Sunday, July 23, 2017
Saturday, July 8, 2017
PLATITUDE PARALYSIS
A platitude is a phrase that is used so often that it doesn't hold any meaning - to the person saying it or the person hearing it.
We have been afflicted with Platitude Paralysis. It's a disease of the spirit, soul and body.
We may not recognize the symptoms of Platitude Paralysis because it has so infected us that we are accustomed to being sick. This hideous infection has created a society of people who don't believe anything anyone says anymore. And who can blames us?
Advertising platitudes: "the best car deals in the Midstate" - "the best steak restaurant in Tennessee" - "the friendliest church you will ever visit" have been the seeds that have infested our hearts, our minds and our souls with Platitude Paralysis. Because we discovered we DID NOT get the best car deal, it WAS NOT the best steak restaurant, and that church was the UNFRIENDLIEST place you've ever been to.
This morning I read a verse that burned in to my eyeballs and heart. Platitude Paralysis existed in the days of Moses. The Israelites were living in horrendous slavery and under the rule of a cruel Pharaoh. God tells Moses, "HEY! Guess what? I'm going to deliver My people. I'm going to answer their prayers. I'm going to make them free and not slaves, and give them the land I promised to your ancestor, Abraham!" And here's the verse that got to me:
"Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they DID NOT LISTEN TO HIM because of their DISCOURAGEMENT and HARSH LABOR." (Exodus 6:9)
Who can blame them? Which of them had the power to flee from Egypt? Who would be insane enough to think slaves could overcome the vast armies of Pharaoh? Life had never been a land of milk and honey.. for decades... All of sudden, Moses, we are going to be free? Yeah. Right.
When life becomes so harsh, so filled with burden and labor, we give up hoping that God is going to do anything, much less DELIVER US.
But here's REALITY about the words the Israelites did not listen to.
It was not a platitude.
It was a promise.
A promise that came true.
Right before their weary eyes.
God keeps His promises.
The good news about that story is that the outcome was not based on the faith of the people, but on the promise of God.
After a while, the people got up and moved because Pharaoh told them to go. God comes to us in our discouraged, depleted hearts and creates a scenario where we move... because we have to. He delivers us from slavery even while we have learned to live with it. It's not your faith, it's God's promise to you that will set you free.
Today, your slavery may seem like it is never going to end.
Your life may be at it's lowest point. You are paralyzed because you think the promises of God are just platitudes.. so you never walk like someone who believes them.
You may think this blog is just more printed platitudes...
Let me remind you that Moses was telling the truth.
I am also.
You cannot deliver yourself.
God heard the cries of His people.
He hears your cries too.
The Holy Spirit will give you the faith to believe, the power to walk out that faith, and the hope to keep going until you see the promises of God become reality.
Ask for the Holy Spirit to invade your heart and mind.
He will. You will walk away from your slavery. Only because the Holy Spirit is working in you. HE delivers us.
You will not be the same.
A platitude?
No.
A promise.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
I'M SORRY YOU DIDN'T LOVE ME MORE
I know how desperately I loved you. Few people have experienced being loved that way. Being loved that fully. To be loved just for being. That's the way I loved you. You know that. You felt it. You found your home in my love...for a while.
I'm sorry you didn't love me more than you loved other people and other things because then you would have been that rare human walking through life having found what humans search for. I am what you were and are looking for. My love. For you. It is intense. It is light in the darkness. It causes you to be fully alive. It is what you are seeking.
I'm sorry you didn't love me more because I am the one who really knows you. Who really saw you. Who truly understood your heart, your broken places and your strengths. I saw the reason for your weakness and they never made me love you less. I wanted you to be the you that our Father created you to be when He created you.
I'm sorry that you didn't love me more because then your commitment to me would have caused you to make changes in your life. You would have found a place for me in your life, pushing other people and other things away so that I could be in your life. In your heart.
I'm sorry that you didn't love me more because then you would have understood the heart of love. It never changes. It never stops. It remains. Time has not diminished that love you so freely dismissed. Because I know you, I know you wonder if the weeks, the months, the years, the decades since you foolishly believed you could live without my love have caused me to forget you...have caused me to love you less...They have not. I love you the way I loved you the first moment you knew that I loved you.
I'm sorry you didn't love me more because the kind of love I offered is not demanding, doesn't want it's own way... And if you wanted to leave.. if you wanted to stay committed to other people.. other things....I could never have forced you to stay. Despite all I could have done.. I could never had demanded that you love me the way I love you.
I'm sorry that you didn't love me more because I have to watch in desperation as you continue to search for what you already had. In me. In my heart. .
I'm not telling you these things to make you feel bad.
The real issue is not the way I feel about you.
But the way you feel about me.
I'm sorry you didn't love me more.
Are you?
"I have loved you with an everlasting love"
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