Ezra

Today’s Reading: Ezra 10:1-44 & Galatians 1:1-2:21

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:14-15

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Have you ever thought about that word friend, and what it means to be Jesus’ friend? Many of us have sang the hymn, “What a friend we have in Jesus“, or heard the new song by Casting Crowns “Jesus friend of Sinners“, but what does this word friend mean? It’s easy to think of ourselves as God’s servants, and even to think of ourselves as His children isn’t too difficult because there is still a superiority involved in those relationships, but friend… a friendship with someone is more equality than anything else isn’t it? When I think of all my best friends I don’t think of myself as any greater or less than them, we’re just friends. There aren’t really any lines drawn between us that separate us in that manner. When my friends need my help, they ask for it. When I need a great listening ear, I know exactly who to call. When I’m sad and need an encouraging word, depending on the situation I will call a specific person full well knowing that they will know exactly what I need to hear in that moment. Friendship is about mutual gratification, encouragement, love and assistance. In John 15:13 the word friend in Greek is philos (fee-los):

* a friend; someone dearly loved (prized) in a personal, intimate way; a trusted confidant, held dear in a close bond of personal affection.

* Note: The root (phil-) conveys experiential, personal affection indicating philos expresses experience-based love.

Friends with God? With Jesus? The Holy Spirit? He considers ME a trusted confidant? He holds me dear in a close bond of personal affection? Me? Dirty little stubborn girl that I am? I am someone that Jesus dearly loves? I am prized in a personal and intimate way by the Creator of the Universe and the Savior of my life? Well, in John 15:15 Jesus says to us “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus, the Word of God, tells us His secrets, making us His trusted confidant!* The secrets of the universe, held by its creator Himself are shared with us through the Bible and the Holy Spirit who whispers kingdom truths into our hearts straight from the throne room of God. He trusts us with His secrets.

Wow.

But above and beyond that, Jesus points out that He no longer calls us servants, He calls us FRIEND.

We are no longer slaves to the law, to money, or to dreams of fame or fortune. We are no longer slaves to our own expectations or those of others. Because of Jesus we no longer need to be slaves to the idea that our worth, here or in His kingdom, comes from what we do or where we come from. Nor are we slaves to the idea that success is even measurable in human terms, let alone something God looks for in us.

What if God doesn’t care if we’re “successful”? What if His number one concern is that we spend our lives experiencing His abundant love through grace? What if worldly success is the farthest thing from His heart? And if that is true then wouldn’t chasing that kind of success take you farther from His heart than what He’s willing to let you go?

Maybe, by running from the world’s view of success we end up running smack straight into the heart of what Jesus came for… dependence on God.

Jesus was quite the rebel in His day. He picked grain on the Sabbath, ate with unwashed hands, touched lepers and ate with the most sinful people among them. He bucked the status quo like none other! He went straight against everything the system was there to do… which achieved His true purpose beautifully. The Law was created to be a guardian, a substitute shepherd until the true owner of the herd came home to claim them and save them from that abusive hired shepherd. (John 10:1-20)

The Mosaic Law was not created to save, it was created to kill. It was created to show humanity our weaknesses. On the day the Law was given 3,000 people died. Yet, on the day of Pentecost ( the celebration of the Law being given), fifty days after Christ’s death and subsequent resurrection, the Holy Spirit came down and 3,000 people were raised from that death in one day. All because our FRIEND Jesus laid down His life for us; in one day 3,000 people were freed from their chains of slavery to the Law of Death and walking into the Light of the Law of Grace they were saved.

What love is this that we should no longer be called slaves or even servants, but friends? Slaves are not embraced and greeted with a smile. And friends are not expected to toil day and night in order to earn each other’s affections or favors either. No. We simply love our friends because they enjoy being a part of our lives, and we enjoy their presence.

My husband Sean is my best friend in this world; his friendship and opinion mean everything to me. He knows me better than anyone else on this planet, including my Mom, which is saying something. While others may know a lot about me, he knows me. While others see bits and pieces of who I am, he gets all of me, I hide nothing from him… at least not anymore anyway. Jesus wants to be that kind of husband to you. He wants to be the One who gets all of you. Not just the left over bits and pieces that you let the world see, He wants you to know HIM. He wants you to know His love for you in such an intimate, husband-like way that you open to him like a morning glory opening to the morning sun. This is precisely what happens when we begin to focus on koinonia.

God introduced me to koinonia this morning in 1 John 1:3 “Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” Which then through the marginal commentary in my Bible pointed me to 1 Corinthians 1:9 “God, who called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” And it made me ask, what is this word fellowship? Christians throw it around all the time but what does it really mean? So I went to Dictionary.com.

Fellowship:

    * The condition of relation of being a fellow (OK, that was no help! Ugh!)

    * Friendly relationship; companionship (ah, OK, that’s better)

    * community of interest, feeling, etc. (OK!)

So, according to our English definition of fellowship God (who is faithful) has called us into a friendly relationship, companionship or friendship with Jesus, His Son. Mmmmmm… but you know me, curious as a cat when it comes to words. I love to dig deeper in hopes of finding the treasure buried in His word. When a guy like God speaks, the words He chooses to use are very important. So I went from our surface level English version of this word “fellowship” and dug a little deeper to find the original Greek definition of this word “fellowship”.

The Greek word is koinonia and literally means:

* partnership, (A-HA!!! I’ve struck Biblical gold!).

* Contributory help,

* participation,

* sharing in,

* communion,

* spiritual fellowship,

* a fellowship in the Spirit.

In the Bible God’s relationship to His people is very often referred to in terms of a marital relationship. Jesus even referred to Himself as the bridegroom in Mattew 9:15, and in Revelation 19:7 we are referred to as His bride. God, who is faithful, has called us into a friendship-based partnership, or marriage with Jesus, His son. And in order for us to foster this friendship based marriage He left us with His Spirit; like a supernatural cell phone in order to communicate with Him as often as we would like to call or text, day or night, rain or shine in order for us to experience His love in supernatural ways which fosters philios – experience based love.

Koinonia is a partnership with the One who loves us the most. Philios is the friendship that is made possible through the Holy Spirit who brings us into all truth through our life experiences, which helps us then understand and see God’s love for us through those experiences.

Today’s Reading: Ezra 3:1-6:22

Last night I had quite the night. I sat down on the couch shortly before bed and flipped through a Christian book publishing catalog that had come in the mail. The more pages I turned the stronger I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to contact that publisher about printing one of my books. I finished browsing through the catalog and picked up my smart phone to look up their website. When I clicked on the “About” page to find out more on what kind of publisher they were I found myself transported into the founders visionary experience. In his road-side experience, Don was visited by none other than God Himself. He took Don to a Christian publishing trade show where everyone was bustling around trying to do something for God’s kingdom, when in reality they were only working on building their own kingdoms. None of them were caring about the heart of God, what HE wanted. This in itself struck me and made me ask “Do I care about the heart of God? Am I seeking His desires for me and His kingdom? Am I being like one of these Christian tradeshow people, too busy to even ask God what HE wants?” In the least it was shocking to me. And the saddest part was, I couldn’t really answer any of those questions myself because I didn’t know the answers. They were questions that I had to take to God Himself because only He could and would answer them truthfully. So I ended up laying my head down on my pillow with that very prayer in my heart “Jesus, am I seeking Your heart? What is Your heart, Your desire for me and my place in Your kingdom? (Most importantly) What is Your desire for our relationship?” And I resolved that whatever time He woke me up, no matter how early, I would get up and spend some quiet time with Him to discuss this very question because I knew that it was that important to Him.

I have no idea what time it was when I did wake up again because I refused to look at the clock and tempt myself to moan and groan about the amount of sleep I was losing, but I do know that it was most certainly the middle of the night when the storm came booming in. So as the thunder began rolling I rolled myself quietly out of bed doing my best not to disturb my husband’s rest and softly padded my way back out to our couch. I had intended to read my Bible when I got up, but I could feel in my Spirit that that wasn’t what Jesus wanted me to do at this particular juncture. I pulled back the curtains from our picture window and snuggled down into the soft cushions to watch the light show, while one line from a show the kids had watched earlier in the day played over and over in my head; “whatcha’ doin’? Whatcha’ doin’, I really wanna know” Now I’ve learned that when one line of a song plays through my head repeatedly like this that it’s the Holy Spirit singing to me, communicating to me through the lyrics. This time asking me, “what ARE you doing?” Now, He’s the one who was leading me to DO what I was doing so asking me what I was doing seems kind of redundant until I realized that He was asking me because He wanted me to ask myself “What is God having me do right now? Why?” Here I was getting up in the middle of the night to watch a thunderstorm? Why???

As I sat there I kept asking “Why” and wondering when God would start to speak to me and tell me His heart. But He never spoke to me the way I expected Him to, this one was a special question that deserved a special and more memorable answer. He needed to show me. Now if you’ve been reading for long you’ve learned how much I love nature and how I photograph it in order to capture little pieces of God-art to take home with me and to share with you. You also may remember that I’ve been reading “One Thousand Gifts” by Ann Voskamp where she encourages us all to write down the little gifts God gives us throughout our days. In this book she, being a very gifted writer, doesn’t just write down her list in plain simple terms, she describes the gift, rolling waves of white (snow drift), colorful orbs filled with sun (bubbles in sunlight)… And reading all these descriptions has certainly pushed me as a writer myself to go beyond simple descriptions of events and really name the gifts, like Adam in Eden naming the animals, there’s something very intimate and special when you do it that way. And this is precisely what I found myself doing last night sitting before the picture window gazing out into the midst of a mid-night storm, I started naming gifts:

The sparkle of water reflecting the lightning as it trickled down from my rooftop,

Shadows dancing on the once bone dry lawn,

Rooftop music played by thousands of raindrops,

The way I can feel the thunder resonate within my soul like a clap of heavenly hands,

The flash of lightning and the way it ALWAYS makes the shadows flee, even if only for that instant, but then He does it again, and again, and again, keeping them running for their lives.

It was the lightning that I was particularly interested in too because it was part of my puzzle yesterday! I had started with the verse in Genesis about the flaming sword which brought me to another key flame in the scriptures, the cloven tongues as if of fire in Acts 2:3 when the Holy Spirit came down to dwell within humanity for the first time in all of history. That word fire, in the Greek means just that, fire. But it can also be translated as lighting which really had my brain hopping yesterday. Because all I could think about was Jesus talking about seeing Satan fall “like lightning”. How is it that the Holy Spirit could fall in the same way that Satan fell? It just didn’t seem to fit. Then here I was, sitting and watching the lighting chase the shadows away and turning the dead of night into mid-day. Suddenly the puzzle was clear, yes, the Holy Spirit did fall in the same way that Satan fell! And it’s magnificent! This father of lies started a mutiny in heaven and was cast out, thrown down, and he “fell like lightning” to the earth; quickly and without delay because he had been sent away. The Holy Spirit of Truth on the other hand had been sitting around in heaven waiting for thousands of years for that moment; the moment when He could FINALLY come down and be a part of the picture for all of us. The day when He could come and abide in us and we in Him, through Him. Yes, the Holy Spirit was sent out of heaven, but not because He had done something against God’s wishes, but because we had. The Holy Spirit was standing at the door of heaven in a runners starting position waiting for that starter pistol to fire so that He could sprint down here as fast as His supernatural legs could carry Him and start to set this upside down world right side up again. And when Papa nodded His head that it was time, off He went, as fast a lightning bolt to the earth to chase away the darkness and make the shadows in our hearts flee. And every time a storm comes along we get to watch what that moment was like. We get to trace that speedy trail of light with our eyes and smile at the eagerness of the Spirit of Life. Like the end of a sappy chick flick where the man and the woman are running across the screen to embrace one another because they’ve been apart for so long… only not in slow motion. He really does love us. A lot.

This was all terribly exciting for me, I will admit, but it still didn’t answer my heart question did it? That puzzle piece was still dangling from my finger tips waiting for me to finally see where it fits. Hmmmm…

Puddles that shine on ground dry and desperately thirsty,

The gurgle of a fish tank pump in need of more water in one ear and overflowing water splashing on the ground in the other ear,

ribbons of light and color through the dark night sky,

The heavens declare, they pour forth speech, they reveal knowledge!!! God’s creation speaks! What was I doing? I was sitting and listening, I was watching, I was witnessing God’s creative poetry in motion! When you look at a painting you can see the artist’s heart in that piece of art. When you read a writer’s work you can see their heart in the piece. When we stop the business of our lives and pay attention to The Creator’s art it speaks to us and reveals His heart of amazing love for us!!! It’s no wonder I feel such a connection to my camera and my photography, God speaks to me through them! Each photo is a well filled with living water, it’s no wonder I find myself just staring at them sometimes, it’s because my eyes are thirsty for a word from the artist!

Thank You Jesus! I love You too!