Loved Much!

What’s love got to do with it? Everything.

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I’ve been quite infrequent with posts lately mostly because I’ve been busily living loved in a whole new landscape. A day off for Memorial Day presents me a moment of respite from a crushing new daily schedule of hitting the snooze button once or twice at 4:30 a.m. followed by the fastest work day I could imagine at my new job as a plant manager at a local public school.

I am wholeheartedly loving this challenging environment I’ve been thrust into, a far cry from my 18 years being on staff at a local non-denominational church. After a month or so of being laid-off due to the effects of the current economical crisis I literally stumbled across this job opportunity where I am making less than half the salary I was a year ago, yet working infinitely harder physically, mentally, and emotionally. The skills and experience I boasted on my resume have little to do with the position I accepted but I couldn’t be more satisfied because I know I’m where I belong for this season of life. There’s something exhilarating about being surrounded by raw humanity after being largely insulated from it for so long.

As with most any sector of the workforce, the public school system is seeing more than it’s share of budget cuts and layoffs. On a regular basis I am interacting with teachers and staff who wonder if their’s is the next position to be axed.  Then there are the hundreds of children who can’t grasp the magnitude of challenges their families are facing in these trying times. I’m right there with all of them in these challenges but with the knowing that I am safe and secure in Father’s embrace, come what may. I can only trust that He has me there to be a lifeline of encouragement if only to just one of these who are holding out for a glimpse of hope.

If you, like me, find your world has been turned upside down, yet you are living in the awareness of Father’s undying love and affection, consider yourself fortunate and blessed. We are like seeds in the hands of the Master being scattered to the winds… a divine diaspora (a dispersion of a people from their original homeland) of sorts! Let’s spread the Love!

Beyond the four walls

I can breathe 

I can feel

I can see beyond cynicism

Generous laughter leaps from within 

As I take in the brightness of hope 

In the eyes of a little child 

Who may not know he’s not like the others around him

They can run

He only jerks and hobbles 

They can recite the pledge of allegiance 

He drools and makes scary noises

And he is unaware 

That unconditional love smites me

Every time I think of his smile

“Knowing is loving.” If God truly knows me, God actually loves me. The old Testament is clear that truly to “know” somebody is to love her or him, For God, knowing is the language of intimacy rather than intimidation. God is love because God knows us. This divine knowing is the eternal antidote for depression and melancholy. We are known and loved. We are not alone-hence, we need not be lonely.   –Cliff H., BoldGrace.com

The following words are in response to 

this post at BoldGrace.com  (please click here before proceeding)

Cliff, our precious friend, you have finally, ultimately, and gracefully surrendered to the affectionate embrace of Abba Father. Though I never had the pleasure of meeting you or enjoying a personal conversation with you - I feel very much like I have nonetheless. Had the opportunity presented itself for us to meet I’m sure it would have felt like reconnecting with an old friend from long ago. That’s how it was when my wife and I enjoyed breakfast with our BG friend ‘Geo’ a few weeks back. 

The words you have shared on BoldGrace.com have impacted me greatly these past several months. Often I had to mull them over quite a while to appreciate them… some of them I probably am still sifting through but undoubtedly you came into my life at the PERFECT time! It is my understanding that you embraced the true Gospel message at the expense of  your very career as a minister. Then came true freedom! I myself have been on paid administrative staff with a local church for 18 years and volunteer staff for nearly a decade prior to that. In the past two years my wife and I began to receive and trust the simple message of Christ ALONE being our righteousness and, low and behold, all of our previous reference points in life began to change radically, but one thing became certain — true peace, knowing we are loved much!

I am presently in a wonderful state of transition, having been laid off weeks ago due to this economy. The beginnings of this transition coincided with some posts you composed at BG regarding your employment at a local hospital. Reading your posts (such as this one) brought me much freedom as I began to consider what might be in store for me career wise.

For my wife and I, knowing the true Good News and that we are affectionately and unconditionally loved is radically changing our world view. Having the true riches means everything to us. A job that is ‘right for us’ is no longer such an issue; having an opportunity to be where Daddy wants us is what excites us.

As I write this I am preparing for an interview as the janitor/caretaker at a local facility. My resume is also in the hands of several other potential employers who could offer me a position that would be much more ‘compatible’ with my administrative / creative  skills and background, not to mention the payscale; however the job I’m most hopeful for is this janitor opportunity where I know I would be face to face with countless people who are incredibly precious to Father and they may not be aware until they are affectionately loved and valued by someone who cares. Thank you, Cliff, for demonstrating this reality in your life. 

To Cliff’s dear family and all his BG friends around the world who will be greatly missing him, my wife and I are holding you close before God in our hearts during this time . Thank you for letting me ramble on about how Cliff’s PERFECT faith has deeply affected me!

These words by Wayne Jacobsen in his latest post ‘Questions Questions Questions’ at LifeStream.org are most appropriate to me…

If we’re really looking to follow Jesus, would he allow us to be deceived by a false grace? If we ask the Father for bread, will he let us pick up a stone instead?

So many brothers and sisters I know get paralyzed when they haven’t figured out answers to every question, about something they sense him leading them to do, or even just believing that the Gospel of grace, is simply that. What if we trusted Jesus to sort out our questions in the going, rather than having them all answered before we head out?

Wayne hits a nail on the head and goes on to explain how our innermost being is already geared to respond to the unconditional love and unmerited favor He has lavished on each of us — it’s our heads that get in the way demanding answers to every possible question and then leaving us paralyzed with fear and indecision instead of responding to His love. That’s what religion does. It assuages our need for answers in neat little bite sized chunks that satisfies our rational self while ignoring and even smothering our relational and true self. The problem is we have to keep running back for more bites to remain satisfied.

Getting what’s in our hearts into our head is a process that Holy Spirit is able and willing to do when we relinquish control and relax into the invitation of relationship already taking place among Father, Son, and Spirit. Where we once found ourselves having to believe to receive, now we can freely receive His affectionate love which leads us to believe! I have a close friend & brother who points out that “believing is the indication of dependence on God while knowing is the indication of independence”. As we find ourselves at home in His love, abiding in Him, we will trust that the Great I AM is the Answer to any and all questions.

Never before have I and my family faced times more difficult than these recent months. It would be safe to say that over the past nearly two years my family has experienced more challenges in relationships, finances, and health than we have in the previous decade or more. And yet, we are finding ourselves realizing more genuiness in our walk with God and each other. We are enjoying deeper and more lasting peace, hope, and ability to receive and express Father’s affectionate love in our relationships with Him, one another, and those in our path on a daily basis. 

This is a result of a major shift in our life focus that we began to recognize was taking place a year or so ago. Everything we thought we knew about God, the Bible, Christianity / the Church / its mission, ministry, morality, etc. began to seem irrelevant compared to our inner inclination to truly know God. We found ourselves being invited beyond the clinical repitition of religion - beyond the performance-driven mindsets of having to please God - and into His loving embrace. This reality of living by the law of love is becoming just as real as the law of gravity. And just like a gravitational pull, we find ourselves continually drawn toward Him in gradual but constant motion, independent of any effort on our part!

Photo by HeyMyNameIs Paul

It came to my attention while browsing for the news that a nationally known pastor was warning of God’s righteous anger and judgment bringing certain terror to New York City and other cities abroad. Soon I was on David Wilkerson Today, his blog where he posted ‘An Urgent Message’ (March 7th) and ‘A Further Word’ (March 9th) and I find it interesting these two posts so distinctly contrast his two previous posts where he touches on God being a Father Who is “patient, kind, full of mercy and lovingkindness toward you. I’m tenderhearted over you, ready to forgive you at all times” and also “We see now that God desires only to do good to us. We’ve seen his power and glory on our behalf. And now we are determined to no longer live in fear”. Read the rest of this entry »

For the past several days my wife and I have both been devouring an audio message series by Wayne Jacobsen called ‘Transition:  Moving From Religious Thinking to Relational Living’.  Wayne has generously made this series of 8 CDs available for free on Lifestream.org and we highly recommend it for anyone being drawn from religiosity to truly relating with God and others. On #6 How God Changes Us, about mid way, Wayne is speaking about this freedom of living loved, free from condemnation, from the context of Romans 8. Here’s some excerpts I grabbed and formatted as one paragraph:

If you’re living your life to abstain from the flesh rather than to indulge the flesh, you’re still living with a mind set on the flesh. This was never meant to work. The old nature can not please God. If you live to abstain from the flesh, that’s the same as living to please the flesh. It’s still living in the land of sin and death. But the more I get in touch with Who God is, the more He transforms me. I’m not even thinking about my flesh. Not only do I not indulge it, I’m not abstaining it, and I’m finding freedom to be who God wants me to be. What God wants to do is displace sin that’s in us. Our best effort can not move darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. Sin is a nothing. Sin is the darkness of our hearts that results from us not knowing we are loved by our Father.  

Religion conditions us a mindset of  ’sin avoidance’ but this never truly leads to the liberating and vibrant life that God intends and desires for us.  Motorcyclists know the rule (and most of us learned the hard way) - ‘look where you go and you go where you look’. A surefire way to wipeout is to gaze at the oncoming traffic you intend to avoid.  Someone once said ‘you become what you behold’. God beckons us to gaze only upon Him Who IS love, not at sin or our sin condition which He already has dealt with through the Cross. The Good News of the Gospel is an invitation to a relationship, and relational living which transitionally displaces the darkness - not the instructional regulations that man has shrinkwrapped it down to in our effort to avoid darkness!

dashur shumë, Albanian

обичаше много, Bulgarian

estimava molt, Catalan

爱得多, Chinese

nogo voljen, Croatian

milovala mnoho, Czech

elsket meget, Danish

hield veel, Dutch

loved much, English

Armunud palju, Estonian

minamahal marami, Filipino

rakasti paljon, Finnish

beaucoup aimé, French

amei moi, Galician

viel geliebt, German

nagyon szeretett, Hungarian

dicintai banyak, Indonesian

molto amato, Italian

多く愛さ, Japanese

많이 사랑, Korean

mīlēja daudz, Latvian

dilexit daug, Lithuanian

iħobb ħafna, Maltese

elsket mye, Norwegian

kochany dużo, Polish

amei muito, Portuguese

iubit mult, Romanian

любил много, Russian

много вољен, Serbian

Ljubio veliko, Slovenian

amaba mucho, Spanish

älskade mycket, Swedish

รักมาก, Thai

çok sevdim, Turkish

любив багато, Ukrainian

yêu nhiều, Vietnamese

Source: Google

There are many remarkable contributions relevant to my fairly recent departure from the world of religious obligation for that of living loved much, not the least among them were articles and books including

The Shack, He Loves Me, and So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Any More.

Months before I read any of those treasured books, someone close to me passed me a copy of Read the rest of this entry »