Intervention
Our kids sure can try our patience, can't they? When your kids disobey you, how many chances should you give them? How many times should you forgive them?
If you’ve ever had a disobedient child, you know how God feels. When your child is defiant, do you start counting down how many chances they have left? Are you like, “Okay, you have 489 chances left. 488. 487.” And then a couple of years later, or for some of your kids, a couple of hours later, you tell them, “Okay, this is your last chance! You’ve used up 489 chances, so this is it! After this, I’m cutting you off!” Do you say that?
Maybe. You probably don’t count down from 490, but at some point, you may have to cut them off. I mean, that’s what an intervention is, isn’t it?
In the most extreme interventions, out of love for the person, if a person is so addicted to drugs, alcohol, or something else, everyone who cares for that person comes together to let them know that they have to choose either drugs or them. To the person struggling with addiction, this seems like wrath. It seems like hate. But it’s truly done out of love so that they would repent and change. But if they don’t choose life, then they’ve chosen to be cut off.
As C.S. Lewis wrote: “The doors of hell are locked on the inside.”
God did an intervention with Israel, and they chose to be cut off. But because they chose to be cut off, God invited the nations to fill the void and to make Israel jealous. God says in Isaiah 65:1, “I was found by those who were not looking for me.” That’s us! That’s the Gentiles. We were going our own way, doing our own thing, and out of His abundant love and mercy, He showed us grace.
And yet, even after an intervention, you would still love your child, and you would still invite your child to change. And you would never give up on them. God says of Israel, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.” (Romans 10:21, quoting Isaiah 65:2)
God still holds His hands out to them. And He holds His hands out to you. Maybe you’ve been grasping onto a particular sin, and it’s getting in the way of your relationship with God. You know it’s wrong, but you just haven’t been able to let it go. God is holding His hands out to you even now, inviting you to let go of all that’s truly harming you, and to rest in His love for you.
"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?' 22 Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!'" (Matthew 18:21-22, Berean Study Bible).
Created to be Free
Todd Pierce is a professional cowboy, rodeo rider, and horse trainer. Over the years he has come to discover that his experience with taming wild horses is indeed a picture of God’s great love and care for us as He reaches down to tame our own wild hearts, making us fit for His service and setting us free to experience our true potential.
The following is a partial transcript of one of his demonstration videos wherein he films himself gently wooing and taming a wild horse, explaining step by step how the process relates to our own relationship with God, and calling us to “leave behind our wildness and embrace the freedom that a loving God offers.”
The following are excerpts from the transcript of the video. For the fullest experience and understanding, please be sure to follow this link to view the entire video. The demonstration begins at marker 00:01:01.
The scene opens with Todd alone in a small training ring, making his first approach to a wild horse, a filly, who’d been brought in the previous evening, and he makes the observation that “because she hadn't had any handling, she thought that she was actually doing really well, because she just lived in a pasture, got deep grass, and that was her life.”
He continues:
Unfortunately, that's where I believe a lot of people live, is they've settled for this ability to stay alive and survive, but they don't actually know what they're capable of and the potential that's hidden inside of them. And you can't forgive yourself. You can't bring out the greatness inside of you. That's something that is reserved for Jesus alone. So we'll let her move around because I want her to know that she's actually free. I can't control her.
And now that she's looking at me, she's probably asking the question of why it is that she's here and what do I want from her? A wild horse, even the wild horses that we have in our country, they don't live near as long or near the quality of lives of horses that are actually cared for.
If you’re gonna go round up a wild horse, it will take a tame horse to do it, because one tame horse can overcome fifty wild horses simply because it’s partnered with man.
It probably never even crossed her mind that I would want something from her. If she knew what my dream was for her, there wouldn’t be any hesitation in this at all. And what she’s gonna get to encounter today is not just a look from me, not just a knowledge of me, but such a connection that everything that’s inside of her, as far as all of her gifts, all of her potential is gonna get released. She’s super nervous about this, and she’s got a reason to be. All of her instincts say that, “I wanna stay in control of my own world.”
She’s paying just enough attention to me so that she can be comfortable. But if we’re gonna get anywhere today, she’s gonna have to understand that we’re gonna have to become one. And that oneness is gonna take a lot of courage on her side, and a lot of kindness and patience on my side. ...
The rope isn’t here to control her. It’ like the Holy Spirit that draws us to Him. … If we use fear and intimidation so that we can dominate her and manipulate her to make her do what we want, then we’ve got a broken animal. We don’t want a broken animal. We want a healed animal. And her nature would actually work against that healing if all she listens to was her instincts. ….
She’s got her boundaries. She comfortable with me around her, petting her … [but she's thinking], "This is unsafe. Someone’s gonna hurt me. Someone’s gonna take something from me. How do I stay in control?"
She wants to know me. She just doesn’t know what it will look like to give up all of herself so that she can have all of me.
I don’t wanna get too far away from her here for a second, because I don’t want her to think that every time she gets scared that the only way she can feel safe is to get away from me, because, eventually, when she gets scared she actually gonna start lookin’ for me.
If she felt like I was gonna put her in a corner or force her to do something, this would have had an entirely different outcome. Just because you’re in authority, doesn’t mean that you have to dominate [people].
It’s nothing short of a miracle. This is what love does. It creates safety. It creates power. It creates a whole new world of opportunity. ...
As he slips on the saddle for the first time, he makes this powerful observation:
She don’t know yet that this is a gift, but she’ll learn. … It’s not because she was forced; it’s because she was loved.
As he is finally able to mount her, ride her, control her movements, her speed, her direction, he makes the following observations:
Because God was so kind, ... He showed up in human form and Jesus walked around and He interacted with people, He just gave invitations. He never told them what to do or what not to do. He just said, "Would you come and follow me?" And that following looked like something. It required them to walk away from one thing so that they could pursue something else. And that pursuit was Jesus.
And so today, while you watch this and you watch her deal with her own concerns and misunderstandings, that you can look at your life again and say, "In what areas is [it] that I've just actually limited God, and I've wanted to keep Him at some distance because that's where I feel safe?"
But she wants to know me. She just doesn't know what it's going to look like for her to actually give up all of herself so that she can have all of me.
God is perfect love. He's the perfect Father. And I see a world that's filled with people that just don't -- they've never encountered that. They don't understand that the creator of heaven and Earth is actually desiring such an intimate connection with you.
The other approach to doing this was that I would actually have to establish dominance with her. I'd have to make her feel like I'm more powerful than her in a really intimidating way. That's just not the way that Jesus operated. He had all the power of heaven to do whatever it is He wanted to do to the people around Him. Yet He chose this way and He said, "Come and follow Me. …
So Jesus had a lot of people following Him. And they would follow Him the way they would follow another man.It's okay that we know how to follow, but I don't want her to just learn how to follow me around like a puppy on a string. She's got too much power. She can do stuff with me now that she's never even dreamt that she could do. This horse is not my slave. She's actually made a decision for herself that even with all of the back story and all the things that she's been through, her saying yes to me became a turning point for everything that's going to happen from here on out.
Won't YOU say "yes" to Jeusus? Won't you let him tame your wild heart and release all the potential within you? Potential that can only be realized when you submit your life to His loving, gentle control. Won't you let Jesus set you FREE to be all you can be?
"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36, NIV).
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5, NIV).
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29, NIV).
Life Lessons From Cockroaches
Cockroaches are fascinating creatures. Did you know that they can continue living days, even weeks, after being decapitated. That’s because their blood pressure, circulation, and respiration is not controlled by their brains. They can feel and sense and amble about, appearing whole, though headless. And what’s even creepier is that their heads will survive also. Yet neither will survive effectively.
The body will roam around aimlessly, with no memory or mission, until it finally starves to death (seems they do at least need the head to eat). The head will also survive, with antennae strobing, responding to stimuli, consciously aware of its surroundings, but unable to move or make any impact on its environment. Two separated parts of one body – alive, yet utterly ineffectual. Check out this video.
So often, we Christians are like decapitated cockroaches. Some of us walk around all all caught up in our feelings. We care deeply about people or issues. We even interpret Scripture or make assessments of God’s will based on our “feelings” about a given issue, circumstance, or situation.
Others of us walk around like a head without a heart. We have tons of knowledge, but lack grace, compassion, or empathy. In short, we lack God’s agape love. We spout knowledge as if knowledge alone can have effectual impact.
The Christian must think, respond, react with their entire being. Feelings without thoughtfulness, knowledge, wisdom, can leave us reactionary, grounded in our own senses, rather than in the truth and mind of God. Knowledge without feelings – or better said, heart, compassion, empathy, agape love – simply puffs up.
Like the cockroach, our hearts and minds must be in touch with each other, working in a symbiotic relationship if we are to minister the “whole” counsel of God.
“… Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” 1 Cor 8:1 (NKJV)
“If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Cor 13:1-3 (NIV)
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding [e.g., feelings or emotions]. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Prov 3:5-6