Breaking Out of Spiritual Poverty

So in our last post we began talking about the abundant resource of God's grace and the ways in which we use it to enter into a redeemed life, now here on earth...before we die.  We talked about grace being two-fold.  It is a means of forgiveness and an abundant resource for living a life characterized by Christ.




Paul says in Romans 6:20

But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way!

This means we might need to consider how we may be returning to our personal places of spiritual poverty and how we may be guarding the door to our internal slum. To live under the first grace (forgiveness of sins) and not the second grace (abundant resources from heaven) is just like getting a job and returning to the slums (see the previous posts)  - we have the resources but make little or no use of them, or we see opportunity for help but we don't trust it enough to let it in.  We are impoverished by sin and bound to its sway.   I mean after all, “We are only human - right?” We can't help ourselves!  ...or can we?


Could it be that we lack a vision for anything better and simply choose not to give holiness much effort?  If grace is in scarce supply who can blame us?  …But it isn't...When we seek to be like Jesus without, well..JESUS, then it becomes a very frustrating, discouraging, laborious process.  And sadly, many Christian circles, though well intended, have done just that.  Which is why many of you, like me, have at times resorted to giving up and resigning to the fact that we are imperfect people (true) and live at the mercy of a perfect God (also true), and if we're lucky He might like us. 

IF we are uncertain if God likes us or not, then it stands to reason we would guard the door to our heart (our inward "slum").  We hide our sin or avoid spiritual conversations or feedback because we aren't sure it's safe.  We may see an opportunity for restoration on the horizon but it feels threatening so we say, “Keep out!” Sometimes we can remain stuck in a mindset that does not have room for grace which means there’s isn't any room for love either….scarcity (see previous post)

 The life we are invited into is more than a botched collection of years filled with eraser marks era-tagged with forgiveness.   The life we are called into is HIS – Christ CAME.  He dared to darken the door of our impoverished ways, make a home among the sewage with us, and offered us a way out.  We are loved out of the slums.  

 And over time, as we make His love our new home, we are able to live our life in responsive obedience to Him.  We become His conduit for love towards others.  It often requires His grace-fuel to energize us into action. But, surprisingly, it is not burdensome.  We discover the unforced rhythms of grace as we watch Christ and begin to work with Him and find ourselves yoked to the one whose ways are not without struggle but whose presence makes the journey easy and light.  This, my friends, is the gospel!  We are forever, and always WITH him and He is forever and always WITH us.  God is forever wooing us out of our impoverished ways and into the riches of His good and loving Kingdom...because He likes us...Abundance!

SO here are a few questions (and it is as much for me as it is for anyone else):

What areas of your life are still impoverished?

How might you be operating from a viewpoint of scarcity instead of abundance?

How might you be returning to the slums? 

In what way do you desire to experience God’s love or restoration right where you are?

AND… here’s a tough one…. How might you be guarding the slums of your heart, preventing that love and restoration from coming in?


What are some things you can do to make some changes today?

Pot-Stirring

Now God, don’t hold out on me,
    don’t hold back your passion.
Your love and truth
    are all that keeps me together.
When troubles ganged up on me,
    a mob of sins past counting,
I was so swamped by guilt
    I couldn’t see my way clear.
More guilt in my heart than hair on my head,
    so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.

….Soften up, God, and intervene. 

Ps 40:12-13

A continuation of the previous posts beginning with "Burned out"

When grapes are crushed and the juices collected, the process of fermentation begins.  There are three important factors in fermentation: temperature, speed, and oxygen.  Other factors to consider are things like sugar, yeast, and stirring.  You may be thinking, “OK, so what does this have to do with soul formation?”  Well, it struck me how metaphoric this is to our own journey.

One thing about heat and speed, they strain and disrupt things!  Heat has a way of bringing things to a boil sometimes and It can be tempting to hop out of a “boiling pot”  of circumstances.  However, wine ferments into something good as wine makers consider the speed and temperature of fermentation. Staying in the process and letting it happen, becomes of utmost importance.  Staying in the formation process is of utmost importance too...buts its hard! As I stayed in the heart space of transformation, often I wanted to hurry it along.  Yet God kept reminding me of the song “Still” (previously posted).  The words have become my breath prayer…”Father you are King over the earth. I will be still and know you are God”.   I was learning to trust the “Wine maker”.

About this time I was preparing to speak to a group of women.  I remember thinking, “Lord, what in the world do I have to offer?  I have no business representing you right now!”  The speaking topic was "Jesus as the High Priest" during my research, I was reminded of the tabernacle and how the altar of sacrifice was set up – with horns on each corner.  The details had seemed incidental until then, but that morning, as I sat with God in preparation, those horns were all I could see.  My heart cried, “OH thank God for those horns!  No wonder they are there!  If it were not for those corners anchoring me down right now, I would hop off this place of sacrifice and be all the more glad!”...but not really.  I had reached a place where I could no longer enjoy the old wineskins that I once inhabited.  In fact nothing felt comfortable at the moment.  I couldn't go back and I did not see well enough to go forward; staying put seemed my only option.  Jesus, now the Great High Priest, stayed put too.  He never backed away from the cross.  He stayed through horrific circumstances and mockery.  HE. STAYED.  And because he stayed, his life is now available to us. The Sacrificial Lamb, was becoming my strength…in a weird way, “staying” was the only witness or testimony I had and that was just fine. 

However, circumstances were evoking reactions in me much like yeast interacts with sugars in the grape juice as it ferments.  Sin in me encountered sin in others and we crashed! Like little whirlwinds, it created stirs everywhere.  As the energy rose from the disruptions, my "fermentation" continued with involuntary response. As I worked to address my heart-the place from which these broken responses came-God began to change me.  This always takes longer than desired.  God has a much different timetable than we do and for good reason. 

 Sometimes wine makers try and speed up the process of fermentation by adding sugar to the wine. I wanted to add “sugars” to this soul-process too.  Things like blame sounded attractive because it would take the pressure off me and allow me to deflect the issue onto someone else.  At times I wanted to add a little “sugar coating” to what I saw in myself by giving it a nice spin of excuses or explanations.  The problem is that when sugar is added to fermentation it actually ends up slowing down the process because it can suspend what is already naturally occurring, then,  when the wine is poured and tasted, the flavors are "off".  When we choose to deflect or excuse our condition we slow down and suspend God’s formative work in us causing our "soul flavors" to be off ...perhaps becoming a little sour or bitter.  Staying in it and allowing the process to take place at the right temp and speed would allow for balanced soul-flavors - flavors that offer charitable compassion towards our self and others.   That's when we can "Taste and see that the Lord is good!"

So I began to name and own what was real.  It was hard and still is, but shackles fell as I did it.  I was not yet free but something was loosening up and as I encountered God's grace, the air didn't seem so thick around me.  Living with honesty became the oxygen that I needed to stay in the process…and I was beginning to wonder if this place on the altar was right and good after all….maybe.