January 28, 2009 by Teri Frana.

“Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7

I’ve been doing a study on what God views as wise and what He thinks is foolish. It’s quite study and often leaves me more confused than feeling wise. I do see why Solomon thought it may cost you everything to gain understanding!

Jesus was good at causing confusion to those around Him. He was always tearing down the commonly held beliefs of a righteous life and then rebuilding it to look much different than any would expect. Matt Chandler calls this approach of Jesus the process of “deconstructing religion and reconstructing the Kingdom”.

The way Jesus deconstructed and reconstructed commonly held wisdom, shook up the world around Him. It causes the vilest of sinners to turn around and the most righteous of priests to have murderous thoughts toward Him. Here are some of theses topsy-turvy things which have stuck out to me lately:

• You must lose your life to find it. (See Matthew 16:25
• I came to serve not be served. (See Matthew 20:28)
• You must be the last to be the first. (See Matthew 20:16)
• If you want to be great, you must become a servant. (See Matthew 20:26-27)
• He went to the sick and poor, the tax collector and the prostitute, and the otherwise outcast.
• His closest disciples were fishermen He picked up right out of the boat (picture a “Deadly Catch” crew.)
• I didn’t come to bring peace… But a sword. (See Matthew 10:24)
• Blessed are the poor, those who hunger now, those who weep, you when men hate you, exclude you, insult you, or reject you because of Jesus.
  • But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
  • Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.
  • Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
  • Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” (See Luke 6)
• Love your enemy, bless those who persecute you… (See Matthew 5:43-48)
• It is easier for a camel to be thread through a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom. (See Matthew 19:23-24)
• He was born to a virgin in a barn with only shepherds there to sing announce His birth.
• He spoke in parables we still struggle to fully grasp their meaning.
• At the last supper, He wanted to show His disciples the full extent of His love, so He washed their feet (See John 13). He rebuked Peter for trying to stop Him.
• Yet, He allowed a very sinful woman to wash His feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair as He was rebuking a Pharisee for judging her(See Luke 7).
• He also allowed another woman to anoint His feet with perfumed oil and rebuked a disciple who suggested the gesture was too extravagant (See John 12).
• He was beaten, mocked, spit at, tortured, lashed almost to the point of death, nailed to a wooden beam, and left to suffocate and/or bleed to death. He knew about it before hand and still allowed them to do it. After this was done to Him, He cried out in their defense, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” (that one absolutely blows me away!) Ultimately, He gave up His own life by His own will for us.
• Everyone thought that was the end and yet again, God makes us think again. After three days in the tomb, God bodily resurrected Jesus.
• God made Jesus authority over everything (See John 17).
• “He was pierced for our transgressions
  Crushed for our sin
  The punishment which brought us peace
  Was upon Him
  And by His wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

I’ve been sitting here for 20 minutes just letting these things soak into my soul. I simply cannot wrap myself around the vastness of this wisdom. It’s almost driving me crazy trying to grasp on to something. YET, there is something so deep, so ancient, and so true which compels me to keep trying.

I have nothing to say, no conclusion to draw which encompasses the depth, height, length, and width of God. It would take me a lifetime of writing to even come close. And that my friends, is what I intend to do, Lord willing!

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January 20, 2009 by Teri Frana.

10 years ago I was a successful business woman, quickly climbing up the corporate ladder. I was a “good” mom, daughter, and friend. My financial portfolio was strong for being a 32 year-old single parent. I attended church regularly, tithed faithfully, volunteered, prayed, and studied my Bible as any good Christian should. I’m pretty capable on my own power. I can keep a lot of things going at the same time and do it fairly well from the world’s perspective.

The funny thing is, I wasn’t fulfilled. I kept searching for MORE. I wasn’t sure what I wanted MORE of – but, I just wasn’t filled. I tried doing MORE; more Bible studies, more time with my children, more success at work, and more financial security. I even tried buying more earthly comforts. But, nothing brought the fulfillment which I knew I wanted but had never really experienced.

That was the year God started to “UNPLUG” me. He unplugged me from my corporate career. He unplugged me from financial security. He unplugged me from many of the earthly comforts I had. That was hard.

Then He started unplugging me from my independency and self-reliance. Then came the stripping down of pride and preconceived notions of being “good enough”. Then came more unplugging from my quest to be successful which entailed the ugliness of my pride, envy, and need to control. This type of unplugging has proved to be excruciating.

Don’t hear me say that I have “arrived” and no longer deal with this junk. NOPE – that is definitely not what I saying. However, I have been stripped down many layers in the last ten years. It makes it easier to deal with junk as it comes, but sometimes that makes the junk harder to see.

PREPARED?
As I look back over the unplugging, I realize everything that has gone well for me has prepared me for God’s calling on my life. I also realize how much God has used the things which haven’t gone right, the discomforts, the lack of control, and a lack of success – all of it has gone to strip me of what wasn’t necessary for the journey ahead.

Ten years later, I stand a few months shy of 42 years old and by the world’s standards I’m about as unsuccessful as you can be in America. I’m at the very beginning of the ministry God has called me to do when I am at the weakest by the world’s standards.

It makes no sense, but this is the point when God deems me prepared. Maybe in order to be prepared, you come to the end of what you can do on your own power? Maybe God needs to get us to the point when we have no choice but to let Him take over?

“How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” 1 Corinthians 15:36

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January 14, 2009 by Teri Frana.

Continued from previous post…

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5

I’ve been exploring the concept that the root of every sin is based in our distrust of God. I’ve come to believe there are two basic reasons which keep us from giving all of ourselves to God; fear and pride. We’ve already looked at fear in the last post. At the very core, we’re afraid we can’t trust God to come through for us as He’s promised.

Pride is the other outward sign of our distrust in God. Pride is when we tell God we know better than He does. We are prideful when we distrust God’s sovereignty.

God lays down only a few “rules” for humans like:

“And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17

These rules give us the boundaries of abundant life. God knows exactly what boundaries humans need because He knows what’s best. Why? He’s sovereign; perfect in righteousness and wholly just with ultimately authority.

We know pride is at the core of our sin when we start saying things like, “Hey wait a minute! I don’t agree with that rule. God Himself is going to have to prove that one to me before I believe it.” Or “That one is only meant for those super “Jesus freaks”, not for the normal people.” We may find ourselves making justifications, “Why, that was surely only meant for the culture thousands of years ago. That will never work in today’s society.” Or maybe, “God wants me to be happy, right? This makes me happy!”

Pride causes us to go against the will of God even when we know His will. Pride may also make us neglect to seek His will in case His will may go against what we really want to do. Pride keeps us from the abundant life when we say things like, “I like my life just the way it is, Lord. Don’t go messing around with it.”

It’s a good thing God knows us so well because He has the perfect antidotes to our sin. Just like the antidote for fear is perfect love, I believe the antidote for pride is perfect humility. Humility happens when we learn the hard way God is not a spiritual waiter there to take our order and to serve it up “just the way I like it”.  I call it the “loving swap on the back side.” It happens when God allows us to take a little fall and we fall into His loving arms.

When we get the proverbial rug pulled out from under us, try going to a knee rather than shaking a fist. You may be surprised at what you’ll find. From my experience, I can tell you - you will find MORE on your knee…

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