The Three Step Program

Every day as I come back to this passage I have been soaking in for weeks now, I keep discovering fresh insights in stories I thought long ago were very familiar and mundane. That's the way it is now with almost everything I read in the Word and it has made it extremely difficult to have any time left over for reading other books.

I decided to begin marinating in the book of Luke for the foreseeable future, but after several weeks I still have not gotten past even half of the first chapter. But I don't mind that for I now enjoy gaining a deeper appreciation of these passages over covering a lot of territory like I used to read. Now it matters not how long it takes me to finish anything in the Bible. I would much rather sink my attention much deeper into the Word and have it bring more convictions and blessings to my soul rather than being able to say that I have read the whole Bible through in a certain amount of time. And while I don't discount the importance of reading the Bible as a whole, I feel I may have done that for enough years that I now find the Spirit is eager to begin making connections between its different parts that amplify each other rather than just rehearsing over and over what I have already learned.

This morning I found myself again back in the story of Gabriel and his compelling interaction with Zacharias. Maybe it is because I want to flush out more openly unbelief from my own heart and be free of it myself that I keep finding nuances in this story that apply to myself. I resonate all too readily with the skepticism of Zacharias and sympathize with his mixed feelings when suddenly his years of prayers are given an answer that is so stunning that it throws him completely off balance. What I want to receive from God in this study is a new attitude myself, what Gabriel described as part of what Elijah did and what this new prophet would do – turn the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous.

I find this interesting in that I learned long ago that obedience is much more than on outward issue. I grew up like many others, believing that obedience was all about doing the right thing, i.e. keeping all the rules. Over recent years it has been emerging that true obedience can only come from a heart experience, and that forced obedience, whether that force comes from others or even from within, will only result in fostering a spirit of resistance and eventually rebellion. This should be like a siren of warning for all those with responsibility for raising young children, for typical parenting techniques that rely on force and intimidation always produces similar results inwardly no matter what is accomplished externally.

Getting someone to comply to demands and rules is in sharp contrast to turning the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous. I see this as a parallel to the earlier part of this announcement where Gabriel says that John will turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children. Again the emphasis is all on the internal part of our being rather than on external conformity. And this is the area that I have been the weakest in experiencing, having been brought up to pay far more attention to keeping up proper appearances and behavior, yet without learning how to really receive and give true love and affection.

And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Luke 1:16-17)

I have often pondered how the ministry of Elijah accomplished what is described here. Maybe I don't yet appreciate enough a true awareness of what Elijah was like. What does come to mind of course, is the most famous story from Elijah's life – that spectacular display of God's power on Mt. Carmel when fire came down out of heaven and wowed the majority of people into returning their allegiance back to the true God. Yet even that story leaves one wondering just how much heart change actually took place in most of those people or how much of their subsequent obedience had to do with simply tracking to the god who displayed the most power. Stories that follow that event seem to give mixed messages in this regard.

As I think back again on that story, it also occurs to me that quite possibly Elijah may have inadvertently 'snatched defeat from the jaws of victory' as an old saying goes. Most Christians today assume without question that the wholesale slaughter of the priests of Baal by Elijah was the righteous thing to do and was ordered by God. But there is no evidence that God instructed Elijah to directly kill these men while on the other hand there seems to be a lot of evidence that this choice led Elijah down a trail that left him soon very vulnerable to threats of a single woman against his own life.

I have commented on this extensively elsewhere and have come to the firm conclusion that this act of violence on the part of Elijah was parallel to the sin of Moses when he struck the rock in disobedience to the command of God that cost him dearly afterwards. One clue that leads me to this conclusion is that when Elijah finally meets God again on Mt. Horeb he is given a rehearsal of the lessons he was supposed to have already learned about how to listen to God properly. And following his own impulses from his aroused passions after such a display of the spectacular was not the correct way to discern God's voice as was made plain during his review time on the mountain with God later on.

I ponder what might have happened if Elijah had made a different choice right after God's fire fell from heaven on his sacrifice to draw the people back to God. I sense that this event could have produced dramatically different results, similar to what could have taken place had Moses chosen to display more accurately the true character of God by not allowing the spirit of anger and bitterness to overcome him when he struck the rock. In both cases it seems very possible that God's Spirit might have had a tremendous breakthrough in the hearts and lives of the vast majority of people if God's servants had been more faithful to their advanced knowledge about Him. I believe history in both cases could have been dramatically altered had God not been robbed of His real glory through the sad choices of His servants in those instances.

This brings me back to the prophecy of Gabriel to Zacharias, and by extension to all of us who believe we have been called to again present a similar message as Elijah and John the Baptist. For many years I have heard it repeated that God's people in the last days are supposed to revive the prophetic ministry of Elijah and John to prepare a people for the coming of Jesus. I don't dispute that truth in the least. However, what has been far more confusing is just what that implies when it comes to both the content of our message and more importantly, the spirit with which we present this message from heaven.

Maybe the original message entrusted to Elijah became distorted by the tragic choice of Elijah himself to take things into his own hands just when God was about to accomplish a great victory in the lives of His people. It appears that John the Baptist was more faithful to his calling than Elijah in that he did not indulge in resorting to violence, even though some of his language seemed rather strong. But warnings have to be strong at times to get the attention of people so jaded and numbed by sin that they cannot hear anything else. I believe God has to do that at times.

But just as Moses was disciplined for misrepresenting God's character before the Children of Israel in the desert, I believe that Elijah was corrected on Mt. Horeb for forgetting how to rightly listen to the quiet promptings of the Spirit. Elijah had allowed his adrenalin to control his choices instead of God's Spirit. So too, we also need to learn the lesson of reflecting more accurately the real truth about God's attitudes towards sinners and learn from their mistakes to avoid repeating them again and again.

Jesus stated something that sounds rather shocking to our way of viewing things, yet makes complete sense when observing things from heaven's perspective. Jesus said that John was the greatest prophet who ever lived, even while he was considered the least – by this world's standards. What did He mean by this seemingly contradictory statement? I believe He was contrasting how heaven's view of things is almost always the very opposite of our assumptions about how things are supposed to look like.

John, the prophet that Gabriel was talking to his father that day, was faithful to the promptings of the Spirit that filled his life from even before birth. If anyone was tempted to resort to using force to accomplish the desires of God, I suspect John faced that intensely early on. Anyone familiar with the political and social climate of that day would know that the injustice and abuse and violence taking place around Palestine under Roman occupation was so severe that many attempted violent insurrections, albeit all unsuccessfully. Most of these insurrections had one thing in common: they all assumed that God's will for His people involved resorting to methods of force when circumstances were too extreme for less violent approaches.

This thinking is extremely prevalent today, both in and out of our church. What is worse is that there is even open hostility among many of the people of God toward anyone even suggesting that God does not need to resort to violence to get His way. This issue is becoming such a controversial topic among Christians today that it is beginning to polarize not only our own church, but the whole world is starting to take sides on this issue. In fact, I have wondered it it may well be one of the main issues that brings about full completion of this polarization resulting is what is described in Revelation 22:11:

"Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy."

I used to assume that righteousness had to do with what a person does rather than what was inside of their heart. I have been disabused of that lie many years ago, yet I still struggle to experience full freedom from the many lies that cause me to act out in ways that are unlike Christ – lies about how God feels towards me along with lies about myself. I have learned that probably every sin that besets me has at its root some lie or cluster of lies that needs to be exposed and replaced with glorious truth that will banish them from my heart. Jesus said that when we know the truth it will make us free. And the truth He was speaking of definitely was not a list of doctrines to memorize. Jesus said, I am the Truth, the Way and the Life.

Gabriel told Zacharias that the essence of the message that John would bring to God's people would do three things:

1. It would turn many of God's people back to the true God (reflective of Elijah's ministry).
2. It would turn the hearts of fathers toward their children (linking to another prophecy in Malachi 4).
3. It would turn the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous.

Even as I wrote this out it suddenly became obvious to me that there is a natural progression here. The first step can easily be more external in nature. While many in Elijah's day switched their allegiance back to worshiping the God of heaven, there is doubt as to how many of them actually had their hearts transformed significantly, especially after watching Elijah's demonstration of wrath that brought confusion into the truth about God's wrath and His methods.

The second step takes things deeper however, down to the heart level and addresses closer relationships as seen in the family. Not only would this message realign religious allegiance back toward the true God of heaven but it works to repair the damage that sin has brought into our homes and our family relationships at the heart level where the reflection of God has become so distorted.

Yet the last step that must also take place is even more invasive than just a switch of external allegiance or even a turning of the heart. This last step describes a complete attitude change, a transformed disposition, a settling into thinking and feeling and perceiving and relating that is reflective of what is described in Philippians 2 as the mind of Christ.

What is becoming clear to me now is that this is likely the answer I have been seeking for many years about something constantly talked about in my church. There is a lot of talk about getting ready for Jesus to come. Early on the assumption has been that to get ready for the Second Coming of Christ means working very hard to get all sin out of the life. Of course, if one has unclear ideas about what the word sin means to start with they will come up with all sorts of conclusions about what it means to get rid of it. But the deeper problem with this assumption is that the focus is still on the externals, on behavior and fails to effect any real heart change which is where the roots of sin find their nourishment.

According to Gabriel's message here, these three things that John the Baptist was to bring to light are the things needed in order to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. I believe it is safe to assume that the same message is needed today just as much as it was needed for Christ's first coming.

It is not enough to simply switch allegiance back to the right God as important as that is for a first step.

It is not even enough to take it deeper and have our hearts to be affected by the Spirit of God, as important as this step is as well.

What is really needed is a complete conversion, 'the whole enchilada' as it is sometimes described. Without all three steps experienced no one will be truly ready to meet the kind of Jesus that will shock the vast majority of religious people when He shows up with the intensity of His true glory along with His holy angels to receive those who have put their full trust in Him and who reflect His kind of love.

This has powerful implications about the nature of the messages we may be trying to take to those around us. Just what kind of God and what version of the gospel are we embracing that we assume is going to get us ready for Jesus to come? Even those among us who have been thrilled with fresh, new revelations about the true character of God in contrast to the dark views we learned from religion in the past. Have we really taken seriously the last two steps of this Elijah/John message? How accurately does our attitude and spirit towards those around us reflect the true nature of Jesus as He revealed the heart of the Father to a confused universe in the way He related to those who opposed Him? Have we really been turned to the attitude of the righteous? Are we really allowing the mind of Christ be in us as described in Philippians 2, or are we content to hold back a step or two and just be content to talk about these things without fully submitting to the close work that the Holy Spirit must do inside of us to prepare our hearts to not shrink back at His coming?

Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. (1 John 2:28-29)

Earlier in this chapter it was reported that Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous in the sight of God. I am not disputing that in the least. But it appears that a deeper work needed to yet take place, especially in Zacharias, given the unbelief and skepticism that emerged when good news was announced to him by an angel from heaven. His attitude was not yet aligned well with the righteous but he reacted in fear and maybe even shame. His skepticism was so dangerous that Gabriel found it necessary to close his vocal chords for a few months to protect others from becoming infected with his doubting spirit.

I find the comment that Zacharias made that elicited this response from the angel very revealing.

Zacharias said to the angel, "How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years." (Luke 1:18)

How often have I heard this sentiment expressed by those with whom I am seeking to share good news about God. But more disturbing, how often has my own heart resonated with this attitude myself. I want to know things conclusively. I want overwhelming, conclusive evidence to eliminate every last doubt before I am willing to embrace some emerging truth. Many call this approach a 'healthy skepticism' or label it 'critical thinking;' it is even lauded in higher education circles as a virtue. Yet when I read this story it appears that heaven has a very different opinion of this attitude, and it doesn't seem to fit into what Gabriel described as the attitude of the righteous.

Zacharias was not expressing deception or telling lies here. He was simply relating 'facts on the ground' as we would call it. There was nothing false about these statements, for he and his wife really were too old to have children according to normal standards of measurement. But then, so too was Abraham and Sarah, and they had had similar conversations with God that should have served as a lesson for those who knew his story.

As God's people living at the very end of time with all the history of the world at our disposal, we have even less excuse for our unbelief than did Zacharias. It might be safe to say that about every mistake that can be made has been made by this point in time so we have no excuses left for resisting the work of God's Spirit to lead us into the full revelation of truth as it is in Jesus.

What I see happening at this point in the story is a transition by Gabriel from offering incredibly good news to the mode of disciplining someone for resisting belief in good news because there is not yet enough evidence to satisfy demands for more evidence before embracing it. There comes a point in our encounters with God where a line can be crossed that will elicit a similar response in our own lives if we continue to unreasonably resist embracing truth to let it transform our hearts and our attitude.

One thing that is compelling about this warning for me personally is that part of this truth presented to Zacharias includes the announcement that not only were his many years of prayers about to be answered but that there would be a great deal of celebration and joy and rejoicing in the process. Part of me that has been trained for years in the ways of austere religion rises up in religious protest over such notions, insisting that God does not approve of such 'dissipation.' But apparently heaven carries on in many ways that religious people here would not approve of, and that puts many of us crosswise with God's desires for our lives.

Father, continue to cleanse me of the many lies about You and Your ways that continue to inhibit me from simply believing Your amazing good news to the world and celebrating it with more freedom. Help me to fully embrace the glorious truth as revealed in Your Son about what You are really like and what You want to make me look like as Your reflection as well. Take me fully through all three steps of the Elijah/John message and so transform me that I too can become one of Your last-day prophets to proclaim this life-changing good news to darkened minds around this world. Glorify Your name in and through my life and increasingly in the lives of those are influenced by me.

Beyond Just Blameless

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years. (Luke 1:5-7)

They were both righteous. They were both walking blamelessly. Yet something was still missing in their lives. And as I read on further into this story I begin to sense that there was more missing than just a child. And although the record states that they were walking blamelessly, it appears that inwardly there was still much lacking to be experienced.

This reminds me of another story from the life of Jesus about someone who was believed to be blameless when it came to keeping the rules and being obedient to God. Yet this person sensed that doing all the right things and knowing all the right answers just didn't bring him the fulfillment that his heart somehow knew he needed.

I am going to combine two different gospel accounts of this story to bring the emphasis of each writer into the same narrative to save space here. The story is recorded by both Mark and Luke. What is important to note is that this happened immediately at the close of another story about mothers who brought their children to see Jesus and His disciples turning them away because they thought Jesus was too important and too busy to be bothered with such things. As most people know from this story, the disciples were rebuked by Jesus for such behavior and Jesus not only welcomed the children but also made an important statement about the nature of His kingdom in the process.

But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."

And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them. As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'" And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you still lack: go and sell all you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.

And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, "How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." They were even more astonished and said to Him, "Then who can be saved?" Looking at them, Jesus said, "With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God." (from Mark 10:14-27 and Luke 18:18-27)

This story awakens a resonating response in my own heart. I too grew up being carefully taught to keep all the commandments including going to the right church on the right day and to avoid all the wrong sins in order to prepare myself to be 'ready for Jesus to come.' Yet in all that obedience and conformity and struggles to eliminate every last sin out of my life, I found myself becoming more and more infected with a spirit of rebellion. I increasingly sensed an emptiness as the ever greater weight of all this external obedience suffocated the life out of my own spirit.

When I think back over my early years I find it difficult to remember a time when I felt really joyful, free, unafraid of God or with any sense of peace. Only in faint glimpses of very early times when I was a very young child climbing up into my father's lap for a story can I remember anything even close to what my heart longed for. But quite early on the effects of compulsive obedience began to crowd out and suffocate the natural desires and joys in my heart as I learned to live strictly from my head and conform to the many rules and regulations and doctrines in which I was carefully instructed.

The result of this intensive training and enforced obedience in order to be saved produced within me a growing fear – no, terror – of offending an already angry, impatient God who was always seeking to find some excuse to keep me out of His heaven. Of course the alternative was rather terrifying which gave me great incentive to keep trying ever harder and harder to be obedient to all that was required of me. But my heart was seldom to be noticed through all of this even though one of the requirements for obedience was to 'serve God with all of my heart...'

I remember my confusion and puzzlement as I could never make sense out of these kinds of commands. I really had no idea what it meant when the Bible spoke of 'my heart' or my spirit. The way it was worded seemed to indicate it was not referring to the physical organ pumping in my chest. Yet now I can see that I was out of touch with my own 'heart' and was completely ignorant of my spirit, or that I even had a spirit, which caused me to be pretty much clueless about the meanings of such things.

Yet when I read these things in the Word, there were times when something seemed to be so out of place, something so profound missing from all the knowledge that I was acquiring, that like the young man in this story, I sensed that something vitally important was still missing.

It made sound harsh to compare the godly Zacharias and Elizabeth to this rich young ruler. After all, it appears there is no evidence that they were rich. And although they were of the priestly order it also doesn't appear that they had much to do with rulership. So how do I find similarity between these two stories?

It goes back to the issue of our heart and how we were originally designed to live. This is where religion miserably fails to fulfill the deepest cravings of our souls. I am coming to believe that one of the baleful effects of sin in humans is the segregation between what we now observe as the important functions of the left hemisphere of the brain and the right hemisphere – what the Bible refers to as the heart. In fact, because of the physical crossover between the two halves of the brain and the rest of the body, the right side of the brain is directly connected to our physical heart in our left chest. There is even growing evidence that this is no coincidence when it comes to the relationship between the two.

What I have observed is that a religion based primarily on external obedience to rules and regulations is almost exclusively rooted in a left-brained approach. I am not completely condemning this necessarily, but I can speak from personal experience that this leaves one tragically deprived when it comes to the real needs of the soul. What the Bible refers to as our heart is largely left out of such an intellectual religion while the focus is primarily on making sure that one always does the right things and avoids doing what is viewed as wrong.

I am not suggesting here that Zacharias and his wife were not right with God because they may have been living primarily from their intellectual side. Yet observing some of the symptoms and the observing the discussions between the players in this story reveals that there was an emptiness in their lives that left them feeling less than fulfilled. This cavity was not just the absence of having a child of their own though the passage puts it that way. This vacuum in their hearts was expressed in this way because the deeper emotions that are usually experienced when a couple has a child is similar to what God wants each of us to experience in the kind of kingdom He is bringing into reality.

Why do I think that Zacharias and Elizabeth may have had primarily a left-brain religion while possibly lacking a deeper right-brain relationship with God? Because one of the primary symptoms that is produced in such a religion clearly was exposed in Zacharias when the angel from God suddenly appeared to him. The first thing the Bible says is that Zacharias was troubled. The angel then had to explicitly tell Zacharias, Do not be afraid. Yet even after this explicit instruction I sense that he was still so full of doubt and fear that he found it impossible at this point in the story to believe or embrace the incredibly good news the angel had been sent to share with him and his wife.

I see a similarity to this in the reaction of the young ruler who suddenly ran up to Jesus impulsively after watching how Jesus affectionately related to the little children and how kindly He treated them. It was that affection, those loving looks, even the defensiveness Jesus revealed when the disciples tried to turn the mothers away that really caught this young man's attention. And isn't this the true way of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)

Like so many of us, this man had been raised to keep all the rules. He had faithfully memorized all his memory verses in school and had learned to follow all the rituals and routines expected in religion. And remember, the religion he was part of was the 'right religion', not some false version like what the Samaritans practiced or any other 'church.' The people Jesus came to work among were God's chosen people who had thousands of years of history of being taught and led by God.

Yet after performing everything he was told to do to be righteous; after keeping all the rules and practicing all the religious routines as spelled out by the Scriptures and religious traditions, when this young man observed the kind of heart treatment that the little children received from Jesus, his own heart suddenly awakened with intense longing inside of him and he yearned to be able to experience what he saw those children experiencing with Jesus. I can certainly resonate with the story says this man ran up to Him. I think I would do exactly the same thing myself.

You see, I am all too familiar with what it means to strive to be righteous, how to work hard to earn a good reputation for being blameless. But when it comes to being loved in the way that Jesus expressed it, especially with people who most of us would view as not very worthy of being loved, I too suddenly feel deep within myself an intense sense of emptiness and longing to be embraced by such a Father.

That is why that phrase only found in Mark's version of this story resonates so powerfully with me in particular. Mark observes that at this point, after this man exposes to Him the emptiness of his own heart that Jesus looks at him, and Mark says that Jesus felt a love for him.

The look that Jesus gave this man is a look I have been yearning for all of my life. It is not just that Jesus had His eyes turned in this man's direction. Oh no, it means far more than that! I am told that in the original language this expression strongly implies that Jesus put His full heart and body into the compassionate gaze that He focused on this hurting, empty young man. And in doing so His body language expressed what His eyes were pouring out – the passionate love of heaven for this man who had found religion to be so unfulfilling in his life.

This is the missing piece that religion fails to provide to us. This is why doing all the right things still leaves us wondering why we don't experience the kind of peace and joy that we read about or occasionally glimpse in other people's lives. Yet this is the experience that every one of our hearts desperately longs for and must have if it is to come alive, to experience healing and to begin to thrive.

What I see in the encounter between Zacharias and Gabriel is a typical reaction of a technically obedient religious man when he suddenly encounters the overwhelming love, the favor and a blessing from God that his heart has always longed but his head blocks him from embracing.

This is why I feel so frustrated that I am not yet seemingly able to embrace this kind of offer by God, even if I were to encounter Gabriel myself. And although my heart has been slowly awakening as my perceptions of how God feels about me have been challenged and revised over and over, my heart still yearns for much more. I feel like I am only scratching the surface and that I am still living largely in darkness and out of touch with the kind of joy and gladness that this angel was talking about.

The good news in the story of Zacharias and his wife is that eventually they did celebrate and embrace the amazing gifts of God. And those gifts went far beyond simply being able to hold their own child in their arms. The real gifts and blessings they received involved being set free to live in new dimensions of love and faith and joy like they had never dreamed could be possible for them.

I am left wondering how or when I can finally enter into the joy of my Lord and know the much richer fulfillment that I hear He longs to give to my heart. I wonder how much more it will take to pry open or soften my own heart so that love can finally begin to fuel my life instead of fear, selfishness or forced obedience.

I know all too well how to keep the rules, how to keep up good appearances, how to obey the commandments and earn the respect of others for my good behavior. But to live in joy, to swim in the ocean of God's love that I hear rumors about or catch glimpses of in stories like this, still seems out of reach for my own heart. Yet I know that God longs for me to enter into this kind of relationship with Him and that leaves me wondering what is still preventing me from just going there directly. Why does it take so long and have to be so confusing and frustrating to cast off the lies and inhibitions and resistance that have for so long prevented my own heart from living the way it was created to function?

I notice that in Jesus' response to the rich young ruler, He did not knock this man's life of obedience to the rules. He did not tell him that living obediently from the head should be abandoned in favor of some new formula or to turn away from religion altogether. No, Jesus simply said that this man lacked one thing and he could begin to experience what his heart was yearning for so desperately if he was willing to deal with that one issue.

That 'one thing' is not the same for everyone. Not everyone is rich or stuck on hoarding what they have and are unwilling to share. Jesus didn't give this same response to everyone who asked Him how to enter into the kingdom. Each person has their own unique obstacles that prevents their heart from embracing the truth about God's love for them. And those obstacles are usually the blind spots in their own life that prevents them from even being aware of the real issue that holds them hostage.

Paul says that his life was considered blameless when it came to keeping the law (see Philippians 3:4-10). Yet we have no record of God telling Paul he needed to sell all his possessions and give all his money to the poor. Paul had different issues than the young ruler, though his circumstances may have appeared similar. Zacharias had his own issues and had to be disciplined because of his unbelief in resisting the good news that God sent to him. Each one of us has areas in which we get stuck and resistant to the love that Jesus longs to pour into our lives. And I am impatient to get past whatever it is that blocks my own heart from plunging into this love that I am learning fills the heart of God for me.

I want to experience what it must feel like to come under the intense gaze of the loving eyes of Jesus as He focuses directly on me. Yes, that gaze will make me squirm as the light of that penetrating affection exposes all that is hiding inside of me that resists the light. But the benefits of living in love so far outweigh the supposed advantages of living 'safely' within my comfort zone that I invite Him to do whatever it takes to draw me into His arms and let me sit on His lap like all the other little children.

This reminds me of my intense three-month study I did some time ago on Matthew 18 where it begins with a similar revelation about the nature of Jesus' kingdom. At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me." (Matthew 18:1-5)

Sometimes I find myself intently observing little innocent children when they play joyfully. At such times I can catch a glimpse of what my heart longs to be like – free of inhibitions and all the baggage and lies about God and life that have robbed me of freedom to live and celebrate life with abandon like they are able to do. I view such children as my teachers during those times as my heart tries to learn again how to live the way it was designed by God to live. I take seriously that Jesus said explicitly that unless I am converted – radically changed in the way I think and perceive reality – and become like a little child, I will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

One thing that attracts me most about such exhibitions of joy in little ones is their freedom of fear about what others might think about them. Yes, there can often be shyness present, but that is very different than fear of being abused or punished or forced to conform. It is that sense of abandon and freedom to be expressive because they feel safe to be themselves without fear of retribution that I long to experience in my own life. And that is what I believe God is leading all to know who are willing to allow Him to heal all the damage that sin and wrong training or abuse has caused in our hearts.

God, teach me Your ways – the ways that can still be glimpsed in innocent children not yet suffocated by the conditioning of this world. Be my loving Daddy, my caring Mentor, the Mother and/or Father that offers to take me onto Your lap and hold me tight to dissipate all the fear and apprehensions that debilitate me. Help me to appreciate more deeply that you are ready to rebuke all the religious zealots who try to keep me away from enjoying Your strong arms of affection around me. And remind me that You long to hold them in Your arms the same way, but they don't yet see that this is the kingdom You came to bring.

Jesus, at the same time I see that am also one of those religious men like Your disciples that has too often scared others away from running to Your arms. Forgive me for that and help me to rest in You like other little children do who can see You better than I can. Teach me to let Your love so fill me with life that the transformation that is effected in me becomes so obvious that others will want to come to You themselves.

Thank-you for revealing more about what You are really like to me in these stories and through Your Spirit. I keep choosing to open my heart as far as I can get it open each time You come. It is starting to loosen up more than it used to be able to, and for that I am extremely grateful.

But there is so much more I sense You want to do in me, to heal me and for me to experience in Your presence. There is so much more capacity You want to bring into my heart to embrace Your love so that in turn I can more willingly and readily pass it on to others who like me are confused, afraid, wounded or defensive. Keep healing me deeper so that You can use me to more effectively bring hope of healing to others. Thank-you again for Your increasing revelations of love to me, and I trust You to finish what You are doing in my life for Your glory.

Confusion and Blessing

After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, "This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men." (Luke 1:24-25)

I know that I have visited this last verse previously. But today I am pondering the first one here, the part about hiding out because she was pregnant. And I am not coming up with any good insights or understanding about this. But I do have a lot of questions that maybe others, especially women, might be able to fill in some blind spots for me. After all, it is rather impossible for me to appreciate the emotions of a pregnant woman first-hand.

What may have been going on in the mind and spirit of Elizabeth during this time? Do you think she too was struggling to change her opinions about how God felt about her like her? It seems her husband was, only from a different direction.

As I understand it, women in general compulsively want to share exciting news with others. So I am struggling to grasp why she would react the opposite way from what a woman would naturally do after getting pregnant. Was she that embarrassed? Was she afraid of what others might think about an old woman having a baby? What elicited such a strange and non-conventional reaction from her?

The angel had informed her husband that they would experience joy and gladness and rejoicing at their son's birth. Did that also allow that they might feel a lot of fear, apprehension, insecurity or other emotions before his birth?

I have another question. I am quite certain that Elizabeth was far past menopause when all this transpired. So how did she come to first be aware that she was pregnant? Of course after a few months it would be obvious, but how soon might she have been able to figure it out and how? From my my way of thinking she would not have had all these strong reactions until she was certain that she actually was with child, and that might have not been for some time. But again, what do I know about such things. I would be interested in some other perspectives from you on this.

I do find it interesting that Luke notes her hiding away from society lasted five months. Apparently the arrival of her niece Mary who had just become pregnant with God must have radically altered her perspective and somehow changed her mind to come out of seclusion. Had she been hiding because she had been so fearful of what others might think about her husband's encounter with a heavenly messenger and might scoff at them for what was taking place in their marriage?

Did Mary's arrival bring some kind of closure or climax to something spiritual transpiring within Elizabeth's heart? Was she processing a lot of issues for five months that prepared her or matured her to be ready to come out of the closet when Mary showed up?

It is commonly accepted that Mary was very likely quite young when all this took place, possibly in her mid-teens. Being that young she may likely have been quite timid and even overwhelmed with all that was taking place in her life. Because of this it is easy to assume that she would need encouragement from an older woman with more maturity but also a strong faith in a God who does things very out of the ordinary. And such a woman might have been extremely rare at that time. Did Elizabeth suddenly sense her need to be that 'mother' for Mary when she saw that young, innocent, vulnerable face show up in need of encouragement? Did she suddenly sense upon seeing Mary's confused feelings and shy demeanor that it was time to quit thinking about her own fears and begin supporting and encouraging Mary for her benefit? And in so doing she well may have found the courage to come out of her own shell and finally cast aside her own fears of what others might think about her.

One of the most effective ways to break free of a seemingly impossible rut in our emotions is to begin reaching out to help other people instead of spending all our time on our own problems. When I was a teenager and my life was filled with confusion and problems, a wise leader once pointed this out to me. I don't remember practicing it very effectively at the time, but I didn't forget what he had said and it made sense to me. I have noticed that whenever I am willing to shift my focus from myself to trying to bless and help others out of a pickle, it isn't long before I have a totally different perspective on my own problems. Is this what may have been happening with Elizabeth?

One factor that is also very clear here is the fact that these were the only two women we know of on earth at that time who shared the experience of having a miracle child. So it only makes sense that they should get together to encourage each other, share their feelings and emotions and many other things that women share with each other so that they could better appreciate God's working in their lives.

I can only imagine some of the situations that might have transpired in that home during the days when Mary stayed with uncle Zacharias and aunt Elizabeth. How did Zacharias feel about all of this? He couldn't join into the conversations because he still could not speak at all. And that too added to the mix that created such interesting dynamics. Did he feel like an outsider to the excited exchanges between his wife and Mary? Was he shut out of the bedroom while they had animated discussions in private? Was he encouraged when he saw his own wife finally coming out of hiding after months of his own attempts to reassure and coax her had accomplished little to relieve her misgivings?

We may not have confirmed answers to many of these questions, but at the same time I think it can be healthy and even beneficial to seek for the clues in this story to discover things we seldom think about. I find that asking lots of questions allows the Spirit to bring encouragement and instruct my heart about things I would have never considered otherwise. Putting myself into these stories and allowing them to come alive with my own emotions forms stronger connections in my own heart to the same God that the people in these stories were coming to know. I am realizing that digging deeper into the stories, particularly those involving Jesus, is vital for awakening love and appreciation and awareness in my own spirit. And that is the only thing that really matters anyway, isn't it?

Are any of you reading this willing to let your emotions get involved deeper into this story and open your own imagination to insights from the Spirit? Are you willing to share some of them with me? I would enjoy the blessing of hearing your thoughts, your perspective on what the Spirit may be sharing with your heart. They don't have to be profound or theological; some of the most profound things seem simplistic to an over-educated mind I have found. What is important is what takes place at the heart level more than how accurate one's exegesis might be on a text.

Blessings, most favored one. God loves you passionately. How do you respond?

Blessing in the Curse

"And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time." (Luke 1:20)

For most of my life I have viewed this statement by the angel to Zacharias as something along the line of a curse imposed as a punishment on him by God for his unbelief. Probably I have assumed that for several reasons, most of which are connected to how I was taught growing up and my conclusions based on typical teachings about God and about this story.

But as my understanding of the real truth about God's character has been changing rather dramatically over recent years, I find that assumption more and more out of harmony with the God I now worship with more love. As a result I feel compelled to reexamine my assumptions in this story paying more attention to both the context in the story as well as impressions that the Spirit may bring to me alerting me to better interpretations consistent with everything else He has been teaching me.

Why would Gabriel react so intensely to the doubting attitude of Zacharias? If God's ways of relating to sinners are not founded on reward and punishment as I have been learning, then how are we to view this story in a different light that makes more sense?

What I have been learning is that the reward/punishment system that has pervaded pretty much everything on this earth is an infection received from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Sadly we often attribute this philosophy as coming from God, as the normal way in which God deals with sinners and offenders of His laws. But what I have also been learning is that while God's relationships are not primarily based on rewards or punishments, there is another system based on principles that are far more powerful than artificial law with artificial punishments. That is the system of natural law with all its cause and effect relationships. In this system it is God's grace that is the most noticeable and even out-of-place operative in that, were it not for grace we would all be dead because of experiencing the natural effects of being out of harmony with God's principles of life.

I am now beginning to see throughout Scripture that many, if not most of the time, where it appears that God is punishing offender or where writers of Scripture assume that is the case, in reality God is simply respecting the choices of the people involved to push away His protecting grace that has been preventing natural consequences as well as evil forces to have effect in their lives. Having that in mind, I can now see other distinct possibilities in this story to understand maybe why Zacharias became dumb due to his unwillingness to believe the wonderful news of the most important angel sent directly to him from the very throne of God. This also has serious implications for me as well.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how I look at it), I find myself all too readily resonating with the mindset of Zacharias in this story . When I hear phrases like the ones spoken to him by the angel, I know that if they are spoken to me directly with application to my own life, I might find it just as difficult to embrace them readily like we assume he should have done. Because of past experiences that have shaped me and my personality and my outlook for the future, words such as joy and gladness and rejoicing just seem to ring hollow or even feel threatening in some ways.

Now, I know that might sound rather strange to people who thrive on such things in their lives. But for those like me who feel that we have been seriously shorted in these areas, it makes far more apparent seeming sense that we should have doubts as to the viability of such things suddenly exploding into our lives. In fact, things such as delirious joy or celebrations are so foreign to our way of living and thinking that we might even feel scandalized to be asked to believe in such notions and attitudes. Life has been hard, stern and rough for many of us. To expect us to believe that we should just throw off our inhibitions and suddenly become someone we have never been before, sounds similar to asking a strong conservative religious person to become an out of control party animal overnight. It just doesn't sound like something God should expect us to do.

Maybe that is exaggerating a bit – or maybe not. But the gist of what I am trying to say here is that for those of us who have grown up deeply entrenched in the sense of security gained from following all the rules while feeling secret disdain toward others who have thrown off restraint to become party animals and may have ruined their lives in the process, these words by the angel can potentially feel a little unsettling at the least.

The context infers that Zacharias and his wife had lived much of their life increasingly disappointed over their inability to have children. This was in a society where having children was a much bigger deal than it is in our culture. Children contributed hugely to a couple's prestige and sense of identity in that culture. To not have children, especially a boy, deprived them of social esteem and cut off their ability to pass their name on to future generations. It also left them unable to have anyone as family to inherit their land and possessions. In effect, their memory on earth as having any importance or impact was severely limited or curtailed if they could not produce offspring.

To make things even worse, they belonged to a select group of people who were supposed to be more highly esteemed by God because they were part of the priesthood. It was no inadvertent chance that the status and lineage of this couple was identified here. These were people who were assumed to be more blessed and noticed by God than most other classes in the world. So for them to have this apparent curse over them all of their lives was likely a deep source of embarrassment and shame for them. But at this stage in their lives they had likely become resigned to it and had just learned to live with it.

Given this scenario, it might be a little more understandable why Zacharias should have such incredulity when it came to being able to embrace readily what this angel had to say to him about their barren situation. To suddenly be expected to believe that what they had come to view as their fate with no possibility of recourse, should now be suddenly reversed would be a huge stretch of faith for nearly anyone. Their lives had become settled by this time to accept their sad situation and now they were just biding their time until the end of life.

But suddenly a supernatural being shows up to challenge the status quo and insist that they believe the seemingly impossible. To really appreciate this could be a real challenge for our shallow ways of thinking too. It is easy to criticize Zacharias and think that if we were exposed to an angel of glory that we would not be so reticent to believe, but in reality many of us would find ourselves all to similar to how Zacharias felt. And this is exactly where I find myself so challenged by this story.

As I think back on much smaller encounters with the Spirit of God urging me to move beyond my own comfort zone and how much resistance I often have in my heart to move outside the box, I can feel a great deal of sympathy for how Zacharias must have felt. But at the same time, in being able to resonate so readily with him I also realize that I can be in just as much danger of resisting incredibly good news from heaven were it to confront me in some way like he was confronted. And on that score I really don't like the idea of having to suffer what he went through for nearly a year because of his unwillingness to change his thinking when God suddenly challenged all his assumptions.

I think I am also starting to get a better sense now as to maybe why God allowed Zacharias to lose his voice for a period. If that had not happened, the natural doubts and expressions of unbelief or critical questions might have worked to spread a viral infection of doubt and fears to many others that could have seriously tainted the very things the angel was predicting. If Zacharias had not had this discipline to prevent him from spreading the disharmony that was in his heart to others, his influence may have worked to undermine the very blessings that God was intent on bringing into his life.

When he walked out of the temple that day to the wondering crowd with his voice intact, he might have been tempted to avoid mentioning his vision of the angel for fear that he would have to explain a message that he was still not ready to embrace himself. But in doing so he would have been damaging the reputation of the very God who wanted to bless him so lavishly; he could have easily discredited these promises to Zacharias and Elizabeth. So in allowing his voice to go offline temporarily, God was in reality helping to prevent Zacharias from further infecting both himself and those around him with the debilitating virus of unbelief so that God's plans could more readily be accomplished in their lives.

If Zacharias had not lost his voice, he might also have been a source to undermine his wife's faith in what God had promised them. In fact, if this unusual 'curse' had not taken place, both of them might have been tempted to question whether in reality Zacharias had even received such a vision or if it had only been a deception or a mirage. But because of the shock value of his loss of speech directly resulting from the angel's words, there was no doubt in Zacharias' mind that he had indeed encountered a messenger from heaven and he needed to take his message totally serious.

In reality, losing one's voice for 9-10 months is about as light of a 'punishment', if you want to call it that, that one could receive. There is very little pain or suffering involved in not being able to speak. Some might even suggest that it could have been a blessing for those around him if his speech had become less than life-giving at that point. Maybe Zacharias had started to become bitter about their situation and had been tempted to start complaining about God and his seemingly harsh treatment of them. Maybe his spirit was becoming infected with increasing doubts about God's goodness and care for them, or maybe as he saw the deep corruption of the religious leaders around him he was becoming cynical and losing his view of God.

Of course we can't be certain of all these things. But we do know that at this point in his life he had a real struggle to believe that anything anywhere near as good as what the angel was describing to him could ever possibly take place. And underneath that kind of thinking is always found reservations about what God is like and how He feels towards those who have been petitioning Him for so long.

This is where this story can really intersect with my own life and some of those around me today. How many of us feel resistance in our hearts to startling announcements of wonderful news after we have spent years immersed in a culture of dark views about God that now strongly restrict our ability to think differently about Him? How many of us have become locked into life-long patterns of fear, doubt, misgivings and unbelief in God's overwhelming goodness and grace that we find it nearly impossible to embrace anything that challenges those opinions?

Speaking for myself I have to admit that I have similar struggles as what I see Zacharias having in this story. That in turn awakens an element of fear in my mind that I too might have to be disciplined like he was for my own unbelief. But that awareness should also alert me that I can choose to do something different about my present attitude of resistance to participating in things involving joy or celebration. I recall that for years my slowly awakening heart increasingly yearns for outlets of greater expressiveness in ways that other parts of me find totally unacceptable and even scandalous. Yet deep inside I sense that God's ways are almost always viewed as outrageous and even scandalous to many who view themselves as experts about religion and God.

As I am reading back through this story again about the encounter between Zacharias and the angel, I now see more words and phrases that jump out at me. The angel declared to Zacharias that the impossible was about to not only be possible but would definitely happen. And he said that this was in response to their years of prayers that Zacharias had been tempted to think may have all been wasted. The angel specifically noted that this promised son was a direct answer to their petitions. In addition Gabriel said directly to Zacharias that he would have joy and gladness in all of this.

Again, from my perspective of feeling a sense of resonance with other words in this passage such as the foreboding and fear felt him when suddenly confronted with the presence of an angel, I see a real need to challenge my own feelings and preconceptions about how God feels toward me personally. And even while my heart longs to rejoice and dance and sing and celebrate God's goodness without fear and in total freedom and abandon, it feels hijacked and suffocated by another part of me that has been religiously trained to disdain such behavior and that doubts that God really approves of such things. What I am seeing here are the irreconcilable differences between what God has been revealing about Himself to me over recent years and my lingering internal conservative pictures of Him acquired from other sources over a lifetime.

While I certainly don't like the idea of being disciplined in some way like Zacharias experienced, at the same time I don't want to miss out on both the heart change like he finally experienced or the joy and celebration that he eventually participated in when these promises were realized. What I see in this story is grace once again at work to transform the thinking of people about what God is like, even through the supposed curse of losing his voice. In preventing Zacharias from spreading his doubts so easily while at the same time giving him a notable sign that would grab other people's attention, God was actually using this disability as a blessing for him and those around him. And while it would likely have been a much happier story if Zacharias could have simply believed more readily from the beginning, at least he did not lose out on the joy altogether.

The good news is that knowing about this story does not mean I have to take the same route that he chose. These stories were provided for our admonition. That means we don't have to repeat the same mistakes that others have made because we can learn through them to take a different course ourselves.

I don't have to cling to my doubts and lies about what God is like after He has continually been revealing His glory to me over recent years. And although it may be true that my pictures of God have been terribly distorted by well-meaning but misguided religious people throughout my life, I don't have to keep allowing my past to define my identity or let these lies continue to inhibit new opportunities to see Him through new eyes.

There is something else that comes to my attention in this story. It seems that more often than not it was the women in the Bible who seemed to find it easier to believe in God's promises and His goodness than most of the men. I sometimes feel jealous of those who readily embrace the positive pictures of God even in the face of unbelief in all around them: people like the mother of Jesus and even Elizabeth. I am sure that are other examples and of course there are plenty of examples of those who needed much more evidence before they were ready to believe.

But for each of us, no matter what gender or background or spiritual disability we may have, we all are confronted with fresh, startling revelations of the emerging truth that God is far better than we ever have dared to allow ourselves to imagine. God knows our handicaps in this area and deals with each one of us accordingly. But the more I am coming to see His incredible goodness and compassion and unconditional love that exposes the lies I have assumed about Him, the easier it is to abandon those lies in favor of the radical truth of His love for me, even though it puts me at odds with others around me.

Zacharias did at last get to to relish the joy that had evaded him for so many years. At last he got to celebrate the birth of a son – his son of promise – a miracle child. Even better than that, they had the incredible privilege of having their niece become the mother of the Messiah of the world which was ever farther beyond their wildest dreams they could have ever imagined before. And through the process of choosing to believe and obey the words from God to him, Zacharias became liberated from bonds that had held him for so long. For not only did he regain the use of his voice to praise the God who had been so gracious to them, Zacharias was catapulted into a life of joy-filled faith and a much deeper relationship of intimacy with his God who was so full of love for His children.

I love the contrast between the beginning of this story and its amazing conclusion.

Before –

Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him.

Zacharias said to the angel, "How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years."

"And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time." (Luke 1:12, 18, 20)

After –

And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God.

And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant-- as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old-- salvation 'from our enemies', and 'from the hand of all who hate us;' to show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on 'before the Lord to prepare his ways;' to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, 'to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,' to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:64, 67-79)