Currently viewing the tag: "Transformation"
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. (John 5:1-9)
Growing up, my least favorite two letters together were, without a doubt, P and E.
As in, P.E., as in Physical Education class. As in, “Time to awkwardly wear shorts under your skirts, girls, because we’re going to force you to kick a ball and climb a rope, and then we’ll tell you that it’s good for you!”
I hated P.E.
More than once (or more than 50 times), I lied to avoid P.E. I twisted my ankle, I felt the flu coming on, I forgot to wear shorts under my skirt and couldn’t possibly risk showing the boys my underpants…anything to get out of physical education. I knew the P.E. teachers were on to my tricks, but I didn’t care. I just didn’t want to exercise.
Similarly (sort of), I once heard a marriage counselor say that he can tell within just a few minutes of meeting a couple whether or not their marriage will improve—or even make it at all.
“It’s obvious from the very beginning,” he said, “if they intend to try or not.”
He’s like a P.E. teacher, leading husbands and wives to something that’s “good” for them. But all the tips, books, and Bible teaching in the world won’t help some marriages, because they just don’t want to try.
In John 5, Jesus met a man who hadn’t been able to walk for 38 years. Jesus asked one of his right-to-the-point questions.
“Do you want to get well?”
Do you want to stand on your own two feet, or are you honestly happier here by the pool? After all, this water is all you’ve known for 38 years….
Do you want to have a better marriage? Or are you honestly happier being right, and stubborn, and resentful? After all, a better marriage requires service, submission, and forgiveness….
Do you want to exercise in P.E. class? Or are you honestly happier lying about injury and illness? After all, exercise means kicking a ball, climbing a rope, and wearing shorts under your skirt….
Jesus knew that sometimes, we don’t want to get well. We are happier in our pain, addiction, or anger. After all, healing means stopping our lies, and changing our lives.
Healing is a Choice: Ten Decisions That Will Transform Your Life and Ten Lies That Can Prevent You From Making Them is for anyone who wants to get well. Stephen Arterburn first released Healing is a Choice in 2005, but it was recently revised, updated, and re-released by Thomas Nelson. Today’s version includes a full workbook, with application questions to facilitate healthy change. Throughout, Arterburn balances compassion with truth. He offers ten decisions for people who want to get well: the choice to feel your life, the choice to heal your future, the choice to forgive, the choice to persevere, and more—and his insights are all grounded in scripture.
From the book:
- “The power to heal—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually—is in God’s hands. But the choice to be healed is yours.”
- “I don’t know how long you have struggled, but I know this: it is time to pick up your mat and walk, or pick up your mat and cry, or pick up your mat and drive to a meeting, or pick up your mat and take your medicine, or pick up your mat and help someone else, or pick up your mat and utter a simple prayer of surrender to taking the path toward healing. It is time to pick up your life and experience all that God has for you.”
- “This very second is the beginning of the future you choose. You can choose a future that is burdened by an unresolved past that clouds every day with sickness and confusion….Or you can choose to live to please God and not yourself. You can choose to live in His promises for healing rather than your history of brokenness. Your future is your choice.”
“Do you want to get well?” the Lord asked the man. Perhaps he asks us, too. Healing isn’t easy, but it is a choice. Ready to stop the lies and start the transformation? Ready for the healing that only God can give? Then don’t miss Stephen Arterburn’s Healing is a Choice.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers' BookSneeze program.
Make Me Thy Fuel
by Amy Carmichael
From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee
From fearing when I should aspire
From faltering when I should climb higher
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.From subtle love of softening things
From easy choices, weakenings
(Not thus are spirits fortified
Not this way went the Crucified)
From all that dims Thy Calvary
O Lamb of God, deliver me.Give me the love that leads the way
The faith that nothing can dismay
The hope no disappointments tire
The passion that will burn like fire
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.
When Andy is gone overnight, Nathan kicks into “man of the house” mode. Suddenly, the boy who has to be reminded to use a comb on his head recalls everything Andy usually does. Nathan locks the doors at night, brings the trashcans in from the curb, turns off every light in the house, and makes perfect grilled cheese sandwiches.
Okay, he doesn’t really do that last part. But Andy has already started passing on his grilled cheese skills. It won’t be long before Nathan earns his spatula. Train up a child in the way he should go!
Nathan’s “do what Dad does” mentality brought me to tears one morning a few years ago when Andy was out of town. I was putting on my makeup in the bathroom, and Nathan wandered in.
“Hi, Mom,” he began. He was tugging at the front of his hair—his habit when he’s nervous. “Um…I was just gonna say, is there anything I can do for you today?”
Very sweet, certainly, and thoughtful beyond his years. But the question revealed more. It wasn’t just Nathan being kind…it was Nathan being like his father. Nearly every morning, Andy asks me, “Is there anything I can do for you today?” “How can I help you today?” I’d honestly not given such a kindness much thought, until I heard it echoed by my son.
“Is there anything I can do for you today?”
And it made me wonder. If my kids were to emulate me, what would they do? What do they hear me say day after day? Do they hear me laugh, or complain? Respect my husband, or nag him? Would they spend an hour in the Word, or on facebook? What would it look like to look like me?
Lord, thank You for a husband who serves because He wants to be like You. Thank You for the example he sets for Nathan. God, the little people around me might someday look like me—oh! Please, help me to look like You. Don’t stop refining me until I do. And let my heart’s cry every morning be, “My Father, is there anything I can do for You today?” Amen.
June 21, 1997–the day I dressed in white and changed my name from Miss Amy Dunson to Mrs. Amy Storms. So much went wrong in our wedding that remembering it still makes me cringe. Amid the bridesmaids’ dresses going missing, the photographer getting in a fight with Andy’s grandma, and the flower girl spilling water down the front of her dress, I forgot to pull my veil over my face. No blusher for this bride. And I could’ve used it, too, to hide my tears as I cried my way down the aisle.
Veils aren’t always a good thing. To the believers in Corinth, Paul wrote about the veil Moses wore after being in the Lord’s presence. Paul said that some people have veils, not over their faces, but over their hearts. The veil keeps them from experiencing God’s salvation and freedom. “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord,” Paul wrote, “the veil is taken away.” (2 Corinthians 3:16)
A veiled heart keeps us from God…oh, let’s remove the veil! No blusher for the Bride of Christ. Lord, let us turn to you, and let nothing separate us from You. Let us encounter You, as Moses did. Give us minds to know You better and hearts to love You more. (Ephesians 1:17-18) Let us be as Paul described: “And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18) Amen.
Recently I read Eugene Peterson’s fantastic book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society. Many years after its first publication, A Long Obedience is based on the Songs of Ascent in Psalm 120-134. Israel sang these 15 songs as they traveled—ascended—to Jerusalem for the feasts of Passover, Tabernacles, and Pentecost, and Peterson uses them to teach 15 aspects of Christian discipleship.
A Long Obedience challenged me greatly. A few of my favorite parts:
“Feelings are great liars. If Christians worshiped only when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship. Feelings are important in many areas but completely unreliable in matters of faith. Paul Scherer is laconic: ‘The Bible wastes very little time on the way we feel.’”
“The Christian is a person who recognizes that our real problem is not in achieving freedom but in learning service under a better master. The Christian realizes that every relationship that excludes God becomes oppressive. Recognizing and realizing that, we urgently want to live under the mastery of God.”
“Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence.”
“We can decide to live in response to the abundance of God and not under the dictatorship of our own poor needs. We can decide to live in the environment of a living God and not our own dying selves. We can decide to center ourselves in the God who generously gives and not in our own egos which greedily grab. One of the certain consequences of such a life is joy.”
“A Christian who has David in his bones, Jeremiah in his bloodstream, Paul in his fingertips and Christ in his heart will know how much and how little value to put on his own momentary feelings and the experience of the past week.”
“For obedience is not a stodgy plodding in the ruts of religion, it is a hopeful race toward God’s promises.”
“Many think that the only way to change your behavior is to first change your feelings. We take a pill to alter our moods so that we won’t kick the dog. We turn on music to soothe our emotions so that our conversation will be less abrasive. But there is an older wisdom that puts it differently: by changing our behavior we can change our feelings.”
“The Bible is not so much God telling us some thing—some idea, some fact, some rule—as God speaking life into us. Are we listening? Are we answering? Bible reading is prayed reading.”
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
Sundays, not surprisingly, are crazy in our home. Well, they’re crazy for Andy. The rest of us just wave to him as he goes by.
A few weeks ago, while Anne was sick with a fever, Andy had an especially busy Sunday. After being at the church building for literally 13 hours, Andy rushed home to get a few things before heading to his next meeting. He didn’t have time to talk—just told us he loved us from the doorway before heading out again.
When the garage door closed behind him, I heard a little sniff coming from the direction of the couch. Anne was crying.
“Anne, are you sad?”
She nodded.
“Are you missing Daddy?”
Tears poured down her face as she wailed, “I don’t even know what he’s wearing!”
Who knew Andy’s clothes were so important? But it wasn’t really his attire that bothered her. Tender Anne felt disconnected from the person she loves most: her father. Anne was saying, in essence, “He was gone before I woke up, and I couldn’t say good morning. He’ll be gone when I go to bed, so I can’t say good night. I miss him so much…and I don’t even know what he’s wearing!”
As I write this, I’m locked in Andy’s office, away from kids and home. It’s been too long since I’ve taken a whole day to connect with my Father. To not just “log pages” on some daily Bible reading plan, but to truly hear Him speak in His Word. To converse with Him in prayer. To be still before Him, and remain in Him, and enjoy His presence.
It has been too long, Lord. Keep me connected to You! I don’t even know what You’re wearing.–Let me see You today. Amen.
Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays, and not just because of the Shamrock Shakes at McDonald’s. Although truthfully, that helps. Mostly, I love that this day celebrates a missionary. When Andy was a children’s pastor in Indiana, he held an “Everything Green” party each year. The kids dressed in green, ate green food, and won green prizes for green games. But more than that, Andy used the party as a chance to teach about the ministry of Saint Patrick and other missionaries.
I recently read a short biography about Saint Patrick–Saint Patrick by Jonathan Rogers–and learned a lot I didn’t know about the man. For instance, Patrick wasn’t actually the first bishop of Ireland. Nor was he the first person to bring Christianity to Ireland. He also didn’t write “Saint Patrick’s Breastplate,” which is so often attributed to him.
But Patrick did hear God’s call to minister to the very people who had kidnapped him. He obeyed that call, and baptized thousands of Irishmen. From the book:
“Patrick revealed, among other things, that he believed the gospel he preached. He believed that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, Roman nor barbarian. He believed that God can utterly transform a human heart. He believed that he could rely entirely on God’s mercy, rather than be compelled to paper over his own sins. And he believed that…Christ was the defender of the weak–including Patrick himself.”
Saint Patrick’s life leaves me with a few questions about my own. Do I obey God’s call for Amy? Do I believe the gospel I preach–enough to sacrifice position and reputation to further it?
God, thank You for missionaries like Patrick, whose stories are our examples. Let me be like him in humility and boldness and faithful obedience. Thank You that You “can utterly transform a human heart.” Transform mine, dear Lord. Amen.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
On an extra hot day last summer, the glass in our patio door shattered. First, it popped loudly, as though hit by a rock. Then, it crackled quietly as thousands of thin lines spread across the whole door.
Andy called a repairman, who said that shattering is common in glass that gets direct sunlight. He also said that he was on vacation and couldn’t fix it for two weeks. For five of us, two weeks with a broken door was just an annoyance. But for one of us–the one who walks on four legs and drools terribly–the non-working door was a puzzle. Belle could not understand.
“Ruff,” she’d say, sitting at the broken door, asking to be let out.
“Come, Belle,” we’d call from across the room, to take her through the front door instead.
“Ruff?” she’d repeat, confused.
Basset hounds, the dog books say, enjoy routine. That’s one of the reasons we chose her breed, actually, because I’m not fond of change, either. But the broken door ruined Belle’s normalcy. For two whole weeks, she was forced to do something–gasp!–new.
Aversion to change is harmless enough in basset hounds. I suppose it’s even understandable in my personality type. But a problem arises when my dislike of “new” becomes a lack of faith, or worse, a willful disobedience of what God tells me to do.
Andy and I have been in a season of change. One area of ministry ended and another began, and I must say, at times I’ve obeyed God only after pitching a royal fit about it. My kids are changing, too. Last night as I folded Nathan’s laundry, I sighed and wondered aloud, “When did we get big kids?” How dare they grow so quickly. Our church, too, is fast-approaching a new building, with new opportunities for ministry and growth. It’s exciting! And, terrifying.
But God is in the “new” business:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19)
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
“He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (Revelation 21:5)
Lord, You’re leading me through a new door, and I want to follow. Thank You that what is unknown to me is nothing new for the Ancient of Days. Help me to trust, and to obey with boldness and joy. In all the changes, I rely on Your unfailing love and Your unending faithfulness. I love You, Lord. Amen.
Previous Lessons from a Basset Hound:
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” (Psalm 103:8)
Perception does not always equal reality.
Case in point: when I pull on a pair of old jeans. My perception says, “I’m the same size I was before I had kids.” But reality says, “Are you kidding? These won’t make it over your backside.”
Like I said, perception does not always equal reality.
It’s the same with God and His character. I may have a perception about God that simply isn’t accurate. “God is always angry.” “God is apathetic.” “God is tired of me.” But if my feelings and beliefs don’t line up with scripture, they aren’t truth.
When Moses encountered God on Mount Sinai, he got a dose of reality. He learned firsthand what God is like. God covered Moses with His hand and announced His name as He passed by:
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness….” (Exodus 34:6)
Let me tell you who I AM, Moses. I am tenderhearted. I give you blessings that you don’t deserve. I am patient with you. Most of all, my love is unfailing and never-ending.
What a glorious reality. Compassion, grace, patience, unfailing love….The truth of God’s character surpasses anything I could imagine. His reality is greater than my best perception.
God, show me what You’re like. Replace my false perceptions with reality. I want to remain in Your presence (Exodus 33:14-15), and build my life on Your name (Exodus 34:5-7), and reflect Your character to others (Exodus 34:29-30). Will You please reveal Yourself to me until I know You completely? Show me the glory of Your reality. Amen.
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16)
Last weekend, author and speaker Jackina Stark led the women of my church in a fantastic retreat. More to come on that soon, but for now I can’t stop thinking about an illustration Jackina read. It’s a poem by Wilbur Rees.
I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please.
Makes my heart cry, “Oh, Lord, explode my soul!”
More on Jackina Stark:
- Bookshelf: Three New Releases!
- Bookshelf: Tender Grace
- Article about Jackina on Ungrind: “Rough Draft Life”
- Jackina’s website
