...this is not a race.

I Cor 6: 12-20  All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” 17But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Okie dokie....  Here we are.

Lord, I'm not sure if I should call you "Lord" over this passage since this is an area where I am an idolator.  Food.  Sugar in fact.  I confess to you that I turn to food more quickly than I turn to you.  The rest of the passage doesn't apply to me, but the principles surrounding it do.  I do not want food to be where I spend my thought time.  I want to see myself as a girl for whom Christ died and rose and reigns in every area of my life.

Lord, I WILL call you Lord, because the fact is you ARE Lord of all, whether I submit or not.

Help me please not go back to unhealthy here as I plow through this verse by verse.  Let me, if maybe for the first time, approach this area in the light of your grace.... for me.

This will be a section I have to go through "intimately" because of my first commitment.  There is freedom for me here and I want to walk in it.

Recently, I felt I heard the Lord gently say, "You trust sugar more than you trust me."

---------------------5 day break happened here----------------

I don't know where to start.  I'm glad to be back.  We just produced a show that was THE most challenging ever.  It was mainly because we were tired and tense before we got to show week which rubs off onto everything.

The end product was beautiful!

The clean up was ... is... overwhelming.  (Did I mention we ombre-d over 80 t-shirts?)

I confess to collapsing.  I keep talking to people who are so busy, we aren't breathing.  We've created so many BIG events that we are missing the small ones.

This has nothing to do with these verses, but if I'm learning one thing through 1 Corinthians, it's this:

...everything is connected.

So sometimes, we just need to back up.  Slow down.  Reflect.  Then we begin to feel our own breath.  Smile gently.

Even this blogging began to feel like a race.  This blog is not a race.

This blog is not a race.

This        blog         is           not            a               race.


I know I need to back up to the section before this and maybe research what the word "judge" and maybe see what the Greek word means in each case, but I confess I'm just feeling like I "should" - a word that has haunted me into guilt more than any other word in my life.

Hmmm.... and here's the connection.


SHOULD.

I had to go through counseling because of the word SHOULD.

I vividly remember my wonderful counselor, after several weeks, saying, "Lydia, you have the biggest list of shoulds and oughts I've ever seen."  I remember thinking, "Whoa.  I know a tiny handful of his total list of clients...  If I top even them, this is really a big statement."

I went silent.  We had been talking about telling myself the truth.  I realized that literally every task I undertook or even a dream of a painting began with "I should...."

I smiled at what I was about to say, but I honestly didn't have any other vocabulary to ask with.  "So... what should I say instead?"

We both busted out laughing.   Then he said, "How about this...'I would like to...'  That way, if it doesn't happen, there's no guilt."

I immediately saw the freedom there.  "... and saying, 'I would LIKE to...' makes it something I can look forward to..."

Am I on a tangent?  NOPE.  I'm not.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

It's right there.  See it?  Lawful....  should/ought.  Law.  I should do this..and the list never ends.  Profitable. I would like to...   joy.  Not mastered by guilt.  Not mastered by others' opinions and expectations.  Focusing on the profitable possibilities because all the possibilities, even the good ones, aren't necessarily profitable for me to pursue.



I lived the last few weeks back in the shoulds and oughts.  I confess, working in the shoulds and oughts can produce a really pretty product, but does it profit my life? I could have done the same work with joy.  It's not always the task.  Sometimes it's just who I am in the task.

profitable:  beneficial, expedient, helpful

This is about to play into the next verse about food, but I'm done for today.  I've got to let some of this soak in for a while.

Thought for today regarding working relationships:  We are commanded to love difficult people.  We are not commanded to necessarily work with them.  (profitable?)

 

done and done

OK, Lord.   I must confess I can hardly keep my eyes open.  I just got up and read this.  Lawsuits, boring.  I don't like reading about lawsuits .... or math.  Help me see YOU somewhere in here...

I Cor 6: 1-11  Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? 2Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? 4So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? 5I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, 6but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
      7Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.
      9Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 

 This passage has one point to me... what are doing not using the Matthew Model, guys?  If someone wrongs you, go to them with a desire for restoration.  If they don't reconcile, take someone else from the body who also has the goal of reconciliation.  If that doesn't work, take it before the church?

The point here is not how to win a lawsuit.  The point is reconciliation to Christ.  Paul says Christians are doing wrong and defrauding (illegally obtaining money) each other.  Not the James model, for sure.  Nor the Acts model.  We're supposed to SHARE, BE NICE.

Paul has this tone of talking to children in this part of the book.  But as I read it now, they are acting like kindergarteners.

Verse 9-11  Immorality again.

I'm sorry, but there's no getting around this.  The Biblical view on homosexuality, transvestites? It's pretty clear.  But there are some questions I have.

effeminate |iˈfemənət|
adjective
(of a man) having or showing characteristics regarded as typical of a woman; unmanly.

OK.. I want to be honest here.  Does a guy have to walk like a joc to be masculine?  Can't a guy be a designer? A wedding planner? and not be effiminate?  Of course they can.  God even had designers work on the intricate sewing and decorating of the Temple and even the tents when the ark was travelling.  God Himself even cares about decor, food, feasts, celebrations.  So we can't say that just because a guy doesn't have calloused hands, that he's not masculine.

So I looked up the greek in my big fat concordance: 
effeminate, soft.
Of uncertain affinity; soft, i.e. Fine (clothing); figuratively, a catamite -- effeminate, soft.

The word clothing keeps coming up when I looked it up.  I'm no scholar but it seems to me that this is referring to men trying to act like a woman, literally, by cross dressing and/or mannerisms. That the guy wants to BE a woman.  Today we'd include sex change operations, I guess.  

So really.  We're done here.  If I have a non-Christian friend who is gay, I'm not to judge but to intercede for them to come to know Christ, the lover of their soul.  The same for the thief, the alcoholic, even the swindler (may their phone schemes ever fail...)

BUT WAIT, before we go judging the world.  STOP.  This is about the church!  And the list also includes revilers!  They will not inherit the kingdom.  Pretty harsh words!  I don't think, after talking of our need to approach this with mourning in earlier verses, that Paul takes this lightly.  I think it breaks his heart.

This is the point where I look at the most icky things on the list and skip the rest... "I'm not doing THAT... skip ahead, skip ahead."  

It's not just sexual immorality that eats away the fiber of Christ followers.  Let's look at this one.

revile |riˈvīl|
verb [ trans. ] (usu. be reviled)
criticize in an abusive or angrily insulting manner : he was now reviled by the party that he had helped to lead. See note at scold .

This hits close to home at even the most conservative church.  This hits close to me.  Haven't I gossiped and verbally slashed other church members in the past?  God, forgive me.  I can be such a petty jerk.  You paid such a high price and I walk around like I'm the center of your universe sometimes.  Thank you so much for showing this to me.  Thank you for your forgiveness.

Oh, and how about the covetous?

covet |ˈkəvət|
verb ( coveted , coveting ) [ trans. ]
yearn to possess or have (something) : the president-elect covets time for exercise and fishing | [as adj. ] ( coveted) he won the coveted Booker Prize for fiction.

So... I somehow skated by, good little church girl that I am, till "covet. " Yeah....

I've coveted positions of leadership.  I've coveted attention.  I've coveted funds for ministries I care about.  I've coveted friendships others have. I coveted volunteers.  I've coveted facility space.  I've coveted pretty clothes.   It's really embarrassing to be so human.

THE POINT IS THIS!!!!!  When we become Christ's very own, THERE IS NO NEED for all this nonsense!!!!

Don't we get it?  (Apparently not) Christ and Him crucified.  Our identity is secure:   loved, eternally accepted, forgiven, free to love the unlovable because they can not steal, defraud or fake this love.  They can't eat or drink it away.  They can't replace it with sex or wild parties.  This JOY is permanent as OURS... and it doesn't give hangovers or addictions.   YOU CAN NOT BUY  OR SWINDLE OTHERS OUT OF THIS JOY.  It's been paid for.  The check has cleared.  It's my inheritance.


Such (Practicers of all that nonsense)were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 

DONE.  let's move on.

...let's talk about Netflix

Odd that after posting yesterday, I was exercising and watching an old TV show on Netflix.  Suddenly one confused superhero who is attracted to another confused superhero is confronted and almost killed by yet another confused superhero who was a former lover.

Superhero soap opera.

I usually don't watch shows like this carefully... or at all.  I like decorator shows or adventure.  But sometimes I find something just to fill the space while I work.  I leave the room often to do my daily chores and loosely follow the story line.  And I admit, I got sucked in by the suspense.  This particular show had tons of twists and turns which I enjoy trying to figure out.

But it has gotten really dark and sad.

 I'll fast forward to the end scene of the season to see the final result and not watch the rest.  It's not worth having these images in my mind.  I have the freedom NOT to watch this.  (Netflix is a neutral.  I can choose what I watch.  But if I'm too tempted, then I should not subscribe to the service.  I am free to choose.  Another thought for another day.)

But the sadness came in this.  Superhero #1 was a blond female.  Superhero #2 a Hollywood face male.  Superhero #3  (or rather supervillain) an exotic middle eastern brunette female.  #1&2 had been dating.  Time passed.  Tragedy.  Separation.  Then blond and brunette end up kissing in a reunion where brunette will either kill blond or let her live.  That's right.  The females.  Making out on screen while confused and tormented Superhero #2 watches from a distance with that gorgeous face that makes us want to support him... no matter what stupid choices he makes.

What makes me saddest?  It's this.  That I'm more eager to excuse one form of adultery for another.  Have I become so jaded by sex outside marriage on TV that it seems normal to me?  More easily excused?

Even sadder?  These very real actors who end up playing those roles...  Real people getting any morality they may have had when they first entered the industry totally contracted out of them.

Be careful where you sign your name.

But, according to the word, I do not judge them.  I ask for an intercessor's heart.  But nor do I support them just because I want to be entertained.

The verses this morning (in context of the whole chapter)  call me in very clear terms to draw a line in terms of the fellowship of believers -vs- non believers.

I Cor 5:12-13 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13But those who are outside, God judges.

We are responsible to confront and even make firm decisions about those within the church.  We are to intercede and weep for those who have not met Christ, but leave the judging to God.

In most cases, we do the exact opposite.  Why is that?

...so I guess you're wondering

...so I guess you're wondering whether I'm not having a quiet time if I'm not blogging.  You'd be partially right.

Right now, I'm avoiding this next passage.  I've been thinking about it for days.  But I don't want to go on record with my thoughts.

ICOR 5:9-11  I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister^c but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

Does this make me uncomfortable?  Um, yeah.  All the TV show favorites pretty much fit into this somewhere.

Immoral.  Sex with anyone outside marriage... whether through pornography, telephone, social media or in person.

Homosexuality.  Now there's a hot one.  If I call it immorality, then I'm judging?  But let's group this with greedy and swindlers, or idolaters.

Paul is saying he does NOT judge these people in the world.  He doesn't even say, "Don't associate with them."  You couldn't have a business or be a teacher or even buy anything you need if that's the case.

But what Paul IS saying is that if someone is claiming to be a Christian and is practicing or being
             immoral        greedy or a swindling   an idolater

Then stay the heck away!  Don't even eat with them!

This is hard core.

 I have friends who are homosexual, and a cousin I love dearly.  Wound carriers like us all.  But none of them are in the church claiming to worship Christ. 

The point is this.  Either the Bible is true, all of it, or it's just a nice piece of inspirational poetic fiction.  But if it's "just nice", then God-thoughts are a waste of time.  You can't sit in your comfortable chair, smoking your intellectual pipe and start clipping away the points you find distasteful.  Once you start clipping then you have to clip everything else on the list right next to it... like murder.

You can't call one item "not sin" unless you take the whole list... at least if you want to call yourself a Christian.  Sexual immorality, magic arts (can you say Harry Potter?), murderers, idolater, everyone who loves and practices lies/falsehood  (living like they are something they are not)...

It will not make me well accepted in my culture to believe that these are Jesus' words.  But I do not judge the world... However,  I am told to open my eyes and really judge those in the church who proclaim to follow Christ.  And among those being looked at critically would be me.  We call it accountability now.

The question is what do I excuse in the church in the name of tolerance?


Jesus' last words in the book of Revelation were very direct, and black and white clear:

12“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

14“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

16“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you^a this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.

20He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

...beating at feathers

I'm friggled this morning.

That's a word I just made up.  I'm not quite frazzled, but there are so many things that need my attention that my heart is racing a bit faster, my mind is DEFINITELY distracted, thoughts are niggling at me while I'm trying to just sit still in this chair.

Lord, please help me.  Help me just sit still.  Help me just think one calm thought.  I keep thinking about that phrase that came to me years ago... "God is in His heavenlies... and He does not get stressed out."  

Lord, when I think of your "to do" list and compare it to mine...  sheesh.  I feel like a toddler trying to put her shoes on the wrong feet and all upset because I can't tie them by myself.

Last night, a really good friend came by for a drive-by prayer time.  She pulled up in the drive and I ran out of the garage, jumped in her still running van to pray with her before she finished her drive home.

As we talked about our "stuff" we realized our stress was not from just one thing.  It was from a million little things.  Both of us are the type to search for the bottom line and fight the battle with full commitment.  But there WAS no bottom line this go round.

Both of us are hearing God say, "Come"

- and it's a fight just to get there when the shrapnel is flying in from all sides.

I found myself saying that maybe that's what all this is about about.

God calling us to "mana" this.

To come daily and open our tent flap.  Maybe that's what all that wilderness time was about for Israel... having them learn that God shows up.  Every day.  To get us in the habit of realizing that whether we perform well or fail,  whether we're stressed or calm, whether we slept well or tossed all night worrying if we'd eat the next morning.... He "mana-d up" because HE's the one who made the promise.  Trying to eat off old stuff is not allowed.  Today.  It's all about Him showing up today.

As we prayed, I saw this amazing dream? vision?  mental picture?  This is what I saw:

There was a female.  It could have been my friend, it could have been me.  It was both third person and first person all at once.

She was in a well lit room but there were downy feathers floating all over.  It was as if she were in a pillow fight and the casings busted and the feathers were absolutely everywhere.  And she was fighting really hard, but there was nothing to punch.  As soon as she aimed a blow, the feathers floated away in the very wind her movement created.  As soon as she focused on one item, it was replaced by another.  There was no rhyme or reason and no connection between them.

As my friend and I prayed that we would be able to calm ourselves and "come", the scene changed. 

Now the female was kneeling.  The feathers began to fall to the ground all around her.  The longer she remained still, the more feathers settled until there were none in the air.

Then I saw her calmly get up and take one very deliberate and calm step and a time.  The layer of feathers she walked on was very thick.  You couldn't tell what was underneath.  But she walked on top of them, and there was something solid underneath that layer of stuff that held her up.  As she stepped, the feathers shifted to the side and her feet were on really smooth, flat, polished rock.

It was REALLY obvious that if she started scurrying or running, then all the feathers would immediately be air born - and blinding - again.

Somehow, I understood that each step was one day and sometimes just one moment.  My friend and I were being called to a "walk" and not a race.

Why would God show up like that?  It's because we are valuable to him.  Whether or not we perform our ministries or jobs or family roles well is not part of that particular equation.

My husband teaches third grade.  He was describing that they are in the process of helping the kids recognize what's NOT part of the equation for word problems.  Once you know what you're looking for, you simply ignore/throw out the parts that aren't part of the solution.  For example: Lydia's dad gave her  8 oranges for her basket.  She also had some apples.   If Lydia gave 3 oranges away,  how many oranges are left in her basket?"  

In this particular case, the apples don't matter.   Obvious right?  But for me, the apples are a total focus.  I want to know why she had them.  What she's going to do with them!

But if the apples represent my area of performance and the oranges represent my value, then my performance apples are just not part of  the answer to my value - at all. 

The question is about my value.  The answer has nothing to do with my performance. 

There's nothing wrong with apples.  They just don't come into the value equation.

(That's a really imperfect analogy!  Oranges don't represent grace well... and why did she give them away? and why doesn't she have an unending supply?  I know, I know!!!  LOL  Just don't miss the point...)


So if I'm really and truly highly valued by God, then it makes sense that He wants to spend time with me.  He shows up because He values me.  I can hide in my tent and complain that He doesn't come in and feed me... and all the while, there's mana all over the ground!

What does all this have to do with 1 Corinthians?  God is calling me to this daily thing.  Every time I come, He shows up.

Oh! and my friend J. taught me how to use my big fat concordance

to find the greek meaning of words as they are used in particular sentences!  There it was on my shelf all along!  And there was my friend all too willing to help.  All I had to do was ask.

Am I intimidated and inexperienced?  Um, yep.  But that's ok.  I'll just look up one little word at a time.

I COR 5:3  For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this...

In this reference, judgement means: to try, condemn, punish (as through the law)

as compared to I COR 4:3  I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.

 Here it means: to scrutinize, investigate, interrogate, determine  then to distinguish, to decide (as in giving the sentance in court?)


So, we DO make firm judgement to morality but with MOURNING!  It should absolutely be with a breaking heart that will welcome them back as soon as they want to live rightly with God rather than arrogantly claiming to be His while flaunting their detestable actions as if God approves.

This whole judge thing may take me days of blogging...  we'll see.

But I'm not here to be right. And I'm not here to teach.   I'm just hear to learn.  I'm just here to "COME".

...poor arrogant idiots

I COR 5: 6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Lord, I don't pretend to understand this passage even though I've heard great sermons on it.  I know the basics, but I don't know how it relates to their boasting.  Could you teach me this morning?

So... here I am.  I keep reading this passage over and over and that word "judge" has me stumped.  In the midst of my business, I'm not supposed to judge some things but I am supposed to judge others.

How?  How do I know which things to judge?

But right in the middle of two paragraphs about judging, I'm thrown this one about keeping the feast and boasting.  It's somehow the glue between them, but why?

I guess I'll just take it phrase by phrase....

6Your boasting is not good.

So none of us would argue that boasting at best is irritating.  And then we turn around and use it- boasting -  to fluff our resumes, pad our progress reports, compare our "success" to other churches as if God looked at numbers.  (Oddly, God seems to constantly reduce numbers - Gideon started with 22,000 and God whittled it down to 300.  Pharoh had his tens of thousands with horses and chariots and God uses a little band of Jews on foot.  One little boy's lunch feeds thousands.)

But we, um, I mean the Corinthians.... were facing off.   "They" were/are factioning off.  Fighting for numbers as to who followed Apollos, Paul....  And they were boasting.  Back to I COR 4:6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. 7For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

 Paul wants us to walk humbly and not exceed what is written... which is Christ crucified and risen for us.  We always want to add to that.  "Christ crucified and risen and making us better than......"

When we forget that HUGE simplicity of Christ crucified... equally for each of us... we become such poor arrogant idiots.

It just takes a grain of pride to catch quickly.  Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? We think we've got it.  The key to being more important than someone else.   Pure evidence that we are not gratefully secure in the love of Christ.  That FACT that He has paid the price escapes us.  We start crusades and end up killing the chance for others to know him.

Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

And the point?   as you really are     FACT.  I SO VERY MUCH NEED TO RECOGNIZE "AS I REALLY AM"    Because, and only because... and FREELY because Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.   

Easter follows Passover.  It's coming!  The blood of the lamb on the doorpost.  Death passes over.  We walk away on a step by step journey of faith toward the resurrected Christ. 

Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

 God wants us to keep remembering who we are ... "as we really are".

When we get it, we become humble.  Thankful.  Effective.  HIS.

How does this connect the judging passages?  I still don't know.  I see the connection, though.  A thankful person is secure.  A thankful person doesn't need competition to be secure.  A thankful person has "enough" because they are complete in who they really are... HIS.

I think I need to ask my good friend J. to teach me how to look up the meanings of words in the original Greek so that I can understand how Paul is using the word "judge".

Thank you, Lord, for being WHO YOU REALLY ARE, the one who paid the price that makes me who I really am.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you so very much.  Because you are the LAMB, I am blessed!  You have blessed me!