What it feels like to be DRUNK

“But now I discovered the wonderful power of wine.  I understand why men become drunkards.  For the way it worked on me was—not at all that it blotted out my sorrows—but that it made them seem glorious and noble, like sad music, and I somehow great and reverend for feeling them.  I was a great, sad queen in a song.  I did not check the big tears that rose in my eyes.  I enjoyed them.  To say all, I was drunk; I played the fool.”  Queen Orual, from “Till We Have Faces,” by C.S. Lewis

“Do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” 

Paul to the church in Ephesus

I don’t know what it feels like to be drunk, but I have friends who do, and they describe it like C.S. Lewis did through Orual.  Drama.  Dramatization of emotion.

I used to be a bouncer witnessing drunkenness.  Sometimes it was annoying.  Most of the time it was sad.  People seemed to want to be free to feel whatever they were feeling.  Sad.  Angry.  Desperate to be happy.  Desperate for intimacy.  Lonely. 

Sometimes they’d talk to me like a long lost friend.  Confessions.  Open.  I’d listen to them being themselves, until they sobered.  The next day they’d either not remember, or act like they didn’t remember.

This bothered me.

Why can’t we always be like we are when we are drunk?

As Pink sang,

“How do I feel this good sober?”

My friend said that he felt with the Spirit of God what He tried to feel when he was buzzed.

But it didn’t end or cause him to lose control.

He felt what scriptures call “perfect peace.” "Peace that surpasses all understanding."

The Peace of God.

Others feel the joy they sought in the bottle.  Real joy.  As the scriptures say,

“In your presence, there is fullness of joy, at your right hand, there are pleasures ever more.”

Some felt uninhibited by the Spirit, because “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Others felt bold, because they “received power when the Spirit came upon them, and became witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth.”

Some felt connected to people they’d never met, because they all “drank of one Spirit,” and were all filled with the water that satisfies forever.

I don’t know what it feels like to be drunk with wine, or high on drugs.

I don’t know what it feels like to cry, or laugh, or sing with a crowd of my drunken friends.

But I know what it feels like to be connected to God.

And I don’t feel like I’ve missed anything…at all.

The fearful freedom of friendships

“Well.  You have a secret from me,” he said in the end.  “No, don’t turn away from me.  Did you think I would try to press or conjure it out of you?  Never that.  Friends must be free.  My tormenting you to find it would build a worse barrier between us than your hiding it.” 

The Fox to Orual, from C.S. Lewis’ “Till We Have Faces.”

“How do you make somebody love you without affecting free will?”– Bruce Nolan

“Welcome to my world, son. If you come up with an answer to that one, you let me know.”– God

From the movie, “Bruce Almighty.”

Heaven is love desired and freely given.

Hell is love desired and intentionally withheld--or unthought-of of altogether.

But that’s just how love goes, as Nat King Cole sang:

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”

Paul agreedwith Cole when he commanded the Roman Christians to "love one another with mutual affection."

Mutual.

I like you, do you like me?  Check the box.

That was how we found out who our friends (and girlfriends) were in kindergarten.

Check the box!

Yes or no!

(In 6th grade came the “maybe box,” and the beginning of game playing…as if we no longer knew if we liked someone or not.)

It all really boils down to being loved and liked by someone who doesn’t have to love or like you. 

This is what we mean when we tell our mothers and fathers that they think we're beautiful because we're theirs.  Of course, they really do think their children are beautiful.  They even think this objectively.  (I know this now as a father.)  But it feels really good when friends, wives, husbands, boyfriends, and girlfriends affirm our likability and lovableness when they have no natural obligation to do so.

It feels supremely better when God gives us tokens of affection.  When he lets us know by His Spirit and through interactions with creation that he actually and truly likes us, as well as infinitely and eternally loves us. 

I thank God that God is love!

I thank Him for first loving me, for “putting Himself out there.”

I thank Jesus for knowing how it feels to be really and truly and finally rejected, as well as how it feels for people to truly and willingly accept Him to the point of dying for Him, just as He died for them.  I know he appreciates those who live for him with all of their hearts. 

God appreciates love--freely desired and freely given.

 

 

Be very AFRAID of GOD!

“It was then that I first found what that night on the mountain had done to me.  No one who had seen and heard the god could much fear this roaring old King.”

Orual, from C.S. Lewis' “Till We Have Faces.”

Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 

Acts 4:18-20 NIV

"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.  But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." 
The Lord Jesus, Luke 12:4-5

Boldness.

Those who see God are bold.

Why wouldn’t they be?

Who possesses more beauty or power or glory?

To know God is to know true fear, and to be freed from all fear.

As Solomon said, “In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence.”

Those who only fear God fear no one and nothing else.

Again, why should they?

I realized the power and conviction of this a long time ago.  I found the fear of God, the supreme respect for Him, to be a natural deterrent from sin.

I asked myself the question, “Is this woman worth hell?  Even if I could have very real bliss in her bed for the rest of my life, every day of my life on earth, yet be guaranteed eternity in the lake fire, would she be worth it?  Would the memory of that pleasure last forever, cooling hell's fire, numbing my madness in God’s absence?”  Of course not!  I’d hate her forever, and she’d loathe me eternally!

I asked myself again, “Who would I rather be mad at me, this supervisor, a mere man and mortal, or God, the Eternal Immortal Invisible?”  This man, whose anger lasts a moment, and may result, at worst, in me being fired, or, if he is insane, in him murdering me, and sending me to heaven!  But God’s anger, though slow, is fierce and focused on purpose.  If I resist Him once and for all, I’ll feel His wrath with out end.  Whose anger would I rather face?

The fear of God makes decisions clear.

Fear

God.

The Powers behind Deception and Tempation (Part 2)

"After all, changing a belief requires having an experience, not just getting some information or logic, and it's not surprising if imaginative and experiental writing sometimes prove more effective than argument." Peter Elbow

We are deceived when we feel like something is very much true or real.  Even though it clearly is not!

We are tempted when we feel like we can’t live without something or someone.  Even though this is only true of God.  (This also  is a deception.)

I emphasize the word ---FEEL.

We tend to think of the truth as information, logic, and reason.  But this is absolutely not the case! 

Satan knows the power of passion and imagination.

For example:  What if you had to defend the “truth” about abortion?  What is more powerful:  Statistics, or pictures of babies aborted, obviously killed?  What makes the biggest impression?  The most powerful persuasion!?

Or consider what Solomon says to his son about adultery:

“Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.  May her breast satisfy you at all times.  May you be intoxicated by her love always.  Why be intoxicated by the embrace of an adulteress?” 

Solomon appeals to the sexual passion and imagination of his son.  The truth that arms his son against an adulteress is his wife’s intoxicating love and satisfying breasts.  The truth for his son IS A PERSON! “The lie” is also a person, or a false relationship.    Both the adulteress and the wife are intoxicating, but one leads to death and hell, while the other leads to genuine fulfillment.  Emotional fulfillment! 

Effective deception always arouses passion and imagination. 

So does effective temptation. 

So does effectively communicated truth!

Take the truth of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Which makes the most impact:  A theological abstract discussion about the real meaning of the cross, or watching Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ??” Or hearing a believer tell how she encountered Jesus and He saved her life?

What impacts you?

What causes you to firmly believe anything?

Isn’t it significant experiences?  Significant Emotional Events!?

The gospel is the good news about THE SIGNIFICANT EMOTIONAL EVENT:  Jesus dying an excruciating death, because He loves us, and wants us to live forever!

Whatever the truth is, it will impact spirit, soul, and body.  Because THE TRUTH is a Spirit, who has a Soul, and is in a Body—The truth is a Person, The Lord Jesus Christ, The God Man!  Fully Divine.  Fully Human.  The one who was seen, heard, and touched by His followers.  The One who ate, drank, slept, and lived on earth.   

The Truth is Alive!

I made it through the night

Yesterday I felt pretty bad.  Tired.  Miserable.  Unappreciated. Sad.

But today, this morning, I feel ok.

It’s like they say.

I’m alive.

No matter how bad it was yesterday, I’m alive today.

The pain failed to kill me.

I survived the night.

Survive the moment, the day, and the night.  If I sleep or remain awake, it doesn’t matter.  Time heals, or lessens the pain.  Time proves surviving pain is possible.

What was I really feeling?

Was it true?

I don’t know.

Time changes perspectives.

What seemed like the end was really a new beginning of strength and reality.

I know who I can trust.

I am better knowing this.

I know whose words are real and whose mean nothing.

I know the value of promises kept and broken.

I know the value of friendship and love freely given.

God is faithful, keeping promises, loving freely and eternally and infinitely.

I know who really loves me and needs me.

I know it better today than I did yesterday.

Thank you God for the seemingly unbearable pain of yesterday.

Weeping may endure for the night, but joy does indeed come in the morning.

I woke up.

I'm alive. 

Amen.

Intimacy with God (Part 2): An Invitation

I wanted to know why Peter, James, and John were in Jesus' inner circle of friendship, or why John was his closest friend.

So I read Peter's letter and John's letter, where they spoke of their direct experiences of Christ.  I hoped to find clues to their close connection to Jesus, but found none.  Then I read the epistle of James, not realizing that it wasn't the same James that was in Jesus' inner circle.  But God used my ignorance to answer my deep question.

As I read James, I found this verse:

"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you."

That's when the Spirit said these words to me:

"You can be as close to me as you want to be."

My question was answered!

Why were Peter, James, John, Martha, Mary, Lazarus, and all who were close to Jesus, as close as they were to Him?

They wanted to be!

They were as close to Jesus as they wanted to be!

The same is true for you and me!

We can be as close to God as we want to be!

So how close are you to God right now?
As close as you want to be.

"The LORD is with you while you are with Him.  If you seek Him, He will allow you to find Him, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you."

"From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us."

Intimacy with God (Part 1): An Invitation

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”  When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  And Moses said, “Here I am.”  Exodus 3:1-4

Notice and respond to God's daily invitations to intimacy.

While Moses carried out his daily duties, he noticed something unusual:  a bush burning, but not burning up!  In deserts, bushes catch on fire--and they burn up.  Shepherds were used to this.  Moses was used to this.  But a bush that burned without burning up?  

This was a divine invitation.

One that had to be accepted or rejected.

God didn't speak to Moses until Moses decided to go over and look at the bush.

God invites you and me to intimacy daily.  But He won't speak unless we respond to His invitations.

So how do we notice invitations from God?

How do you invite people to connect with you?

How do people invite you to connect with them?

Directly and indirectly.

An example of a direct invitation is a friend request on Facebook.  But the invitation has to be accepted or confirmed.  Then, you have a new Facebook friend!  Or someone may suggest a friend for you to invite.

In the same way, God directly invites us by speaking to our hearts and consciences.  He comes to us by appealing to our deepest desires for meaning and significance.  Our desires to be noticed and missed.  We feel a pulling to be noticed.  This pull comes from the One who always notices you.

An indirect invitation to connection is like making eye contact with someone and smiling, or leaving a token of affection, like a rose.  With both of these, the key is attention given to one who has your affection.  He notices you.  Or she wants you to know that she notices you.  Being noticed is an invitation.  

One day at work I looked out of a window and saw a beautiful black bird with red designs on it's wings.  The red was striking, but couldn't be noticed until the bird opened it's wings.  I felt like God was inviting me to notice this bird, and thus notice Him as it's Creator.  Why did I feel this?  Because I was in a position where only I would have seen that bird at that moment.  

As I write, I am totally alone.  Listening to soft rain drops.  Surrounded by the stillness and silence of God's presence.  This is an invitation we all receive, but that most of us resist.  The times when we are alone, in silent stillness, but instead we turn on the TV or radio.  But sometimes, like late at night, when we simply cannot sleep, and there is nothing pressing to do, but we are too tired to get out of bed and turn on a TV or some distraction, we have yet another invitation.  An invitation to share our thoughts and feelings with God, the only one awake in the house!

God is subtle and gentle and humble.  He skillfully gets and keeps our attention, but will not share Himself unless you accept His invitations.

Will you accept God's invitations to intimacy today?  

Will you accept His invitation right now?