The One Who Understands

     I remember when John Luke was eight years old .....I was visiting a neighbour next door and the cookie jar was on top of the refrigerator with lots of chocolate chip cookies ....John Luke's favourites!  He knew I would say no at that time of the day, so he climbed on a chair and retrieve the jar.  Eating one or two cookies was no problem .....three or four .....nine, ten ........

     I knew something was wrong when John Luke called downstairs and said he was not feeling well and didn't think he wanted anything to eat at dinnertime.  I found John Luke crouched down in the bathroom, clutching his middle and tearfully ready to confess what he had done.  

     I got some stomach medicine from the cabinet and helped John Luke to bed.  I brought him some water to sip and said 'well it's no dessert for you for a while.'  I remember John Luke asking why I was not mad at him.  I laughed and told him I had been where he was before .....that believe it or not I had been a little girl!  I then asked him if I had ever told him why I didn't like apples ......that once I did.  He told me no.  I shared with him how when I was his age a friend and I sneaked to our neighbours and ate many apples from their tree.  I was sick for days.  I told him disobeying was wrong, but I knew how he was feeling.

     I think this story reflects what we experience with Jesus.  He entered into our world, He became a man and walked through life ....experiencing joy, pain, betrayal, corruption, lies .....Jesus knows ......it is not something He knows from a distance .....He knows how we feel.  In the book of Hebrews, we can read that although He never sinned, He knows only too well what temptation is like.  In fact, nothing is hidden from Him.  

     Just like I held my little boy when he was in pain and sick, Jesus is with us, He cares, He is listening, He is even holding us like I held John Luke.  Yes there are consequences to our actions, but we don't ever have to run from Him thinking He doesn't understand .....He does and He will walk with us through whatever it is ......He may deliver us, He may not .....but He is always there and loves us beyond all we can imagine.  

Remembering

DTS students worshipping

Worship

In Awe

Surrender

     

I was standing at the window watching a dog bark across the street.  It took me a few minutes to realise the dog was on the roof of a house.  It took me till the next day to realise the dog lived on the roof!  Throughout the city dogs lived on low, flat, and colourful roofs .....I was in Chiapas, Mexico. 

     This was a few years ago.  It took me forever to get to the city.  I had left from Costa Rica 4 hours late, only to get to Mexico City to be told I had missed my connecting flight.  Since the flight only flew once a day, I had to wait till the next day to fly into Chiapas.  

     I was in a strange city, didn't speak the language well and unsure of what to do.  I met a few people who were very friendly and they helped me get a motel.  I didn't sleep very well though, because I could not lock my door.  I had to leave the motel at 4:30 so I thought not much sleep anyway!

     I arrived in Chiapas around 9am and there were four friendly faces waiting.  I was so glad to see these young people who had invited me to speak in their Discipleship Training School.  We took a taxi to the bus station and then drove up a beautiful mountain.  We stopped in a city that was not Chiapas, got another taxi and two hours later I was in Chiapas ......what an adventure!

     My young friends told me we had just come up a mountain where over fifty indigenous groups lived and most of them hated Christians.  The languages spoken were a dialect of Spanish and there was much 'brujeria" (witchcraft) throughout the tribes. 

     The Youth With A Mission house I was staying in for a week was very small with only a few rooms, but they gave me the nicest one.  The Mexicans are very hospitable.  It was a very interesting house with a garage in the middle of the building; rooms surrounding the cars!  The floors were concrete and the roof tin.  They showed me one bathroom and said twenty of us would be using it.  The house was spotless (even with cars in the middle of the rooms!) and there was hot water.

     The food was very interesting, one day I ate pig's ear.  They did not tell me until after I had eaten it.  Not sure if this was a trick or a language barrier ...I think maybe the latter!  It tasted a bit like squid, a bit rubbery.  They served much cow's liver.  This along with rice and beans seemed to be the staple food.  They took me out to eat several times and guess what I had to eat?  Lot of tacos!  They were delicious.

     I went to a market one day, seemed like another world.  Not sure how to describe this scene, you just had to be there; beautiful people, many colours, food and children everywhere.  The babies were carried on the backs of their mothers in huge scarves.  People were sitting on the streets, in groups, everywhere selling their produce.  I ate corn on the cob, grilled over an open fire; delicious!

     I was teaching that week on the Active Presence of God in our lives.  As I was standing in the market that day I became so aware of God's presence with me.  Although I was in a foreign town with people I did not understand, food I did not recognise and was not sure how to get back to the house I was staying in; I knew I was not alone.  

     I shared that week with about twenty-five young people from the country of Mexico.  I wanted them to understand that though they were living in a very small town with much poverty, they were people with a purpose, a destiny, they were with Jesus through Holy Spirit.  They were united with Father; they were part of God's story.  I could see in their faces by the end of week they sensed God's spirit; they had captured God's heart from Revelation 7:9 ".....every race, tribe, nation and language."

     The Thursday night I was there, the young people had what they called an "international night" where even people from the surrounding communities came.  They were going to pray for China.  All the young people were dressed in Chinese style and we ate with chopsticks.  I shared a bit with them and then we worshipped.  I had not ever experienced anything like this, and a young girl started singing in Chinese.  It was so crystal clear.  So amazing, the next day the young girl's mom came and asked when would she stop.  One of the students from the DTS was a young guy..... let's call Isaac and he was a lawyer in Chiapas.  He came to me and said, "I asked God for a miracle tonight, I guess He did!"  

     This was one of the most amazing trips and teaching weeks I have ever had.  I am not sure why I continue to think about it, why God has brought it to mind, but I continue to remember.  I know this blog is a bit long, but I felt to share it with you.  I hope you find it encouraging.

     There was one more thing I did that week I still remember so well.  I was on the radio!  Yes that is right.  I was asked to give my testimony and to share how God could use people  right there from Chiapas, Mexico to participate with Him in His mission in this world.  The broadcaster told me afterwards my words were real and honest.  He said that is what people want to hear because so much of Christianity was connected with religion, not relationship.

       It was an expensive trip, a bit scary at times, but as you can see I am still thinking about it.  I remember as I was getting in the taxi to go down the mountain at the end of the week Isaac came up to me, hugged me and said, "God showed me another miracle this week and that is you.  Thank you for coming here.  I will never be the same and if I don't see you in this world again we will meet at the Throne worshipping Him."  

     Maybe that is why I am remembering this week again .......this young man reminded me why I do what I do, why I can't help but do what I do .....encouraging, inspiring, teaching, telling people who God is, who they are, how much humanity means to God and what our purpose is.

     As I went down that mountain I couldn't see the beauty because of tears streaming down my face .......but I felt His pleasure .........

How do you see me?

How do you see me God?

I had asked this question several times in my life, but this time it seemed to affect me in a way it never had before.

How do you see me right now, God?  Not how do I have to try and be or how do I get that way?  I realised I had always seen what He said about me in the Scriptures or maybe even what He said to me deep down in my being, as something I still needed to prove or strive and achieve.  Wow striving, performing such a part of my thinking.  I just couldn't separate this from what God said.

I was determined to sit, reflect, journal and listen to God.  I have learned that the spiritual disciplines are good; God's grace, a time for me to be still and be with Father.  I know I am not seeing myself the way He sees me and it was hindering me from being all He created me to be.

Something immediately came to mind ........my time in Switzerland (masters intensive) during the first week when the speaker asked us to ask this very question; what are God's thoughts toward us?  I wrote down passionate and creative.  I remember thinking , "What, this is not me."  I always wanted to be this way, I tried, but couldn't.  Immediately I saw where I did not receive this.  Once again I thought well I will try.

The next morning I took my daughter to school.  Before she got out of the car, she gee me a big hug, a kiss and said, "you are awesome Mom!"  As she ran towed the school, I watched her.  I sensed God saying, "Teresa, I think you are awesome too."  Could this really be God?  I couldn't believe it.  No God, you would not say that, would you?  I continued to reflect on this.

The next day my husband brought me a dozen red roses.  He has done this in the past years, but not in a while.  I asked him why.  He said, "Because I love you."  As I went to put them in water, again I sensed from deep within, "This is how I see you Teresa.  I love you."

Right now I am asking God to empower me to embrace this truth; not to perform.  I am practicing the spiritual disciplines God gave us to reflect, journal and listen.  I am creating space  for God to minister, heal and speak.

I want to be everything God created me to be.

Here are some questions for you to reflect upon to see if there is anything hindering you.
1.)  Jesus was always interacting with people, asking them questions; sometimes strange questions.  What question do you think Jesus might ask you right now?
2.)  What kind of feelings would you be having at this time while talking to Jesus.
3.)  What questions would you like to ask Jesus?

The Blueprint for Humanity

"God's method is always incarnational.  He loves to take His truth and wrap it in a person."  (Howard Hendricks)

When I first went to Budapest, Hungary ......I had so many ideas what a 'missionary' was suppose to look like ......and I was going to be a great one!  One day I was running through the streets, I had so much to do and I was in a hurry.  I was 'doing ministry' after all!  The streets were very wide and you did not cross them above ground, you had to go under ground.  I was hurrying from one side of the street to the other ....down steps and up them, when I noticed a woman sitting on one of the steps with a bundle in her arms.  The homeless people were everywhere and most of the time ignored.  On this day I looked and then I looked again.  She was looking right at me.  I turned around and went back to her.  She had tears running down her face.  As I watched her, I sensed something deep inside......"what are you doing?  Running around like a crazy person 'doing ministry.'  What about this lady and her child, right here in front of you?"  I sat down beside her and ask if I could see her baby.  She showed the child to me, beautiful, but crying.  

I looked in this woman's face and I saw a person, a woman .... a human being that God created and cared about.  I asked her if I could buy her something to eat.  She just stared at me crying.  I told her I would be right back.  I went to the top of the stairs where there was a McDonald's and bought burgers, fries and drinks.  I went back down the steps, sat down beside the lady and her child and gave them food.  I sat with her for a long time drinking coffee.  I knew I had learned something that day; I could run around all the time and think I was doing 'God's work' and totally ignore what God was actually doing all around me; on the metro, tram, bus, in my apartment building or on the streets.  

Even when we did not know we needed God, didn't even know we were not living the way He created us to live .....He entered into our world, He came to us .....He met us.  We must not make ourselves immune to the suffering and pain of the world around us, but where we are, we too must entered into lives .....to live the life of Christ .....as He entered into our world to live the life of God.

If Jesus is God living a human life ....then we have in Him the designer's blueprint for how human beings are meant to live.  If our blueprint of what it is to be human is a person who entered into our world and entered into our suffering ....got strung up on a cross, then we must not detach ourselves from the world.

Jesus entering into our world gives us a vision of how to be human.

Any of us who have been transformed by Christ, need to entered into people's lives.  This lady needed something real, full of life....... she needed a person.  The transforming story of what God does in a human heart comes alive and the life-changing story will touch and change lives.  By sharing our lives we are telling the story of Jesus.

"But what does it all mean?" asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.
"It means," said Aslan, "that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."

And the joy – the deepest, most fantastic joy of all – is that there is a “deeper magic” available for all of us.

Ch. 15 : Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time