JONNO: MOVING UP-WORDS

 

A God-Perspective

By Jonno

 

            When it comes to having the perspective of God one illustration comes to mind that I share from time to time in which I use the old adage, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” My humanity grabs hold of the base of our life-experience/human-passion tree, with arms and legs wrapped tightly around the trunk. I glance from time to time over at other trees, but for the most part hanging snuggly around my own.  On occasion God comes and taps me on the shoulder and invites me to see another perspective saying, “If you’re interested, I’ll show it to you.” Comfortable, secure, and complacent I decline with a response, “Nah, I’ve got this,” and I grip even more tightly. 

            Thinking about the whole idea about perspective, I ask of others, “Hey, how’s my tree looking from over there.” As they glance over their shoulder or around the trunks of their trees, they offer opinions from their vantage points.  This causes me to temporarily disengage ourselves briefly and take one, two, or even three steps backwards: never losing sight of my trees.  I gain what others might consider a good perspective.  “Hmm, I can tweak this over here, shift this over there, and I’m all good.” 

            Again, God comes and taps me on my shoulder.  Again He invites me to gain a different perspective.  This time I choose to follow Him.  He gently brushes off the bark and moss from my clothes, takes my hand and begins to walk.  We pass the three-step mark where I stood before, and continue to walk.  We begin to climb a hill, then another.  We reach a clearing at the top of a small mountain, and we sit together.  As we sit the sun begins to rise over the tops of the surrounding mountains.  We begin to see a vast forest coming into view being illuminated by the morning glory. He begins to point directing my gaze towards the right, and I see what He sees.  It’s my tree.  I can see the top of my tree, its branches, and the color of the leaves so vividly.  I also see many other trees, however I can’t see those who I know are clutched at the bases of them. “This is how I see you, and I wanted you to see things as I see them.”

            For the first time I saw things from not only a good perspective, but from a God perspective.  I saw how I fit into the grand scheme of things.  I saw how the whole forest works into the great canvas of God’s will illuminated by His glory. This experience was truly eye opening.  I now hold my tree a little more loosely because I understand that it is His tree, and that I am only the temporary holder of it.    



By Jonno

He walked through the doorway, and moving the door that was hanging by one hinge. Civilians were living here; now, they are not living. A mother and her two small children: a boy, and what looks to be the remains of a girl obliterated by some homemade explosives. “Clear!” he shouts out.

As he turns to move on towards the next dwelling he hears a “click” followed by the faint sound of an electrical pulse from just below his foot. His focus is diverted from what’s ahead to what’s below. No time to react Fractions of a second later he sees nothing, and hears nothing but a long steady tone ringing in his ears.

Seven months have passed. His latest in a series of surgeries is to finally fit the prosthesis just below his knee (which had been reconstructed three surgeries ago).
When asked how he’s doing, his response is melancholy yet with the slightest of grins, “It’s good to be home, but I miss being out there with my guys.”

~ ~ ~

They swore an oath; they give their lives; they lose themselves; they find courage; they sacrifice dreams; they love their country: the men and women who found bravery to be more than a descriptive word, but a way of life. They serve the country selflessly and unselfishly secure the freedoms that we, more often than not, take for granted. We remember them in our hearts and in our prayers.
We say, “THANK YOU.”

Father in Heaven,
As our country celebrates the men and women who have served and who are serving in the United States Armed Forces, we pray for their lives and over the lives of their loved ones. We pray for peace within that can only be found in You. We pray for health and strength. We pray for the purposes to be true under which they are serving, even though they question not the orders given them. We pray for safety and divine protection for their lives. We pray for Your long reaching love touching the heart of the one in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, Germany, Kuwait, and so many other places around the world, as well as those in bases securing our homeland. Touch them, and let them know that You care for them, and are there for them. We pray that your divine providence be employed.
This we pray in Jesus’ name,
Amen

ADJECTIVES AND NOUNS

By Jonno

 

Jesus healed many people during His ministry on earth.  He healed many cripples, paralytics, blind, and demon possessed. Many of these people had no source of income other than begging on the streets of the villages or towns that they resided in.  Some would go to the city gates to gain a better chance at a visiting stranger’s charity and good will.  Here is one well-known example:

 

³⁵ As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. ³⁶ When he heard the noise of a crowd going past, he asked what was happening. ³⁷ They told him that Jesus the Nazarene was going by. ³⁸ So he began shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18 NLT)

 

The text identifies the man as a “blind beggar” suggesting that he was visually impaired, some say he was blind since birth, and that his profession or vocation or social status was that of a beggar. 

 

Deconstructing this man’s identity a bit further we see that the word blind is an adjective, a word that describes another, for the word beggar, a noun: defined as one that begs; especially: a person who lives by asking for gifts, a pauper, a panhandler.  If the adjective of the noun is removed, the noun still exists; which is to say, the man was a beggar whether or not he had the condition of blindness or not. 

 

We know that Jesus healed the man of his condition of blindness; what about the identity of the man as that of being a beggar?  After a negative exchange with an unsupportive crowd, who probably knew him well, offering pennies when convenient, the man is approached by Jesus:

 

⁴¹ “What do you want me to do for you?”

   “Lord,” he said, “I want to see!”

 ⁴² And Jesus said, “All right, receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.”

⁴³ Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it praised God, too. (Luke 18 NLT)

 

His blindness turned to praise, so much so that the previously unsupportive crowd began to praise the Lord as well.  The blind man’s response was that he followed Jesus and praised God, and infecting others to praise Him along the way.

 

Here are the questions: what about the man’s vocation?  What about his livelihood? The man was no longer qualified to beg because his condition for begging was removed by divine healing.  Did the healing eliminate all possibilities of income?  Was the healing accompanied by vocational skills that would afford him the opportunity to make a living outside of begging?

 

The man’s must have had aspirations and passions burning within him.  The man was created to be something in the kingdom of God, and his life was planned long before the foundation of the earth was laid.  The answer to all of these questions is simply “I don’t know.”  Although the scriptures don’t give the remainder of the man’s life story, here’s what we do know: he followed Jesus and he praised God.

 

When life serves you a disability or an unfair advantage, remember that life itself is something that God created.  Life serves the purpose of God.  Because sin, outside of God’s original design, is in the world, there are disadvantage and disabilities that we all struggle with.  The truth is that God wants to restore each one of us back to His original design for us.  The aspirations, passions, and dreams that we see in our innermost being are God-breathed.

 

The first step is to follow Jesus.  Give your life to the one who paid for yours with His life. He loves you (John 3:16). He wants to remove a few of your adjectives.

 

The next step is the praise God.  God inhabits your praise (Psalm 22:3).  Praising God is a non-stop activity drawing the presence of God continually (Psalm 34:1).

 

The third step is to pursue your passions, aspirations, and dreams with purpose.  Realize that your condition and label that you’ve lived with all your life may very well be contrary to who and what God has preordained for you to be (Jeremiah 1:4-5).  You are the noun that God declares that you are.  It’s bubbling inside you.  Just begin to declare it over your own life. 

 

You have been defined.

 

 Copyright ©2010

CROSS-EYED

By Jonno

 

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God [1 Cor 1:18].”

 

When we survey the cross and what it stands for, it seems baffling that an object used as an instrument of an excruciatingly painful execution is universally recognized as a symbol of the love of God through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. 

 

Jesus Christ crossed over in His message to the people, steering away from the rigidity of the Law, and into a relationship with the grace of God. 

 

The blood-soaked splintering crossbeam that levels with the horizon, that took the blacksmiths crudely pointed nails, that stretched the already severely beaten body of a man named Jesus of Nazareth to the point of full exposure, reaches from east to west, and speaks of the distance that we ought to go to plant and water the seeds of the Gospel, and the extent of sharing the undying love of our Heavenly Father.

 

The ominously towering post running vertically from subterranean terra firma, reaching to the sky and Heavenward, causes one to look within him or herself, analyzing through the eyes of conviction, yet feeling the pardoning nail scarred hand of the Master, speaks of the love that God has for all of humanity, even a humanity who would usurp authority and strive to become gods, and the extreme measure that He took to ensure that the way back to Him was lighted by Word, who is Christ Jesus.

 

We are now able to look cross-eyed at one another in the love of our Lord and forgive others, love others, share the Gospel with others, help others, seek the best for others, and build up others, all because of the power that flows from message of the cross of Christ. 

 

The message is cross-cultural and cross-generational. It spans across color lines and the racial divide, across gang turf lines, across social-economic lines, across borderlines of countries, and across dysfunctional family thresholds. 

 

Like honeybees, we are to cross-pollinate the message of the cross to the flowering fields.

Like lawyers, we are to cross-examine others not with guilt, but with the love of Christ; not to condemn, rather become the extension of grace and mercy.

Like an examiner, we are to cross-reference to understand that every person regardless of race, gender, creed, culture, age, financial standing, educational background, or pedigree needs a Savior, who is Jesus Christ. 

 

The message of the cross IS the power of God, and on this truth we can stand.

 

Copyright © 2010 Jonno

The Moving Up-Words

 

IDENTITY CRISIS

By Jonno

 

God called Gideon a "mighty warrior" [Jdg 6:12]. God called Jeremiah a "prophet to the nations" [Jer 1:5].  Before Gideon and Jeremiah assumed the roles of warrior and prophet they both told God whom they thought they were.  They gave God disqualifiers for themselves in hopes that the Lord would pass their assignments on to someone else whom they felt were more qualified. 

 

Many of us suffer today because we have not assumed the identity that our Heavenly Father wrote out for us.  Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:4(NIV), “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”  Another translation says that God, in Christ, chose us “before the foundations of the world”.

 

There was purpose God for you to be conceived and release you to the world on the day of your birth rather than in any other time period.  Your time is now.

 

There is the identity in God that He scribed deep in your heart, in your spirit, that is longing to emerge from the depths of your life.  Beloved, the sad thing is that more of us have succumbed to the crisis called “identity theft”.

 

From birth the sin nature has taken a free ride in attempts to derail the God-plan and destroy our identity.  That’s why you had the childhood that you had. That’s why you suffered some of the things that you suffered. That’s why someone touched you inappropriately. That’s why they called you names out of your name. That’s why the lies were told about you and others believed them.  All these things played as agents in a tactical scheme to steal your identity.  

 

Jesus said [John 10:10(NKJV)], “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

 

The enemy of your destiny wants to succeed at stealing your identity in Christ, killing the purposed role in the kingdom of God, and destroying any pathway that would lead you to discovering who you really are and what you’re really about through the Holy Spirit.

 

Both Gideon and Jeremiah thought less of themselves, however the Lord thought so much more of them. God thinks so much more of you than you think of yourself. He has placed an ocean of potential within you, which can only be navigated by His Holy Spirit.  

 

Jesus did come to explain who you are and what your role is in the kingdom of God.  That is the “life more abundantly”.  Imagine for a moment: you fulfilling your God-written destiny, on point and on purpose for the kingdom of God, knowing full well who you are in Christ Jesus. 

 

God had to prove to Gideon and Jeremiah that they were everything that He created them to be.  I encourage you to passionately pursue the promise of your purpose and to seek in the Lord your true identity. 

 

Your purpose and identity declare from within you, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. [Phil 4:13]”

 

Copyright 2010©