Guest Perspectives Archives – Page 13 of 14

Yes to the Lordship of Jesus

10.25.2016 by Deb Hoang //

We’re continuing the conversation by answering how can we say yes to God and I (Kim) am so excited to have my dear friend, Deb Hoang, share her heart and insights with us. Deb is a wife, mom of two girls, a women’s ministry leader, is passionate about discipleship and leading women to grow deeper in their relationships with God.

One early morning at the shore of Sea of Tiberias, a man sits across from his master barely able to swallow the freshly roasted fish in his hands. Each moment seems unbearably heavy with unspoken words hanging in the air. The master breaks the silence. He asks the man, “Do you love me more than these?” And the man answers, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” (John 21:15)

This exchange between Jesus and Peter is one of the most gracious, merciful and loving encounters for me personally because I identify with Peter. After Peter’s betrayal of Jesus on the night of his crucifixion, Jesus comes to reinstate Peter as his disciple and entrust him with the awesome ministry of church planting he commissioned before the crucifixion. “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Matthew 16:18 (NLT)

Jesus doesn’t rebuke. He doesn’t interrogate. Jesus asks the most important question regarding the foundation – the rock – on which to build his church upon. LOVE…the loyalty of Peter’s heart to Jesus.

Jesus, my master, has been asking me this same question. He has so persistently been asking me, “Do you love me more than these?” And I answer, “Yes, I love you, Jesus.” But somehow he is unsatisfied with my answer. He keeps asking me because I am not answering his question. The emphasis is, “Do you love me more than these?”

The on-going battle between Jesus and me is bit like a game of the throne of my heart. Jesus is the rightful owner of the throne and I am the usurper, trying to sneak back onto the throne every chance I get. Whenever I experience challenges, trials or even triumphs, the issue always comes down to who is the King of my heart. Am I willing to let Jesus reign as the supreme importance and authority in my life? I say, “Yes,” with my mouth, but in reality it’s not the case.

Jesus and I have been stuck on this one issue for years. He insists…absolutely insists we must get this straight! Finally, when I was in the depth of despair and anguish as a consequence of my rebellion, he revealed this truth…

All of your sinful, rebellious decisions and actions are offensive and detestable to me because you are choosing to disregard the First and the Greatest Commandment:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:2-3

Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” Matthew 22:37-38

I was guilty of idolatry. I’ve loved people and things more than Jesus. I’ve placed on the throne of my heart my husband, my children, my own selfish desires, and even destructive strongholds! During my lifetime, I’ve surrendered the throne when in desperate need of Jesus’ help or when experiencing spiritual revival at a retreat, only to drag him down and elevate someone or something else onto the throne repeatedly.

So what does it mean to say, “Yes,” to Jesus’ question, “Do you love me more than these?” It is a daily commitment to surrender the Lordship of my life to Jesus. No one or nothing else can ever be esteemed higher than Jesus.

Jesus alone.

Jesus always.

Jesus above all.

What does it look like in my life? Each morning, I sit in my prayer corner with a cup of hot coffee and headphones on. I begin my day lifting up to these words to Jesus in reverence, adoration, and conviction.

“My heart, Your throne

This life belongs to you and you alone

Let there be no divide

In only you may my soul be satisfied.”

(“Satisfied” by Jordan Feliz)

After Peter answers, “Yes, Lord,” Jesus reveals his command to Peter. “Feed my lambs.” Similarly, during the offering of the first fruit of my day when I’ve first committed myself to the lordship of Jesus, I am able to discern his voice…his commands and most of all his LOVE.

Freedom and a Picture of God’s Grace

09.27.2016 by Kim Findlay //

It’s guest week here at Facets of Faith and I’m excited to introduce my dear friend, Cheryl Fiorelli to you. Today she’s sharing a tender and personal experience she had as she pursues a life following Jesus.

Pondering the question—what would you give up to maintain your freedom, took me back to a time when the Lord gave me a vision, a dream. Four years ago this vision was a gift from Him as I was worked through the “Surrendering the Secret” ministry at my church. The Lord had delivered me from the greatest sorrow and sin of my life: an abortion I had at 17. His grace led me back into the light I had left behind long before. How like God it is that as I complete this writing, it was 41 years ago today that the abortion occurred!

God knows me, and that I’m a visual learner. Pictures help me understand things more thoroughly so I can refer back to it when I get lost again. So He gave me a picture of His grace.

Because sometimes I forget, like the Israelites did.

They had witnessed the parting of the Red Sea and were beginning to feel the first pangs of hunger. I remember harshly judging the Israelites as they grumbled and complained to Moses in the wilderness of sin. They forgot the miracles they had just witnessed, even as the Song of Moses still rang in their ears.

If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” Exodus 16:3, NLT

Talk about selective memory! What about being slaves, the beatings, the agonizing days of forced labor? Yet today, when I live in the freedom that the grace of Jesus has bought for me, at times I find myself longing for and returning to the “comfort zone” He has taken me out of, as painful and awful as it was!

I no longer judge the Israelites, because sometimes my fear and lack of trust in the Lord, or not staying close to Him, lead me back down that road to my very own Wilderness of Sin. Yet like that wandering sheep in the parable in Luke 15:3-7, the Good Shepherd comes to find me, picks me up and puts me on His shoulders, and carries me and my wounded spirit back to the sheepfold where I belong.

And gives me visions such as this:

I saw a wide wall or trellis, a grotto of sorts. It wasn’t stone or wood but had a slight overarching roof with soft morning sunlight dappling from behind. Huge bunches of grapes hung from this trellis, gorgeous and abundant. There was an outflow of leaves and lovely pale flowers in yellow, pink and blue with deep green leaves and another huge overflowing of grapes beyond that. They hung all the way to the ground in deepest purple and soft green leaves. I saw more flowers and overflowing bunches of grapes, champagne grapes with smoky gray leaves. Then came daisies and graceful bunches of roses in vibrant reds and oranges, yellows…the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in a dream or in waking life.

The “trellis” was a natural sort of formation that blossomed out of nowhere, yet totally belonged in all its glory and beauty. It wasn’t outlandish nor overtly beautiful, yet soft and alive with light and wonder, like the very symbol of abundance and grace-life renewing and growing.

I heard soft sounds. a birdsong, flowing water nearby yet out of sight. Soft sounds that seemed to belong there yet were new at the same time, glowing with a heavenly radiance absolutely real.

I sensed this was the embodiment of the grace of God. Grapes to quench the thirst. Gentleness and beauty to surround and bathe your heart with relief so profound you can’t begin to understand it and yet you grasp it, the reality, the truth of it, deep within your heart and your mind.

There was profound peace. The answer to burning desires. The answer to unspoken questions that needed answers and needed them so desperately.

Oh God! Here, here it is at last, at last! Oh, I didn’t know but now I see it: the exact shape of the emptiness inside me. Oh it was so clear, so soothing to my lonely seeking spirit and it was all there: the abundance, the absolute rightness of God’s grace. It’s been here all along, right where it’s always been. I just couldn’t see it because I wasn’t ready for it, or perhaps I just didn’t know to ask.

I sensed God tell me this was the answer to everything, the Wellspring, the rightness, the certainty of it flowed toward me from the soft dappled sunlight. There can be no beauty akin to it because it’s the heart of God from which came the celebration of the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.

It’s here, I sensed God tell me, every answer you’ve ever looked for.

Drink it in, breathe it in, let it sink into your soul, into your pores. Eat of it, let it quench that burning thirst, that deep abiding hunger, that there was no way to satisfy.

But Lord, there is a way! It’s you! It’s you! It’s always been you! It’s your grace! It can allay your fears, put them to rest. God’s grace in all its beauty and abundance, forgiveness flows out of it. Forgiveness that was for me! It pierced my heart, and drove out all the old bitterness and fear.

Then I see them, the hearts of all of those people toward whom I was holding resentment and anger. I saw them as Jesus sees them, as He sees the broken and beaten down, the discouraged and afraid, wrecked by the pain, rejection and abandonment that they too have known.

And in my heart, I know, with absolute clarity that I can take this grace of God, of which I have partaken, and pass it on to all those whom I need to forgive…so that they too can find what I have found…God’s grace!

His grace is what I give up every time I willingly stray off the path that actually leads to more and more freedom! So what am I willing to give up to keep my freedom? My own will so I can live for His will in my life. I am willing to move forward, to take up my cross daily and follow Him. Every step I take in that journey leads me further into the joy and purpose of being in relationship with Jesus.

When I give up my will for his, I also leave behind living in the shadow and all that goes with it: pain, isolation, purposelessness, loneliness, feeling trapped, deep depression, great anxiety and fear, and the unrelenting grief of feeling far from my Savior.

For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.” Psalm 84:11,NLT

Lord Jesus, please help me keep my feet on the path you have set before me, the path that leads to deeper and deeper love and relationship with you. Forgive me for sometimes being afraid, not trusting you, and longing to return to my wilderness of sin. Thank you for always coming to get me when I stray, my Lord and Shepherd. And thank you for your Grace that quenches my thirst and fills my emptiness. How lovely, how very beautiful it is. In your Strong and Powerful Name I pray. Amen.

by Cheryl Fiorelli

How Has Forgiveness Transformed My Relationships?

08.23.2016 by Laura Forman //

This month we are honored to share the words and wisdom of our guest contributor and friend, Laura Forman. We think you’ll be blessed by her perspective on the power of forgiveness.

The question I was asked to reflect upon is, “How has forgiveness transformed my relationships?” What I love more than being asked is the presumption I actually practice forgiveness.

My younger brother picked the measly lock and read my diary when I was 12 and gushing on about my love for the neighbor boy. Prying into my deep, innermost secrets wasn’t enough; he couldn’t help but blab all the details to you know who. I was enraged. Mom made him apologize, and I was to forgive. Obviously, I’m not completely over it and have more work to do.

I’m sure you have even bigger hurts than stolen diaries, and I’m no different. All of my important relationships have brought some level of pain. Some relationships didn’t last, most have, and forgiveness has helped both.

Embarrassing as it is, until about six years ago, I gave only lip service to forgiveness. How does one forgive? I thought it was something I just had to think about. I assumed it was a head thing; I tried to will myself to forgive. However, I got no results. I was imprisoned in misery until I absolutely had to learn to forgive.

Even now, I’m not perfect (though I’m still holding hope). I have been known to: take things personally, etch all harms into my long term memory, craft detailed arguments to shift blame away from me, put up emotional walls, re-hash conflict and let resentment permeate my mind even when that person is no longer a part of my life. None of this is forgiveness.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you used it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:37-38

Forgiveness hasn’t merely transformed my relationships, it has transformed me. Here’s what I’ve learned about it so far:

It takes introspection.

Relationships are great mirrors. When frustrated with someone’s behavior, it’s usually because I’m guilty of the exact same thing. And, if there is someone to forgive, chances are I’ve contributed to the issue in some big or small way.

I look at myself with honesty, admit my part and make amends without hesitation.

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye…” Luke 6:42

It takes repetition.

I may think I’ve moved on, but if the thought of the wrong brings with it all the hurt feelings, then I’m not done. If the thought of the person or action doesn’t bring empathy to my heart, I have not forgiven. Forgiveness takes practice, patience and extended grace.

There is no limit to forgiveness. I will always forgive.

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seven times seventy times.” Matthew 18:21-22 (ESV/KJV)

It’s the key to happiness.

My faith story shows a clear before and after. Worry, fear, shame and despair each turned to their opposite, in an instant. I was touched by Spirit and transformed. I was forgiven by God for the complete mess I had made of my life. The forgiveness I receive gives me the power and obligation to in turn forgive others.

Forgiveness lightens my burdens and creates freedom in my life.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

It’s not up to me.

Ultimately what allows me to forgive is the belief that God is in charge and I am not. He is the only one qualified to change hearts and dole justice, in ways much more effective than my own. I believe the promise that He is working out all circumstances for my good if I follow His commands, especially to love no matter what.

Each challenge is a reminder to rely on God to fight my battles. My focus is on following Jesus.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink… Romans 12:19-20

It was a forgone conclusion that forgiveness is a big part of my life because of my faith, because I take it seriously. If you’ve not felt the transformative power of forgiveness, give it a chance. Learn from the best teacher, He’s given us a road map in His word. You have nothing to lose but your prison.