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Cracking the Door to 2013

Lisa Spencer3 Comments

door_ajarHave you ever entered a room where you flung the door open? No doubt, there is an enthusiasm and hopeful anticipation about what is beyond that door. We fling the door open because we are anxious to get there, most likely because there is something positive worth all the energy.

Conversely, cracking the door portrays a hesitancy and caution. Uncertainty of expectations produces a slow glimpse. Maybe there’s something there but not knowing what may be in store. Just a little peak to see if it’s worth opening to enter. Slow. Uncertain. Cautious. Questioning.

As 2012 draws to a close, I find myself cracking the door to 2013. Well of course I have no control over the entrance because whether I like it or not, the new year will begin. There’s nothing magical about the flip of a calendar. But each new year does bring with it hope – hope for change, hope for something better, hope for answered prayers.

I would love to swing the door open and embrace the new year. But as I reflect back over the past year, the reflection causes the year to bleed into the past few years – 4 to be exact since I moved to Dallas to go to seminary. It’s been a trying time of exposing, pruning, purging and barrenness. Trying beyond my wildest imagination. It’s exposed areas of my life where I long for restoration and change. A number of prayers, personal prayers have gone unanswered. The disappointment has been discouraging at times and breeds caution because disappointment has a way of strangling hope and tempering expectation. I don’t know if that’s good or bad but it is what it is. Continue reading →

Advent Reflection: When God Doesn’t Fix It

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NativitySceneSermon today was on Luke 1:26-33, where the angel appears to Mary regarding the announcement of Jesus’ birth. I was particularly struck by this section of it;

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. (Luke 1:31-33).

This is what the prophets foretold, was it not? That the messiah would come and fix everything. Why? Israel had been in chaos then settled back into a Gentile run land, with no king and fading hope. But YET, here was the hope, the promised one, the eternal king who would reign forever. Hope had arrived in a manger.

And this is what the apostles were eager to see just before Jesus’ ascension, wasn’t it? He came down from heaven, revealed the fulness of the Godhead, put a permanent stamp on God’s eternal promises and set forth a new paradigm. He spoke of the new covenant through his blood and the promise of the Holy Spirit. They saw him die a brutal death but walk with him after his resurrection. But they just had to know, “Lord, is it at this time, you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Why did they have to ask that? The answer is obvious. The king had come and it was a new day, filled with new things for God’s people. But something still wasn’t fixed. Continue reading →

An Advent Reflection: God’s Perfect Timing

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NativitySceneOne thing I’ve come to embrace in my Christian journey is the value of tradition. Having spent my earlier Christian years in separatist and fundamentalistic circles, then later in Charismatic circles there was this common rejection of tradition on various levels. Well tradition is important because it grounds us in something sure. It creates a continuity with the past and gives support to what the church has always believed. The more the past is rejected in favor of something new, the more likely we are to get things askew.

And what greater time to reflect on the Christian faith than the beginning of the advent season. The intersection of deity and humanity, in the form of the incarnation. The promised king, the awaited messiah, the one the prophets proclaimed who would rescue and redeem.

But I also consider the setting and timing. Israel waited so long it seemed like hope would have dimmed. Under Roman rule, the relinquishment of their land to Gentile authority, the loss of a reigning king and the only relief in found in temple teaching and law obedience. Was this the way it was supposed to go? I bet many asked this question. Where was the deliverer who would set everything right and re-establish promises that have faded in the backdrop of waiting? Continue reading →

Walking the Tightrope of Sovereignty and Hope

Lisa Spencer5 Comments

I spent many years as a Charismatic and Word of Faith adherent. It was pretty common to embrace the notion of speaking life over circumstances (as if God was obligated to obey that) and believing that if one just stood on faith circumstances would work out in their favor. Add to that, being convinced that whatever subjective and often arbitrary “voice of God” led to the right to believe for certain outcomes. Well there are certainly concerns regarding that position, primarily that  these beliefs and practices undermine the sovereignty of God. The idea that we can have what we say in accordance with subjective leadings, smacks of human initiated and self-focused rights that presumes works on behalf of our bidding.

A survey of all 66 books of the bible should shout in our face that all request and desires are subject to the will of God.  Depending on what view of sovereignty you ascribe to, scripture is understood to deem God in ultimate control of his purposes being carried since he “works all things according to the council of His will.” (Ephesians 1:11).  To think that our prayers, desires and verbal proclamations can override what God intends is myopic at least and irreverent at worse.

I am of the conviction that everything happens by God’s sovereign choice, including election of His people (how we are called into God’s family). Yet on the other hand, I wonder if our deep awe and respect for God’s sovereignty can temper our expectations to irrelevancy that is concerned with very little beyond being accepted in the family of God.  Don’t get me wrong, we should be grateful for a deep and abiding grace that can turn an enemy of God into His beloved child and friend.  Regardless of your view of election, the fact is it had to begin with an extension of His grace made available to those who did not deserve it. It should produce a reverent fear that puts our humanity, with all of its wants and needs in perspective. Continue reading →

Why Marriage?

Lisa Spencer3 Comments

Despite being married before, I have never experienced a healthy, godly, mutually loving partnership with Christ at the center. Widowed since 2004, my entrance into Dallas and seminary in 2008 was met with an intense desire for join forces with one whom shared the same gospel-centered passions and understood what it meant to love another person.

Now for those who don’t know the full extent of my personal history, there can only be shallow presuppositions concerning this desire.  To be sure, there are personal reasons namely to experience human love. In a way, it is a restoration of sorts.

But most importantly, when I consider Ephesians 5:22-33, I see marriage as a reflection of Christ and his church. A good, strong partnership in the Lord is meant to point to Christ and demonstrate the gospel in action. I can’t help but see this as a marvelously, beautiful thing.

I came across this post today What is Unique about Marriage that Makes it a Forum Ministry. I think Paul Tripp really summed up my thoughts on the subject well;

When you think of the marriage between a man and a woman who are believers as being a forum for great commission ministry there are a couple things that come to mind. If you have these two sinners who by nature are self sovereigns who have little interest in doing anything in life, but building their own kingdom…And if they’re now living in a relationship of real unity, real love, willing self sacrifice, you’re seeing the Kingdom come. It has come in this marriage. There are few places where you can better invite people in to see the King at work and see how His Kingdom operates more than a marriage, because typically you don’t have unity, understanding and love.

It’s why I wrote here why I do not want a “good” man but a gospel centered man who is not concerned with building up his own kingdom. Sure there are the realities of two imperfect people co-existing and sorting through differences. But a kingdom focus points to a greater reality.

Still praying. Lord willing