I Want Your Eyes to be My Mirror

I was listening to Jonathan David Helser and Graham Cooke in the recording entitled “The Inheritance”.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgzXXKjaPZA&list=PLAewhsGyKOMaWfOKvwvgQphsN-HsjYSzZ

One of the phrases Jonathan sings is, “I want Your eyes to be my mirror”. I thought, “If Your eyes are my mirror, I would see me as You see me, and know that I am loved.” I was going to say “worthy of love” but that was too hard to write.

Why is that?

Is anyone worthy to be loved? We are taught not! We are even taught that grace is unmerited favor. One of the definitions of unmerited is: unworthy; Lacking in value or merit.

But, as I am thinking about it, I have to say we ARE worthy of love, simply because He decided we are. Who else could determine worth, but the One who created a personality and an individual out of love and fashioned of love? Love is a substance formed into me!

You took a part of Your heart and did not diminish in the taking. You…God…You…Jesus…are like the bread broken in the hand of the disciples to feed the crowd. In the giving…in the disbursing…the bread multiplied! There was no lack, no deficit. In the breaking and giving, there was multiplication; expansion of the original.

So, this piece of Your heart, which is ME, is worthy of love. You are 100% ALL IN in loving me. You created me to love. That was ALWAYS your intention. I AM Your heart on earth as You are in heaven.

Your eyes tell me who I am…

You love me all the way—all the time. I am the beloved. Outrageously! Radically loved! Simply because You don’t know how to BE anything else! You are love. The I AM LOVE! If You are love, You cannot BE or DO otherwise! It is Your IDENTITY! And mine is LOVED! That is who I am. That is My IDENTITY! That is my NAME!

And…apparently I can only love You as much as I love myself, so THAT is a weird thought.

Set me free from how I see myself and the smallness of my own perceptions. Mostly, uncertainty…THAT is a form of fear and fear has no place in love.

Malcom Smith wrote:

The Incarnation means He came inside our humanity and He sat inside our mental darkness; inside our fears. He looked out through my eyes and said, “I see what you see, but now let me tell you the truth,” and He tells you from the INSIDE, that the Father loves you.

You see, Jesus came down and got inside of us, and He got right down into “death” that was ours. Then He walked us out in resurrection and ascension and He carried us home to the Father where we belong.

Caesarea Phillippi and the Temple of Pan

After visiting Israel for the 11^th time, taking numerous pictures each time of the sights, I thought I would share some thoughts for my friends who have not had the opportunity to visit Israel.  I hope these thoughts will bring understanding to some of the things that we read in scripture, but aren’t always aware of the background. Background makes the story richer and more meaningful.

End of Matthew 15 and 16.

In the foothills of Mt. Hermon, in the region of Caesarea Philippi, there is a spring which flowed through a cave in biblical times. It is one of the three sources of the river Jordan.  The cave was deemed a bottomless pit because a line 800 meters long could not reach bottom.  To the people of that time, it was a mysterious and mystical place which was thought to be an entrance to the god of the underworld, hence it was believed to be the gate to Hades. Today, this place is known as the Banias, an Arabic and Modern Hebrew name once associated with the god Pan. 

Pan was half man half goat; the god of the wild, of goats and herding as well as sexual and spiritual possession and of victory in battle since he was said to instill panic in the enemy.  He was companion of nymphs; beautiful young maidens who loved to dance and sing and were free of the chastity required of the wives and daughters of the Greek citizens. 

On this site was a shrine dedicated to Pan and other gods. You can still see the niches with some elaborate carvings in the face of the rock cliff which held the statues of the deities, and the foundations of a temple which stood at the mouth of the cave with a another temple to the right. It was a cult center.   

Josephus writes about this cave (Wars 1 21 3) "... the place is called Panium, where is a top of a mountain that is raised to an immense height, and at its side, beneath, or at its bottom, a dark cave opens itself; within which there is a horrible precipice, that descends abruptly to a vast depth; it contains a mighty quantity of water, which is immovable; and when anybody lets down anything to measure the depth of the earth beneath the water, no length of cord is sufficient to reach it ...".

The depth of the water, according to Josephus, was very deep in ancient times. At times the springs burst from the opening of the cave. There were also mystical traditions that a tunnel from the cave led deep into the Golan. 

This was a place of orgies and licentiousness and ritual sacrifice. In order to please the gods, animals were thrown into the abyss of the cave. If the waters below flowed clear and pure, the sacrifice was accepted. If there were tinges of blood in the waters, it was considered to be a sign the sacrifice was rejected.  Because of the wanton licentiousness, people were drawn to the area, but also repulsed at the shocking display of debauchery.

 In the beginning of Matthew 16, the Bible states that Jesus took his disciples to the region of Caesarea Philippi. This is just following the multiplication of the loaves and fishes at the end of Matthew 15.  It was there, immediately following this miracle, that the Sadducees and Pharisees asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.  Jesus replied that a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but none would be given it except the sign of Jonah.  Obviously, they cannot believe what they have observed and want Jesus to perform a very dramatic miracle just for them.  Jesus refuses and says they already know how to read signs and not further sign will be given to them except a sign soon to come equivalent to the forerunner sign of Jonah. 

 Jesus warns His disciples not to be infected with the same unbelieving and religious yeast of the Pharisees.  Then he asks His disciples, “Who do you say that I am? ´Peter replied, “You are Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”  Jesus then said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

 

Now, I don’t know where Jesus was standing when He asked that question, but I like to think that the large outcropping of bedrock was prominently displayed in the background. As we have been taught, Jesus is saying that Peter is a rock, but the truth of what he has just declared is the bedrock truth on which Jesus is building His church.   Jesus goes on to address the traditions of the location. He says this place, known as the gates of Hades, full of the fear and dread of death and the underworld, will not prevail against His church.  

And why? Because He has come to undo, outdo and overdo and cancel out anything death could ever threaten. He has come to swallow up death. 

His church is also built of rock; living stones fitted together; not hewn by hand. The living stones are infused with the kingdom of God inside. They are increasing in number and are filling the earth. This structure will be built on what He will accomplish in His own death and resurrection, and on what we believe about Him. He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. When you build a church with living stones who have the kingdom of God within them, no gate of hell can overcome that kind of church. It is forcefully advancing all over the world. As soon as we individually answer the question, “Who do you say that I am?,” we become part of that church whose calling is to release the kingdom within and facilitate a way for the kingdom of God to be established in the hearts of those around us.

Third and Final Installment on Joseph and Living the Dream

Just like Joseph, God knows our name. When God speaks it to us, it is full of revelation that is available to explore. When God names us, there are meanings in that name, to discover and walk in, that will cause us to experience God in a much greater and more intimate way. Every time we stumble upon or receive a hint of the creativity encompassed in our name, it causes a greater dependency on God to fulfill the call. It enlarges us so God can come and fill the new space. It’s just like breathing. Inhale understanding, exhale application.
Think of what may have happened to Joseph when the angel called to him by name. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”. It all happened so beautifully in the dream, but what about his emotions and thoughts when he woke up?
Can you see Joseph’s mind on over drive? What did that angel just say? Son of David? Of course I know I am a descendant of David, but me??? I didn’t know it meant THAT! I mean me? And all the scriptures he’s ever been taught about the history of the Jewish people and the promised Messiah come flooding in. What? Wait a minute! Slow down. Yes, there are scriptures that it is going to be a virgin birth, but c’mon.....Mary? And I am supposed to suspend logic and rush headlong into something I am not prepared for?
God is the author of creativity. You can’t make this stuff up. A virgin birth. A miracle baby. A couple of unknown nobodies partnering in one of the most creative ideas God ever had. And the Bible is full of them! It is crazy how we read some of the astounding accounts and it becomes a fable, when if you think about it, we hang all of our faith on a creative idea that makes no sense to the natural mind. A virgin birth?
Creative ideas bypass logic and common sense to unlock a heart response. In Joseph’s case, God was telling him, “You were made for this day. I have placed you in this location at this specific time because I am about to turn the page of history and open the door to the future and when I do, NOTHING is going to be the same. You are the hinge on which I am hanging the door.” WOW!
And it is the same for us when we step into ownership of the creative. We co-partner with the Holy Spirit to be the hinge on which He hangs a door to more. Our partnership opens up something even we don’t understand fully, but there is quiet awe and a humility that happens inside when we begin to understand that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.
And may I submit to you, that in order to fully enter the more God wants to open up through our lives, we have to accept that WE are a many chambered temple. There are rooms inside of us that have yet to be explored. I thought I was a one room cottage until God broke in totally uninvited and unexpected and abruptly shoved a mirror in my face and said, “Look at you for a change. See what I see. You are creative and I am about to prove it to you in the most blatant way. I am going to offend you with the beginnings of a gift you were not even aware of and never even wanted.”
When He wants to communicate a message urgently, God is not necessarily a gentleman. He will confront you with the “more” you never expected or thought of, and it might scare the living daylights out of you. You just might have an experience like Joseph that says…I always knew my name was Joseph, but I had no clue that I would be the one. You might even want to run away because the unveiling is too overwhelming and scary, and all the objections of being too old, of knowing what you are already called to do, of time it will take to invest in and develop that hidden and budding creativity come rushing at you. You might even feel anger. For me, it was an identity crisis. How could I not know I could draw or paint all my life?
God’s dream of creativity for us upsets the status quo. What you thought was going to happen, what you thought was going to be comfortable, becomes an all-encompassing life journey. Like Joseph, we are giving up what is a somewhat predictable existence, to be part of some untold, yet marvelous story. Most of the time, the dream is two-fold. It stretches us past the membrane of our present notion of ourselves, while also impacting those around us. Joseph changed, but his change provided the platform for his son to become all God had called Him to be.
When you embrace the dream, you are agreeing to cooperate with God to design something new, whether it is an object, a thought or insight or a solution. We just call that creativity. We co-create with God.
Creativity is expressed in art or music or dance and poetry. Those are major culture changers and influencers that God wants to use today, but creativity is not limited to the arts. God wants us to take creative thought into the business world with the inventiveness we need today. He wants us to take it into the community with a creative solution that the mind of man cannot think of. He wants to take it into government, education and every one of the spheres of influence. Creativity is thinking like God thinks, to bring an expression of Himself into the world, and awaken people to how much they mean to Him and Who He wants to be for them.
So, reading the Christmas story for me this year has become an invitation to be “all in” in my own story; the story God is writing through my life, whether or not I am seeing the big picture. I have enough assurances that I am on the right track by now to allow me to just keep following the “breadcrumbs” of the hints of direction confident He will bring it all together. Along the way it is an adventure of discovering the sufficiency of God in every situation.

Second Part of Joseph and Living the Dream

Joseph and Living the Dream Continued...
...after the angel spoke to Joseph in a dream (Matt. 20-23)...
Joseph woke up and began to carry out what he was directed to do. Five quick directives; profound implications, just like the names we have been given have unfolding layers, or the prophetic words many of us have been fortunate enough to receive. We think we understand when we hear them, but they are multi-layered with deeper meaning and unexpected pathways. In the case of Joseph, as is with each of us, there is a watershed moment of decision. Joseph has to contemplate giving up what is a predictable existence, to be part of some untold, yet marvelous story. The angel was inviting Joseph to be “all in” in his own story.
God had a dream for Joseph bigger than anything he could conceive. Even walking it out day by day probably didn’t bring a whole lot of
revelation or clarity. But wondrous things happened at critical times, to give him the knowledge or the affirmation that he was “living the dream”.
Did he always feel it or know it? Did he always see the big picture? Our response is the same as Joseph’s: just hear and do. Listen and follow. Choices matter. One life matters. Just say yes.
Every once in a while Joseph was dumbstruck with wonder. Like the time he had to travel to Bethlehem with his pregnant wife to fulfill a legal obligation, which apparently had no exceptions for women in the late stages of pregnancy. Who knows how worried and frustrated Joseph became, trying to find shelter for his laboring wife, in a town bursting at the seams with inconvenienced and weary travelers, most of whom were there by forced decree.
And in the midst of all the worry, in perhaps one of the lowest moments of his life, when as a husband he can’t provide what is needed, the baby is born in a shelter for animals. How can this be part of “living the dream”?
However, shortly thereafter, shepherds appear and reinforce the fact that Joseph is still moving in the center of something larger than life. He needed the miracle of that visitation, and so did Mary. And isn’t it just like that with us? God comes swooping in unexpectedly and unbidden with a taste of the eternal so that the unbearable transforms with wonder? The veil between realities is rent, and glory superimposes itself on our mundane perspective, leaving us to marvel at the wonder of His presence and giving us enough affirmation to continue on in awe.
Four times, at life defining junctures, an angel appeared to give Joseph direction; four times in a dream. It’s like the angel is saying, “Just live the dream, Joseph. Be willing to go beyond your understanding.”
The second time the angel appeared was when Herod wanted to find and kill the baby, which by now was Joseph’s beloved son. When I merely read the passage in the Bible, it seems so sanitized. If I put myself in the story however, I can imagine the tension and fear. What insecure and power hungry madman orders soldiers, who are trained warriors and fighting men, to hunt down and slaughter children? What happens inside men who have no choice but to comply with orders or be executed themselves? How do you deal with the psychological horror of knowing the king has issued an edict for your child’s death and other children, dear to other fathers, are dying in his place?
But the angelic dream instructs Joseph on the next course of the journey. Go to Egypt until. Until can be a long road, but if you have an “until” word, you have the assurance that further instruction will come at the next critical juncture. Once again, you just carry on in the direction, using the provision and wisdom gleaned in the last place as you process life each and every day.
“Until” speaks of the more that is coming; you just don’t know when. “Until” means this phase will end sometime, and something new will open up, so you settle patiently in the now, keep hope alive and order life accordingly. It’s not just a waiting phase, though. It’s a growing phase. Everything is growing.
In this case, Joseph was growing, his skills were growing. His business was growing. His family was growing. His relationships were growing. His character was growing. And he was going to be able to take all that learning and development with him into the next phase of life, when the season of “until” was fulfilled.
Sure enough, when Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared again. He directed Joseph back to the land of his heritage and inheritance. Joseph’s strategic placement was reinstated for the day that was dawning. Another dream confirmed his suspicions that it was still dangerous to go to Judea, so he settled in Nazareth, fulfilling the scripture that his son would be called a Nazarene.
I am encouraged by this story of a seemingly ordinary man who was living the dream; protecting the seed of a new day. I love it that the Amplified Bible says that Joseph’s son would prevent people “from failing and missing the true end and scope of life, which is God.”
I’m encouraged that an angel kept Joseph from failing and missing the true end and scope of his own life, four times. I’m encouraged that when I hear and follow, I am living the dream and I really don’t have to worry that I will miss it. God’s dream is so important to Him that He breaks into my life along the way to confirm it with wonder. He assures me time and time again, that what I am engaged in is larger than anything I ever thought possible, because I evaluated myself and my gifting from a myopic point of view.
In this story I see many parallels for creativity. (Which will be continued tomorrow)....

Joseph and Living the Dream

I have been pondering the story of Joseph off and on for a number of months.  Not the Joseph with the coat of many colors, who lived an amazing life of trial and triumph, but the one with the plain, brown coat; the husband of Mary.  That Joseph.  The Joseph who is so easy to overlook.  Yeah, maybe we appreciate that he took Mary as his wife, even though he knew he wasn’t the father of the child she was carrying.  Maybe we admire the fact that he was willing to live with the gossip and criticism associated with her condition, and maybe we consider him a role model as a good father and husband, but if we look a bit closer, I think we will find there are some subtleties to be gleaned that have parallels for broader thoughts.

Perhaps the marriage of Joseph and Mary was one of opportunity for Joseph.  Perhaps he was attracted to her.  Perhaps he was going along with the wishes of his family, because this was a good match.  Whatever the background, we are not told.  All we know is Joseph happened to have the proper background, as a descendant of David, to be father to the king.

As the story goes, Joseph was betrothed to Mary, but when he found out she was pregnant, he planned to divorce her quietly.  Divorce seems the logical thing to do, if one wanted to maintain reputation.  And Joseph, to his credit, was going to do so quietly.  I can see how Joseph might not even think there was any other option.  When things got a little complicated and embarrassing, Joseph wanted out.  Divorce was the out. 

That is, UNTIL an angel appeared to him in a dream and gave him another thought.  The angel opened up a scenario and told Joseph not to be afraid to go there.  He invited Joseph to be “all in” in a happening he didn’t understand.  The fact that God used a dream and an angel to communicate with Joseph, speaks to me of God’s dream within a dream. 

God spoke because He had a dream for Joseph bigger than his own dream of having a family, a trade and a normal life.  God was setting something in motion that was monumental. He wanted to make sure Joseph had enough clarity to go there.  God is good like that; always inviting us further into our own story with dreams that are so big, they are hidden in His benevolence.  That’s why we have trouble discerning.  The pixels that make up the picture are spread out so far, they are undecipherable up close.  Some of us may have had an experience like that. 

I had a History teacher in ninth grade, Mr. McHugh, who asked our class some questions pertaining to a chapter we had read.  Kids were answering his questions, but not hitting the mark.  I could see where he was going, but being a very, very shy kid, I was always happy for someone else to answer the question, as long as I did not have to be the one.  But this time, no one did.

Finally, I could sense his frustration and I raised my hand.  I tied in the chapter we had been assigned with some insight that went beyond what he was anticipating.  In that moment, he was stunned.  He said, “You do not belong in this class.” He took me by the hand and led me down the hall to Mr. Wu’s class.  Mr. Wu taught the brainiacs.

He opened the door, interrupted the class and said, “She belongs in your class.”  However, because I was such a self-conscious kid, I was absolutely humiliated at the public display and never lived up to Mr. McHugh’s belief in my potential, because I did not believe it about myself.  The picture was too big.  I couldn’t see myself in that scenario. But, God has brought that memory up time and again, at critical junctures in my life to say, “This is what I believe about you”.

In Joseph’s  dream, the angel introduced him to a huge panoramic scenario with just enough information to keep him headed in the direction of his calling.  It was a five part word.  It all happens in a paragraph, so you have to pay attention. He called him: “Joseph, descendant of David”.  In other words:

1.       I am naming you.  No other name has significance now.  I know who you are, and I know your bloodline.  I’m calling you to awaken to who you are. That is what my teacher was trying to do for me.

2.       Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife.  Don’t be afraid is the same directive an angel has said to countless men before Joseph with a call on their lives: Joshua, Abraham, Gideon just to mention a few.

3.       Carry on in the direction you were headed. Don’t let this current situation dissuade you. Go ahead and get married. Proceed as planned.  I’m here to tell you, nothing’s changed.

4.       Something you can’t understand and do not have a grid for has just happened.  I know you have no way to process what I am telling you, but I’m going to say it anyway.  That which is conceived in Mary is from the Holy Spirit.  Isn’t it like that when you know God has spoken to you?  You understand the words, but it makes no sense to the natural mind.

5.       This is what will happen as a result.  (He will save his people from their sins.) This is the culmination of history encompassing all that your people have been promised and have been waiting for.  And YOU are right smack dab in the middle of the story!  You are a central figure and you probably still won’t understand.......to be continued....

I Am Worthy of it All

I hear the phrase, “There is no one like our God” every once in a while.  Today, in church, we sang a song with those sentiments.  Like so many other songs we repeat because they sound spiritual and true, I wondered if I could sing it with the enthusiasm of the others in the room.  That’s because it raises new thoughts and questions for me.

You see, I don’t think like I used to, and it is causing me to have an uncomfortable feeling.  But hey, I’m getting used to that, and I am okay with the exploration of ideas.  The other song we sang was, “You are worthy of it all”.  God certainly is, but for over a year, I have been hearing the words of that song, in Jesus’ voice singing them to me.  Except maybe the phrase, “for from you are all things”….in that case it would be “for from YOU are all things”.  Given that, I think God wants me to know something.

Maybe I will just share how my mind works.  We were singing, “There is no one like our God” and my mind was saying, “That is not the whole truth!” There is a people group in the earth that is a lot like our God.  If we keep singing songs like this, we will never believe it.  There is a company of people who are co-equal heirs.  There is a group, the members of which are ambassadors of another kingdom.  There are ones who are known in heaven as sons of God, who have been made in His image and likeness.  When are we going to sing songs about that?  Are we too afraid of offending God or being struck down for our presumption?  I don’t usually get upset, but I started crying; grieving actually.  We really need new songs for a new understanding.  Language takes us places.  It is one of the keys for advancement. We need new song writers with a new sound that will move us into applying truth to ourselves.

What if we believe the Bible?  What if we take some time and really explore how BIG we are?  What if we get a revelation of how powerful and gifted and how much we are worth to God?  Jesus became a worm so I could be a butter fly!  Fly, butterfly, fly!  That is one of my prophetic words!  What does it mean to fly like a butterfly!   In a dream, I heard God’s voice talking to someone about me and He said, “I would like to see her fly a little, knowing she is at home there”.  I am doing my best to see what that looks like for me. 

I think I am doing my best to spread my wings and soar, but maybe I am really in the stage where the butterfly just comes out of the chrysalis and has an abdomen extended because it is full of fluid.  Maybe I am just pregnant with a concept.  The butterfly has to spread his wings and flap them to pump the fluid into the wings so they can expand.   Then he has to exercise them to strengthen them and create the proper camber or convexity for the wings to work properly.  Without this step, the wings would just hang down and be soft and floppy.

Another interesting thing that happens after the butterfly emerges is the fusing of the tongue into one unit.  The butterfly emerges with a somewhat forked or two parallel tongues.  They must be aligned or zipped together.  That allows it to be used as a drinking straw to sip nectar from flowers, or even to absorb liquid like a paper towel.

This may be where I really am in my butterfly process.  I am in the aligning and zipping my tongue phase.  Now you can laugh at that and agree that I need to zip my tongue, but not for obvious reasons.  I am thinking that I need to have unified declarations and not talk out of both an old and a newer understanding.  So, right now I declare that I am worthy of it all.  I am worthy of it all. From Him are all things and through me are all things.  I am His glory. 

How can I say that?  2 Cor. 3:17-18: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.  If that isn’t enough then here is another verse: John 17:22: I have given them the glory that you gave me… When we look into the mirror Who is Jesus, we see ourselves reflected in glory.  That is who we are; His glory! So, I am going to align and zip my tongue to declare one sound over myself.  I am worthy of it ALL! 

We are worthy of it ALL.  Let’s create a company mindset that will explore the more inside each one of us.  Let’s come fully alive to how much bigger we are than we ever imagined.  Let’s hang together and tell stories of Who God showed Himself to be when we believed how big we could be.  Let’s challenge each other to take the Bible for granted.  If He has granted us promises, why can’t we take them for granted?

I have discarded the chrysalis.  I know I have.  Everything is different.  I am never going back there!  I just don’t fit!