relationship – Jerry Lout ⚬ Writer ⚬ Speaker ⚬ Mobilizer

March 6, 2025

Merry Memory

*Note to our fabulous Readers! The bit of delay getting this piece out today. . . We have moved to another city and two nights later a tornado came through, knocking out wi-fi access. (our new place not damaged, hallelujah!). And, here’s a little ‘after-Holiday’ narrative I hope you enjoy. . .

Savoring the yuletide season still, we thank a dear friend and colleague for the following,

One day leading up to Christmas a few years ago my husband and I invited some internationals to help us decorate our Christmas tree. Included in the group was an older couple – visiting scholars at a nearby university.

While the two men busied themselves stringing lights on the tree and about our door and windows, I welcomed the wife to help me set up our nativity scene.

“What is a nativity?”, Molly asked.

“It’s a scene made up of carved figures, symbolic of Jesus’ birth.”

My new friend followed with another question, her expression communicating sincere curiosity, “Who is Jesus and why is this so important?”

While Molly’s question gave me momentary pause, I immediately sensed the wonderful gift God was offering me, in this moment. That I might share something of the greatest story ever. How exciting! What followed was remarkable.

Into those coming minutes, I felt my whole being somehow charged with supernatural energy. The near-tangible presence of Christ, continuing strong. And, with the placing of each nativity piece – Mary, Infant Jesus, Joseph, the domestic animals of the stall and the rest – this supernatural “energy” did not diminish.

What inexpressible joy, sharing with this dear lady from a far away land the reason we celebrate Christmas. Why we believe Jesus is who he says he is, why he came to earth. And that Jesus not only gives us Christmas but gifts to us an everlasting, personal & intimate relationship with God. Fulll of joy, peace and love.

My friend Molly was so enthralled, listening intently, asking questions to make sure she was understanding.

As we finished the decorating she said, “I want to know more about this Jesus.”

My husband and I made sure she had a Bible and from that day forward she has been reading the Bible and has, for some time now, been participating in a Bible study with someone who speaks her own language.

Although my friend has not yet confessed faith in Christ, her heart is so soft and her questions give evidence that the Holy Spirit is still working to draw her further and further into his wonderful Light. And, even though this couple has returned to their own “restricted-access” country, we still communicate. Continuing to see God working!

A true Christmas miracle!

While our yearly calendars mark the arrival and the passing of Christmas Day, the present reality of “God with us” continues on and on and on. Until the long awaited day of the final Maranatha. . . “Come, Lord Jesus!”

September 14, 2023September 14, 2023

Fountain

“Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth but from falling in love.”

By the time Richard Foster penned these words in his important book, “Prayer – Finding the Heart’s True Home”, he had gleaned some insights through years of learning to walk with Christ.

Richard had come to recognize that Christian prayer, in its most basic form, is not an exercise to enter into as a religious performance.

Many good and sincere church-goers become burdened down over time under the load of dutiful praying. Conversing with God (the actual meaning of what it is to pray), if engaged as a religious duty becomes a load that crushes.

Yes, serious praying like intercession (deep-hearted appeals for God’s watch-care over other people’s concerns) can feature intense times of wrestling in the arena of spiritual conflict. Still, when the Jesus-follower prays – even with intensity – the praying carries a quality of hope and of trust. Sitting quiet before him – recalling good that he has brought to one’s life – voicing thanksgiving. Prayer entered into in such a heart posture allows the stirring of a fountain within. The love fountain.

The reason? Communing with God in Christ, regardless the form it takes, is marked by faith and hope, of confidence and assurance in Father-God’s loving care. Unlike a vending machine where what happens is all about transaction, the relationship between Jesus and his apprentice is centered in just that. . . Relationship.

Thanksgiving mingled in worship invariably leads to prayer rising heavenward in some fashion. In fact, where these two expressions are offered up in one’s life – thanksgiving and worship – prayer is happening.

Love works that way. It is not self-seeking but generous – even when the answer we may have hoped for does not get realized. Love leans in. Navigating life out of the love fountain ensures teeth-gritting finds no place to land.

May 18, 2023May 18, 2023

Of Being Owned

Living our lives day by day in closeness to Jesus calls for desire. And intention.

Just like any healthy marriage motoring right into the sunset years, both parties – the man and the woman – make numberless small but significant choices. All along the journey each of them has grown into the habit of offering up expressions of worth and honor, the one to the other. This is the nature of what the Father had in mind in the covenant relationship – man wedded to the woman, woman wedded to the man.

In similar manner, the intentional and deliberate follower of Christ routinely offers up to him both actions and words. Expressions of love are core. It is this that sets the disciple apart. The casual Christian, meanwhile, may content himself with an occasional nod to a religious creed.

Priorities

That boy or girl, man or woman who’s growing in Christ is assured of belonging to him. They do not fear losing the relationship. Jesus their savior has redeemed them from the old kingdom of ego where Self sat perched atop the me-centered throne of the heart.

While secure in his everlasting hope, the disciple set on Christlikeness is one who is not content to merely qualify for the ‘someday upward flight’ to the afterworld. The apprentice counts the value tag of his life as a thing reflecting a far more expansive aim. While the afterlife destination means much to him, the love-smitten apprentice aspires less to owning heaven than to being owned by heaven.

April 20, 2023April 19, 2023

Near

What is it to know God – to know Jesus?

Turning the question around, what is it to be known by Jesus? The answer does seem to matter.

Perhaps you, like myself, have puzzled over a phrase Jesus offered up once,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’*

I never knew you.

It seems we are in need of catching the nature of our Lord’s heart. God in Christ became one of us. He shared in our raw flesh and blood humanity. Jesus (remarkably and wonderfully) yearns for closeness to his fellow humans. Yes, God in the flesh longs to be closely known to us, stating even on occasion, “I no longer call you servants, but friends”*. Jesus doesn’t stop here.

He also – and it is here we can miss a key point – yearns to know us. In this sense ‘knowing’ speaks of closeness. This is not a knowing about factual details of what we creatures are comprised of. Jesus does not see us as machines. We are not devices like a ipad or smart phone held by him.

With our laptops we flip open the lid, press a key here, another there. Presto, the operating system fires up. What sensible person would ever liken such a sterile, mechanical process to a warm, interactive relationship? We know better. We carry feelings, wishes, passions, hopes within our bones.

Our devices are things in our possession that we control and manipulate – hopefully for worthy uses. Creator God on the other hand, in relating to we his image-bearers, is after relationship. Heart and soul, mind and strength. All our being.

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart”.*

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life”.*

God is Spirit and so are we. He seeks worshippers, wonderfully so – living creations akin to himself. Yes, out of all his handiwork we are the unique ones into whom he has breathed life (How do we ever get our heads around this!)

Biblical worshippers are those who happily and with eager hearts, engage their Lord in mutual companionship and love.