tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31317282302117539372024-03-21T22:37:09.555-04:00A View From The Sycamore TreeRamblings from a woman of the Word, who knows her need, and is seeking the Savior.Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.comBlogger374125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-45609019931137776142017-01-05T11:10:00.003-05:002017-01-05T16:39:30.348-05:00More Like Love in 2017<div data-block="true" data-editor="6db0h" data-offset-key="54i08-0-0">
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<span data-offset-key="54i08-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm re-reading Herman Melville's classic work, "Moby Dick," for the first time in almost 30 years. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was pierced in the early pages as Melville paints a verbal portrait of the story of Jonah - telling how the son of Amittai set out in <i>"willful disobedience to the command of God"</i> ... because he didn't like the command of God!</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="dj934-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">God's command was for Jonah to go and preach the gospel of redeeming grace to his enemies - to warn them of the impending danger that hearkened at their heels - in order that they might be saved from it. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="c21os-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Boiled down to the barest bones it was a command for Jonah to go and <b>love his enemies</b> <b>as much as he loved himself</b>. But, the command to love those he loathed was distasteful to Jonah (as it is to us) - so distasteful that he set out to sea in the absolute opposite direction of obedience.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="efdvg-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jonah willfully disobeyed the command of God because it conflicted with his own personal likes and lusts. God's commands often do ... because by nature we're pretty stinkin' selfish (I know I am!). If honest, we're often selfish even in our acts of supposed selfless service - we do them because they make us feel good inside or because (theological horror of horrors) we might errantly think they could possibly produce some kind of "cosmic karma" that will boomerang back around to our own benefit one day. (That's another post for another time!)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You know, what God (through His Word) tells me to do in truly loving YOU often gets in the way of what I want to do in supposedly "loving" ME!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All of those </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"one another"</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> commands:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">be at peace with one another</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">love one another</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">give preference to one another</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">build up one another</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">accept one another</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">admonish one another</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">serve one another</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">speak truth to one another</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">be kind to one another</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">forgive one another as Christ has forgiven you</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bear with one another...</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">...those things don't come easily, take extreme effort, and mean that I have to lay myself aside! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's hard!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mr. Melville writes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"All the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do </i><br />
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- remember that - </i><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and hence, </i><br />
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He more often commands us than seeks to persuade us. </i></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we would obey God, we must disobey ourselves; </i></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and it is in this disobeying of ourselves, </i></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">wherein the hardness of actually obeying God consists."</i></div>
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<span data-offset-key="78pr2-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This year, by Christ's grace and the Holy Spirit's power, I'm asking God to help me do this hard thing. I'm asking Him to help me slay the "white whale" of selfishness that resides in my soul - or at least to get a harpoon plunged deeply into its heart that I might begin </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to love Him and others - even "enemy" others - a little bit more like He has has loved me. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="78pr2-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the process I'm praying that I might begin to see the "hardway" of obeying God as the one true sanctifying highway to becoming who He has called me to be. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4mhvs-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This year I want to begin to look a little more like love ... true love ... Biblical love ... God's (often hard) definition of love. (Not the world's counterfeit copy.)<br /><br />I want to learn to love Him with all of my heart, and soul, and mind, and strength.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4mhvs-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my actions towards others I want to be: </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">patient, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">kind, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not jealous, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not boastful or proud, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not behaving in an unbecoming way, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not seeking my own way, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not keeping a record of wrongs, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not rejoicing in unrighteousness but rejoicing in <i>Truth</i>. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I want to strive to bear all things, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">believe all things, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hope all things, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">endure all things, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and not fail in the things of this hard task of holy love (1 Corinthians 13).</span></li>
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<span data-offset-key="ejd38-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But the truth is - I'm gonna fail. (</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Doggone it, I already have failed - at least in thought ... OK in word and deed as well ... since I started typing this text!!) </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ejd38-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thankfully Jesus <i>never</i> fails. He has lived the perfect life of perfect love that I am incapable of. That's why He came - to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves in His life, death, and resurrection. </span></span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="ejd38-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Christ has loved me with an everlasting love, and in Him alone will I find sufficient strength to love ... <i>really love</i>... others in the same way. </span></span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="ejd38-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">May 2017 find all of us looking a little more like our Savior's love - because we're leaning more on the Savior's love!</span></span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="ejd38-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By grace,</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="ejd38-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lori</span></span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="ejd38-0-0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PS - This song by Ben Rector has been on my daughter's play list for weeks. I'm kinda diggin' her taste in tunes.</span></span></div>
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Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-14166658820677021272016-05-04T13:48:00.002-04:002017-01-05T11:28:43.418-05:00Isn't Any Evil Evil?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not one who regularly writes about political things. Truth be told I don't think I've<i> ever</i> written about a political thing. However, I am one who regularly writes about Biblical things, and in doing so I often encourage those who call themselves Christian to look at <i style="font-weight: bold;">all</i> things (which would include political things) from a Biblical perspective and through a Biblical lens. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's the point of this post. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />This is not a post about a particular candidate (per se), or even about a particular party. Instead, it's a post about a menacing mantra, a prevalent "proverb", a troubling train of thought that I am being bombarded with via social media, and am hearing more and more in coffee shop conversations as well as in check-out line chatter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's a post about a statement that says a lot about whether we are living our life by principle or by pragmatism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The statement is this: <i>"I guess I'll have to vote for the lesser of two evils."</i> And when it's said by someone I'm left to assume that they really believe that the only two choices they have are between two varying shades of iniquitous evil. (Sidenote: if you don't really believe that the choice is between two actual evils you can probably stop reading ... but maybe you should consider selecting a softer synonym.)<br /><br />In response here's my point for you to ponder: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Isn't the "lesser of two evils" still an evil? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I ask that honestly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I find myself puzzled by the calls encouraging me to vote for a candidate (blue or red, local or national) based on a sliding scale of sinisterness or some comparison of corruption. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If one <i>genuinely believes</i> that both candidates are evil (to whatever degree) then how should one respond? Is it really to choose the one who is least lewd?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The questions that continue to bounce within my own brain are: </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How can a Christian conscience ever partner with any form of perdition? </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How can one who believes the Bible ever ma</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ke an honest excuse for any semblance of that which is execrable?</span></li>
<li><span class="text_exposed_show" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How can I ever vote for ANY evil - including a supposed lesser evil?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> As I personally ruminate and wrestle through this year's electoral issues I'm reminded that the Book which I seek to live by calls me </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">abhor what is evil and cling to what is good</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (Romans 12:9)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to abstain from any form or appearance of evil<i> </i>(1 Thessalonians 5:22)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to keep myself from every evil thing (Deuteronomy 23:9)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and it tells me that to depart from evil is wisdom and understanding (Job 22:28).</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You know, I really long to be wise in these things - and to live by prudence rather than by pragmatism. So, if I genuinely believe that things have come down to <i>"the lesser of two evils"</i> then in Scriptural prudence and against political pragmatism how can I convince myself to vote for any vice?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> There is nothing easy in this - NOTHING! The results of this election (as the results of all elections) will have far reaching effects. However, even with the knowledge that consequences will come I cannot vote by <i>fear</i> but must vote by <i>faith</i> - and by faith I cannot cast a ballot for that which is bad (even in contrast to that which some say may be "badder.") That doesn't mean I'll stay home from the polls - apathy isn't the answer. But it means that Biblical boundaries will influence what I write in on my ballot - boundaries that won't allow me to walk with the wicked.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Selah!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I'm thankful that there is a sovereign King who reigns and rules over the political process - a process that I actively participate in. He knows best what our nation needs most - and in His overarching omniscient wisdom sometimes gives us what we say we want in order to open our eyes to what we truly need. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> As I sincerely strive to proceed by Christian principle I'm also earnestly striving to pray by Biblical precedent: <i>"Lord, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil"</i> - including the temptation to vote for evil.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By grace,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lori</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
</div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-38965227156164129132016-04-19T12:55:00.002-04:002016-05-29T19:32:32.032-04:00The Angst of Autism: "How Does Autism Feel In Me?"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the questions I’m most often asked by parents of
people living with autism (and one of the questions I’m honestly most afraid to
answer) is <i>“What does autism feel like?” </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My fear comes from two places. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first is that I never want anyone to take
my<i> personal</i> experience of living life
on the spectrum as being the <i>universal</i>
experience of living life on the spectrum.
My story is just that - <i>my</i>
story, and while there are always common denominators in the autistic
experience, there is also <i>much</i> diversity.
That’s why they call it a spectrum. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dr. Stephen Shore once said, <i>“If you’ve met one person with autism,
you’ve met one person with autism.”</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The specific ways that autism feels and manifests in me may be <i>very</i>
different from the specific ways in which it feels and manifests in someone
else. So, I’m sometimes afraid to say
how it feels because I don’t want to ever be set up as the autistic standard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The second source of my fear is that there have been some
folks who’ve just not been very nice when they’ve learned what life’s actually
like for me. I’ve been called "crazy," and "cuckoo," and "a couple of fries short of a happy meal." I’ve been labeled a lunatic and laughed
at by those who really should know better.
I’ve had people talk terribly about me behind my back - </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not knowing that
their words would eventually make their way to the front of my face</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">...and more
painfully to the center of my heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Their cruelty has made me cautious, and there have been times
when I’ve considered catapulting myself away from this public perch as an autism
spokesperson. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Every time I prepare to
turn tail and run I inevitably receive an email from a mom who’s hurting,
and confused, and trying desperately to find one tiny hook to hang her
hope on as she battles the autistic beast that is tormenting her child. She
asks me to help her understand even an ounce of what her little one might be
feeling, and I realize that I can’t allow mean men or the face of my own fear
to silence this story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, today I go to that place where I’ve often feared to
publicly tread.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What does autism feel
like in me?</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></i></b><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Well, autism in me often feels awful.</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Before I give you some specific examples from my own
existence, let me make sure that you understand what autism spectrum disorder
(ASD) actually is. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Autism is a
neuro-developmental disorder that is often characterized by varying degrees of
struggle with social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, sensory
processing, and restricted or repetitive behaviors. I’m going to break some of that down for you
– at least as some of these things manifest in me – but I want you to recognize
that all of the “psycholo</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">gical” <i>symptoms</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> that you see in a person with ASD actually flow out of the underlying
neurological </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">system</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of ASD. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The behavioral chicken hatches out of the
physiological egg. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That’s important to
understand because when people with autism seem to be "behaving badly” it’s
often because we’re hurting badly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Frayed Wire</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I often explain the neurological framework of autism (the
framework from which autistic behavior flows) by likening the physiological
pathways of the autistic body to that of a frayed stereo speaker wire. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Everyone with autism has some form of sensory
struggle - it could be hyper sensitivity, it may be hypo sensitivity. Sight, sound, smell, taste and
touch (the five senses which all of the experiences of life must pass through) <i>can</i>
be absolutely harrowing and horrifying to the person with autism. For many, everything
that enters the ASD body is often accompanied by some semblance of pain or at
least by some extremely uncomfortable sensation. Here’s where the analogy of the frayed wire
may help you understand autism a bit better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When you go to your stereo and turn on the tunes and all is
working well with the speaker wire then the sound is sweet, and crisp, and
clear. You hear what the artist and
producer intended for you to hear - and it’s a good and pleasant thing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However,
if your speaker wire has a short in it, if it’s frazzled by a fray, then things
might not go so well and a clear connection could be lost. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are moments when that frayed wire may be in the perfectly
placed position to still allow really solid sound to pass through. In that moment the music is coming through loud and clear and you get to enjoy the groove. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But then something shifts – <i>even just a little</i>, and suddenly that worn wire produces static
(and maybe even sparks). The music's still there, but with it is another competing noise –a sharp and crepitating
noise– a noise that’s taken something pleasant and made it painful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All of a sudden something shifts <i>again</i> and everything has
gone from simple static to <i>overwhelming</i>
and <i>excruciating</i> white noise. In the
chaotic cacophony you find yourself reaching for the volume control in order to
mute the mess because it hurts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then things shift once more and the frayed wire is now in a
position where <i>nothing’s</i> getting
through. The connection has been lost
and all is silent. <u>The stereo itself is still making a melody</u>, but that melody
is trapped inside the machine and unknown to anyone on the outside.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Welcome to autism! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our neurological wiring – the “speaker cable” through which
the five senses travel within us – is "frayed." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At one point we’re positioned so that the
things of life are coming through clearly and we may almost seem OK and maybe even <i>“normal”</i> - our melody might momentarily sound marvelous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Then</i> the wire wiggles and begins to produce some static - and
we become confused and stressed because we’re trying to hear the “tune” of our
surroundings over and against the torture of the snap, crackle, and pop of the
crimped cord. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Suddenly the wire is <i>all</i> static and we’re utterly undone –
because the racket is <u>just too much </u>to bear and we’re dying from the neurological distress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And then there are those times when the connection gets<i> completely</i> cut and we find ourselves
disconnected from the music and meaning of life. <u>The tune is still in our head</u> … <u>we just can’t
get it out for you to hear</u>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The frayed wire that is autism is not a pretty place and
is often a painful place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’d encourage you to remember this analogy when you see a
person with autism struggling with a shutdown, or a meltdown, or an absolute
disconnect to his or her environment. The
neurological wire’s not working well. We're not insane ... we're in pain!
Please have some mercy in the midst of our malady, and show a little
compassion to us (and to those with us) as we seek to navigate the nightmare.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My Own Experience
With Autistic Angst<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The personal pieces of how autism’s "frayed wire" fleshes out
in my daily existence, well, those are varied and would take a lot of time to
walk you <i>completely</i> through - but I’ll give you a glimpse and will trust that
you’ll love me and not laugh at me as I unbear my burden. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My hope is that this will help you understand
a bit more about life with autism, and that as your understanding increases so
will your heart for those who are hurting - no matter how they hurt.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where the <i>sensory</i> is concerned much of my life has been
lived without filters attached. For most
people, the brain naturally sifts and separates visual, auditory, olfactory,
and tactile information. Your brain is able to
decipher and discern what’s important to focus on and set aside that which is
less relevant at the moment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my experience with autism <i>everything flows through with equal force. </i>Life is like a continual sensory storm. A raging flash flood of sensorial data is always pulsing through the marrow of my bones. It's a never ending devastating deluge of chaotic
kinesthesia. There’s no sensory spillway … doggone it, a dam's not even dug to help control all that’s pouring into me. Everything hits me full bore on and
I’ve had to learn to sink or swim against the surging onslaught of my five
senses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where sound is concerned, the voices and vibrations of this world are always pounding upon me. Life is LOUD! This can make carrying on a conversation in a room full of
people a true challenge – because I hear <i>everything
</i>at equal volume. My auditory abilities are often extreme. In that room, I hear your hair. Yes, you read that right. In a room full of people I literally can hear
when someone’s hair moves in the wind or when they brush their fingers through
it. In that room as you and I are trying to talk, I am hearing everyone else’s
conversation as clearly as our own (along with their hair!!) - and that’s a confusing thing because which
words am I supposed to be interacting with as we chat? Take that scenario and apply it to the classroom, the park, the church, or Wal-Mart. It can be absolutely overwhelming!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a young child I was barely able to eat in front of others
(many assumed I had an eating disorder) because of the pain I felt when
someone’s fork touched their teeth. In a
restaurant I was always undone because not only did I hear multiple food
implements on everyone's incisors, but also all of the kitchen noise, and chewing, and
swallowing, and breathing, and the transfer of change at the cash register, and
the hum of the fluorescent lights, and everyone's clothes making contact with their chair (oh yes, and their hair!) ... on and on and on it goes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The amount of auditory information that my
brain was processing was overwhelming and it usually resulted in a panic attack
– even at the age of 8. Everything that
I heard hurt – it still does. By grace, though the years I’ve been able to develop some coping
skills that now allow me to survive a bit better - or sneak away when I know I can't.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My visual experience is also rather radical. Like many on the spectrum bright light can
be painful – honestly, any light can be painful and I often compensate with sunglasses. I can also get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of imagery that my mind is attempting to process at one time. I take in everything in a panoramic sense - and that sometimes makes it hard for me to focus on the central thing I'm supposed to see. I've found that wearing a ball cap helps me filter, by force, that which is crashing in by flood - it works in the same sense that "horse blinders" do at the race track.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the unique and
challenging aspects of ASD for me is that my neurological wiring has an odd
criss-crossing of visual and tactile. <u><i>I feel what I see</i>.</u> When I look at a tree I literally feel the
bark. When I see a wall or a chair (or your hair) my body senses its surface. When I read a
book I feel the page. The same is true when I see your face, yes, I <i>feel</i> your face … which is one piece of
the problem that some with ASD may have with looking others in the eyes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take a moment and look around.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Think
about what it would be like to feel everything your eyes see. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Welcome to my world!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My panoramic vision and the accompanying deep memory vault that is often part of autism have an interesting correlation. I view life in pictures and my brain
categorizes and catalogs <i>all</i> that I
see. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Everything</i>
I look at goes into what I call the mental “file folders” of life. Things are subconsciously stored in my mind, in vivid detail, and under specific headings – I’m not able to always call
things up on command, but I regularly experience a meticulous mental “finger flipping”
through the files of past experience when I enter a similar situation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For example, when I walk through the door of
my house my mind flips through the pictures of <i>every other time</i> I’ve ever
walked through the door of my house. It’s an involuntary visual occurrence that at times
can be overwhelming. When I grab a
shirt out of the closet I re-live where it came from - even down to the rack at
the store where I found it and what other shirts hung near it, as well as all the other times I've worn it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I may sit
down for a haircut and in a matter of moments re-live every other hair cut I’ve
ever had (in great detail … the number of combs or brushes on every counter,
the pattern of the tile, the position of the pictures, the people congregating for a coiffure). The same could be true when I go to a
drive-in window, play a piece on the piano, or see you in the grocery store. Please realize this if I seem startled when I run into you somewhere - I may be re-living our entire relationship!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One tough aspect of that deep “file folder” memory, as it’s coupled
with the disconnect of autism’s frayed neurological wire, is that sometimes it
can be hard to moor myself to the <i>current</i> moment. There are times when I have
to fight my autistic physiology in order to determine which picture I'm seeing is the <i>current </i>picture. Which image is the here and now? Is this scene of life “live
or is it Memorex?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In light of this reality, I sometimes feel like I’ve never fully lived a moment of my life (the frayed wire) nor ever truly escaped
one (the visual file folders). And that
can be really hard at times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where touch is concerned, I often physically feel things
from the inside out. When you touch my
flesh the first sensation that I have is from the center of my bones – and it can be rather fiery - anything from a dull burn to extreme electrocution. That feeling then
flows backwards to my skin, at which point it’s usually not quite as
painful. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Often when someone shakes my
hand, or pats me on the back, or kisses me on the cheek I will feel that
sensation for at least an hour before it fully dissipates. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clothing can hurt to wear. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sheets can hurt to cover up with. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The most intimate forms of affection can be a great affliction. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are times when
the internal terrorism of the tactile makes me want to rip my bones from my
body – which is one of the reasons you’ll often find those of us with autism
engaging in some form of stimming (rocking, flapping, finger flicking) – it’s
our attempt to counter all that is caustic.
(More on stimming soon.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because I speak and sing for a living, people are often shocked to learn that I
struggle with issues of communication – verbal and non-verbal. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My verbal abilities have been honed through
years and years of hard work (my mom used to drill me on the practice of public speaking over summer break). In spite of the success in overcoming my struggles, throughout my life there have been many
seasons of selective mutism. Honestly, in certain settings there are still those moments of selective mutism, because I
know the “wire” isn't working well and that my attempts to talk aren't going to end well. So, I
simply don't talk. To me, silence has always been a virtue of self-survival.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I do talk I constantly coach myself in order to make
my mind and my mouth correctly connect. Speaking
is not an unconscious or habituated thing for me (really <i>nothing</i> is a habituated thing for me because<i> I think through every action in great detail</i>). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My talking to you is an exercise in extreme
self-control and a labor in almost Nietzschean "will-to-power", which can be
exhausting - and which is one of the
reasons that I can only endure so much conversation before I have to bail.
(Sometimes I realize I can come across as a little bit rude – it’s because I’m worn
slap out from words.That's no excuse for sinful behavior, but perhaps it will help you understand my struggle with that behavior.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because my mouth and my brain don’t always work well together, I have found it much easier to allow my
thoughts to fly from my fingers than to leap from my lips. That part of my “wire” isn’t nearly as frayed, and is definitely my preferred form of communication.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where the non-verbals are concerned there are so many stories.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a young child I spent <i>hours</i> in front of the mirror
teaching myself how to really smile.
Even now, there’s a “director’s voice” in my head where I walk myself
through which learned facial expression is the appropriate one for the moment.
My vault of “file folders” is part of what now helps me read other’s
expressions accurately – I automatically pull up other encounters with laughter, and sadness, and seriousness and then apply that “photograph” to the current
event. (Are you beginning to get a
glimpse at how exhausting autism can be? I don't even smile at you without work.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I also trained myself to look people in the eyes at a young
age. From my earliest days I can
remember my neck shaking and my head drifting down when someone’s eyes would
“touch” my own (an eye “touch” is what
it felt like, and it was incredibly uncomfortable - it was moist and squishy and made my skin crawl). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As an elementary age child, I forced myself
to sit in class and stare the teacher down from a distance. When my neck would begin to shake and when my
eyes started to drift I would push all of the pressure of my neck muscles down through
my body and into my toes – establishing a form of muscular “toe transference”
that I still use to this day as a primary form of autistic coping.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzHPN9PpoWyGXHSgEGZVrq0eTk802L2v3uF0h3n_OjljhpndehhQf2iV_fVBtcMSCPXdsQk2wqQaU95oDuo6ns7kg5MjO30KRS8vGqMjD5Auj4TzYtMBPvhZF_BFEufZGAfz-lrUS9KhPd/s1600/autism+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzHPN9PpoWyGXHSgEGZVrq0eTk802L2v3uF0h3n_OjljhpndehhQf2iV_fVBtcMSCPXdsQk2wqQaU95oDuo6ns7kg5MjO30KRS8vGqMjD5Auj4TzYtMBPvhZF_BFEufZGAfz-lrUS9KhPd/s1600/autism+4.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could talk to you about so many other things … </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">strong seizure
like moments where my </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">brain seems to shake in a violent fashion or petite
mal periods that steal away sections of my day. I
could discuss why at times I hit my head (and that conversation is coming), why
running is almost impossible for me, how monocular vision may possibly be
playing a role in my inability to determine depth, and how hard I’ve had to
work to learn to develop empathy for others – because emotional understanding,
for me, has been an autistic anathema that only the mercies of Christ have helped me
overcome.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />
What does autism feel like? </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In me, it feels like all of this and more. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What words will ever adequately explain? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I know them not. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What I do know is that through every autistic “danger, toil,
and snare” through which I’ve already come, “'tis grace has brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In that grace – in the God of that grace – I find a sufficient salve for
all of my autistic suffering. And as I've given the smallest glimpse into my own version of autistic angst I truly pray that you have increased in even the smallest sense of autistic sympathy!</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Much love,<br />Lori</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-21701585250049215812015-10-29T15:05:00.002-04:002015-10-30T11:48:38.730-04:00Grammar and the Gospel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWjxnOgcQViKTk4mIxcO1oai5AM5Z7Glt8tHIRR5U38IfxPoS39CSz7ic2sSlONwbNU88Et8mQ6_IUzMgRLBM-Xn5MZ8qV82zv-fZdhStuqaVX2KVYVW-mWlDwNz2NiViU6HBFb8pXbTSr/s1600/grammar+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWjxnOgcQViKTk4mIxcO1oai5AM5Z7Glt8tHIRR5U38IfxPoS39CSz7ic2sSlONwbNU88Et8mQ6_IUzMgRLBM-Xn5MZ8qV82zv-fZdhStuqaVX2KVYVW-mWlDwNz2NiViU6HBFb8pXbTSr/s320/grammar+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I grew up
the progeny of a professor. My mom held
a PhD in English and taught various forms of that field at the university level. She was a lover of literature and a guardian
of grammar. In our home, words mattered
and the improper use of syntactic structure could get you in as much trouble as
the crude use of cursing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mom taught
me that grammar is the glue that holds context and content together. When the glue is improperly applied, meaning
can fall apart and crucial pieces of conversation can be lost. We talked often
of using accurate articles, properly applied pronouns, and correct verb
tense. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn’t
care much for those language lessons as a child (particularly not as they were
being drilled into me over summer vacation!), but, as the years have rolled on I’ve grown in my gratitude for the phonemic pedagogy of my parent.</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I’m far from
being a perfect grammarian.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I picture my
mom rolling over in her grave every time I improperly apply an apostrophe, mix up a homonym, or leave a modifier dangling over the edge of a conversational
cliff.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> (Let's not even discuss punctuation.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">In spite of my philological
failings I’ve never forgotten the overarching idea of my mom’s instruction on
these things, and I’m thankful for her tutelage.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently, I’ve
thought about these things as they relate to the gospel – most particularly as
they relate to what I call “grammatical gospel glue.”
Articles, pronouns, and verb tenses can make a definitive difference in whether
or not the gospel is accurately, adequately, and actually applied to our
lives. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me seek
to explain with three examples. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">1.
Accurate articles.</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Articles are small words that
define a noun as being specific or unspecific.
In the English language there are only three articles: <i>a, an</i>, and <i>the</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Asking you
to grab me </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">a</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> shirt from my closet,
versus asking you to grab me </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">the</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> blue
striped shirt in my closet – well… that could make a real difference in my
wardrobe for the day. Asking you to pick up </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">a</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> pill from the medicine </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">cabinet as</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> opposed to </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">the</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> pill the doctor </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">prescribed for me</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> - well... that could make a life or death difference. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Articles can
make a life or death difference in our understanding of the gospel as well. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many will say that Jesus is <i>a </i>Savior. That’s the use of an unspecific article, and
it makes Him out to be one Savior among many.
However, the Bible declares that Jesus is <i>the</i> Savior – the specific, unique, and sole Savior. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Luke writes
that “there is salvation found in no one else; for there is no other name under
heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John records <i>the </i>Savior as saying “I am <i>the</i>
way, and <i>the</i> truth, and <i>the</i> life, no one comes to the Father,
but through Me.” (John 14:6.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One article <i>(“a”)</i> implies that there are many ways
to find freedom from sin and favor with the Father. Another article <i>(“the”)</i> declares that there is but one way
– the way of Christ via the way of the cross.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which
article am I applying to Jesus? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is it an
accurate article? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is it a Biblical
article? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is it grammatical glue that
will hold throughout eternity, or will I find myself stuck with nothing that sticks on my final day?<br />
<br />
<b>2. Possessive Pronouns.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A pronoun is
a word that takes the place of a noun - <i>I,
me, he, she, you, we,</i> etc. (In the South you can add <i>y'all. </i>In the mountains of North Carolina feel free to toss in a <i>y'uns</i> or two!) </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Possessive
pronouns indicate exactly what you’d think – possession of the thing to which
they point. With their use I can declare
that the Subaru is <i>my</i> car, the baby
is <i>your</i> daughter, and the mess in the
kitchen is all <i>his. </i>(This last example is one that my eleven year old is particularly fond of)!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what
about possessive pronouns and the good news of the gospel? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, without them we are literally
lost. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even with an accurate article (“Jesus
is <i>the </i>Savior”) the absence of the possessive
pronoun (“Jesus is <i>my</i> Savior”) means
that all gospel glue is gone, and the stickiness of all eternal hope with it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">We can acknowledge
all day long that there is no forgiveness of sins apart from Jesus Christ, and
no salvation except in Him, but if we have not </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">personally</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> taken hold of Christ
by faith, if we are not </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><i>personally</i></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> resting in Him and on His finished work on </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">our</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> behalf, if we don't <i>personally</i> </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">possess</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> the promise, then we are no better than the demons who believe and shudder (James 2:19). </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Christ’s question to Peter is an important
one for us to ask and answer ourselves: “Who do
you say that I am?” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Do I </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">publicly</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> declare
Christ to be </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">the</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Savior of sinners,
and along with that have I personally applied the possessive reality of Him as </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">my </i><span style="line-height: 115%;">Savior from <i>my</i> sins? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is a
crucial question, my friend. </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3.
Terrific tense.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my neck of the woods, the improper
use of verb tense is one of the things that I most commonly hear. Verb tense helps us know <i>when</i> a thing happened - past, present, future, and a plethora of sneaky grammatical nuances thereof. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was growing up, my mom
had no hesitancy to take people to task for their error in this area. Cashiers and customers were often left
speechless as mom waxed eloquently on the difference between simple past,
present perfect, and past continuous verb forms when they’d fumbled those forms. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I pitied the person who improperly applied
them in her path!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A passing
comment from a total stranger that “My son done good on his driving test!”
would send her into a teaching tizzy - not only on proper verb tense, but also
on the distinguishing marks and uses of adjectives and adverbs. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“You mean, your
son <i>did well</i> on his driving test –
and here’s why you should learn to <i>do well</i> with your speech…” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Usually
silence followed from the poor shell shocked soul who’d made the snafu, and all
check out chit chat came to a screeching halt.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Did,” “do,” </span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;">and<i> “done</i>” - while not
necessarily misused in a gospel verb tense sense - are often misused in another way when it comes
to understanding salvation. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Many people
look at their lives and think “I’m not that bad. I don’t really <i>do</i> anything all that awful, and I’ve actually accomplished a lot of good in
this life.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">We can easily puff ourselves
up with pride and say, “Hey God, look at what<i> I</i> <i>did</i>” and assume that <i>our doings</i> are what will get us into
heaven - even though our<i> best </i>doings are said to be nothing more than filthy rags when compared to the perfect and holy standard of a perfect and holy God (Isaiah 64:6).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like the
rich young ruler we may foolishly feel confident to come and ask “What good
thing must <i>I do</i> to inherit eternal
life?” - thinking we’ll receive a pat on the back for our actions and the key to
the holy city for our works. But, Jesus
pressed that young man into a corner and
uncovered his covetousness, showing him that he wasn’t <i>doing </i>as well as he thought he was. He does the same with us. Are we listening to and learning from the lesson?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the heart
of the gospel, <i>“did,” “do,”</i> and <i>“done”</i> fall into what I refer to as the “terrific
tense”. My salvation is not based on <i>my</i>
verbs, it is not founded upon the things that <i>I</i> once <i>did</i> nor upon the things
that<i> I</i> am now <i>doing</i>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My salvation is
found, ground, and bound by what Christ has <i>done</i>
on my behalf. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">He</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> has <i>done</i>
what <i>I</i> could never <i>do</i> – lived the sinless life in my stead. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> has <i>done</i>
what <i>I</i> should <i>do</i> – died for my sin.</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> has <i>done </i>what
<i>I </i>would <i>do</i> but am powerless to do – He has risen from death’s grave conquering
sin and granting salvation to sinners – to sinners who see the importance of
grammar and the gospel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Jesus is </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">the</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> Savior.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Jesus is </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">my</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">
Savior. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus has saved me not based on anything
I will <i>do</i> but on everything He has <i>done</i>. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">And what He has </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">done</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> on my behalf covers more than all the past, present, and future tenses I could ever fathom - for He is the same yesterday, today and forever. It's indeed the terrific tense!</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> one grammar lesson I never grow weary of hearing and this is the gospel glue that will see me through! How I pray that your gospel grammar, by grace, is good!</span></div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-39592368662656177652015-10-15T12:10:00.003-04:002016-03-08T14:40:51.331-05:00A Word For the Secret Keepers of the World <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWN-OVzXmAfEaC2GKyPZJ731y3WqKLfCBPgXy0dPqKLCKDJf27-qbiu4xSoI_L6x1VFxJLJIImLFjNKJ69u__nByfoFidyxRrly-58SCVOZdeGEs-PWRx3iED2lgOYwkp1DljM-JwPfVBd/s1600/library+books+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWN-OVzXmAfEaC2GKyPZJ731y3WqKLfCBPgXy0dPqKLCKDJf27-qbiu4xSoI_L6x1VFxJLJIImLFjNKJ69u__nByfoFidyxRrly-58SCVOZdeGEs-PWRx3iED2lgOYwkp1DljM-JwPfVBd/s320/library+books+1.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My kids have always loved literature. When they were little I would enter our local library with a HUGE wicker laundry basket whose high purpose in life was not much unlike that of a pack mule. That faithful old basket would bear the books that would become our companions for the next few days. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />It wasn't unusual for us to leave with 50 or more books per trip ... and then return in a few days to do it all over again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Through the years I became quite familiar with almost everything in the children's stacks - because we had checked out almost everything in the children's stacks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I knew the good books, the bad books, the boring books, and the books that pierced the human heart in poignant ways. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the top of my list for poignant piercing parables is a fairy tale written by Kate Coombs. It's called "The Secret Keeper" and it tells the tale of a single woman named Kalli who (literally) keeps <i>all</i> the secrets of <i>all</i> the people who live in the village of Maldinga. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whenever Maldinga's citizens found themselves overwhelmed with the hidden hurts of their lives, they would wander into the woods to Kalli's cottage - always journeying alone, always making their pilgrimage in private because they </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">were traveling with</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <i>secrets</i> and no one wants anyone to know that they have secrets!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Arriving at her home they would knock and she would answer. They would unload their troubles onto this one woman whose job it was to bear their troubles, and then they would silently slink away from the forest and back to their families - no thank you, no two-way conversation, no reaching out in mercy to the one who day in and day out showed them such mercy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kalli did her job faithfully. Not once did a secret slip from her lip. Not once did she give in to gossip. Not once did the clandestine escape from the locked vault of her abode. Not once did she pitch a fit, or roll her eyes, or act petty about someone's pain. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She never slammed her door in the face of those who came calling. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But one day she failed to answer the door. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Knock </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> upon knock </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> upon knock met her portal, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> but Kalli failed to greet her guests. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After a season of silence the village became curious: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "Where's our secret keeper?" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "Has anyone seen Kalli?" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "On whom shall we cast our cares?"<br /><br />Unknown to the needy, Kalli had finally fallen under the weight of the angst of others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Their secrets had sunk her, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">their hurting hearts had finally broken her own,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and the reality that no one was there to bear her burdens had become a crushing millstone. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One soul can only support so many secrets, and her soul had reached its limit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's a tough tale - at this point as grim as Grimm - but the story finds a remarkable redemptive end when the villagers begin to realize that Kalli has needs too. We find them beginning to take ownership of one another (including Kalli) - holding the hearts and hands of their neighbors in short seasons of suffering as well as in long lives of lament. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's a lesson on the importance of community. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For me it's particularly an illustration of the need for true gospel community. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Christians are called to <i>"bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ."</i> (Galatians 6:2). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We need one another.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The truth is, we don't always do the best job with one another. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Like the people of mythical Maldinga we are often self-absorbed - dumping off our secrets and pouring out our pain on those who have been called to be the receptacles of our pain - while forgetting that those ordained dumpees have needs too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kalli's story resonates with me because....well... because the truth is I've <i>been</i> a secret keeper. I often still <i>am</i> a secret keeper. I pray I always will <i>be</i> a secret keeper ... because in this fallen world people need a safe place for their secrets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a pastor's wife, and a counselor, and a gal who does disability ministry, and one who travels around singing songs about suffering and the hope of Jesus in the face of said suffering, I find that folks often flock to me to share their secrets. Many of them secret keepers themselves.<br /><br />The thing I hear most from the Kallis of the world is that they could use an ear every now and then. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A safe ear. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A secure ear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A non-judgmental ear. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An ear that won't bail when it learns that they don't have it all together ... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> ...<i>because none of us have it all together</i> - no pastor, no parishioner, no counselor, no clergy, no leader, no layman - we <i>all</i> have secrets, and struggles, and strife, and strain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thankfully, we also all have Jesus! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, to the Kallis who may be reading this: you may feel alone ... and sadly, in a human sense you may actually <i>be</i> alone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There may be no earthly ear to hear. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There may be no physical hand to hold. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There may be no tangible touch - and that is awful ... but in the face of the failings of feeble fallen "friends" there is a Friend who is <i>"closer than a brother"</i> and is faithful like no one else. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When others fail Christ prevails! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He is near when all are far! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And He is tender ... <i>always tender</i> when we pour our hearts and our hurts out to Him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jesus is the Secret Keeper extraordinaire! </span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He never leaves us or forsakes us </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+31%3A6&version=ESV">Deuteronomy 31:6</a>)</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His ear is always open to our cry </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+34%3A15&version=ESV">Psalm 34:15</a>)</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His bottle tallies and treasures our tears </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+56%3A8&version=ASV">Psalm 56:8</a>). </i></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He calls us to always cast our cares upon Him </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+peter+5%3A7&version=ESV">1 Peter 5:7</a>) </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> because </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">being our omnipotent God He never grows weary </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah+40%3A28&version=ESV">Isaiah 40:28</a>)</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and unlike human loves, His love endures forever</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+136&version=ESV">Psalm 136</a>). </i></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The mercy of men may grow stale and cold, but</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> His mercies are new every morning </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(</i><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=lamentations+3%3A21-24&version=ESV">Lamentations 3:21-24</a>).</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is He who renews us when we faint- somehow strengthening us to fly again as we fall on Him. (</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah+40%3A29-31&version=ESV">Isaiah 40:29-31</a></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Selah!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you're a Kalli - a secret keeper in a world full of souls with secrets - I do pray that God would provide a friend to bear <i>your</i> burden, because we need one another. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But until that time comes (and even when that time comes) <b>I pray that you'll find your <i>greatest</i> succor and solace in your Savior</b> - the empathizing and sympathizing High Priest named Jesus who knows our weaknesses because He has walked in our weaknesses,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. </i><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need."</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (Hebrews 4:15-16).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Secret keeper, in Christ there is grace sufficient for your task. Friends may fail and foes assail ... but He is with you to the end. May you and I draw near to Jesus who has drawn so near to us!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By grace,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lori</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Jesus! What a friend for sinners! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jesus! Lover of my soul;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Friends may fail me, f</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">oes assail me,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He, My Savior makes me whole!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hallelujah! What a Savior!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hallelujah! What a Friend!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Saving, helping, keeping, loving,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He is with me to the end." </span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-52619931161565070162015-05-21T11:32:00.001-04:002017-04-12T08:50:37.989-04:00A Scene From My Story Along the Autistic Road to Belief<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGGQZ2bVImyXpJGLESD52NSh4Z-TrcwODpnrvqaG9HYL26m7cKKVwNd836uRM3SCTgnS2h1hHzuGsJkRk6gu_kTyoXJn6HuDzhGn9tOM7yKHsxHMtndJuH52mBOXIlzoW5Pb4jocKf2jdx/s1600/story+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGGQZ2bVImyXpJGLESD52NSh4Z-TrcwODpnrvqaG9HYL26m7cKKVwNd836uRM3SCTgnS2h1hHzuGsJkRk6gu_kTyoXJn6HuDzhGn9tOM7yKHsxHMtndJuH52mBOXIlzoW5Pb4jocKf2jdx/s1600/story+1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Everyone has a story.
The details may differ. The settings may not be the same. The tale of
one man may look like a divine comedy, while that of another may best align
itself with an allegorical adventure. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mine? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, I like to think of my
story as Greek tragedy meets the Twilight Zone.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I came crashing on the scene as the result of an adulterous
affair. My birth parents were middle-aged
professionals and they weren’t banking on a baby. The introduction of my story would
add a whole heap of conflict to the narratives of quite a few other folks. In response, it was decided that I would be
aborted and <a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-am-not-accident-best-birthday-note.html">I narrowly escaped that fate when my birth mom abruptly exited the abortion clinic she had earlier entered</a>, committing to carry me to term - at great personal cost to herself. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was adopted, but all was not well. My adoptive mom, a
brilliant woman, suffered from mental illness and I sometimes
suffered at the hands of that which haunted her. Years later, after I was married and had children
of my own, her paranoia pushed her to cast me out of her life completely - re-orphaning
me in the dust. She told me that she no longer loved me and really never had. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Those are hard words to hear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">At
her request, the relationship remained severed until only a few weeks before
her death. In God's kindness she allowed me to be with her as she died - even asking me to wash her feet during her final day of clear cognition. Her last words were spoken to me in that moment. As I kneeled before her with basin and towel in hand, remembering 4 decades of struggle and strife, she simply said, "Please forgive me." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I did forgive her - because Christ has forgiven me!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My adolescence was spent as an angry atheist. From my earliest years I had longed to know
and understand God, but my constant questions were either met with petty pat
answers, calls to blind belief, or hypocritical hubris. Fed up with it all, I turned
the page on God in high school and began a new chapter of theistic disdain.
That section of my story could best be described as <i>“a
dark and stormy night.”</i></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On top of all these things, as an adult I was diagnosed with
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) – a malady I’ve had all my life, but one that slipped
under the medical radar of the 70’s due, in part, to a lack of understanding of
the autism spectrum (particularly as it relates to higher functioning
females). That autism was a constant and
painful (albeit anonymous) companion throughout every scene of my story. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It still is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not only do I live with ASD <i>personally</i>, but also
<i>parentally</i>. My 12 year old son, Josh, is
also diagnosed with autism - thus our stories share a common theme by virtue of
a common thorn. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, lest you think this is an article by Lemony Snicket,
let me assure you that this is no mere <i>“Series
of Unfortunate Events.” </i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the
people of God all of our stories, even our dark stories, are ultimately
redemption stories. <i>Every</i> story of <i>every</i>
Christian is faithfully written down by two glorious hands – the hand of God’s
providence and the hand of His grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Providence is that sovereign skill by which God faithfully
foreordains whatsoever comes to pass. At
times providence can seem to frown, and frown fiercely. Just think of Joseph and Job! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But, things aren’t always as they seem on the
surface, particularly not in a gospel economy.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ptSvkLTOA9HDwb24I_TpHemlNyuYulv5-clLvSZXnxjAMf9HHJJ8dlu4ll97y50gd_-C9x1FO22oRCzu6fx0w-23bTY2DyQUsyS52jxYYToK8Vtf-2HdqlO1BniRtWlAbkBA2ZMkA6BY/s1600/cowper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ptSvkLTOA9HDwb24I_TpHemlNyuYulv5-clLvSZXnxjAMf9HHJJ8dlu4ll97y50gd_-C9x1FO22oRCzu6fx0w-23bTY2DyQUsyS52jxYYToK8Vtf-2HdqlO1BniRtWlAbkBA2ZMkA6BY/s320/cowper.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">William Cowper reminds us that <i>“behind a frowning providence, God hides a smiling face.”</i> That <i>“smiling
face”</i> is God’s amazing grace! It’s
the redemptive way in which our heavenly Father, the ultimate story weaver,
perfectly and purposely knits trouble, trial, and even tragedy into the epic of
our lives. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He does so, not to make us bitter, but to make us </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">better</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By grace, every
stinging stitch of our story is being used to conform us more and more to the
image of Christ. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yes, i</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">t’s true, much of my story has been hard; but the greater
truth is that in the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hard</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> things God
has been working </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">good</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> things. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Adultery, abortion, adoption, abandonment, atheism,
autism – all of the scarlet “A’s” in my story have been divinely ordained to
drive me deeply into Jesus. Could there be a better end to any story than that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While my growing in knowing Jesus has been the <i>primary</i> plot of providence
and grace, there have been quite a few remarkable <i>sub</i> plots sewn throughout my
story. One of those sub plots relates to autism. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">God, being the incredible author that He is, has allowed me to see how the
characters of my ever present autism coupled with those of my hard dying atheism create a unique
tension in my tale. Let me try and explain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Recently, PLoSONE did a <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0036880">study</a> on autism and belief in God.
The results of that study suggest that people with autism are only 11% as likely
to believe in God as those without autism. They suggest that this is due, in part, to the autistic struggle
with <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theory%20of%20mind?s=t">“theory of mind”</a> – i.e. being able to mentalize or assess what another is
thinking (in this case the "another" would be God.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While I can’t know for sure the accuracy of that
statistic, I can say that from the experience of my own life and from the
conversations I have with many other higher functioning folks with ASD, it really doesn’t surprise me one bit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I came to Christ in college, thanks to six gals who cared
enough to step into my story of unbelief. They faithfully proclaimed the gospel
to me, prayed that I’d be enabled to grasp it, and were continually present in
the affairs of my daily life, allowing me to see <i>“Christ in them, the hope of glory.” </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I did see Christ in them and, by grace through faith, I ran
to Him in repentance. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mine was a radical conversion. I often describe it as a
high speed cognitive car crash on a modern day Damascus Road. My faith didn’t come easily and wasn’t
entered into lightly. I kicked against the goads all along the way and the road
trip to redemption whiplashed every square inch of my philosophical frame. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Like Jacob, my wrestling with God – even with
the God whose existence I questioned – left me with a limp, but in that limp
was life!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In spite of a radical conversion, at times I still war
against the old vestiges of atheistic doubt. The fiercest season of that fight happened
about 7 years ago when I, PCA church pastor's wife that I am, found myself
suddenly fainting in my faith and questioning if anything that I said I
believed was truly believable.</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuo1DnLONbCPJkUUt6HfmxBKxgExS5S2xBuV2B85562ehUYgXZl19O9_QzzK0MTEzEVP8e_U1k58C-jupd0IW3V5k7XtAdXTUUx-untxkAjwfxEhljSsf6PTIqtDL6NhsdatPAEvr6O_VC/s1600/achiles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuo1DnLONbCPJkUUt6HfmxBKxgExS5S2xBuV2B85562ehUYgXZl19O9_QzzK0MTEzEVP8e_U1k58C-jupd0IW3V5k7XtAdXTUUx-untxkAjwfxEhljSsf6PTIqtDL6NhsdatPAEvr6O_VC/s200/achiles.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This deep and almost metaphysical duel with
doubt looked to many as if it might be the hamartia of my Greek tragedy. In the rare moments that I was actually able
to pray, I weakly echoed the words of that dear dad in Mark 9, <i>“I believe, help my unbelief.” </i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our
merciful Savior did help my unbelief, carrying me through those dark days, and
in the process shedding light on the physical Achilles’ heel that has played
such a role in every chapter of the story of my life – autism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since my diagnosis with ASD, I’ve learned much. One thing I’ve
learned is that my struggles with doubt seem to be uniquely linked to my
struggles with autism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You see, autism is a neurological disorder that affects certain areas
of normal brain function. <i>One </i>of the
affected areas is in how the brain processes the 5 senses, and I believe this
may be a key to help unlock some of the mystery of ASD faith struggles – at
least it has helped me unlock some of my own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With autism there is a neurological “disconnect” in the way
that sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch filter through the body. That “disconnect”
influences how we view, interpret, and interact with the world around us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you think about
it, the 5 senses are the primary way in which people discern reality and come
to understand their environment. We <i>see</i>
a person, <i>hear</i> a bird, <i>smell</i> a flower, <i>taste</i> a piece of chocolate, or <i>feel</i> a
hug from a friend and come to believe in the existence of that which we have
just “sensed.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the person with ASD, it is as if much of life is interpreted
via the short circuiting route of a neurologically frayed wire - think of a frayed stereo speaker wire. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The “wire” through which sight, sound, smell,
taste, and feeling (physical and emotional) travels is “frayed.” It has a “short” in it and therefore, sensorial
things sometimes reach us with a great deal of “static” and confusion attached. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That “static” affects how we discern our
surroundings and at times the electrifying physical pain which ensues can cause
us to want to “unplug” from those surroundings. Perhaps that will help you understand the
moments when a person with ASD seems unplugged and disconnected from the things
around them. The truth is, we are –
and by necessity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This autistic static can serve as an aggravating source of
struggle in processing through and connecting to what I call the “real” of life. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKiblt9qAO3FrZL6AQLPSEQdgaTVomXrzUk-ZaK8kgce_9Ij07mJNJv2dP4KsRFO9TxcUaqmkkZHnpcPxy5DeduBiCZTb8vY3bw65yTGb7kbNzVS9liTZBoHLGcIhVQ9qgR3TNhEmkAjqO/s1600/frayed+wire+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKiblt9qAO3FrZL6AQLPSEQdgaTVomXrzUk-ZaK8kgce_9Ij07mJNJv2dP4KsRFO9TxcUaqmkkZHnpcPxy5DeduBiCZTb8vY3bw65yTGb7kbNzVS9liTZBoHLGcIhVQ9qgR3TNhEmkAjqO/s1600/frayed+wire+4.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take the
frayed wire scenario of autistic struggle to connect with the things of the <i>physical</i> world and transpose it into the
autistic struggle to connect with the things of the <i>spiritual</i> world. If that
which is <i>tangible</i> is so hard to grasp,
then how much harder that which is <i>intangible</i>? If discerning the <i>seen</i> is such a struggle, then how much more is discerning the <i>unseen</i>? Perhaps enough to explain the
staggering statistic of the PLoSONE study!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my personal story of faith and doubt, the frayed wire of
my <i>neurology</i> has played a recurring role in the narrative conflict of my
<i>theology</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The way I’m physically wired
has a unique correlation to how I spiritually struggle. My doubt and my disability are related – that
gives me no excuse for sinful doubt, I must repent of that, but it surely helps
me to understand why doubt is such an aggravating thorn in my flesh. Like Paul, the persistent prick of that thorn
forces me to see that the grace of Jesus is sufficient for all that I face. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How thankful I am for the preserving grace of
an omnipotent and compassionate God; a God who knows my frame because He formed
my frame; a God <i>“who is able to keep me
from falling, and to make me stand in the presence of His glory blameless and
with great joy;”</i> a God who gave me autism <i>“that the works of God might be displayed</i>” in my weakness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am often asked, “So Lori, how does the church hold forth
the gospel and minister grace to people with autism in ways that are helpful
and not hurtful?” It’s a great question,
because sadly the church has done much that has been hurtful rather than
helpful to folks and families living with ASD. Our own family has endured quite a few
hurtful things at the hands of Christ’s bride. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The answer to that is really an article all its own. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In regard to holding forth the
gospel in an evangelistic sense:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We could talk about the ways that altar call emotionalism and a
simplistic summons to blind faith can serve as pitfalls rather than pathways to
grasping the gospel. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We could walk through the autistic struggle to understand
an intangible God and discuss how the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is
presented in God’s perfect Word, builds a tangible bridge to that intangible God. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We could look at the idea of rest and the fact that physical rest is utterly unknown to
so many who live with autism; and from there we could dialogue as to why
settling into the call to rest in Christ is such a mystery. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And finally, we
could take some time looking at the simple means of grace: proclaiming,
praying, and practicing the presence of the gospel when our stories intersect
with the stories of a soul on the spectrum - just as six college students did
when their stories intertwined with mine. </span></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There’s much that could and should be said about how the
church can best help those who live with ASD. For now, I would simply encourage
you to care about those who live with ASD. <u>That is the foundational starting point for all the rest</u>. The horror stories I hear, and
the ones that I’ve experienced, have <i>all</i> ultimately flowed from a lack of
compassionate concern and a lack of interest in trying to understand. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, if you want to minister grace to the person with ASD then I would simply call you to </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">care</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">! </span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Care</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">about that man, that woman, that
child, that family who is struggling as they war their way through the angst of
autism. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Care enough to get to know
them. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Care enough to seek to understand
them. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Care about them <i>as Christ has
cared about you</i> – with intentional compassion. </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Look for ways to compassionately enter their story even as Christ has compassionately entered yours! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jesus entered into the chaos of
our stories with intentional gospel compassion at His incarnation and at our regeneration. In so doing, He has turned our
divine comedies, allegorical adventures, and Greek tragedies into the greatest
love story ever told. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">May we learn to love those
with ASD, and everyone else we meet, as Christ has loved us; and as we do, may
we see the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“happily ever after”</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of
the gospel begin to bear its eternal fruit in the narrative of our eternal tale. </span><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-75411339798708302802015-04-16T14:27:00.000-04:002017-04-12T09:00:29.061-04:00His Absence Changes Everything<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjQYPy1UXRZEwz3uHjpVhpyQwZkX-yhJNzzXG2vts7ew71Lsk3mScC1MWAJ3Wr2i6vtYREfzjrBRe9nYOxKAEWVZqecE6Bh2IErzLU5Rvt-OqyvSv2Zzn7xX9FWPgQg17af9Fx7c1AqK3G/s1600/absence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjQYPy1UXRZEwz3uHjpVhpyQwZkX-yhJNzzXG2vts7ew71Lsk3mScC1MWAJ3Wr2i6vtYREfzjrBRe9nYOxKAEWVZqecE6Bh2IErzLU5Rvt-OqyvSv2Zzn7xX9FWPgQg17af9Fx7c1AqK3G/s1600/absence.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">This past
Friday I was filling out a form that required me to write down the day’s
date. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The date was April 10</span><sup style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">, and
as is always the case, seeing that date sent a flood of memories surging through my
mind. I shared the following statement
on my Facebook page not long after having traveled back through the corridor of
time:</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>“April
10, 19<u>85</u> ... 30 years ago.<br /> </i></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>On
that date, I was a sophomore in high school - one who'd grown deeply weary of
living. It was a bright and sunny
Wednesday outside, but in my heart and head all was bleak and black.</i></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>I skipped
school that day, after having purchased a bottle full of pills - pills that I thought
might finally lead me to a place of peace and rest, for in my life I knew no
peace and rest. </i></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>I was a weary young
woman who had no hope and I was on the verge of my first true consideration of
and attempt at suicide.</i></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>I
battled against that bottle for hours, finally flinging it aside - not from a
place of <u>faith</u> that things would get better in life, but from one of <u>fear</u> that
I might fail in my attempt and find myself in even worse straits than the
current moment contained. </i></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While
my reason for remaining wasn't the best (and wouldn't truly be resolved until
years later when once again I sat in a suicidal state and was met by the saving
mercy of Christ), I am thankful for the fear that foiled my foolishness.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, 30 years later, I'm thankful for April 10, 20<u>15</u> - thankful that I'm even here to write this post, thankful for all the other manifold moments of mercy that have met me, and thankful for the sovereign grace of God that has kept me. HE is why I am here."</i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>
</i></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The comments on my page resounded with cries of thanksgiving,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> gladness, j</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">oy, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">praise. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The post was seen as </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">good</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> news in the face of what could have been the most macabre of moments.</span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The next evening, while scanning my Facebook news feed, I ran across a post from an old high school friend. I was surprised to see that it was a “cut and paste” version of the quote
above. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What had been “cut” was any record of my Redeemer. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here’s how it read:</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; margin: 12pt 0in;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Anonymous pal: ‘April
10, 1985… I was a sophomore in high school who’d grown deeply weary of
living. It was a bright and sunny
Wednesday outside, but in my heart and head all was bleak and black. I skipped school that day, after having purchased
a bottle full of pills - pills that I thought might finally lead me to a place of peace
and rest. I was a weary young woman who had no hope and I was on
the verge of my first true consideration of and attempt at suicide. </span></span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I battled against that bottle for hours – finally flinging
it aside from fear. M</span></span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">y reasoning wasn’t the best and years later I sat again in a suicidal state.”</span></span></i> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Several people commented on his post.</span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 12pt 0in;">
<i><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“How tragic.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 12pt 0in;">
<i><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“How sad.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 12pt 0in;">
<i><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“How awful.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 12pt 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And
I thought – <i>“How correct … </i></span></span><br />
<i style="color: #141823; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ... at least as
the story is presented.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 12pt 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I stared at those words as he had shared them – </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> empty words, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> hopeless words,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> words void of the Hero who helped me, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> words without even an inkling of gospel grace.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 12pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I stared at that oddly abridged version I was stunned at what was missing in the message, and at the difference made by its vacancy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My story <i>with Jesus Christ removed</i></span><i style="color: #141823; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> is</i><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> indeed</span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "tragic,"</span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and "sad,"</span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and "awful," </span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span><i style="color: #141823; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">completely </i><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">different than it now in fact is!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 12pt 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The life changing
presence of Jesus Christ is that which was and still is behind who I am, and is behind the very fact <i><u>that</u> </i>I am. </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That "partial" post reminded me that<u> His absence changes everything</u>. </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But, so does His presence. </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>His presence also changes everything</u> - in a radically redemptive way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 12pt 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because of His <i>presence</i>, April 10,
1985 is the date that is <i><u>not</u></i> etched on my tombstone. </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Somehow the
Savior, who at that time was unknown to me (and utterly despised by me), providentially stepped in and stayed
my self sought execution. I
know not why, but I laud His glorious grace and sovereign
mercy in sparing me my life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because of His continually pursuing presence, three years later, August 18, 1988 would become the date that <i><u>is</u></i> <i>eternally</i> etched beside my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. On that date God opened my blind eyes to finally see that which had been invisibly before them every step of the way - <i>Himself, through</i> <i>His Son -</i> the gentle Shepherd who had been guiding and guarding me through every inch of the valley of the shadow of death wherein I once wandered. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jesus had been my unseen <i>temporal</i> Savior for decades </span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">intervening in the
abortion that almost ended my existence</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">keeping me amidst the hardships of
home</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">sustaining me in the face of autism’s angst – even prior to having that
label unloaded.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That August day, as I sought to <i>end</i> my life yet again, He chose to <i>give</i> me life - real life, abundant life - <i><u>through
His life</u></i>. That day He revealed
Himself as my <i>eternal</i> Savior, Substitute, and Surety: </span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the <i>sinless</i> <i>Savior</i> who entered into time and space, living the life I couldn’t live, the life that a holy God justly requires of His
creation; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the <i>sacrificing</i> <i>Substitute</i> who
died the sinner’s death I deserved as the wage for my unending acts of divine
treason against my Maker; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the <i>successful</i> and <i>sufficient Surety</i> who left an empty tomb and ascended to a heavenly home - proof that the price for my redemption had been paid in full
by His love and labor.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Things have never been the same since that day, and I must admit, as I ponder these things it is crystal clear to me that </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>His absence changes everything</u> - <i>everything -</i> in my story. You see:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">without Him I am no longer here - I am dead by my own hand;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">apart from Him I have no song worth singing - it is His mercy that makes my melodies; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">sans His forgiveness of me I cannot
find a way (nor a real reason) to </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">truly</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> forgive those who
have heaped such horrendous hurt upon me;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">deprived of His presence and promise - which carry me through the chaos of my menacing autistic malady - the nightmare of my neurology
would utterly undo me and we'd be back at the attempted actions of April 10, 1985, but with far different results.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #141823;">Friend, I understand that you may not care
for this One who means everything to me.
I recognize that you may currently be in that place where I once was – hating
the very thought of Him, viewing His story as a foolish fairy-tale, despising
those who claim His name and blaming them for your unbelief because …well, sadly because far too often they (we/me) act
like bigoted jerks – rude, obnoxious, unloving, unholy, hypocritical. How poorly we often represent Him. (I'm sorry.) </span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #141823;">But, regardless of anyone's lack of care for Christ and disgust towards Christians, my story remains the same. </span></span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In spite of any argument you can offer, </span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">this is my story and this is my song and t</span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">his
is where I stand – </span><i style="color: #141823; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with</i><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Jesus, </span><i style="color: #141823; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on</i><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Jesus, </span><i style="color: #141823; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in</i><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Jesus.</span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Remove Him from my story and you’ve made that
which is marvelous an absolute mess.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seeing my friend's cut and paste post without my
Savior’s presence was striking to me. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How thankful I am that although men may seek (even unwittingly) to re-write my story and to erase that which is its central theme, the
truth is that my story is written in indelible ink, with immutable grace, and by an imperishable covenant ratified by an infinite God.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nothing and no one can sever or separate me
from the love and the life that is mine in Christ Jesus – nor can they sever or
separate you if you come to Him in repentance of your sin and by faith in His finished work on your behalf. (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A1-39&version=ESV">Romans 8:1-39.</a>)</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #141823; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What I've found to be true in my life is that His <i>absence</i> changes everything - in the <i>worst</i> of ways. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What I am equally assured of through His Word and in the Ebennezers of my own experience is that His <i>presence</i> not only transforms everything for the better, but actually<i> </i></span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>is</b></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> everything - it is true life, true light, and true love. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That He<i> is</i>, is why I <i>am</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To live is Christ and because of Him one day, when my dying finally does come (by His hand and not my own) it will be my greatest gain. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How thankful I am - thankful that though someone may be able to remove my Redeemer's name from the written record of a Facebook post, none can remove my Redeemer's propitiating presence from my life. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Soli Deo Gloria!</span></div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-19832989249481925762014-12-10T11:29:00.001-05:002015-10-28T10:26:16.856-04:00Pitfalls & Pathways to Grasping the Gospel: Lessons From the Life of a Saint on the Spectrum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Below you'll find a video version of a workshop I presented at <i>"The Accessible Kingdom Conference"</i> which was sponsored by Joni & Friends and MNA's Special Needs Ministry. <br /><br />It was an honor to be involved in this event and a privilege to be asked to speak on the important issue of autism and evangelism. </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Here is a copy of the YouTube link if that is easier for you (</span></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuAHmFUZvqM)">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuAHmFUZvqM</a>) and I've also included a print version of the workshop in the "read more" section if that is more helpful.</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><b><u>A PART OF MY OWN PILGRIMAGE.</u></b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A.
Coming to Christ – exiting atheism.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">As many of
my readers know, I’m adopted and I was adopted by an incredibly well-educated
couple who had been unable to have children of their own.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">My mom and my dad did a wonderful job
providing for my physical, intellectual, and artistic needs.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">In many ways, I am who I am today because of
them. I am thankful for God’s perfect providence in placing me exactly where He
would have me.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were
involved in church, but during my adolescence I began to feel as if church was
just a thing we did rather than Christ being the true core of who we were. Something
just seemed kind of “off kilter” inside of me where the spiritual was
concerned. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From a very
young age I had a real interest in wanting to understand the concept of
God. I was full of deep theological and
philosophical questions about Him – questions about His essence and being, questions
about how we could <i>REALLY</i> know that
He <i>really</i> was. They were questions that weren’t satisfied
with pat answers, but pat answers were often what I received.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Within my
church climate I was regularly encouraged to stop with all of the questioning
and “just believe” because much of God was a “mystery” and exercising blind
faith was a “blessing.” The pat answers didn’t appease and ended up creating
even more questions than I’d started out with!<i>
<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wondered
if anyone <i>really</i> believed and I wondered
if anyone who said they believed really had a solid reason to do so. Doubts
began to grow like weeds in the soil of my critical thinking and I became
consumed by the weeds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On certain Sundays
I watched as people headed down to the altar, “moved” by the preacher’s words
or the singer’s song. It seemed that the
feeling of fear drove some and that an overwhelming awareness of love<b> </b>prodded others. There was pleading from the pulpit and extended
play versions of “Just As I Am” from the choir, and there were often tears, sometimes lots of tears. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At times it was an emotional scene and that emotionalism made me physically uncomfortable. To this day I can remember
rocking back and forth in the pew, trying to make the caustic sensations of what was happening
all around me go away. Obviously, I didn’t “feel” what others were feeling,
because as things unfolded, I wanted to bolt out the back rather than walk down
to the front! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On top of these
things, in my own home there was just a lot of duplicity<b>.</b> In public there was talk (and
even teaching) about belief in the Bible, the hope of heaven, and of Jesus who
died for sinners. But behind closed
doors my mom discussed a different doctrine with me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During my
childhood she shared that she didn’t see Bible as the inerrant and infallible
Word of God, but rather viewed it as a nice moral guide. While a helpful book, it was full of allegorical
myth, legend, and lore. Therefore, as we read the Bible we needed to use our minds to
determine whether or not things within it were true. Ultimately, we were the arbiters of
truth, separating fact from fiction. </span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mom also didn’t believe in a literal heaven
or hell, but held to a form of karma based reincarnation. During those years she shared
with me that she didn’t even believe that Jesus had actually died on the cross,
but thought He’d slipped into a coma and later awakened. That was her explanation
for the resurrection. </span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I struggled with
the duplicity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As time passed my questions
increased and my doubts spread like wildfire across the plain of my brain! I wrestled more and more with the Bible’s “seeming”
logical fallacies, with the entire concept of the supernatural and with how we
could ever truly know it, as well as with what seemed to be the lying lives and
lips of so many I knew who called themselves Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In high
school I finally became fed up with what I had dubbed the “faith farce” and began to consider
myself an atheist (although I sadly practiced my own forms of public and
private duplicity). Those years were
tumultuous. I was filled with anger, rebellion, deceit, and despair. I was
fighting to understand the meaning of life in a world that seemed to ultimately be
without meaning. I read everything
philosophical I could get my young hands on, including the writings of Nietzsche,
and I was intrigued by his ideas of existence in a world where "God was dead." Thinking on his thoughts – his ultimately hopeless thoughts - I understood why
the famed philosopher ended his days in a catatonic state - after all, what was there to live for
in his framework? I
struggled with that question myself, nearly ending my life at least 10 times
during those dark days.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As high
school came to a close I was planning to move to New York to attend the Julliard
School. Piano was the only thing that gave my life some joy and my soul some
solace. But my parents said “no” to New
York and I ended up going to a small women’s college not far from our front
door in Spartanburg, SC. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was
devastated at the death of a dream, but I have since seen that “<i>while man plans his ways, God ordains his
steps!” </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Within days of entering the school that I didn’t want to be at, the
Savior of sinners had ordained that my steps would intersect with those of 6
Christians – Christians who were completely different from any other Christians
I had ever encountered anywhere. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">They were
thoughtful, intelligent, fun, sincere, and unafraid of my questions (even when they
didn’t have answers to them). They were willing
to converse with my criticisms and they truly cared about me. Their genuine care was obvious. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I was
intrigued by them, but I was also disturbed by their faith. How could these
intelligent women believe the bunk of the Bible?</span><i style="line-height: 115%;"> </i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Wishing to do them a
“favor” I set out to destroy their faith by means of a horrible, pathologically
contrived scenario that I thought would undo them and end any hope they had in
their </span><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">fairy-tale</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Father.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the
course of a year, I set out to work them over with manipulative mind games. They set out to pray for my salvation and to point me to Jesus and to His Word
- ever encouraging me to <i>“take up and
read”</i> the Bible rather than just bristle up and talk against it; ever
sharing with me the declarations of that Bible in spite of my deep disdain for
them; and ever exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit described in that Bible in
how they dealt with me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They lived,
loved, and lauded the intangible God in a tangible way, and as they did, they eventually wore
me down. </span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As these young college gals remained faithful to pray for me, as they
were consistent to proclaim the Word of Christ to me, and as they continually lived
the presence of the gospel of God’s grace out before me (loving me as I’d never
been loved) the scales of sin, which had kept me in blinding spiritual darkness, fell off and I suddenly saw who Jesus was and what He had done on my behalf. By
grace through faith I turned from my sin and fell upon the finished work of
Christ as my only help and my only hope.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I often
describe my conversion as a modern day Damascus road transformation coupled
with a high speed cognitive car crash! It
left me a deeply changed person </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">and</i><span style="line-height: 115%;">
it </span><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">whip-lashed</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> every square millimeter of my philosophical frame. It was a beautiful thing and it was a painful
thing! To all who witnessed this transformation, there was no doubt that I was
a “</span><i style="line-height: 115%;">new creature in Christ” </i><span style="line-height: 115%;">and that</span><i style="line-height: 115%;"> “the old was gone and the new had come.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>B.
Crisis in Christ – accepting autism.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, in
spite of such a radical conversion, my life in Christ even from the earliest moments
has also been accompanied with some seasons of crisis in Christ – moments where
I faint in the faith. The longest and most severe of those crises happened in
2009 and was actually used by God to unveil the autism that had been my ever constant, shadowy, albeit anonymous companion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Throughout
my life, <i>post-</i>Jesus, there has always
been a dark, daunting black thread of doubt that has woven its way across that tapestry of my soul.
I always viewed it as a scar of my former atheism. It nagged and it annoyed. It was an unwanted reminder of my old
unbelief, but it had always been in the background – subdued, poking and
pricking at me, but not breaking through the surface in any conquering fashion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2009 that
black thread became the size of a tram car cable. It burst its way to the
foreground, jumped my jugular and seemed as if it would take me down. The old atheistic doubts about the existence
of God were on me like salt on a snail and I couldn’t seem to escape them. I was honest with my husband (who is also my
pastor) about what was happening and he truly sought to help and encourage, but
all of his seminary training and practical ministry experience was falling
short on this one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Together, we sought
out other pastors and counselors trusting that someone would have an answer. Many sought to uncover some "secret
sin" that must<i> </i>be lurking below the
surface for me to be having such deep and debilitating doubts. I remember one
pastor saying, <i>“These kind of doubts always
have a moral issue attached!”</i> </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">As
they dug around in all of my closets looking for sketchy skeletons no skeletons
appeared, and one by one each of those pastors and counselors </span><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">succumbed</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> to shrugging their shoulders. They promised to pray, and </span><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">figuratively</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> patted me on the head as they sent me on my merry way with some “Scripture pills” to hopefully help soothe my symptoms. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">No one seemed
to know what to do with me – and my Nietzsche-like hopelessness was ever
increasing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, two
years into this unrelenting battle, God ordained my path to cross with a
Biblical counselor who took a real interest in these strange doubts that I was
experiencing. I call them strange (as
did she) because they were doubts unlike anything she had run across in 20+
years of clinical experience. (Obviously
they were unlike anything that anyone we’d talked to had ever run across!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, I wasn’t
doubting my salvation. It wasn’t a William Cowper kind of experience where I
was wrestling with reprobation. I knew I
was resting, not in my works or deeds, but in Christ alone to save me, as the
Bible declares, and I knew that <i>if God
existed</i> then His promises were for me.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I also wasn’t
trying to hold on to some secret sin</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">(like
Gollum clinging to his precious ring) and therefore I wasn’t looking to get God
out of the way for my own selfish gain.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a strange
place where I had landed - an almost metaphysical place. My doubts were of the
primordial realm. They were not merely <i>“Do
I believe in God?”</i> but more fundamentally they were, <i>“Is there even a God to believe in?”</i> Even more foundationally they were <i>“is there even ANYTHING to believe in?<b>”</b> </i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Truth be
told, at the root I was struggling to know if I could know reality itself. (If you’re familiar with modern movies, it was
like my entire life was an odd morphing of “The Matrix” meets “Inception.” Perhaps that will help you understand a bit better, or maybe it will confuse you all the more!!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This deep
struggle of mine to believe in “reality” was a new one for my counselor. She
was convinced that it was clearly not a schizophrenic state of delusion, but
something very very different and incredibly unique. She began to excavate every square inch of the
issue with the skill of Sherlock, and as she excavated she uncovered a life
load of evidence that led us straight to the gate of autism. There were external behaviors, internal manifestations,
and even areas of what she called “savant-like” giftedness that all pointed to
autism – the autism that I, for decades, had fought with all my might to subdue
in order to hide my “weirdness” from the watching world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So much
could be written about this leg of my journey, but for the purposes of this
post I simply want to return to this odd sounding struggle with believing in and understanding reality, because I think it relates to the struggle that many folks on the spectrum
have (particularly higher functioning folks on the spectrum) with feeling an
inability to believe in God and to connect with Christ. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want
to help you understand, through a part of my pilgrimage, a thing that I call autistic
static<b>.</b> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>C.
Connecting with Christ – Understanding Autistic Static.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">A little
over a year ago the Public Library of Science did a study on autism and belief
in God. In that study they determined that people with autism are only 11% as likely to
believe in God as their neuro-typical counterparts. (That means that for every
100 people without autism who believe in God only 11 people with autism will.)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">It is a staggering statistic and I think that
my own odd crisis in Christ might help you understand that statistic a little
bit better.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Realize that
for many people living with autism there is a neurological and psychological “disconnect”
from what I call the “real” of life.<b> </b>Think about it: that which is known and experienced as “real”
in this world is typically discerned through the use of the 5 senses. We <i>see</i>
a person, <i>hear </i>a bird, <i>taste</i> a piece of chocolate, <i>feel </i>a hug from a friend, <i>smell</i> a flower, and we come to believe
in the existence of that which we’ve just “sensed.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the
unfortunate disabling marks of autism is that there is a deep neurological disconnect
in the way that the 5 senses work and process in us. You’ve probably noticed that people with ASD
often struggle with sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. This sensorial
glitch is part of the reason.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the person
with autism, it is as if much of life is conducted along the short circuiting route of a neurologically frayed wire. The “wire” through which sight, sound, smell, taste and feeling (both
physical and emotional) travel, is frayed and has a <i>“</i>short<i>”</i> in it. Therefore,
sensorial things reach us with a great deal of static attached. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You might think
of a frayed stereo speaker wire. At moments that wire may allow the stereo’s
song to come through fairly clear and clean, but then suddenly it’s all snap,
crackle and pop with lots of overwhelming white noise, and then just as suddenly
there’s no noise at all because nothing is getting through the wire at all. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Welcome to life with autism! </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For us, a
really good connection to the stereo of life is pretty hard to ever find. Try as we might to connect with the things of
this world, we always seem to end up with the “crackling,” “sparking,” static-y
white noise of disconnect.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another way
that I sometimes describe this disconnect (at least as it shows up in me) is to
think of life as being seen and experienced as if it was on film. Lori (the lady w/ ASD) is sitting in the
movie theater watching the film of life from a distance, separated by a screen
that makes the 3 dimensional reality that’s happening on the other side appear
merely 2 dimensional to me.<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here I am on
<i>this</i> side of the screen and there you
all are on <i>that<b> </b></i>side as life unfolds. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I can see
what’s happening over there, and in a weird way I even seem to kind of participate
in the scenes, but I can’t ever really get past the screen and <i>to</i> you. There’s always a veiled disconnect because of the movie screen. No matter how hard I try to break through, no matter how
much I strive to interact with all of you thespians over there in 3D land in a
3D way, I remain stuck in the 2D theater
– flat, isolated, and disconnected.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, why do I
tell you this? Well, I believe that
these examples can help you understand that for the person living with autism, <i>physical</i> life is often (if not always)
“frayed” and “veiled” and "disconnected" to some degree – causing it to not
always seem real and causing us to rarely seem a true part of it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, what I
want you to do is transpose those scenarios – the frayed wire and the movie
screen –from the autistic struggle to connect to the things of the <i>physical</i> world into the autistic
struggle to connect with the things of the <i>spiritual</i>
one. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If that
which is <i>tangible</i> is such a struggle,
then how much more are those things which are <i>intangible</i>? If the <i>seen </i>is so full of static, then how much
more the <i>unseen</i>? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friends, I’m
here to tell you that the disconnect is daunting! No wonder those on the spectrum are said to
be only 11% as likely to believe in God as those who don’t! <b style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAWHDdL1U0j6NXy2oQoiwg-ZkW2xh7qG_JAg4f2HXCtuBjCIHK0rIy3WFvobP7zJsTy6GlHZNzAWmqd-PrrgXGK-mJL3_47FLRVVwP4U8OERk6UEYwGcALor3G-kA5qfr743H2m4PeUcfj/s1600/pitfall+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAWHDdL1U0j6NXy2oQoiwg-ZkW2xh7qG_JAg4f2HXCtuBjCIHK0rIy3WFvobP7zJsTy6GlHZNzAWmqd-PrrgXGK-mJL3_47FLRVVwP4U8OERk6UEYwGcALor3G-kA5qfr743H2m4PeUcfj/s1600/pitfall+3.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><u><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PITFALLS TO GRASPING THE GOSPEL<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, with all
of that foundation laid, I want to move into the more practical nuts and bolts
of this post: the pitfalls and; the pathways to grasping the gospel. As I do so, I want to ask you to think on a
question that was recently asked of me. <i>“Is it harder for a person living with
autism to believe?”<b><o:p></o:p></b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I’ve
ruminated on that question, I have to answer with a resounding “no” and then I
have to add to it an equally resounding “yes”! (I know, I sound like one of the politicians from the most recent election, eh?!) Let me try and clarify.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We
all face pitfalls that make coming to Christ difficult, if not downright
impossible. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In thinking
through this question, I want you to recognize, first of all, that there are pitfalls
that are common to man. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A.
There Are Pitfalls That Are Common to Man.</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The Bible
plainly declares that </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">all</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> people are
born spiritually disabled.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">It tells us
that we are </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">all</i><span style="line-height: 115%;">, by nature, born blind
– we cannot see spiritual light; deaf – we cannot hear spiritual truth; “dumb”
(and by that I mean stupid not mute) – we cannot understand spiritual
things.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">On top of all of that it tells
us that, by nature, we are</span><b style="line-height: 115%;"> </b><span style="line-height: 115%;">DEAD</span><b style="line-height: 115%;"> </b><span style="line-height: 115%;">– and it don’t get much more disabled
than dead do it?!</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the
Bible’s description of our natural state we learn that every single person who
was, is, and ever will be, stands on equal spiritual footing (regardless of
physical strength or weakness, mental ability or disability, environmental
upbringing, and social status or stigma.)
We are all dead and in absolutely desperate need of an outside source – a merciful
and omnipotent Divine outside source –
to step in and resurrect us if we are ever to come to Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because we
are dead in sin, belief is completely and equally unattainable for <i>any</i> of us in our own strength and <i>all</i> of
us who have arrived at the place of grace have arrived there as a result of
God’s miraculous and merciful intervention.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now dwell on
that, for because of it we can honestly say <i>“No, it is not any harder for the person living
with autism to believe,” </i>because apart from God sovereignly stepping in and
granting us eyes to see, ears to hear, a mind to understand, and a new life to live
<u>it is utterly impossible for <i>any</i>
of us to believe</u>! </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you see that? It’s an important point.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are all
in a completely disabled mess when it comes to belief. Thus, the resounding “no” to the question. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now,
what about that equally resounding “yes”?
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, one of
the things that I want you to glean from this post is that while there are
pitfalls that are common to man there are also pitfalls that are unique to autism.<i> <span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>B.
There Are Pitfalls That Are Unique to Autism.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">While all are
born spiritually disabled, people with autism are born uniquely wired.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve already
written about the struggle that the person with ASD may have with making a
clear “connection” in life.<i> </i>That alone can cause some faith
issues. Along with that important piece
of the puzzle I want to point out 4 additional pitfalls<b><u> </u></b>that <i>may </i>serve as
spiritual stumbling blocks to grasping of the gospel for the person who lives
life with autism.<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. The Pitfall of the Intangible.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Carly
Fleischman and Temple Grandin, two well-known ladies on the autism spectrum, have
referenced the difficulty they have in believing in God due to the intangible
nature of God.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">That intangibility was
one of the most confusing things for me during the years that I wrestled
through whether or not I believed in Him.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't forget that the
person who lives with autism is always trying to find a way to connect to a
life that continually feels disconnected.
We’re looking to find things that will moor us to the misty moment, steady us
in the sensory storm, and serve as a piece of “real” in an existence that
often seems so “un-real.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you think
again of the frayed wire scenario and of how hard it is for us to make a clear
connection in this life, then perhaps you can think of tangibles as being like the
electrical tape of life. Tangibles help
us to wrap up the loose wires (at least momentarily) enabling us to gain
even a nano-second of clearer connection – and believe me, I’ll take even a
nano-second of clarity!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I guess you
could say that tangibles tether us. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I
suppose on the flip side you could say that intangibles terrify us because they
seem to muddy our malady even more. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To me, the
idea of an intangible God (or the idea of an intangible anything) just seemed
like another thing that was going to strip my frayed wires further. And I wanted to avoid further fraying at all
costs!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fear of the intangible,
confusion about that which was not concrete, angst over that which seemed so abstract
– all of those things served as pitfalls that kept me from understanding how to
grasp the gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Recognize that
the need for tangibles <i>may</i> be
tripping up those whom you know and love who live with autism and are
struggling with belief.</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2.
The Pitfall of Emotionalism.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I referenced my struggle as a child to sit through my church’s altar calls.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Manipulative plays on emotion (well-meaning
as they were), attempts to stir up feelings in order to move a soul to move towards
Jesus, the tears, the fears – all of those things were <i>very</i> painful and <i>very</i>
confusing to me. They physical sensations and the bewildering nature of trying to rightly interpret what was going made me want to hide under the pew since I wasn’t able to
exit the sanctuary.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The emotionalism made me want to
run </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">from </i><span style="line-height: 115%;">Christ rather than </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">to</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you
interact with people on the spectrum, please realize that emotions are often an
uncomfortable mystery to us. I don’t
know why they are, but they simply are. I haven't yet discovered the words that even come close to explaining this one to you. In spite of all of my efforts, there are moments
when I smile when something’s sad, getting confused and having the wrong expression curl from my lip.
I don’t naturally “feel” motherly affection, although I love my children deeply
and work diligently at letting them know and sense that. At times I can appear rather of calloused to those around me. It’s not that I don’t feel or emote. I do.
It’s just that the amount of processing that my brain has to do to determine
how I am supposed to "rightly" respond to a situation doesn’t seem to leave a lot of room
for “feeling” in the way that many neuro-typical people “feel.” </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite how it may sometimes seem, the person on the spectrum is not an uncaring, mechanical robot. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The truth is
we’re created in the image of God, just like you, therefore we <i>do</i> feel and we
<i>do</i> emote. The blasted “disconnect” just gets in the way of our feeling and
emoting properly and makes us look like Mr. Spock far too often.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want you
to know that sometimes when you start trying to manipulate the frayed wire of
our emotions, when you start looking for ways to <i>force</i> our frayed emotional
plug into the wall socket of “normal” neuro-typical feeling, it may lead to
some form of an internal electrical fire for us. When our emotions get manipulated into
responding it can physically hurt, it can deeply confuse<i>, </i>it can seriously shut us down.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dear reader,
please note that trying to bring a soul with autism into the kingdom of Christ
by means of emotionalism can be a pretty painful pitfall and can cause us to
avoid those kinds of gospel conversations at all costs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s the
bottom line: Don’t try to force us to feel, simply encourage us to believe. <span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3.
The Pitfall of Not Knowing How to Truly Rest.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">At the heart
of the gospel we find the idea of resting in Christ.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">For me, both in my days of wrestling with
whether or not to put my faith in Christ, and even now as I still struggle from
time to time to believe the gospel, I have found the idea of rest to be a real
challenge to my autistic mind.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s why: I’m not sure that a person with autism ever
REALLY rests in this life. You see, the
autistic mind is <i>always</i> working in
some way. The autistic body is <i>always</i> fighting against and filtering
through some sensation. There seems to <i>always</i> be some form of action. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many on the
spectrum notoriously struggle with sleep. Even when I do sleep my husband has
told me that my toes move constantly. Those of you who have read much of my
story via other blog posts know that my toes play a BIG role in my survival and serve as a huge part
of my coping. Apparently that survival and coping doesn’t stop when the lights
go out!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A mind and a
body that never really rest always really want rest!! In the exhaustion that is
autism I find myself often struggling to remain a part of this world. I long to be able to exit this place, to cease to
exist, to finally let go, to really relax, to somehow escape – and I can’t seem
to ever find even a fleeting moment of any of that. (I wonder if this exhaustive inability to
rest explains the high number of higher functioning folks with ASD who give in
to drugs and alcohol. The self-medication may give some pseudo-sense of rest
amidst such restlessness.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Real rest just seems to be allusive to me. And it seems to be so for many whom I’ve talked to who suffer
with the effects of autism. In that allusiveness
I have found a great difficulty in understanding how to truly rest in the
gospel of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I see that
Jesus says, <i>“Come to Me, all you who are
weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,”</i> and I find myself
stretching towards that promise with an eager longing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>“Rest? You’re telling me that there is rest and that
it’s found in You, Jesus?”</i> </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Man, that’s what I
want, bu</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">t then I
find a parallel path of pondering running alongside that promise that says, <i>“Rest?
Rest? What’s that? There’s no such thing. It’s just too good to be true.”</i> Therefore,
Christ’s promise seems too good to be true, and I faint in my faith.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then as I
fight my way towards “<i>taking my thoughts
captive to the obedience of Christ</i>,” I find the struggle that even if there
is rest, I simply don’t know how to do it.<i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t understand
how to sit down in rest and just let go<i> </i>because
as an autistic I never really just sit down and let go. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fact that due to autism I struggle to understand
rest in my <i>physical</i> life is one of
the difficult areas of this disability that makes believing in the <i>spiritual</i>
reality of gospel rest in Jesus a hard pill to swallow at times. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want
you to realize that the struggle to not know how to truly rest <i>may</i> be another pitfall for some souls on
the spectrum as they attempt to understand resting in Christ. Please be patient with us as we struggle through these things. <b style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4.
The Pitfall of Blind Faith.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">In my days
as a young child who was genuinely struggling to grasp the idea of God, I must
say, this is a pitfall that regularly provoked me to anger and led me further
into the fields of faithlessness.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">It
was a big, BIG deal.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over and
over and over, I was told that my God questions would never be solved and
shouldn’t even be asked because, <i>“Lori, God just wants you to believe in Him. He’s asking you to come to Him with blind
faith and you need to just step off of that cloudy cliff and simply believe
that you’ll fall into His loving arms.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well-meaning
as those sentiments may have been, I’m not so sure that they were either biblical
or beneficial – particularly not to the person, like me, who lives with autism<i>. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, my
personal experience as a woman on the spectrum is that I don’t do <i>anything</i> in life blindly. I don’t even
brush my teeth blindly, but think through every intricate detail of what you
would assume to be a habitual act. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me things
don’t just happen on a whim (at least not if I can avoid it). When things do happen on a whim there is
usually a lot of internal pain involved and I’m probably going to shut down at
some point along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My autistic
mind seeks to think through <i>everything</i>
in grand detail – working through every <i>probable</i>
scenario of every<i> possible</i> situation
that I can come up with in order to prepare myself for whatever circumstance I
may encounter. I do this to try to
protect myself from suffering autistic shut down or even worse autistic melt
down from some unexpected blindsiding and bludgeoning blast. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The person
with autism likes to understand what’s coming up and what’s going on so they
know how to maneuver and survive.
Walking into a new store, a new restaurant, a strange home, a strange church
can send us into anxious overload because we don’t know what sights or sounds
or other sensations are going to come falling down upon us. (I think this reality is one of the reasons
that the daily “picture planners” are so successful for a lot of children with
autism. It gives them an idea of what’s
coming up so they can be ready for it and not pained by having to walk blindly
into the unknown.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If, in your
evangelism to the person with ASD, you are directing them to walk in <i>blind faith</i> please know that you may
be asking them step into a realm that is utterly torturous. It is a pitfall of <i>epic</i> proportions.<b> </b>And, I believe you may be asking them to step into a realm that is
not even prescribed by God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the
great blessings that Biblical Christianity has brought to me, as a
high-functioning autistic, is the written testimony that the Christian God is
not a God of sightless saints who are told to stumble and stagger about in the
darkness. I don’t believe that Biblical
faith is synonymous with blind faith. In fact blindness seems to be a mark of
the <i>lost</i> soul, not of the soul coming
to Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would
remind you that God is the God who has created our minds. He is the God of
logic and reason. He is the God who says, <i>“Come
now, and let us reason together!” </i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, I’m not
saying that we can think our way to God or that our finite minds can fully
contain the infinite, but I am saying that I haven’t found any place in
Scripture where God tells us to check our brains at salvation’s door. Instead He has told us to engage our
brains through the reading and hearing of His perfect Word.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Through that
Word, His illuminating Spirit, “<i>renews
our minds”</i> so that suddenly they come to logical life and are enabled to
think the very thoughts of God as those thoughts have been revealed in the
pages of Scripture! That’s not blindness
– that’s walking in the most marvelous light.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What did
Paul do in the midst of the pagan people of the Areopagus? He engaged their
minds. He showed them the logical folly
of their <i>“unknown God,”</i> and
proclaimed to them a known God who has revealed Himself through Christ. The text says that he <i>“reasoned with them from the Scriptures.” </i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friends,
please know that pressing a person who lives with autism (particularly a higher
functioning person) to <i>blindly</i> place
their faith in Jesus may not be helpful but may actually be hurtful. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, WHAT DO
YOU DO? With all of these pitfalls how <i>do</i> you point the person with
autism to Jesus? Well, that’s where I
want to wrap this post up.<b style="font-size: 12pt;"> <o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7FtQh4GnPkALPLYp2jBidNUqu_m4Jh0Aj6GFiiyxoNrC4PnUosrD9q8WIdi-eBFSFmxh6ZwPp7JPQKSNAm5P4Yms3mB1ORl9f32-TJe5Rip_AVECSu04Q6BwJRMKydX_fCNEYY7hzgkSU/s1600/pathway+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7FtQh4GnPkALPLYp2jBidNUqu_m4Jh0Aj6GFiiyxoNrC4PnUosrD9q8WIdi-eBFSFmxh6ZwPp7JPQKSNAm5P4Yms3mB1ORl9f32-TJe5Rip_AVECSu04Q6BwJRMKydX_fCNEYY7hzgkSU/s1600/pathway+4.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><u>PATHWAYS TO GRASPING GOSPEL GRACE</u>.</span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just so you know, I’m not about to give you “The ABC’s of ASD Evangelism.”
I don’t have a gospel tract for you that is full of “social
stories” for spectrum salvation, nor do I have a canned presentation that will
make sharing the good news of the gospel to those with autism a smashing
success. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t have a simplistic
answer for you – nor am I certain that a simplistic one exists. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My goal, in this final section is not to point you to a <i>simplistic</i> path of evangelism, but to a <i>simple</i>
path. I want to set your gaze on a <i>foundational</i> path - a <i>presuppositional</i> path that you may have to
work on developing into a more <i>practical</i>
path. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me
remind you that we <i>all</i> have entered
this world with a <i>severe </i>spiritual
disability, and God has prepared and provided the remedy for our helpless
estate. God has given us what the reformers called the <i>simple
means of grace</i> – ordinary/simple things that God says He will use to both
communicate His grace <i>TO</i> us and grow
His grace <i>IN</i> us. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The Bible speaks
of 4 things that God uses as simple means of grace. They are the Word, prayer, the sacraments (baptism and
the Lord’s supper), and the fellowship of the saints. I want to stress three of the four as they
relate to the topic of evangelism</span> and I have a pithy proposition for you regarding them:<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Let the simple means of grace be
shown in simple acts of grace through the simple community of grace. </span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A.
Preach the Gospel.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">As ridiculously
obvious and simple as it may seem we </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">must</i><span style="line-height: 115%;">
preach and proclaim the Biblical gospel to the soul on the spectrum, for it is
the Word of God which the Spirit of God uses to bring dead souls to life – both neuro-typical and a-typical souls.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">God
tells us that </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">“faith comes from hearing,
and hearing by the Word of Christ;” that “the Word of God contains all that is
necessary for life and for godliness;” and that “the Word of God is that which
restores the soul, makes wise the simple, and enlightens the eyes.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we are
ever to grasp the gospel, we must <i><u>hear</u></i>
the gospel! We must hear that there is a
holy God, that we are a sinful and rebellious people, that Jesus is a
sacrificing and substituting Savior, that He has come and carried our sins to
Calvary’s cross<b>, </b>and that<b> </b>He offers His righteousness in place
of our sinfulness if we’ll repent of our sin and rest in His mercy. <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We must proclaim the good news if anyone is
ever to believe the good news.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Earlier I
mentioned that the person living with autism has a need for tangibles. As a
former autistic atheist who is now a redeemed recipient of grace (a spectrum
saint) I firmly believe that the gospel of God as it is contained in the Word
of God gives tangibles. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe that
the gospel of Jesus Christ constructs a tangible bridge that connects us to an intangible God, and I
believe that Biblical Christianity is the only religion that does so. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
Christianity the intangible God has made a <i>tangible</i>
connection to us through His <i>tangible</i>
Word. He has sent His son, <i>tangibly</i>,
into time and space in order to <i>tangibly</i>
do the work of living and of dying and of rising again from the dead. Through Christ, God<i> tangibly </i>stepped into history to save us and that history is<i> tangibly </i>recorded in the Bible with
practical promises and profound proofs<i>. </i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Word of
God provided the tangible touchstone that I so desperately needed to be able to
begin to believe, and I am deeply grateful that 6 college gals weren’t afraid
to wield the sword of the Word in my spiritual war. Don’t you be afraid either!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, you may
be saying, <i>“Hold on Lori – my son is on the lowest of the low end of the
spectrum. You really want me to sit down
and tell him what the Bible says? You
really think he’ll be able to understand even an ounce of it? You really think
that the preached Word can make a difference in his life?”</i> Yes, I do, because the God who created your
son says so – and who am I to call Him a liar? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dear one,
don’t forget… <i>you</i> were once deaf and <i>you</i> were once dead. Spiritually you were
in just as hopeless a place as your lowest functioning loved one<b> </b><u>and God broke through</u> by the power
of the truth of His Word and the person of His Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In your
understandable discouragement, don’t shy away from God’s silly seeming simple
means. Speak often of Christ to that one whom you think has not a chance of
understanding Christ. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not an
academic endeavor, it’s a spiritual exercise so as you proclaim the gospel, you
need to also pray the gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>B.
Pray the Gospel.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">As you
proclaim the glories of the gospel to a spectrum soul, plead with your Father
to move upon them and make the good news effectual to them. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Here is the beauty of sovereign grace:</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">it gives gospel hope to those who in our
foolish minds seem beyond hope! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">No one is too disabled for God to reach and all
are too disabled to find salvation apart from His sovereign mercy!</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the
apostle Paul may we be about the business of begging our God to open “<i>the blind eyes of men’s hearts that they may
know the hope of His calling and the riches of His glory.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I encourage you to <i>proclaim</i> the
gospel and to<i> pray</i> the gospel may I
also encourage you to <i>practice the presence</i> of the gospel. <span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>C.
Practice the Presence of the Gospel.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Autism is a
crazy isolating disorder.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Regardless of
your spot on the spectrum, you’re always fighting against just trying to check
out of this painful world, yet you are also always trying to connect with it.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While autism
isolates, the image of God that is written upon us is calling us to community. We, like you, were created to be in
relationship. Even our perfect God is
not isolated, but is ever in relationship by virtue of the trinity. He’s the 3 in 1 - Father, Son, and Spirit
always united in perfect fellowship. What
does that amazing characteristic of God say about our need for fellowship?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As much as
it may seem that those of us with ASD just want to be alone in this life, as
hard as it can be for you to figure out how to “be” with us, we need you to “be” with
us. It may be as simple as sitting on
the floor with the silent child on the spectrum watching them spin the wheels
on their toy car, but don’t doubt that your presence speaks volumes. It may be as complex as being willing to
listen to the deep philosophical struggles of a gal like me and assuring me
that you love me in spite of the way my mind works. For you pastors it may be
that your ministry to those in your congregation who have autism, needs to
include a little more of the <i>“house to
house”</i> shepherding that Luke speaks of in the book of Acts, rather than
just the public proclamation. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your
presence is important. It’s a tangible and remember, we need tangibles. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dear ones,
we need you as individuals being salt and light to us, and church we need you
as the gathered body of Christ being an encouragement to us – “<i>spiritually stimulating us towards love and
good deeds.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please don’t
shy away from God’s created people as broken as they may be, and as you draw
near, please don’t shy away from God’s ordained methods of reaching them with
the good news of life eternal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We <i>all</i> face challenges when it comes to
grasping the gospel. There are pitfalls
that are common to all men and there are some that are unique to those with autism, but
God has foundationally laid for us the simple means of gospel grace which
transcend all human ability and overcome all human disability. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">By God's grace, may we never
shy away from God’s created people and may we ever draw near to those around us
who are in need of Christ, whether they live with autism or not. As we draw near, may we also never shy away
from God’s ordained methods – proclaiming, praying, and practicing the presence
of the good news; for the gospel of our God is </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">“the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” </i><span style="line-height: 115%;">including
every single soul on the spectrum! </span></span>Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-48942640158722734392014-09-05T06:36:00.000-04:002014-09-07T07:17:56.575-04:00A Personal Reflection About "When Church Hurts," Because Often It Does<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDG8vhXY1QoWKNPxTkIu9VWlYCmrf0RQKH2BgFlPR8llXNq3PHWSDR1UIGgD33pKDPL5GTANF1RofTgLPCad4J5GJdK9n-RLCdtTE4NOsLRI1WzECgni-ClL1aaQwXPLv7-rtRP3otqwM9/s1600/abstract+church.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDG8vhXY1QoWKNPxTkIu9VWlYCmrf0RQKH2BgFlPR8llXNq3PHWSDR1UIGgD33pKDPL5GTANF1RofTgLPCad4J5GJdK9n-RLCdtTE4NOsLRI1WzECgni-ClL1aaQwXPLv7-rtRP3otqwM9/s1600/abstract+church.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A good friend, who knows our family's fierce battle to survive Sunday morning church amidst the angst of autism, recently shared a blog article entitled "When Church Hurts." You can read it <a href="http://www.nottheformerthings.com/2014/08/29/when-church-hurts/">here</a> and it would be well worth your time to do so. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Being autistic, I regularly receive messages from families who are literally warring their way through the issues of church attendance and autism. Many of those families finally just give up and quit going to church all together. T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hey're tired</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - really tired. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I understand their exhaustion and I can sympathize with the things that have driven them to eventually cave in to quitting. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The things that this blogger/mother references are very real for those of us who live life on the spectrum, and it would seem that these church challenges are pretty stinkin' pandemic. It grieves my heart. (By the way - before any of you jump my ecclesiastical jugular, let me say that I don't agree with <i>everything</i> that the blogger says in her post, but I do understand the struggles her family faces. Please don't throw the baby out with the bathwater for perhaps through her post you will begin to understand as well.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our son Josh has made </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">great</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> strides where worship is concerned, even in the past few months. But, church is still terribly trying for him - it's terribly trying even in spite of the fact that we have a very low sensory stressing service at </span><a href="http://www.redeemersylva.org/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Redeemer</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Many of the issues raised and most of the examples given in the article have been our reality every single week since our son was 2 1/2 years old - many years before we knew autism to be the driving force behind his struggle (as well as behind my own).</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a child, the church hour was the "hell" hour for me as well. (Sorry if you're offended, there truly is no better term.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I grew older and was able to (supposedly) sit with friends in the service, I would instead roam the halls during the service - hiding in bathrooms and classrooms to avoid having to sit through an event that I sincerely wanted to be a part of, but honestly found myself internally devastated by. I did the same during Sunday School, spending far too many hours crouched on a toilet seat hiding from any SS truant officers who might be looking for vagrants such as I. </span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Later, in high school, as I was hired to be a church musician, I found a "crutch" that enabled me to make it through a service. The organ and the piano served as a bizarre anchor that enabled me to push through the pain and stay moored in the manic-ness of the moment (how that all fleshed out is probably a post all in itself). </span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After Phillip and I married and I was no longer hiding behind an instrument in church, the struggles began again. I spent several years in literal physical pain and anxious laden torture as I sought to endure the services at our congregations in Alabama. The sounds, the breathing of those around me, the vibration of pens and pencils taking notes, the clicking and clomping of shoes shuffling in the choir loft - they were often internally undoing! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During that season (thanks to some dear friends who cared and came alongside us), I learned some Biblical coping methods that have helped me greatly in surviving church. The truth is I still "cope" my way through the service and through all of the meet and greet that accompanies it. (I know that shocks some of you who view me as such an extrovert. God has been gracious to me, and my ability to engage with you is His gift and His mercy.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As an individual who has struggled (and still does struggle) personally with the things mentioned in this mother's blog post, and as a mom myself who has striven for over a decade to help lead my precious son through the minefield that is church, I must tell you: you truly cannot fathom the depth of the challenge nor the depth of the internal physical and emotional angst which comes from it. As I shared with some friends yesterday: you can't </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fully</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> fathom it, but you can at least gain some understanding and perspective about it thanks to articles like the one listed above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our own church loves my son, has learned much about autism, and accepts him as he is - even when he's standing in the foyer door during the service stimming and pacing and gesticulating like a mad man. Our understanding church is now our norm for Sunday mornings and I'm thankful for the firm foundation it is and for the stability it offers as Phillip and I continue to parent Josh through the autistic awfulness of congregational worship and congregational living. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, as providence has it, some Sundays we are on the road and end up experiencing the Pandora's box of pain that many church environments present to the autistic child. Not too terribly long ago we were visiting friends at another church and after helping secure a seemingly safe seat for Josh the organ blasted the first sounds of the opening hymn. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was loud. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was cacophonous. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It sent my son catatonic - literally. </span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He became rigidly fetal and Phillip had to lift him and carry him out of the service, stiff as a statue (to quite a few dropped jaws and gawking gazes - now, admittedly it was indeed a sight to behold!). Getting Josh into the lobby we decided that I would stay with him. I sat down by his side, holding him when appropriate, comforting him as able, and seeking to soothe his neurological nightmare while Phillip returned to sit with Elizabeth for the remainder of the service (a rare treat for her). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the lobby there were several other adults watching as everything played out - </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">watching and whispering, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pondering and pointing</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> but none extended a helping hand or even an encouraging word as I sat there with my suffering son. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Josh was hitting his head, rolling on the floor, and moaning all kinds of mantras. I was wrestling with him to keep him from ramming his head and body into the doors that entered the sanctuary - an act that I believe was spawned from his desire to somehow retaliate against the place that was causing him such pain. As I, a small woman, sat physically fighting with my growing son, people (including the deacons on duty) stared at us, but they didn't seek to assist us. Josh finally stopped flailing after about 30 minutes, but it was over 2 hours before he had settled back in to his normal unstressed self. (Welcome to our worship!) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Several days later I heard from several friends at that church about the incident. Some people had asked what the "problem" was with my son because he was "acting really weird" in the lobby and I seemed ok to just let him roll around on the floor "pitching a fit." There were questions about our parenting ("since Phillip is a pastor") and there were micro-lectures on the problems of spoiled children in modern society. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><sigh></sigh></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just this past July we worshiped at a new church while on vacation. Josh slinked in and our entire family ran our normal interference pattern to help him make it to the pew as unscathed as possible. We made it to our seats, and he settled in, nestling near Phillip (a special thing for a pastor's child, because daddy is usually up front rather than with his family). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But then <i>"it"</i> happened...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...<i>"it"</i> being that horrible moment of greeting that is a part of church life, but that can be as neurological napalm to an autistic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suddenly, before we could execute a "block", a well-meaning elderly gentleman got to Josh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Josh hung his head and tried to pull away but the sincere saint was relentless. He tried to talk to Josh and Josh simply turned away. The man said, <i>"Now son, that's no way to act. I'm sure your parents have taught you better than that!"</i> He then began to shake Josh's hand (Josh's arm and entire body bouncing along) with great gusto, exclaiming <i>"Let me show you how to shake a hand, young man."</i> Phillip was finally able to intervene and told the gentleman that our son has autism. A puzzled look crossed his face and as he began to walk away he said, <i>"You know, you've got to teach children to do the right thing without giving them excuses." </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't doubt he was trying to help - but he didn't help. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, we do indeed have to teach our children to do the right thing, without giving them excuses. <b>That's one of the reasons that the Sealys haven't given up on church</b> - it's not because Phillip is a pastor - it's because we are Christians and the worship of our glorious God, of His redeeming Son, and of His abiding Spirit is the most important thing we do each week. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, how we are trying desperately to teach Josh to do the right thing - but with an understanding of the wonderfully weak frame that our good God has wisely and sovereignly chosen to bestow upon him - and upon me as his autistic mom. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is a hard (HARD) balance to strike - doing the right thing, yet acknowledging the realities that make the right thing a greater challenge to execute. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Phillip and I regularly remind Josh (even as I regularly remind myself) that autism is no excuse for sin, and then we point him (as we point one another) to the Savior of sinners who alone can truly enable us to press through and prosper and obey, even along the most painful paths.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We fail regularly. Sometimes we push too hard. Sometimes we give up too soon and make the very excuses that our greatest critics accuse us of. But when we fail, we find the grace of the God whom we fight to worship proves to prevail! It is by the grace of that great God - which has been granted to us by His sacrificing Son, and applied to us by His sanctifying Spirit - that we keep going and that we keep fighting to find the way to make the Kingdom of God more accessible for the disabled of God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you read my weak words and as you think on this dear mom's linked blog, I'd ask you to pause and try to ponder our weekly reality. As you do so, may I invite you to attend and encourage you to make others aware of a wonderful conference coming up in November: "The Accessible Kingdom Conference" (<a href="http://www.accessiblekingdom.org/">www.accessiblekingdom.org</a>). It is sponsored by Joni & Friends and by Mission to North America's Special Needs Ministry. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll be there in concert, leading worship, and presenting a workshop on autism and faith. <a href="http://www.emilycolson.com/">Emily Colson</a> (Chuck Colson's daughter and the mother of Max who lives with autism) and <a href="http://www.stephaniehubach.com/">Stephanie Hubach</a> (my good friend and the mother of Tim who lives with Down's Syndrome) will be the keynote speakers. Plus, there will be over 40 additional workshops (including <a href="http://www.clcnetwork.org/church_services/staff">Barb Newman</a>) on a variety of church and family related special needs topics.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It promises to be an outstanding event, addressing many of the aforementioned issues (as well as so many others). It's perfect for pastors, parents, and parishioners - anyone who cares about those special needs saints who are struggling to survive and needing a little help to thrive. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hank you to those of you who've loved the Sealys well in our journey! May we all seek to love one another better as we seek to soothe the hurt that often happens in the house of our Holy God! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By grace, only and always by grace, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lori</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">You might also enjoy these other posts on the blog about life with autism:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.lorisealy.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-cliff-note-confession-from-high.html">Cliff Note Confessions of a High Functioning Autistic</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2012/09/communicating-with-carly-about-autism.html">Communicating With Carly About Autism, God, & the Struggle to Touch the Intangible</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from.html?spref=fb">Interviewing Autism: A Christian Perspective</a></span></li>
</ul>
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Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-84707843971107780752014-08-08T06:48:00.000-04:002015-10-28T10:30:31.980-04:00A Fruitless Fig, a Cursing Christ, and How Picasso and Rembrandt Can Help Us Understand<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyVZYiPwEib_X4BLBsxLM5hIZn6oK1Yii3ATD-3ekkTdHswTBHrdP-5TZeR6wP6NntgnCgAq-AFtip9VncoaPfRHLJnou3ScoAeL2zn_jqDvjjZ7G2iZRNLuOktLbTLKt9SLGELwP-mGoF/s1600/fruitless+fig+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyVZYiPwEib_X4BLBsxLM5hIZn6oK1Yii3ATD-3ekkTdHswTBHrdP-5TZeR6wP6NntgnCgAq-AFtip9VncoaPfRHLJnou3ScoAeL2zn_jqDvjjZ7G2iZRNLuOktLbTLKt9SLGELwP-mGoF/s1600/fruitless+fig+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In spite of all the enmity and antagonism He'd just faced after turning tables in the <a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/08/reformer-and-redeemer.html">temple</a>, Jesus got up the next morning and headed right back into the thick of things. There was still important work to be done and those clerics who were critics wouldn't keep Him from His calling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matthew Henry writes: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We must never be driven off from our duty either by the malice of our foes or the unkindness of our friends."</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wise words! Words I need to heed!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How often have I caved because of someone's cruelty? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How often have I packed up my toys and headed home because someone didn't play nice with me? How often have I just given up on doing the caring thing because someone did an unkind thing? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Sadly, too many times.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully my Savior was and is much more tolerant and tenacious than I, or I'd still be dead in my sins!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think about it, the all-knowing Jesus knew<i> </i>full well that arrest and trial, mocking and scourging, even pain and death awaited Him from that place and from those people. There would be MUCH malice, but He would not be moved from His mission! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus had come to die for His enemies and sacrifice Himself to save sinners - and <i>nothing</i> and <i>no one </i>would stop Him!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's absolutely amazing ... but, we're not quite there yet! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On His way to the temple, as He was heading back to do His duty, <i>"He became hungry."</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Son of God was also the son of man, and knew intimately all of the pains and passions of this life - <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+4%3A15&version=NIV">yet without sin</a>! Being hungry, Jesus spied a fig tree full of leaves off in the distance. Being omniscient, He was perfectly aware of it's true state (fruitless), and He seized the opportunity to teach from that which He couldn't taste - to teach a life lesson about judgment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This has always been a unique story to me. Jesus has repeatedly shown us that He can <i>save,</i> but here He will remind us that He can also <i>destroy</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whoa!! What?!?! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I must admit, this place is a little uncomfortable! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We tend to like tales of marvelous mercy and glorious grace. We tend to recoil a bit at examples of holy justice and divine wrath. Those pieces don't always fit well with <i>our </i>view of God. But is <i>our</i> view an accurate one? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When in a dialogue about the Divine, I'll often refer to Picasso and Rembrandt as an example of how presuppositions can skew our view. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjewAYiYOyuubrNKwo2DNDPPCYlOwHMQ0vt-QdF3j7PA0HOvGrJLKulRyWEaQzzKRjfEqYi84eGv5kr_fJUZuJeBoRtH9yAWdsLNNvDgHUcrzNU6RAQzlBESaD-Q94YO0RM90V7t-ya-A-n/s1600/picasso4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjewAYiYOyuubrNKwo2DNDPPCYlOwHMQ0vt-QdF3j7PA0HOvGrJLKulRyWEaQzzKRjfEqYi84eGv5kr_fJUZuJeBoRtH9yAWdsLNNvDgHUcrzNU6RAQzlBESaD-Q94YO0RM90V7t-ya-A-n/s1600/picasso4.jpg" width="159" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pablo Picasso self-portrait</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think many of us have (and possibly even prefer) a portrait of God in the more abstract vein of Pablo's paintings. In our opinions we fashion God with a big nose of kindness, a giant eye of mercy, and a large lip of love. The things we like, the things we are comfortable with, the things we consider "kind of cool" become the things that are most prominent in our picture. But what about the things that are somewhat unsettling - things like justice, wrath, and even holiness? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look at Picasso's self-portrait. Do you see that small wart on the nose, that faint dash of a nostril, that little line above the mouth? That's the stuff we don't care for as much. Thus, we make that stuff small, seemingly insignificant, and possibly even portrayed as a blemish. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we look at the abstract it may seem to be a pleasant picture, but it's an out of proportion picture. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is just not the real deal.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Qrb4Fty9RJYaxtsfLXwCK333WqBJRw2aN7lxB3H19oCOc0TTaFxGKwnW3ro69QXatghKTYPvgaDcKXpGg3B91D9Es7lFW1vS0jgMjxHa71bOZsYZFwfBcBbeFdz9Whq38Qcha8vOYZbt/s1600/rembrandt2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Qrb4Fty9RJYaxtsfLXwCK333WqBJRw2aN7lxB3H19oCOc0TTaFxGKwnW3ro69QXatghKTYPvgaDcKXpGg3B91D9Es7lFW1vS0jgMjxHa71bOZsYZFwfBcBbeFdz9Whq38Qcha8vOYZbt/s1600/rembrandt2.jpg" width="154" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rembrandt van Rinj self-portrait</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, consider the work of Rembrandt van Rinj - the master of realism. Perhaps you don't care as much for his colors, but you'll have to admit he's balanced in his craft. He paints what is true of the people who sit for a session. What you see is as it exists. When you gaze at his artistry you get a good glimpse of things as they actually are, and you'd be able to recognize van Rinj if you saw him on the street.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Word of God paints for us a Rembrandt of God - balanced and proportioned. The Scripture shows us God's attributes in perfect harmony and with full form. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His love is shown as a holy love. His mercy and His justice meet with utter equipoise. His kindness and even His wrath have a proper place in the affairs of this world and in the world to come. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who God is and what He is like lie open before us on the pages of the Bible that we may know Him in fact rather than fiction. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today's narrative offers sort of a Rembrandt about our Redeemer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matthew tells us:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Now in the morning, when He returned to the city, He became hungry. And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it, and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, 'No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.' And at once the fig tree withered.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, 'How did the fig tree wither at once?'"</i> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Matthew 21:18-20</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my days of atheism it was stories like this that made me question Christ. Truth be told, even now my natural inclination when I read this passage is to ask, <i>"Jesus, what are You doing? </i></span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What's up with the fury over a fig? You're seeming a bit extreme on this one and I'm getting a little uncomfortable." </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then I think of Picasso and of Rembrandt, and I pause to think on what is concrete rather than on what is abstract; on what is real rather than relative. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Word of God assures me that the Son of God is not given over to passions. Jesus isn't ruled by emotion or fueled by rage. So, if He's not going a bit overboard about breakfast, then what's really happening here? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Several things strike me this day: </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">things about how we </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">outwardly</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> appear from a distance, versus how we </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">actually</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> are upon close examination; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">things about the fruit of real faith and the lack thereof in false faith; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">things about what follows being fallow; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and things about how to respond to a Jesus who can make a tree wither with just a word. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll warn you, this may not be a pleasant post, but I pray it will be a profitable one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, let us consider <u><b>what <i>should have been</i> on the fig tree</b></u>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was a fig tree FULL of leaves. It gave every appearance of being a fig tree full of fruit. Therefore, Jesus came to it <i>expecting</i> fruit because of its leafy profession. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, <i>"<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A17&version=NIV">a good tree bears good fruit</a>."</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bible gives many references to the necessity of spiritual fruit coming from a soul who is truly grounded in God. </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Mt 3:8)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"[I] appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit..." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Jn 15:16)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"[He] was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Ro 7:4)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord...bearing fruit in every good work..." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(1 Co 1:10)</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the narrative before us, the abundance of leaves that covered that tree made a public profession that fruit should be found. Calling ourselves Christian is a similitude to this story. If we profess faith, we should produce the fruit of that faith. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are we?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second, let us look at <b style="text-decoration: underline;">what <i>was </i>on the fig tree</b>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Jesus drew near, it was clear that that this fig tree was all leaves. There was plenty of plumage and quite a shaft of showmanship, but not a single piece of produce to pick!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beloved, is this not the hypocrite? In this fig tree do we not see an example of feigned and false faith? Here is one with a <i><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+3%3A5&version=ESV">"form of godliness"</a>, </i>but without the fruit of godliness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I must pause to ponder - how often within Christendom does outward show abound? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We attend church, we slap Bible bumper stickers on our Buick, we wear a cross around our neck, we post memes about Jesus on our FaceBook walls, and slip tracts to unsuspecting store clerks and waitresses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But...is that fruit? Are those <i>really</i> the figs of faith? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fruit that Jesus is looking for isn't found in a check-list of do's and don'ts that make us think we've accomplished something for the Kingdom. The figs of real faith are found in Galatians 5:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dear one,</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's possible to go to church regularly and be the most unloving woman in town. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's possible to stick a fish on your Ford and have zero joy and even less peace in your heart. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's possible to wear a cross around your neck and be impatient and unkind in your attitude. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's possible to fill up FaceBook with links about the Lord </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and yet lack true goodness and faithfulness in your life. (The truth of this statement can often be seen by the posts that follow said slogans of salvation!!)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's possible to pass out a tract about Jesus and know nothing of the gentleness or self-control that comes from being in Him.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We may be able to wrangle up some fake fruit alternative - sort of the <a href="http://cspinet.org/new/sunny_042402.html">"Sunny Delight" </a>of salvation, but the fruit that Jesus is looking for, and the only fruit He'll receive, is the 100% whole fruit which comes from the Spirit of God living, breathing, and actively working in the heart of the child of God. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christ isn't look for exterior leaves that blow in the breeze, He's looking for a righteous reality to our religion - the fruit of faith, the fruit of the Spirit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what's growing on my branches? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sure, there are days and moments, and sadly even some seasons where my production is pitiful. But, in the big scheme of things, is my garden growing in the grace of God? By His power, am I </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+1%3A3&version=ESV">"bearing fruit in its season"</a> </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh Lord, help me to be a fig tree ripe unto harvest by the power of Your indwelling Spirit in my soul!! I won't bear a blessed thing without your help!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Third, let us think about </span><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">the fruit of being fruitlessness</u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's where it really starts to sting, and where my inner Picasso can want to paint a more pleasant picture than the one inscribed on the pages of my Bible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, the ultimate fruit that comes from a life of being fruitless is that Christ will curse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(As unpleasant as it is, let His cursing of that fruitless fig tree sink in for a moment.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The life of a <i>true</i> Christian is a life of being blessed (not necessarily in the ways of the World - the fleeting and temporal ways, but in the ways of God - the lasting and eternal ways). It is not so for those with a false faith.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The psalmist writes:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>How blessed is the man [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by streams of living water, which <u>yields its fruit</u> in its season, and <u>its leaf does not wither</u>; and in whatever he does, he prospers.</i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The <u>wicked are not so</u>, but are like chaff which the wind drives away.Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." (Psalm 1 selections)</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh dear ones, a hypocrite will not find a home in heaven.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A life of only leaves has never<i> truly</i> known Jesus as Lord and Savior, and thus will not find Him a King of comfort, but One of cursing condemnation - justly deserved, righteously received cursing condemnation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Real</i> faith will produce <i>real</i> fruit and a life that has been grabbed by God's grace will yield a garden full of the produce of God's grace. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To that barren bush, that thing so full of foliage yet utterly empty of anything else, Jesus said, <i>"No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you." </i>And immediately the tree withered away. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christ uttered an anathema.</span></div>
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The fruitless fig shall <i>ever be</i> what it once was!<br />
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It was created to bear fruit, but it bore none<br />
- and now it never shall, for as a result of it's fraud it withered away! </div>
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The cloak collapsed.</div>
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The showmanship shriveled.</div>
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The fabrication faded - it even lost it's leaves. </div>
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How frightening a thing this should be to us.<br />
What if our sin were to become our destiny? <br />
That's the ultimate outcome for the hypocrite who does not repent. </div>
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So, what shall we do? What shall we do with a cursing Christ? </div>
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Well, I believe this text gives us the answer as it shows us what the disciples did.</div>
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Let us reflect on <b><u>the response to Christ's rebuke</u></b>.<br />
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As the disciples saw this act unfold their reaction was to <i>"marvel."</i> They saw that Christ's curse took hold <i>immediately</i>, and in that they must have been reminded of His omnipotent power which had in an instant performed so many other mighty miracles. </div>
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How many times prior to this one had He done a divine deed <i>immediately</i>? </div>
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<ul>
<li>He'd stilled a stormy sea immediately. (Matthew 8)</li>
<li>He'd cleansed a leper immediately. (Matthew 8) </li>
<li>He'd healed two blind beggars immediately. (Matthew 21) </li>
<li>He'd dried up the bleeding spigot from a weak widow immediately. (Mark 5)</li>
<li>He'd raised Lazarus from the dead immediately (John 11) - and much, much more!</li>
</ul>
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Oh, we should stand in awe of this One who has the <i>"<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+4:12&version=ESV">power to save and to destroy</a>"</i> <i>immediately</i>!!<br />
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Do we?</div>
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My friends, my loved ones, what is our reaction to a cursing Christ? </div>
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Not liking the image, do we prefer and promote the Picasso, seeking the ruin of the Rembrandt? Do we curse back at this Christ because He makes us mad? Do we rail at His rebuke, or will we repent because of it? <br />
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The most barren sinners can become the most bearing saints, <i>if</i> they will come to Christ!</div>
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Beloved, let us ever examine our own hearts for hypocrisy <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+13%3A5&version=ESV">(2 Corinthians 13:5)</a>.</span><br />
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Doing so, let us pray that our gracious God would help us see those areas where our foliage is false. For, the leaves of religion can not cover us from Christ's curse - but His blood does! Our words won't save us - but His work will! Our profession shall not deliver us from destruction - but His propitiation perfectly protects!</div>
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Salvation comes, not from going to church but by being in Christ. Assurance is found, not by having your name written on a roll, but by having it inscribed in a Book - <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+21%3A27&version=ESV"><i>"the Lamb's Book of Life."</i> </a> And you will know that it is indeed inscribed there, not by your lofty leaves, but by your faithful fruit - fruit that comes from being grafted into God's holy root!<br />
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On the day of this story Christ cursed a lying tree. A few days later, Christ was crucified - cursed on a tree for a lying me. <br />
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Jesus took my well-deserved anathema upon Himself, and if my faith in that act of His perfect propitiation is sincere, then fruit will follow.<br />
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So, perhaps we should ask, how are our figs, my friends?</div>
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Come to Christ, and see them flourish!!</div>
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Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-44598678933278415242014-08-05T06:34:00.000-04:002015-10-28T10:32:45.144-04:00Turning Tables to Reform and to Redeem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-ylr7p9ODtcxJmfuRyHSEzL6SanCnPQFboMeDvb_spqY6tHW-gqiWB2a74BbDqc24nn541xINfNIC0b7mZtk68HeYK80WX-dQXIQ2azYBbqFqBh6EHbVwC64_Hx_459z00VEkbkGJWBv/s1600/money+changers+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-ylr7p9ODtcxJmfuRyHSEzL6SanCnPQFboMeDvb_spqY6tHW-gqiWB2a74BbDqc24nn541xINfNIC0b7mZtk68HeYK80WX-dQXIQ2azYBbqFqBh6EHbVwC64_Hx_459z00VEkbkGJWBv/s1600/money+changers+2.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Christ the King came into His city He didn't parade into a palace and plop down on a throne. He didn't rush to a regal hall or head to a house of state. No, Jesus made a bee line for the temple - because His rule was to be religious and His kingdom spiritual.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christ came to reform His church and to redeem His people, and thus He went straight-a-way to the place where God's business should have been going on. What He found there seemed to be anything but holy labor. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The house of God wasn't filled with priests praying for the poor, it was overflowing with priests praying </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the poor. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The house of prayer had become a den of thieves, and Jesus was about to teach the priestly peddlers</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> a lesson or two by overturning a table or two! </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's the scene as Matthew tells it:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"And Jesus entered the temple and cast out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, 'It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer;' but you are making it a den of robbers.'</i></span></blockquote>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and He healed them.</i><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> But when the chief priests saw the wonderful things that He had done, and heard the children crying out in the temple, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!' they were indignant, and they said to Him, 'Do You hear what these are saying?' And Jesus said to them, 'Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for Yourself'?'</i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there."</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Matthew 21:12-17</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I rolled this passage around on the palate of my mind, I was struck by how it is seasoned with lessons of Biblical reformation and of gospel redemption. In these six verses we see Christ the Reformer <i>driving out</i> sinful sellers; and we see Christ the Redeemer <i>drawing in</i> sick sinners. There is much to savor here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Walking through the temple doors, Jesus comes face to face with an almost carnival atmosphere. The place of spiritual interaction had become a place of worldly transaction. People were buying and selling, trading and vending all kinds of "supplies for sacrifice." You can almost hear the hawkers: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Step right up you penitent peasants! Today's special - pigeons for the poor!" </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Going once, going twice, get a goat to sacrifice! " </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Not a blemish. Not a spot. Lovely lambs are what we've got!"</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would've made Tetzel mighty proud!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now please note, the problem wasn't in the selling of these things <i>per se</i> - the problem was with the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">place</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> from which they peddled and the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">day</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> on which they sold! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Purchasing a lamb, or a bull, or a bird was lawful (and even laudable) in the market on the days of labor. Selling sacrifices<i> in the sanctuary</i> <i>on the Sabbath</i> was a practice of profanity. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By doing so, the priests were stealing profits from the parishioners who made their honest living selling these things outside the temple walls, and they were making the day of worship a day of wanton work. The clinking and clanking of coins was being heard above the prayer and praise of God. That's just not good. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Things were amiss and Christ was about to make amends! So, t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">o right what was wrong, </span><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Jesus, the Reformer, closed down the market and drove out the sellers.</b></u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> </b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Jesus saw the evil that was happening in His house, He set out to stop it. He cast out the merchants, overturning the tables from which they traded, and setting asunder the seats from which they sold. As He did the deed He clearly proclaimed to them what the Scriptures taught about the temple: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wonder if there's not a lot to be learned from those first three words. <i>"It is written..."</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we find ourselves</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> embarking on a path of "reformation" - when we come calling on someone to change, enter into debate about doctrine, begin to point an ecclesiastical finger at a group that doesn't do things our way - </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">let us be sure</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> that we are doing so because of what </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> has said in His Word, not because of what </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> like or dislike in our own heart. (And let us make sure we are not twisting Scripture in order to create a "righteous reason" for what is really rebellious reformation!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christ's actions in this event were clearly grounded in the written revelation of God and not based on any whims of personal preference or "pious" pride. How often have men and ministers turned over the figurative tables and run off supposed "rebels" based on the latter - and what deep damage has that done? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May our "temple cleansing" actions be held captive to the Word of God and to nothing else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Jesus opened up the Word of God regarding what the temple was created to be, He went further to explain what they had corrupted it into: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"But</i></span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> you are making it a robbers' den." </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think about it, the temple was in essence a place of giving - a place of <i>God's</i> giving. </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a place where God gave glimpses of the grace of Christ which was to come. (Every drop of insufficient blood that was spilled in those hallowed halls was a foreshadowing of the all-sufficient blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who would take away the sins of the world.) </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a place where God gave forgiveness to sinners and granted pardon to penitents. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a place of prayer, where people sought the face of this giving God to provide for them their every need, and offered thanks for the ways in which He had. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a place where our holy Father gave gifts of grace to His children.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the corrupt priests were making it a place not of </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">giving</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> but of their own </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">getting</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The temple, in their time, had become a place where they </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">gained</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> much more than they ever gave. They sold for themselves and took from the people to pack their own purses. As they did these things, they painted an improper picture of who God is and of how He works. You see, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God gives </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">freely</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don't have to buy our salvation, He bought it for us. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don't have to pay the price, Christ paid it in full. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don't have to purchase a thing, for He has provided everything. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By selling in the sanctuary, they stole not only from the saints, but also from the very name and character of our gracious, giving God. They made the God of grace and mercy appear as a God of greed and merchantry. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No wonder He turned the tables and cast them out!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, how are our</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "temples" today?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are our churches places of prayer or of profit? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are they businesses where "things of God" are sold, or are they centers of praise and preaching where the grace of God is given? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May we ever be reforming to the ways of the Word that we may ever be making a difference in the world! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once Jesus, the <i>Reformer</i>, closed down the market and drove out the sellers, <b><u>Jesus the Redeemer, opened up the hospital and drew in the sick</u>. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a beautiful antithesis! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After Jesus had cast the money changers </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">out</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, He called the disabled </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Verse 14 tells us that</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them."</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suddenly, this place of "dealings" became a place of healings; and rather than money being taken, mercy was handed out. Broken bodies were being repaired, and as they were, sin sick souls were being redeemed!<br /><br />Isn't this the gospel way? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But is this <i>our</i> way? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we seek to see reform in the church, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or in society,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> or in a soul do we long merely to </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">drive out</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> or do we equally long to </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">draw in</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are we as much about </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">redeeming</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> what is wrecked as we are about ridding what is wrong? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, it would seem that Jesus <i>drove out sin</i> in order to <i>draw in sinners</i> - that sinners might be saved! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By His grace and in His steps, may we see these as two sides of the same coin and <i>never</i> seek to sever redemption from reformation!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, the chief priests and the scribes responded to this reform and redemption with... well, shall we say they were a wee bit less than enthused at the events that had unfolded!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They saw the <i>"wonderful things that He had done" </i>and they were enraged! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They heard the praises of the children and became indignant. (It would seem that proud men can't stand for anyone other than themselves to be honored.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am always struck that those who should have loved and lauded Christ the most (the leaders in His church) loved and lauded Him the least! Truth is, they utterly despised Him and sought to destroy Him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Running up to Jesus, they said, <i>"Do you hear what these are saying?!?!?!"</i> (Can't you almost see the steam pouring out of their ears and the red flushing up their faces?!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In response, He who had just reformed and redeemed now had to rebuke.<b> <u>Jesus, the Reprover, silenced the priest's protests and supported the children's praise.</u> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They could pitch a hissy fit, throw a temper tantrum, stew and seethe, and fume ferociously in their frustration at the <i>"Hosannas"</i> that were wafting in the temple air, - but Jesus wouldn't be intimidated and He was going to speak the truth to them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus never sides with sin. But some way and some how, He always confronts sinners with an honest assessment of their situation, speaking the truth in love that they might repent and find salvation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Jesus confronted the error that was abounding in the hearts and minds of the chief priests, He once again went to the Word. They were screaming,<i> "Have you not heard what these children are saying?!?!?" </i> Jesus responded with <i>"Have you not read what the Scripture has said?!" </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <i>Scripture</i> was the standard upon which Christ stood. His reproof was grounded in God's revelation. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let us learn from this. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let us check our own attitudes and examine our own protests regarding the things that bother us in church (as well looking at the things that "bless" us) in light of the Scripture. Let the revelation of God be our standard. It is not what pleases or displeases <i>us</i> that should determine what happens or doesn't happen in our congregations. The elements of worship aren't fashioned by <i>our</i> wants - they are formed by <i>His</i> Word. Our duty is that we conform to the Word in worship - not that we conform worship to our wishes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The priests didn't like these praises, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> not </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> all - but that didn't matter. God had spoken and He had said, "O<i>ut of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for Yourself?" </i>Jesus not only allowed the praise of these children, but He accepted it, savored it, and, through the Scripture, supported it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it would seem that it left the scoffers speechless! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's not a recorded response from the chief priests and scribes and we simply see the scene close with Jesus leaving them. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(As an aside: do you think that protesting the praise of God might have an affect on remaining in the presence of God?)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus, by His reproof, tied their tongues and then turned His back, heading over to Bethany to rest before the duties of the next day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus wouldn't be hindered by their hatred. He had a job to do in Jerusalem and as He inched closer and closer to that great act of selfless sacrifice - His crucifixion at Calvary - He faithfully reformed, redeemed and reproved along the way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over two thousand years later, Jesus continues to reform, redeem and reprove - through His pastors, through His people, through His Bible, through His Spirit. I suppose the question is, how are we responding? As the sellers or as the sick? As the chiefs or as the children? As the priests or as penitents?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh Lord, when You turn the tables in our own hearts, give us ears to hear Your Word, and wills that bow the knee to it! And as you drive out the sin that still abides in us and in our churches, may You also draw in us and others to Yourself.</span></div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-37840276549282938722014-08-02T08:03:00.000-04:002014-08-02T17:23:32.155-04:00A Monarch Like No Other Man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj38wyVhLxw6PaC-GN202Rhr_pGIYUrsIltQ17cx77vcMXItouWlgYrqf3SCKdICMAfxWLfTVG05MAKvfiM09c_fjZqEo932ZszrC2FhOzbZrV1Oig5pdgubhimSLQQ7LrHhSLUtbpmHs1M/s1600/servant+king+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj38wyVhLxw6PaC-GN202Rhr_pGIYUrsIltQ17cx77vcMXItouWlgYrqf3SCKdICMAfxWLfTVG05MAKvfiM09c_fjZqEo932ZszrC2FhOzbZrV1Oig5pdgubhimSLQQ7LrHhSLUtbpmHs1M/s1600/servant+king+2.jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">History is replete with portraits of proud potentates. There are narcissists like Napoleon, Caligula, and Herod the Great; egomaniacs like Timur-e Lang (the Mongol lord), Qin Shi Huang (the first Chinese emperor), and Nero (the rowdy Roman "demigod"); as well as the extremely extravagant such as George IV, Louis the XIV, and James I. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All these men loved applause, and power, and they regularly sought the spotlight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">History tell us of another King, One who was very much unlike any of these others. His name was Jesus, and as the events surrounding His public "coronation" unfold, I am struck with just how different from all other dignitaries He truly was ... and still remains!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matthew writes:</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"When they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and he will send them at once.'</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 'Say to the daughter of Zion, behold your King is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"The disciples went and did just as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and He sat on them. The multitude spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees, and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed behind Him were shouting, 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!'</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"And when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, 'Who is this?' And the crowds said, 'This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.'"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Matthew 21:1-11</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Up to this point, Jesus had been a pretty unpretentious prophet. While He had taught, healed, and worked more than a few miracles in their midst, He also often gave strict instructions to the recipients of His mercy that they </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"tell no one"</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> about what He had done for them. </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"His time had not yet come"</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and thus, He was not about to bring untimely attention to Himself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that was about to change.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suddenly we find Jesus sending His disciples to help set the stage for a public proclamation regarding His arrival into the holy city. It would seem that a coronation was on the way for Christ the King! But why? Why the sudden shift from <i>"tell no one"</i> to "tell everyone!"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe there's a pretty good reason why. You see, Christ's earthly ministry was coming to a close. His final hour was approaching. The cross of Calvary was less than a week away. Jesus was about to die for the world as a sacrifice for sins and Jesus needed to be seen by the world that they could be saved from their sins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He whose time had not yet come now has, and as it does, we see the divine nature of this righteous Ruler being revealed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus was and is a monarch like no other man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Jesus is a King of superior knowledge.</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How many times have kingdoms fallen and princes been slain because of an unknown plot or scheme? Caligula didn't see Casius coming. Qin Shi Hang had no idea there was poison in his pills. Louis, the Sun King, didn't have enough light to see the dark days that would cause him to literally lose his head. But Jesus is a King of <i>absolute omniscience</i>. He knew perfectly the way and the day of His death, and He knew every thought of every man who was plotting it. Jesus knew every facet of this journey into Jerusalem - even down to the details about a donkey!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Within this text I am amazed at how Jesus knew exactly what would happen <i>just before</i> it happened. Sending His disciples on an errand, He knew every particular point they'd encounter on their path. He knew <u>what</u> they'd find - two donkeys, a mother and her colt tied to a stake of some sort. He knew <u>where</u> they'd find them - in the village that lay ahead of them. He knew <u>when</u> they'd find them - immediately as they entered that village. He even knew what questions would be asked of them <span style="font-size: x-small;">(see <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+11%3A5&version=ESV">Mark 11:5</a> for how this fleshed out)</span> and what answers would need to be given in response <span style="font-size: x-small;">(see <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+11%3A6&version=ESV">Mark 11:6</a> for the rest of the story)</span>. <i>Nothing</i> was hidden from His eyes and His foreknowledge was flawless! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Within this text I am equally amazed at how He knew what would happen <i>many years beforehand</i> - over 500 years beforehand! In Zechariah 9:9, the word of the Lord came to the prophet of the Lord to tell us about the coming of this King riding on that donkey: </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'Say to the daughter of Zion, behold your King is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The prophecy was perfect and precise, and it was foretold without any failures. Jesus knows every detail of ever event in every age for every person! <i>"Nothing is hidden from His eyes." </i>Before Him <i>"all things are open and laid bare."</i> To Him even <i>"the darkness is as bright as the day."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is this not absolutely incredible?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet, how often do I stand in awe of the omniscience of my God? (Not often enough!) How often am I pierced by the perfect knowledge of my King? When I realize that there is <i>nothing</i> I can say, <i>nothing</i> I can see, <i>no thought</i> I can think, <i>no emotion</i> I can feel, <i>no sin</i> I can savor, <i>no lie</i> I can cover, <i>no word</i> I can whisper that is not <i>FULLY</i> known by Him, does it not leave me a bit undone?! And then, when I pause to take in the fact that <i>knowing all these things about me</i> <i>He still chose to love me and die for me</i>, does it not leave me utterly amazed?! Oh, how it should!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is my King - omniscient and absolute in His knowledge of me and of this world around me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is my King - faithful and flawless in His foretelling of all that will take place in this world where I exist. Will I trust Him? Will I believe what He has said? Will I live in the light of His perfect sight?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While His knowledge amazes me, His character comforts me. Think of that which typically characterizes the kings of this world. Consider the way they hold court. Ponder the way they pontificate. Hone in on their habits of haughtiness. <i>Now</i> meditate on the marks of our Master as this text tells them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, <i>Jesus is a King who comes and condescends</i>. The prophecy tells Zion to behold her King who <i>"is coming to [her]".</i> Jesus is not a distant dignitary upon a lofty throne who requires all kinds of ceremonial hoop jumping in order for us to enter His presence. No, He is a King who steps down <i>and</i> stoops down. He is One who comes close and draws near. He is a Monarch who meets us in mercy, extending His scepter slap dab in the middle of our own personal space - doing so in order that taking hold of it (and ultimately taking hold of Him) may be done with ease.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second, <i>Jesus is a King who is "gentle." </i>He moves in meekness and He comes in kindness. He is not rough to those He rules, nor gruff to those He governs, but is tender to His people whom He so dearly loves. Jesus is not a harsh Lord who seeks our enslavement into His service, but is a placid Prince who secures our freedom from sin's!! He has come to Zion in order to save, suffer, and serve. Our King has come in compassion, to die that we might live.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Third, <i>Jesus is a King who is humble</i>. He comes <i>"mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden." </i>He doesn't prance in on a proud horse, but on a poor ass. He doesn't arrive on a steed of state, but on a colt of service. He doesn't thunder in on a beast of battle, but rides in on a <i>"beast of burden"</i> - for wasn't He to bear our burdens and carry our sins to the cross? This is not a King we should fear and flee <i>from</i>, but One whom, in faith, we can flee <i>to</i>! (Have we?)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fourth, <i>Jesus is a King who is trustworthy</i>. The two disciples whom He sent ahead to fetch the foal found everything <i>exactly</i> as He told them it would be. Friend, we can count on what Jesus commands to be good, and right, and true. We can trust Him. We can truly trust Him. (Do we?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is Jesus the King - a monarch like no other man. As this peerless Potentate moved forward on the road that led into Jerusalem - Jerusalem where He would reign as our Redeemer - what was the reaction of those who saw Him? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The passage portrays three different reactions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For starters we see <u>the reaction of the disciples</u>. As Jesus got ready to go, the disciples obeyed and honored. They did what He asked in gathering the donkey and the colt, and once they had done so they <i>"put on them their cloaks, and He sat on them."</i> The twelve honored Jesus with their suits as His seat! In just a few days He was to be disrobed for them. This King would hang naked at Golgotha that they would be robed in His righteousness before God! How small a price they payed in parting with their garments that day. (What pittance do I pay in comparison to what my salvation cost Christ - and do I do so grudgingly or gladly?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next, we see <u>the reaction of the multitude</u>. They honored Jesus with their <i>actions</i> - by placing their robes on the road and putting soft palms on the path. They sought to make His way smooth and to submit themselves as His subjects. What about me? Am I willing to sacrifice (even something as simple as a scarf) that the way of Christ would be made clean and clear? Am I willing to lay down what is dear to me that He might tread upon it as my Master? Or is it <i>my</i> way that I wish to be made soft and smooth by Him? Am I living as if the King should be my clerk, and as though Jesus were my genie?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not only did the multitude serve Him by their works, but they also honored Him with their <i>words</i>. Before Him and behind Him rang out the chorus of all those who were with Him: <i>"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"</i> They cried out in praise about this Sovereign who would save! They offered accolades regarding this divine Ruler who would redeem! They acknowledged that Christ came <i>"in the name of the Lord." </i>He was sent and set apart by God the Father as the one true Mediator, Messiah, and Mender of our mess. The multitudes tongues could not keep silent as He came, and if somehow they had, then the very rocks would have cried out! What about you and what about me? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do our voices lie dormant and is the sound of silence that which is heard about His having come into our own lives? Do our lips loudly laud our Lord? (Not in a falsely contrived way, but in a real and relevant way.) In worship, are we sickly in our singing, paltry in our praying, unpassionate in our preaching - or is there a true and robust joy that permeates every part as we exalt the Christ who has come? Would anyone who walks into our Sunday services even be moved to see that we really believe the King has come, or would they think "what a joke!"? Do we lift Hosannas high? In my day to day duties does my heart well up with hallelujahs, or am I destitute of a tune of thanksgiving and a melody of praise for who Jesus is and for what He's done and doing in me? A saved soul should be a singing soul and a pardoned soul a praising one. I know that I need His help with my Hosannas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, we see <u>the reaction of the city</u>. As Jesus entered the gates, the entire place was <i>"stirred." </i>Folks were watching. People were talking. The crowd was asking questions. <i>"Who is this?"</i> It would seem that almost everyone in the city noticed Christ, yet hardly anyone knew Him. I wonder, have things changed much in 2 millennia? How many people have noticed that there's something special about this Jesus? Perhaps they've noticed His marvelous morality, His miracles of mythical proportion, His message of mercy - yet they do not know who He truly is or understand why He really came. Oh, may I not simply be stirred in my psyche by the stories of the Savior, but actually stirred in my soul by the reality of the Savior!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Answering the inquiry, the multitude said, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee." </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They gave an honest answer - but it was only a partial answer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, Jesus was <i>"the prophet"</i> - the great Prophet who not only proclaimed the Law with His lips, but perfectly fulfilled the Law with His life! He is indeed a teacher and a preacher like no other - for this Expositor of the written Word is Himself the very Living Word who came to reveal to us <i>"the will of God for our salvation." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://shortercatechism.com/resources/wsc/wsc_024.html">WSC Q. 24</a>)</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, Jesus is the preeminent Prophet, but He is also the <i>"King of kings,"</i> reigning over us in redeeming grace. In kind compassion and sovereign strength He <i>"executes that office [by] subduing us to Himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies."</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(<a href="http://shortercatechism.com/resources/wsc/wsc_026.html">WSC Q. 26</a></i></span>) He is a good, and kind, and wise King who has not only taken us in as His subjects but has also made the way for His Father to adopt us in as His sisters and brothers - making us eternal heirs of all that He has!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This prophet whom they'd heard preach, this King whom they were seeing come, was headed to Calvary to fulfill one final role as our Redeemer - the role of perfect Priest. Jesus came as the go between who would bridge the great chasm that separates a holy God and fallen man. Jesus came to die. He came to take our sins upon Himself and shed His blood on our behalf. He came to be the Scapegoat, the Lamb, the substitutionary sacrifice for you and for me! Jesus Christ, the great high Priest, was entering Jerusalem in order to <i>"offer Himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God" </i>and both then and now He is <i>"making continual intercession for us." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://shortercatechism.com/resources/wsc/wsc_025.html">WSC Q. 25</a>)</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus entered Jerusalem. He knew what He was doing - <i>every detail</i> of what He was doing, <i>all aspects</i> of why He was doing it, and ultimately <i>each soul</i> for which He was doing it! (Christian, He knew you and He knew me!) The perfect prophet came gently and humbly as the perfect King in order to propitiate as the perfect Priest. Through His ultimate sacrifice and service He has made the road to redemption clean and clear for us to travel - even as the multitudes made the road to Jerusalem that day. Jesus laid down His life, just as they laid down their garments, and by His own blood has paved the path for our pardon. In response may we ever and always come to Him with sincere cries of <i>"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus is a Monarch like no other man. In Him we find a serving Sovereign who sacrificed Himself for sinners. In Him we see a redeeming Ruler who laid down His life for His enemies in order to make them His heirs. In Him is a Lord who is kind, and, gentle and full of mercy, grace, and love for the lost. His scepter is extended, His arms are open, His gospel is good - may we come to Christ the King who came for us!</span></div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-71478423730339886742014-07-19T08:02:00.000-04:002015-10-28T10:35:02.977-04:00Never Too Busy for a Beggar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYgcYomy4NZOrP8_T9ReuC_FX0_g4Eab-R5YDTJNrhe6YXyGW0UpHVBuflTC5b2WuRZvShfetgNQfBKxSUTtwLdN-hqMph1tUeNr2Y3clCBgX_-MYrva_vWlqX20cP95l9Fnaislk9mw-l/s1600/blind+beggar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYgcYomy4NZOrP8_T9ReuC_FX0_g4Eab-R5YDTJNrhe6YXyGW0UpHVBuflTC5b2WuRZvShfetgNQfBKxSUTtwLdN-hqMph1tUeNr2Y3clCBgX_-MYrva_vWlqX20cP95l9Fnaislk9mw-l/s1600/blind+beggar.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Le</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">aving Jericho, Jesus was headed to Jerusalem. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The triumphal entry, planned from eternity past as a type of coronation for Calvary's King, was probably less than a day away. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After that, there would be a temple to cleanse, parables to teach, Pharisees to put in their place, a Passover to prepare, a new Supper to institute, feet to wash, a friend to be betrayed by, an arrest to endure, a trial to face, a scourging to receive, a cross to carry, and an almost innumerable number of people to die for. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most significant event in all of history, the crucifixion of Christ - where the Son of God would be slain for sinners, was to happen before this week drew to a close. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was much to do. <i><u>M U C H</u></i> to do! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have you ever been at the beginning of one of those weeks where the calendar is just overflowing with fullness? The events of the days ahead are critical ones. The things that you must do will have far reaching affects on others. There will be little time for sleep and not a second to spare. "<i>Tick tock. Tickety tock!"</i> Every moment can seem manic because you've just so much to do!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I have those weeks you better watch out! I have a schedule to keep and, as much as I hate to admit it, I can get a little anal. (OK, I can get a lotta anal!! Phillip will tell you!!) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Get. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> My. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Way!!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't care if you're my kids, my husband, my friend, or the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes people standing on my stoop. When I'm a lady with a long list during a wild week there will be casualties if you crash my clock - and sadly, when I'm in "go mode" my kindness and compassion reach into the negative numbers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not so with my Savior!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus was a man (or actually a Messiah) on a mission. He had the world to save and had about 10,080 minutes left to wrap it all up! But that didn't curb His caring - not one bit! We see an example of His intimate and infinite compassion near the end of Matthew chapter 20, just as He begins to embark on the final week of His life here under the sun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed Him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, 'Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!' </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>T</i></span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he crowd rebuked them, and sternly told them to be quiet; but they cried out all the more, 'Lord have mercy on us, Son of David!'</i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>And stopping, Jesus called them and said, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' They said to Him, 'Lord, let our eyes be opened.' And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him." (Matthew 20:29-34)</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amidst everything that was converging on His clock, the Savior of the world had time to be the Healer of two blind beggars! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus is never too busy for the broken, too hurried for the harried, or too occupied to extend His hand of help! Wow! - ain't that glorious good news? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I may stress at trying to fit you into my schedule and fuss that you might be messing it up, my Savior never does. As a matter of fact, before time began He had already set every appointment with you, and with me, and with every soul who ever was or will be in stone - even the appointments that seem to be unplanned from our perspective. He who is above and beyond time, the One who created it and apportioned it, <i>always</i> has plenty of time for you and for me! Always!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we watch Christ interact with these two blind men there is much for us to learn - not only about His compassion, but also about our asking for it to meet us in our darkest place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a mighty multitude crowded around Christ, two minuscule men cried to Him. While this great gathering was pressing against Jesus, two broken beggars were pleading with Him. There's much here that challenges me as I think on what it is to supplicate in suffering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, these men who couldn't <i>see</i> were able to <i>hear</i> and able to <i>speak</i>. <i>"<u>Hearing</u> that Jesus was passing by, they <u>cried</u> out." </i>Let us not allow our disabilities to become an excuse for inability. (And I know a thing or two about disability.) In every area where we have not, God will provide another area where we have enough - enough to equip us to do that to which He's called us to do! Even if our eyes and ears and tongues were all to fail, the omniscient God can hear our hearts. Don't wallow in your weakness, beloved, but get creative and cry out in spite of your cracks! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second, in their crying they didn't claim merit, but begged <i>mercy</i>! They didn't present a case to Christ about what a bad wrap they'd been given, and then go on to argue about how He owed them a good healing because of all they'd been through in life. These were not requests for reparation. These were groans for grace. In faith,these men were imploring the Almighty - the <i>"Lord"</i>, the "<i>Son of David</i>" - to not treat them as their sins deserved, but to spare them from what was due them. They were asking Jesus to have mercy - marvelous mercy! Do we pray in a similar fashion? Do we petition proudly or, knowing who we are and what we truly should have coming our way, do we hearken humbly? <i>"Lord, have <u>mercy</u> on us, Son of David", </i>should always be our plea! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Third, as they called out they were told to quiet down! It would seem that the multitudes were a bit bothered by their passionate prayer! The hordes hushed and hissed at them - seeking to silence them as they implored the Messiah for a miracle. Isn't that just something else?! Oh my!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This was a gang that was going along with the Son of God. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> These were people who'd been pursuing Jesus on His journey. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> These were folks who appeared to be followers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But when two blind beggars raised their voices to ask for some help from the Healer the crowd became cruel! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*Sigh* </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dear ones, let us never be surprised at who harangues, harasses, or hinders us as we attempt to connect with Christ. Opposition and discouragement can come from within as well as from without. Yes, the world may strive to plug your prayers and silence your supplications, but so might those who only pretend piety. Heretics and hypocrites have done just as much damage in discouraging discipleship as any blatant unbeliever. Who is seeking to silence our prayers? Are they succeeding? If so, then may we look to and learn from these two sightless saints, because...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fourth, when the people told them to pray a little less, <i>"they cried out all the more!" </i> Instead of being shushed they began to shout - even louder than before: <i>"Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!"</i> Friends, when we find ourselves being beaten back by opposers of our prayers, when those who are not friendly to the faith rail against our religion, when opposition abounds and calls for us to "stop being stupid", what will we do? Will we cry uncle, bite our tongues, get off our knees, and go home empty handed - or will we persevere - in prayer and in piety? Will we press on in our prostrate state like the<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15%3A21-28&version=ESV"> importunate Cannanite</a>, like <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+32%3A24-30&version=ESV">wrestling Jacob</a>, and like <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+1&version=ESV">barren Hannah</a>; or will we allow a mocking mob to silence our supplications? Like these two needy blind men, will we stand our ground until the One to whom we cry comes? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For He will come - in His wise way and in His perfect time He'll come!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus who had so very much to do that day, stood still as His path converged with their place. While the masses sought to discourage, the Messiah stopped to encourage! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"What do you want me to do for you?," </i>He asked. <i> </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus is never too busy for a beggar! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He heard their cries for mercy and drew near in their time of need. He bid them to tell Him what it was they longed for. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is this not our same Savior? Is this not our Jesus, the immutable One who <i>"is the same yesterday, today and forever" </i><span style="font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">(Hebrews 13:8)</span>? <span style="font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;"> </span>Is this not our mighty and merciful Master who bids us to <i>"draw near to the throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" </i><span style="font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">(Hebrews 4:16)</span>? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus is a gracious God - much more gracious than our faith can even fathom. Hearing that these blind beggars wanted to see, and knowing that for His perfect purposes they needed to see, He had compassion on them and enabled them to see! <i>"Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him."</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those who had sat in deep darkness for so long suddenly saw a great Light! As their eyes opened, the first thing they beheld was the face of Jesus - the Light of the world, the compassionate King to whom they'd cried! When they saw Him they <i>"followed Him,"</i> for when Christ makes our eyes to see Him He also moves our feet to follow Him! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I look at this narrative about two beggars with blind eyes, and see this story about a Savior who gives sight I wonder about myself. I read of these physically broken men and watch the way in which they called, and cried, and screamed for mercy to meet them in their malady; and I wonder... <i>"what if I prayed like that? What if I REALLY prayed like that?</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They knew that no one but Christ could cure them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They recognized that no other Healer could help them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They were aware that no other Savior could set them free </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- and so they begged and pleaded and implored, against all odds and opposition, until He came near. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These were praying people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, that's not always the picture of my own praying. I give up easily. I lose focus and start chasing squirrels in my mind. I hear the discouraging words of the multitudes (and even add in a few of my own) and I shut my mouth from calling out to the Lord, the Son of David for the mercy that alone can mend my mess. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am far too often a pitiful and impatient pray-er. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, then I come across a passage such as this and find myself moved by my Master to seek His face again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In it He reminds me that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He is never too busy for this beggar named Lori. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Through it He encourages me that when I cry He will come - even though I may meet with deep discouragement while I wait, </span><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He</u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">will</u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">come</u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">!! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From it I am renewed in knowing that my King cares. Jesus is full of compassion for the blind and the broken, for the battered and the bruised - and He is full of compassion for me!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because of it, may I bend my knees, lift my voice, raise my hands, and pour out my heart to Him -</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Lord, have mercy on me, Son of David."</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus has never been too busy for a beggar. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May I never be too busy, or bothered, or big to beg. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-20434947513449173332014-07-15T08:12:00.000-04:002014-07-16T08:56:10.687-04:00The Cause and Cure for Quarreling<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK3PCXwBVJvhMjOcTM0o_LxdA2M_IPsOzeQz8JEPmbeE5IoA7SrAR65g2v6UgrLYa4aIteEg9nZDttgZR0jrgM368vtEofjzZTFTvI9IQ-AxAX6ONDdbM6O8Rxj0XIDGuJlRg-to2C0pf_/s1600/quarrel+-+felix+peano+the+fight+over+the+horn+of+plenty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK3PCXwBVJvhMjOcTM0o_LxdA2M_IPsOzeQz8JEPmbeE5IoA7SrAR65g2v6UgrLYa4aIteEg9nZDttgZR0jrgM368vtEofjzZTFTvI9IQ-AxAX6ONDdbM6O8Rxj0XIDGuJlRg-to2C0pf_/s1600/quarrel+-+felix+peano+the+fight+over+the+horn+of+plenty.jpg" height="200" width="155" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The lust for power, pleasure and preference can cause all kinds of problems. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our wants lead to wars. Our desires do damage. Our flesh starts fights. Our cravings bring conflict. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">James (the same James from </span><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-best-seat-in-heavens-house.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my last post</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - the one who selfishly wanted the best seat in heaven's house) understood this. He wrote</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"What causes quarrels and conflicts among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within? You desire and do not have; so you commit murder. You covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel."</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (James 4:1-2)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">James knew that passions <i>within</i> are the things that lead to problems <i>without, </i>and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm pretty sure he learned the lesson from Jesus. It seems the great Teacher was often schooling His students in the subjects of selfish hearts and the need for improving interpersonal relationships.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rodney King wondered <i>"why can't we all just get along?" </i>and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus gives us the answer. In Matthew 20 He gives us a glimpse into the cause of quarreling and offers to us the cure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As James and John </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">were trying to finagle an eternal spot up on the front row (just to the right and left of the King of kings), the other disciples were watching. The seat seeking of the two raised the dander of the ten! Here's how Matthew tells it:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself, and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.'"</i></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: right;">Matthew 20:24-28)</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look at that first line again: </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">"And when the ten heard it, <u>they were indignant</u> at the two brothers." </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here in these 13 words, we get a not so pretty picture of <b>the cause of quarreling.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, don't think for a moment that this indignance was a sanctified showing of righteous anger. This wasn't chivalry - it was closer to chicanery! This wasn't the disciples defending the destitute or deserving. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The guys weren't upset that James and John might swipe those two seats away from a couple of unassuming, self sacrificing souls - souls who'd lived an utterly "under the radar" life of love for God and for their neighbor. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They weren't protecting the <i>poor</i> in spirit. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They were protecting the <i>proud</i> in spirit... </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">themselves</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he ten were ticked that Salome's sons might wrestle those seats away from <i><u>THEM</u>!</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their show of disgust flowed out of their lust!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They weren't bothered about the sin that was so easily entangling their brothers...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...they were bothered that their brothers' entangling sin might get in the way of their own!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are we really any different? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seriously, are we not in many ways just the same as they?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How often do we find ourselves hating another's sin, not because of </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">what it is...</i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ...but because of </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who it affects</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - <u>US</u>?! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How often do we speak out against a sin, not because our Biblical conscience convicts us to, but because our guilty conscience convinces us to? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How often do we preach against another's practice in order to cover our own crimes? Just like:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the pilfering politician who's talking the most about fiscal ethics; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or the moral mouthpiece on marriage who's having an adulterous affair; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or (...wait for it...) even the meddling mom who's always offering advice about how to properly parent when in reality, behind closed doors, her rage and anger erupt at her children with the volcanic voracity of Vesuvius. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How often do we overlook omission and tolerate transgression in ourselves, but not in someone else? </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's OK that I shared that juicy morsel about Joan with Jane, but don't you dare let me learn that you've been yackin' 'bout </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> yuck!. I'll be quip quoting Bible verses about loose lips before you can breathe your next breath, sista!!!</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's no big deal when I don't have the time to come and visit you in the hospital, or forget to follow up with an answer to something you asked, or simply didn't get to speak to you after the service on Sunday - but don't let those tables turn! <i>"Can you even believe how sorry she is?!?! How DARE she treat me like that!!! She's just rude and undependable!"</i></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was "just an act of oversight" when I returned the car you loaned me covered in mud, full of trash, and empty of gas - but it was a sin worthy of death and damnation that you brought back my book with a crinkled page!!! </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the ten heard they were indignant at the two.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I heard, I was indignant at you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Why can't we all just get along?" </i><br />
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "What is the cause of quarrels and conflicts?"</i><br />
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> What makes this mess?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My sinful selfish heart does!! I make this mess!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> am the reason we can't all just get along. </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> am the cause of quarrels and of conflicts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The "me monster" strikes again and again and again. Oh, how I need </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God have mercy on "me". And you know what, He does...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just as Jesus didn't leave the twelve in their tirade, He doesn't abandon us in ours. Christ gave <b>the cure for quarreling.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, the text tells us that <i>"Jesus called them to Himself."</i> Friends, isn't that where all of sin's cures start...drawing near to God by coming to Christ?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm struck, yet again, that Jesus didn't ream them out. (I would!) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He didn't yell, or fuss, or scold. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He didn't banish. Instead He bid. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He tenderly called them to come.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He called them to come... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ...even </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> in </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> their </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> sin!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's just what Jesus does - and isn't it amazing?! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our quarreling are we drawing near to Jesus? Are we falling at His feet in prayer, begging Him to calm our conflicts, asking Him to change </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>us</u></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> as well as others? Are we pursuing the Prince of Peace as the only true source of cease fire ? Are we coming to the Christ who calls us close - coming to Him in repentance for our rebellious wranglings and full of sorrow for our selfish strife? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus called them to Himself. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He calls us as well! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first step in the cure for quarreling is to come to Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second, Jesus shows them the way of the world and reminds them that they are <i><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A19&version=ESV">"not of this world.</a>"</i> He says: </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The rulers of the Gentiles</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (that means those who do not follow Christ)</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you."</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As self-seeking sinners, men desire to dominate. A worldly soul has a first place goal. Fallen flesh is hungry to rule and anxious to be in authority. The natural man would be king (or queen) of all creation, having others bow down before him. He'd have the best seat on earth and the most honored seat in heaven. (Even in its apparent "humility" the world is often only hiding its hubris.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All of this is the world's way, but Jesus tells His people, <i>"It shall not be so among you." </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The standards of the world and the standards of He who made the world are quite different and almost always antithetical. Whatever lusts and passions flow freely since the fall are to be pruned from the lives of those who've been ransomed by Christ from the fall. We are not to be conformed <i>to</i> this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds <i>from</i> this world - that we may not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12%3A2-3&version=ESV">Romans 12:3-4</a>) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Jesus gives His cure for quarreling, He says, <i>"Don't be like the world." </i> I suppose the question is, am I? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In those situations where I'm battling with a brother, in those spots where I'm sparring with a sister, in those places where problems prevail with another - am I seeking a worldly way? Am I seeking <i>my own</i> way? Do I view you as <i>in my way</i> and in my sinful state am I trying to push you out of the way?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ouch. Far too often these things are probably true. So, how do I put off being like the world? Well, Jesus tells us in this text. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Third, Christian - you who have been redeemed from the enslaving power of sin through the atoning blood of Jesus - <i>don't</i> be like the people of the world. But, <i>do</i> be like the Savior of the world!! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Put off them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Put on Him!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The world seeks fame and fortune, power and prestige. It says that to be great is to <i>get</i>. Jesus says that to be great is to <i>give</i>. It says that in ruling we step up. He says that in ruling we stoop down. It says, "You must bow to me!" He says, "I shall bend to you!" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>and to give His life as a ransom for many."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christ's life is the mold and model for our own. <i> "You have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you would follow in His footsteps."</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(1 Peter 2:21)</span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Never has there been a a more perfect picture of humility than the one which we find in Jesus. Never has anyone been more deserving of honor, praise, or glory than He. Never could one have more justly demanded that men fall before Him and live their lives in servitude toward Him, than the Son of God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that is not the way of our King, and it's not to be the way of His people. As His Word reminds us to <i>"do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but in humility of mind count others as more significant than yourselves", </i><i> </i>it goes on to give us formidable fuel for that fire:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Have this attitude in yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the very form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:3-8)</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus was a servant in His living and in His dying. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Creator entered creation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The King came - not to subjugate but to serve and to save! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus lived as a servant and died as a sacrifice; and yet, as His people we quarrel and contend in the pursuit of power, prestige, preeminence and preservation. Beloved, this should not be. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> should </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> not</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> be!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cause of quarreling is that our sinful, selfish hearts want their own way. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cure for quarreling is found in Christ. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, to a degree it's found in our following of His example, but at a much more critical level it is found in our seeking shelter in His <u><i>substitution</i></u>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, I just don't have it in me to be like Jesus. Seriously, look at His life! Now, look at mine (or look at yours)! I can't do it. Try as I might I am simply incapable of following faithfully in His footsteps. I am ever falling and faltering and failing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Listen, I don't love you like He loves. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I won't serve you as He serves. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am far too often selfish when it comes to sacrificing for my dearest friends and my nearest family. How in the world will I ever love a stranger or my enemy as Jesus loved His? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bottom line - I won't. And that's why I need the good news of the gospel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am neither the servant nor the sacrifice that my Savior is - and He knows it! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My utter inability is why He entered this earth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus didn't come to merely show the way,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He came to </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BE</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the way! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He was no mere martyr. He was and is a sufficient, sacrificial substitute for sinners!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I am to see the ultimate cause of quarreling stop then I must see my need for Him and rest in His imputed righteousness to change my sinful, selfish heart. </span><br />
<ul>
<li><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Him</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I must be transformed out of the ways of a world that I am so easily conformed to. </span></li>
<li><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Him </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I must be made to be more holy, and less haughty - more like Him, less like me.</span></li>
<li><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Through Him </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this impossible task can become a reality, thanks to the sanctifying means of His marvelous mercy!</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The answer for all of this fussing and feuding and fighting is not found in what I will or won't do, but in all that He has done and is still doing! The answer is found in Jesus, who </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."</i><br />
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ultimate cure for quarreling is found in the Redeemer's ransom. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I numbered among the <i>"many"</i> for whom He has paid the price?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I clinging to Christ to cure my quarrels? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I pursuing the Prince of peace as the only true path to peace?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only as I am resting in Him will I no longer wrestle with you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selah!</span></div>
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Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-7591855393978584412014-07-08T08:04:00.000-04:002014-08-06T16:48:39.924-04:00Seeking the Best Seat in Heaven's House<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaSLHNC85B5rJUtqFo6ZiYh1kKjwrYfdjyCpgb2mrSZ2s3F89v0rBRO0OaIc9rODdOryj_7T-VOUVJFm4fA9JZZ0UMrtplRHRf7stb8popnY7UGrwQytNkgiIp7wWrIOh8yr7jv4eyFTZV/s1600/best+seat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaSLHNC85B5rJUtqFo6ZiYh1kKjwrYfdjyCpgb2mrSZ2s3F89v0rBRO0OaIc9rODdOryj_7T-VOUVJFm4fA9JZZ0UMrtplRHRf7stb8popnY7UGrwQytNkgiIp7wWrIOh8yr7jv4eyFTZV/s1600/best+seat.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our society seeks success. We can be crass creatures of competition. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chomping to eat others in our jobs. Chanting</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to defeat others with our teams. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Choosing to cheat others in order to get our way and achieve our goal. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're proud people who far too often mistake our own merit. </span><br />
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I deserve that dignity!" </i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"I've earned that honor!" </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"I'm owed that award!"</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our craving of the crown we may knock out our neighbor, sell out our sister, and throw our brother under the bus. And for what? All that we might secure the best seat in the house - the place of preeminence where others' eyes might look upon us and marvel at just how wonderful we are. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, you might be thinking, <i>"Oh, the wicked world!! How terribly they can treat one another!" </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And at times it's true, they do! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>But</i> is the church a whole lot different? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are Christians free from the tentacles of this temptation? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are pastors immune?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do sheep and shepherds ever become carnivorous cannibals?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do I ever hurt you in order to help myself?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It doesn't take much searching to see that the halls of church history are replete with tales of proud popes and pastors and parishioners who've haughtily harmed others. Perhaps there are similar stories engraved on the pages of your own experience within the "holy house". Maybe there are examples in your own actions towards others. Sadly, I know there are in mine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saints are still sinners - <i>which is why we always need the Savior!</i> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christians can be self-centered, self-seeking, and self-serving; but thankfully Jesus doesn't allow His true disciples to remain there without reproof. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We find a great example of this in Matthew 20 when the mother of James and John came to Christ seeking a preferential spot for her sons. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this attempt to get the best seat in Heaven's house there are lessons for us to learn about pride, about prayer, and about the true path to privilege</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Here's the entire account as Matthew tells it: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to up to Him with her sons, and kneeling before Him she asked Him for something. And He said to her, 'What do you want?' She said to Him, 'Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.'</i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Jesus answered, 'You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?' They said to Him, 'We are able.' He said to them, 'My cup you shall drink, but to sit at My right hand and at My left is not Mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.'" </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>(Matthew 20:20-23)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This passage teaches me about pride </b>- and amazingly that message falls out just after an announcement of Christ's selfless service. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus had </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">just</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> told the disciples, point blank, that the entire reason they were journeying to Jerusalem was in order for Him to suffer, die, and rise again from the dead. He didn't mince words </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+20%3A17-19&version=ESV">(Matthew 20:17-19)</a> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and He granted them a glimpse into the most humbling act of history:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the Creator had entered creation; </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the King had come to serve; </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the Rich had become poor; </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the God of life was about to give His life; </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He who knew no sin was about to become sin for sinners;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the Righteous would redeem the rebellious. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Jesus proclaimed that He had come to hang on a cross, James and John arranged to sit on a throne! You see, pride is a hungry beast with an appetite for its own gain and glory, and without a care for the cost to another!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The selfless Savior came to die for us, and we selfishly long to live for ourselves. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He loves. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We lust. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He serves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We seek.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He is humble.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We are haughty.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He gives.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We grab.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Interestingly, while the mother of James and John is the one who goes to Christ seeking that seat for her sons, many commentators believe the boys sent her to do the deed. The view is drawn, in part, because we find them right there "humbly" hiding behind her hem as she asks the question, and also because it is James and John (not Salome) whom Jesus reproves in His response. </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can't you almost see them saying: <i>"Hey, you know that 'throne' thing we've been throwing around? Why don't we see if mom will go to Jesus and ask about it? She could simply request some kindness for her kids. It'd only seem natural for her to beg the best for her boys. How could Jesus say 'No' to a mother's plea for her progeny??"</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The old Proverb that says </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Let another praise you and not your own mouth" </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> isn't to be misused as a means of manipulation. It's not encouraging us to twist another's tongue that they might sing our song!! It's telling us to shut up and let another do the lauding...but <i>only</i> if they long to do so <u>all on their own</u>!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You know, as I think on these things I'm convicted...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> How prone am I to hide my pride? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> How about you with yours?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We want to be seen,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to be known, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to be patted on the back and put in a place of preference...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> we don't want it to look like we are actually the ones orchestrating our own oblations. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our pride we don't wish to appear proud!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Such "humility" is horribly hypocritical. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May we see it as such and repent! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think that James and John eventually did. Later on in life we see them as pillars in the church. Not <i>proud</i> pillars that towered above the people of God's parish, but as <i>servant</i> pillars - supporting, shading, sheltering, protecting and preaching...even preaching against the pride that once entangled them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is James who says, <i>"What causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. ...God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God.... Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(James 4:1-10 selections)</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is John who writes: </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. ... For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever."</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(1 John 2:15-17)</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May we learn with them and from them that pride is a thing to be pummeled; and, by grace, <i>"may we draw near to God that He may draw near to us"</i> in helping us to do so. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This passage also teaches me a bit about prayer, </b>even amidst the arrogant asking of James and John.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sons of Zebedee longed for something and they knew that Jesus was the One who could provide it. It's good that we go to our God and that we seek our Savior - but <i><u>how</u></i> are we to do it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are called to come <i>boldly</i> in prayer <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+4%3A16&version=ESV">(Hebrews 4:16)</a> - </span>but in our boldness we need not be reckless. Over and over we are encouraged to ask, but always we are to ask in accordance to God's will (which is found in God's Word) rather than our own. <i>He</i> knows best what <i>we</i> need most, and we must trust our ways to His omniscient wisdom, and our wants to His declared decrees. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is my praying more a matter of <i>my</i> will or <i>Thy</i> will be done?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I honestly examine my intercession, how often do I pray rashly? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ...lustfully? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ...selfishly? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How many of my own <i>"let me sit at your right side"</i> prayers have I proposed? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How regularly do I implore God for what <i>I</i> desire for myself without ever giving a thought to what <i>He</i> desires for me?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How many times have I greedily asked</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> for things I wanted and said I "needed", never pausing to consider that really receiving them might be the worst thing to ever come my way?! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if God had given me everything I'd ever asked for? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if He hadn't said "no" to that job, to that guy, to that goal? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where would I be? Who would I be? Would I be?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How much unknown mercy have I received in God <i>not</i> giving to me what I've asked for? Have you ever paused to consider that if God were to give you that "dream" you might actually find it to be a nightmare?! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May our praying be coupled with trusting - trusting God to say "no" when He needs to!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I'm learning that I can recklessly ask for things that I <i>don't</i> need, I'm also learning that I can be reckless in requesting the things that I <i>do</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do I really stop and count the cost as I pray my prayers? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I pray for patience, am I willing to endure what is required to receive it? When I ask to be made holy, am I ready to feel the flames of refining fire? When I plead with God to help me love my neighbor more and hate my enemy less, am I cool with the conflicts that He may bring to test the sincerity of my sanctifying supplication? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I ask for the glories of grace and the fruit of faith to be real and relevant in my life, when I beg that they be placed upon my brow as a crown pointing others to Christ, am I willing to bear the cross that alone can set it on my scalp? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As James and John sought those seats did they count the cost of sitting in them?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus would make sure that they did and as he instructs them, He also instructs me. </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This passage teaches me about the true path to privilege.</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gentle Jesus, rather than lambasting them for their sneaky attempt to get the best seat in heaven's house, lovingly leads them to the chair that all who cherish Christ must sit in for a season - the seat of suffering.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">James and John wanted a high and lofty throne and Jesus told them of a low and sunken foot stool. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Jesus answered and said, 'You do not know what you are asking for. A</i></span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">re you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?'" </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still prancing in their pride they say: </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We are able!" </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Earlier they didn't know what they asked, and now it would seem they haven't a clue what they answer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, Jesus knows! He knows that He Himself will make them able to drink it to the dregs, and that through the process He will also make them humble instead of haughty. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus says: "</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My cup you shall drink, but to sit at My right hand and at My left is not Mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father."</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He tells them plainly that the way up is the way down and that the high road begins with the low road. The crown comes by the cross! Suffering, He says, will be theirs to savor. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it will be ours as well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John records the words of Jesus: <i>"In the world you <u>will</u> have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(John 16:33)</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paul tells Timothy: <i>"All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus <u>will</u> be persecuted."</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(2 Timothy 3:12)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">James reminds his readers: <i>"Consider it all joy, my brethren <u>when</u> you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(James 1:2-3)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Peter proclaims to the persecuted: <i>"<u>Do not be surprised</u> at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the suffering of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(1 Peter 4:12-13)</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suffering will be ours, just as it was His!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this world Jesus faced humiliation before exaltation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He walked a trail of tears before sounding the trumpet of triumph.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He hung on a cross and lay in a tomb before He rose, ascended and returned to His own throne. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friends, would our Savior bear a crown of thorns and we only wear a bonnet of blessing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christ's suffering for us procured our salvation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our suffering for Him proves it! <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+10%3A22&version=ESV">Matthew 10:22</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+10%3A22&version=ESV">1 Peter 4:14</a>)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, suffering sanctifies. James and John learned that lesson well. They, along with the other apostles faced martyrdom and persecution for the cause of Christ. In the process, they grew in grace and ultimately received the greatest gift of grace - eternal life in and with Christ Jesus our Lord. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So will we, if we stand firm to the end. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24%3A13&version=ESV">Matthew 24:13</a>) </span>And by the grace of God, we shall stand firm to the end. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+1%3A6&version=ESV">Philippians 1:6</a>)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now I have to tell you, I don't know where they sit now. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus didn't say. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And does it really matter? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Does it matter WHERE they sit, or where you and I will? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Isn't <i>any</i> seat there better than <i>every</i> seat here?! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we think on James and John and their silly quest to find the best seat in heaven's house, may we be reminded that pride goes before a fall, that prayer is more than just a shopping list, and that the path of privilege is paved with the sand of suffering.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully, Christ died for pride, ever intercedes on our behalf, and has suffered the pains of hell for His repentant people. Thus, if we are resting in Him for our salvation - if we are sitting in the lap of Jesus as we travel through the trials of this life - then we are safe and we are secure no matter what comes our way on any day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus will bring us home to heaven. He will set us in the best seat and put us in the perfect place - the place where we will be with Him, face to face, forever and ever and ever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You know, I think any seat will be just fine with me.</span>Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-24397245055515874242014-07-05T06:48:00.000-04:002014-07-15T12:39:31.597-04:00Good 'Nuff for Glory (?)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_CESQ6YQMaV89ZSLvDtg32IIEtXgEn0GNaOUfubEzUrxHHFdh9VsJZ6KQuEsJeyje9iO1JnETDEwyP5GycxZTBP3r3mVWAU94cAHDAjuM4BZCerDeeiEGNg4N-zqDonhEDPyPehthLBN/s1600/good+enough.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_CESQ6YQMaV89ZSLvDtg32IIEtXgEn0GNaOUfubEzUrxHHFdh9VsJZ6KQuEsJeyje9iO1JnETDEwyP5GycxZTBP3r3mVWAU94cAHDAjuM4BZCerDeeiEGNg4N-zqDonhEDPyPehthLBN/s1600/good+enough.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Without question, one of my favorite New Testament narratives is the account of the rich young ruler's conversation with Christ. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is a young man pondering perhaps the most important issue any of us ever can - the issue of eternal life. Here is a rich man, one who has so many things of temporal worth, actually pausing to contemplate things of eternal value. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'd do well to contemplate with him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People regularly came and asked Jesus questions. Often it was the Pharisees, but sadly they came with queries that sought to trick and trap the Messiah. This dude seems different. He comes humbly and respectfully. In his words, posture, considerations and cogitations he appears unique. When he approaches Jesus it is not</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to tempt, but to be taught. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We could learn a thing or two from him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We can learn a lot more from the One to whom he talks!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's the story as Matthew tells it:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"And behold, a man came up to Him and said, 'Good Master, what good deed must I do that I may obtain eternal life?' And Jesus said to him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.' He said to Him, 'Which ones?' And Jesus said, 'You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The young man said to Him, 'All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?' Jesus said to him, 'If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me.'</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>But when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>And Jesus said to his disciples, 'Truly, I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.' </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>When His disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, 'Who then can be saved?' But Jesus looked at them and said, 'With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'"</i></span> </blockquote>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Matthew 19:16-26)</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We learn a lot about this man from his questions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously he believed in eternal life. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clearly he was concerned about how to go about getting it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Without a doubt he realized something must be done to achieve it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What about us? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do we believe? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are we concerned? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have we counted the cost? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do eternal matters marinate in <i>our</i> mind as they did in <i>his</i>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Lord listens as he shares the queries of his mind. You know, Christ is not one to ignore our questions - even though He may not always answer them as we'd like! Midst a busy schedule, Jesus </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pauses for a pow wow with this ruminating ruler and His answer to the inquiry is perfectly profound.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus begins by interacting with the entire idea of what <i>"good"</i> is. He's been addressed as the <i>"good"</i> master and He's been questioned about the doing of <i>"good"</i> things. In response, He's about to straight shoot to the ruler's true root in order to discover what his mouth actually means. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Far from being any type of harsh rebuke, Jesus is going to use the art of the interrogatory to draw out of him what he is</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> really thinking</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> in order to drive into him what he should be </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">truly believing.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He poses His own questions to the young man,<i> "Why are you asking Me about what is good?"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Mark's account the story is filled out further with His adding </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Why do you call Me good?" </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He then goes on to declare </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"There is only One who is good" </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"No one is good but God alone."</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus, the greatest Teacher ever, is making sure that this student understands what is true about the character of God, the nature of Christ and the condition of man - for without a proper perspective on these we may all very well find ourselves not on the road to heaven, but on the highway to hell. (Remember, it is indeed often "paved with '</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">good' intentions.") </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Jesus begins by pointing out that only God is good</b><b>. </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though we often use that word with such flippant casualty,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the truth (according to Christ) is that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">real</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> honest to goodness </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">good</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> is an attribute of God </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>alone</u>.</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We need to realize that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The holy, perfect, and righteous God </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>ALONE</u></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> is the standard, source, and essence of good. According to Christ, </span><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>ONLY</i></u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> God is good!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Jesus then probes into whether this ruler understands that <i>He </i>is this good God. </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The young man has called Jesus "</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Master" - does He own what he has said about Christ's divine nature or are these words just a profane profession</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> of public politeness? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mark's </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Why do you call Me good?" </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is a clarifying question that would seek to have this inquisitor confess that Jesus is God incarnate <i>or</i> cease in calling Him "good" completely</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We need to ponder this probing ourselves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do you and I believe about Jesus? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do we believe Him to be good? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then do we also believe Him to be God? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to Christ Himself, the two go hand in hand. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus leaves </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">no</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> room for the idea that He is merely a good man - some magnificent mortal of exquisite character and grand goodness. Instead He calls any confession in that vein a false one and bids us hush our mouths of our heresy. The whole idea that Jesus was just a <i>"good"</i> man is just a <i>bad</i> teaching!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Jesus finally proves that this upstanding citizen is a sinner in need of a Savior</b><u>.</u> Here is where I wish to hang my hat for most of the post, for here is where the rubber meets the road to redemption. Jesus is going to show this young man that he can <i>never</i> be good enough to gain eternal life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is utterly impossible, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> absolutely unobtainable, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and far beyond our ability.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This young man wants to know what "good deed" he must do to enter into heaven. It appears that he is willing to work his way to eternal peace, and apparently believes that he actually could be good enough to get it. He's not alone in his attitude, aspiration, or assumption. How often do we think some form of the same thing? How often do we presume that we can be good 'nuff for Glory?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, there's a problem</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - "there is only <i>One</i> who is good" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and<b> it's not us</b>.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+14%3A1&version=ESV">Psalm 14:1</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+3%3A12&version=ESV">Romans 3:12</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, the human heart is desperately sick and deceitful (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jeremiah+17%3A9&version=ESV"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jeremiah 17:9</span></a>) and <i>"he who trusts his own heart is a fool" </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Proverbs 28:26).</span> Our tricky hearts can proudly lead us to think (as did Adam and Eve) that we can be like God... </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... but we can't! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Try as we might, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> work as we would, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> labor as we like, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> we will always</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> fall short</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+3%3A23&version=ESV">Romans 3:23</a>,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus is about to prove the point.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK young fella, <i>"If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's as cut and dry as that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God has given His holy law. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He has stated and stipulated His standard. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you want to gain Glory... then <i>"keep the commandments." </i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wanting to be sure he understood correctly, the young man asks, <i>"Well, which ones?" </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While it is always good that we inquire to make sure we accurately understand what another has said (and I hope that this is what the rich young ruler is doing), is it not also so very much like us (and our deceitful hearts) to take a hard teaching and seek to soften it, to take a clear teaching and try to confuse it? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus says <i>"keep the commandments"</i> and we try to reduce that statement to the lowest common denominator. <i>"Umm...how many commandments do you actually mean?"</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God gives a clear imperative, <i>"Thou shalt not..."</i> and we hem and haw, fuss and fidget, twist and turn, ruminate and recalibrate until we come up with our own version of what we think God <i>REALLY</i> meant when He said what He clearly said... because <i>SURELY </i>He didn't mean what plainly appears. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In all these interpretive gymnastics are we very different from the sneaky snake of Eden when he asked,<i> "Did God REALLY say...?" </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I digress...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the text the rich young ruler asks, <i>"Which ones?" and </i>rather than reaming the guy out (as I would probably do), Jesus patiently plods along with this pupil. Instead of giving him a lecture on the law which would engage only his head, He chooses to give a lesson in life which will also engage his heart. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, you want to know which commandments must be kept? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You want to know the <i>bare bones</i> of obedience? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You want to learn how <i>few</i> you must follow? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All-wise Jesus offers him just a <i>partial</i> list of commands in order to prove a powerful point: <u>we can't even keep the <i>barest</i> of the bare bones</u>! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember, the Bible tells us that <i>"whoever keeps the whole law but fails in just <u>one</u> piece, he has become guilty of breaking them <u>all</u>" </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(James 2:10). </span>Because the heavenly entrance exam </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">requires 100% perfection 100% of the time, any stumble or stagger in thought, word, or deed is a righteously received automatic fail. (We're all in trouble!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In His instruction, Jesus unfolds just the second half of the ten commandments - just the stuff about how we treat our fellow man and none of the stuff about how we treat our glorious God. It's a brilliant lesson, because if we don't love our brothers whom we <i>do</i> see how do we truly love our God whom we <i>don't</i> see? <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A20&version=ESV">1 John 4:20</a>) </span>Let's find out how he fares...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So you want to know what commands you must keep? Why not try these on for size:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"You shall not commit murder."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"You shall not commit adultery."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"You shall not steal."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"You shall not bear false witness."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Honor our father and mother."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then He closes with the summation of the latter list of the Law: <i>"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At first glance, the young man can almost seem gleeful in his response. I can picture a glimmer in his eyes, a spring in his step, his chin held high, and his shoulders raised in an air of accomplishment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Well, well, well, <i>all these things I have kept!</i> Whoopee!!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But wait... has he? Hold on just a minute...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we read further it appears that in his heart of hearts he knows that something is still not quite right. He asks,<i>"All these things I have kept; <u>what am I still lacking</u>?"</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this exchange I think I find one of the reasons that I like this guy so much. You see, he's a lot like me - pitifully pendulumatic. Back and forth and back he goes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He comes to Christ.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He questions Christ.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He puffs up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He pipes down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He seeks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He sinks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He seeks again... </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"w... w... wait.. ...what am I still lacking?"</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus will show him, but it's gonna hurt. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This "good" guy who thinks he's kept all the commandments is about to learn that truly he has not. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus, knowing that the young ruler has set his standard at <i>exterior</i> obedience, is going to press him where it's painful - he's going to hit him in the heart. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He will expose this man's love of things, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> his worship of stuff, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> his "god" of goods. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You'll notice that when Jesus listed the laws of love for our neighbor (all those commands that the dude claimed he'd kept) He went and left <u>one</u> of them out: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"You shall not covet." </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The omniscient One knew that the commandment of covetousness would reveal the reality of his unrighteous rebellion more than anything else ever could. So He saved it, and set it aside to use at the proper and most poignant time. This command was about to serve as a surgeon's scalpel, exposing the malignancy of all that sinful "bad" that dwelt within - lying just underneath all of that proud surface of supposed "good". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[Now, a side note: it's not like this guy has <i>REALLY</i> kept all the other commandments - not in their<i> truest</i> sense. Even if he claims he's never killed anyone remember: Jesus taught that if we've been <i>angry</i> at our brother then we're <i>guilty</i> of murder <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A22&version=ESV">Matthew 5:22</a>).</span> Even if he says he's never fallen into infidelity don't forget: Jesus said that if we've<i> lusted</i> after another then we're <i>guilty</i> of adultery <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A28&version=ESV">Matthew 5:28</a>)</span>. <i>True</i> obedience to the commandments is found not only in <i>outward</i> act but also in <i>inward</i> thought - and by that standard we all fall short.]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He asks: </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"All these I have kept; what am I still lacking?"</i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus answers: <i>"'If you would be perfect </i>[because that's the standard]<i> then, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The young man heard.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The young man turned. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The young man walked away...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> grieved by the Savior's sermon and</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> left in his sinful state.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All his asking didn't accomplish anything because the answer didn't fit his fancy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selah!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"When the young man heard this statement he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seemed from his first questions that he was willing to do any deed to ensure his entry into heaven. <u>But he wasn't willing to do this one!</u> Nope, this one would cost too much and he'd rather walk away full of sorrow than empty of his objects. He clings to his things and lets stuff that turns to rust and dust matter more than an eternal inheritance - an inheritance<i> "which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away"</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (1 Peter 1:4);</span> one which <i>"neither moth nor rust destroys, </i>[kept]<i> where thieves do not break in and steal"</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Matthew 6:19-20).</span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He would rather have the trinkets of earth than the treasure of heaven.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He holds fast to his idols and let's go of his God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This piercing proposition of selling his possessions, giving them to the poor, and following Christ was divinely designed to show him that he simply didn't love his neighbor as much as he loved himself; and that he didn't love God with all of his heart and soul and mind. When it came to the two greatest commandments, he faltered, fumbled and failed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He wasn't as good a commandment keeper as he claimed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He wasn't as good a guy as he thought. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And neither am I.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do I love more than Jesus? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What will I not part with? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What sorrow would I rather savor than obey the Savior?</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Covetousness was used as the clearest catalyst of conviction for him. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Jesus wasn't saying that all Christians must take a vow of poverty and get rid of everything they own (as some have misinterpreted this passage). Jesus was seizing a superb scenario which served as the best means to expose the rich young ruler's sin. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would show him he wasn't as good as he supposed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would reveal his desperate need for a Savior. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would expose the necessity of a truly <i>good</i> incarnate God to be that Savior:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> One </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who would come and keep all the commands that he couldn't;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> One who would bear all the judgment that his good-less guilt deserved;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One who would cover his sin with the robe of His own righteousness;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and bring him home to heaven on the merits of <i><u>His</u></i> marvelous mercy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus knew just what He was doing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes I wonder what commandment Christ would pick to prick me with, or you with if we were to stand in the young ruler's shoes? What false exterior facade would He peel back</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> in order to reveal the deep interior damage done by sin? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would He perhaps challenge us to:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">see our murderous hearts by exposing our angry hearts: <i>"Lay aside the anger you direct toward your children when they don't do what you say when you say it? Take up leading and loving them patiently in their sin even as I have led and loved you in yours?"</i> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">see our adulterous hearts by exposing our lustful hearts: <i>"Cut off that TV show or movie, put down that book - you know, the one that moves your mind to some form of passion laden fantasy? Walk away from those flirtatious conversations with that co-worker - you know, the good looking one, or the really nice one, or the very understanding one who is perhaps appearing as greener grass just beyond the brown or barren field where you feel you now feed? </i></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">see our thieving hearts by exposing our selfish and lazy hearts: <i>"Turn away from all that excess time spent on the computer or on your phone when your kids are needing your presence or your employer is paying for your labor? </i></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">see our false witnessing hearts by exposing our gossiping hearts: <i>"Cease in spreading that 'prayer request' about so and so to all the ladies in your Bible study? </i></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">see our dishonoring hearts to our fathers and mothers by exposing our disrespectful hearts towards those in God-given authority over us: <i>"Quit talking about the president in such a hateful way - even if you disagree with him? Begin to pray for him - not for his downfall but for his repentance and reformation?" </i></span></li>
</ul>
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<br />
Whatever He would say to us, unlike my words, would be perfect and piercing. </div>
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Better yet, all that He <i>has</i> said to us, in His Word, <i>is</i> perfect and piercing. </div>
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Throughout the pages of Scripture, Jesus has been just as clear to us as He was to the rich young ruler - possibly even clearer, for we now have the entire redemptive story fully revealed in holy writ!</div>
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In the Bible, Jesus has spoken plainly and without any ambiguity. He has told us that we can't be good enough and that we don't love God enough. An honest assessment of my life proves it. In light of our plight Jesus (the truly good incarnate God) has come to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves - carry us home to heaven based not on what we do, but based on what He's DONE...if only we will trust in Him rather than in ourselves!!</div>
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The rich young ruler was challenged to lay down his temporal trinkets and follow Jesus. At the heart of it all, he was challenged to lay aside himself and fall upon Christ who alone can save. the rich young ruler was unwilling - he had too much property and too much pride, and he walked away full of sorrow and empty of salvation. </div>
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As he woefully wandered away, Jesus turned to His disciples and said to them, <i>"Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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The disciples, utterly astonished, turned to their Master and asked, <i>"Then who can be saved?"</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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They understood the seriousness of the situation!</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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The Savior looked upon them and answered, <i>"With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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[Insert deep breath and strong sigh!] </div>
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<br /></div>
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You know, just like that rich ruler we are <i>all</i> challenged to lay aside something. Ultimately, we are all challenged to lay aside <i>ourselves</i> - our self-sufficiency, our pride, our personal attempts to piously carve our own path to Paradise! </div>
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<br /></div>
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It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Doggone it, truth is, it is <i>impossible</i> for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is <i>impossible</i> for everyone who believes they can pay the way with the capital of <i>their own</i> righteous riches to <i>ever</i> enter the kingdom of God. </div>
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<br /></div>
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You see,we are called to turn from our self-righteous bank vault full of supposed spiritual riches and to see ourselves not as rich but as poor. Our personal vault is filled with counterfeit currency. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Our own "wealth" is worthless. </div>
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There's not a "good" bill in the batch. </div>
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The "funds" are a fraud. </div>
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We are bankrupt. </div>
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There is not a penny of our own piety that we can pay to alleviate the deep debt we owe. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>But...</b> <i>"My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus!"</i> (Philippians 4:23)</div>
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<br /></div>
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The good news of the gospel is that though we sinners aren't good 'nuff for Glory, God has sent a Savior - Jesus Christ, incarnate God, Who is!! "<i>With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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The highway to Heaven is paved by <i>His</i> good deeds. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The price for our admission has been paid by <i>His</i> propitiation on the cross. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The full funds have been imputed to our account by grace through faith in <i>His</i> work not our own. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So, <i>"What good deed must I do that I may obtain eternal life?"</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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There's not one! </div>
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<br /></div>
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Realize it. </div>
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Admit it. </div>
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Own it. </div>
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Confess it. </div>
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And flee to Jesus Who has done for us what we can't do and offered to us what we can't earn.<br />
<br />
Another man, a jailer from Philippi, asked the same question years later: <i>"What must I do to be saved?" </i>He had just survived his own cataclysmic catalyst of conviction (a mighty earthquake). It was the perfect storm designed to drive him to see himself as a sinner in need of a Savior. In response he ran to Paul and Silas a broken man, pleading for an answer outside of his own merit and truly willing to give up all for the gospel.<br />
<br />
The answer was simple: <i> "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Acts 16:30-31)</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i>
He did and he was. <br />
May we follow in the footsteps of this man's faith and avoid the self-sufficiency of the other man's sorrow.<br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<i><br /></i>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>that though He was rich, </i><i>yet for your sake He became poor,</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">that you through His poverty might become rich."</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(2 Corinthians 8:9)</span></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">"When the goodness </span></i><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">and loving kindness </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>of God our Savior appeared, </i><i>He saved us,</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">not because of works done by us in righteousness,</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">but according to His own mercy,</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">by the washing of regeneration </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and renewal of the Holy Spirit.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">whom He poured out on us richly </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">through Jesus Christ our Savior,</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">so that being justified by His grace </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">we might become heirs </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">according to the hope of eternal life."</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Titus 3:4-7)</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"Jesus said to him, </i><i>'I am the way, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>and the truth, </i><i>and the life; </i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">no one comes to the Father, </span></i><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">but through me.'"</span></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(John 14:6)</span></i></div>
</div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-74414906266298530192014-06-25T08:02:00.000-04:002014-08-05T07:18:32.388-04:00Carrying Our Kids to Christ <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAYFa_gS81OZlhALr1QUshXf2bBfod76XAisD7PUDQf84dxyCwR7ppdE7NxeUg7s0F4_kISuO3CAAWf0eWko1A3l1xysPWWMgEHHP3qAoI2lIJui7TJb-2kFw3cR9CTvTxJe_mXnre_4zn/s1600/families+to+christ+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAYFa_gS81OZlhALr1QUshXf2bBfod76XAisD7PUDQf84dxyCwR7ppdE7NxeUg7s0F4_kISuO3CAAWf0eWko1A3l1xysPWWMgEHHP3qAoI2lIJui7TJb-2kFw3cR9CTvTxJe_mXnre_4zn/s1600/families+to+christ+1.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Opposition can come from the strangest places; discouragement from the oddest
sources; and both at the most unexpected times. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
When someone is seeking the Savior you would presume that the Savior's servants
would be excited. But that's not always the case. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Sadly there are times
when ministers can be mean, congregants cruel, and leaders just plain lousy.
There are times, if we're honest, when you and I may be much more of a </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">discourager</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> than an </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">encourager</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> to a soul on their journey to Jesus. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
In Matthew 19:13-15 we are told of a time when a group of children were brought
to Jesus in order that He might lay His hands on them and pray. Sounds
like a good thing, but that good thing was oddly disdained by the disciples -
disdained to the point that they began to rebuke the parents for carrying their
kids to Christ! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Crazy, huh?</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Parenting isn't easy, and parenting on the road to Calvary can
sometimes feel more like parenting in the cross hairs of enemy fire... and in some
moments, even in the cross hairs of unfathomable friendly fire. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The truth is:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><u>Satan</u> would seek to hinder us from raising our children in the fear and admonition o</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">f the Lord - and he would do so with great glee and much malice aforethought.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><u>The world</u> would strive to undermine our entire Biblical frame of reference - thinking it's doing us a favor in the process.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><u>Our own brothers and sisters in Christ</u> can, at times, dishearten us in the duties of spiritual devotion - albeit unwittingly as they impose their own personal preferences upon us, have little mercy towards us, show little patience with us, and speak unkindly about us.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><u>We ourselves</u> can become our own worst enemies in the arena of child rearing - both in our acts of willful </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">commission</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> and in those moments of lackadaisical </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">omission.</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Our active scolding and our inactive praying, our public "piety" and our private impropriety - all of these damage our daughters and scar our sons.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">So, what do we do when pursing Christ with and for our
children brings about a battle? How do “keep on keeping on” in our
parental acts of piety?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
Well, one thing we <i>mustn't</i> do is surrender! In spite of
the onslaughts of enemies from without and from within, <u>we must press
on</u>, fighting the good fight and
running the rough race. We must continue to carry our kids to Christ
regardless of the snares that are set along the way - knowing that at the end
of this conflict awaits the crown of righteousness for all who finish in faith.
We must also remember that we don't fight alone for Jesus is ever
fighting for us.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
I was reminded of that fact this morning through the remainder of the details
found in the story of Jesus blessing the little children.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
Here's the full account:</span><b> </b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
<i>"Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands
on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, 'Let
the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom
of heaven belongs to such as these.' And after laying His hands on them,
He departed from there." (Matthew 19:13-15)</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Several things about
running the faith-filled parental race jumped out at me.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
<b>1. We must bring our children to Jesus on the good days, prior to any
obvious trial and before any blatant opposition.</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
You know, the text doesn't seem to indicate that these were sick babes in
desperate need of healing. They appear to have been under no great
distress, dire straits, sickness, or suffering. It would seem that mom and dad
simply longed to bring them to the Savior that He might extend His prayer of
blessing upon them. It was sort of like a spiritual "well-baby"
checkup. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
You know, sadly I was sometimes pretty unfaithful with those "well-baby"
checks because they took time and money and...well...since my kids didn't seem
sick did they <i>really</i> need that visit to the doc? I hate to
admit it, but my assumption that my kids were fine (resulting in a less than
regular routine of healthy-day visits) is probably one of the reasons that my
son's autism diagnosis didn't happen sooner - thus preventing some earlier
intervention. I should have taken him to the physician for those routine <i>physical</i> exams even when it seemed that
nothing was wrong - because the doc could see things I didn't. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
With that said I have to ask, how am I doing on the <i>spiritual</i> end of that spectrum? Am I making an appointment
with the Great Physician regarding my children only in the messy moments when
the need is noticeable or in <i><u>every</u></i> moment - even when I
think they're OK? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Truth is, there is a stealthy sickness of sin that is, even now, cancerously creeping deep within the hearts of our little ones - just as it is
in our own. We may look nice and neat, we may appear hardy and healthy, we may
seem together and tidy - but we're not. We are needy – ever and always needy of
seeking the Savior personally and parentally. <i>Am</i> I seeking Him where my kids are concerned?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jesus may not be <i>physically</i>
in my village this day, but He is <i>spiritually</i>
ever present. Am I taking advantage of the opportunities that He has
given to come to Him (prayer, Word, worship)?</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Do I view the need as too small, the cost as too great, and the
"tick tock" of the time clock to be just too much to make a
moment for daily prayer with and for my children? Am I diligent in the
good days to intercede on their behalf and carry them to Christ on my knees
that He might carry them in His arms all the days of their life? Or do I
only truly commit to praying when there are problems? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">How are my prayers when things are pretty?</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
The same questions could be asked about my use of the Word with my little
ones. Am I teaching them diligently and talking about these precious
truths with them when we sit in our house, walk by the way, when we lie down
and rise up? Is the Word written on the figurative doorposts of our home
to be seen and used daily, or is it relegated to a back hall closet that is
only to be cracked in a crisis?</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
And then there's corporate worship? Is my family faithful to be
in church each Lord's Day - under the properly preached Word, amidst the faithful administration of the sacraments, and in fellowship with our family of faith?
Or is it only on occasion because we can fare just fine without weekly
worship? (Hebrews 10:24)<br /><br />How's my time in the Word and in worship when things are well?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As I think on this passage I must ask myself, am I bringing my
children to Jesus like those moms in Matthew or is my spiritual laziness and unacknowledged
need a parental parallel of those discouraging disciples who rebuked them?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If I am unfaithful in carrying my kids to Christ in the days when
opposition is absent, what will I be like in the days when it is threatening me
with its painful presence?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">2. We must rest that Jesus will deal with those
who oppose.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As the disciples attempted to bully these parents into turning
away from their devotional duty, the Savior stopped them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Basically He said, <i>“NO! Don’t keep them from coming! Bring them near! Carry them close! Let me
love them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jesus halted the harassment and silenced the censures. He blasted
the barriers and made a way for those kids to come. Jesus was aware of the antagonizing
actions of the naysayers and He did something about them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">He will for us as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As we run to the Redeemer and find the deluge of opposition raining upon us we must trust that the
very God whom we so long to lead our little ones to will clear the course in His
way and in His time. He will pave the path for us all to get there. Our call is to come. His promise is to provide!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Are you downhearted from the discouragement of those who
oppose? Look to Jesus – even as the
parents must have looked to Him that day.
As the disciples’ lips dripped with criticism I can only imagine that
the parents’ eyes turned to Christ in confusion and cried for clarity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“What are we to do, Lord? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We are trying to come. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Shall we turn away? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">They’re telling us to
turn away.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Looking to Jesus they found a Friend. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Listening to Jesus they heard a Helper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">He will be with us as we strive to bring our
babes before Him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Beloved, foes will rail but ultimately foes will fail. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Do not abandon your parental privilege of delivering your sons and
daughters to our gracious Savior even if in doing so all hell should defy you,
all earth dispute you, and all mankind debate you. Jesus will defend you and depose all who
oppose. Rest that He will rebuke them
and redeem you!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">3. We can rejoice that Jesus receives when
others reject and that He comes when we can’t.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Over and over and over again I am reminded to be thankful that our
Jesus is not like us. He does not treat
us as we treat one another. He is
patient, kind, gracious, tender, full of compassion – on and on His amazing
attributes go. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While men may beat and bludgeon a bruised reed, Jesus never breaks
one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While men may huff and puff and seek to smother a flickering flame,
Jesus will not extinguish one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While men may hurl insults and fling intimidations at a weary mother
who is already so discouraged in her striving to raise her children in the fear
and admonition of the Lord, Jesus will not rail nor reject.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">No, our merciful Master rescues and receives. He rescues us and our children from our
adversaries. He receives us and our children when others would turn us
away. Furthermore, He takes hold of us and
of our children even when we seem unable to take hold of Him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While opposition made it appear impossible for these families to
lay hold of Christ, no opposition could keep Christ from laying hold of
them. The text tells us that Jesus stretched
out His hands and laid them on these children whom others sought to send away. Jesus
was active in bringing them the blessing! He is active in bringing true
blessings to us as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Matthew Henry writes: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“The strongest believer lives not so much by apprehending Christ
as by being apprehended by Him, not so much by knowing God as by being known by
Him.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If we cannot stretch out our hands
to Christ, yet He can lay His hands on us, and so make us His own, and own us
for His own.”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Oh, these words and this passage give me hope. No one can truly
stand between me, my children, and my Savior.
The gates of hell shall not prevail.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As I look to Him, lean on Him, and learn to love Him - as I seek
to bring Joshua and Elizabeth along on the journey, He is faithful – ever faithful
in spite of all opposition, including my own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">May God’s great grace keep me coming to the cross and may it help
me continue to carry my kids to Christ in prayer, in Word, and in worship - no
matter what or who may stand in my way.
And on those days where I fail, and falter, and fall flat on my face
(those days where I’m my own worst opposition) may He gently rebuke me, lovingly
receive me, and mercifully lay His hands upon me. And may I see Him even as the folks of Matthew 19 saw Him...as the compassionate Christ who carves a way for me to come! </span>Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-35767412654110963832014-06-20T06:30:00.000-04:002014-06-20T08:36:16.255-04:00Hardness of Heart and the Ruin of Relationships<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTsyIyMT2-9HhF23SszbhdFtK0va5I0hI4RATRPqsFRv7dKjLdAPS0Ztz0v2niazryPhkTFavH_cw6y94lK1-wl1KewWDmi0y3Rnd50pXNHjkaVoYlCb7FKcJUG5086CUNieT98lFJYtZ_/s1600/stone+heart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTsyIyMT2-9HhF23SszbhdFtK0va5I0hI4RATRPqsFRv7dKjLdAPS0Ztz0v2niazryPhkTFavH_cw6y94lK1-wl1KewWDmi0y3Rnd50pXNHjkaVoYlCb7FKcJUG5086CUNieT98lFJYtZ_/s1600/stone+heart.jpg" height="130" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Modern divorce rates are high. The last official statistic I found from the CDC was that somewhere</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> around 50% of marriages now end in divorce. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the arena of special needs, where my own family exists, the rates are even higher - hovering around the 80% mark (often due to the weight of physical and emotional burden that husband and wife carry). These are heartbreaking figures, and they result in heartbroken lives.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sure, living under the same roof can be rough and m</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">arriage can be hard, but then again, since
the fall, what relationship isn't?</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Parents and progeny fuss and fight. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friends become foes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Churches split. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Relationships rupture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many marriages are a mess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This morning, my quiet time took me to Matthew 19 and a
section on divorce. In the text, a group of Pharisees
have come up to try and trick Jesus – as was their custom. They toss out a question about whether
divorce is or isn’t lawful (and lawful “<i>for any cause
at all”) </i>and then misquote Moses hoping to trip and trap my Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As is always the case, they fail in their folly. How do you ever outsmart omniscience? Jesus does a beautiful job of correcting
their twisted teaching by driving them all the way back to the institution of
marriage - marriage before sin made a
mess of it. He looks at the original portrait
of the Master rather than the marred imitation of the impostor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s much I could write on this, but today’s post is actually not
one on marriage <i>per se</i>, or about divorce in particular – though it clearly has
a ripple effect on both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a post about hard hearts. My hard heart, your hard heart, the ravaging
effect of hard hearts, and ultimately about the One who changes hard hearts.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About halfway through the passage this morning Jesus says
this: </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Because of your hardness of heart,
Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not
been this way.”</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was stopped dead in my reading tracks this morning by that
phrase: <i>“because of your hardness of
heart.”</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is this issue not always the crux of crisis in
relationships? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hard hearts hurt us and hard hearts lead us to hurt others!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think about it: does not every issue of strife and struggle
and strain spawn off of someone’s hard heart? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps it is my own. Perhaps it is my partner’s. Probably it's a bit of both.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is it not hardness of heart that causes us to be brash
instead of benevolent?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">…cruel instead of kind?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">…lambasting instead of loving?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is it not hardness of heart that makes us selfish instead of
serving?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is it not hardness of heart that causes us to slam doors
shut instead of swinging them open?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Does not all abuse, abandonment, betrayal, and bludgeoning (of
fist and of tongue) ultimately come from a hard heart? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If our hearts weren't so hard wouldn't we love more and hate
less?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">…give more and take less?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">…build more and break less?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Were our hearts not so hard would we be more apt to forbear
and to forgive others - even as Christ has been so quick to forbear and forgive us?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If husband’s hearts were not so hard would they be much
more prone to love their wives even as Christ has loved His (often adulterous) bride?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If wives’ hearts were not so hard would they be much
more likely to strive to respect and serve their spouse? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If father’s hearts weren't so hard would they be less
likely to provoke their children to anger?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If children’s hearts weren't so hard would they be less
likely to disobey and dishonor their father and mother?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If friend’s hearts weren't so hard would we be more
faithful?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are in a mess because by nature our hearts are <i>“more deceitful than anything else and
desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9) </i>Is it not <i>"from within, out of the heart of men, that proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness" (Mark 7:21-22)</i>? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our hard hearts wreak havoc and wreck relationships, and even as we come to see these things about ourselves we often remain stubborn as stone where they are concerned.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If all our hearts were not so hard would we not be fleeing
more to Jesus to help us with these naturally deceitful and desperately wicked hearts
that far too often control us? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I read this morning I was reminded of my own struggle
with a hard heart even in the midst of a beautiful marriage, even against the
backdrop of precious children, even in the day to day of interacting with
wonderful friends. Redeemed as I am, I’m
still rocky rough around the edges and need help with the stone beneath my surface. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what will I do with <i>my</i>
hard heart? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will I excuse it and blame
all my problems on those around me (as did Adam and Eve)? Or will I own it? Will I own <i>my</i> part and seek help for <i>my</i> hardness? If I were to do so, if I were to hate my
hardness more than yours, if I were to despise my sin more than my spouse’s, if
I were to fight against my failings more than I fuss about my friends’… how
great a difference might it make??<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What can I do about my own calloused core?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is but one sure cure.
There is but one Physician who can take this heart of stone and make it
a heart of flesh. There is but one
answer to my selfish, stubborn struggles in relationships. There is but one source for bending and
breaking this boulder - Jesus Christ who was crucified for that hard heart!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus came to earth because of my hard heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He died on the cross for my hard heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He rose from the grave to remind me that He can conquer my
hard heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first step for all of us is to flee to Jesus in faith,
for <i>“if anyone is in Christ he is a new
creation, the old has gone and the new has come.”</i> It is the marvelous Messiah who <i>“will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit within you”, </i>who <i>“will remove
the heart of stone from you and give you a heart of flesh”</i>, and who will <i>“put [His] Spirit within you and cause you
to walk in [His] statutes.”</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fleeing
to Him is the first step.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Continuing to flee to Him is the next step, and the next
one, and the next one – until we take that final step into our heavenly home where relationships are made right! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Left to itself even my renewed heart will petrify like air
drying clay unless it is constantly being washed by the One who is the Water of
life. I am so prone to wander and so given to hardening in the heat of this
fallen world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only as I keep running to Christ in repeated faith and repentance
is there hope in my hardening. Only as I
daily turn from my recurring rockiness of heart and fall upon Him and His softening
sanctifying grace can I love you as I ought, bear with you as I should, and
forgive you as I must. Only then can my marriage,
my parenting, and my partnering with you as my friend become a beautiful thing
instead of a bullying thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May I run to Jesus for only He can truly and effectually
permeate the impermeable and tenderize the tough. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May we all flee to the gracious God who searches hearts,
cleanses hearts, humbles hearts, and changes hearts. In Him may we find daily renewed hearts that
are being made malleable by His mercy - and
through Him may we see marriages maintained, divorces dissipate, and relationships restored</span>.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-91157953818547385142014-06-18T06:28:00.000-04:002015-10-28T10:36:06.644-04:00A Parable of Pardon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqjc_PGwUCpHMleqOLNnSab6_hSWUNIFm8Whr3W8i3KBFQPsyepzWCTv3Dup2fY-CQDuCz5Q2-ImIsumf1PgeJqo7ibg5vxkdUTpAvmIUsYbCHr2pR5K3nh8IF6PzJJS3gGbfGYC_8ebVq/s1600/unmerciful+servant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqjc_PGwUCpHMleqOLNnSab6_hSWUNIFm8Whr3W8i3KBFQPsyepzWCTv3Dup2fY-CQDuCz5Q2-ImIsumf1PgeJqo7ibg5vxkdUTpAvmIUsYbCHr2pR5K3nh8IF6PzJJS3gGbfGYC_8ebVq/s1600/unmerciful+servant.jpg" width="152" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">"Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea... </i></div>
</div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: right;">...until
they have to forgive someone!”</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: right;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those words of C.S. Lewis, in <u>Mere Christianity</u>, hit
me hard as I read them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selfishly, I want to be forgiven. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, I don’t always want to forgive.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More often than I wish to admit, I’m pretty pitiful at pardoning
and fairly fickle with forgiving. While Peter
asked Jesus <i>just how much</i> he had to
forgive a sinning brother, I seem to be often guilty of wondering <i>just how little</i> must I?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Forgiving can be a hard thing, but as we grow weary let us
remember that forgiving is a gospel thing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to the Bible we are called to forgive fully and
freely <i>because in Christ we've been
forgiven fully and freely</i>. Driving
that idea home, Lewis wrote in another book (<u>The Weight of Glory</u>) that <i>“to be a Christian is to be willing to
forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m not sure that this picture is portrayed in any more
piercing fashion than it is in the story of “The Unmerciful Servant.” This is a parable of pardon and it is one
that convicts me to the core.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s the story, which comes immediately on the heels of
Peter’s <a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/06/over-course-of-my-life-many-of-its.html">“just how much”</a> question:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“For this reason the
kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who wished to settle
accounts with his slaves. And when he
had begun to settle them, there was brought to him one who owed him ten
thousand talents. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord
commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had,
and repayment to be made. The slave therefore falling down, prostrated himself
before him saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you everything.’
And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the
debt.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<i>
</i><i></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that slave went
out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he
seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe!’ So his
fellow slave fell down and began to entreat him, saying, ‘Have patience with me
and I will repay you.’ He was unwilling however, but went and threw him in
prison until he should pay back what was owed.</span></i></i></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?' And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. So shall My heavenly Father also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart."</i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (Matthew 18:22-35)</span></i></i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i></i></div>
<i>
</i></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s a lot to learn in this lesson: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> much about the master, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> a great deal about the
servant, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and all the application that pours forth to you and to me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this parable, Jesus is about to teach us
how deep the debt is that God forgave and He’s about to show us how haughtily
hypocritical we are to cruelly demand the pay up of mere pittance from another.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m stunned as I consider the slave’s deep debt and even more stunned by the master’s
great mercy regarding it. Here is a king who has come
to settle accounts - accounts that are honestly owed. As he
gives the book a look he learns of a man who owes him an <i>insurmountable</i> debt: 10,000
talents! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, let the seriousness of the situation sink in. You see, <u>ONE</u> talent is equal to
around <u>16 year’s wages</u>, so dude done dug a debt of about <u>160,000 years of
work</u>!! (He's been doing more than pilfering from the coffee fund can!) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a price he cannot pay back – </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> no matter how hard he tries, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> no matter how much he pleads. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is an impossible
plight. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is an un-achievable chore. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Matthew plainly puts it: <i>“He did not have the means to repay.”</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How I am reminded of myself and of us all. We have dug ourselves into deep debt. Every sin we commit in thought, word and deed
is another debt owed to a holy God. Our
sin nature, inherited through Adam, has brought us into this world in a state
of utter bankruptcy - and with each new day we only continue to deepen the
deficit. We do not have the means to
repay and yet a day is coming when the King will call us to account. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What shall we do?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the story continues, in justice the king calls for the
servant to be sold –along with all he has. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Immediately the servant falls at his
master’s feet pleading for patience, promising that he’ll repay everything. (Yeah, right!! How you gonna do that, “Mr. I Owe <u>160,000 Years</u>
of Salary to da Master" man??!!) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Notice that he does not cry for true mercy or
pardon, instead he asks the king to kindly give him more time to fix the
fiasco! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m amazed that this one who had <i>nothing</i> suddenly thinks he
can pay <i>everything</i>. Really??</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But you know, I’m equally amazed at how often we follow in his
footsteps. We find ourselves caught in
our trespasses and we cry out for a form of false mercy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We hope to work our way to saving grace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We strive to earn our entrance to heaven. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We proudly think we can somehow pay the daunting debt we owe
to Deity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But…we cannot. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our pride cannot propitiate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the face of vainglory, the master has mercy. He does not give this foolish fellow what he
asks for – more time to accomplish that which cannot be done. No, he gives him what he didn't even think to request – full pardon of his eternal obligation! <i>“The
lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.” </i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He wiped the slate clean. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He cancelled the debt. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He forgave fully and freely.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friend, that is what our Lord has done for those of us who are trusting in Him to save.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our Master has shown mercy.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our King has been kind.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our Savior has sacrificed and paid the price we can <i>never</i>
pay.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the cross Christ’s final word was “Tetelestai!” (“It is finished!”) and in New Testament times that wonderful word
was written on receipts showing that a
bill was <u>paid in full</u>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Ellis Crum once sang, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“He paid a debt He did not owe. I owed a debt I could not pay.”</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In this is the
beauty of the gospel, that the very One I was so deeply in debt to has paid the
price for my pardon. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Should we not be humbled by this act of condescending compassion? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is not the servant in our story humbled by such a gracious gift?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apparently he is not, for in response to pardon pouring upon
him, he becomes a cruel creditor. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On
the very heels of his being set free from a debtor’s doom he turns and hunts
down one who is under an utterly minimal obligation to him. His fellow slave owed him but a hundred denarii
(100 day’s wages) – this was <u>nothing</u> compared to his own 160,000 years worth of forgiven debt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are told that he violently seizes his neighbor by the throat and begins to choke
him, demanding that he pay back all that is owed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did he so quickly forget what had been forgiven?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do we, in like fashion?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The attacked attendant falls to his knees and pleads for patience,
promising to repay. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sound familiar? His own cries from earlier this very day come
back to him. <i>“Have patience with me and I will repay you.”</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the tables are turned, how will he respond? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, this one whose debt was erased does not respond
as did his master.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He shows no mercy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He offers no kindness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He has no
compassion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“He was unwilling and
went and threw him in prison until he should pay back all that he owed.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, how fickle we can be where forgiveness is concerned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Everyone thinks
forgiveness a lovely idea, </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><u>until</u> they have to forgive someone.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I read these words of Lewis. I pause to consider this parable of Jesus. And I ask...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I different from this quote?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I different than this man? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I <i>truly</i>
different when it comes to forgiveness? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will I look at your sins
against me as small and insignificant when compared to my sins against my
God? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will I extend to you even a smidgen</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> of the grace and mercy that my God has extended to me? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will I love you as I have been loved? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will I be </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“willing
to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable” </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in
me? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, my God, please make it to be so!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the other servants saw this rebel’s response they were
moved to sorrow. <i>“When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply
grieved.” </i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> were </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> deeply </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> grieved...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I grieved by the lack of absolution that is often offered? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I saddened by the pitiful way we pardon
and by the malicious ways in which we refuse to mend with mercy? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Does my heart
hurt when our pride and selfishness keep us from restoring and reconciling and
granting grace one to another – even as Christ Jesus has to us? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, my Savior,
make me weep over our failures in these things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the other servants saw this forgiven felon’s folly they
ran to their master and <i>“reported to
their lord all that had happened.”</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do I? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I see the ways in which we all malign the gospel of grace by our
lack of gospel love towards one another, am I moved to prayer? Do I carry these things to my Father who is
the fount of forgiveness? Do I cry to
the Christ of the Cross who paid the price for my pardon? Do I call out to the Holy Spirit who alone
can convict us of our failings to forgive and soften our hard and haughty
hearts? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do not as much as I
should. Far too often I get angry at my
fellow servants for being angry at my fellow servants! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How different am I than the very ones I am
most bothered by? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May the God of mercy
have mercy, even on me to whom He has already shown such mercy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The parable ends with the righteous ruler giving a rough
rebuke to this unmerciful servant. The
master reminds him of all that was given to him. <i>“You
wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. Should you not also have had mercy on your
fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sigh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, <i>he</i> should
have. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, <i>I</i> should
have. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, <i>we</i> should
have. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this point, the lord of this story hands him over to the torturers
to pay all that was owed. This one who
would not forgive ended up not being forgiven.
His acquittal was acquitted and he who would not bend the knee to gospel
grace finds himself staring down the eternal consequences of holy justice. He no longer gets grace so undeserved, instead he
receives justice so fully deserved – he gains righteous recompense and receives
the due wages of his sin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What a frightening place to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, is this a picture of salvation being lost? Is this an example of God turning His back on
one to whom He had formally extended His hand?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I must say it cannot be, <i>“for
I am confident of this very thing, that He who began the good work in you will
perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” </i>(Philippians 1:6). Perhaps what
we more accurately have portrayed in this parable is <i>“they went out from us because they were never of us”</i> (1 John
2:19).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is quite possible to have the beauties of the gospel held
forth to us and yet never truly take hold of them. Nowhere in this passage do we see this
unmerciful servant show any confession of lip (not so much as a "thank you") or life in response to the mercy of the
master. <i>“By their fruits you shall know them” </i>(Matthew
7:16-20). His fruit was rotten to the core and proved to be false fruit in
the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, let us beware of following in his footsteps. As this parable of pardon
ends, Jesus warns - <i>“So shall My heavenly Father also
do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would we know that we’ve been forgiven? Let us find Christ’s fruit within - fruit that longs
to forgive! Forgive, not just with weak
words but with our whole heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How often do we say <i>“I
forgive you”</i> , yet still</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> harbor malice more than mercy, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> desire ill will more than good will, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> long for revenge more than reconciliation? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May we not feign forgiveness as mere men but pour out pardon
as our merciful Master.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lord Jesus, help me.
Help me to forgive as I’ve been forgiven. Help me to see forgiveness as “a lovely idea” indeed but to see the opportunity to actually forgive someone as an even lovelier
opportunity.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-4954805462172075302014-06-12T07:22:00.000-04:002014-06-18T20:37:38.968-04:00Just How Much??<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LhVdxbwBhqc_dfrJzxyVbVP4s-kJXmkrg6qXaaOQNGpIHeLrCBz8MHrXor5lDZrEjQEsWQpiVRheVUAate_wIbyd4kn0GkIXwqJm8mBJGB1ynhCnyZ5ArCX4VC7NE41tuUKGAjmGT1bd/s1600/forgiveness+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LhVdxbwBhqc_dfrJzxyVbVP4s-kJXmkrg6qXaaOQNGpIHeLrCBz8MHrXor5lDZrEjQEsWQpiVRheVUAate_wIbyd4kn0GkIXwqJm8mBJGB1ynhCnyZ5ArCX4VC7NE41tuUKGAjmGT1bd/s1600/forgiveness+2.jpg" height="125" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the course of my life many of its circumstances have
forced me to really wrestle through the concept of forgiveness. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friends have failed. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Family has bailed. How am I to respond? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve been wronged - </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">should</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
I forgive?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve been abandoned - <i>can</i>
I forgive? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve been betrayed - <i>will</i>
I forgive? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve been abused –<i> must</i>
I forgive? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Forgiveness can be a tough teaching because, if I'm really honest, forgiveness goes against
the grain of my nature. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you push
me, my natural response is to push back. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you talk about me, my innate reaction is to talk about you. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you walk away from me my first reflex is
not to walk towards you... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ...well, at least it’s not to walk towards you with
Christ like love. Sadly, if truth be told it may be to walk towards you with balled up fist much more than with outstretched arm! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I often don't feel like forgiving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet, in spite of my feelings, God’s Word tells me to forgive. Over and over and over it tells me to forgive!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In response I ask, <i>“Well, how much, God? <u>JUST</u> <u>HOW</u> <u>MUCH</u> do I have to forgive THAT
person who did THOSE things to me??” </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Or if more honestly stated, perhaps the real
question is “just how <i>little</i> forgiveness
can I get away with?”</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully, Jesus didn't ask that question where I was concerned. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Jesus prepared to come to
earth in order to live the sinless life that I can’t live and then to die the
excruciating death that I deserve to die, He didn't ask: <i>“Father, just how much do I have to forgive Lori
Sealy and just how little can I
forgive and still help her off the hook?”</i> No, Jesus forgave me <i>FULLY</i> and at <i>GREAT</i> cost to Himself - the cost of Calvary's cross. I would do well to remember that as I am
called upon to forgive others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead of <i><b>“just how much must I forgive YOU”</b></i> perhaps a more
clarifying question, a question that would put everything in proper perspective, would be <i><b>“just how much has God, through Christ,
forgiven ME?!”</b></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, people can be cruel and unkind and can sin against us
in so many ways; but the truth is,<b> <u>I</u></b> can be cruel and unkind and
can (and do) sin against others in so many ways – including the God who sent His only
Son to save me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, I have been wronged repeatedly but the reality is,<b> <u>I</u></b> have wronged (and still wrong) others repeatedly –
including my God who gave Jesus to set things right between us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How has God responded to my sins, and transgressions, and
betrayals, and abuses? He has paid the price to forgive me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mercifully, in Jesus I have been forgiven more than I
deserve, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> more than I can even fathom, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and more than I could ever repay. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have not been treated fairly by Him, <i><u>thankfully</u></i>, 'cause do I REALLY want <i>fair</i> for my failings? Do I REALLY want what I deserve? Do I REALLY want what's coming to me? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, and thankfully God has not given me justice, instead he's given me MERCY - marvelous mercy, and GRACE</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">– glorious grace! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From His end, that gift of grace came at great expense. The gracious gift of my forgiveness wasn't just a free pass granted by a whimsical wink of the Divine eye. Oh no, a holy God never just winks at our sin. That gift came at a deeply sacrificial cost. The price of my pardon was paid on Calvary's cross by the life blood of the very One whom I've sinned against the most! <br /><br />Wow! I don't know about you, but that's a forgiveness very different from the kind I often try to pull off.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus didn’t pursue the punitive against me.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus pursued pardon for me – and all at such
sacrifice of self!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, how could I ever be too haughty to be willing to forgive
another who has never sinned against me (as great as their sins may be) <u>as much I
have sinned against the Savior</u>? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet, far
too often I am haughty and my pitiful pride ever reminds me of my continuing
need of Jesus’ help in this thing as in all things. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This morning, my heart was pricked as I read J. C. Ryle’s
thoughts on Peter’s famous question: <i>“Lord, how often shall my brother sin
against me and I forgive him? Up to
seven times?” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To that question Jesus replied: <i>“I do
not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ryle writes:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"In these verses the Lord Jesus deals with a deeply
important subject – the forgiveness of injuries.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We live in a wicked world, and it is vain to expect that we
can escape ill-treatment, however carefully we may behave. To know how to conduct ourselves, when we are
ill-treated, is of great importance to our souls.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Lord Jesus lays it down as a general rule that we ought
to forgive others to the uttermost.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now our Lord does not mean that offences against the law of
the land and the good order of society are to be passed over in silence. He does not mean that we are to allow people
to commit thefts, and assaults with impunity.
All that He means is that we are to study a <u>general spirit</u> of
mercy and forgivingness to our brethren.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are to bear much, and put up with much, rather than
quarrel. We are to look over much and
submit to much, rather than have any strife.
We are to lay aside everything like malice, strife, revenge and
retaliation. Such feelings are only fit
for heathens. They are utterly unworthy and
unbecoming of a disciple of Christ.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What a happy world it would be if this rule of our Lord’s
was more known and better obeyed! How many
of the miseries of mankind are occasioned by disputes, quarrels, lawsuits, and
an obstinate tenacity about what men call “their rights!” How many of them might be altogether avoided
if men were more willing to forgive and more desirous for peace!</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let us never forget that a fire cannot go on burning
without fuel. Just in the same way it
takes two to make a quarrel. Let us each
resolve by God’s grace that of these two we will never be one. Let us resolve to return good for evil, and
blessing for cursing, and so melt down enmity and change our foes into friends.”</span></blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<br />
Oh Lord, I am incapable of such a calling.
I am rarely desirous of seeing my foes become my friends – but that is
what you were desirous of with me, and You set out at great cost to see that it
would happen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Help me to fall on You, my Savior, not merely as my example
in these things (for I will fail in following) but as my very source of
strength and substitution in living out these things. Help me to live out gospel grace to those who have hurt me.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Make me to love others as I have been loved, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to forgive
others as I have been forgiven, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and to pursue peace with people even if it
means pain to my pride. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-8863934445131812302014-04-28T06:00:00.000-04:002016-04-03T20:27:43.931-04:00Interviewing Autism (A Christian Perspective) - Part 5 - Autism & The Church: Wrap Up, Resources, & Questions From a Parent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAQrqxDIubEFzX7hKsIqyNF8uJp_dfNngtdXbHo_4oR6FMS9TSa0uJs6_yzzdzOW-aLBFEqKSidH3F9DY-mhXcd0zBL_b_EACU1xfzV47TPeN4hVNWQR7tpQvO6VeNjNJl-1jjYgH08KjZ/s1600/autism+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAQrqxDIubEFzX7hKsIqyNF8uJp_dfNngtdXbHo_4oR6FMS9TSa0uJs6_yzzdzOW-aLBFEqKSidH3F9DY-mhXcd0zBL_b_EACU1xfzV47TPeN4hVNWQR7tpQvO6VeNjNJl-1jjYgH08KjZ/s1600/autism+5.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>
<u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Previous Links:</i></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from.html?spref=fb">Part 1: Interviewing Autism - "An Introduction to My Life, Conversion, & Diagnosis"</a></span><span style="color: #351c75;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span></span>
<a href="http://www.lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_25.html"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Part 2: Interviewing Autism - "An Overview of Autsim As It Manifests in Me"</span></a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_26.html" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 3: Interviewing Autism - "The Challenges to & Benefits of Faith as Well as Some Tallk About Tangibles"</a><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_27.html"><span style="color: #351c75;">Part 4: Interviewing Autism "Autism & The Church : Serving Not Severing"</span></a></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><strong>What are things that Christians and the church should be
sensitive to in ministering to autistic people? </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think we’ve touched on quite a few of these things in
other questions and therefore trust that some deducing can be done from those
answers. There is however, one almost humorous thing that immediately comes to
mind - primarily because I hear so many people who live with autism talk about it. <br />
</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In much of the church culture there is a
tendency to greet one another with a big and boisterous bear hug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While that is a good thing which shows our
affection for one another, realize that for many folks with autism it is a physically
unsettling <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">nightmare</b> – a real-time,
real-life nightmare that can cause <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">great</b>
pain to a sensorial affected person with autism!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve chatted with several families recently who have to run
“hug interference” for their children with ASD on Sunday mornings in order to
spare them from the well-meaning evangelical embrace!! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just store that away in your autistic
sensitivity file folder!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most of the gals at our church realize that I am not, by
nature, a hugger and thus many of them will ask me if they can give me a hug
before they actually do it.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That’s very
helpful, because I know that I have the freedom to say “no” if I need to and in
their asking I am also given the time to prepare myself for the contact if I
want it.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again, it goes back to
understanding and communication.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Talk to
the folks with autism in your congregation and if they are not able to talk with you,
talk with their parents.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Find out what
their personal “issues” are and then look for ways to be sensitive to their
struggles.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>What areas of service do
autistic believers enjoy and excel in? </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David, the answers here will be as diverse as the people on
the spectrum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as there are
varieties of gifts among neuro-typicals so there are varieties of gifts among
a-typicals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same “one body/many
members” principle of Romans 12 applies to every person in Christ’s
church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to be careful to not
presuppose that everyone on the spectrum is of a cookie cutter design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having autism doesn’t negate individual
personalities or preferences, so the best way to find an honest answer to this
question is, once again, to get to know the people who live with autism in your path. Learn their
areas of interest and giftedness and then help find ways to plug them into
kingdom service.</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Interestingly, as I sit here pounding out these answers at
a desk in a public library, there is a young adult male with autism less than 10
feet from me.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He does volunteer work
shelving books – because he loves books and because he loves to put things in order.
He knows his niche and the library is letting him use it!)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>How can the church learn from
autistic people and also use their talents and gifts better? </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I’ve stressed in some earlier answers, the best way to
learn from people with autism is to get to know and seek to understand people with autism. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Consider looking into some of the resources that are listed below in
order to educate yourself more fully regarding the autistic disorder.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The more you know about autism the less
fearful you’ll be about being around autism.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Find ways to spend time with those in your community and congregation
who are on the spectrum – regardless of where they fall on the spectrum.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don’t forget that even the most severely
affected person with ASD is still an image bearer of your Father and, by virtue of
that, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">has a true need and a real desire
to connect with people – even if that connecting means nothing more than your
sitting in the room with them watching while they stack Legos.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The practice of your presence is one of the
best gifts you can give and one of the best ways you can learn.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As you personally learn more about the members of your local body who live with autism, then uncovering ways to help them use their talents
and gifts should flow freely as a by-product.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>How can the church help the
parents and loved ones of autistic children? </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is such an important thing to address.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I can’t speak specifically for all of
the parents of all of the children out there, I do think there are a few very
universal things that all families who live with autism would agree on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">First</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, autism is </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><strong>physically</strong></u></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">EXHAUSTING!!</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Autism </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>never</u></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> ends.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Autism </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>never</u></i><u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
</u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rests.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Autism </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>never</u></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> takes a break or goes on vacation. Even on the best of
days, the weight of the shadowy albatross is upon you – </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">always</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> upon you.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A simple trip to the grocery store can utterly undo a
child.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A family dinner at a local
restaurant may send your son under the table to hide from all of the stimuli
that is crashing down around him. The park or playing in your own yard may last for 10 minutes before the
sun, or the wind, or the squeaking of the chains on the swing causes your
little one to want to leave. (Realize the effects that these things also have
on the siblings of children with ASD.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They
are regular victims of the curses of the malady. My daughter continually sees family activities cut short because we have to evacuate a situation that seemed like it should be fun due to the angst of autism.)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Church worship services may be a NIGHTMARE – they’re too
loud, they’re too quiet, they’re too busy, they’re too still.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Josh is almost 12. While he's only missed going to church 3 Sundays in his life, he's probably only made it through a dozen worship services in his life, and not many more full Sunday School classes. That hour when our family pauses to corporately praise the God of heaven, all hell breaks loose in my son's soul and psyche. It is one of the hardest hours of the week for him - and our service is sensorially simple. I have talked to several mom's of children with autism who are in their 20's and 30's who have yet to make it into the worship service (which means many of their parents have rarely done so either).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Attempting to academically educate the child
on the spectrum can make the parent want to join their offspring in head
hitting!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you homeschool, you are
facing the pendulumatic moments of autism 24/7 and are continually having to
re-calibrate methods of instruction all the while simultaneously maintaining
structure and order which the autistic child so desperately needs.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you choose public or private education you
have IEP plans to devise, constant readjustments of coping and calming
procedures in order to help your son or daughter handle the stressors of the
school environment, as well as classmates (and teachers) to educate about your
child.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On and on it goes.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many families have constant sleep battles with their
children and have to always be on the alert for a youngster who may just wander
out the door and off to who knows where searching for who knows what.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most days, my middle school aged Josh must be humbly "herded" through the routine activities of life: eating his food, taking his shower, putting on each article of clothing, brushing his teeth, putting on his shoes, tying them, picking up his book bag, walking out the door, getting in the car, buckling his seatbelt, ad nauseaum. Without that herding he would end up standing and staring at who knows what for an hour, not having any concept that an hour had passed. Even with that herding we must work hard to help him hear and connect to the command. (Please understand that in this I am </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">not</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> speaking of moments of stubbornness or rebellion, though those do occur. In this situation I am speaking about that frayed wire reality that disconnects my son from even the most mundane and habitual seeming of activities.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Add to that the fact that the child with autism often doesn’t truly know how to express to their mom or dad what is going on
inside or know how to truly show affection to them.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Parents are often worn out simply from
longing to know a child that seems so unknowable.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">AUTISM! IS! EXHAUSTING!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Recognize that this exhaustion factor is a deep reality in
the families you know who have children with autism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look for ways to offer respite to them. Take
them a meal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See if you can pick up
something for them from the grocery store so they don’t have to drag their
child into the war zone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask to watch
the kids so that mom and dad can have a date, or so that the single mom (the
one who is going this all alone) can just sit down to a quiet meal with or
without a friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Find out HOW to watch
the kids – find out if there are triggers that may set off the child and
calmers that may help settle him or her. Let the parents know that you
understand that their child struggles and aren’t going to judge them because of
those struggles. (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Often, as the parents
of children with ASD, it is hard for us to ask you to watch our kids because we know
what may be coming when you do and most of us have endured far too many
lectures on how we’re failing as parents from well-meaning friends who assume
that we’ve been slack in doling out the discipline.) Again, being serious about wanting to understand autism is <em>so</em> important in this.</span><br />
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Second</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, autism is </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><u>emotionally</u></strong></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><strong style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">EXHAUSTING</strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, there is a sense in which this fact has
already been addressed in the previous paragraph because all of those
aforementioned physical realities have a deep emotional affect on caregivers.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, I want to address a different realm
of emotional exhaustion that I believe is of utmost importance for you to understand.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">When we received our son Joshua’s diagnosis (he was 8) there
was a moment of stunning numbness for us.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Is this a good
thing?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Is this a bad
thing?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Wow, this answers all
those questions about him.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Whoa, this raises a
lot more questions about him!”</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We didn’t know if we were supposed to clap our hands off or
cry our eyes out.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As we began to process the information and as we were forced
to survey the new landscape of our life, Phillip and I went through a real
grieving process.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Phillip did more so
than I, probably because he is neuro-typical .)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Suddenly, this child who everyone had viewed as amazingly brilliant,
though slightly quirky, had a label - and that label had some pretty
significant disabilities attached to it, which seemed to now be shrouding his
many abilities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The things we had once assumed he would just “grow out of”
as he grew up, turned out to be things that would be hard truths about him,
probably throughout his life.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All
parents have dreams for their children and a diagnosis of autism slays many of
those dreams. Right or wrong, that is a fact that we see faced by almost every parent of a child with autism whom we know.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The difficult diagnosis triggered some mild depression in
Phillip.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We now know that he was going
through a very real season of grief and mourning for our son – a season that
almost all of the resources for parents of children with ASD say will occur and a season
that we have heard 100% agreement with from every autistic family we know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sadly, as Phillip sought to grieve openly and as he began to
weep openly he found his tears misunderstood and criticized by many other
Christian men (particularly other pastors and elders) and instead of being
built up by them, he found himself cut off by them.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some said, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“Just buck up buddy</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">!”, while others stopped saying anything at all.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We lost long time ministry friends during our grieving
season and almost lost our call as church planters. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Those reactions made it difficult for both of
us to talk honestly about the hardships of autism for several months.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Over the course of the past year, we have
found that this same scenario has happened time and time again to other Christian
parents – many (as referenced earlier) who no longer attend Christ’s church
because of it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, how can you help with the emotional exhaustion?</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think the simplest and yet most profound answer is </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">love</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
and </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">listen</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Be there for your brother.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sit with your sister. Let them cry.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let them weep. Hand them a Kleenex – buy them a box! </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let them have their period of mourning. Job’s
friends did fine until they opened their mouths and started spewing forth their
own form of words without knowledge.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They assumed a lot about their brother Job – and they assumed wrongly!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They speculated.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They judged his motives. They misinterpreted
his actions.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They were quantumly quick
to speak.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They were stagnantly slow to
listen.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They didn’t love Job – not as
Jesus loved Job.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here was a bruised reed and by their actions they broke
it.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here was a flickering flame and they
were puckering their lips to blow it out.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Righteous Job wept – and for quite a period he did that without
sin.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It takes 42 chapters before we see
Job smile and that volume of sorrow goes right along with the fact that there
are more Psalms of lament than there are Psalms of celebration.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our own sinless Savior wept at the death of a loved one and
at the effects of the fall upon Jerusalem.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All of these things tell us, as does Solomon, that </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“there is a time to weep.”</i><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As the ambassadors of Christ we must seek to be more like
the gracious God who </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“stores all of our
tears in His bottle” </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">than like Job’s impatient friends who considered his
sorrow sin and sought to rid him of it!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Be willing to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“weep with those who
weep”</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“mourn with those who mourn”</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
and in so doing, you’ll have much more of an opportunity to reap the benefit of
rejoicing with those who see their sorrows turned to songs!</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">What books or websites could you
recommend to Christians wishing to understand, reach out to, and care for
autistics?</span></strong> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the first things I recommend to folks wanting to
understand autism more fully is the movie <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Temple-Grandin-Claire-Danes/dp/B0038M2AZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399558294&sr=8-1&keywords=temple+grandin">“Temple Grandin.”</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the biographical story of Dr. Temple
Grandin who is an autistic and whose spectrum gifts allowed her to almost
single-handedly upgrade the cattle industry’s slaughter methods for beef
production.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The movie, produced by HBO,
is engaging and entertaining (it even won an Emmy). It probably gives the best
cinematic picture of what it is like to see life through the eyes of a person with autism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It is available through <a href="http://www.netflix.com/">Netflix</a> and most other major movie distribution sites. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The ministry of Joni and Friends (</span><a href="http://joniandfriends.org/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">joniandfriends.org</a><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">) has
some wonderful resources available regarding autism, including a 2 part series
called “Making Sense of Autism.”</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">That
series is actually available to watch on line.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">They also have a book called “Autism and the Church” which seeks to
explain the syndrome as well as offer practical advice to churches on how to
minister to those affected.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">My own denomination has a wonderful Special Needs Ministry (</span><a href="http://pcamna.org/special-needs/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">www,pcamna.org/special-needs/</a><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">)co-ordinated
by my good friend Stephanie Hubach. The ministry itself provides resources,
training, and even consultation to churches seeking to improve their ministries
to those living with disabilities. Stephanie has authored a fantastic book titled:
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1596380519/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=3524628264&ref=pd_sl_57vfx6m81x_ee" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Same Lake, Different Boat</a><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> which is a wonderful tome to challenge us to
think biblically about disability.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I can’t
recommend it highly enough.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr. Michael Emlet, of CCEF, has written probably the most
succinct and practical pamphlet I have ever read on Asperger’s syndrome, aptly
titled </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Asperger-Syndrome-Michael-R-Emlet/dp/0976230852" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Asperger Syndrome</a><u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">.</u><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It
gives some great bullets points on what Asperger’s is, and Dr. Emlet does an
excellent job of viewing it all through the lens of God and His gospel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr. Tony Atwood’s book, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Guide-Aspergers-Syndrome/dp/1843106698" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Complete Guide To Asperger's Syndrome</a><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> is </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">the</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> Asperger’s
focused reference book to top all Asperger’s focused reference books.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It is an understandable and practical read
that doesn’t get bogged down in the medical terms which no one can
comprehend.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr. Atwood also has a
section, much neglected by many other specialists, on the female and
Asperger’s.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">There are some amazing
differences in the manifestation of high-functioning autism between boys and
girls, which is one of the reasons that girls are often not properly diagnosed
and therefore often go without getting real help.</span><br />
<strong style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></strong>
<strong style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></strong>
<strong style="color: #990000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Lori, the next two questions are
from someone with an autistic child who read on your blog that you also have a
child with autism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She asks:</strong></div>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>
</strong></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>1. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having autism yourself, how are you raising
your autistic son differently, if at all, than a parent without autism might
be? </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope that in the overall picture I am raising my son in
the same ways that all Christian parents are seeking to – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“in the fear and admonition of the Lord”,</i> under the counsel of His
Word, and according to the grace of His gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The same sinful heart issues that plague all children plague my
son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I regularly remind him that autism
is no excuse for sin – it may cause him to be more easily tempted in certain
areas – but it doesn’t make it OK for him to ignore God’s commands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Josh needs the same gentle admonitions to
flee to Christ as my Elizabeth does and I need to press those things home to my
kids as their autistic mom just as Phillip needs to as their neuro-typical dad.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I think perhaps one of the real positives of being the
autistic parent of an autistic child, is that, to a degree, I “get” Josh.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I can often figure out things that are
triggering him and can often understand his angst.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">At times I am able to help give understanding
to others about him that he isn’t able to express about himself.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In the past couple of months he has begun to
open the doors of communication regarding how things “feel” inside – an
exciting thing!</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As he talks to me about
his experience I am able to connect with him due to my own, and that is a great
blessing.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>2. As a parent of a child with
autism, how much time and energy should be put into trying to make our
child/ren 'fit in' with typical children, or should we work more on developing
the child's own strengths. How does that play out when they become an adult? </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a question that I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">almost</i> like, but there are several things in the way that it is
posed that unsettle me a bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me see
if I can break it down for you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m not certain that it is proper to lay out a </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">particular</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> amount of time or a </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">specific</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> level of energetic exertion
regarding the development of our child’s strengths or in the attempt to aid
them in “fitting” in with neuro-typicals.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We must live life within the confines of the 24 hour periods that God
provides and in light of the providence His hand ordains within those periods.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I can’t determine how much time anything
takes with Josh (one day he’s super-sonic and the next day he’s a slo-mo slug
in the exact same scenario!) I simply have to strive to faithfully use the time
that God has given, in the way that He has given, and pray that He would grant
me the wisdom to make the best use of every moment.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As for energy, I’m often running on fumes and have no idea
how I keep going, apart from the imputed strength of Christ to supply me with
everything I need for the task.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I would
encourage this dear mom to not look so much at laying out a </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">specific </i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">amount of time –i.e., </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“I must spend 4 hours a week training my child with ASD to look neuro-typical children in the eyes and successfully share his Hot
Wheels with them without having a meltdown!”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> as much as I would encourage
her to simply find ways to get together with families, both neuro-typical and
a-typical and walk in the teaching opportunities that naturally flow from those.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As for trying to make our children “fit in” with typical
peers versus helping them develop their own strengths, well, I’m not very keen
on the use of the phrase “fit in.”</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Josh
is never going to “be” like his neuro-typical pals – he is different.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">He knows it.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">They know it.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Our desire is not
to force square peg Josh to fit in to the round hole mold of neuro-typical
people. Our goal is to see Josh learn how to contentedly co-exist and properly
interact with those who are different from him, thus becoming who God would
have him to be in the world where God has placed him.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Working on building up the areas where Josh
is socially weak is a priority.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Increasing the areas where Josh is naturally strong or gifted is an equal
priority.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The two are in no way
exclusive and should stand in beautiful harmony with one another.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I think, if possible due to the level of disability, we must
be cautious to not isolate our children on “Autism Island.”</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">One day we will no longer be with them.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">One of my main prayers for Josh (outside of
seeing Him grow in the grace and truth of Christ) is to see him become somewhat
self-sufficient and to be able to hold his own in this world.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I know that in my own circumstances, the fact
that I </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">had</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> to figure out ways to
survive in this strangely foreign field where I exist, while terribly difficult,
was also the means to move me to the seemingly high-functioning place where I
now live.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Temple Grandin’s mom (referenced in the resources section)
was committed to not seeing her daughter institutionalized in a time period
where pretty much all people with autism were simply locked up in a padded cell.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Her efforts to integrate Temple into society,
all the while continuing to acknowledge and acquiesce to the real disabilities
of her daughter, are without any doubt </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">the</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
main reason that Temple Grandin is now Dr. Temple Grandin and why Dr. Temple
Grandin has been able to make such a profound impact on so much of the world’s
understanding of autism.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As I come to a close in answering these questions, I want
this mom to know that I understand how challenging this journey is that she is
on.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Knowing that, I have just paused to
pray for her and for her family and would encourage her to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“not grow weary in well-doing.”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">But I also know that she </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">will</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
grow weary because living with autism is hard, and so on those days when she does
find herself falling through the floor of fatigue, </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">may she </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">know that underneath her are the Everlasting
Arms.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They will catch her,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> they will keep her, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"> and they will do the same for her child </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"> even as they do for me and mine!!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">_________________________</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have enjoyed this series, you might also have interest in these posts:</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-cliff-note-confession-from-high.html">A Cliff Note Confession From the Land of High Functioning Autism</a></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2012/09/communicating-with-carly-about-autism.html">Communicating With Carly About Autism, God, and the Struggle to Touch the Intangible</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Lj5oiVV602zj6sPILjT0y40tlsw_V7SqC0gXbC1lTG1KW09l6ym8R7xbIMwxKDOj20VdszoyP42369fKC9s6xDTuFTh8iRMpGi0GnHilfSlbpRgyzobPJ9qh7Wrev9qqu1G-dSKMW9Zo/s1600/Sycamore+blog+banner+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Lj5oiVV602zj6sPILjT0y40tlsw_V7SqC0gXbC1lTG1KW09l6ym8R7xbIMwxKDOj20VdszoyP42369fKC9s6xDTuFTh8iRMpGi0GnHilfSlbpRgyzobPJ9qh7Wrev9qqu1G-dSKMW9Zo/s1600/Sycamore+blog+banner+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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</span>Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-76235774945026610712014-04-27T06:00:00.000-04:002016-04-03T17:02:41.979-04:00Interviewing Autism (A Christian Perspective) - Part 4 - Autism & The Church: Serving & Not Severing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-SzzOznlDtALlcnqYe8gyhrNdI9bhq6qeiolIW82FSiSm5g-K73LgfhSRbedjf4bK_fa0ibCMH4nTAiLqcCuiX1_KpIvsuf_mAVaoLx6ak2x8LFUpDHHuve7V1Fb0hC869exfGTC7XDU/s1600/autism+pic+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-SzzOznlDtALlcnqYe8gyhrNdI9bhq6qeiolIW82FSiSm5g-K73LgfhSRbedjf4bK_fa0ibCMH4nTAiLqcCuiX1_KpIvsuf_mAVaoLx6ak2x8LFUpDHHuve7V1Fb0hC869exfGTC7XDU/s1600/autism+pic+4.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>
<u><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Previous links</span>:</i></u><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from.html?spref=fb" style="background-color: white;">Part 1: Interviewing Autism - "An Introduction to My Life, Conversion, & Diagnosis"</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_25.html">Part 2: Interviewing Autism - "An Overview of Autism As It Manifests In Me.</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_26.html" style="background-color: white;">Part 3: Interviewing Autism - "The Challenges to and Benefits of Faith As Well As Some Talk About Tangibles"</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><u><br /></u></span></div>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>In what way can the church serve autistic believers better? And what about reaching out to autistics that are unbelievers? </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David, there are so many things that could and should be addressed in this question. People with autism and their families face such a plethora of challenges in the church setting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This one interrogative is an absolute interview all its own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Rather than exposing all of the nuts and bolts of the specific struggles those with autism could use encouragement with (struggles such as trying to make it through, or even into a worship service; struggles to partake of the Lord’s Supper due to sensory or conscience conflicts; or struggles to figure out how to connect with those in the congregation) let me lay a more foundational answer to this question.</span><br />
<strong style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></strong>
<strong style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I sincerely believe that the starting place for the church to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">serve</i> is for the church to seek to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">understand.</i></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In the past 6 months I have had a number of conversations with adult on the spectrum, with parents of children on the spectrum, with pastors of parishioners on the spectrum, and with elders who are called to shepherd sheep on the spectrum.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Those conversations have revealed a lot to me about autism and the church.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve recently read about 50 emails and blog posts written by those who are dealing with autism and dealing with it as it collides with the House of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve left many of those conversations and readings simply wanting to weep – a few I’ve left wanting to spit nails!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Many individuals and many families… (Hold on, I want to make sure you hear this)… </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>MANY</u></b><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> individuals and </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>MANY</u></b><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> families are leaving the church and are resorting to various versions of “home church” or <i>no</i> church at all because of the lack of understanding they’ve encountered </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">and</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">/</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">or </i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">due to the felt pressure to perform as the neuro-typical world assumes they should. Those issues have simply been too much to handle for some of these families and individuals - particularly on top of everything else they are facing hourly, and thus they are exiting the ecclesia.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">(Now, I am not excusing the decision to walk away from the Bride of Christ, but I think the possibly pandemic nature of this occurrence gives us cause to pause. Church, what are we doing wrong in ministering to the least of these?)</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">When the neurological manifestations of autism are called sin and parents are regularly exhorted to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“just spank that kid more so that he’ll behave properly</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">”…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">… when the struggles of shyness in an adult with ASD is confronted as a possible reason for her to consider </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">not</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> joining a church (though no offer to help her find confidence in Christ is offered)…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">… when an adolescent's autistic</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> phobias</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> of facing the horrific stimuli of the worship hour are pursued as grounds for possible church discipline due to his forsaking of his vows(rather than the elders coming along side and looking for ways to alleviate the stressors…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">…</span><u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">then is it any wonder that families are retreating in droves</u><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">? (By the way, ALL of these are <i>real</i> scenarios that I am personally familiar with.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Many have stated that they have found much more understanding, encouragement and aid from the institutions of men than from the church of God. (To be heartbreakingly honest, our own family has faced some seasons of seeing that same thing.)</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This should not be!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet sadly it often is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Since my own diagnosis, I have had Christians (even pastors and elders) refer to my autism as a farce – claiming that autism is not a “real” medical issue and alluding to others that I’m just “weird”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Others have said that my autism is nothing more than a form of depression and they’ve informed me that pills are out there that will take care of it.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Some have said, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“I don’t know what autism is and really don’t have the time to find out, but I’ll be praying for you.”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> (Then I never heard from them again.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I have had some of my Christian acquaintances who were once near, wander off afar because they view autism as a mental illness and the person who lives with it as unstable and perhaps a little “cuckoo!” (Decades ago, people with autism were often misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized – because the medical community had no true scientific answers as to what was really going on.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, that stigma has not completely vanished – though I believe huge strides are being made.)</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">All of these assumptions come from a lack of knowledge about the disorder.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Therefore, a willingness to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">learn</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">, a laboring to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">understand</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">– that’s the first step that one needs to take if he wants to make a difference in the life of a struggling spectrum saint</u><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">If you want to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">serve</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> the person with ASD - then seek to get to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">know</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> the person with ASD.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Understanding will provide the platform necessary to act out missions of mercy to those who so desperately need some mercy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">That said, may I also caution that as you seek to understand the disorder don’t let the disorder be all that you see. While we have the labels of neuro-typical and a-typical, autistic and “normal” – don’t ever lose sight of the fact that people are people in spite of any labels or diagnoses.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">All</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> people are made in the image of God and created to be in relationship with Him and with one another.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">That is a universal truth for all mankind.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">That child with autism who never looks you in the eye, the one who can’t speak, the one who fidgets and flails and maybe even foams at the mouth, that little one who you think doesn’t understand a thing – that child is an image bearer of God Almighty and was created to have a connection with the Creator and with His creation.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">That connection may not look like yours, but don’t be fooled into thinking there’s no connection to be made. Love them and pray for the sovereign and merciful Savior to enable both His love and your love to break through to them!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">At the end of the interview I’ll be sharing some links and resources that can provide the church with some helps for serving those in her midst who suffer in this way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, let’s turn to reaching out to the unbeliever with autism.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As a caveat, let me stress that I am writing from my own experience as one who exists in the “high-functioning” realm of autism, therefore, some of the issues that I raise may not translate neatly into some of the other spots on the spectrum (Again, I am not the standard bearer, but I believe there are still some universal correlations to be drawn).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently, Carly Fleischman, a young and well-known non-verbal autistic, who found her “voice” through the ability to type on an iPad, spoke of her difficulty in believing in God due to the fact that she doesn’t do well with intangible things.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">She, like many with autism, struggles to believe in a God who asks her to believe in Him “blindly.”</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">(Been there!</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Done that!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Before Christ saved me, I was regularly provoked to anger by the large number of Christians whose pat answer to my God questions boiled down to this: </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“You just gotta believe, Lori.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You just need to have <u>blind</u> faith! That’s what God requires!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Well-meaning as those sentiments may be, I fear they are neither biblical nor beneficial – particularly not to the autistic.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me seek to explain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">My personal experience as a woman on the spectrum is that I don’t do ANYTHING in life blindly.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">NOTHING for me “just happens” on a whim.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Spontaneity is non-existent (ask my husband).</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">My mind thinks through EVERYTHING in grand detail, working through every probable scenario of every possible situation that I can conjure up in order that I can be prepared for whatever circumstance I may encounter – those scenarios are often thought through in less than a split second.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Due to this, </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">supposedly simple things like going into a new store, or restaurant, or home can be terrifying because of the fact that there is no real way to work through ahead of time what the sounds, sights, or sensations might be in that unknown environment.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Going blindly pains my brain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t even brush my teeth blindly. Even in an act that so many may consider habitual, my mind is intricately engaged in every aspect - thinking through each individual step and each particular tooth and dictating the entire process to myself in my mind. I don’t interact with other people apart from this same type of planned processing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">When in a conversation with someone I am regularly directing myself to look them in the eyes, to laugh, or smile, or sigh when apparently appropriate (coping mechanisms that I’ve been able to develop which help me to usually appear pretty “normal”).</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Returning to the “film” scenario, I continually serve as this “movie of life’s” </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">director</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">, informing myself of every action that must be carried out on the screen and whispering commands in my own mind’s ear continually.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Things don’t just happen blindly for me as a person with autism, they happen with a never ending processing system.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet, being a finite and fallible creature, life throws unforeseeable curve balls into the game. Unexpected circumstances do occur.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Only an omniscient God is capable of knowing </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">every</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> option of </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">every</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> scenario perfectly, and only an omnipotent God is capable of carrying out His perfect plan.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">When something in my life does occur without planning or thought, you can count on an internal or possibly even external avalanche crashing down on me – at which time some of the aforementioned internal and external curses of autism will go into extreme effect. In those situations, my autistic mind is painfully jarred into mental whiplash by those things which it was not prepared for and my physical body often endures the fallout.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">(As a side note, the commonality of this among folks with ASD is one of the reasons that so many of the parent help groups recommend “picture planners” for autistic children.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">These planners are used by moms and dads to lay out visual pictures of the different things that will occur throughout the day and in the order that they will occur throughout the day so that those children will know precisely </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">what is coming up next in order to not be undone by the unknown.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">So, let’s carry that information over to the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“You just need blind faith”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> mantra.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The person with autism does not know what that means!</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Blind faith?!?!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">That phrase comes across as gibberish to us – like the prattling parlance at the Tower of Babel!</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We don’t comprehend the concept and the closest we come to connecting with acting blindly is the memory of the horrors that physically happen to us when something does comes at us </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">blindly out of left field! </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We don’t get “blind faith,” and truth be told, I don’t believe that God means for us to get it.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the great blessings that Biblical Christianity has brought to me, as a high-functioning person with autism, is the written testimony that the Christian God is not a God of sightless saints who are told to stumble and stagger in the darkness of the dumb.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">He is the God who has created our minds.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">He is the God of logic.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">He is the God who says to us, as He did to the stubborn Israelites of Isaiah’s day, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“Come now, and let us <u>reason</u> together!”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Has God ever told us to believe </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">blindly</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">? </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I think not! </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">(Interestingly, it seems to me that blind belief may actually be the “belief” of the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">unbeliever</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> who is putting his faith in nothingness trusting that “somethingness” has somehow arisen from the vast void!) God has not asked us to check our brains at salvation’s door, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">instead</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">, He has called us to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">engage our brains </i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">through the reading and hearing of His perfect Word. Then, by His illumining Spirit, He </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">renews our minds</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> so that suddenly they come to logical life and are enabled to think the very thoughts of God as those thoughts have been revealed in the pages of Scripture! This is not blindness – this is walking in most marvelous light!</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What did Paul do in the midst of the pagan people at the Areopagus? He, engaged their minds, showed them the logical folly of their “unknown god” (an intangible entity), and proclaimed to them a known God who has revealed Himself through Christ (a tangible entity). The text says that he </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“reasoned with them from the Scriptures.”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What was young Timothy encouraged to do? What are the church’s elders and all of us every day average believers encouraged to do?</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">All are encouraged to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">know</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> and hold forth this Word of God that </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“gives understanding to the simple”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> and wisdom to the foolish.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This does not sound like a God who says to us, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“Blind faith is what it takes!”</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">To sensitively evangelize the autistic unbeliever (particularly the Asperger’s type) we need to be aware of the spiritual stumbling block we may be throwing upon their path when we ask them to “blindly” believe.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We also must not forget how difficult it is for the person with autism to comprehend the idea of intangible things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As a former autistic atheist who is now a saved and sealed recipient of grace, I firmly believe that if we hold forth true </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Biblical</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> Christianity, (</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">God’s</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> gospel, not our cultural deviant version of it) then we will find a bridge of reasoned faith that covers the chasm of blind belief, and we will find that same bridge beautifully bringing us to the intangible God by the very tangible means of the written Word which points us to Jesus, the Living Word. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Let us hold this type of faith forth to all who are on the spectrum, regardless of where upon the spectrum they may fall!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Let us hold forth true and tangible Biblical Christianity to the most severely affected (“lower-functioning”) person with autism.</b></span><br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“But are they not so disabled that their ability to understand any of these things is sufficiently stifled?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of their significant inability to understand, are they not doomed to eternal death because of the mental malady?”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">No! Remember, that total depravity puts us all on equal ground.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">One suffering sinner is no more deaf and dead to these things than ALL of mankind is.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It is </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">just</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> as </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">impossible</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> for the “smartest” neuro-typical to believe as it is for the most silent autistic. Praise Christ that the same omnipotent and sovereign grace that has plucked the one from the pits of peril is able to pluck the other.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Does not this very scenario show the beauty of God’s unconditional election and make it shine so gloriously bright? Oh, most surely our salvation </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Speak of Christ to that one whom you think can in no way comprehend and trust in Christ. And pray the Spirit of God, that same Spirit who opened your own spiritually deaf ears, will open theirs!</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Let us hold forth true and tangible Biblical Christianity to the “mid and high-functioning” person with autism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b><br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“But are they not paralyzed in their attempt to take hold of what an intangible God is like due to their daily battle to even touch the tangible things of this life?”</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Fear not! Remember that the intangible God </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">tangibly</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> speaks in His Word to us.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">He </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">tangibly </i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">tells us all that we need to know of His character, of His cross, and of His Kingdom that is to come.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">There </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">is </i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">a touch stone, there </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">is</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> an anchor, and there </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">is</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> a hook to hang your hope on in the pages of the God-breathed Bible! Not only that, but this </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">tangible</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> Word points to a </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">tangible</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> Jesus –a </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">supernatural</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> God who entered history, came in the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">natural</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> flesh and walked the paths of our planet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">No other religion </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">truly</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> grants these things.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">All others offer nebulous notions (Buddhism, Hinduism, and other forms of Eastern spirituality) or unfulfilled oaths (Judaism and Islam - due to their tying to the Old Testament while denying the One who was the promise of it).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Tangibly tell of Christ to that one who seems so paralyzed in grasping an intangible God and pray that just as Jesus once made the physically lame to walk freely, so He will enable these spiritually lame to soar!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Let us hold forth true and tangible Biblical Christianity to the “highest-functioning” Aspie or Savant.</b></span><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“But is not the amazingly high-functioning autistic bludgeoned by the blind faith farce?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t buy the lie! </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Like Augustine encourage them to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“take up and read.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Encourage them to carry their query straight to the gate of the God that they so deeply doubt.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Encourage them to pour over the pages of that tangible Word, dissect it, outline it, contextually examine it - letting the blessings of that autistic brain maneuver all over the manuscript.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">While doing so encourage them to pray – and if they are unable to pray (for prayer is often so </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">horribly</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> hard for us) </span><u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">may we pray for them</u><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Pray that the Holy Spirit would let them see the logic on fire that burns brightly upon every revealed theological theme and propitiatory promise.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are the pastor, the parent, the sibling, or the friend of a person with autism who is struggling with faith issues, I encourage you to recognize the referenced road blocks that are often strewn on your loved one’s path.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Please</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> don’t ask them to blindly skip on their merry little way into the intangible fields of faith.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember that Romans tells us that true, saving faith comes from tangibly </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“hearing the Word of Christ.”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Therefore, saturate your home and your conversation in that Word, pleading with the Spirit to do His work in the seeming hard and hopeless heart of the one you love.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Be patient with them in their wrestlings – even as God has been so patient with you.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t simply assume that the fast flowing fire hydrant of continual questions is a sign of stubbornness, rebellion, or argumentativeness – those questions may simply be the autistic mind doing what it does, processing life – this time spiritual life.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t feel like you have to have all of the answers – simply point the questioner consistently to the Omniscient One who does!</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Avoid emotionally manipulative ploys to “get” a religious response.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Emotional altar call evangelism often sends us into melt-down mode because understanding emotion is hard for us and therefore, the more our emotions are “played” with (even out of sincere motives) the more confused we become and the less likely we are to return to the topics that initiated that emotional moment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Basically, the bottom line is that if we will reach out to unbelievers who live with autism in the same way that God has shown in His Word to reach out to all unbelievers, I believe we will see fruit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Does not much of the impotency in our evangelism ultimately stem from the fact that we have devised our own man-made methods, proudly thinking that they will be more successful than the Savior’s?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_28.html"><strong>Part 5 "AUTISM & THE CHURCH: Wrap Up, Resources, & Questions From a Parent"</strong></a></span><br />
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Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-70159256080810919712014-04-26T06:00:00.000-04:002016-04-03T16:45:16.760-04:00Interviewing Autism (A Christian Perspective) - Part 3 - Living With Autism: The Challenges to & Benefits of Faith, as Well as Some Talk About Tangibles<br />
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<u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Previous links:</i></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from.html?spref=fb"><span style="color: #351c75;">Part 1: Interviewing Autism - "An Introduction To My Life, Conversion, & Diagnosis"</span></a><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_25.html">Part 2: Interviewing Autism - "An Overview of Autism As It Manifests in Me</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">In what ways has being diagnosed with autism challenged your Christian faith?</span> </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You know, David, I don’t know that I can say that the actual <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">diagnosis</i> of autism <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has</i> been a challenge to my Christian faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, discovering the truth of autism within me has actually been an incredible encouragement to my faith.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The diagnosis has finally solved some of the mysteries of my life and faith journey. It has granted me a greater understanding of this thorn in my flesh that at times wars against my spirit, and now gives me an anchor which helps to moor me against the assaulting doubts when they begin to rise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I now understand the physiological and psychological wiring that makes doubt a greater temptation for me than it may be for others.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My battle to believe actually makes some sense now and thus the diagnosis has granted me an additional helpful hook on which I am able to take</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Autism has explained so many of the dark shadows that have always served as haunting apparitions upon my soul and psyche and in an interesting way the diagnosis has served as a catalyst to enable me to settle into Christ more easily.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For that I am grateful.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">You’ve spoken of your struggles with doubt. Do you think that it’s harder for an autistic to believe and to keep believing?</span></strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Good question, and one that I think garners both a “no” and a “yes” answer!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Is it harder for an autistic person to believe and to keep believing than it is for a neuro-typical person?</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In one sense, I'd have to say that the answer is a resounding “No!”</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Surely, as the Scripture declares,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">all</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">men enter this world blind, deaf, dumb, and dead to the things of Christ and fully bound as slaves to sin</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">(<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+8%3A34&version=NASB">John 8:34</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+3%3A10-12&version=NASB">Romans 3:10-12</a>,<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+3%3A23&version=NASB">23</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+corinthians+2%3A14&version=NASB">1 Corinthians 2:14</a>; <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians+2%3A1-5&version=NASB">Ephesians2:1-5</a>)</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We see, in the Biblical declaration of total depravity, that <em>every</em> single person who was, is, and will be stands on equal spiritual footing (regardless of physical handicap, environmental upbringing, and social status or stigma).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We see that we <em>all </em>face the same sin filled spiritual disability. We are <em>all, </em>equally in a “heap big trouble.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our spiritual disability is not merely that we are all born <em>paralyzed</em> in sin and in need of a divine Physician to fix us (though that would be a bad situation), but much more critically that we are all born <em><u>DEAD</u></em> in sin and in complete need of outside divine Omnipotence to resurrect us! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> (A dead man can't do anything and is the extreme epitome of desperate disability!) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Due to this deep seated, dead, depraved state, belief is completely and equally unattainable for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any</i> of us in and of ourselves, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all </i>of us who <i>do</i> believe have arrived at this place of grace as a result of God's miraculous heavenly intervention.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Recognizing these things, we must say that it’s <i>not</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">harder</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for the autistic to believe because apart from God sovereignly stepping in and granting us eyes to see, and ears to hear, and new life to live it is utterly</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">impossible</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for <i>any of us</i> to (</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+19%3A25-26&version=NASB" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Matthew19:25-26</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As to the difficulty of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">continuing on</i> in belief, Robert Robinson, in his classic hymn, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,”</i> penned these honest words that are to some degree owned by each of us: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">all</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">are given to various forms and fits of fainting in the faith.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thankfully, we are not left to keep ourselves from falling but are powerfully preserved by the Great Shepherd’s goodness which</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“like a fetter binds our wandering hearts”</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to Him.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So,</span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> “Is it harder for those living with autism to believe and to keep believing?”</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In one sense, the answer is, by necessity, “no” - for it is equally impossible for</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">any</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of us to believe and keep believing apart from the great grace, marvelous mercy, and lavish love of God enabling us so to do. In another sense, however, it is a yawping "yes!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Understanding and accepting the universality of what has just been said about our natural sinful state, I do believe we must be cautious to not discount the reality of individual physical disabilities that may weave their black threads through a particular person’s spiritual life. Just as some folks genetic “wiring” may make them more vulnerable to drunkenness, another’s may make them more vulnerable to doubt.</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The “wiring” gives no excuse for sin –</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ever</i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, but</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">understanding</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that “wiring” may provide us with wisdom as to how we may best help the struggling soul.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I sought to explain earlier using the “film/screen/frayed wire” scenarios and the subsequent severe struggle to connect with even</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">tangible</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">reality that comes from it, I really don’t think there can be any question that autism has had a profound hindering effect upon my own struggles with belief. I have spoken to a number of other higher-functioning autistic Christians who concur.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I mentioned this briefly in part one, but the most recent study that I have read regarding autism and faith</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">(<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0036880?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+plosone%2FMentalHealth+(PLoS+ONE+Alerts%3A+Mental+Health)">from PLOS One</a>)</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">says that those on the autistic spectrum are only 11% as likely to believe in God as are their neuro-typical counterparts.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If accurate, that is a staggering statistic!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But remember, as I've already discussed, for the person with autism who may find connecting with and believing in the</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">tangible</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">world to be such a slippery slope, how much more challenging is it to connect and believe in the</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">intangible</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">world? (You’d be less challenged trying to climb Everest in swim trunks and flippers!!)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If what is <i>seen </i>and </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">natural</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is so regularly questioned because it is not known in an experiential way due to the physiological effects of autism, then how much greater the questions and confusion regarding that which is</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">unseen</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">supernatural</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">?</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Far greater!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another area where autism and belief in the gospel can collide is in the gospel’s picture of “resting” in Christ.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You see, I'm not sure that the person with ASD ever</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">really</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rests.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The autistic mind is</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">always</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> working in some way.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The autistic body is</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">always</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">experiencing some sensation.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">always</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a form of action.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Even in sleep my husband notes that my toes move and I believe that my toes move because even in those moments that I appear to be resting I am still trying to find some way to connect with this life that I seem so disconnected from.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even in the stages of sleep I’m still trying to find something firm to put my feet on – something tangible to connect with – some road to “real”.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A mind and body that never</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">really</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rest are always</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">really wanting rest</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">!! Living on the spectrum I long to be able to find a way to just float off somewhere, to truly let go, to sit - and to sit without my toes trying to touch terra firma in order to assure me that terra firma is truly there. I'm exhausted in my existence and would love nothing more that to recline in calm and peaceful tranquility. (This issue may explain the high number of autistics who battle alcohol and drug addictions. That self-medication gives a sense of pseudo-rest in the face of utter restlessness.) Real rest always remains allusive and in that “allusivity” lies the great difficulty (at least it was a difficulty for me) of being able to truly know</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">how</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to take hold of and rest in the gospel of Christ.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hear Jesus say,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,”</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and I find myself stretching towards that promise with an eager longing.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“Rest? Rest?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re telling me that there is rest found in You?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, I want rest. I really want rest!” </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And then I find a laterally running train of thought that is saying</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">, “Rest? Rest?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What <u>is</u> rest? There is no rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rest is too good to be true. Christ's promise is too good to be true. It is all just fantasy and fable”</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And then I struggle that even if there</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">is</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rest, I don’t understand how to sit down in it and let go – because I never truly sit down in anything and let go!!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please understand, the fact that I can’t comprehend rest in my autistic</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>physical</u></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">life is one of the burdensome areas of the disability that has made my belief in the heart of the</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>spiritual</u></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">reality of gospel rest a very hard pill to swallow.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> By grace, I <em>have</em> swallowed it - though perhaps more in principal, precept and promise than in practical procedure. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In these things I am left to say: T</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hanks be to God, who is more able than I am disabled and whose enlightening Spirit regularly assists me to see, and even to a degree, comprehend the tangible teaching of this seemingly intangible concept of rest as it unfolds with such eloquence in the pages of the Bible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">God knows that rest is what I need so desperately and in Christ He offers it so graciously.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">God knows that rest is a thing that I, as a person living with autism, am unable to achieve, and in the power of the Holy Spirit he has provided His own capability to conquer my incapability!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All of these things that I have mentioned can serve as tricky trip wires that make belief a challenge - particularly for the "high-functioning" soul on the spectrum.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Therefore, these are important things for pastors, elders, family, and friends to realize because the proper understanding of the autistic’s temptation in this area is the first step in knowing how to patiently and practically help them bear the burdens of believing.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">In what ways has your Christian
faith helped you with autism?</span></strong> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wow!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So many things
flood my mind as I look at this question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Puritans regularly wrote about the notion of practical divinity and about
the way that all of our<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> learning</i> is
to make a real difference in all of our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">living</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Christian faith (as weak as it seems at
moments) is such a strong anchor to me amidst the often turbulent storm surges
of autism.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Early in his <u>Institutes of the Christian Religion</u>, John Calvin
speaks of how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“true and substantial
wisdom”</i> flows from a proper understanding of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who God is</i> and what He is like, balanced with a necessary
understanding of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who we are</i> and what
we are like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a profound
proposition and I think it cuts to the chase of the most practical answer to
your question.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Word of God teaches me </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">who I am by nature</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> – created in the image of God yet, since the fall, simultaneously a stubborn sinner, a daughter of disobedience, a child of wrath.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It teaches me what
I deserve because of who I am and because of what I’ve done – eternal misery and hell. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> (I know it's not a pleasant thought, but it is an important thing to ponder - <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A23&version=ESV">Romans 3:23</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+6%3A23&version=ESV">Romans 6:23</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Scripture goes on to tell me </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">who God is by nature</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> – holy, just, and
righteous and therefore it reasonably explains to me that because of who He is,
He must deal with who I am.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bible’s story continues on in telling me that God is not
only holy, just, and righteous, but that He is also, kind, gracious, merciful,
and full of compassion.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Therefore, He –
of His own good pleasure - has prepared a plan that would justly deal with all
of my dark deeds while remarkably heaping love upon me and saving me from my
sins.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">That plan was Jesus Christ and the cross
of Calvary – a place where justice and mercy would meet in an everlasting
embrace, transferring me from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of
light, and making me no longer a slave of perdition but bringing me as a son to
the King’s banquet table – much as Mephibosheth was brought to David’s! (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+9&version=ESV">2Samuel 9</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">So, how does that knowledge of God and of myself grant me,
as Calvin says, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“true and substantial
wisdom”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> regarding my autism?</span><br />
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>First</b>,</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> knowing
myself reminds me that I have </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">nothing</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
to complain about where the pains of my disability are concerned.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">So often we cry out, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“Why me?”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> when in reality our question should be “</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Why <u>not</u> me?!!”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> It has been said that “</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">anything this side of hell is pure grace</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">,”
and knowing from whence I’ve come, and of where I was heading, and from what
I’ve been spared, I am reminded that even autism is part of that “pure grace”
place.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus Christ - in living the sinless life I could not live and in dying the sin spawned death I should have died - has saved me from the eternal hell which I most
deserve and has given me eternal life which I could never earn! In light of that glorious truth, how can I rightly complain about the pitiful prick of anything - of </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>anything</u></i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> else that falls upon me for but
a moment (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+4%3A17&version=ESV">2 Corinthians 4:17</a>)?</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Understanding this very thing, Thomas Watson wrote </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“my sufferings are not as great as my sins.”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
God has saved me from my sins so, like Job, I shall cover my mouth with my
hand and like Paul, I shall give thanks for the thorn that He has wisely
implanted.</span><br />
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Second</b></i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">, as I meditate on the character of God (as revealed in the Bible) and seek to practically apply those truths
about Him to the area of my autism, I am utterly amazed at the lessons that are
to be learned!!</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides the previously
mentioned truths of His grace and mercy towards me as a sinner, there is the
icing on the cake of His supreme sovereignty in all things! The Bible teaches
me that an all-wise and sovereign God has </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">purposely</em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> knit me together in my
mother’s womb – </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">just as I am</em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“I am fearfully and
wonderfully made”</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> – even with autism.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“dis-order”</em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> did not occur apart from </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Divine order</em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">!</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I can’t blame vaccinations, or smog, or some
other scrounged up scape goat that randomly caused me to be like this.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">God – the good, holy, and righteous; God –
the God who loves me with an everlasting love; God- the God who withholds no good
thing (not even this autistic thing) from His children – </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">that</em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> God has chosen to make me this way
for such a time as this and I am as I am for the glory of His name and for the
good of His people! (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus+4%3A1&version=ESV">Exodus 4:1</a>; <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+9%3A2-3&version=ESV">John 9:2-3</a>) In that there is comfort and peace
and great hope!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">My Christian faith gives a purpose to this pain and therefore
allows me, by grace, to travel this path with joy in the journey!</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">(Though my stubborn sin often trips up my
travel on the route!)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>Are there any spiritual
advantages to having autism? </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is one of those areas where I clearly speak from my
personal place as the “higher-functioning” person with ASD who also displays some
Savant-like characteristics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">People with autism tend to have areas of extreme special interest.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">For me, in God’s mercy, the Bible is one of my primary areas special
interest. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I pour over its pages with a
rabid voracity and have done so since the day after I was saved (and to a
lesser extent before I was saved, which was part of God’s means for saving me!).</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">For me one of the greatest advantages of my autism is the
way that my mind dissects the Word, categorizes and systematizes related
passages and themes, and stores massive chunks of Scripture in the memory
vault.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Autism has allowed me to hide
God’s Word in my heart in amazing ways, and that hidden Word has been used by
the Holy Spirit repeatedly in helping me to take my thoughts captive when the
whispers of doubt have warred against me; to give an answer for the hope that
is within in when unbelievers have asked;and to speak words of comfort and
encouragement to my brothers and sisters who are weary in this world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, anytime our loving God is pleased to place a thorn in
our flesh there is some form of benefit. The thorn of autism has served as a
regular reminder to me of my own weaknesses, of my continual need for Christ,
and it also serves as a pretty steady pummeller of my pride. (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+cor+12%3A7-9&version=ESV">2 Corinthians 12:7-9</a>) Anything
that drives me more to Jesus is of advantage!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">One additional thing that I personally consider a benefit of
autism, and a thing that I think </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">the
church at large could learn from, is the forthright honesty that many folks with autism strive to live by and often display. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Most on the spectrum have a deep disdain for
duplicity and a strong desire to live without guile.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Therefore, the person with ASD is often the first
one willing to speak the truth to you and will also be one willing to do what
is necessary to live honestly with you. (Though we all need to do a better job
of doing that as Christ would, rather than as the proverbial bull in the church
china shop!)</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t always see this characteristic fleshing itself out
in the church.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Many seem given to games
and pretend play in their relationships with one another, and that is always
puzzling to me. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I know for myself that there
is a great longing to see reconciliation and restoration occur in Christian
relationships where a breach has happened.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">On more than one occasion I have gone to brothers and sisters with whom
I know there is an issue, asking to be able to sit down with them and do the
hard and necessary task of repairing the breach.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, I have found that many neuro-typical
Christians seem satisfied with immature and unbiblical pretend practices of
reconciliation (pastors just as much as parishioners). They duplicitously smile and wave at
one another in the crowd while having nothing to do with one another behind
closed doors.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes I wonder if this autistic characteristic of wanting
to honestly put the cards on the table and earnestly work through how the
gospel tells us to properly play them isn’t a characteristic the church of
Christ needs a little bit more of!!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>You’ve written about how autistic
people need to have tangibles rather than intangibles. Can you explain that a
bit more? </strong></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial";">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've referenced this some in an earlier question and will speak of it more in the next, but tangible things can serve as a firm
rock upon which the person living with ASD can find some semblance of stability amidst a world that seems so filled
with ever fleeting wind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial;">If you think about the "frayed wire" analogy then you might be able to understand that tangible things are sort of like the "electrical tape" of life. Tangibles help us to wrap up the loose wires (at least momentarily) and allow us to gain even a nano-second of clearer connection. (Then the tape falls off and we start back in with the "snap, crackle and pop" of life!!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, think about the "life as a film" analogy. When everything in one's existence is viewed in “film” or in “frames,”
and then when that “film” and those “frames” are stored in the recesses of a
mind with a very deep mnemonic recall vault ... well ... please realize that the
simple sight of things can still leave the person with autism a bit puzzled to properly
discern and decipher what it is that he or she is actually seeing. Think of it like the old advertising slogan - “is it live or
is it Memorex?”</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Viewing all of life in this moving “picture” mode, coupled
with the ability to often pull up a </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">very vivid</em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> “instant replay” mode, can cause
the person with autism great confusion as to whether what is </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">seen</em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> is that which is
actually “playing” <i>live</i> (right now in the moment) or whether it is simply an extremely detailed “re-run”
of a past “show.”</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">For myself, I’ve often described this movie-like visual form of
processing and thinking (which is attached to my deep memory) as being an issue
that causes me to have never felt as though I’ve truly </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">lived</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> a moment of my life nor ever really </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">escaped</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> one.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What I mean is
that my sensory neurological handicaps (the "frayed wire") never allow me to really connect to the
</span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">present</em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> moment </span><u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">and </u><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">my crazy deep autistic memory never allows me to ever escape
from the </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">past</em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> ones. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">That said, things that are concrete and corporeal can moor the meandering
mind. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">When I can reach out and tangibly </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">touch</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> the tree I know it is more than a memory – though for me,
even my memories hold a unique form of physical feeling, though different from
the real thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of my autistic brothers and sisters in this world are known to smell
the people they love when they walk through the door, and some go as far as
giving their friends and family a good lick or two.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This may go back to that need for a tangible
connection with what appears a pictured image. The touch, the taste, the
olfactory fragrance gives credence that what they are seeing is actually in the
here and now and not merely a memory of a moment long gone.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tangibles tether us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><a href="http://www.lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_27.html">Part 4 "AUTISM & THE CHURCH: SERVING NOT SEVERING"</a></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-55491761485566875962014-04-25T06:00:00.000-04:002016-04-03T16:21:35.437-04:00Interviewing Autism (A Christian Perspective) - Part 2 - Living With Autism: An Overview of Autism as It Manifests in Me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Previous Link</i></span><br />
<a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from.html?spref=fb"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Part 1: Interviewing Autism - "An Introduction to My Life, Conversion, & Diagnosis"</span></a><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;"></span></strong></span></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></strong></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">Autism covers a wide spectrum of
symptoms. Can you describe your own experience of it?</span> </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thank you, David, for bringing up the idea of the wide
spectrum. This is a crucial point to consider if our conversation here is to be
truly helpful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is crucial because I
will be speaking to you from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>my</u></i>
spot on the spectrum and not presuming to speak for <i>all</i> spots on the spectrum. It has been said that “if you’ve met one person who lives with autism, you’ve
met <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one</i> person who lives with autism!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I take that a bit farther and say, “ if
you’ve met one of us on Tuesday, just wait, Wednesday’s coming and something
will probably be different with us then!” </span><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The variables between those of us on the autism spectrum are
vast and thus my story and my experience may differ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">greatly</i> from another’s. (I am by no means the standard bearer.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along this spectrum you’ll find such “labels”
as autistic disorder, rett syndrome, Asperger’s syndrome, childhood
disintegrative disorder and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise
specified (PDDNOS).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll find folks with autism who are non-speaking, others who are very verbal, and some who can’t talk but can type up
a tantrum. There are the mathematically minded and then there are those to whom
math is an utter anathema, but who can slice and dice words like a mental meat
grinder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a multiplicity of
diversity, but there are some common denominators as well.<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To some degree <u>all</u> of us who fall on the autism
spectrum have struggles with social interaction and communication. There are
behavioral characteristics, such as stimmings (i.e., repetitive body movements)
and sensorial issues of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Typically there are also profound and often
very narrow areas of interest.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I fall into the “higher-functioning” realm of autism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At times I think that the labels may do more
damage than good because it is often assumed that the person with “high-functioning”
autism doesn't have any <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">true</i>
disabilities. That errant idea is often drawn from the fact that the “higher
functioning” person on the spectrum <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">appears</i>
more “normal” than autism is typically presumed to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Truth be told, in one like myself the
disabilities usually just lie somewhat hidden from public view due to extreme
coping and covering mechanisms that have been concocted for the sake of
survival in a neuro-typical world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Often, the one living with “high-functioning” ASD will publicly hold on at great
lengths until they retreat to the privacy of their own home or car, and then all
that has been stuffed and stifled in the arduous attempt to look like everyone
else (to act and interact within the “film” of life) erupts with volcanic
violence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As much as I hate to admit it, I have often resorted to privately hitting my head against
the bathroom wall, exhibiting facial tics and other forms of dyskinesia,
rocking back and forth (which is a type of choreoathetosis), and even entering
an almost petite mal like state after having endured an extended period of
seeming public normalcy.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These are the
very things that my more severely labeled “lower-functioning” kinsmen may do in
the classroom, grocery store, or worship service – to be seen by all.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Somehow, folks like myself just cover it
better – though I’m not sure that in our covering we have truly helped
ourselves as much as we have simply saved ourselves some embarrassment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my life, autism shows itself in three primary areas
(referenced earlier in the interview): </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">external</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
behaviors, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">intern</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">al manifestations,
and areas of extreme </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">giftedness</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Those are the “official” terms used for me in
the clinical paperwork. I often just sum them all up under the categories of
the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">blessings</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">curses</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of living with autism!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">curse</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
category, like many with ASD, I am deeply affected by sound.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a child I suffered from paralyzing panic
attacks for many years when eating in a public setting (at times even the “public”
setting of simply eating at the home dinner table with only a few others).</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The sound of chewing and of the silverware
touching teeth or dishes was physically excruciating.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The noises of appliances in the restaurant
kitchen and the cursed cacophony of the conversations of others (all of which I
heard in great detail) served as severe sources of “shut-down” for me.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a child, this “shut down” was so extreme
that I was unable to even swallow my food in those maddening moments, so I
just stopped eating (leading some to think I was anorexic).</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> In high school I rarely actually ate lunch because of these things, preferring many days to sneak off and lose myself in playing the piano on the stage in our school gymnasium.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You must understand that autism is often like living life
without any filters.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">EVERYTHING gets
through to us and thus everything can begin to clog up in us, to poison us
neurologically, and to cause great pain and deep internal angst. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many of the places that you think nothing of
entering take much mental prep for me and for those like me. For example, I
have had to train myself to function in grocery stores and large retail chains
like Super Wal-Mart because of the overwhelming roar of the freezers and
refrigeration devices. Even the buzzing of the fluorescent lights can be
crippling and the sounds at the register…well, there are not adequate words
for those blasted “beeps!”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There have been many times when I’ve had to just bolt from
my buggy (half-way through a shopping trip), exit the building, and find my way
to my car in order to wait and “reset” because I realized I was about to
crumple in the confusing chaos of that place.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(That “reset” usually doesn’t include returning to the store on that
particular trip because at that point I am physically too far gone to be able to. It simply means
finding a way safely home until my body is able to properly process the sensory
issues of that overwhelming environment. Then I go back to get my groceries.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These are such brief and absolutely inadequate examples, but perhaps
they may explain to the reader why children with autism sometimes appear to be
throwing a temper tantrum in the local supermarket or big box hardware store –
in reality they are in internal turmoil and torment and are trying to find a
way of escape from the neurological nightmare.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please be patient with us, we really are in pain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Physical touch can also be a harrowing experience as it
seems, at times, to set off an electrical burning in the marrow of the bones
and throughout the central nervous system. I’m not much of a “hugger” - though
if I know that a hug is coming I am able to prepare and pull it off with some success
and sometimes even with some pleasure. The brushing of hair, shaking of hands,
a pat on the back, or an affectionate scratching of the skin often hurts in
a fiery fashion.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Night time can be a
trying time due to the tactile issues with sheets, the weight of the covers (which can be positive or negative),
the wrinkle of pajamas, even a grain of sand somewhere on the bed. (By the way, I'm pretty sure that "Princess and the Pea" chick HAD to be on the spectrum!!)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In all of these moments I often wish that I could turn my
insides outside and rid myself of every nerve ending!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clothing choices can be a
deep source of physical pain.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For me,
the weight and binding nature of layered clothing can be raw and torturous. Certain materials are menacing and there are days where I may have to peel and
unpeel the clothes I’m attempting to wear numerous times before finding the fit
that I can endure.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (Phillip has found me staring hopelessly at my closet numerous times, because I know that whatever I put on that day is going to hurt.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The place where this
reality of torturous touch saddens me the most is in the area of marital
intimacy – an area my dear husband and I must continually labor to communicate about and work through. I am thankful for a patient man, who loves me dearly and is willing to work through and talk through these things that we might both grow better instead of bitter along the (at times) painful path that has been carved out for us. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please realize that many marriages where autism exists deal with these things. The divorce rates are often astronomical in these situations. Phillip and I are well aware of how kind Christ has been to us in our marriage and that kindness is not taken for granted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These various forms of
physical struggles with touch are important things to realize about your friends and family who battle autism.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> If they shudder, squirm, or even scream at your physical contact with them, please don't take it personally. It is a physiological aspect of our malady. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve already alluded to those moments of head hitting,
rocking and other repetitive behaviors that at times come out.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Interestingly, o</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ne of the ways that I’ve been able to cover
my own physical gesticulations is by means of transference – i.e. forcing the
desire to “flail” or “flap” from an obvious body part to a more easily hidden
one.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you watch me closely in a crowd
you’ll discover that I push everything to my toes. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As my body desires to twitch and glitch, as my
neck wants to shake and tremor, I have been able to teach myself to transfer
those physical reactions from noticeable parts of my body down to my toes. pushing those 10 little digits to the floor with almost super-human strength.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That transferring action provides me with a
well-hidden release for stimuli induced stress and serves as a calming agent in
a chaotic climate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In certain extended social settings, where my need to use
this coping method has been severe, I’ve actually left an event with my toes hyper-extended from this practice. Yes, it's a bit unpleasant, but doing so got me through the situation and in my
human hubris I suppose I’d rather have ten tense toes than to have foolishly
flailed in your face!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Funny side note: in
the early days of the counseling which uncovered my autism, my counselor
actually asked me if I biked or ran.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She
was very puzzled to learn that I didn’t work out at all after she had been
struck by my over-developed calf muscles.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Later, as this technique of transference was discussed, she realized that I do indeed work out – all day long with my own
version of calf strengthening toe calisthenics!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We could discuss areas of visual stimuli which absolutely parallel in
sight that which I’ve already described in sound. For now, I'll leave it at simply referencing that there <i>is</i> a parallel between the two and reminding you that many whom you'll encounter who live with autism are pained by light and even by certain colors. Please be sensitive to them when they are struggling with the sensory issues of sight.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I, personally, also regularly have sensations of an
imploding brain, and the very common experience of electric anxiety (a fiery
physical phenomenon that plagues so many on the spectrum when they arrive at the point of
neurological overload).</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Let's just say that both can be far less than lovely! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As is common in autism, I am a visual thinker, thinking in
pictures – though I often see things in typed text just as much as in
photographic form.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (Part of that stems from the fact that I am a lingual autistic. One for whom words rather than numbers are the norm.) As a visual thinker, m</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">y memory can be very deep –
frighteningly deep at times. Deep to the point that I may sit down to get a
haircut and find my mind pulling up the pictures from every other haircut I’ve
ever had in every place that I’ve ever had them - remembering the details of
the position of combs, number and location of brushes on the counter, arrangement of the shampoo in the
display case, specific wall decorations, flooring patterns, etc.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In
those moments of deep memory, 40 years’ worth of haircuts will happen in but the
blink of an eye, like a fast frantic flipping through the pages in a mental file folder of
photographs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many who know me best also see that autism is the engine
that drives several of the areas of my life that they deem as "gifted".</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I suppose, at least in my story, that these are the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">blessings </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">which</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> are manifested in this malady.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was considered the prodigious little
pianist as a child - a thing that often made me rather nervous and
uncomfortable because the attention it drew was something I didn’t know what to
do with. (Simultaneously there was something mysteriously marvelous about it as well).</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> In music I learned to emote and to escape and that gift became a life saver to me time and time again. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a songwriter I have often frustrated my fellow musicians
because my pattern is to decide to write a song and then sit down and do it in
30 minutes or less. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have a visual
songwriting formula that I just “do”, sort of like baking a cake on the
keyboard or guitar! That visual "formula" always allowed me to simply see what needed to be done to write a new tune and thus enabled me to put out a large number of fresh songs in an incredibly short amount of time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">O</span><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ne of the things that tipped off my counselor that
something atypical might be occurring was the volume of typed material I was
sending to her in an obviously less than normal time frame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once there was a 1500 word dissertation on
the relation of faith to reason (logically outlined, with references to
Old and New Testament passages, and with examples from philosophical and
church history) all written and returned within 15 minutes of having received
the initial email question from her.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To me, all those
things have simply seemed a part of life and not anything extraordinary, but
others tell me that is not so and they now chalk it up to the so called </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">blessings</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of this autism that God has
granted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<strong style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_26.html">Part 3 "THE CHALLENGES TO & BENEFITS OF FAITH AS WELL AS SOME TALK ABOUT TANGIBLES"</a></strong></div>
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Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131728230211753937.post-55916511992640463012014-04-24T12:57:00.003-04:002016-04-03T16:20:35.002-04:00Interviewing Autism (A Christian Perspective) - Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><em>A while back, Dr. David Murray tossed some wonderfully thought provoking questions my way in an email interview. Those questions were about autism (particularly issues of faith and doubt as they relate to it) and about how the church can help. </em><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #999999;"><span style="background-color: white;"><em>My answers to those questions took up more than a brief blog could handle and we stuck the info on the back burner trying to determine the proper venue for the information. </em></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #999999;"><span style="background-color: white;"><em>As time has passed, quite a few friends who have had access to this have reminded me that there are incredibly important things here. I have repeatedly been encouraged to share some of the information, yet have always been a bit hesitant. Despite my hesitancy, at their encouragement. I'm moving forward with sharing this with you now.</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #999999;"><span style="background-color: white;"><em><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">T</span></em><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #999999;"><span style="background-color: white;"><em>ruth be told, there's just not a lot out there dealing with autism from a Christian perspective. There's even less out there that looks at it from a personal Christian perspective - that of a person actually living with autism who is also a believer. </em></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #999999;"><span style="background-color: white;"><em>Recent studies suggest that 1 in 68 children are now diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). </em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #999999;"><span style="background-color: white;"><em>Recognizing that there are many in your communities and congregations who are battling this beast</em></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><em> I'd ask you to consider carving out some time to read some of these ramblings. I'll dish them out to you in several servings. Perhaps they'll help you gain some understanding about our struggles with autism - and perhaps that understanding will be used to encourage you to reach out to some families in your church who live with autism - families who probably need a little bit of help and hope.</em></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><em><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></em></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><em></em><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span><span style="color: black;"><em><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">H</span></em><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><em>ere in Part I a few of the introductory details of my life and diagnosis are dealt with. There is also an incredibly pertinent piece of the puzzle for helping you understand why those living with ASD may seem "disconnected" in this life. Part II begins to deal with the nuts and bolts of the autistic struggle. The remaining parts will continue in that vein. (And as a simple FYI - this is an un-edited personal copy of the interview, so have some mer</em><em>cy!)</em></span></span><br />
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<strong style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;">Hi Lori, I’m looking forward to
getting to know you and to sharing some of your journey with our
readers. Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself? How old are you,
where were you born, what family do you have, and what are your hobbies or
interests?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">David, thanks so much for the opportunity!</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">I am 45 years old and grew up in the “booming
metropolis” of <a href="http://www.nps.gov/cowp/historyculture/the-battle-of-cowpens.htm">Cowpens, SC</a>. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">I was born in Sumter, SC and the details of how I came to "be" are a picture
of the glorious grace and perfect providence of an all-wise and wonderfully kind God - a God who truly
works all things (even horribly hard things) together for the good of His children. </span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I was conceived as the result of an adulterous affair between a single woman and a married man - a married man who had 6 other children! When they found out that an unplanned child was on the way the decision was made to abort me due to the stigma and inconvenience of the situation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">My biological parents drove to an
abortionist’s office - a place that hid its true identity behind a placard
labeling the clinic as a “chiropractic care center.”</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">They walked into the clinic,
signed the register, and sat down in the waiting room, patiently preparing to
end my life.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">My birth mom says that she
spent 30 minutes sitting in that lobby wondering why in the world they weren’t calling her
name.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">We both now know that they didn’t
call her name because God was about to call the memory of His Word to her
heart.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">While she sat twiddling her
thumbs, God was stirring up recollections of a Sunday School lesson that she
sat in on one weekend while visiting with an out of town aunt. (Church was not
a regular thing in her own home.) That morning’s lesson was on the 10
commandments, and in 1968 (2 decades after that class took place) the memory of
God’s imperative: </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“Thou shalt not kill,”</span></i><span style="color: black;">
roared like thunder upon her conscience!</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;">
</span></span><span style="color: black;">She turned to my biological father, told him she could not end my life,
walked out the door, and spent the next 7 months living in a one room hunting
cabin determined to find a way to bring me to term!</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If your readers are
interested they can find out more about that story <a href="http://lorisealy.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-am-not-accident-best-birthday-note.html">here</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em> - </em>it's quite a tale.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was adopted a few months after my birth by a very well educated couple who
had been unable to have children of their own.</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They raised me and provided many things for me, but life was not always
easy in that environment - my mother struggled with mental illness, and sadly my adoptive parents abandoned me almost 9
years ago, severing our familial relationship and leaving me rather
re-orphaned. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am an only child.</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(** Addendum: my adoptive mother passed away
in February of 2014 and in the process of her passing, God wonderfully flung
open the door of reconnection with them.)</span></div>
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am married (for 19 years) to Phillip Sealy who is the
church planting pastor at <a href="http://www.redeemersylva.org/">Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA)</a> in Sylva, NC. We
have two wonderful, though challenging children – Joshua (12 - also autistic) and
Elizabeth (9).</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">As for hobbies and interests, I’m a musician and songwriter.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">My latest CD is aptly titled <a href="http://www.lorisealy.com/">“BegoneUnbelief”</a> and is a musical chronicling of my own warrings in the realm of faith
and doubt. </span><span style="color: black;">I love reading – the Bible,
theology, philosophy, and classic literature.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;">
</span></span><span style="color: black;">Living in the gorgeous mountains of Western North Carolina, I also have
a bit of a penchant for hiking these glorious hills!</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><strong>You are a Christian who has
recently been diagnosed with autism. What came first? How did you become a
Christian? How did you come to know that you were autistic?</strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David, the converting grace of Christ radically took hold of me
many years before the shadowy monster of autism clearly made itself known to
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I grew up in a very large Southern Baptist church and had a
real interest in wanting to know and understand God as a young child. I was
full of questions – deep theological and philosophical questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Questions that the people in my circles often
didn’t seem to know how to answer and more often seemed to be rather bothered by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Within my broad church climate I was regularly encouraged to
“just believe” and was ever reminded that much of God was a “mystery” and that
“blind faith” was a blessing. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Those
well-meaning attempts at appeasement didn’t satisfy my mind and actually ended up
raising even more questions than I began with.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ultimately they just increased my doubts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wrestled, even as an elementary age student, with the
Bible’s </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>seeming</u></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> logical fallacies and
with the entire concept of the supernatural.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I struggled deeply with the intangible nature of God, became
disheartened by the duplicitous lip service that I saw in many of the
“Christians” that I had closest contact with, and simply could never grasp the
whole emotional altar call evangelism which, at that time, was my only
encounter with “the gospel.”</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(I must
confess that I believe these things can be key issues of struggle for many
who live with autism where Christianity is concerned, and will attempt to look at them more
specifically later on in this interview.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In high school I became fed up with the "faith farce" (as I dubbed it) and
began to consider myself an agnostic and later an atheist.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I spent those years in much internal turmoil,
rebellion, and despair – coming close to ending my life on at least 10
different occasions.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As high school neared an end I was planning to head to
Julliard to study classical piano.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Parental providence and ultimately the God of grace changed my plans and
instead of New York, I ended up enrolled at Converse College in Spartanburg, SC
– only a few miles from my front door.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I
was internally devastated at the death of a dream, though clearly the
re-routing of my path was by God’s good and sovereign design. In hindsight, I
am grateful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Within days of entering Converse, the Savior of sinners directed
that this sinner’s steps would intersect with those of 6 Christian classmates –
Christians who were utterly and completely different from any other believers I
had ever encountered, anywhere. They were thoughtful, intelligent, fun, unafraid of my questions (even when they didn't have answers) and they truly cared about me.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was
deeply intrigued by them and by their faith.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yet, I was also deeply frustrated that they believed so sincerely in
this God that I could not fathom to be anything more than a foolish fable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Through a series of wickedly contrived and manipulatively
devised schemes (between the lines you might read that as "Through a series of serious pathological lies and malicious mind games”),
I set out to destroy their faith.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They
set out to pray for my salvation and, with humble boldness, they continually
pointed me to Jesus and to His Word - encouraging me to actually "take up and read" the Bible rather than just bristle up and rail against it. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 1988 ("by grace
alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone") the scales of sin which had kept me
in blinding spiritual darkness fell off and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I suddenly saw, understood, and came to rest
in who Jesus was and in what He had done on my behalf.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My conversion was somewhat of a modern day Damascus road transformation
coupled with a high speed cognitive car crash. It left me a deeply changed
person and challenged every square millimeter of my philosophical frame. I didn't enter into this place lightly, and fought against it ferociously, but how thankful I am for a pursuant Savior who would not let me go until I was His.
When I look at who I was during those dark days and reminisce on the arduous journey that brought me to the Light of life, I am reminded that coming to
Christ was a severely scary yet also amazingly marvelous and miraculous thing
for me. A quarter of a century later I am still amazed by God's mercy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Autism was unveiled in my life several years ago. It was initially
uncovered by a very wise Christian counselor who was trying to get to the root
of a spiritual crisis that had been baffling many seasoned pastors and professionals for years. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was having </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">very</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> deep and debilitating struggles
with doubt - and no one seemed to know what to do with them or how to help me amidst them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As strange as it sounds to some, I was not having doubts about my salvation
</span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">per se</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I knew I was resting, not in my
works or deeds, but in Christ alone to save me, as the Bible declares.</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I
did not desire a life of rebellion. I was not looking for some greener pasture
or some grander “god”. I loved the logic, continuity, and consistency of the Bible (things I would have denied to even be until I actually started reading and studying the Bible).</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I knew that I had
been </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">radically</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> transformed by the
gospel of Christ (that fact was irrefutable) and I saw that the overall
harvest of fruit in my life (the </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+7%3A14-25&version=NASB" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Romans 7</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> reality of struggle not excluded) was
in concert with the marks of a true Christian.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Everyone who looked at my life from the outside agreed.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yet, amidst all of that there was a dark, daunting doubt ever and always
breathing down my neck. It was, in many ways, a </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">metaphysical</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> manifestation of uncertainty and skepticism. This deep
doubt appeared in a rather primordial realm. It was not so much, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“Do <u>I</u> believe in God?”</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> but it was more fundamentally </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“Is there even a God to believe in?”</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (To
some extent I suppose I was asking</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> “Is
there even ANYTHING to believe in?”)</i><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The difference in those two “God” questions is a very, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">very </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">subtle difference - one that is grounded
ultimately in the nature of true reality. (You movie lovers might think of “The
Matrix” or “Inception” and that may help you get a glimpse of the issue at hand.)
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This metaphysical form of doubt that I
was dealing with (and at times still do) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">may be missed, misunderstood, and therefore
misdiagnosed as unconverted blindness (or even insanity) apart from an understanding of the
autistic experience. Therefore, let me seek to explain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please realize that for an autistic there is often a
neurological and psychological </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">disconnect</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
from the “real” of life. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Think about it: that which is known and experienced as “real” in this world is typically discerned
through the use of the 5 senses.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">see</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
a person, </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">hear</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> a bird, </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">taste</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> a piece of chocolate, </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">feel</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> a hug from a friend,
</span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">smell</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> a flower and thus come to believe in the existence of that which we’ve
just “sensed”.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the unfortunate disabling
marks of autism is that there is a deep </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">disconnect</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
in the way that the 5 senses work and process in us.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the autistic, much of life is conducted
via the short circuited route of a neurologically “frayed wire”.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (Think of a frayed stereo wire.) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The “wire” through which sight, sound, smell,
taste, and feeling (both emotional and physical) travel has a "short" in it and, therefore, those
things reach us with a great deal of “static” attached. For us, a really good
connection is hard to ever find.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thus,
try as we might to connect with the things of this world, we always end up with
some form of "crackling" and "sparking" disconnect in the process. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another way of describing the manifestation of that
disconnect (at least for me) is to say that all of life is seen and experienced
as if it is on film, and I exist as one who watches that film from afar.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is as though there is a hypothetical
two-dimensional “movie screen” that separates me (as an autistic person) from
the three dimensional nature of the neuro-typical (“normal”) story – a story
that is somehow unfolding on the other side of that sinister separating screen.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I seem to watch the movie of life from a solitary seat in
front of that screen. However, this live action “film” will not allow me to merely
sit in my seat and stare. Instead, while I watch and seek to understand what is happening
in the “movie” of life I am simultaneously forced to attempt to find a way to
actually </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">act</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">interact</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> with all the film’s distant cast members - those who
play out their parts on the other side of that visual veil.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Striving with all my might to act </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">with</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
and </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">as</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> those thespians on the other side of the veil, the hard truth is I never really seem to get
through that veil.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I never really seem
to connect. I never really seem to enter that world. I never really seem to even truly leave my seat. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yet, I must pretend that I do if I am to fit
in to this world. It is harrowing!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As these examples portray, I believe that, for the autistic, physical life is always “frayed”,
“veiled”, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and disconnected to <i>some</i>
degree - causing it to never really seem “real”</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and causing us to rarely seem a true part of it. It's a frustrating place within which to exist.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, transpose both of those scenarios of trying to
truly connect with people in the realm of </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">physical</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
existence into trying to connect to anything in the realm of </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">spiritual</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
existence!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If that which is </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">tangible</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> is such
a struggle, how much more that which is </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">intangible</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">?</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If the </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">seen</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> is full of static, how much more
the </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">unseen</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">?</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The disconnect is daunting. No wonder those of us who live with autism are said to be only 11% as likely to believe in God as our neuro-typical counterparts!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With those explanatory portraits given, let me continue with
the tale of my own autistic diagnosis. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I
began to meet with a very seasoned biblical counselor regarding these deep, dogging
doubts I've described. For several weeks she unpacked, data gathered, poked, pressed, and
prodded me on every issue imaginable.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> She was a brilliant investigator, leaving no stone of my life unturned and examining every detail in "Sherlockian" fashion! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What she came to realize was that my form of faltering faith, while
still at times sinful, was </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">very</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> different from
anything she had dealt with in 20+ years of clinical experience.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> What she also came to realize was that there was much more going on with me than the presenting problem of bludgeoning unbelief. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After four weeks of not only scratching the
surface but bringing in the back hoe of excavation upon my life, she posed the
possibility of my being on the autism spectrum. It was a conclusion she
preliminarily based on her discovery of my history of </span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">external</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> autistic behaviors,
</span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">internal </em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">autistic manifestations, and areas of extreme</span><em style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> giftedness</em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> that seemed
to flow from the positive aspects of an autistic mind. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'll break those down in greater detail as I answer other questions in this interview, but for now, let me simply say, I was forced to stare down a shadowy beast that I'd been trying to outrun for decades. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I must admit, I didn't like what she'd said to me that day in her office. I didn't like it at all!! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How could it be? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How could something like this have been missed for so many years? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I fought against her preliminary diagnosis
tooth and nail, coming up in a matter of moments with my own version of the 95
theses on “Why Lori Sealy Cannot Possibly Be Autistic and Why My Christian Counselor
Must Be Smoking Crack!!” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I retorted that there was
nothing about my life that fit into (my improperly assumed notions of) what autism
looked like. (Which resembled all things Rain Man!) Yet, deep down inside, I knew that everything about my life fit perfectly into that template and that this diagnosis answered all the questions that I'd not even wanted to really examine about myself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since that counselor's initial analysis was presented we have gone the further steps of having my case looked at by other official diagnosticians (psychologists, neurologists, MDs, and members of the Autism Society). They have validated her diagnosis and I have finally cried uncle in agreement with them due to the overwhelming empirical evidence. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By grace, I am learning to sing with the psalmist that <em>"I am fearfully and wonderfully made"</em> and am ever pleading with God, even on the dark days of this disability, that <em>"my soul would know it very well!"</em> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><a href="http://www.lorisealy.blogspot.com/2014/04/interviewing-autism-discussion-from_25.html"><strong>Click here for Part 2 "AN OVERVIEW OF AUTISM AS IT MANIFESTS IN ME"</strong></a></span></div>
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</span></span>Lori Sealyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16626604890276905834noreply@blogger.com14