I have favorite words…do you?
Maybe because my “love language” is words of affirmation, I treasure words … especially words I hear from God. Sometimes His words are those that “jump off the page of Scripture.” Sometimes they are words that enter my consciousness, gently or suddenly or in response to a question I barely had time to ask.
exhausted woman
In my last post (This Day, This Word), I shared how the Lord broke through my self-pity in a very concrete, but affectionate way...with just one word. Well, there's a back-story to that loving deliverance of His. Let me tell you about it.
Shortly before my "done, depleted day," my sweet friend Kitty and I had gotten together. We talked about many things, but one subject we often go back to is "writing."
Kitty "has a book in her," so to speak, but it just doesn't seem to be God's timing yet for that book to come forth. So as all writers know and advise, Kitty just needs to write something...anything...every day, if possible.
But it's so easy to struggle with expectations we, and others, place upon ourselves, isn't it? And it can be overwhelming...and crushing...even paralyzing...for poor Kitty (and for you and me, if we are honest)!
burned out
So as our conversation progressed that day, the Lord reminded me of a "mantra" I had adopted for my own life:
It was based on the verse from the Lord's prayer: "Give us THIS day our daily bread." The key word there had been "this."
After sharing with Kitty this background to my "mantra," I said,
Kitty
Kitty, How about if you just say each day, "THIS day, THISword?" And then maybe the next day might be, "THIS day, THISphrase"... then maybe, "THIS day, THISsentence." Your key word is THIS!THIS "whatever God may give you that day!"
In her email on that infamous "burn-out" morning of mine a couple weeks later, Kitty unknowingly wrote this encouragement to my exhausted heart:
Jan, I keep sharing your THIS advice with friends... Kitty, take THIS,...THIS... THIS DAY THIS _________ THIS sentence THIS paragraph THIS CHAPTER THIS WORD WORD ONE WORD WORDS
There it was, this day, this word...the Lord had given me just what I had needed for my day!
Dear friend, what is it that you need for your today, this day? Cry out to the Lord and receive from Him this day, this "whatever HE has to give to you."
Your Abba is very fond of you! He will respond in His love...
THIS day with THIS whatever you really need! Amen!
daily bread
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I'm going to be gut-level honest...I'm blah, feeling bruised and beaten, blank, done...
I know it won't last forever...it never does. But despite all the good things in my life, I'm low.
I'm depleted of energy after teaching 3 days in a row. I'm facing long and arduous delay after delay in the publication of my Bible study book. I can't even "hire" an agent because I don't have a big enough "platform" (a.k.a. "following). And I've "failed" in a message that should have been an easy success (at least, from my feeble and presumptious viewpoint).
I know this is self-pity to the hilt! Did you see all the "I's"? But to tell you the truth, I don't feel guilty, because I know my Abba still loves me! Yes, even in the midst of my self-pity! In fact, "My Abba is very fond of me" as Brennan Manning used to say.
Can you identify, dear friend? And do you know that very same truth...your Abba still loves you, even your self-pitying you! He is very fond of you too, so much so that He will meet you in all the mess!
He met me in the midst of my mess the other day...with just a word! Can I tell you about it?
As I was emotionally "crashing and burning" from all of the above listed stresses (and some), I cried out to the Lord,
Jesus, give me something...just a word...please!
Immediately, the words all, every, fullness came into my mind. I knew them to be key words in my favorite letter of the apostle Paul's, the letter to the Colossians. As my eyes began to take this beautiful Christ-exalting book of Scripture in, the Holy Spirit "highlighted" a word in chapter 1, verse 17:
...in Him, all things hold together!
Wow! He holds it all!
HOLDS was my word that day.
I sensed that He was saying that all the things in my life that seem to be totally out of control are NOT! Why? Because HE holds them all together!
Then He brought to mind another verse from my other favorite Bible book:
He holds all things by His powerful word! Hebrews 1:3
There it was again...holds.
HE holds it all!
I don't have to do the holding, the struggling, the striving to figure out the why's and wherefore's! What freedom!
So I embraced my word that day, and walked it out in peace.
What are your struggles, your frustrations, your blankness and doneness? No matter what it may be or how much self-pity you are wallowing in, cry out to the Lord! Ask Him for a WORD...just one.
He loves you...even your self-pitying, struggling you. Your Abba is very fond of you.
Then your new "mantra" can be...
May it be so for each of us, O our loving Abba Father! Amen!
PS I'll even let you borrow my word hold and my beloved Colossians to get you started. Just listen for Him and His speaking voice in the depths of your soul as you wait to receive from HIM!
Thinking of the the heart-rending words of Jesus on the cross, I came across these enlightening words of a brother that I have loved and followed for years. Steve Brown of Key Life is all about Jesus and all about His grace....and that's what I love! So maybe you would like to hear what he says about the words we God-people speak. This is Steve's March 2015 newsletter. Enjoy and be "arrested!"
This morning I came across a C.S. Lewis poem in The Bulletin of The New York C.S. Lewis Society. (I’ve subscribed to that publication longer than some of you’ve been alive.) I had to share it with someone. And you’re it.
From all my lame defeats and oh! much more From all the victories that I seemed to score; From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh; From all my proofs of Thy divinity, Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me. Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head. From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee, O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free. Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye, Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.
That poem resonates with me for a lot of reasons. One of them is because I’m a man of words. I preach, teach, speak and write with God words, and sometimes I’m overwhelmed by how very shallow they are. Thomas Aquinas, after writing hundreds of thousands of words, at the end of his life as he went to live in a monastery, said, “It’s all straw…just straw!”
A critic of mine said recently that I should be ignored because I was “irrelevant.”
Bingo!
I get that. A critic of mine said recently that I should be ignored because I was “irrelevant.”
Bingo!
Henri Nouwen once wrote, “I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation.”
I think I can do that.
Sometimes I feel like Charlie Brown watching the clouds with Lucy and Linus. Linus says that he sees in the clouds the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor, or the map of the British Honduras. Lucy says that she sees the image of the stoning of Stephen with the Apostle Paul standing by. They ask Charlie what he sees in the clouds and Charlie says, “Well…I was going to say I saw a duckie and a horsie, but I changed my mind.”
The Apostle Paul made a powerful comment that I’m going to take a bit out of context. Evidently, one of the criticisms of Paul was that he was all talk. So Paul is angry and defending himself—Paul did a good deal of that—when he wrote, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:2-4).
I’ve been thinking of late about words in general and God words in particular. Those words are the words from which we create theology, doctrine and truth about God. Words are also what we do when we defend, denounce and destroy in God’s name. Words—even God words—can often be irrelevant.
Karl Barth, perhaps the most important theological voice in the church in the last hundred years, said that every time he came out with another book the angels got the giggles.
Jesus made a very scary comment once—especially for someone like me who talks all the time. “I tell you,” he said, “on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37).
Yikes!
Why would Jesus say something like that?
First, I suppose, because, as House says, “everybody lies,” and you have to be careful about lies. Paul said to the Ephesians, “Let no one deceive you with empty words…” (Ephesians 5:6). People lie all the time about God. They do it for a variety of reasons…power, prestige, money, etc. If I can convince you, for example, that God is a monster and can make you feel guilty enough, I can take up a big collection and build an empire. That, of course, is fairly obvious.
The purpose of doctrine and theology is to point to Jesus. (emphasis mine)
But there’s more. Second, words are not reality but only point to reality. There is only one purpose for biblical doctrine and theology, and it’s not so we can know as much of it as possible and impress our friends. The purpose of doctrine and theology is to point to Jesus. Insofar as the words do that, they are good; and insofar as they don’t, they are about as valuable (even God words) as a “bag of chicken feed.”
It’s possible, as Mark Twain said, “to know the words but not the tune.” (emphasis mine)
It’s what Jesus meant when he quoted Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8).
There is another reason for Jesus’ scary words about words. Third, words must become flesh or they don’t mean anything. Of course, John 1 is the perfect example of that when God not only talked about love but “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) and loved us. Then you’ll remember what Jesus said of the Scribes and Pharisees, that the crowd should listen to what they said because they “sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you” (Matthew 23:2-3). Then in the rest of the chapter, Jesus says some very harsh things about the very people he had just said ought to be listened to. Why? It was because their words didn’t reflect the reality of their lives.
I fully believe that at the judgment seat of God when all God’s people stand before a righteous God he will have a lot to say about words. “You were all wrong,” I suspect he will say, “and some of you were really wrong. But I’ve talked to my Son about you and he says you’re covered. So welcome Home.”
When our words reflect the “covering of Jesus” then those words are not ones that will judge us. They are the words out of which we write a hymn of praise to God for the finished work of Christ.
And I’m not talking about “walking the talk” or being nice to please Jesus. Nobody has words that reflect their own goodness, purity and faithfulness. That’s because nobody is that. I’m talking about the fact that loved people normally love more, great sinners rarely throw rocks, guilty people make others feel guilty while forgiven people set people free, self-righteous folks make us wince while great sinners remind us of Jesus…and our words reflect all of that. It’s not just something you say; it’s something you are.
Speaking of words, I’m running out of space here for more words.
But frankly, I feel a lot better about my words than I did when I first started this letter. Given that I’m the most screwed-up friend you’ve got and just said that… …I’m safe.
Jesus told me to tell you that you are too.
The Problem with God Words - Steve’s Letter March 2015 By: Steve Brown on Wednesday March 4, 2015
Janet Renner Loyd has been a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ most of her life. Her formal education includes a degree in education from the University of Arizona and also a degree in Bible & Theology from Moody Bible Institute. For more than thirty years, she has been involved in teaching and leading women’s Bible studies, retreats, and meetings…most notably Precept upon Precept and various studies that she has personally developed. Professionally, Jan recently retired from teaching language and writing to GED and adult ESOL students.
About her life, Jan says, “The most important thing about me is my relationship with my Father God through my Lord Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful to Him for His love, mercy, and grace to me and my family and friends...and the world.”
Jan has been happily married to John Loyd for more than forty years. They have two adult, married children and five lively young grandsons.
