The Deep: Part II

So you decide you’re tired of living on the shoreline and venture out a little deeper. You get past the breakers and find that you’re up to your neck, hanging out managing the waves like I did. You decide it’s nicer out here, no pushing and pulling, much easier, floating around, jumping over small waves. You think, “This is what God must have wanted and what he had meant when he called me deeper.” You might even be tempted to think, “Even though I can still stand on my own feet, I’m much deeper than I used to be and certainly much deeper than those people over there on the shore.” As you start to get your confidence up, you suddenly see a really big wave rolling towards you.

You start to panic. “God, you never said anything about waves this big. What am I supposed to do? I can’t jump over this one myself; I think I’ll just head back to the shore where it’s safer.” But through your panic and doubt, you hear the Lord whisper, “There isn’t time; just hang onto Me and I’ll take you through this trial because if you allow me, I am going to take you even deeper.” Well, you ignore that last part and because honestly you don’t have any other options, you put your trust in the Lord and of course, He brings you through. You are amazed that God has sustained you out here in the deep the way He did. You might even tell your friends the same way I told you about how I made it through the big one.

But there is a problem. Some people stay here in their Christian lives. They get to a place of trusting God, a place of learning, living deeper than they used to, even getting through some big trials, but for whatever reason, they decide not to go any deeper. But the Spirit’s voice will always call us on to a place of unnatural depth because it is there that we must totally depend on the supernatural sustaining power of God. And it is only in that state of total dependence that we will be able to form a consistent, lasting intimate dependence on the Father.

Eternal Lord, sustain me in the deep when trials try to sweep me away. You hold me in the palm of Your hand.

Check out: Psalm 73:23-28

The Deep: Part I

I’d like you to think about the ocean. Personally because I am inexperienced swimming in the ocean, I have great respect for its unpredictable power. One of the main reasons relates to an experience I had a few years back. After spending hours being beaten up on the shoreline in a about a foot of water, a friend brought me out to where the water was up to my neck. She taught me to jump over the waves and enjoy the deeper water. Then I saw it. A huge wave was rolling right towards us. My friend swam over to me and told me that we would need to go under this one. Knowing that she wouldn’t let me drown, I clung on to her and when she said. “Now!” we dipped effortlessly beneath the wave.

When I came up on the other side of the wave, I looked toward the shoreline. I could see its swell rolling away from us, sweeping other more unsuspecting bathers away. I didn't drown. I had made it through the "big one."

So what does a first time experience in the ocean have to do with my relationship with God?
Imagine a person standing on the beach. This person represents us as we stand before the Christian life as we come to the unlimited majesty of the Almighty God. The water represents being immersed into the Christian life. The distance to which we are willing to go out towards the invisible horizon and the depth we are willing reach represents our walk and the level of our commitment to God.

You see, as I stood on the shoreline that day at the beach, I was in no danger of drowning. I could stand on my own two feet, and I could get out of the water without much trouble. But near the shoreline is where the waves break. It’s also where the current seems strongest, pulling and pushing you back and forth as the water yanks at your feet. If you stand there long enough, not only will your feet will begin to sink into the sand like anchors, but you will get really tired with all the waves breaking on you.

I spent a lot of time metaphorically on the beach in my Christian life. I was in the water, I was saved, but because my trust of God was limited and because there was no real depth or grounding to my understanding of His nature, I was afraid to venture out to a place of uncertainty. I would inwardly laugh when I’d hear Christians recite the verse: “Come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) What rest I’d say; I’m exhausted. But there was always this gentle voice calling me towards the deep.

Consider: Where am I today? Am I on the shoreline, standing in the water? Or am I venturing out towards the deep?

Almighty Father, draw my fearful heart towards your limitless, deep love today. I will come.

Check out: Colossians 3:13-17

Beneath the Surface

Intimacy with God is not an experience that happens to us. It is a state of being, a state of existence that develops within us. As we allow God into our inner man, we are drawn deeper into His presence. It is when we place ourselves “in” Him, not near Him or around His people, but in Him that we can truly be intimate with God.

But why the need for such intimacy with God? Why not just a little depth? Can’t you just know of God and allow Him to be a part of your life, even the most important part of your life?

I remember my pastor asking the question, “Who here has Christ as the most important part of their life?” I smiled and proudly raised my hand. Was I surprised when he then said, “Christ should not be the most important part of your life. He should be your life.” I had missed it. It was the difference between acting like a Christian and being a Christian.

So many times I had reduced my Christianity with a compartmentalized attitude – God goes here, work goes here and so on. No wonder my walk was a series of up and down emotionally-driven experiences.

Consider: Why is it necessary to live “beneath” instead of on the “surface” of God?

Check out: John 15:4-8

Deep Calls to Deep

Sometimes when we read through our bibles, we have a tendency to just read the words. We truly want to know the Word of God, but unless we get beneath the surface and spend time meditating and reflecting, we can often miss the power of this most unique written message.

Slowly read the psalm below (Psalm 139) - out loud. This translated version reflects the fullness of the language and the probable intent of the writer:

O Lord, you have intimately penetrated, examined, observed, instructed, recognized, punished, and cared for me. You know my dwellings and my risings, my strengths and weaknesses; you distinguish and separate my thoughts to tend and pasture them, to rule and associate with them (even when I am remote, I am precious). You winnow and sift my well-trodden roads; my sleeping and my dreams are familiar to you with all my roads and courses of life in order to cherish and minister to me. For there is not a word, topic, or discourse on my tongue, but lo, O Lord, you observe and recognize it all. You have confined and cramped me behind – backward to my past – and before me and placed your open palm upon me. Such observing, caring, recognizing, and instructing is too remarkable and difficult for me; it is lofty, strong, and inaccessible – I cannot attain it. Where, since I have and am nothing, shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I suddenly bolt from your face? If I mount and ascend up into the sky, you are there. If I make my bed in the world of the dead, behold, you are there, then. If I lift the wings of the dawn and reside in the uttermost parts of the roaring sea, even there shall your open hand guide and transport me, and your powerful open hand seize and possess me.

If I say, surely the dark, ignorant and sorrowful destruction shall overwhelm and snap me, even a twist away from the light shall be happy illumination about me. Yea, the darkness shall not withhold light from you, but the night is as luminous as the day. The sorrowful dark and the happy illumination are both alike to you. For you have purchased and owned my reins and my mind; you have entwined and fenced me in my mother’s womb. I will lift my hands to you, for I am made in a fearfully reverent and distinguished way. Great and wonderful are your actions, like poetry, and that my soul recognizes right well. My powerful body was not destroyed when I was made in secret, embroidered and fabricated in the depths of the womb – the earth.
Your eyes, like a fountain, did see my strong body, yet unformed, and in your written book all my structures were engraved, which daily were determined and molded into shape, when as yet there was none of them. How costly and valuable are your thoughts and ideas unto me, O God!

How powerfully numerous is the sum of them. If I should tally them, they are more in number than the whirling particles of sand. When I am abruptly startled from sleep, I am continually with you. Surely you will cut off those who are morally wrong, O God. Turn away from me therefore, you men who shed blood unto death; for they speak against you with evil plans and your foes who are watchful for mischief take your character, honor, and position as useless. Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate you? And am I not cut by those who rise up against you? I hate those with perfect and complete hatred. I count them my enemies.
Penetrate and examine me intimately, O God, and observe, care for, recognize, and instruct my heart and see if there be any idolatrous and wicked ways in me and guide me in the concealed and eternal course of life.

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We need to understand that intimacy calls to intimacy; a desire for deep things, cradled in the Spirit, calls to the deep things of God. In return, the deep things of God call to the deep things within us.

Loving Lord, I draw close to you through your Word. I welcome the deepness of your love as it envelops and strengthens me today.

Check out: Psalm 42: 7-8

The Intimate Zone

Intimacy with God is above all internal, far within, deep-seated. Ephesians 3:16 speaks about allowing the Spirit to strengthen us in our inner man so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. So what is our inner man and what does it have to do with intimacy with God? It is because “inner man” literally means the inside point reached or entered as well as the countenance or the expression of who we are. This inside most basic region of our soul is the only place where spiritual intimacy truly can take root and begin to grow.
The world also recognizes this dimensional aspect of our humanity. Proxemics, the study of informal space, calls the zero to eighteen inches around us the “intimate zone.” This is the place that as humans we do not like to have violated by those we do not trust. It is a place we feel we own and in the world have learned to protect. Well below this intimate zone, lies the inner man. This is where we hide the possessive seeds of our past, the place where our fears accumulate, the place where we tuck away our private sins. It is the place where we curl around ourselves and the place where the world and those around us cannot see the extent of our own kingship in our lives. But God sees. That’s why the inner, the inmost places of man must be released and cleaned out so that Christ may dwell deep within us. But it is contrary to everything we know as humans. The idea of allowing anyone into our inner man is foreign and frightful for us. It is the place of the last stand.

Well, intimacy with God begins well beneath the zero to eighteen-inch barrier, deep within us. No wonder as humans we are uncomfortable with this and are resistant to it. Our natural tendency is to keep everything on the surface because it is more comfortable that way, reducing everything to an outward experience instead of an inward encounter. We often even view our salvation as an experience, something that happens “to” us, not “in” us.
So the first step to understanding the depth of our own spiritual intimacy is to identify whether we have compromised the integrity of our inner man.

Lord, when I think about allowing you into my “inner man,” I feel…
The reason I might feel this way is because…

Father, I invite you to dwell deep within me, to take up residence in the most vulnerable areas of my heart, and to heal my inner brokenness.

Check out: Eph. 3:16-19

Weddings, Brides, and Tin Cans, oh my.

My husband and I love to look through old magazines. We have a small, musty collection that contain recipes calling for lard, egg yolks, and white sugar, advertisements for cigarettes claiming to improve health and concentration, and happy couples standing in front of white, picket-fenced homes with two smiling children and a well-behaved dog.
The other day I was looking through an old magazine from the 60’s and saw a picture of a newly married couple leaving the church in a car that had tin cans tied behind it. Despite the fact that this was an advertisement for a particular make of car, I started thinking about what this scene represented.
This used to be a common scene - shouts of joy, the honking of horns, and the noise of the cans rattling behind. As I looked closer at the picture, I noticed the contrast between the pure radiance of the bride’s expression and dress with the dirty commonness of the used tin cans. What a contradiction. It made me start to think about all the contradictions in my spiritual life. What do I have dragging behind me, weighing me down? Do I live with the dirty habits of my flesh clinging to the purity of my spirit?
Wouldn’t it be great if the night before a person’s wedding, instead of bachelor parties or stressful rehearsals, the bride and groom spent that time labeling these old cans with the things they need to leave behind that will intrude upon their new life, all the sinful restrictions of the past. Words like: absent father, overbearing mother, disastrous past relationships, anything that could color and shade the strength of their new relationship would be written across the cans.
They could then tie these cans to the back of the car the night before, laying them on the ground as a sign of their laying down of the past; then just before they drove off, the minister would cut the strings in the name of Jesus as a symbol of them leaving behind the captive regret of their experiences, dreams, and judgments. How different is my “marriage” to Christ?
What past things might be intruding upon my relationship with God today? What have I allowed to enter into this spiritually unique relationship that has negatively affected my Godly affections?

Dear Jesus, you considered the church your bride. I recommit myself to you and renew my “vows.” You are not only my Savior, you are my Lord and King.

Check out: Song of Solomon: 8:7

Comforter

I am a couch and comforter person. Combine a cold, damp day, a soft, cozy comforter, a good book and a cup of tea and I am a happy camper - an interesting analogy because when it’s cold and damp, I am anything but a happy camper. Anyway, back to topic.
One day as I was sitting under one of my favorite down comforters, I found myself in a deep conversation and contemplation with the Lord. I had been going through some difficult times and was feeling very overwhelmed. As I prayed, my attention was drawn to the design on the comforter. The lines swirled up and down and resembled a continuous train of lofty mountains and deep valleys. I laughed to myself and said, “Lord, that looks like my walk with you. I’m either struggling to get up to the victory of the mountaintop, or I’m trapped down in the shadowed sadness of the valley.”
As I changed my position to get more comfortable, I looked back down at the quilt and noticed that the design had also changed position. It now looked like a level meandering stream with no height or depth. The Lord spoke clearly to my heart: “Child, your hopelessness has affected your perspective. The journey was once a straight line to me, but sin entered the world and made the straight way crooked. If you allow my Spirit to direct you, I will make your way a level path. You just happen to be on one side of the curve and cannot see around the bend. It is the nature of the journey that causes your faith to grow. Believe that as you depend on me and deepen your walk, I will lead you in the way you should go. And, by the way, Child, it is no coincidence that you are sitting under a Comforter.”


Dear Father, guide me in the way I should go. Help me to find shelter and comfort under the shadow of your sings. Send your Holy Spirit to comfort and direct my path.

Check out: John 14:16; 14:26