Lori Stanley Roeleveld's Blog, page 62

Gasping for Air at Christmas

I don’t know about you but I’m out of breath.

Gasping my way into the holidays and straggling across the finish line into the new year, I find myself in need of oxygen – a pure, unadulterated, unpolluted breath of heaven.

Sometimes I feel like the wheelbarrow in the poem my William Carlos Williams “So much depends upon a red wheel barrow . . .” I can get caught up in the battle so much so that my red cape gets wrapped the wrong way around my neck and I forget it takes air to keep me flying this high until I’m plummeting toward Metropolis. So busy trying to save the world, I forget that someone already did that.

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:17 (ESV) In JESUS all things hold together.

I’m not the little boy with my finger in the dyke holding back the surge that strains against the barrier. I’m just a woman who follows God imperfectly in a fallen world. I’m one of those Christians who needs Jesus.

So today I’m turning off the news, the Internet, the radio, and the telephone. Today I’m going to work on my to-do list but at the same time, rest in what I know to be true. In Him all things hold together.

In the clamor of the season, I will listen to that whisper that says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” Isaiah 9: 6-7 (ESV)

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Not my zeal. Not your zeal. It’s on Him. And thank God it is.

Today I’m going to reflect on the plan of God that centers on Jesus Christ – the unchangeable plan that no one will thwart. I’m going to reflect on His Word, His Word made flesh who dwelt among us and fill my lungs with the pure air that is breathed before the throne of God.

Who knows what is lies ahead in the New Year but before it arrives, I need a minute. So, I’m taking one. You should, too. I think we’re all going to need it in the times to come, loved ones. Today, inhale the pure oxygen of knowing that Jesus has us all in hand. Then, exhale and rest in Him.

Remember: The government will be on HIS shoulders – not yours.

Read: Isaiah 42, Isaiah 9, Colossians 1

Pray: Praise God today for His power, His strength, and His sovereignty over your life and over the world.

Gasping for air at Christmas? Here’s how to catch your breath! http://t.co/JV9WBGgvAv #Christmas #overwhelmedbyChristmas #Breathofheaven

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 20, 2014

A Proportional Response to North Korea

Free Christians everywhere should be considering a proportional response to North Korea.

We had no skin in the game with the satirical movie, The Interview. I’m sure it didn’t carry a message related to Jesus Christ. We’re not missing out on high art if it’s suppressed, but that’s not really the point is it?

Americans this week swallowed a teaspoon of the oppression and fear experienced daily by the people of North Korea. It tasted foul and it should inspire Christians to act on behalf of the people of North Korea.

It’s challenging to be a Christian writer, artist, filmmaker, or musician in America but imagine life as a Christian writer, artist, filmmaker, or musician under Kim Jong Un. Pastors in America who express politically incorrect opinions from the pulpit suffer some measure of public backlash but pastors in North Korea who do the same are silenced. It’s easy to talk about courage from the cheapseats, loved ones, but what happened to Sony this week should drive every believer in America to take action on behalf of the people suffering under the boot of this regime.

At the end of the day, Kim Jong Un is just another dictator-king who will come and go like every other. He is only a man. One day this world leader, like every other, will bow before Jesus Christ. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11 This is a certain outcome.

On that day, we will each be asked what we did during the Great War for Souls on earth. Did we let the enemy and our own lack of love immobilize us or did we access the spiritual weapons at our disposal and engage in warfare for those who suffer in the dark?

The power of evil that fuels North Korea’s reach is a known enemy, already defeated on the cross. We are equipped, as the body of Christ, to offer a proportional response to North Korea in a way no world government can. The suppression of The Interview should galvanize the church of Christ to intercede with all fervor for those who need a kind of courage we can’t even imagine needing.

In memory of the slaughter of the innocents following the birth of Jesus Christ by King Herod who was another small man sitting on a throne, I call on Christians everywhere to PRAY daily for the people of North Korea from December 26th- January 1st. Further, I call on every Christian writer, blogger, singer, artist, filmmaker, pastor, and poet to ask God that week how he or she can serve oppressed Christians in North Korea with their gifts.

Brothers and sisters, don’t sit waiting for worldly governments to fight this fight. Our fight is not AGAINST a petty dictator on a small throne. Our fight is FOR the people of North Korea whose voices and souls are held captive by the darkness. “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”.2 Corinthians 10:3-4 Can you hear them crying out to God for those of us who are free to intercede for them in the hour of their persecution? We’ve felt a frightening chill at the suppression of one film.  Imagine the imprisonment of your entire family because of a sermon, a blog post, or a poem about Jesus Christ.

The exercise of our courage is as important – if not more so – than the exercise of our muscles, especially in these times. So create your art, your poetry, your music, your movies, your prose like moonshine brewed high up in the hills that suddenly spills out in rivers onto the public streets, carrying with it your potent voice, your explosive understanding of the world, your heart which is 100% proof. This is the secret recipe for strength against the pressures of a culture that threatens to excise the poet’s heart, strangle the singer’s voice, and outlaw the storyteller who weaves the thread of truth into every tale.

Will you commit to pray for the people of North Korea every day between Christmas and New Year’s? If you are an artist, writer, musician, preacher, or filmmaker, will you commit to ask God that week if there is a way He wants you to use your gift on behalf of the artists, writers, musicians, preachers, and filmmakers for Christ who have been silenced in North Korea? Let us serve them with our freedom.

One day, when we are united with our suffering brothers and sisters, let us tell them their suffering became the spark that fueled the fire of our prayers and our actions in the battle for souls.

 

A Proportional Response to #NorthKorea What is the church of Christ to do? http://t.co/efdkrth4Fk #TheInterview #Christianwriters

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 19, 2014

I’s Wicked

We’ve switched places! Lori Hatcher and I are known at our publishing house as “Crazy Lori” and “Hungry Lori,” in order to keep us straight. Today, we’ve decided to have some fun by trading blogs. This devotion is an excerpt from Lori Hatcher’s new book, Hungry for God … Starving for Time, Five-Minute Devotions for Busy Women. Like a spiritual power bar, Hungry for God is the nutrition women need to get through the day. You’ll love her writing and if you’re prone to fretting, you’ll love her message, too. If you miss me, pop on over to Lori’s blog at www.LoriHatcher.com

Facetime: God, I worry a lot. Is this trait part of my personality, or can I do something about it?

If fretting were an Olympic sport, I’d own the gold medal.

Before I became a Christian, I fretted about what was happening, what might happen, what wasn’t happening, and what should happen. I fretted about the present, the future, and the past.

“Fretting is wicked if you are a child of God,” said theologian Oswald Chambers in his devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest. “We imagine that a little anxiety and worry are an indication of how really wise we are,” he explained, but “it is much more an indication of how really wicked we are.” In Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Topsy had to reach a point of confession and repentance over this sin in her life. “I’s wicked,” she sobbed to Ms. Ophelia. And I have to admit I’s wicked, too.

“Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way,” Chambers observes, and it’s true. I’m confident that God is aware of my situation and able to act on my behalf. I’m just not sure his answer will fit my agenda. C. S. Lewis described it this way: “We’re not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”

King Hezekiah faced a valid threat. Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, sent a letter threatening to destroy Israel. It was a valid threat—his armies had decimated all the surrounding nations—and now he had Israel in his sights. Instead of fretting, however, Hezekiah did what we should do when we’re worried—he took it to God.

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: ‘O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God’ (2 Kings 19:14-16).

Hezekiah’s godly actions are a model for what we should do when we are tempted to fret:

Go to God.
Pour out our hearts to him.
Remind ourselves who God is.
Pray boldly, asking him to glorify himself by acting on our behalf.
Rest in confidence, believing that he will hear and answer our prayers.
Trust the answer.

When I compare my circumstances to Hezekiah’s, I realize I have no basis for fretting. The God who delivered Hezekiah and the children of Israel is the same God who is eager to act on my behalf. When I trust him with problems far beyond my ability to solve, he is then free to come to my rescue.

How about you? Are you fretting about something? I challenge you to take it to God and leave it there. In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. Psalm 5:3

Lori knows what it’s like to be busy. And what it’s like to struggle to make time for God. Her passion is helping women connect with God in the craziness of everyday life. A Yankee transplant living in Columbia, South Carolina, Lori uses her speaking and writing ministry to equip and empower women. She’d love to connect with you on her blog (www.LoriHatcher.com), on Facebook – Hungry For God, and Twitter @lorihatcher2.

Pour yourself a cuppa and take a moment to enjoy the lights, a song, or just a quiet moment with Jesus. He came to be WITH you. Mercy and grace, Lori

We’ve traded places! Stop by and find out who’s visiting my blog. http://t.co/gqmVXks4E8 Here’s a hint – “I’s Wicked!”

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 18, 2014

Warning: Don’t Make Your Children’s Dreams Come True

If you believe all the commercials and holiday specials, Christmas is about making dreams come true. Funny, no one told Jesus. He didn’t come to work for Walt Disney; He came to fulfill His Father’s will.

Ask Mary. It wasn’t her dream to start her married life under a cloud of suspicion. Ask Joseph. It wasn’t his dream to have his friends wonder if he was a fornicator or a chump. It wasn’t this young couple’s dream to spend years running and hiding from a powerful and angry king. Nor was it the dream of families in Judea to watch Herod’s soldiers kill their infant sons.

Jesus didn’t come to make dreams come true. He came to teach us to dream better dreams.

He arrived a poor child so we knew He understood the pain of going without. He endured rejection, suffering, and trials so we knew He had walked in our shoes.

He was misunderstood, betrayed, arrested, beaten, mocked, and humiliated. Those He loved abandoned Him. He faced an unjust conviction and died at the hands of arrogant and manipulative blind guides – while His mother watched. Christmas isn’t about dreams – not the dreams we normally dream.

It’s a celebration of God’s love for us made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. God came and lived with us. That wasn’t a dream; it was real. And it wasn’t about making our dreams come true. It was about delivering us from the lesser dreams of this world so we are free to dream eternal dreams.

He is the originator of dreams, the great Dream Weaver but we have come under the curse of one who convinced us to trade our glory for lesser dreams. That is why we spend the holidays at Target and not caring for those in need or those in our own homes.

If you love your children this Christmas, don’t work to make their dreams come true. Instead, teach them to dream the best dream – that of a life with Jesus Christ – one that never ends.

Remember: Jesus didn’t come to make dreams come true. He came to teach us to dream better dreams.

Read: I Peter 1:3-9

Pray: Do you have a dream to release to Jesus? Do it today. Trust it to Him and then open up your heart and mind to the dream He’s fashioned just for you.

I always dreamed of writing a great novel. God’s dream for me included enduring trials and adversity then writing through prayers and tears. His dream for me included the book I’ve just released, Running from a Crazy Man (and other adventures traveling with Jesus). Has His plan for you included much that was unexpected, painful, and trying? I hope you’ll find encouragement in what I’ve written or that you can use it to encourage others to continue the adventure with Jesus no matter the challenges that come.

Warning: Don't Make Your Children's Dreams Come True this Christmas! Find out why at http://t.co/9N6QjQJAnW #Christmasdreaming #Jesus

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 16, 2014

The First Flash Mob

We live in an age when everyone wants to make some noise.

The news is full of noisemakers, especially during the holidays. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” is our new national motto. We’ve become a nation of squeakers, ready to protest, voice our concerns, write our letters, assert our beliefs, call our congressman and speak up for ourselves at the slightest perceived offense.

Speaking out can be a good thing but not divorced from love. Corinthians 13:1 says this: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” We live in a nation of resounding gongs and we’re in danger of becoming a church of clanging cymbals.

James writes these words: “ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” James 1:19-20 Did you get that? HUMAN ANGER does NOT produce the righteousness that God desires!

The world is rampant with actions and attitudes that offend a holy God but when Jesus walked among us, He didn’t come on like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. He entered as a baby and grew from childhood into manhood. He laughed, He loved, He ate with us and celebrated at our weddings.

He set aside His throne. We can’t even set aside our differences. He laid down His life. We can’t lay down our anger.

Christians don’t have to walk around with scowls and rulers disapproving of every offense against God. That isn’t the life to which we were called. He is perfect in His judgment because He is perfect in His love. We’re still learning this love thing.

I once read that the reason judgment won’t happen until the end of the age may be because our lives continue to have an effect, for good or for evil, even after we have left the earth. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Hitler’s writing continues to inspire Neo-Nazis so the interest on his principle sin continues to compound. Betsie ten Boom, a Christian who died in a Nazi concentration camp where she was sent for harboring Jews, continues to inspire others to acts of bravery and faith so her good works continue to increase.

This explains why we don’t see God acting as quickly as we would like, sometimes, to silence those whose voices truly do offend Him.

I think God’s Son arrived in the night because it was the only time humans quiet down enough to hear God speak. Even the angelic choirs might be drowned out these days by our constant clanging. Just a celestial flash mob we share on Facebook and forget.

This is a challenging issue because we do need to speak the truth, to clearly explain God’s message, to confront others with the nature of sin, and to point out the path that leads to destruction. But love must be the only launch key for the missile of our message or we are simply resounding gongs and clanging cymbals.

Perhaps it’s time to have a silent Christmas season. What would happen if every Christian decided to honor the coming of our Lord by being quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry for the twelve days leading up to Christmas?

Maybe our silence would speak to people. Maybe God would speak during our silence. Maybe, in our silence, we would hear God.

Maybe love would have a chance to inform our words and on Christmas day, instead of sounding like a choir of clanging cymbals we would issue forth a concert of Christmas bells that sends the good news ringing across the land.

Let’s pack away anger for a season, shall we? Let’s decorate with love, listening hearts, tongues that speak the truth but with patience, kindness and self-control.

Ever wonder why the silent night was so holy? Bet it had something to do with the silence part. In honor of the season, perhaps it’s time for us to shut up a spell.

Jesus wasn’t afraid to come to us with love and vulnerability, to enter the planet with only a cry. Even before His captors, Jesus was silent. He can empower us to do the same. Let’s offer to Jesus the gold of our silence.

Shhhhhhh! Who’s with me? Can we spend the twelve days leading up to Christmas listening?

The First Flash Mob – why Christians should pipe down for Christmas http://t.co/F6g3u7DNwL #pianoguys #angelichost #silentnight

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 13, 2014

Take Me to Church – Warning: This is NOT a Nice Post

**Seriously, this is not a “nice” post so if you’re squeamish about hard topics or are tenderhearted about conflict, skip this one.

Take me to church . . . the lyrics play large on the radio as I try to de-stress between families in crisis.

The young man’s voice floods my car with angry passion –he feels damaged by the church, he’s resolved to worship at another altar, he affirms his allegiance to a god with no absolutes who urges him to worship in the bedroom

His heartbreak is palpable through the back beat– the artistry, the language, the pain – take me to church. The young man braids his agony into lashing cords aimed at the back of hypocrisy.

I’m moved, and conflicted by the gospel style burdened with words that condemn.

The inspiration for his song is outrage at sick acts of violence against homosexuals in his homeland and the preachy words that incite those acts. My spirit is awash in his pain. My heart deluged with sadness

Sadness for the gentle young men and women damaged and tortured by ignorant brutes tattooed with a self-righteousness that is insufficient cover for their sins. For the twisting of the message, the perversion of God’s word transformed into a Billy club by those who seek to impose it, enforce it, promote it without knowing the One who spoke it into being. They have no insight that their crimes, too, nailed Jesus to the cross. That they, also, are an offense without the righteousness provided only by Christ on the cross.

This violence against these gentle men and women quickens their commitment to their own sin, widens their separation from God, as they are tortured in His name. This, too, saddens me. Saddened that they allow evil to hurt them three times – once with words, once with fists, and once with an elixir of deception that promises healing while delivering death.

Struck by the power of its rhythms, its lyrics, its emotional truth, the music draws me in and yet, I know, I can’t enter this young man’s sanctuary because on his altar burns a strange fire.

This is how he must feel, too. He’s appropriated the metaphors, the gospel beat, and the verbiage of the church, so he’s attracted to its beauty, longs to enter in but he stops at the door because he rejects the words spoken inside, knows he must choose, chooses to kneel before a lesser god, who is no god at all.

I understand. There are truths that divide. There are lines and people must choose to stand on one side – or the other. The emotional truth of the singer’s pain moves me but I know he has ingested a lie at the altar of his goddess as she serves deception at her communion table. I will not share this cup.

This song is a glass wall sealed from the inside and he doesn’t realize he’s chosen to remain on the side with the abusers, the hypocrites, the ones holding the knives because they, too, have let the wafer of falsehood dissolve on their tongues, poisoning their blood, blinding them all.

Jesus didn’t come to say, “everything’s going to be all right.” If the consequences of sin weren’t real, He wouldn’t have had to suffer, bleed, or die. When Satan offered Him the world at the start of His ministry, He would have accepted it and moved on. Instead, He rejected the offer knowing everything was at stake. Everything hung on the cross.

When Herod beheaded Jesus’ cousin for the crime of saying that Herod worshiped in the wrong bedroom, Jesus said this: “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’” Matthew 11:16-17 (ESV)

Jesus knew that Satan has an enticing soundtrack.

The music can have an alluring back beat. The lyrics may contain the compelling poetry of a broken soul. The harmonies may evoke compassion, the melodies may captivate with half-truths and the heady high notes of shame, but if we dance with deception, we’ll wake up chained to a foreign altar worshiping a cruel prince who laughs at our pleas for mercy.

Take me to church, for I am not ashamed to worship at the altar of the One True God, Jesus Christ. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16

At the altar of the one true God, there are truths spoken – truths that divide – absolutes – and those who reject them by word or by deed are welcome at other altars but they won’t find freedom there, or healing, or life, or peace.

Jesus didn’t come to say everyone is okay. He said, in fact, we’re all wrong. The gentle souls who choose to worship in the bedroom instead of at the cross are as wrong as the sadistic malefactors who brutalize them for sport – they can all be reconciled to the Father but only through Jesus Christ. There is only one holy communion.

Those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth. Jesus died to rescue gentle sinners and vicious ones alike. Love is patient and kind. Love always hopes. Love does not insist on its own way. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love doesn’t brutalize, love sacrifices its own life.

Those who worship Jesus Christ don’t worship like dogs; we worship as free women and men. We worship as friends of God.

Take me to church, loved ones, for I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Take me to church and join me there, interceding for those bewitched by the beautiful melody of a dangerous lie.

**Please note, any comments on this post that disparage one sinner or particular sin as worse than any other will be deleted. We all are sinners in need of Jesus Christ. Pharisee-ism and hypocrisy produce as great a stench as brutality and sexual sins. Comment with love and truth, loved ones.

***Great deals on Running from a Crazy Man (and other adventures traveling with Jesus) right NOW at Amazon. $1.99 for the Kindle version through Friday and only $9.37 for the paperback for a very limited time. Spread the word!

Take me to Church – Warning: This is NOT a nice post http://t.co/sj26gPvt6B #TakeMeToChurch #sinnersinchurch

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 11, 2014

Don’t Treat Jesus Like a Baby

You know how sometimes when you go home at Christmas, your family treats you like you’re still a kid even though you’re twenty-three? or forty-two?

Sometimes, especially at Christmas, we treat Jesus as if He was still a baby.

He’s not. The babe in a manger grew up, took the sins of all humanity upon His shoulders, descended to the depths of hell, and rose triumphant over death.

God is now unswaddled. He’s coming again and when He does He’ll be riding a white horse and He’ll be armed.

Jesus isn’t afraid of anything in your world. He’s not afraid of the cruel words exchanged in your bedroom moments before the dinner guests arrive. He’s not put off by your son’s addiction. He’s not appalled that your daughter sent nude pictures of herself to a boy who then pasted them to Facebook. He won’t cringe when your father-in-law curses or your brother arrives with his new boyfriend or when Aunt Hildy passes out from mixing pills with wine. He still wants to come to dinner.  To be invited in. To be with you. He’s like that.

In fact, He died to invite you to His table. In a world of shooters and sex trafficking, poverty and politics, terrorists and time bombs, He walks unafraid, knocking on doors, asking to come in and dine with sinners.

Now, I do think He’s angry with churches who send money and shoeboxes overseas but won’t dirty their pews with the locals who don’t clean up so well on Sunday mornings. I do think He’ll have a word or two, served up on the edge of a sword, for clergy who would never swear or get a tattoo but who exploit little children as they say they represent God.

I do believe that the posers and pretenders of the faith, those wearing sheepskin over their primal, hunting souls, those who praise Him with their mouths but curse Him with their lives, I do believe this population has something to worry about when He shows up for dinner.

But not you, loved one. He’s eager to come to your table. He isn’t a baby who needs to be protected from your family situation or you. He’s ready to step out of the wooden crèche on the mantle and eat at the grown-up table right beside you, loving you, loving those you love, even the challenging ones you don’t know how to love

even if you’re the challenging one.

He knows. So, go ahead, invite Him to Christmas dinner. Don’t be surprised if He stays.

Remember: Sometimes, especially at Christmas, we treat Jesus as if He was still a baby. He’s not.

Read: Revelation 19:11-16, Mark 2:13-17, Isaiah 42:13

Pray: Invite Jesus in to every moment of your life – even the ones you wish no one else would witness. He’ll stand beside you, unafraid, and transform your perspective and your soul.

Glory Thief – A Most Confessional Post

We were name-dropping, the lot of us,

sitting around a hotel lobby swapping stories about how we’d rubbed elbows or shared elevators with the rich and famous. (I once sat beside Hulk Hogan on a cross-country flight.)

Why is there such pleasure for us in this diversion?

I think because as the famous name drops, we bask, for a moment, in the outer ring of celebrity glory. Standing in the splatter-pattern of awe aimed at these worthy individuals, we catch a splash of adoration and hope it makes us more than we feel we are on our own.

It’s silly

but it’s such a phenomenon that the rich and famous rarely travel without an entourage of glory thieves. People are hard-wired to worship something – someone – and that worship is easily diverted to lesser gods: American Idols – athletes and actresses – tycoons and politicians in power suits. Theoretically, this adoration is limitless but it most often feels like a finite commodity and so we panic there won’t be enough to go around. We grasp at the brass ring hanging from others’ merry-go-rounds.

I confess that I, too, have been a glory thief but I have aimed high, inhaling the incense of adoration intended for Jesus.

It’s true.

I wish I could say I’ve always drawn close to God for the amazing truth of God but more often, I’ve drawn close to Him in the hopes that some of His excess glory would fall on me. This was never more of a struggle than when I played guitar and sang with a rocking worship team.

We were hot. I’d never made better music before and haven’t made better music since. It was worship music and our goal was to lead others to worship Jesus but sometimes the worship lines got a little murky, the awe and energy rising like an incense fog, clouding the initial goal. There were times, I know, I worshiped the sound we made not the One who made us. I drank in the admiration of the congregants like an African violet seeks the sun –

no, that’s way too delicate –

my spirit developed an appetite for this adoration like that giant plant in Little Shop of Horrors – Feed Me, Seymour, Feed Me.

It wasn’t long before I was cozying up to God just to build my own congregation from the overflow of His.

At some point, I repented but I always remember how easily tempted I am to steal God’s glory. I face it with writing. I face it with acts of service. I face it in relationships. I combat it through regular solitude, anonymity in service when possible, and transparency with others. Like this.

I thought this battle was my own private secret, a shameful battle, my solitary crime, until I read Soul’s Gate by Jim Rubart and encountered a scene at the concert of a Christian singer that beautifully illustrates the danger, temptation, and demonic assistance given when we have an opportunity to be scene stealers in the passion play. The image from that novel has become part of my arsenal in the warfare against my own temptable flesh. It was striking in its truth and repugnant enough to be a useful deterrent to sin.

I confess I have been a glory thief.

It’s no small thing to receive the praise and worship that only rightly belongs to God. So I’ve repented and will repent again when the tendrils of temptation spring from the seeds of my desire to be the object of worship rather than the worshiper. I look forward to the day when I am fully free of this nature that seeks to steal from God rather than reflect back to God all that is due Him.

It’s a battle I fight now with the freedom afforded me through my relationship with Jesus Christ. He knows what I’m made of. He knows the snares that seek to trip me up even in my pursuit of Him. But He is greater even than my appetite for glory.

How about you? Have you also tried to rob from God?

Gloria in Excelsis Deo. Glory to God in the Highest. Glory to God. Only to God. I turn from my ways. I have harked the herald. Have you? Gloria in Excelsis Deo.

Glory Thief – Have you Harked the Herald? http://t.co/DT40cY6SWx #glorytoGodintheHighest #stealingfromGod

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 6, 2014

Why I Can’t Write about Ferguson

It’s because I’m white.

Because of the color of my skin, I have no voice in Ferguson, Missouri.

That’s not something anyone has told me directly. No other person has silenced me, tried to shout me down, or threatened me not to speak out. It’s something I’ve absorbed from the culture around me – things I’ve seen in the media, conversations I’ve overheard, subtle messages from strangers. I’m not oppressed by anything greater than my own mind with a nudge from the prevailing culture and the powers of darkness.

I’m white, so I know nothing about race.

That’s the lie I believed. Since I don’t want to offend, cause trouble, hurt, or create conflict, I remain silent.

Which in some ways is fine. There are plenty of other voices speaking out about Ferguson. Many have wise counsel. God makes His voice heard when He wants. Still, it bothered me when I admitted the reason I was silent had to do with the color of my skin.

When I realized that false belief had permeated my mind so completely that I didn’t even consider writing about Ferguson, I began to have an inkling what it’s like to live as a person of color in this country. It’s barely an inkling – a flash, really – but it was revolutionary to realize that I’ve allowed the lie to silence me.

Nothing silences me.

Words are my oxygen. I take them in – I spew them out. But, this lie is so powerful, I muzzled myself.

It’s the first time I’ve consciously made a decision based on the color of my skin, believed something based on the color of my skin, censored myself because of the color of my skin.

For my brothers and sisters of color, this is not a one-time experience. So, already, I’ve learned something new from Ferguson.

I don’t have an opinion about what occurred between Michael Brown and Darren Wilson. I have feelings about it. Mostly, feelings of sadness. I believe that Jesus loves Michael Brown and He loves Darren Wilson. For one to die and another vilified is tragic and immeasurably sad. It makes me glad I’m not God who makes the final judgments on each of us. It’s not my job to judge Mr. Brown or Mr. Wilson nor to speak against either one.

The greatest lesson for us all from that incident is that we live in a fallen world. Sin is no respecter of skin color. We receive equally fallen natures no matter our outward hue. It’s possible that every person in this situation was at fault.

I do have opinions about the violent protests. It’s not an opinion about how people of color should act when they’re angry – it’s an opinion about how all human beings should act when they’re angry.

I came up through the sixties and seventies. I’m a self-confessed idealist. I’ve been inspired by the writings and the lives of great men and women of every color. People who fought injustice with the spoken and written word. With non-violence. With their bodies refusing to rise from the pavement or bus seats or places of power. With love and radical acts of reaching out to those who were different. With self-sacrifice and choosing to lay down one’s life – not destroy another.

The message I received from all my heroes is that though there is a time for war, we should, at great cost to ourselves, determine to be people of peace. Paul told the Roman believers “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Romans 12:18 (ESV) Even readers of the Old Testament knew what God expected of them, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8 (NKJV).

But, before any of us get all expository and judgy about what happened in Ferguson, we need to remember that Jesus spoke to the Pharisees with these words, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:13 (ESV)

Mercy. We all want it. If we’re Christians, we’ve received it. Still, we’re stingy to pull it from our pockets and share it with others.

Mercy. In the nano-second of time I felt silenced because of the color of my skin, I imagined what that would have been like to experience over a lifetime.

Not good. And at some point, what I had to say would start bursting out in other ways, ways that weren’t constructive, sloppy, dangerous ways. And I would want others to show me mercy as I broke free.

Yesterday, I couldn’t write about Ferguson because I’m white. Then, Jesus showed me the lie and freed me from it.

I am free to speak. To love. To act. To reach out. To show mercy. To love justice. To walk humbly with my God beside brothers and sisters of every skin color.

What do I take from Ferguson? There is still suffering in my Father’s world and I am my Father’s daughter so I have work to do. And so do you.

What practical steps can we take to do the work of Christ among ourselves no matter what color our skin? **Note – this post is the voice of a white woman with a transparent soul – freed by Christ, recipient of His infinite mercy and grace.

Why I Can't Write about #Ferguson http://t.co/GZub17KDFe #JesusandFerguson #mercy

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 3, 2014

It’s Opening Day of Christian Wrestling Season!

It’s here! Wrestling season is upon us!

Yes, it’s the season when Christians become wrestlers. During Advent, we struggle with how best to honor this time we’ve designated to celebrate the human birth of the Son of God.

Some will bemoan the commercialism that has overtaken the holiday and scale back. Others will spare no tinsel to remind others that Jesus is the reason for the season. They’ll bake, decorate, carol, and quote Linus all in the spirit of commemorating the coming of the One we love. Still, others will use the season to provoke the culture with the gospel. They will write letters to the editor protesting the banishment of nativity scenes at town halls, decry the secularization of tradition, or lecture cashiers on politically correct greetings. Finally, others will ignore the season in honor of Christ, intent on celebrating Him every day, refusing to distinguish one from another.

All will wonder if we’re getting it right. Is Jesus pleased with our choice? Is our focus correct? Do we reflect Him well for those who don’t know Him? I wrestle with how best during Advent to both live my faith in private and to express it in the marketplace.

One key I’ve found is to consider a title of Jesus we rarely unpack the rest of the year. Somewhere among the boxed ornaments and nativity scenes rests a glitter-specked name we store away with the rest of the Christmas decorations. Emmanuel. God with us. On the first day of Advent, it’s wise to unpack this name, brush off the remnants of seasons past, and meditate on it anew. Jesus is God with us. His choice. His idea, this being with.

Other religions promote elusive gods, distant deities, punishing, fickle, impersonal idols who must be placated, cajoled or appeased. Not us. We serve a living God who crossed unimaginable barriers to be WITH us. He sought US out. He made the first move. God the incarnate initiates. This flipped focus faith is ours because we follow the only God we didn’t create. The One God who revealed Himself to us.

Meditating on the name Emmanuel. Rolling it around in my thoughts. Speaking it often. Reading scriptures around this name. Using the name Emmanuel throughout the season facilitates my celebration of Him. Reminds me of God with us.

I create opportunities throughout the day to express this “being with” by designating intentional time with Him. I don’t limit it to one morning quiet time. Advent extravagance inspires me to be just as extravagant with the time I allot to the Lord. Just as signs of the season burst forth from the media to my mailbox, I allow Him to burst into my thinking moment after moment after moment. I am consciously WITH the One who sacrificed everything to make it possible for me to be WITH Him.

God with us. That’s big. So big, it will take me a lifetime of Advents to comprehend. Beginning with this one.

Remember: Let Advent extravagance inspire you to be just as extravagant with the time you allot to the Lord. Be with Him who paid the highest price to be with us.

Read: Matthew 1:22-23

Pray: Ask God to show you the places in your week He’s waiting for you just to invite Him to be with you.

This is Day One of the thirty-two Advent meditations found in my gift to all subscribers, “Don’t Treat Jesus Like a Baby.” I won’t be blogging daily this Advent season so if you want a daily devotional – Subscribe to the blog and then click on the link in the blog emails to download onto your computer! Be generous with God this Advent season! Lavish time on Him. He made the first move by coming to us. Respond with time and attention, loved ones. Watch and see what happens.

May God bless your Advent season with His presence.

Welcome to the First Day of Christian Wrestling Season! http://t.co/ae2bJE4eat #Advent #FirstSundayofadvent

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) November 30, 2014