The God Who Speaks - July 7

Grace and Peace... and even more peace to you this summer.

I'm currently one month into a time rest from itinerant ministry. Retreating to my little church, my favourite coffee shop, and to the hilltops for weekly hikes has been good for my soul. A sabbath in the Hebrews 4 sense of rest, restoration, and time with God. Thankfully, as I launched into this time, Cam, a local spiritual director reminded me, "When you enter a time of rest, just remember that you'll be giving your issues a chance to surface. You need to prepare for that."

Oh. Great.

I didn't really want to spend my sabbath time "working" through my junk. I was gearing up for soul-restoration, not issues-exploration. But Cam is usually right, so I kept my eyes open and asked the Lord for a strategy. Sure enough, not long into my "breather", up came some "stuff" that wants to bully me towards isolation. How do you rest when old insecurities, temptations, or "demons" rise up when you finally still your heart? Or am I the only one who didn't automatically get all his shortcomings washed away at baptism? If not, read on:

The Lord showed me that during a time of rest, first of all, I don't need to go digging for my issues. They will surface on their own, thankyou very much.

Second, when they surface, I don't need to work at fixing things. Rather, I can sit WITH them in His presence, allowing them to RIPEN. That way, instead of running around the tree of my life picking off bad fruit, I can sit at the tree of HIS life (the Cross) and let the fruit simply rot and fall off. I found that this took some patience and a little courage. But to extend the tree analogy, it was a reminder that Christ is the Pruner... not me. And if you give Him a chance, He is faithful to do it. I hardly had to help him; my role was to simply ripen in His presence. SOOO restful... in fact, the biggest breakthrough came just this morning through a one-minute dream. It was Jesus, teaching me "the unforced rhythms of grace" (Matt. 11:28 MSG).

And third, it dawned on me, "Why don't I ALWAYS take this approach?" Perhaps there is a time to take the initiative and really pursue one's healing ruthlessly and thoroughly... but I'll ask Jesus about that later. After my rest. In the mean time, can I challenge you to ask the Lord if there's anything "in your face" that He'd like to have ripen in His presence.

In terms of news, just two things:

1. You might want to check out an article that Brita Miko wrote which incorporates and interacts with some of my thoughts on Christ's open table and narrow way (which I expand on in Kissing the Leper). You can view it at www.clarion-journal.ca. It's entitled, "Die with me: Pickton, Jesus and Me."

2. I've finally decided to release "Fear No Evil" in the U.S.A. Current events continue to warrant a proclamation of Jesus' call to "Be Not Afraid." It's available at www.bradjersak.com.

Many blessings,

Brad Jersak

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