Jesus heals

Lies can hold us prisoner
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Lies can hold us prisoner

Biography of a Soul…notes to a seeker.

Like St. Teresa of Avila, whose Abbess instructed her to write her Autobiography of a Soul, creating a map to follow toward the heart of God, I offer a Biography of a Soul, notes to encourage and equip your heart to seek God’s heart.

Like Screwtape to Wormwood, I make practical suggestions about how to continue toward God’s good will. Read on, won’t you?

Mary Cassatt, The Two Sisters, Public Domain


My Dear Seeker,

Jesus continues his mission statement by announcing that he came to bring release to the captives. Jesus is the door through which prisoners walk into freedom. To all who are held captive, he brings the good news that there is release and liberation in relationship with him.


Think about the ways you feel imprisoned. Your captor may be a habit you can’t break or a relationship that keeps you a victim of sorts. Maybe you are locked up within the consequences of an earlier bad choice, or in a body that houses sickness or disease.


It is death in its many forms that hold us captive. Defeat and despair are the guards that march sentry around our souls, whispering to us that the cell we inhabit is locked forever, don’t even try to escape; the bars that confine us are unbreakable and unbendable; the door is shut and sealed, and there is no key to fit it.


But, these are all lies! Jesus has turned the table – his death took death captive! His resurrection swung wide open the prison door and the bars that formerly held us now melt like the illusions they are, and we can walk into freedom. This is the truth!


Consider this good news – in Jesus you are free to do whatever you want! The wonder is that in Jesus and with Jesus what you want will lead to life and away from death. Freedom comes not by abandoning rules and laws, but by embracing them; trusting that God has established them for your good. If God has asked some obedience of you, you can be sure it is the Lord’s love that prompts this request. True freedom is experienced when you are bound by obedience.


Unlike you and I, there are some who are literally held captive, through such things as wrongs they have done or because of unjust powers. Does this promise of Jesus hold true for them? How does Jesus, incarnate, bring them release? First of all, in their spirits. They are connected to the love of God through Christ Jesus and no other authority can determine their eternal outcome or their present joy. Sadly, some will physically die as prisoners and on that day they will realize in their person what they have experienced in their spirit, the freedom of a beloved child of God. And God’s Spirit active in us will encourage us to remember these temporally imprisoned friends through our prayers, our visits to them, and our work for justice.


May the freedom Christ bought you bring you joy and abandon.

With you on the journey,
Debby

It’s a privilege to be poor????
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It’s a privilege to be poor????

Biography of a Soul…notes to a seeker.

Like St. Teresa of Avila, whose Abbess instructed her to write her Autobiography of a Soul, creating a map to follow toward the heart of God, I offer a Biography of a Soul, notes to encourage and equip your heart to seek God’s heart.

Like Screwtape to Wormwood, I make practical suggestions about how to continue toward God’s good will. Read on, won’t you?

Mary Cassatt, The Two Sisters, Public Domain


My Dear Seeker,

Jesus came to bring good news to the poor. The best news the poor could receive is that the resources they are lacking are now provided. The poor have no money to purchase what they need; they have no power to influence the system; they are faceless, invisible, abused, and exploited. The poor need provision, recognition, and protection. Jesus is our provision. Jesus is our power. Jesus is our protection. That is good news. In Jesus’ economy, being poor comes with privileges.

In order to receive the good news of Jesus, we must confess our poverty. This admission is a very humbling experience. It means admitting to ourselves and to others that we can’t take care of ourselves, we need help. It means we must rely on another to supply what, in our mind, we think we should be able to supply for ourselves. Sometimes it means admitting that we have particular needs or desires that we think (or wish) we didn’t. Admitting our poverty requires our ego to die. We can’t pretend that we are wealthy or powerful or that we have it all together. In this dying, we receive the gift of poverty.

To us who are the privileged poor, Jesus says, “do not worry about what you will eat or what you will wear.” Why? “Because your heavenly Father knows what you need and will supply your every need out of his abundant riches.” (Luke 12) These promises are sweet, pretty, and very poetic. They bring great comfort and are easy to believe when I am not in touch with my poverty. But when I am out of resources and in real need, I find myself wondering if they are practically and literally true. My soul cries, “I don’t see how you can provide, the need is too great.” Doubt pushes out faith and the vacancy in my soul is filled with fear.

Fear, the great thief, whispers,

  • “Will you have enough? Maybe you should withhold, God will understand.”
  • “Don’t be too generous, remember you have lots of bills to pay.”
  • “Ignore the pleas of that homeless man on the street, he’d just use the money for drugs.”
  • “You need to put that extra money aside for the future instead of taking the widow out for a nice dinner, her husband probably left her plenty of money. Who’s going to take care of you in your old age?”
  • “Why don’t miracle provisions happen for you, as they do for him? He must be more faithful than you. No wonder God doesn’t provide for you, you’re not obedient, you don’t deserve his kindness.”

On and on, fear wages its campaign of dread and worry.

In this cycle of fear and anxiety, be glad that Jesus knows our process intimately and interrupts fear’s tirade. Immediately after telling his followers not to worry, he adds these tender and gentle words, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” He knows that in the face of potential lack, our natural tendency will be fear. Jesus knows that we will forget his promises of provision and will think it is up to us to strategize our solvency. And this forgetting keeps us living in fear. We need to live in the place of trust, in the arms of the good shepherd, Jesus. Picture yourself, a little lamb, being carried in the strong and gentle arms of the one who loves you and gave his very life for the privilege of holding you close. “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

With you on the journey,

Debby

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Jesus’ Mission Statement!

Biography of a Soul…notes to a seeker.

Like St. Teresa of Avila, whose Abbess instructed her to write her Autobiography of a Soul, creating a map to follow toward the heart of God, I offer a Biography of a Soul, notes to encourage and equip your heart to seek God’s heart.

Like Screwtape to Wormwood, I make practical suggestions about how to continue toward God’s good will. Read on, won’t you?

Mary Cassatt, The Two Sisters, Public Domain


My dear Seeker,
Towards the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, he entered his hometown synagogue and was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah from which to read. Luke says,


He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”


In this proclamation, Jesus was announcing his mission statement. Isaiah had prophesied these amazing promises centuries before, and now Jesus is declaring that he is their fulfillment. Jesus himself is the good news that the poor need to hear; he is the captive’s release and the blind’s sight; he is the freedom that the oppressed seek and the means of favor in God’s eyes. All these are accomplished in Jesus. All these are accomplished in Jesus for you.


Ultimately, the fulfillment of these prophecies will be concrete and literal, but penultimately, their good work begins in you, and in me.


God is a very individual and personal God. It is God’s intention to personally bring you good news, release, sight, freedom, and favor. Wow! Consider what this means in your every day, walking around life. Savor the possibility.


(My dear friend, I realize that I’m having a difficult time thinking about what to write to you regarding these promises. I know they are true and sure at all times because I know Jesus is true and sure at all times, but my experience sometimes suggests that they are true and sure only sometimes. I wish my experience could declare their trustworthiness without a doubt, but it is only my faith that I can make such a declaration. And so, it does. “Oh Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”)


Oh, Holy Spirit, bringer of wisdom and discernment, will you speak your truth through my words right now? I so long to impart only what is of you; form my thoughts after yours, inspire images, form sentences that bring to this page what would bring life and liberty to me and to my friend. We need your help. Amen.


With you on the journey,
Debby

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Don’t try and steal Jesus’ power

Thoughts on Mark 5:21-34

A synagogue big cheese comes toward you, the crowd parts as he makes his way, he falls at your feet and begs you, for his daughter’s sake, to come to his home. She was at the point of death and he asks you to touch her so she would be made well and live. You accompany him toward his home and so did the crowd. In the crowd was a woman who’d heard about you. She wanted to remain anonymous, since her 12-year-straight period put her in the unclean category and forbade her interaction with others. Desperate, she disguises herself and dares to approach you from behind; she figures if she could secretly touch you she would be made well. She had great hope, that even your garments had power to heal. And she was right. She stealthily attempted to steal your power, to take what she needed from you without being known. But you’ll have none of that. You demand she make herself known. Fearfully she comes forward, admits her actions, and the story of her life pours out. She expected condemnation, that was what she had received from the other rabbis, but from you she got compassion and a new identity: Daughter. You listen and return her to dignity and wholeness.

Jesus, you are not a magic wand. It’s true there is power in your name and some use your name to get or give what is wanted: health, prosperity, influence. But that is not your preferred style of relating. You want to know the ones you heal. We cower, attempting to remain on the periphery of your life, afraid of the shame and disappointment that would follow the exposing of our weaknesses and faults. Yet you are not content with such a connection. You ask us to come forward, you invite us to tell you not only what we need, but why we need it. There is a reason we are broken, and alone. We must admit it to ourselves as well as to you. You give us not what we expect, but what we truly need. In a very public way, you call us daughter, honor our story, heal and grant us peace.

In the meantime, the synagogue big cheese remains waiting in the wings.

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Are you spiritually diseased?

As the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them. Luke 4:40

There are times when Jesus’ touch cures the sick and diseased, as it did in Capernaum. Jesus personally touched the people who were weak and feeble; those who were without strength or power to help themselves felt Jesus’ hand upon them. Where in your life have you given up hope of ever experiencing health? Do you have habitual thoughts or actions that seem impossible to overcome? This is a form of despair. Jesus knows the exact nature of your distress. His nail-scarred hands touch your discouraged heart. Will you receive his power?

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Do you have a spiritual fever?

After leaving the synagogue he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.   Luke 4:38,39

There are times when Jesus stands near, like he did over Simon’s mother-in-law, who was suffering from a fever that kept her bedridden. A fever is a body’s attempt to fight off an infection, a way to heal itself. Do you have a fever of the spiritual variety? How do you attempt to fight your own fights; depend on your own strength or will power to overcome things that keep you out of commission? This is a form of pride. Jesus stands near you, saying, “Let go of your self effort, let me come close and let’s work together to deal with this circumstance.” Will you trust his nearness?