Bind my wandering heart.

Alexander Mills / Canada / 21 / Fiance /

[blakebaggott-deactivated2017041]

The theologian is one who stumbles in praying and then begins to think about that stumbling.

Karen Kilby (via blakebaggott)

[bindmy-wanderingheart]

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”

Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God Is Within You

[mikedonehey]

To Hear or Be Heard

I am the chief among sinners. I’ve stolen. I’ve lied. I’ve cheated. I’ve committed adultery in my heart and murdered in my mind. I am a disgrace, a convict in need of pardon, an orphan in need of a Father.

And yet, Christ saw me, loved me, and gave Himself for me. He lived the life I could never live, died the death that I deserved, and rose again over all I could never conquer on my own.  He breathed His Spirit into me.  He broke through the stone walls of my heart and gave me a heart of flesh. He bought me. He won me. He called me His own.

So now, I give all that I am to Him.  I am His and He is mine.  He is my life and in Him I live and move and have my being.  I am not who I once was.  I’ve been remade.  I no longer come to the world with clenched fists, I come with open hands.  I do not come with a swinging gavel, I come with a life laid down. Servant to all, friend to sinners, I come the way Jesus came to me.

Which means I get to embrace everyone.

If they complained that Jesus hung out with sinners than I hope the same will be said of me.  Homosexuals, chief justices, prostitutes, picketers, preachers; there is no one beneath my service. There is no one beneath my love.  I love those who disagree with me. I love those who boycott me. I love those who tell me I need to stand for truth and I love those who tell me my truth is not theirs.

I get to love everybody.

Of course, the question remains, how do I do that? I mean, practically speaking, how do I truly love people? What does that even mean?  What does it look like?  Does loving someone mean agreeing with everything they do and everything they are? Can you even love a culture who feels hated if they’re disagreed with? How do I love the souls with differing beliefs, especially when minds are made up on two opposing sides? How do I build bridges to Jesus and to others? And in what ways could I be unknowingly burning those bridges down?

I don’t think I have the answers figured out on many of these, but I do know this, I am not called to judge the world. It’s true. Especially if you believe the Bible is true, because Paul even agrees;

“When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-10 NLT)

I also am quite certain I’m to offer my two cents with supreme tact and kindness.

“Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:25 NLT)

James echoes this thought when he says the wisdom of God is first of all pure and kind and adds, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.” (James 1:19-20 NLT)

So let’s recap. I am loved by God and have been given the ministry of reconciliation. In spite of all I’ve done to undeserve His love, He has won me back and invited me to be a part of His work. That is, I’m here to tell people God wants them back.  I get to tell the world God wants them. How do I do that?  Well, I don’t have it all figured out, but I know it does include laying my life down, serving like crazy, not judging, being gentle, listening, and not getting angry, because anger does not produce righteousness.

Got it.

Now, what does that mean for gay marriage?

To say the decision today was a big deal, is a gross understatement.  I wouldn’t even call it “landmark,” I would call it; “nuclear.”  The Supreme Court ruling sent supporters into the stratosphere with joy. Rainbow flags blew up the internet while #LoveWins came straight from the oval office. Furthermore, it sent adversaries into a state of mourning. Doomsday prophecies abounded.  Fingers were pointed.  Prayers were offered.  Hard lines were driven into the sand. I posted a pic without really thinking saying the decision was “historic.”  In a few minutes, I was labeled a heretic, a hero, and a demon; and I didn’t even think I had offered an opinion.

I scrambled. I regretted posting anything, I felt like I was in the middle of a cultural crossfire and I was being commanded to choose; with the only two sides being avid support or open hostility.  I didn’t want to be a proponent of either.  

So I sought solace from my sister and as always, she helped ease my mind. First, she reminded me how the internet gives people all the authority and none of the responsibility to say things they would never say to someone’s face. She also called to mind how Jesus seldom gave people a straight answer, particularly when they weren’t motivated by love.  My friend Audrey pontificated with me via text;  "I don’t understand when the church got co-opted by the idea that legislating morality was the same thing as preaching the gospel. The sooner we stop trying to run society and start loving our neighbor, the sooner the Church gains footing in people’s lives and is able to welcome them, teach them, whatever. Why wring our hands over the culture? If the Church starts to experience persecution, so be it.“

And that’s just what I want to say to you.  What if we stopped trying to be heard and just tried to hear?  What if we served people so well, they were desperate to hear what we thought, because they knew we truly wanted what’s best for them?  That kind of love is more like what I saw Jesus doing.

It's…incarnational.

It’s Jesus coming and living among us for thirty years, before He did one miracle.  It’s the kind of love that’s messy and practical and can never be lived out on a soap box.  It’s what we were made for.

When I was working at a church in Florida, I had the privilege of mentoring several young men who were experiencing an overwhelming flood of same-sex attraction.  It was strange how many came to me at the same time.  To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know how to respond.  I had never dealt with the issue personally, so I couldn’t offer meaningless rhetoric like, "yeah dude, I totally know how you feel.”  And since no one I knew was friends with anyone who was homosexual at the time, I felt so powerlessly under-prepared for the conversations that followed. I mean, what do I say?  "God hates that you know?“  "You really disgust me man, you should try liking women instead?”  Of course not!!!  They didn’t need me to tell them they were going to hell.  They didn’t need to be told their sin was worse than mine.  They had enough condemnation heaped on them to last several lifetimes.  You know what they did need though?  They needed to be heard.  Seen.  They needed someone to hug them, cry with them, listen to them.  They needed a friend who wouldn’t run in disgust, but run to them with open arms.

And you know, that’s still the case.  Today, I have several gay friends and family members, and if they don’t want to hear my stance on their sexuality, I don’t offer it.  Maybe that sounds bizarre to you, but after the friendships I’ve built and the conversations we’ve had, I’m quite convinced when it comes to the deep places of a person’s heart, like their sexual desires, the privilege of speaking to those things is something that must be built with time and trust. And it must be asked for, not thrown down from above.  If you recall, Jesus didn’t even reprimand the wiring of the woman at the well, He simply asked her why she hadn’t come to Him for water.

Maybe the biggest thing I’ve had a hard time with today, is the sentiment that it’s my job to tell the whole world how to live.  Maybe it has to do with growing up in a Capitalistic society, or maybe it’s just a result of the digital revolution where something can be seen and shared by hundreds of millions of people in a few hours, but either way, I firmly believe it isn’t my calling to steward the morality of mankind.  I’m simply called to make disciples.  And that, is a down and dirty, one person at a time kind of a calling.  It’s small, often times thankless, and it’s not a campaign.  It’s a kingdom. LIke Paul said, I’m not called to judge the world, I’m called to love the world. I’m not even called to change the world, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job.  I’m to simply introduce people to Jesus, and let Him do the rest.  If He is life, my job should be to bring others to His arms, and let the power of His love shift their thinking.  I make the introduction, but Jesus wins their heart.

So, with that, let me remind you of a few last things.

If you follow Jesus, He hasn’t promised you a government, but He has promised you a kingdom.  He hasn’t promised you freedom from persecution, but He has promised you His presence in the middle of it.  He hasn’t promised you fame, money or prestige, but He has given you the treasure of Himself, and a whole world to share with.  So let’s share Him like we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Let’s share Him by sharing ourselves, and that starts with our ears.   I bet when we put down our megaphones, we’ll find a world out there, waiting to be heard.  And when they know we truly want to hear, they just might be interested in what we have to say.

[sleepinglauren-deactivated20130]

[enolasephe]

weatherbeatensoul:

dancingwithtthedevil:

sleepinglauren:

Photographer Lalage Snow takes pictures of soldiers’ faces before, during and after the war in Afghanistan.

jesus christ

still one of the meaningful pictures on tumblr for me.

[ocheano]

holy crap

[resolutewoman]

– but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame

Romans 5:3-5 (via resolutewoman)

[boredpanda]

Symmetry And Silence In Round Mirror Reflections

[blakebaggott-deactivated2017041]

We see the Spirit at work not only in dramatic and ecstatic events, but also in patient processes and institutionalized forms, not only in strong and overwhelming personal experiences but also in historical processes and in the mediation of quiet transformations in public life and general insight.

Michael Welker (via blakebaggott)

[thou-mine-inheritance]

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading.

Oswald Chambers (via thou-mine-inheritance)

[sxipjump]

If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.

Robert Murray McCheyne (via gracelikeleaves)

[set-apartgirl]

Get into the habit of saying, “Speak, Lord,” and life will become a romance. Every time circumstances press, say, “Speak, Lord”; make time to listen. Chastening is more than a means of discipline, it is meant to get me to the place of saying, “Speak, Lord.”

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (via set-apartgirl)

[bindmy-wanderingheart]

We are created in His image. Each one of us represent an aspect of His image and nature that no one else fully represents as we do. There's an aspect of who He is that each of us carry that is unique to who we are. Our significance comes from His significance.

Bill Johnson

[gospelofthekingdom]

Christ is the New Adam. He comes to repair the damage inflicted on life by Adam, to restore man to true life, and thus He also begins with fasting. “When He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He became hungry” [Matt. 4:2]. Hunger is that state in which we realize our dependence on something else—when we urgently and essentially need food—showing thus that we have no life in ourselves…What then is fasting for us Christians? It is our entrance and participation in that experience of Christ Himself by which He liberates us from the total dependence on food, matter and the world. By no means is our liberation a full one. Living still in the fallen world, in the world of the Old Adam, being part of it, we still depend on food. But just as our death—through which we still must pass—has become by virtue of Christ’s Death a passage into life, the food we eat and the life it sustains can be life in God and for God.

Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent, p. 95-96 (via gospelofthekingdom)

[bindmy-wanderingheart]

Depression tends to turn us away from the everyday things of God’s creation. But whenever God steps in, His inspiration is to do the most natural, simple things— things we would never have imagined God was in, but as we do them we find Him there. The inspiration that comes to us in this way is an initiative against depression. But we must take the first step and do it in the inspiration of God. If, however, we do something simply to overcome our depression, we will only deepen it. But when the Spirit of God leads us instinctively to do something, the moment we do it the depression is gone. As soon as we arise and obey, we enter a higher plane of life.

Oswald Chambers

[bindmy-wanderingheart]

Children were designed to hear about the things of God and have faith in them with few hurdles. So let’s be honest with them about the Gospel. It will make more sense if it is delivered holistically, and it will have a greater effect in their lives.

Ed Stetzer

[korinnebaker]

God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.

Martin Luther (via korinnebaker)

[king-atlas]

I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer.

C.S. Lewis (via ever-gazing)

[fearless-and-bold-for-christ]

Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.

C.H. Spurgeon (via laurenarlene)