a word to hurting hearts...

...blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in Him.

He will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.

Well, I don't know about you, but today is a day of heavy hearts. I find dear friends in crisis and it's nearly impossible for me to see the world independently of their hurting.

The above Scripture from Jeremiah 17:7-8 always speaks volumes to me. Trusting God means experiencing His provision. Depending upon Him is a constant flow of Christ-confidence building and spiritual reality checks.

There are still days of drought. There will continue to be seasons when life overheats with the sun beating the rocks into which we are trying to drive our roots. There will always be times of drought.

If you or someone you love is hurting this week, my encouragement is not that God prevents the world from being a fallen, hurtful place, but that in the midst of trial, your trust in His sufficiency - despite times of trial - will see peace in the midst of blistering days, growth in the midst of embittering climate, peace in the midst of dry seasons, and even fruitfulness in the harsh deserts of life.

May He be your strength in moments of weakness. May He be your peace in times of fear. May He be your sufficient grace when you are lacking. And may He be Love embracing you in your loneliest moment.

Let your roots reach out to Him instead of down into rocky soil. You are not alone. You are not without hope. You are not averting His will, or missing His plan. You are chosen and blameless. You have been planted by the Spring of Life, who will be your Supply and who is working out His glory in you right now.

I pray you will rest in your confidence in Him, not just hoping for calmness in the world you find yourself in, and see His sufficiency carry you through calamity.

You are loved.

ridiculously graced...

-mike.

Let Peace Rule

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Okay - Colossians 3 is one of those challenging passages of Scripture that compels us to know who we are, whose we are, where we draw our life, and what that should look like. Here, Paul is giving a command that requires submission: "Let..."

So - it's like when my daughter was little and had a splinter. She wouldn't stop screaming and holding her finger until I physically would sit her down, lift her chin to look at me, and say, "Honey, let me look at it." It's a command, but it's not a demand. Paul's giving an order, but it's for us... and it's up to us. What is it he wants us to "let"?

"...The peace of Christ rule in your hearts."

Sounds nice, doesn't it?

But let me ask you a question: When you look back at the day passed, what did rule your heart? Did you struggle against anxiety? ...embitterment? ...insecurity? ...competitiveness? ...isolation? ...materialism? ...self-righteousness? ...or maybe you didn't even put up a struggle :)

Paul wants Christ's peace to rule - He knows you've GOT His peace. He knows Jesus' peace CAN rule. He knows it likely ISN'T ruling. He knows you'll be better off if His peace DOES rule. And He knows it's ultimately up to you to LET Christ's peace rule.

What would it take for the peace of Christ - the sensible security of our savior's sufficiency - to dominate every other turbulent emotion in your heart?

Would you have to trust that God knows better than you what you need? He sent His Son when you and I often would choose shallow self-improvement, didn't He? Sure seems like He knew better than us!

Would you have to trust that God is capable of bringing about what He knows is best? He was able to place our sinful nature on His Son's cross, and then raise up a NEW YOU with Him when He walked out of the tomb - with YOU! That's pretty powerful!

Would you have to believe that not only does God know better, and is capable of bringing about what is better, but that He will? That He loves you enough to accomplish what He alone knows you need no matter what?

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Check out Romans 8:32!)

He loves you so much that He gave His Son to die so that you - a rebel & traitor to the Kingdom - might know Him as Father. Jesus died so that those who would kill Him could be called His brethren and co-heirs! That's RADICAL LOVE!

So, here's an idea. Wake up tomorrow and walk through a little trust inventory:

> Do you see from what He gave that He knows what you really need?

> Do you see from what He's done that He can do whatever you need?

> Do you see from what He paid that He loves you enough to pay more than you could ever need?

...Then, my friend - let peace rule. The God who gave so much still gives. The Father who calls you His child still calls you by His Name. The Lord of Life still wants to live it in and through you - today.

...and you can trust - and have peace - that He will do just that... if you'll let Him.

Made some empanadas the other night. During the process I chopped a bunch of Jalapenos - not that unusual for me. But later, I noticed that my lips were burning (and I hadn’t eaten the empanadas yet!). Then I noticed my cheek was burning just below my eye - starting to water.

Then my hands - dry from multiple washing throughout the cooking process and having been out in the blazing sun a chunk of the day - were starting to burn. Hours after finishing the meal, having delivered some to friends in crisis and returning home to my wife who had also happily eaten them - my hands burned more and more. I’ve always had a high tolerance for capsaicin - the molecule that makes spicy-hot food, but this built to a really uncomfortable level. After many hours, my hands were on fire. My lips were on fire. My face was on fire. Even my arms where my hands had touched were on fire. We searched online to find a few home remedies... have you ever tried dunking you face in milk? ...or a cornstarch paste? ...not all that pleasant. So, eventually, I was sticky AND on fire.

In the end, I just had to wait it out. Late in the evening the fire in my boiling skin had turned down to a low simmer, and I fell into a blissful sleep.

The next morning however, as I got into my car, the power of the smell of jalapenos hit me immediately as I opened the car door. Carefully sniffing the cloth, the radio, the dash, etc. I found that the oil that had seeped into my hands was all over, especially in the steering wheel. Of course, I washed it all off as best I could, and battled repeated bouts of trying to keep it off vulnerable skin areas, and eventually... and I mean EVENTUALLY... it stopped being so noticeable.

I’ve thought often since that I want Christ’s Life in me
to be just like that.

I want to saturate so much in the grace of Christ that my words, my behaviors, my attitudes seep the stuff of Christ. Jesus juice.

In Acts - the chronicles of the early Church - the Apostle Paul became so saturated with the reality of an indwelling Christ that anyone who even had his shadow pass over them, or touched a cloth he had touched, were forever impacted by the power of Christ’s life. He became an expression of the irrepressible, inexhaustible, ever-potent, super-saturating reality of grace.

To the Church in Colosse, he said,

“Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how to answer anyone.”

What might it look like if people burned with conviction, passion, inspiration, and revelation of Christ as Life whenever they encountered us? Might we walk in greater Christ-confidence? Would we walk with the security of Christ revealed in and through us? Would we no longer be daunted by circumstance, deceived by the flesh, thwarted by condemnation, and stumbling over personal failure in pursuit of performance?

I want everyone and everything I come into contact with to be exposed to the scorching revelation of an indwelling God - like the burning bush before Moses - that burns with holy fire but is not consumed in the midst of it.

How about you? Ready to burn?

ridiculously graced...

-mike.

[originally posted on previous blog in fall 09}

the new "Next Level"

Howdy, Blog followers!

Mike's blog - "The Next Level" - has officially moved! We'll be transferring a bunch of our more popular blogs from past posts to this location as well as adding new posts 2 or 3 times each week, so we'll grow "newer" and "older" at the same time.

In the meantime - check back often, review some of the reposted stuff, catch the new stuff, and be sure to post a question in a comment or via email and we'll start fielding some of those (anonymously, if you prefer) here as well.

Be encouraged! You are FREE! You are LOVED! You are abundantly SUPPLIED! You have REST, and LIFE, and HOPE, and PEACE, and GRACE - and grace has a name: J E S U S ! !

ridiculously graced...

-mike.