Tag: I AM

guilt and shame, faith or fear, loved by God, controlled by fear, use fear to rule, saved from hell, fear and social control, fear versus power, fear vs power, using fear to control the masses, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, why do you believe in Jesus, Jesus as a saviour, saved from sin, the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father but by me, I am, overcoming fear with faith, church scares me, dread going to church, religion based on fear, controlling through fear,

Guilt & Shame – motivating you towards God?

Beth - blogger, coach, consultant3 Comments

This is Part 2, following on from Faith or Fear: Love of God or saving you from hell?

As we continue to move up Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs, the motivating factors become weaker. So, while fear may be the strongest, with guilt and social acceptance being another strong external motivator, when you reach shame (internal), the power it holds over you lessens.

Nonetheless, shame as a learned behaviour is something that carries with you all your life! The effects of the manipulation and emotional abuse are scars carried until healing takes place on a deep level.

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faith or fear, loved by God, controlled by fear, use fear to rule, saved from hell, fear and social control, fear versus power, fear vs power, using fear to control the masses, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, why do you believe in Jesus, Jesus as a saviour, saved from sin, the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father but by me, I am, overcoming fear with faith, church scares me, dread going to church, religion based on fear, controlling through fear,

Faith or Fear: Love of God or saving you from hell?

Beth - blogger, coach, consultant4 Comments

I’ve written a lot lately about how mission boarding school and growing up on the mission field has influenced my faith and my journey to practicing Presence. Today – I want to dive into the darkness of the journey from a culture of fear, into learning to lead from faith and love.

A topic I have been ruminating on recently: How many of my choices and decisions in life are made based on faith? What decisions were fear-based?

Where does the fear come from? Unfortunately – indoctrination.

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God, maturity, grow, Spirit, true, best version of you, body, emotions, spirit, John, baptizer, light, testimony, Messiah, prophet, voice, practicing presence, Shekinah

Who are you?

Beth - blogger, coach, consultantLeave a comment

Readings:

  • John 1: 6-8; 19-28

6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light.

19 This was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John, “Who are you?” 20 He came right out and said, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 “Well then, who are you?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?”
“No,” he replied.
“Are you the Prophet we are expecting?”
“No.”
22 “Then who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah:
     “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness,
    ‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’”
24 Then the Pharisees who had been sent 25 asked him, “If you aren’t the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet, what right do you have to baptize?”
26 John told them, “I baptize with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not recognize. 27 Though his ministry follows mine, I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandal.”
28 This encounter took place in Bethany, an area east of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.

So, I would ask each one of you this morning: who are you?

John the Baptist, knew clearly, who he was. Do you know who you are?  Are you living the life that God intended for you to live, being who God made you to be? Have you reached a place of maturity where you know and accept what God says about you, agree with Spirit that this is true of you, and become the best version of you that exists?

Let’s do a small exercise, and review different areas of our lives: starting with our bodies.  I want you to close your eyes for a moment, and just be present in your body. Be aware of your head, of your neck, your shoulders, your left arm, your hand, your right arm, your right hand… and now let’s move down to your legs. And now let’s move back to your head. And now, I want to ask you: are you your body? Or is your body simply the vessel that carries you?

If you are not your body, then who are you?

What about your possessions? Do those define who you are? Your home, your car, your bank account? Is that who you are?

How about your job, profession and career? Does that define who you are? How many people do you know that have changed careers? How many times in your life has your career and profession changed? How many people do you know that have been laid off or fired, that have quit, that have moved to another country and had to start over in another field? Is a person truly defined by their career or profession? Who are you?

What about your family? Are you mum, dad, the black sheep, the only single one left, the life of the party, the grandmother? Is that who you are? How many people do you know who have lost members of their family? And yet they still continue to live and find new identities and purposes.  Who are you?

How about your emotions? Are you happy, sad, angry, fearful, ashamed, tired? But is that who you are? Or is that simply a state of feeling and emotion that comes and passes?

John responds rather cryptically to the Pharisees and scribes: “I am a voice…” The first verses of John tell us a little more about John the Baptist’s identity:

“God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light.”

And you, who are you? What were you sent for? God sent you… Have you discovered yet what for? Are you living out that purpose? Are you being everything that you could possibly be?

Your identity doesn’t depend on something you do or have done. Most of us confuse doing, having and feeling with being.  Instead of saying I feel sad, we identify with the sadness and say “I am sad”. Instead of saying that I work as a lawyer, we say “I am a lawyer”. Instead of saying I have a family, we lose our identity within that family.  But is that truly who you are?

John knew who he was. And Jesus certainly knew who he was.  Jesus said:

  • I am the bread of life.
  • I am the light of the world.
  • I am the door.
  • I am the good shepherd.
  • I am the resurrection and the life.
  • I am the way, the truth and the life.
  • I am the vine.
  • “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!

And who are you?

Now, I don’t care much for Joel Osteen, but I quite like part of his start to Sunday services and his declaration about the Bible:

This is my Bible.
I am what it says I am.
I can do what it says I can do.
…

Who are you?

Who does God, through the Bible, say that you are? Let me give you some ideas:

  • You ARE a child of God, complete in Christ – John 1: 12; Colossians 2:10
  • You ARE loved, accepted, redeemed, holy, forgiven, free from condemnation, chosen, established, anointed and sealed by God. 1 John 3: 3; Ephesians 1:6; Colossians 1:14; Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 1:21; Colossians 3:12
  • You ARE a joint heir with Jesus, united with God and one spirit with God Spirit. Romans 8: 17; 1 Corinthians 6:17
  • You ARE a temple of God: his Spirit and life lives in you. 1 Corinthians 6:19
  • You are God’s co-worker; a living stone on which the spiritual house is being built. 2 Corinthians 6:1; 1 Peter 2:5

So, if that’s who you are: what are you doing that lives up to this description of you? Does your life reflect who you are?

If you embodied this description of you: what would be different to how you are living your life at the moment? What needs to change in your life, for this to really be you? What would new things would appear in your life if this was you?

What scares you the most about this description of you?

  • Being a child of God? a joint heir with Jesus?
  • Being united with God – complete Oneness?
  • being complete?
  • being loved, accepted, redeemed, holy, forgiven, free from condemnation, chosen, established, anointed and sealed by God?
  • being God’s temple?
  • being God’s co-worker and co-creator?

What obstacles or idols in your life keep you from living this out? What habits or practices do you need to incorporate into your life to live this more fully?

What’s keeping you from living this life today? From walking out of the Church today and being You, the best You that there is, the You that God created you to be in all your fullness and glory, so that others might see Christ in you?

Because today, YOU are the hope of the world. You are the voice in the wilderness. You are the light in the darkness. God sent you!

So, who are you?

Sermon: The Good Shepherd

Beth - blogger, coach, consultantLeave a comment

Welcome to the Good Shepherd Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter (or the third Sunday after Easter if you prefer), where every year we remind ourselves of a special relationship that we have with our Creator.  Each year, we read on Good Shepherd Sunday two particular readings:

  • Psalm 23:  The Lord is my Shepherd
  • John 10: 1-10

Throughout our three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary, while we may read different Epistles or different Prophets, the reading of the Psalm and this particular Gospel remain unchanged.  So I would like us to consider, this morning, what we can learn from them regarding our day-to-day living, because being of the Christian faith isn’t something you do on Sundays: it’s how your live your day-to-day life.  And the Creator’s offer to “shepherd” us is not something that we only need on Sundays: it’s a protection, guidance, purpose, security, blessing, and healing that should happen every day for each of us.

In the Old Testament, like in the book of Exodus, Yahweh is represented as a shepherd.  The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel compare Yahweh’s care and protection of His people to that of a shepherd.  “He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against His breast and leading the mother ewes to their rest” (Is. 40:11).

I would like to start with some thoughts, briefly, regarding the Gospel from John, and then focus on Psalm 23.

10:1 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.
10:2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

John starts chapter 10, speaking metaphorically of us as sheep and of the Christ as our shepherd, and he begins with entrance into our lives.  John reminds us that the legitimate way into our lives is through the gate: anyone who climbs in by any other way is a thief and a bandit.  Leaders may enter our lives through false pretenses, lies, manipulation, false promises, deceit, masquerade, pressure, threats, or playing on our fears (think of political leaders, electoral promises, fears that are preyed upon), but I AM enters our lives through the relationship that we voluntarily establish with God’s Presence, drawing our spirit into Oneness with God’s Spirit.  It is only in the presence of pure love that we can openly and willingly open the door our hearts, souls and spirits, to become one with the Holy Spirit, voluntarily.

10:3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

Whose voice are you listening to? Maybe you are listening to political commentary, webinars, self-help gurus, podcasts by your favorite fitness guru. But do you take time in your day to listen to the voice of the Shepherd?  Is your life so busy and so caught up that there is no time for silence?  If you are feeling like you are a hamster on a wheel, maybe it is time to start saying “no” and learning to enjoy the Silence and stillness of “Be Still and Know that I AM that I AM”.  The promise we have in John 10 is that I AM will call you by name and lead you out, but in order for this promise to be fulfilled, you need to actually hear I AM’s voice.  That means time in silence.  Time in prayer.  Time in quiet peace and meditation.  And once you hear I AM’s voice, then you will hear where he wants to lead you.  Not your plans, but I AM’s plans and leadership.

10:4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
10:5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Do you know and hear the voice of I AM?  Or have you become so deaf to this voice that you are following the voice of strangers?  Searching for an earthly shepherd to take care of you, to allay your fears, to give you safety and security?  Who is your shepherd?  When we start to only follow the voices and advice and direction from our leaders, we start to believe that only they can hear the voice of the Shepherd and we simply do what they are telling us.  It’s certainly easier this way, we can abdicate “responsibility” and if anything goes wrong, “it was their fault”: certainly nice to have a scapegoat.  And that’s a sermon for another day…  Are you running from the strangers and following the voice of the Shepherd?  Or have you become so accustomed to the voice of the stranger that you have stopped following the voice of the Shepherd?

As I said at the beginning, I want us to turn now to Psalm 23, and go through this line by line, understanding a little bit more today our relationship with I AM.  Some of you may be wondering why I have used I AM so frequently through my sermon this morning:  God’s name is almost always translated LORD (all caps) in the English Bible. But the Hebrew would be pronounced something like “Yahweh,” and is built on the word for “I am.”  So every time we read or hear the word “Yahweh”, or our poor translation of it as “LORD” in the English Bible, you should think: this is “I am”, reminding me each time that God absolutely is. “YHWH Raah” – I AM, my Shepherd.

And Psalm 23 starts with this:

The Lord is my shepherd,

I AM is my shepherd.  I want you to think about this “I AM” for a moment.  This I AM is the same I AM that Moses encountered at the burning bush;  this is the I AM that the children of Israel followed out of Egypt and through the desert.  This is the I AM that is the way, the truth and the life. This is “I am the bread of life”.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8:58). I am the light of the world.  I am the door of the sheep. “I AM the good shepherd.The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11) I am the resurrection and the life.  “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. (John 13:13). I am the true vine.  “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8).  I am the first and the last.   That’s our shepherd: all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, all-presence.

This verse speaks about our relationship with I AM. And I would like to invite you, for a moment, to consider your idea of who and what God is.  If we are to effectively pray, listen and communicate with God we need to become clear on exactly who and what we think God is, and become clear about our feelings toward God.  Religions around the world typically classify God as Thou/You, Me (the indwelling Spirit), or He/She/It.

This first view of God: Thou/You – is “Our Father, who art in Heaven”.  The second view of God, is problematic for some Christians, as it views God as being within us, and yet we profess that we believe the Holy Spirit to abide inside us, and say “not I, but Christ that lives in me”.

 

And that third face of God is the Omni-Presence of God in all of life:  I AM the way, the truth and the life.  It is the breath of life that we breath each moment of every day.  As Christians, we are quite fearful of this face of God, seeing religions that are idol worshipers, because they focus on God in things and creation.  Yet, we fail to see that this is God:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  God, as Omni-Presence does not mean God in the air, “around” all things… it is God IN all things.  It is God that is IN this pulpit, it is God IN the floor, it is God IN the pew-bench on which you are seated, it is God in your car, in your steering wheel, in the gear shift.  It is God in your home, in your sofa, in your bed.  It is God in each bird, each butterfly, each mosquito (sorry… terrible example!). We say we believe God to be Onmi-Presence, but then when we talk about God, we seem to limit God to just being in the air “around”, rather than literally EVERYWHERE.

Let me try to explain this a little better:  you stand on a beach looking out at the vastness of the Ocean.  There are waves breaking on the shore, and in each wave that breaks on the shore, you will find the Ocean.  You take a bucket and you fill it with water, and in this water you will also find the Ocean.  If you took just one drop of that water, it would still be part of the Ocean.  Now, that drop of water is not the whole Ocean, obviously.  But how do you separate that drop of water from being Ocean.  And that, for me, is the Omni-Present God:  God is much more than JUST the bird or the butterfly or the mosquito… but God is there!

And having said all of this, I will admit, I don’t understand God: I don’t even begin to. God remains unfathomable to me!  I cannot wrap my tiny human brain around a definition that even comes close!

So, I invite you this morning to answer this question this week:  Who or What is God for you?

I apologise that I have spent so much time discussing this first verse of Psalm 23, that it will not leave me much time to go through the rest of the lines of Psalm 23, but I felt that “how we see God” is the very crux of how we interpret Psalm 23.

I AM is my shepherd,

And so, let’s continue with Psalm 23:

I shall not want.

Some translations write this as “I have everything I need” or “I lack nothing”.  YHWH Jireh, my provider.  I AM, my provider.  Are you allowing God to provide for you? Physically? Mentally? Spiritually?  Do you allow God to nourish your soul?
As a parent, I reserve the right to say “no” to all the whims and requests of my daughter. She would love ice cream, M&Ms and candy every day: I think about the teeth, the enamel and vitamins and minerals.  She will not lack anything, she will have everything she needs.

Do you accept that God may say “no” to your whims and fancies?

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

Are you resting with God?

He leads me beside still waters.

Are you following God beside still waters, so that God can refresh your soul?

He restores my soul;

How do you allow God to heal you?  YHWH Rapha: I AM that healeth.

He leads me in paths of righteousness,

We sing “Jesus take the wheel”, but do you let God actually drive?  You ask for guidance, but do you follow the guide?  “No, not there!  That’s not where I want to go… I want you to take the wheel when I’ve already got myself into trouble – just get me out of this and then give me back my steering wheel!”

For His name’s sake.

Are you living a purpose driven life?  I AM that I AM… His name’s sake…

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

Sometimes, on the road to greener pastures there will be trials and hardships and difficult paths.  Do you trust I AM?

I will fear no evil;

I will fear no evil.  This is a powerful declaration!  I will fear no evil.  How often do we allow fear to dictate our lives?

For You are with me,

YHWH Shammah – God is faithful, omni-present, everywhere we are.

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

The rod and the staff – they are for fighting off the wolves, the lions and the bears.  And for stopping us from going down the wrong path, to pull us back us (sometimes around the neck) when we’ve started to go over the edge.  Sometimes pulling us kicking and screaming from the edge, when we don’t realise we are about to step over the edge.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,

We have hope and abundance and moments of rejoicing!  Do you enjoy those feasts that God provides?

You anoint my head with oil;

We are consecrated to God.  Do you live your life as a consecrated child of God?

My cup runs over.

Are you truly thankful?

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

You are blessed – richly blessed!  Goodness and mercy follow you – do you show goodness and mercy to everyone in your life?  Do your acts reflect this goodness and mercy you have received?

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

God is everywhere… you dwell in his house at every moment of every day.  Not just while you are here in the house of the Lord which is this building. But every moment. Do your actions and thoughts reflect that?

Forever.

Eternity… it’s a long time.

As you leave today, consider this:

  • Who, what and where is God for you?
  • What is your personal definition of God?
  • What does that definition mean for your relationship with God?  With others?
  • Who are you listening to? Do you recognise the Shepherd’s voice?
  • Do you allow the Shepherd to guide you?  To provide what you need?
  • Do you give thanks for the rich blessings, allowing goodness and mercy to shower those who come into contact with you?

Be blessed in every way!

 

Originally in the sermon, but then edited out to make it more understandable:

In The Three Faces of God we read:

“Most of us are familiar with three different perspectives from which to approach and describe God. These perspectives determine whether we address God in the first, second, or third person:
God as Ground of Being is the First Face of God. It is the experiential “I”—God within us, or God immanent.
God as an entity to whom we relate and pray to is the Second Face. It is God as “Thou” or “You.”
God present in the manifest world as the Web of Life, as Nature, as All That Is, is the Third Face. It is ‘He/She/It’ and is understood through our senses.”

This book, the Bible, attempts to teach us that God is all three.  We know this as the Trinity: God, as Holy Spirit, is the “I” within each one of us, the “not I but Christ that liveth in me” that connects directly with our spirit, bringing us to complete Oneness with God.  When we completely still, when we allow ourselves to finally connect, it is the still small voice that speaks to us.  God as the Father we know as Thou or You, this is the God that we pray to.  In many senses, it is the God we have a relationship with – some see God as a Santa Claus, that we make our requests to, others see God as an angry or justifying abuses.  The Three Faces of God reminds us:

“It’s the unhealthy version of the Second Face of God that has created so much trouble throughout history. Since medieval times and within hierarchical religions, the Second Face of a judgmental God who metes out punishments and rewards has been used as a weapon to marginalize, kill, emotionally wound, and control people and circumstances. Abuse of the Second Face of God resulted in a judgmental superbeing before whom we all stood as sinners.”

“Yet by rejecting the Second Face of God relationship entirely, we miss the richness offered by a healthy version. This is an understanding of God with whom we can experience personal and intimate relationship in our daily lives, to whom we can express gratitude and love and surrender. It’s God as unconditionally loving parent, comforter, supportive friend.”