Monthly Archives: March 2019

Thresholds

DSC_1219By Judy Villanueva

I stand at the door and knock. Whoever hears my voice and opens the door I will come in to him and will dine with Him and he with me. (Rev. 3:20)

A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” (John 5:5-8)

I hate surprises. I read the end of books first and fast forward movies to relieve the pressure of not knowing what will happen next.  I have a picture of me standing at the threshold of a patio full of friends who had gathered to surprise me on my 30th birthday.  As I approached the doorway I could hear excited whispers and immediately clued in to what was coming. If I’d had time to think about it I might have turned around but momentum pushed me forward and through the threshold!   There, I was welcomed by the joy of people who loved me. I remember lots of doorways over the years, some happy and some sad, — some I ran through and others I felt dragged through.  Each one invited me to enter, even though I never knew quite what would happen next. “Come live life with Me!” Jesus keeps saying. “I am knocking. Open the door.”

Thresholds.  They are doorways of invitation or at least, that is the way I have come to view them.  We relate most readily to the ones that physically, emotionally or relationally initiate change in our lives like getting married, having a baby, starting a new job, losing a loved one, or becoming ill.  But, are you also aware of the spiritual thresholds that exist all throughout our lives?

These relate to the work of the Spirit in us and, if we learn to listen to the inner urgings of our souls, we discover brilliant and beautiful invitations to be formed by the hand of God.

All of life holds the potential to form us.  Jesus stands at the doorways of our lives and knocks.   We become aware of the knocking when and as we clue in to our own internal life. Curiosities, yearnings, distinct observations while reading the Word or worshipping — a lack of peace, a sense of being awakened to a Voice that says, “Come!”  Listen and follow His voice.  It’s not necessary that we know what will happen next, only that we will find Jesus waiting for us with a table prepared, mud for our eyes, and fish for our tummies!

Something in me identifies this morning with the man by the pool who feels helpless to get into the healing water. Tears burn in my eyes as I read that “Jesus saw him lying there and knew his condition”.  My heart aches as I listen to the man tell Jesus that no one will help him get into the pool and suddenly, I hear knocking!  I become aware of my own soul wound that relates to feeling invisible sometimes and find myself standing at a threshold.  I have a sense of what’s beyond because I have read the end of this story!  So, I lean forward to peek in and see Jesus seeing me and asking, “Do you wish to get well?”

It is an invitation to wholeness that is irresistible and while I cannot know what exactly will happen next, I know by now that Jesus always calls me toward life!

So, I open the door to Jesus and hear the words “Get up!” There is power in His voice and healing in His eyes and before I know it, I am upright, embraced and walking — welcomed with joy by Jesus who is ever faithful to form holiness in me and heal my life with love .

“What a gift it is that you always see me and know me, Jesus. Thank you for the thresholds in life that invite me to Your heart, heal my wounds, and form my soul. Please help me to hear you knocking. Amen.”

What about you?

Are you aware when you are standing at a threshold, a doorway of invitation to healing and new life?

Can you hear when Jesus knocks?

Can you sense your inner life?   Your desires curiosities and angst?

Do you want to be well?

Let the love of Christ meet you right where you are today.  He welcomes you with joy.

Worship 

Remember Me

aspen cross2By Judy Villanueva

Luke 23:32-34, 39-43

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.  When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left… One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him:  “Aren’t you the Messiah?  Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.  But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Today would be his last. He knew he was guilty and deserved what was coming, but that didn’t stop his stomach from wrenching. He was a thief and today justice would be served on the same dusty hill where he’d seen countless others hanged for their crimes. Part of him was resigned to the inevitable and part of him ached for a second chance at life. The guards were coming! He could hear their footsteps approaching and almost without thought he murmured a desperate prayer. The iron gate screeched open and before he knew it, he was grabbed and thrown face down in the dirt. Far beyond anything he could imagine, this would be a day of cosmic reckoning!

Hanging with his arms tethered to horizontal beams and his legs roped to a post, he is roused by a jeering voice and suddenly realizes he is not alone on Golgotha.  The sneers and taunts emanate from a despicable thief with whom he must apparently share his last hours.  Sighing in disgust, he starts to turn away when he notices another cross…the object of his neighbor’s ridicule.  “Is it Him,” he wonders, “the One he has heard about?” As he scrutinizes the face covered in blood and shrouded beneath a thorny crown, the man’s eyes lift and a holy power rushes toward him!  In desperation and hope, he hears himself utter, “Lord, remember me.”

It all happens in an instant — an awakening, a reckoning, and a heart made whole!

The placement of Jesus’ cross between two thieves is an astounding and graphic picture!  It is no accident that on one side hangs a man full of pride, living and dying for himself, and on the other, a humble and broken thief pleading for mercy.  And, there at the center is Jesus offering life to a lost soul…even as He dies.

Knowingly or unknowingly, we live on either side of Jesus each day.

We see Him or we don’t.  We live full of pride and self-sufficiency, or ask to be remembered. We curse what cannot control or surrender in faith to a holy God.  We breathe each breath disgruntled or full of gratitude. And finally, a day arrives when we either reject the greatest gift ever offered us or follow Jesus to paradise!

“Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me.  When I slow down and let the cross touch my life, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.  I want to be like the thief who humbled himself and asked to be remembered, not just in my final hour of life but always.  Amen.”

What about you?

Have you ever ached for a second chance at life?

Do you feel your need for Jesus?

Which thief are you?  In other words, are you trusting in yourself for your life or trusting God?

Have you said “yes” to the gift Jesus gave at Calvary?  Have you received the gift of being found, forgiven and made whole?

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Worship

 

In The Garden

theGarden

By Judy Villanueva

And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by.  And He was saying, “Abba! Father!  All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me;  yet not what I will, but what You will.” (Mark 14:34-36)

Not too long ago I faced an excruciating trial. It was an ordeal I did not want to go through but I saw it coming at me like a freight train!  I prayed and asked all my friends to pray that I would be relieved from having to walk through this trial.  To my dismay, one of my friends, upon hearing my request said, “I’m going to pray instead, for God’s will,”  to which I replied, “Don’t you dare! I really don’t want to do this!” To say “Your will, not mine” is best said on one’s face because there, at least, the body is in a submitted position even if the heart is not. To be honest, I prayed against having to bear this cross and then, kicked and squirmed all the way through it — because I did have to go all the way through it.

It’s terrifying and beautiful to enter the garden and watch Jesus grieved to the point of death. I’m not sure I’ve even touched the edge of this kind of grief but many reading this have likely entered into the heart of it.  It is when deep sorrow and suffering merge and literally push us downward with a crushing weight.  Each year during lent, I return to Gethsemane and quietly watch what happened there amidst the olive trees.  I tend to put the Garden away after Easter, but each Good Friday  I crawl over next to Jesus with my face to the ground and listen closely.

There I hear his labored breath, his sweat that falls like blood to the ground. There, I hear his desperate pleas to be relieved of the cup that awaits him.  Can you hear him with his mouth pressed against the dirt?  “Abba Father! Is there any other way?”  That’s when I look over because I know what he will say next and I want to see his face when he says it.

“Yet           not             my             will            but Yours.”

It stuns me every time! The beauty of it breaks me.  Not just His heart that trusted the Father in His darkest night, but the love that beat within Him for me and for you!  I love the honesty in the garden.  It helps me to witness the part of Jesus that was human like me.  It instructs me on what to do and where to go when I am troubled, full of fear or weighted down with worry.

 I must follow Jesus to a place called surrender and trust that God will stay with me there.

I find, as I lay with my face in the dirt next to Jesus, that I want to reach over and offer Him a consolation from the 21st century.  I want to whisper back to Him, “Thank you!  For not backing away from being crushed, scourged, and pierced for my transgressions — for laying it all down, for trusting the Father, for saying, ‘Not my will, but Yours.’ Thank you!”

“Thank you, Jesus, for the garden! You showed me what it is to surrender all the way.  Help me to follow you to a life that yields to your will and trusts you in suffering places. Amen.”

What about you?

How does looking at Jesus face down in the garden make you feel?

Are you in a garden, a time of waiting or suffering?

God is with you.

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