Mike Fisk & Built with Grace

Living in the Past

March 16, 2009 in Uncategorized | Tags: blindness, healing | Leave a comment

It was a hot, dusty Judean day. The old man walked slowly down the path with his son close to his side. As they walked, he described the scenery they passed and issued an occasional warning about a stone in the road, or some obstruction coming up. Most of the shady spots along the way had already been taken by the lame, the crippled and the destitute. Finally, they came to one of the few remaining shady spots along the road. He helped his son to the ground, made him as comfortable as possible and gave him the small box that would hopefully be filled with stray coins by the end of the day.

Then, with a parting hug and kiss to the cheek he left his son and returned home. At the end of the day he would return, help his son home and do the whole thing over again. Each day was a reminder of the dreams the son’s blindness had stolen. He’d never seen the sun, or the flowers, or the hands that had cared for him since birth. His entire world was wrapped up in the sounds, smells and descriptions others would give him.

As the blind man sat along the road, he sensed a crowd coming. He couldn’t tell how many, or who it was, but it must be someone important to travel in such a large group. His spirits lifted. If it was a large crowd it could mean the possibility of many coins landing in his coffer. If only he’d been earlier so that he could have gotten one of the spots further out of town. The first beggars in line often received the best alms.

The conversation grew louder. His spirits began to rise. It sounded like someone in the midst must be a Rabbi, or noble of some sort, for he was fielding questions from his followers.

Someone ran past him hollering something….did he say healed? Then, he sensed the teacher before him. He heard the question that had haunted him his entire life.

“Who sinned, Master? Was it this man, or his parents?

It was a question that he hated to hear. Why did people naturally assume that any sort of adversity in someone’s life was the result of sin? He knew it wasn’t his sin that caused the blindness. He was born this way. He knew his parents. They were Godly, faithful parents who followed the law to the best of their ability.

The teacher gave an answer he didn’t fully understand. It wasn’t the answer he’d heard countless times.

“It was neither,” was the reply, “This was done so God could be glorified.”

What a confusing answer. Yet the sound of the man’s voice and the words he spoke brought a strange sense of peace and comfort to the blind man. While he was still pondering what the words might mean he smelled the scent of wet dirt. Something wet suddenly covered his eyes.

Instinctively he began to raise his hands to wipe whatever is was away, but the person talking told him to stop and go wash in a certain pool. A group of men led him away. Soon the cool waters of the pool of Siloam covered his face.

As he wiped the water away he made a startling, wonderful discovery. HE COULD SEE!! For the first time in his life he saw the blue sky, the flowers, and the people around him. What a marvelous miracle.

But, little did he know, his story had really just begun!

(From ‘When Grace Isn’t Enough: Living in Grace Despite my Past)

What Ever Happened to Grace

March 7, 2009 in Uncategorized | Tags: anger, church, compassion, death, divorce, forgiveness, God, grace, guilt, Jesus, love, shame | Leave a comment

A woman contemplates suicide. She’s a hooker, a mom, and addict. She has stooped so low as to sell not only her body, but the body of her three year old daughter to support her habit. At the end of her options, with no where to turn, she seeks out a counselor. He suggests church and she is shocked. “Why,” She asks angrily, “Would I go to church. I already feel bad enough about me. Why would I want to go someplace where I’d only be made to feel worse about myself?

A soldier sinks low in his foxhole. Bullets and rockets fly overhead. He’s been gone from home for two years fighting this war. He opens a bent and crumpled envelope. It’s from his home church. Anticipation rises within him. Expectantly he opens the letter, only to find that he has been dropped from the membership because he has fallen behind in his annual giving. When he returns home he never again darkens the door of a church.

They ‘did all the right things’ as parents. They had family devotions. They were involved in their local church. They took an active part in the social, educational and spiritual lives of their four wonderful children. They were good, Godly, caring parents. Then, within a span of two years, three of their children are taken in tragic, separate accidents. Three young lives taken before they really had a chance to bloom. Mom and Dad were never the same. The lone, remaining child struggled with drugs as he dealt with the tragic turn of his life. Throughout this tragic turn of events in this devastated family, the church remained strangely quiet.

What has happened in 2000 years that has made those who used to cling to the feet of Jesus, run from him in anger and shame? When did the church place the importance of money before the giving of one’s life for his country? How did we lose the compassion of the church in Acts to overlook the pain of our brothers and sisters?

The United States of America has more freedom, and opportunities to show the love of Christ than any country in the world. Yet churches close every week because there are no longer enough people attending to fill the pews. We are a nation of ‘empty pew people’. People who for a variety of reasons have turned their backs on the one person that can give them the fulfillment they seek.

In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes to a group of people that have fallen into the trap of legalistic thinking. They had become more intent on rules and regulations, and less concerned about living relationally. In Chapter 5, verse one he earnestly pleads with them to remember that we were born to be free.

The body of Christ needs to return to being a living organism of faith and mercy and love. Each of us has the responsibility to show the Grace of our Lord Jesus to those who might make us uneasy, or take us out of our comfort zone. Our Heavenly Father can’t do His work when we confine Him within the walls of ‘church-ianity.’

(From “When Grace Isn’t Enough: Amazingly Graceless”)

Grace isn’t Fair!!

November 7, 2008 in Uncategorized | Tags: divorce, forgiveness, freedom, grace, guilt, love, relationship, shame | 2 comments

When you think about it, Grace really isn’t fair. Here we are, a bunch of stubborn, rebellious humans intent on our own way and demanding that the Creator God of the universe meet our every need.

We are His finest creation, the masterpiece of all that is. We were originally created in His image so that we could be in relationship with him. There are two things that strong loving relationships are defined by. First of all, strong, loving relationships offer both parties complete and total freedom. I Corinthians 13 is often referred to as the love chapter. Here, love is described as trusting, patient, enduring, selfless. THAT is freedom. Freedom to be everything we were created to be.

A second defining characteristic of a strong loving relationship is that both parties benefit from the situation. If there is not mutual benefit with the parties involved, then, in reality, relationship does not exist. Rather, such a situation is better referred to as an arrangement. One party is the beneficiary of warm fuzzies, the other is simply a provider of warm fuzziness.

A common acrostic to define Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Theologically, this is very true. Grace is God’s unlimited gift to all who will accept it. He holds nothing back regardless of what anyone has done.

While this definition is certainly true, I’m not sure it tells the whole story from God’s point of view. Every day I’m thankful for the fact that God has extended his grace towards me. Like Paul I find myself failing to obey on a daily basis. The Apostle’s frustration as expressed in Romans 7 is a testimony to my own existence. I find myself at war with my old self. I don’t do what I know I should and do what I know I shouldn’t. I fight a losing battle.

While I am more than willing to accept God’s grace towards me, it’s not always easy for me to extend that grace towards others. In fact, to be honest, there are some people that I just flat out don’t want to extend grace to, and to be brutally honest, I don’t want God to extend grace to either. Before you crucify me for that, take a close look at yourself. Remember that guy that cut you off last week? How about the incompetent server at the last restaurant you were at? How many times MUST you forgive the son/daughter that refuses to clean their room, do their homework, mow the lawn, etc. etc.

It was during one of these ‘grace-less’ moments that I came up with my own definition of Grace. For me, Grace is defined as, “It is an emotional decision made by a rational being to grant undeserved and unlimited rewards to someone who has no ability to repay.”

Grace, is an emotional decision. God loves me. That is emotion. His decision was well thought out. He knows I’ll fail He knows I’ll rebel and go my own way. Having thought all this out, He made the decision, not only to love me, but to give me all the blessings in his arsenal, knowing full-well that I could not return the favor.

While this definition may not be inspired, it’s helped me to gain a new appreciation for the love my Heavenly Father has for me.

The CONSTRAINTS of FREEDOM

October 13, 2008 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Since the beginning of time mankind has not done well with freedom. When Jehovah God created man and woman, he placed them in a beautiful garden. They were naked and without shame. This nudity was not only physical, but emotional, social and intellectual. Yes, that means that at one point, man and woman actually understood each other completely. But with all the freedom they had in relationship as well as life in general, it was short lived. The downfall of the couple’s freedom was due to a single fruit tree placed in the middle of the garden and off limits as far as a food source goes. The ‘temptation’ to leave the tree alone was more than the couple could bear. Mankind failed to live in that freedom, sacrificing that freedom for the restrictions of sin.

Years later, the mistakes of mankind continued to grow more and more intense. Still, there was no formal set of rules, but mankind was allowed to live according to ‘whatever was right in their own eyes’. The increasing depravity of social conscience drove the creator God to destroy all but a small representation of the life he originally created.

And so the story goes. Israel was given freedom from the Egyptian Pharaoh only to long for the limitations of a false god shortly after their deliverance. The solution, was a relationship with creator God that was based on a strict set of laws and rules designed to govern virtually every aspect of social and religious life. Yet, the law was impossible to fulfill and only served to appease creator God. Real, and true relationship, was limited at best. Not because of God’s unwillingness to commune with man, but because of man’s inability to meet the requirements of a Holy God.

The only hope mankind had to regain the once-personal, intimate relationship with creator God was for His only Son to deliver them by paying, in full the price for the mistakes that dated back to the beginning of creation itself.

The coming of the Christ-child, His sacrificial death and death-defeating resurrection enabled and empowered mankind to rekindle the relationship lost in the Garden of Eden. God’s rules were in this new social order was simple. The long list of detailed laws and regulations was replaced by a simple request to love Him, and to love others. THAT is freedom.

Still, mankind has not learned. Our founding fathers came to this land over 200 years ago to escape the tyranny of the church and so seek a new land built on…you guessed it, freedom. Freedom to live, worship and co-exist due to our mutual humanity and not based on race, gender or creed.

Once again, the freedom was short-lived. True freedom speaks of no limits. True freedom assumes that those of us living in freedom will do so responsibly, taking into consideration how our actions affect those around us.

Way back in Biblical times, the Apostle Paul saw the same issues we see today. A group of people freed from the tyranny of rules, intent on putting limitations on our freedom. It’s the age-old conflict between license and liberty. The victims of the battle are often the very ones freedom was intended to influence. All to often the church

Grace is about freedom to learn relationship with God first and mankind second. Grace does not guarantee perfection, nor does it demand anything from us other than to accept the gift and repent of our wayward lifestyle. As we grow in relationship to God, He reveals to us a way of life that is fulfilling, meaningful and full of love.

It’s about Grace

September 11, 2008 in Uncategorized | Tags: failure, forgiveness, grace, Jesus Christ, life as a journey, second chances | Leave a comment

It’s a bit of a cliche’ I know, but life is a journey. The advantage to most journey’s we take is that we have a destination and a map to guide us. Life isn’t like that. You get up in the morning with a plan and when you come to bed later that night you look back and realize you have no idea how you got where you did.

I think often of the ‘great men of faith’ like Abraham, Moses and David. Great men that accomplished mighty things. Yet a close look at thier lives show a series of potholes, wrong turns and detours before they finally reached thier destination. One of my favorite authors, Philip Yancey, taught me (through his books) to read between the lines of the Bible to catch the true story. Feel the emotion of failure, the thrill of victory, the agonizing struggle of confusion that our ‘Biblical Heroes’ felt.

That’s what Grace is about. It’s about the journey. It’s about falling down, picking yourself off, brushing off the cinders and moving on. It’s about arriving at the destination better than you were when you left, but bruised, battered and thankful just to be alive.

The struggle comes when we fall and just lay on the path, or drag ourselves into the bushes to lick our wounds. Fatique, failure and fear set in. Why did I try? I fell again today. I fell three times yesterday and those wounds haven’t healed yet. I’m done. I can’t get up. And if I do get up, I’ll just lose…again.

‘Built with Grace’ is my story. It’s not a flashy story of how I succeeded at everything I ever tried. It’s a story about learning to live daily with the realization that I may fail, but that failure says nothing about who I am. Another favorite author, John Eldredge, helped me see that God didn’t fall in love with me because I was awesome. He fell in love with me because HE is awesome.

And so, I pick myself up. Excited about the possibilities, fearful of failure and expecting resistance. But I’m moving. I probably won’t finish first, or even place. But I’ll finish. That is what life is about. Finishing well and knowing that I’m not junk. I’m BUILT WITH GRACE.