Perfection? - Perfect Son

   Everyone usually seems to desire the best in everything. We look for perfection and it seems there are two main choices for finding this. Some seem to be convinced it is still locked away within humanity and can be brought to the surface with enough work and innovation. And then others look beyond humanity to anything and everything else.
    But they never seem to think about Christ- they do the things they wanna do, but they'll find out. I've looked around enough to know the only One I wanna know is Christ, yes. He is perfection personified and though we are fallen, He can perfect us when we put our faith and trust in His death and Resurrection that has paid for all our fallings and failings.

(See Psalms 73:23-26, Psalms 146, Leviticus 11:45, Philippians 1:6)

No, Not One

      Jesus Christ did not come to die for perfect people. None exist- only Him. He didn't come to die for good people. No one is good but God. He didn't come to die for people who have their bad days and good days but try really hard to do all the right things in the hopes that will outweigh their bad deeds. Plenty of people exist in this state and it's a self-defeating effort. He didn't come to die for people who are no saints but still way better than mass murderers and thieves. Plenty of people exist that play comparison games but in the end we all fall so woefully short of God's standard of absolute holiness and perfection.
      Of course, in a sense, yes- Jesus came to die for all these people because He died to save all people. But the images we project of ourselves are illusions to make us feel better about ourselves. We all need to view ourselves through the mirror God provides for us in The Bible. And no matter who you are or what you look like or what you've done, we're all the same.
      Jesus Christ came to die for sinners. He came to die for all human beings who have existed or ever will exist. He came to die for zombies who wander around like shambling masses with still a bit of sentience like Ted Sallis (aka The Man-Thing) who are deluded enough to think themselves masters of their own fate and living life large. We're still trying to build a tower to a Heaven of our own making that can be achieved if we just learn how to love each other more.
     The devil comes only to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus has come that we might have life more abundant. (John 10:10) We all need to see ourselves as God sees us- utterly helpless, totally depraved sinners who are perfectly content in our worship of hedonism and narcissism most of the time- except for those rare moments of honesty when we realize that everything crossed off on our bucket list is just a drop in the bucket and it never really satisfies. And deep down we know that we don't do right and can't do enough to please God. (As Sufjan Stevens once said of John Wayne Gacy, Jr. - "In my best behaviour, I am really just like him. Look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid.") From the worst of humanity to the supposed best- we're all in the same boat and it ain't Noah's- it's Charon's. (That's the dude who took lost souls to Hades in Greek mythology.) We all deserve Hell because of our sin. We could never be perfect as God is in our strength. (Matthew 5:48) That's why God met the standard of perfection for us with Christ.
      Jesus Christ came to die for sinners and rise again. When we put our faith in Him and follow Him, we get transformed into new creatures who are fully alive with a purpose of living for God's glory in this life and a future of singing God's praises forever in the next. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all considering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." (1 Timothy 1:15-16)
That's the beauty of The Gospel. Amen.

Why not? (poem)

To the brothers and sisters of the Dispersion in the time of their exile....

"I will sing His song in the land of my sojourn....."- Rich Mullins

"So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Though Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His Name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." (Hebrews 13:12-16)


Why not?
(copyright by Nathan Ludwick 1/16/2017)
(Job 38-40, Hebrews 11-12, Psalms 73, 84 and 137, the book of Ecclesiastes, Romans 8, 1 Peter 1:17-19, Matthew 13, Psalms 119:19, Hebrews 13:10-16, Revelation 21:5, Revelation 21-22)

Why shouldn't I expect suffering in the world?
What makes me special and exempt?
Why do I expect perfection in a quite imperfect world?
Sometimes I feel so restless- I can't sit down or stand up or lie down
I've got to run around or I'll explode...
Restless legs and a reckless heart
Are a wanderer's trademark
Not all who wander are lost,
but not all who are lost wonder while they wander.
Some trade priceless treasure for their precious things
Some pierce themselves with many griefs in search of so many schemes.
The wind flitters and floats this way and that
We think we're walking on air as we strive and strain for it
But even on Cloud 9, it's still just beyond our grasp
If we ever caught it, we'd find that it's just empty air
Just like the pinnacle of our lives' pursuits have only an empty heir
Vanity, vanity- everything is vanity!
If a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions,
Why do we strive after wind and wind up reaping the whirlwind?
If anything, we should labor like Ruth in the Kinsman-Redeemer's harvest
So that our thorny soil might get pruned and yet bear fruit
Fruit that The Lord of the Harvest can use to sow what He reaps
But rather than grow spiritual cucumbers, the cares of this life
Keep us encumbered instead.
We want our best life now on our terms rather than waiting
for the coming glory.
Why do I want this world to be perfect when I have a perfect one waiting?
Now is the winter of our discontent and rather than bury it in the snow
we must embrace it.
Hug tight all the scars and bruises of this world and flick off
all our rotting bandages.
There's only One who holds all things together and He's still got
the whole world in His hands.
And while we look forward to standing with Him in Heaven
First we must stand with Him in Gethsemane.
Let us weep with Him who weeps rather than just fall asleep.
In our struggles with sin, we haven't yet resisted to the
point of shedding our blood- but He did.
The Father poured the cup of His wrath on His Son
And the blood-stained cross speaks a better word than the blood of Abel or any of us.
Yes, by faith we share His glory in the Resurrection, but first we bear His reproach.
As Moses left Egypt's palace and chose to suffer alongside his people,
So Christ left Heaven's throne and chose to suffer alongside His people.
Thou didst leave Thy throne, O Lord- help me to leave my throne as well.
Like captives in Babylon, we are exiles on this planet- wanderers
looking for a new city- a real home.
May the restlessness in our hearts keep us from ever being
content with poor substitutes on earth.
We're all panning for gold in life, but let us pan the fool's gold that abounds.
Let's sell it all to buy the field and get the real gold treasure we've found.
He is the abundant life that flows in us and reminds us of what
this world was made to be before sin's catastrophe.
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
We all live in our present suffering, but we dream of the restoration coming.
And while we live so that His love might leave others with
the mark of the Divine that points us all back to Christ,
may we all solider on, steady further up and further in-
aliens and strangers on the road that's straight and narrow, all the way to Him!
We must solider on in the land of our sojourn
and fight the good fight, knowing that He's already won the battle.
Even amidst all our struggles and sorrows, we know
The Man of Sorrows knows and feels every one and helps us through them
And one day He will take all those old battle scars and
give them a full healing through and through when He makes all things new!

Season for the Reason: Picking Jesus, Not Cherries

Note: This is the first in what I hope will be a series of blog posts dealing with some common objections that are raised against Christianity, some of which even Christians get confused on at times. (I certainly get confused on them too.) However, I firmly believe, as Chris Rice once wrote, that God has "an exclamation point for every question mark." And I believe The Bible addresses every issue we face, whether directly or indirectly. While this certainly isn't comprehensive and won't be definitive, I hope these posts will be helpful in explaining why Christians believe some of the things that we do and that they will do so in a loving way that does not seek to denigrate other beliefs, put merely present the teaching of Christ in His Word. These are based on questions that have been personally raised to me and I thought it might be helpful to talk about these topics here, as they reflect concerns and questions that many seekers and agnostics as well as skeptics share. [And as I said earlier, Christians also wonder on these things at times too, I do believe. Or at least this Christian has at times.] Let me also state that I do not believe in arguing or convincing anyone into Heaven; only the Holy Spirit can change someone's heart and bring them saving faith in Jesus. So I don't expect to convince anyone with any brilliant logic here, especially since I know that I don't have that much of that. ;-) (If there is anything brilliant or good in here, it's from Jesus, not me.) But 2 Timothy 4:2 commands us to be prepared in season and out of season in preaching the Word and to correct, rebuke encourage- with great patience and careful instruction. And I do want to do that, as I seek to always have an answer for the reason that I have hope, as 1 Peter 3:15 says. :-)


          

For the first point raised, this is a common question that comes up that even many Christians get confused about as well, but it is one that is well addressed by The Bible. I will talk about ye olde problem of the seeming disconnect between Old Testament law and New Testament law and why it seems that Christians seem to cherry-pick which rules to follow at times. Since this objection is often raised as a counterpoint when the topic of homosexuality comes up and The Bible's prohibition against it, please note that this piece will focus on that topic as a backdrop for this question regarding the Old Testament and New Testament.  I will include a link for further reading if you’re interested, but I never like just posting a link without at least trying to address the issue some myself. (Otherwise I just feel like I’m shuttling people off because I don’t want to confront the topic myself and I never want to do that.) [Here is said link- http://thecripplegate.com/shellfish-mixed-fabrics-and-homosexuality-picking-and-choosing/]
            Jesus states in Matthew 5:17-20 (ESV)- “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
           

This is an important point here. It cannot be emphasized enough that Jesus upheld the Old Testament. What I should have explained further is the reason why Jesus upheld the Old Testament and its laws. The key word in verse 17 is “fulfill”. Jesus Christ fulfilled all the demands of the Old Testament laws. This gets to the crux of the matter of salvation in Christianity. It is coming to the point of realizing that we have done wrong and can never live up to God’s standard for living. (Which is absolute perfection- Leviticus 11:45- God states it here and Jesus reiterates this in Matthew 5:48- “Be perfect therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”) Of course, as Psalms 14:1 and Romans 3:23 and a number of other verses state, there is none righteous. There is no one who has perfectly kept all of the law. Thus, we are all imperfect sinners and wrongdoers who fail to meet God’s standard. God says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death- both physical death and spiritual death. (i.e. eternal punishment in hell.) However, the same verse also says that the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God knows that no human being can meet His standard. And He also knows the consequence of this. And as one of the most famous verses in The Bible tells us- God loves us so much that He intervened and sent His Son Jesus to rescue us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17) And Romans 5:8 confirms that God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The very thing that I most celebrate as a follower of Christ- Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday- this is where the literal crux of Christianity lies- in Easter. Because Jesus died to pay for all the sins ever committed in the world and He rose again- He paid once for all the payment for sin- and in the process, He defeated death, sin, the devil and hell- and our sinful nature that we are all born with.
           

When we put our faith in Christ to forgive us of our sins and to submit to following Him as Lord and Savior, a metaphysical, supernatural transaction takes place. God The Father sees our plea for Jesus’ forgiveness and credits us with Christ’s righteousness. Though we ourselves are spiritually and morally bankrupt as Romans 5:12-14 states (the sin of Adam and Eve tainted the entire world), Jesus is perfect and He imputes that righteousness to us at the moment of conversion. Romans 5:15-21 goes on to talk further about this- how just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, one Man’s righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. As Romans 6:14 states, once we have received Jesus as Savior and Lord, we are no longer under the Law system anymore- but we are now under the New Covenant Jesus came to establish through His blood (as Christ mentions during The Lord’s Supper to His disciples)- and that is the New Covenant of grace. In the Old Covenant of the Law, the Israelites followed God by endeavoring to obey all the commandments- including the dietary laws and other ceremonial laws that were aimed specifically at them. However, there are other moral laws (which is where the prohibition against homosexuality falls) that were given to them and that are still in place in the New Covenant of grace.
          

Galatians 3 puts it this way- (starting in verse 19)- “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.” (That was verses 19-23). [My parenthetical here- indeed, as The Bible notes elsewhere, the law is what shows us just how much in the wrong we really are and how much we need a Savior because we can’t keep all of the law perfectly ourselves.]
        (resuming in verse 24)- “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
             The point I am trying to make here is that the Old Testament law served as our guardian until Jesus came. When He came and fulfilled the Law, we were no longer bound by the Law. We trust that He fulfilled all of the Law and put our faith in His righteousness to forgive us our sins and to make us presentable before God in Heaven. No one enters Heaven but by the righteousness of Christ, for as Isaiah 64:6 makes painfully clear- even the righteousness we think we have of our own account is nothing but filthy rags in comparison to the supreme holiness and righteousness of God Almighty.
      

Galatians 3:1-6 is also important to note in understanding this point. Here Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, berates the Galatians for abandoning their walk of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit and instead looking again to their own righteousness (i.e. the flesh) for perfection. The whole point of the Law is to show us just how futile our own efforts are and to show us our need for the Savior. Thus, in the Christian faith, we must always lean wholly on Jesus for all our righteousness.
                Hebrews 8 explains this point quite well. It calls Jesus the High Priest of a better Covenant- the New Covenant, which Jeremiah 31:31-34 prophesied would come. Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy. (See also Hebrews 9:11-14, which emphasizes the ceremonial system of sacrificing animals that the Israelites did is no longer necessary- this includes the prohibitions against eating shellfish and mixing fabrics, etc. However, the blood of Christ purifies our conscience from dead works (i.e. the flesh) to serve the living God. Again, we rely on Christ’s completed work and not any of our own.) (The whole book of Hebrews is an excellent New Testament companion book to read alongside Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It gives a lot of insight to how the Old Testament covenant of the Law compares to the New Testament covenant of grace in Jesus Christ- and it explains how we are no longer under the law, but under grace instead.) In fact, on this point, I have read Tim Keller has said that for a Christian to try to live out all of the Old Testament law is an insult to Jesus and a demonstration of a lack of faith. Because I have faith that Jesus has completed all that is necessary for salvation through His death and Resurrection and perfect upholding and completion of the law, I know that I don't have to try to keep all the Old Testament law- and in fact, I cannot. Jesus has done it for me and I trust His completed work for salvation. Of course, as James 2 points out, true saving faith is always accompanied by works AFTER faith has been put in Christ's redeeming work. And as Ephesians 2:8-10 makes clear, God intended for me to do good works all along anyway. After having been saved by grace through faith, I strive to do the good things that Jesus commands me to do out of love and gratitude and obedience to Him- not out of a misguided attempt to pay Him back or somehow earn something that has already been given to me for free. I can never earn it- I must only freely accept it. But when I do, as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, it makes me a new person in Christ and God transforms me to be the person He made to be all along.
               

Now here is the caveat I want to make sure is clear. Part of following Christ is being molded more and more to His character. The Bible uses the image of a potter and clay many times, with God as the Potter and us as the clay. We are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27)- and of course, Adam and Eve’s sin tainted that image. God has provided for the restoration of that through Christ’s death and Resurrection. Through putting our faith in Jesus, we begin undergoing the process of sanctification, being made like Christ (the personification of perfection.) Romans 8:4 instructs us that now we must walk according to the Spirit (i.e. God the Holy Spirit) and no longer to the flesh. (i.e. our own sinful nature.) Romans 12:1-2 calls for us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which is our spiritual worship. We are to no longer be conformed to this world, but instead be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that by testing we may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Again- we are reminded that God’s will for us is to be like Him- perfect. (Leviticus 11:45, Matthew 5:48). However, even as Christians we still fail and fall back into sin at times. And God promises in 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thus for Christians, it’s an ongoing process of being made more holy each day- a process that ultimately reaches its culmination when we enter Heaven. (Philippians 1:6)
          

While the ceremonial laws of the Israelites no longer apply to us, the moral laws most certainly do. In the case of homosexuality, even if we were to put aside the prohibitions in Leviticus for the moment, we still have the prohibitions in Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and 1 Timothy 1:10. And those commands are all part of the New Testament covenant of grace that we are under- and that we are expected and commanded to follow. Part of the reason homosexual acts of any kind (no matter what the relationship status is) are condemned is because they fall outside of God’s revealed character. God is the One who created marriage and ordained it as an institution. This is a point where Jesus spoke to the issue of homosexuality in Matthew 19 when He upheld God’s standard for marriage- the union of one man and one woman for life. God has designed men and women to relate to each other in the context of marriage, which is symbolic of the relationship He desires to have with us. Just as the husband and wife become one flesh and become united, God desires to be united with us and indeed- Galatians 2:20 and Colossians 3:1-4 speak to this exact unity that we have with Christ- where I no longer live [my old life centered on just myself is dead]- my new life centered on Christ is my real life now. We ultimately enjoy that full unity with God when we are back in His presence again- in Heaven. And as I said before, God’s standard for entry into Heaven is absolute perfection- a standard only met by Jesus Christ. We can gain entry into Heaven (and thus an escape from our default sentence of punishment in hell because of the separation that comes with our sin) only through faith in Jesus. As Jesus Himself said in John 14:6 “I am The Way, The Truth and The Life. No man comes to The Father but by Me.” It is also worth noting that God uses the picture of marriage specifically to speak to His relationship with us- He extensively used this as an object lesson in the book of Hosea with Hosea and Gomer representing Himself and Israel (Hosea 2 is a beautiful picture of the love God has for us and His plan to redeem us and take us back as His own, even though we have rebelled against Him)- and the picture is also used in Revelation 21, which describes Christ as the bridegroom and His church as His bride.
  I know that was a rather lengthy explanation and even after typing it, I feel I still could say much more on it, but I hope that helps with the first point.
                A good example occurred to me that may help illustrate the point about the Israelites having ceremonial and dietary laws that pertained only to them that modern-day Christians no longer follow, though we do still hold up the moral laws as Israel did as well. Why is it that we restrict the sale of alcohol in America? It almost seems rather discriminatory that we forbid persons younger than 21 from consuming or purchasing alcohol. Society as a whole frowns upon it in general and we have a law on the books for that purpose. However, this seems a mere compromise in comparison to previous laws. Why is that we as Americans pick and choose when it comes to upholding the laws on our books? Doesn’t the 18^th. Amendment, ratified on January 16, 1919, prohibit the manufacture, sale, transportation within, importation or exportation of alcohol? Why do we not hold to that law anymore? Why is that we freely allow the manufacture, sale, transportation within, importation and exportation of alcohol now? Aren’t we picking and choosing which laws to follow? Of course, the answer to that is that we are not picking and choosing. We uphold all of the laws on the books- including the 21^st. Amendment (ratified December 5, 1933) which repealed the 18^th. Amendment. Thus, we are no longer bound by the 18^th. Amendment. However, even so, we still hold to a remnant of that law to some degree. We still hold to some of the spirit of the law in that we restrict the sale of alcohol to only those who are 21 and older.
         In the same manner, Christians are no longer bound to the Israelites’ dietary and ceremonial laws because the New Covenant of Grace repealed the Old Covenant of The Law. (See 2 Corinthians 3 for a great discussion of this point. The New Covenant is WAY, WAY better, by the way.) Thus, Christians are not bound to the dietary and ceremonial laws, even though there are still some general moral principles that the laws are based on that we do uphold. And we still strive to maintain the moral laws, but now it is not out of guilt or our own self-effort as a means of salvation- it is out of love and gratitude to our Savior Jesus Christ, as He works in us to shape more into His image of perfection. He has fulfilled all the laws for us and we rely on His perfection to get us into Heaven- not our own. We rely on the perfect completion He brought when He died and rose again to seal the deal for us. And that is why it is not a matter of picking and choosing. I pick and choose Christ and He picked all my sins off of me and chose to bear them on Calvary. Christ has set me free from the law and free to be a slave of grace.
 

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Confessions

         They say confession is good for the soul. So why is it such a struggle to make confessions? Why is it so hard to just be honest and admit that we are all broken, sinful, totally messed-up human beings in such desperate need of The Savior? Why must we continue to try to pretend that we are better than anyone else? Why can't we just let our guard and pride down, along with all pretenses of being good?
          The fact of the matter is that no one is good- no, not one. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. All we like sheep have turned astray, each of us has turned to his own way- and The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Psalms 14:3, Romans 3:23, Isaiah 53:6) And we all equally deserve the punishment of the eternal fires of Hell because of our constant rebellion against God and His standard.  We're all on equal footing since we've all equally stumbled and fallen so short of God's standard. And God's standard is absolute perfection. "Be holy as I am holy." (Leviticus 11:45) Or, as other translations of The Holy Scriptures put it, "Be perfect as I am perfect." (See also Matthew 5:48).
          But if this is the standard for entrance into Heaven, then like the disciples asked Jesus, "Who then can be saved?" (See Matthew 19:25-26.) As Jesus answered them, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Amen! Praise God! He has made the impossible possible because as the Only One capable of completing this impossible mission, He has intervened on our behalf to accomplish this for us. We could never be good enough to save ourselves. In our haughtiness, we offer our proud list of righteous accomplishments and good deeds to Christ only to discover that they are nothing more than filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6). We must repent of all our sins- and yes, even our supposed righteousness- for we have none. We are all morally and spiritually bankrupt. And knowing we could never repay a loan, the good King gave us the gift of eternal life through Jesus for free! (Romans 6:23) Jesus' death by crucifixion on the cross paid for all the wrongs ever committed in this world. And He rose again on the third day to prove He's God and so we know that we can rest assured that He will also resurrect those of us who have trusted in Him by faith through His grace. (Ephesians 2:8-9).
           The problem is that we all struggle with sin because we are born as sinners. We have been tainted by Adam and Eve's sin and we inherited the curse from them. This sin curse has infected the whole world and even from the first moment it happened (and before it even happened)- God had a plan in place and has been working out the details to redeem His creation. (see Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 13:8) And somehow, though we know deep down inside that we struggle and sin each day, we don't want to admit it to God or even ourselves at times- and much less, to others. Perhaps we might be foolish enough to think we can fool God- but be warned- God is not mocked. He knows what's up- He knows the thoughts and intentions of every person and judges the heart. (Galatians 6:7, Hebrews 4:12-13) We can sometimes even fool ourselves and maybe others, but never God. And maybe we might acknowledge that we can never fool God, but we still don't want to have to admit wrongdoings to others.  We want to somehow hold on to a veneer of false piety and so present ourselves in a better light than others. But whatever glimmer of light we may look to leaves us no better as long as we continue to stumble in the dark with everyone else. It's only when we step into the light that we can see clearly and we can walk right. And of course, this is just what Jesus tells us in John 3:16-21. The light exposes us for who we really are- and so we choose to hide in the darkness instead. But when we can come to that point of fully exposing ourselves in the light, that's when God can take our broken spirit and contrite heart and work to bathe us in light so that we shine like Him.

"But as Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted: 'He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from their fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners.'
       At Sunday worship, as in every dimension of our existence, many of us pretend to believe we are sinners. Consequently, all we can do is pretend to believe we have been forgiven. As a result, our whole spiritual life is pseudo-repentance and pseudo-bliss." (Page 136, "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning)
            So what if we were just honest like Simon Peter, who was impressed by Jesus' mastery over the fish of the sea and recognized His Lordship- and his sinfulness? Falling at Jesus' feet, he cries, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." (Luke 5:8) This of course, is just the point of confession that we must reach in order for Jesus to reach down and save us from the outset. As the Pharisees noted in Luke 15:2, this Man receives sinners and eats with them. Yes, praise God- Christ receiveth sinful men! He invites us to join Him in His banquet- an all-expenses paid meal to be served in Heaven at the Lamb's marriage supper- which we shall enjoy throughout eternity with Him. We get our first taste through partaking in the Blessed Sacraments of the bread and wine, broken and spilled for us. Indeed, taste and see that The Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. (Psalms 34:8)
            What if we confessed our sins as freely on social media and with friends and family as we share so many other positive aspects of our lives? We are quick to share our preferences and complain of injustices and brag of our good accomplishments, but we are quite reluctant indeed to share of our fallings and failings. Yet James 5:16 commands us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we may be healed.  If we were to be honest- if I were to be honest and admit the ugliness of my own heart (Jeremiah 17:9), I would have to admit to the constant battle against pride and the desire to bask in my own accomplishments, selfishly and vainly claiming the gifts of God as my own talents. I would have to confess to being a liar, thief and murderer by my harsh words. I would have to admit to the foulest stream of sexual images parading through my mind, swaying me with the siren call of the harpies to indulge in the lust of sexual desire and fantasy. I would have to admit to being disobedient, to being lazy and gluttonous, to being a complaining arguer who is certainly not always putting others first. I would have to admit to being an idolatrous man who does not always love The Lord wholeheartedly as He calls for and does not love his neighbor nearly as much as I might like to think I do. I would have to admit to jealousy and unrighteous anger and not always treating others kindly as I would want to be treated. I would have to admit to struggles with fears, worries, anxieties, doubts- even so far as to doubt like Thomas, deny like Peter and betray like Judas.  In short, I would have to admit to being a horribly broken, sinful, mess of a man. And even after listing this hall of shame records, I shudder to think that I may not have even scratched the surface of just how deep the ugliness goes to and the layers of filth that are encased within.
            And though I often feel I have wrested the title of "chief of sinners" from Paul's grasp, I call to mind this one thing and so take hope. Though my sins are many, Christ's righteousness and grace is greater than all of them. As it has been said, I know this to be true- I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior. Jesus doesn't even need to be told what's in a man's heart- He's seen it all and knows it already. (John 2:25) And knowing all this, He still loves us all relentlessly with reckless abandon regardless. For some mystifying reason, though He abhors sinfulness and cannot have it in His holy presence, He still loves all humanity with an eternal love that went through a terribly high price to save us all. (Jeremiah 31:3, Isaiah 53).
            
      "The spiritual future of ragamuffins consists not in disavowing that we are sinners but in accepting that truth with growing clarity, rejoicing in God's incredible longing to rescue us in spite of everything. C.S. Lewis wrote:
'It may be that salvation consists not in the canceling of these eternal moments but in the perfected humility that bears the shame forever, rejoicing in the occasion which is furnished to God's compassion and glad that it should be common knowledge to the universe. Perhaps in that eternal moment St. Peter- he will forgive me if I am wrong- forever denies his Master. If so, it would indeed be true that the joys of Heaven are for most of us, in our present condition, an acquired taste- and certain ways of life may render the taste impossible of acquisition. Perhaps the lost are those who dare not go to such a public place.' " (Page 137, "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning)

       Repentance only comes when we are willing to agree with God that we are sinners and have sinned against Him. When we are willing to confess this to Him and acknowledge that Jesus' death and Resurrection is the only payment sufficient for us, then we can accept His finished work for us and rest secured in the salvation He alone offers us. (Colossians 2:6-15) And we walk in faith with Him, doing the good works He purposed for us to do all along, in gratitude to Him. (Ephesians 2:8-10) And in turning over all of myself to Christ- all the filth and dung, He washed me clean and made me white as snow, according to His promise in Isaiah 1:18. I know what I've been and I know what I am- and I know what Christ has made me into instead and is making me to be- a new creation in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17) and a sanctified trophy of His grace that delivered me from the judgment I so richly deserved. I am nothing but a ragamuffin desperately clinging in faith to His grace and trusting in His love and His Word no matter what. And though I still struggle with all the things I don't want to do (as Paul laments in Romans 7), I also know that Jesus is still working and His work will be complete at last! (Philippians 1:6, Jude 1:24-25). The One who promises is faithful and He will do this. He will carry me through my struggles and will never leave me or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5) and He will get me safely Home. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24) Hallelujah! Praise The Lord- Jesus saves!
       
    This much I know to be true- there's no other place to go than Christ- He has the words of eternal life. (John 6:68, Acts 4:12, John 14:6).
Christ loves (Romans 5:8), Christ judges (Hebrews 9:27-28), Christ forgives (1 Corinthians 6:9-11), Christ changes (2 Corinthians 5:17), Christ keeps (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24) and Christ finishes. (Philippians 1:6, Jude 1:24-25).
      
         As I admitted earlier and I have said a number of times before, I struggle at times with knowing whether I've truly heard from God or not. I do believe The Holy Spirit impresses in me the Truth He wants me to know from His Word, as He guides me into all Truth. I do believe He reveals Himself and His will in that manner. And He can use anything He wishes to work in other ways if He so chooses. I don't know for sure if I've ever physically heard God's voice or that I ever will (at least in this life), but sometimes in meditating on Scriptures and God's truth, I'll imagine that I have heard a truth from God- though I'm never totally sure if it's just voices from my own head or elsewhere. And so I'm not one to hold up such experiences and highlight them as the litmus test for true faith- but I thought I might share this recent incident in closing. I had some great times of prayer and communion with God recently in my spiritual life, where I really felt I had grown closer to The Lord and come clean before Him once more so that He could again make me clean. And in confessing to Him and seeking to follow Him again as I did before yet another failure, I had this phrase come to mind that was encouraging to me- "I know the man you can be and that's who I'm making you to be."
        I don't know if I can say this was The Lord's voice or my imagining of what He might say to me and so I won't claim any supernatural experience in that sense- but I do think it's Biblical and it is exactly the point of all this process of life change that Jesus takes us through. He knows exactly who we are and He knows who we can be- who He wants us to be- and He's making us to be that person in His time. It's a process that takes a lifetime and we must continue to trust and endure and seek after Him all the more as He continues to shape us. Keep running the race of faith and keep your eyes fixed on the prize- Jesus Christ Himself. (Hebrews 12:1-5). And keep trusting and obeying.

     "Lord Jesus, we are silly sheep who have dared to stand before You and try to bribe You with our preposterous portfolios. Suddenly we have come to our senses. We are sorry and ask You to forgive us. Give us the grace to admit we are ragamuffins, to embrace our brokenness, to celebrate Your mercy when we are at our weakest, to rely on Your mercy no matter what we may do.
          Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention, to do the truth quietly without display, to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away, to accept our limitations, to cling to the Gospel of Grace, and to delight in Your Love. Amen."

(Page 144, "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning)

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