What is the deal with not drinking coffee and blam! I feel the Holy spirit working and moving. Maybe caffeine blocked my spiritual awareness senses somehow. And no I don't really think it is the caffeine, I think it is more the posturing of submitting myself to God. It's the recognizing I need him more in my life than i need coffee.
It's funny that I gave the middle school girls with whom I have a small group some verses from James 4 to memorize, because I think those are the verses that are hitting me right now:
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. (I)Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 (J)Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
I don't think I thought it was that simple, to draw near to God so that he would draw near to me, but maybe it is. Maybe it is true God is the father in the prodigal son story, anxiously anticipating our return with open arms and a fat goat. Why would we ever not want to follow a Father like that? Besides doubting that a god like that exists, what are other reasons we stop ourselves from running into his arms? Existential angst? Our emperor syndromes (we all want to be little napoleons- in charge, in control, on top of everything with everything we need)? Stubbornness? Pride? Snobbery? It is hard to submit sometimes- Lord, help me to submit to you. Help me to submit all of me!
The rest of this chapter in James is very interesting because it talks about not judging. And well, what would the world be like, what would the church be like, what would our communities be like if WE DID NOT JUDGE? I'm thinking a GDP that increases by billions due to people who would not be put down by others, but who would go ahead and do what they were created to do. I'm thinking healthier people, mind heart soul body spirit- better relationships, less heartache, less poverty. I'm thinking power and strength and unity in communities in ways we have never felt before. It takes restraint and power to reserve judgement and overcome what have situation to find the grace and the mercy and the justice.
And is that what Christ came to do? To teach us what grace is, what mercy is, what justice is, but also to tell us to use them! Aren't they the bricks and mortar of the kingdom? When people talk about kingdom building, that is what i associate with what they are talking about: instances of when people come in contact with grace, with mercy, with justice. And those instances are what changes peoples hearts- they are the tangible experiences of the supernatural.
And to judge is not to say to not have standards. I think it is important to call people to higher expectations and higher ways of living, but the way to do and to delineate the difference, one must be full of grace and lovingness and thus the holy spirit. And it can be done! I think it is the only way the church has ever moved forward. And I guess my definition of judging would be James's definition; not speaking or thinking evil against another person. I realize without that definition I weaken justice which is needed to call people out of sin. To quote James 4, James says :
"Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.[d] The one who speaks against a brother or (Q)judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only (R)one lawgiver and (S)judge, he who is able to save and (T)to destroy. But (U)who are you to judge your neighbor? "
Hard words to digest as I admit I've spent the past few years "processing" what was going on around me and became a bit of a gossip with a sharp tongue. Granted, I usually wrote it off as frustration with powers that be, and not people, but here it specifically condemns that too, don't "speak evil against the law." Yikes. Need to get my tongue under control. Help me, Lord!
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