your love, through me. Send your Helper to teach me how to love the unlovable. Show me how to serve the homeless.

Thank you for your unfailing love.

Present tense - Not limited by time

John 8:58 Jesus said to them "Truly I say to you, before Abraham was born I AM".

He could have said "I was", but throughout the Word, He persistently uses the present tense because He doesn't change and isn't limited by time as we are.

Jesus was very smart and not just intellectually smart, but street smart. And he was full of wisdom.

I wonder in verse 6 and 8 of Chapter 8 what he wrote on the ground when they were wanting to stone the adulteress. Could it have been as simple as the word "LOVE"? Or was it sin, or the word forgive? Or did He write their sins in the sand, so they would know that He was on to them?

Lord, you are the same yesterday, today and forever. Help me to be wise in all that I say and do. Help me to see your perfect timing and enjoy the time leading us to that time versus fretting. Give me rest, serenity and grace, sufficient for each day.

The Shack - An Encounter with God

When this book was first recommended to me, it was just done in passing, so I didn't buy it. But again last week, the same person mentioned it to me again and I knew [in the way that that you know beyond the shadow of a doubt in your heart of hearts] that I needed to buy it and read it. In fact, I also knew that this would be one that I would likely be passing on, so I bought 3 copies.

Like many of the books that have been put in my path over the last year of my journey, this one has a set of circumstances that couldn't be further from my life, Nevertheless I know that there is a reason that I needed to reach each one, to take me one step further on my journey.

In fact, the first few chapters were very difficult and even painful to read, as the main character, a man who was the son of a very "religious" man, who was also an abusive alcoholic, took his kids camping and one of them was abducted and brutally murdered. Her body was never recovered, but the dress that she was in was found, bloodied in a delapidated cabin that is called "The Shack" in the book. His wife, who wasn't along for the camping trip, was very close to God and in fact called him "Papa".

After a few years of emotional torment and struggle just to make it from one day to the next, one snowy day, he gets a note, out of the blue in his mailbox, inviting him to visit the Shack that weekend and it was signed Papa.

What ensues in the balance of this book of fiction is an amazing story of his personal encounter with the maker of heaven and earth and the owner of the cattle on ten thousand hills.

While I don't want to give away any of the book's story line, he is introduced to all the different dimensions of "papa" and learns about His amazing nature. By the end of the book, I was so captivated, that I found myself wondering if it was, in fact, fiction or if the write was using third person about his "friend" to actually tell this fantastic story of his own encounter with "mountain maker", "ocean tamer" (see last week's blog on that one!).

I cannot remember another book that I've read that has touched me as deeply as this one. Ever. I am a voracious reader and I've had other books I liked a great deal, but none that I could say changed me from within (which is where all of our change really needs to start!).

This story crystalized the need for forgiveness as a path to true emotional freedom and it paints the clearest picture that I've ever seen that God is ALL about love and actually desires to free us from the bonds of our misconceptions about Him. So much of what we know or surmise about Him is so incredibly distorted as a result of "religion" and so much of what we see in circumstance is not "reality".

For a literary treat, grab ahold of this one for a good read. But watch out, as this book may touch you deeply too. Allow a lot of time too, as this one is one that I could not put down!

To order

John 21 - Abundance

This chapter begins with a simple story of God's extravagant love for us. The disciples had been fishing all night without any luck. This is how we often feel when we try and try to meet up to the expectations of others or what we believe is God's expectation of our behavior. Under our own power, we just can't do it.

John 21:6 He said, "Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens."

They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren't strong enough to pull it in.

But when we call on Him and allow Him to lavish us with His love, he gives us a full net -- if only we will fish on the other side of the boat.

When He talks to us, He often asks us to do things that are the polar opposite of our nature. But in doing those things --- we receive His gift of abundance.

Matthew 5:3 "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

4 "You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

5"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

6 "You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

7 "You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

8 "You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

9 "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

10 "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

11-12 "Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

Today I pray that you will listen to His Word in your heart -- fish off the other side of your normal boat. And just simply say "BRING IT ON LORD"! Accept His abundance, His extravagant love.

Chicke Fitzgerald

John 8 - Words Drawn on the Ground

This chapter begins with Jesus teaching in the temple. I found it striking that as the Pharisees taunted Jesus, trying to trip him up by bringing an adulteress to him, and initially all He did in response was draw in the sand.

The text never says what he wrote, leaving us to wonder whether he was writing what he wanted to say to her or whether he wrote what he wished he could say to the Pharisees.

The entire chapter they challenged Him and tried to twist what He said. He retorted that if they questioned Him, they questioned His Father who sent Him. This angered them even further.

He also angered them by declaring that Abraham was not the Father that He referred to but it was Father God.

He also talked of a freedom that they could not understand.

34-38Jesus said, "I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave is a transient, who can't come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. I know you are Abraham's descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn't yet penetrated your thick skulls. I'm talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard from your father."

Let's not have thick skulls. He loves us. God loved us enough to send Him to give us freedom.

Thank God!!!!

Chicke Fitzgerald

Weekly Reflections on Freedom and Love (Galatians 4-6)

Today is Sunday, I’m at 30,000ft as I write this, winging my way from Tampa to Chicago for a corporate travel conference. It occurs to me that I am traveling farther today than Paul likely traveled during his entire time on earth.

Paul remained true to form throughout the balance of Galatians 4-6, with every verse reminding the Church that we are called to freedom and love and that slavery to anything - religion, lifestyle, rhetoric - is just that, slavery. Why choose to be bound, when freedom is available for the asking?

Galatians 5 v13-15 says “It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out! In no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?”

This reminds me of when our children choose to disobey Michael or me (or both!). It always falls upon us to tell them that they can choose their actions, but not the consequences. One thing I know, is that when Kiera and Sergey choose to love each other and to be kind and to honor Michael and I as their parents, that the consequence is a very good one. Love is freedom. It is so simple. I guess it is almost too simple, since so many people seem to either miss it or reject the notion.

Paul reminds us in Galatians that Abraham had two sons: one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless connivance (Ishmael the son of the slave) harassed the child who came—empowered by the Spirit—from the faithful promise (Isaac the son of Sarah who was both free and blessed by God with a son very late in life).

Throughout this week we witnessed intensifying conflicts in the Middle East. 2000 years later, the sons of Ishmael and Isaac are still at war and annihilation in this day of nuclear weapons is certainly possible. [Lord I pray for peace in the Middle East, even though it seems so very far away right now.]

Galatians 6 goes on to provide very practical instruction, what I call life lessons. Further to the part of chapter 5 that talks about the fruit of the Spirit (e.g. the consequences of living in love and freedom), here Paul reminds us that whatever we sow, we will reap. It isn’t possible to plant an apple seed and grow an avocado tree.

So, today, choose love and choose freedom. Be kind, accept the kindness of others. Forgive and accept the forgiveness of others.

My friend in Mozambique wrote me yesterday and told me that all of her skirts were stolen yesterday off the clothes line. Remembering that she can’t just pop over to the Super Walmart to get new ones, she really had to choose to forgive, rather than be angry over her loss. She When she forgave, she experienced freedom and then the overwhelming flood of God’s love. She reminds me with her own life lessons each day, how real God is and how true to His word.

Today I ask all who believe in the power of God to pray for my niece Sarah. She was in an ATV accident and broke her arm, her foot and some teeth. She has both nerve and vascular damage and they fear that she might lose her arm. I also lift up Cathy and Gail who both have cancer and my friend Lynn’s brother Clarke, who has been diagnosed with ALS. Also Clarke and his family live in Israel, so I also pray for protection for them.

Thanks for sharing my life and reflections this week. May you feel the power of his love and the fruits of the freedom that He has for you as a free gift today.

Next week, on to James, which begins with a discussion of the pressures of life. Let’s home there aren’t life lessons that accompany this one!

Chicke Fitzgerald