We cried.
We prayed, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian alike.
The Abrahamic religions led but I saw representation of lots of different faiths.
On the way out, a journalist asked my friend if he felt we should lock down Black churches. He asked if locking down the Black church, presumably based on race or as he put it (people from other cultures and backgrounds) was the way to go to ensure safety in church?
I loved this moment and the ones that followed for so many reasons. JT is someone who really gets faith. He really believes and we talk scripture often. We also go to church together. He is truly an iron sharpens iron person in my life. There were a few things I noticed in this moment. It was almost as if someone had accosted him with this question. I was standing behind him on the step above and he was leaning back against me, as if for support not only physically but emotionally. I didn't know what he would say but I knew his faith. I know he believes as I do and when he said the words that our faith believes...that we can't close churches out of fear...my spirit was encouraged.
As we walked down the street back to the car we talked about how this reporter tried to lead him to say something contrary to what he believes and that that just wasn't going to happen. To some degree the ability to exercise our faith is important enough to us to go into a place that was violated and reestablish it for the purpose for which it exists. Black Christians refuse to let anyone take church....not church. That....that you can't have.
That very same church received a bomb threat just hours after we left the sanctuary.
II Corinthians 3:5-6
Not that we are fit (qualified and sufficient in ability) of ourselves to form personal judgments or to claim or count anything as coming from us, but our power and ability and sufficiency are from God.
6 [It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministersand dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive.
How many times have I said it isn't me? It so isn't. God has qualified me for each and every thing I've ever had. I'm not that smart...but apparently I wrote a book. I created knowledge but really I just discovered something God did when He stepped out on nothing and created everything. That wasn't me but God who allowed me to see something no one had ever seen before. I know I'm not special. I'm keenly aware of that cause I know me. I've been knowing me almost 28 years and me isn't that awesome. Me and God doing our thing...changes the game.
I look at the Bible and I actually understand things. That's not me but the Spirit in me. The Spirit which dwells in me recognizes the Word because they are of the same thing. In the begining was the Word and the Word was with God and was God. The Word has always been and the Spirit is a part of God. That they recognize each other is an understatement. That they do it in me is wild. W
hat I love about my relationship is that its filled with more grace than I could have conceived of a year ago. God is so gracious unto us and unto me. Each and every day I fail and He's like "that's okay baby. Try again. I appreciate your human effort....let me pour out some grace on it." He blows my mind because not only could I not live under the law but I'm also perpetually calling on Him for more grace and He's fine with it. God is completely okay with the fact that I need Him desperately...all the time. He wants me to be cognizant of that. I most definitely am. I hope my life demonstrates the grace He has with me.
II Corinthians 3:10
Indeed, in view of this fact, what once had splendor [the glory of the Law in the face of Moses] has come to have no splendor at all, because of the overwhelming glory that exceeds and excels it [the glory of the Gospel in the face of Jesus Christ].
The law was and is from God. Its magnificent. You know what else the law is? Unattainable. You can't keep it. I cannot....but one person did because they weren't just person but also God. Jesus came to fulfill the law and in its place left grace. Grace though....grace is what we can actually function in...thrive, live, and love in. Grace is greater than I'll ever be able to comprehend, more than I can possibly deserve or earn, and absolutely essential to my existence. I'm so grateful for this reality in my life.
II Corinthians 3:11-12
For if that which was but passing and fading away came with splendor, how much more must that which remains and is permanent abide in glory and splendor!
12 Since we have such [glorious] hope (such joyful and confident expectation), we speak very freely and openly and fearlessly.
I don't ever want to take away from the temporary. The temporary is the experience I'm having right now and its awesome. I also know its fleeting. All I want to hear is well done and that well done isn't over the little things but the culmination of a lifetime. I want God to smile when He sees me. All I want to that which is abiding. Commitment matters to me. Sometimes commitment writes this blog...I'm not always feeling it but I don't follow my feelings. Commitment infiltrates huge parts of my life. I wonder sometimes what I would be like if I could be more in the moment but then I wouldn't be me and I'm in love with me :-)
What the Bible is saying is that when Moses came down with the ten commandments and the plans for the tabernacle(read: place for sacrifices and redemption until Christ came to make a perfect sacrifice), it was with splendor. They couldn't even really look at Moses because simply having been in the presence of God changed Him. Their humanity couldn't bare to be in the presence of Moses, who had seen the shadow of God. Can you imagine that? I can't but I do know this. If salt water and fresh water can't exist in the same place, the splendor that adorned Moses and the gifts from On High couldn't be clearly beheld by the people because they were deep in sin. Remember they started worshiping the calf while Moses was up there....foolishment! The whole scene was a lot.
Now consider how much more grace is. The law was weak through the flesh due to sin but grace is powerful through Jesus because He is God and the flesh. He died in sinless flesh and was raised with all power. Grace is. Sort of how God is....grace is.
Now I'm going to be transparent. My first thought about this scripture was marriage. I even wrote it in my Bible. The Lord laid marriage on my heart a long time ago. I assumed a lot in that but the more I actively seek Him about it, the more I know through Him. Can I offer that that is the best way? Its been so eye opening to just ask Him instead of assuming. Girl....amaze! Anyway, He gave me a heart for marriage first that I might not shy away from all He has for me when He revealed that I would marry a woman. What I also see in these verses is something I'd love to have read at my wedding. Yes, the time in which we dated was awesome, but how much more amazing is this union which is permanent and abiding? Abiding commitment...that's what marriage is. And because I'll have that, I can also speak freely, openly, and fearlessly because I'm safe. Commitment creates safety. I've said a few times I want to be a safe space for my wife and I think that's undergirded by commitment, unwavering and resolute. I've only had safe space in a few places in my life and with a few people, and its critical to my future marriage. I want this verse in the scripture reading at the wedding!
II Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).
There's a song I love called "Where the Spirit of The Lord Is." I heard it for the first time in Australia and it blew my mind. I've cried to it, laughed to it, mediated in it, and prayed during it. Coming out of writing about safe spaces, my ultimate safe space is with God. Its with Him that I'm free to be whatever I am and He can take that, receive it, mold it, and cause it to have purpose and destiny and give Him glory. I'm listening to it now because its an anthem and it drives you. It drives you to your knees and to action.
What I love about the Spirit in me is that despite what's outside me, there's freedom and life and love and companionship within me.
II Corinthians 3:18
And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.
Listen...the more layers of my life I give to God, the more peaceful my life is. He transforms my life because I keep giving more and more of it to Him. He shows me constantly, in the things I've surrendered, that He has a better way and He builds my trust in Him daily.
I believe. My life is a testimony to who He is in me and to me.
I believe for the impossible, the improbable, and the basically never.
I believe.
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