My Father in Heaven is Perfect - Latest Blog Entries

No More Condemnation!

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:11:00 -0500

When I was young I hated to go shopping at Kmart with my grandmother. It seems we spent hours wandering the aisles searching for the best deals, just waiting for the next blue-light special. My young eyes and mind and hands would start to wander toward the candy and toys. I’m not sure how the toy car found its way into my pocket, but it was fun to hold it and think about what I might do with it if it were mine. Once we had finally loaded the car down with everything from paper towels and peanut butter to grandpa’s favorite wife beater style t-shirts, I settled into the back seat and pulled the car out of my pocket. Suddenly, I was full of dread to discover that I was a thief!

Where does such condemnation come from anyway? I read Romans 8:1 this week:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2)

When I read this verse in the past, I automatically assumed that before I was “in Christ” I was condemned by God. Many of us have pictured God as an angry father glaring down at us with disapproval, ready to hurl thunderbolts from His throne whenever we sin. But Jesus gives us a different picture of God when He tells us that He and the Father are one. Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is “the exact representation of the Father.” The very words Jesus said to an adulterous woman were, “I don’t condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11). In John 12:47, Jesus says that He will not even condemn those who reject Him. It will be the words Jesus spoke and the life He lived that will bring condemnation. Matthew puts it this way: “By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned”( Matt 12:37).

It wasn’t Jesus or the Father who condemned me for stealing that toy car—my feelings of condemnation came from my own selfish choices and the knowledge that I was choosing wrong. Our own words and actions, contrasted with the example of the loving and non-condemning life of Jesus are what create this turmoil within our hearts, but it is God’s plan to heal and restore, not condemn and punish.

In Ezekiel 36:26 God explains that what we need is a heart transplant. He wants to take away our cold and stony hearts and make them warm and responsive. When we receive this new heart from God, the nagging voice of condemnation is silenced and replaced with a peace that can only come from the reassurance of knowing our Father’s everlasting love. We are given the choice to continue resisting His love and living with such condemnation or we can surrender our hearts into a full and satisfying relationship with God.

For people with guilty consciences like us, that’s really good news!

©2010 Raleigh Clough
www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Integrity vs. Disintegration

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 11:35:00 -0500

I’ve been spending the week contemplating Romans 7. Who hasn't experienced the dichotomy between the person we want to be and the things we too often find ourselves doing? How many nights have we gone to bed resolving to eat less, exercise more, and set aside more devotional time, family time, personal time with our spouse? The next morning all those sincere plans are so easily forgotten in the stress of the moment. So which is the real me? The one with the wishes to be better or the one that continues to subvert those plans? Some days it seems that my sense of identity is coming apart at the seams!

Maybe that’s the problem. I recently heard a definition of Integrity that spoke to my heart. It’s the process of integrating all our different parts – or personas – into a cohesive whole. Until we can do that we are literally dis-integrating… a frightening thought!

That’s where the good news about our heavenly Father makes such a difference. He already knows everything that we struggle with. He sees us not as the mess we are, but as the complete creation He knows we can become. In Psalm 139 David concludes his rant against his enemies with these words:

“God, examine me and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any bad thing in me.
Lead me on the road to everlasting life.” -Psalm 139:23-24

These words from the man “after God’s own heart” reveal a level of trust in the One who knows all about us and loves us anyway. When we learn to trust our Father enough to bring our WHOLE selves to Him, He promises to bring all the parts together into a cohesive whole. Perhaps that is part of the process described in Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

So this week when we are faced with yet another reminder of how far short we have fallen from our best intentions, let’s not become discouraged or gloss over the reality with rationalizations or excuses. Let’s bring our broken hearts to God and let Him bind up those wounds. He’s the only one with the vision, love and power to rebuild the shattered pieces into an integrated whole. We have a Father in heaven that we can trust with both the good and the bad in our hearts.

For broken children like us, that’s very good news!

©2010 Raleigh Clough
myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

The Wider Circle

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:40:00 -0500

“He drew a circle that shut me out—Heretic, rebel and thing to flout,
But love and I had the wit to win, We drew a circle that took him in.” -Edwin Markham

Most of us have been shunned before—whether it was for wearing the nerdy clothes in fifth grade or the silent treatment for disobeying our parents or the silence from so-called Christian friends when we disagree with their ideas.

I don’t think many of us have enjoyed being shunned, but we have all probably been on both ends of the shunning. How many of us have said, “Oh he or she is at the checkout counter, I’ll just wait five more minutes and avoid them?” What might seem like a way to avoid confrontation and stress could also be a form of self-exaltation. When we have a need to shun other people what does it really say about us? Are we trying to coerce others against their will and thus acting like spoiled children because they won’t conform?

When we are shunned, Jesus brings comfort and understanding because He has been shunned too. He also gives us hope because He came to show us that our God is a God of relationships and shunning has no place among friends. Jesus broke through all the shunning rules. He welcomed people that the church and society disapproved of. He forgave adulterers. He allowed a bleeding woman to touch Him. He touched lepers. He ate lunch with the crooked and despised. He even spoke to demons and healed demoniacs, but most of all—He forgave.

He forgave the crowd who had eaten His bread and accepted His help, but turned their backs on Him in His hour of pain. He forgave those who spat on His face and beat His back until He bled. He endured all of this to draw a bigger circle. To show us that our parents, pastors or neighbors might shun us—but God will NEVER shun us! We can choose to shut God out, but God will never shut us out!

Like Markham’s poem, God drew a circle that took us in!

"I'll make the country a place of peace—you'll be able to go to sleep at night without fear… I'll eliminate war…I'll give you my full attention: I'll make sure you prosper…I'll set up my residence in your neighborhood; I won't avoid or SHUN you; I'll stroll through your streets. I'll be your God; you'll be my people. I am GOD, your personal God who rescued you from Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I ripped off the harness of your slavery so that you can move about freely. Leviticus 26:10-12

For outcasts like us, that’s really good news!

©2010 Cherilyn Christen Clough
myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

The Gift of Loneliness

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:34:00 -0500

Have you ever been in the middle of a crowd and felt completely alone? For me, this is a common experience. While God designed us to be in relationship with Him and each other, the true intimacy of brotherhood is not common with today’s busy schedules and superficial associations. One of the feelings that most people work hard to avoid is loneliness, but if we would just take the time to listen to our lonely hearts, we might discover that loneliness is a gift—a doorway to our feelings that will ultimately lead us back into the deeper desires that our Creator gave to us.

To avoid loneliness, many of us fill our lives with people, tasks and clutter so that we never actually experience the beauty of solitude. Maybe if we allowed ourselves some time alone, we might actually hear the voice of the Spirit speaking truth to our inner pain. I have often found myself challenged to create and maintain a space of time for quiet introspection and prayer. Stopping my inner dialogue and allowing myself to just be present with God has been a painful, yet beautiful discovery.

It’s God’s desire for us to experience true intimacy with Him. Perhaps we were given loneliness as a gift to remind us of our deep need to be known just as we are and loved unconditionally. While we live under these constraints of time and space, we often cry out for the ultimate consummation of our relationship with our Father. But even now we are invited into spiritual union with the One who knows our every thought, counts the hairs on our head and carries our sorrows. If you ever doubt how intimately you are known, spend a few silent minutes with Psalm 139.

Our problem is not so much being known, as it is NOT knowing the One who knows us. According to Jesus we do not really live until we come to know God.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” –John 17:3

How incredible to comprehend that we are known and loved, that we are never really alone, and that if we will take the time to get to know Him, our Father offers an intimate relationship that never has to end!

For lonely people like us, that’s very good news!

myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Son Worshippers

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:20:00 -0500

It’s summer on the Oregon Coast! The fragrance of flowers wafts through the gentle breeze and the birds sing their songs with joy. Sunlight shimmers off of the water like a million crystals while the grass and berry vines have overflowed their boundaries. Inside the house, our two cats are competing for the shape of the sky light on our living room floor. The coastline has suddenly filled up with tourists and surfers calling themselves “sun worshippers” and considering everything the sun does for our bodies that seems like a pretty good idea.

There is scientific evidence that the sun changes everything. When sunlight hits the back of the retina, it causes our bodies to produce serotonin putting us in a better mood. Most of us have heard about the health benefits of the hormone we call vitamin D which is made when the sun hits our skin. Whether plants, animals or people—all living things on this earth crave the sun!

One early morning in Jerusalem, Jesus was talking with His friends when the sun rose and cast a golden glow over the temple walls. Jesus used this opportunity to explain that He is the light of the world. Of course Jesus was not saying that He is the sun itself, but just as there is no light more profound to our natural world than our physical sun, the light of Christ’s life is spiritually essential to our understanding of God’s character.

Many Christians will testify that the Son changes everything. Being afraid of God suddenly vanishes into respect for God when we look into the loving eyes of the Son. Selfishness, lies and hatred all disappear when the light of Christ’s love hits our lives. Just as life on this earth requires the physical sun, eternal life requires the Son. Just as the sun brings health and beauty to our physical world, the Son brings health and healing to our souls.

“But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.” Malachi 4:2

For Son worshipers like us, that’s really good news!

myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Get Out of Jail Free!

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:29:00 -0500

“Get out of jail free!” It’s a great card to have when we’re playing monopoly. Unfortunately, when I read of Jesus setting the prisoners free, I often thought of martyrs in a dungeon or convicts in prison. I’ve rarely imagined myself as the prisoner, yet that is exactly what I was until I recognized my own need and actually allowed Jesus to liberate me.

My particular issue was codependency and fear of what others thought of me. A few years ago I got upset when some of my friends didn’t like my ideas. One of my dearest friends told me that she refused to deal with my drama. It might have made me mad at the time, but I chose to listen to her and discovered that I grew up in a family where drama ruled. Listening to my friend allowed me to take a second look at my methods and now I choose to live drama free.

This in turn, opened the door to the fact that even though I was an adult, I was still acting co-dependently with my family of origin. For many years, I felt obligated to give them my money and tried to please my parents even when their plans were not mine and I am embarrassed to admit it, but I sometimes even went against my own conscience to please them. Matthew 18 explains how Jesus calls us to communicate with honesty and humility—not with the triangulation, hints and coercion that I had grown up with. At first it was hard to stand up for myself; I was afraid to hurt the very people who wanted to control my actions, but little by little, I found freedom in becoming true to God and myself instead of living up to the expectations of others. Unfortunately, before I discovered this I went through many years of depression because I did not feel free to be myself.

Whether your prison is one of expectations, drugs or depression--whatever your pain, Jesus knows all about it. That’s why He came--to set us free. We can start by realizing that God will never force us to conform. He wants us to make our own decisions whether good or bad. I found it helped my own emancipation process to make a list of all the things that I CAN do that are gifts from God. I love to review and add to my freedom list often. Here is a sample freedom list:

The freedom to have an opinion.
The freedom to disagree.
The freedom to say yes and no appropriately.
The freedom to express self through art or writing.
The freedom to forgive those who have hurt us.
The freedom to let go of petty frustrations.
The freedom to accept what Jesus has to offer.
The freedom to worship and praise God as our hearts lead us.
The freedom to become all that God has created each of us to be.

Jesus is so much better than that little guy on the “get out of jail free” card. He doesn’t just offer us freedom for a turn—but He is constantly working to free us again and again as long as we need His help. In the upside down world of God’s kingdom, bringing every thought into captivity with Christ actually sets us free. God doesn’t force us to conform, because His first rule is always freedom, but we can either sit in the dark or turn on the light. Jesus is the Light and He came to show us how to live in freedom.

“The Lord GOD has put his Spirit in me, because the LORD has appointed me to tell the good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort those whose hearts are broken, to tell the captives they are free, and to tell the prisoners they are released.” Isaiah 61:1

For prisoners like us, that’s really good news!

©2010 Cherilyn Christen Clough
www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Thoughts On Father's Day

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:05:00 -0500

Father’s Day has always brought up mixed emotions for me. I have no children of my own, so my focus turns naturally to my own father. When I was growing up, my earliest memories are of conflict and stress. My parents fought often, and my mother pulled me and my siblings into the arguments by tearing down my dad in front of us. I now recognize that her words stuck somewhere deep within my heart, and I began to see my dad as weak and unreasonable. When I would do something that displeased my mother, she would tell me, “Don’t be like your father!” I would shudder to think that I would turn out like the man I should have been looking up to. I am only now coming to realize how those words have affected me. Without thinking about it, I started distancing myself from my father and identifying with my mother’s point of view. I thought that any attempt by my dad to reach out and encourage, love or bond with me was an unwelcome, uncomfortable display of weakness or affection. I still have trouble with physical or emotional closeness with my immediate family, but God is healing that slowly.

The hole in my heart caused by my own rejection of my father’s affirmation was an open invitation for the enemy to plant seeds of self doubt, insecurity and inadequacy. I struggled for years to fill this hole with empty pursuits of my own devising. I was unable to come to God for the affirmation I needed because of my broken understanding of the father-son relationship. I felt like my earthly father had let me down, even though it was me who rejected him. And I felt like my Heavenly Father had let me down by providing an insufficient earthly father and abandoning me to my own coping mechanisms that could only lead me down the path to destruction.

A huge part of my healing process came from the realization that I had what John Eldredge calls the Father-Wound. My dad has now apologized to me for not standing up more to my mom and pulling me out of the craziness that was our home life. Because I never felt affirmed as a young man, I never felt permission to completely grow up into manhood. I felt afraid or unworthy to step into the identity that God was calling me into. By God’s grace, He showed me that He could be the Father that I never felt I had. He says in Psalm 68:5 that He is the Father to the fatherless, and that is what He became to me. As I spent time in His word, I realized that his thoughts to me were many and precious (Psalm 139:17), that He adopted me as His son (Ephesians 1:5), that He rejoices over me with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). Knowing God as my true Father has enabled me to step into my identity as His son. And the more I know of Him, the more I want to be like Him. The old cravings and emptiness have been replaced with overflowing love and peace that I want to share with everyone around me.

And the most awesome part of all is that God has restored my relationship with my dad here on earth as well! I have been blessed with an incredibly wise and sensitive step-mom who has helped to bridge the gap that had developed between us. We are becoming closer and sharing more now and learning as adults to understand and respect each other. It feels great to know… really know that my dad loves me… that he’s proud of me. And I know that I have God to thank for that. And even if we are not able to reconnect because of time, distance, or other reasons, we can all rest in the assurance that our Father in heaven loves us himself. We have Jesus’ word on that! (John 16:27)

So this Father’s Day I will call my dad and tell him how glad I am to have him for a father. And I will continue to thank my Heavenly Father for how He has been such a good Father to me and for how He has restored that very important relationship in my life. For anyone who has struggled with their relationship with their dad, I want to share this promise. In Malachi 4, we are told of the things that will happen before Jesus comes. One of the amazing things is the coming of the prophet Elijah (a type of Christ) who will do something incredible… “He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” (verse 6) Only God can work a miracle like that… I know, because I’ve lived it!

For fatherless sons and daughters like us, that’s very good news!

Unpopular, But Blessed

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:58:00 -0500

Jesus had a lot of friends who wanted to hang out with Him as long it was the popular thing to do. For starters who wouldn’t want to be healed? He also seemed to have a lot of people who liked the way He cooked--even though He probably fed them the equivalent of 1^st century sub sandwiches. If His wine was the best they had ever tasted, His fish sandwiches must have been pretty good too. Basically there was always a crowd around Jesus except for when He went off by Himself to pray to His Father early in the morning or late at night. Apparently, the late at night praying wore down His three best friends because they kept falling asleep. Perhaps it wasn’t until Jesus was actually arrested that it dawned on Peter, James and John that maybe they should have stayed up and kept praying with Him.

As the news of His arrest spread, it was suddenly unpopular to hang out with Jesus or even know Him. People who had once laughed over His meals or received His miraculous touch now hid in the bushes because they were afraid of what others might think of them. Even Peter, who once swore that he would be faithful to Jesus, now swore profanity hoping to deceive those who might think he had been with Jesus.

Today, we sometimes scoff at Peter and those cowardly disciples who ran and hid. But maybe we shouldn’t judge them so quickly until each one of us has had our own moment of truth. Has anyone else noticed that there is a revolution building in this world? Each one of us will eventually have to take a side between right and wrong. People are already beginning to polarize and the issues go way deeper than black and white arguments between conservative vs. liberal. Don’t be deceived, we are living in a war zone and God’s enemy wants to tear down anyone who is lifting up Jesus. When we are under his evil attacks, how will we react? Will we run like frightened disciples? Will we betray Christ when others disagree with what we believe by taking the politically correct path and watering down our convictions? Are we willing to stand for what we see in the life of Jesus even if it is unpopular?

We need faith in Jesus to live honestly and authentically, so maybe we need to start praying through the night. Sometimes, like Peter, we might even have to eat our own words, but if we can just look into the eyes of Jesus once again, we will see such a love that we don’t want to let go. When theology wars arise, when reputations are slandered, when so called Christian refuse to acknowledge us as their friends, we will discover something more precious to us than anything that we have ever known in the friendship of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus was on earth, He knew hard times and misunderstandings would come to all of His followers. He actually came to bring new ways of thinking into this world—heaven’s thoughts and heaven’s blessings on all who are willing to listen:

“When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.” Matthew 5:1-12 MSG

For blessed children like us, that’s really good news!

www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

LOST--Going to Heaven

Fri, 28 May 2010 12:36:00 -0500

My wife and I have had an ongoing disagreement for six years which finally ended this week. Whew! Just in time to celebrate 20 years of marriage next month! Hey, what good is a marriage if you can’t be yourself and disagree on a few things?

Our disagreement was over the TV show LOST. She watched a couple shows with me in the beginning, but after a few brutal murders and the shooting of a polar bear she decided it was too depressing and left the room. Occasionally, when there was a particularly interesting back story she would be drawn back in only to discover something else that she thought was creepy and we would end up in long discussions about the show instead of watching the show. For the most part, I spent five years enjoying it alone in my man cave until the final season where she came back to see how it was ending and in the end we basically agreed—but not like you might think.

I wasn’t bothered by the supernatural because I soon figured out that the mysteries of the island were simply a vehicle to tell the stories. The characters of LOST were victims of a plane crash on an island where they were driven by fear and survival of the fittest. No one seemed able to trust anyone and when people don’t trust anyone, they want control. Most of them attacked first then asked questions later. Each character struggled with a lonely, painful past, which was manifested by their anger and fear in the current story line, while the origin of their pain was chronicled in a back story. Throughout the show people who were once suspicious of each other switched sides and became friends, while friends ended up betraying each other.

There were a lot of parallels to real life in the characters of LOST. Everywhere we look in our world there are people who are just as broken and damaged as the characters of LOST. Even Christians are sometimes controlling and suspicious of other Christians, but not all Christians shoot with guns. Some assassinate another’s character with words by talking about their enemies instead of figuratively washing their feet. As brothers and sisters, it would do us good to remember that if we could only read each other’s back stories in real life, we might go easier on each other--even our own enemies. I think that is why Jesus told us to love our enemies.

When LOST was said and done, nearly everybody died—either heroically, or as a casualty. The fact that there seemed to be 100% mortality rate gave my wife lots to complain about—until the finale. Then the show ended with all the characters meeting in a church in some grand reunion. Lovers, father and son, husbands and wives, arch enemies—yep you got it, everyone was reunited. As the characters sat in the church, the viewer discovered it was a waiting room for heaven. In LOST it appears that everyone died and everyone went to heaven. While that contradicts our own personal belief, these fictional reunions caused us to reflect on our real life Christian hope. Someday soon all of us real-life, broken people will be reunited with everyone that we have ever known. When that happens, will we really care that they yelled at us in board meeting or took us off of their friends list because we had a difference in belief?

My wife had one last complaint about LOST—there was no Jesus in that heaven, so how could it be heaven without Jesus? Of course I have to agree with her on that one. As a matter of fact, Jesus said that to have eternal life is to KNOW GOD. How many times have we focused on preparing for heaven by doing things or not doing things? Yet Jesus Himself made it pretty clear that that eternal life is to know the Father. And in case we missed it, Jesus said that He and the Father are one. Unlike the characters of LOST, we have Jesus to calm our fears and guide us through the future. Unlike the characters in LOST, we are never alone and the more we get to know God, the better it gets.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

For “Losties” like us, that’s really good news!

©2010 Raleigh Clough

Thirsty?

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:45:00 -0500

The Bible tells the story of Moses and the children of Israel searching and searching for water. The animals were weak from dehydration; the people were dirty, exhausted and of course thirsty. Finally, when it seemed they were destined to collapse from the heat, God told Moses to strike a rock. Suddenly a river of water gushed from the rock. At first the water probably caused a dust cloud and then as the ground absorbed the water, there must have been a sense of restoration and calm as the moist coolness changed the earth. People began to dance and sing and drank and bathe and I imagine the little children were thrilled to splash each other.

Paul described Jesus as "The Rock from which the children of Israel drank in the wilderness." Jesus agreed with Him. One day, during a great feast commemorating the water from the rock, Jesus stood up and called out to everyone who could hear Him, that He was the water of life! And He didn't just offer this refreshment to the Jews, but to everyone who is thirsty. To the Samaritan women at the well, who had gone through relationship after relationship with no satisfaction in sight, Jesus offered water that would satisfy her thirsty soul. She instantly realized that He was talking about more than physical refreshment.

Water is that precious commodity which most of us living in a developed part of the world take for granted, but Jesus knew that even those of us who have an abundance of clean drinking water would still crave water for our souls. God knows exactly what we need and only He can fill it. Let's take some time this weekend to drink from the water of life that is Jesus. Then, just like the rock in the wilderness, we will have a river of life flowing out of us.

For thirsty people like us, that’s really good news!

©2010 Cherilyn Christen Clough
www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

When Life Quakes

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:23:00 -0500

It only takes just a few seconds for everything to change. When foundations are tested and found wanting, one earthquake, one phone call or one devastating moment can alter lives forever. When the perfect job ends or the perfect marriage dissolves or the perfect ministry implodes on itself--when our spiritual family is torn apart by cataclysmic events, where can we find our footing?

For the disciples on the Road to Emmaus (who were possibly a husband and wife) the very infrastructure of their faith in God was threatened. Jesus fed thousands of people, He healed village after village and even raised the dead, but when his miraculous ministry culminated in His death on the cross, it devastated His followers. They had given all they owned to His cause and for what? The money, the time, the invested emotions, the very hope of life seemed to be crushed out of them as they despondently walked home.

Even the words “He has risen” had little meaning for those who had not yet seen Him. Today, we know the end of the story. Jesus walked with them, they invited Him in and hope was restored when they finally recognized Him. But let’s just go back along that darkened road for a minute. As they walked in such great despair, they were walking where some of us are walking today. They felt darkness impeding their future and wondered how God could make something good come out of this terrible event. As they questioned their very beliefs about God, shaking their heads in wonder and confusion, they dried their tears and hung on by a wisp of faith. Even though they could not see the future and everything looked bleak, Jesus still walked beside them, just as He walks beside each of us today. When our dreams have been decimated, when we have nothing left to hold onto but our faith, Jesus will open up the scriptures for us too. Then our hearts will burn within us once again.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

For brokenhearted seekers like us, that’s really good news!

©2010 Cherilyn Christen Clough
www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Alone With the Body

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:02:00 -0500

Every week we receive emails from people who want to be part of the Body of Christ but feel so alone. Most Christians are familiar with the prayer of Jesus where He prayed for all of us to be one. And Paul reiterated that thought when he said:

“There should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” 1 Cor. 12:25.26

Jesus warned that some of us might have to walk away from our families and His reference to the “narrow way” certainly infers that not everyone is going to be united with us even when we are united with Him. Still, nothing seems more hurtful than being ignored by the body of Christ because we don’t agree with them. This alone is cause for many empty pews.

If you have ever felt alone at church or within the culture of the church, I would like to remind you that many lonely people have discovered peace through their friendship with God. The Old Testament is full of lonely people—Abraham was called away from his family, Jacob ran away from his family and Joseph was sold into slavery by his family. And it wasn’t just the men; Hannah felt alone and was ridiculed for not having children, Ruth lost her husband and left her people and Esther stood alone in preserving the future of her nation. Moses probably had forty years by himself in the wilderness and then spent another forty years feeling alone with a crowd. He would probably really understand the modern saying that it is lonely at the top.

Of course there were also lonely people in the New Testament. John exiled on the Isle of Patmos, Peter singing in prison and John the Baptist dying in prison. When I think of lonely people, I think of how Mary who was forgiven so much, finally discovered that she was not alone and yet she was still shunned by the church. To those at the party, she must have appeared strangely alone as she poured out an expensive bottle perfume on her only true friend. The gossip, the misunderstandings, the ostracism and of course the glares all continued to isolate her from society in spite of-- or rather as a result of her relationship with Jesus. But Mary didn’t care what others thought anymore because she was no longer lonely. Angels must’ve leaned in close to watch the view; a human being was finally giving Jesus the honor He deserved.

But the ultimate example of loneliness was yet to come. Jesus, who had been one with the Father from eternity, gave up His intimate connection to bear our sinful conditon. No human soul ever cried out with more loneliness than Jesus as He cried out, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Of course the Father never left Him, but the weight of sin’s curse that He bore distorted His reality-- just as our sins cause us to feel separated from God today.

So if you are feeling lonely, if the church has not met your needs, remember that the church throughout the centuries has not met many people’s needs, least of all our Savior’s. But Jesus faithfully bore our lonely, sinful condition so that we would never have to bare it alone because He knew it would kill us. That is part of the evidence that no matter what we are going through, we always have our friend Jesus who sticks closer to us than a brother.

And Jesus said, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.” John 14:23

“And lo, I am with you always, even to the end.” Matthew 28:20

For lonely people like us, that’s really good news!

www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Religious Parkour

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:02:00 -0600

A friend from college has a couple of sons who play an urban sport called Parkour. The participants scale walls and jump off buildings, running from point A to point B overcoming obstacles using only their body and whatever matter is in front of them. I saw a spoof of Parkour on the TV show the Office where one guy jumped from the roof straight into a dumpster, thus ending the game. The camera pans to Jim who leans in and says, “Parkour, the art of going from one point to another, in this case part A being insanity and part B being the hospital.”

Growing up in the church, I feel like I have been playing a game of religious Parkour for most of my life, where part A was coming to Christ, but part B seemed more like meeting the demands of judgmental Christians. I had to jump through hoops and fit through different boxes depending upon the local preferences for external behavior. I’ve been in groups where we had to wear dresses over our pants and a strictly vegan diet to churches where everybody has to watch a certain set of DVDs and agree with the current conspiracy theory to be accepted. As a matter of fact I have often felt like the body of Christ resembled the “accuser of the brethren”(Rev. 12:10) more than the gracious Savior I have come to know. I have often wondered with Ghandi, “Why are Christ’s followers so unlike their Christ?”

I am now officially finished with avoiding the judgment of other Christians. Finally, halfway through my life I have discovered that the only person I want to please is Jesus Christ. Jesus had a way of telling it like it is without judging people. As a matter of fact Jesus said “I will not judge those who hear me but don’t obey me, for I have come to save the world and not to judge it” (John 12:47) What? I thought Jesus was the Judge? Then Jesus said that the Father judges no one. (John 5:22-24) No criticism comes from the heart of God when we make mistakes. Remember it was Jesus who said “Neither do I condemn you.”(John 8:11)

So if Jesus and the Father judge NO ONE, what is the judgment? “And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. John 3:19-21

It appears that the judgment is simply the verdict of how we respond to the Light of Christ. The judgment is the culmination of the life choices we are making today. As one of my favorite speakers often says, “You can’t avoid the truth, you can only postpone the day you deal with it.”* Today is the day of our salvation. Jesus wants to help us come into the light through His grace. The good news is that we don’t have to wear ourselves out anymore by jumping through boxes and man-made hurdles—we can simply walk with God--that is all that God requires.

For exhausted people like us, that’s really good news!

www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

*Quote from Dr. Tim Jennings www.comeandreason.com

God Above All gods

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:28:00 -0600

When I was a kid, I was scared of God. It started with what seemed like a creepy Bible story about God sending plagues on the Egyptians for not letting His people go. The message was clear; do whatever God wants or you will wake up with blood in your water bottle, frogs in your bread and no more sunshine. Of course, if you really insist on going your own way, you will end up dead. Not a lot to celebrate with a God like that.

The devil wants us to believe that God chose these plagues at random with the intent to torment, but when I took an art history class, I began to see it differently. A little study of the Egyptian gods explains the rest of the story.

I recently ran across a blog by Lee Andrew Henderson: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2041953/why_did_god_send_frogs_locusts_boils.html?cat=34

He says it better than I could say it myself:

“Why Did God Send the Ten Plagues?
At the time the Egyptians did not worship the one God that Moses believed in. Instead the Egyptians had many gods that they worshiped. There were gods of the sky, gods of the waters, gods for just about everything. Each one of the ten plagues that God sent through Moses were not just random plagues. Each of the ten plagues were specifically designed to defy some of the Egyptian gods.

Why Did God Send the Plague of Blood?
Two of the Egyptian gods were Khnum and Hopi. Khnum was the guardian of the Nile and Hopi was the spirit of the Nile. When God turns the Nile River into blood it is a sign that God is more powerful than Khnum or Hopi.

Why Did God Send the Plague of Frogs?
The Egyptians also worshiped a god of resurrection named Heqt. Heqt was believed to take the form of a frog. The plague of Frogs was a way of saying that God could control any form of frog.

Why Did God Send the Plague on Cattle?
Apis was the symbol of fertility and took the form of a bull god. The plague on the cattle was a sign that even God could strike down any cattle, even a bull god.

Why Did God Send the Plague of Boils?
The Egyptians also worshiped Imhotep, the god of medicine. When boils appeared on the people of Egypt and not even Imhotep can cure them it was a sign that God was more powerful.

Why Did God Send the Plague of Hail?
The plague of hail was sent to defy the god of Nut. Nut was the sky goddess and normally would be the one to control the weather.

Why Did God Send the Plague of Locusts?
Seth was the Egyptian god that was supposed to be the protector of the crops. The locusts destroyed crops so the plague of locusts was a way to defy Seth.

Why Did God Send the Plague of Darkness?
The Egyptians had many sun gods. Four of the Egyptian sun gods were Re, Aten, Atum and Hours. The plague of darkness was to challenge the sun gods.

Why Did God Send the Plague of the Firstborn? Osiris was the Egyptian god that was considered the giver of life. Osiris supposedly has the ability to give people to life but was unable to stop every firstborn from being killed.” - Lee Andrew Henderson

So there you have it, God always does everything with a purpose. As a matter of fact, the Bible actually spells it out for us. God told Moses WHY He was sending the plagues:

“I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt, I am the LORD.” Exodus 12:12

God wasn’t seeking to torment people; He was establishing His Sovereignty in the eyes of the Egyptians and the Children of Israel who had already begun to worship false gods. He was actually using emergency stops to wake them up and save their lives. There is no God like our God!

For scared children like us, that is really good news!

-Cherilyn Christen Clough

www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Jesus Came NOT to Condemn

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:06:00 -0600

When Tobin was nine years old, his mother was doing laundry at the laundry mat. He had taken a dime out of the ash tray in the car. This angered his mother so she called him a thief. Then she took out her cell phone and started calling up members of the family, telling each of them that Tobin was a thief. After several calls Tobin’s eyes began to fill with tears. He glanced nervously at the woman who was pulling her laundry out of a nearby washer and complained to his father. “Mom’s telling everyone that I am a thief.”

The stranger’s heart was breaking for Tobin. She kept listening to the verbal tirade hoping it would stop. Eventually, the mother pointed to Tobin and called out to the stranger, “Have you met my son, the thief?” The stranger set aside her wet towels and walked over to the abusive mother. Calmly, she confronted her face to face, saying, “No, I don’t see a thief at all. I see an innocent child who has borrowed a dime.” The mother’s voice was finally silent, while the father nodded in agreement. As Tobin smiled up into the kind face of the stranger, he sighed with relief.

We shudder to think of such an unloving parent, yet many people still think that is how God treats sinners. The Bible calls Satan “the accuser of the brethren” for a reason; whenever we sin, the devil (like an abusive mother) taunts us and points out our sins. If the devil has a habit of doing something, we can usually be assured that God’s way is the exact opposite. The life of Jesus proves this true by showing us how that God actually treats sinners. Peter and Judas, both were about to betray Jesus and He knew it. As Jesus gently washed the dirt off of their feet, He lovingly warned them of what they were about to do, but He did not condemn them. Regardless of His warning, both of them betrayed Him anyway. It was not their sin that determined their future, but rather the quality of their relationship with Jesus. Judas, not trusting Jesus, bore his own sins and hung himself in shame. Peter, who also felt ashamed, trusted Jesus to carry the burden of his sins and came back to be forgiven.

Even God’s friends betray Him sometimes. The issue is not about what we have done, but rather do we (like Peter) trust Jesus enough to come back to Him? If the devil keeps bringing up your sins, think about how Jesus treated Peter and remember His words to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.”

For Benedict Arnolds like us, that’s really good news!

www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Everlasting Love

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:59:00 -0600

From that first Valentine in kindergarten, our hopes were raised that someone might possibly love us. Throughout the following years of break ups and disappointments and sometimes even marriages that fail, we often become disillusioned that there even is such a thing as love and settle for numbing out with our addictions instead. When no one else seems to care, we turn to them for comfort, not realizing that whatever enslaves or controls us can never truly love us. We say to ourselves that if we can just find one person who really loves us, we will finally know we are okay. We really are okay and we have actually been loved all along, but our problem is that we do not trust God.

The biggest reason for this is a misunderstanding of God’s character. For four thousand years, God tried to convey His love to the human race in many different ways. He took out all the gods of Egypt so that people could realize that He alone was the one who could help them. (Exodus 12:12). Other times, God allowed some people to lose their temporary lives in order to protect others from losing eternal life. By doing things that His enemy could misconstrue and twist as a lack of love, God took the rap for many sad events often scaring the very people He was trying woo. When we chose to view God’s character through Jesus, we can reframe the Old Testament events and lose our fear as we come to understand God. We can realize that the flood is not an example of God punishing, but rather God patiently allowing people to live out their evil ways until only one man was left speaking with Him. Even God’s chosen people, the ones who were to represent Him to the world, misconstrued His character so badly, that they often portrayed God to be more like His enemy, than the loving God that He truly is. As all the distortions and misunderstandings about Him culminated, God finally became human so that we could get a close up of what He’s really like.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul gave us a description of love, since God Himself is the source of all love (1 John 4:16), this is a description of God Himself:

God is patient, God is kind, God envies no one, God does not boast, God is not proud. God is not rude, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, God always trusts, God always hopes, God always perseveres. God never fails.

Any contradictory picture of God is made up of lies from the devil who wants to separate us from God’s love by spreading lies about Him. But Jesus, who is the exact representation of the Father (Heb. 1:3) came to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8). Even while we were blatantly sinning, God still loved us and sent Jesus to let us know that God is indeed love. (2 Corinthians 5:19). Jesus is God incarnate and God is the epitome of love!

So if you are feeling lonely or low on love this holiday, remember there is someone that we can always trust Who really love us with an unconditional love. Even when it seems like no one else cares, we have a friend that sticks closer than a brother or even a lover. Calling out to us, God says:

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

For broken-hearted lovers like us, that is really good news!

Cherilyn Christen Clough

www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Looking for a Solid Foothold

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:37:00 -0600

Being a natural loner at heart, a weekend of intense authentic fellowship left me yearning for some alone time with God. Since we were in a deep valley in the mountains, the most logical place to go for that was up. Waking before dawn, I climbed back up the winding road that descended to our camp. When I reached the top, I still didn’t have the view I wanted, so I started to climb up the remaining couple hundred feet to the top of the nearest hill. This is where things got interesting.

The steep hillside was covered in loose shale, and for every step I took forward it seemed I slid two or three back. I strained to reach branches and roots to hold onto any bit of progress I made. And then my eyes spotted something that made all the difference. It would be an exaggeration to call it a path. It was more like a succession of tiny foot and hand holds snaking across the slope. It must have been created by deer or goats, but that morning it seemed to be just for me. With solid rock beneath my feet, I soon found myself standing on top of the peak just in time to watch the sunrise and have that worship time my heart desired.

I pulled my Bible out of my pocket and read our verse of focus for that weekend. Psalm 23 looked a little different in the small Bible I had borrowed for the plane trip. Yet something in the wording this time caught my heart in a way I had never perceived it before. “He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.” (verse 3, NLT) I was still catching my breath from my steep struggle up the loose rockslide and the welcome discovery of a “right path” had saved me from wasted efforts and possible injury.

Waves of gratitude washed over me as I realized that God had been guiding me to right paths my whole life. All the pain and grief I had experienced in the past had been the results of my wandering away from the path He had created for me. As far off course and into the rough as I had found myself at times, He had faithfully and lovingly pursued me and guided me back to safety. I suddenly realized that any progress I had made in my life had not been my own doing. It was all God’s effort, love and guidance that had brought me this far. The only thing I have left to live for is bringing honor to His name! Our God of love will go to any length to find us and guide us back to the solid ground of His path.

For wandering children like us, that’s very good news!

Raleigh Clough

Does God Hate Haiti?

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:40:00 -0600

That would be the question. If God is really responsible for this earthquake, then why would He allow all those innocent little children to die? According to one popular Christian preacher, God sent this earthquake as a judgment because some Haitians made a pact with the devil in 1791. Of course, no one who made that pact is alive today. Sadly, this version of God makes God out to be the devil because He is supposedly fulfilling a voodoo curse.

So how can we know that God did NOT do this?

For starters, Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt. 6:10) This seems to indicate that Jesus knew that God’s will was NOT being done on earth.

We also know from the story of the man who was born blind that Jesus taught that misfortune does not come from the hand of God as a punishment. (John 9:2-3)

Sin has affected our entire world; as a result, time and chance happen to all. (Eccl. 9:11) God, by giving freedom of choice to both men and angels, has allowed Satan’s evil sin experiment to run its course. The Psalmist says the heavens are God’s, but the earth He has given to the sons of men. (Psalm 115:16)

But the greatest proof that God did not do this is because it is not in His character. How do we know God’s character? We can see it in the life of Jesus who is the EXACT representation of the Father. (Heb. 1:3) When Jesus was walking with His disciples one day, some of them thought they should bring fired down from heaven to punish someone. We can see the character of God in Jesus’ reply: “You do not know what spirit you are from.” (Luke 9:53-55)

The Bible tells us that God is love. (1 John 4:16) The Bible describes love in 1 Corinthians 13. One of the attributes of love includes “keeping no record of wrongs.” So if God is really love, as the Bible states, then He must not be punishing people in 2010 for something that was done by someone else in 1791.

These words of Jesus Himself show us what God’s character is truly like:

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you,and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven;
for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:44-45

There is still a war going on between God and Satan over the inhabitants of this earth and we are not always able to see what is happening. Job’s life was all but destroyed--not by God, but by Satan. Yet, Job’s friends thought Job was being punished by God and only at the end of the book do they finally realize the truth.

Satan is still working like a roaring lion to destroy lives today. He uses the disasters he creates to distort God’s character to people everywhere. If sinners fear that God is out to revenge them, then they will never come to Jesus for healing.

Revelation describes “four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." (Revelation 7:1-3)

Even when disaster strikes, the God of love, who counts every hair, sees each sparrow fall and stores all of our tears in a bottle, most certainly takes into account every life lost in every disaster. I personally believe that no one ever dies until God has either sealed them for Himself or let them go depending upon their own choices.

As terrible as these events are, every human life will suffer and die as the result of sin-- unless we live to see Jesus come. While our temporary lives are rough on this earth, someday God has promised to wipe away all of our tears forever. (Rev. 21:2-4)

Jesus knew life would be rough in this sinful world, so He gave us His promise:

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

I’d like to leave you with some words from one of my favorite authors:

The enemy of good, blinded the minds of men,
so that they looked upon God with fear;
they thought of Him as severe and unforgiving.
Satan led men to conceive of God
as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice,--
one who is a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor.
He pictured the Creator as a being
who is watching with jealous eye
to discern the errors and mistakes of men,
that He may visit judgments upon them.
It was to remove this dark shadow,
by revealing to the world the infinite love of God,
that Jesus came to live among men.

White, Steps to Christ, p. 11

www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

Happy Freedom Year!

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:48:00 -0600

Jenna wanted to lose weight and she wished she could give her will over to someone to make the tough choices for her. When she finally met a guy who monitored her food intake and told her when and how to exercise, Jenna thought she would lose weight, but she actually began to gain weight. Her new boyfriend couldn’t understand why--after all, he woke her up and took her to the gym. When she wanted to eat a piece of her son’s birthday cake, he took the cake away and ate it himself. Jenna began to resent her boyfriend and began to eat whatever she wanted when he was not around. Finally, when he began to control which kind of salad she could eat, Jenna had enough. Breaking up with him was exhilarating because she’d finally discovered that the true secret to weight loss was self-governance.

One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control which indicates that being in harmony with God should empower us to self-govern. Of course many of us have been enslaved to many different things in this imperfect world. But it is always God’s will that we think and decide for ourselves. Many people think of self control as merely avoiding bad habits. God intends more for us. While many people think that God wants us to give our wills to Him and let God do our thinking for us, but that actually goes against the creation story. God didn’t stop Adam and Eve from thinking for themselves--even when they thought wrong. Throughout history, God has allowed people to make their own wrong choices. God longs for us to listen and learn from Him how to think healthfully, so we can make our own healthy choices. Throughout the life of Jesus we see examples of a man who went against popular tradition and thought for Himself. Through Jesus, we understand the God who calls out, “Come, let us reason together?”

We all hope that this year will be different than last year. We want to get rid of whatever is controlling us and experience complete freedom in the New Year. While many of us want to squelch our dependence on some substance or people who have been abusive to us, the challenge lies not in giving up our thinking capacity, but rather in filling our minds with God’s Word. Jesus described what would happen to addicts of every kind if they did not fill their minds with God:

"When a defiling evil spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn't find anyone, it says, 'I'll go back to my old haunt.' On return it finds the person spotlessly clean, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse off than if he'd never gotten cleaned up in the first place.

"That's what this generation is like: You may think you have cleaned out the junk from your lives and gotten ready for God, but you weren't hospitable to my kingdom message, and now all the devils are moving back in."
-Matthew 12:43-45

It’s the beginning of a new decade, let’s fill our minds with Jesus and let His Truth chase off the rest of our captors! Happy Freedom Year!

The Risky Behavior of God

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:55:00 -0600

As the dawn broke on His first birthday morning, I wonder what it was like. With Baby Jesus sleeping peacefully in their manger, I wonder if the animals munching on the hay around Him sensed anything different. I wonder if they felt the presence of their Creator. I wonder if they knew that He Who is our Bread of life had always been feeding them from His hand.

I wonder if Joseph in counting his money that morning, wondered how he would feed another mouth—one that was not his and one that he had never asked for, never realizing that this baby would feed thousands with basically nothing. I wondered if Joseph just sat still for awhile and watched mother and child sleep while he marveled that his precious Mary was the mother of the promised Deliverer.

As the shopkeepers opened their doors and swept off their walks, I wonder if they sensed that something extra- ordinary had happened. I wonder if they felt a sense of awe and peace in the air. I wonder if the shepherds were still awake talking about the how their hearts burned within them to hear the angels sing and see the King of Heaven.

Most of all I wonder what baby Jesus thought as He opened His eyes and saw His mother’s smile and heard the animal sounds. As He cried out for food I wonder if He had any idea that He was the Creator. It seems a pretty risky thing for a God to do—to make Himself so small and so unaware as a baby that He would have to learn Who He was in order to save us. Pretty risky indeed!