Confessions of a Forgiven Hypocrite

 Do you ever feel like such a huge hypocrite? You get hit with something out of nowhere- you know exactly where that road goes- and you get on it anyway and make it even worse- and before you know it, you're sinning up a storm over the weekend. And you know it's wrong because you blow off Bible reading and prayer for the day because you're definitely not in the right frame of mind for that. You're having way too much fun with sin right now- you can't face God right now. And it gets to the point where you feel like such a failure and jerk heading off to church.

   (Confession: This was a good portion of my weekend, except that this portion was anything but good. For a single guy striving to follow Christ but failing a number of times, while seeing victories at others, the battlefield of the mind and maintaining sexual purity there is such a struggle oftentimes. Even if it's not straight up pornography, there are a plethora of images readily available online that help satisfy curiosity for a time. The problem is the eyes never get their fill of seeing. - Ecclesiastes 1:8 

As James 1:12-18 tells us, sin always grows exponentially into more and more with a neverending appetite for destruction, even if it seems like Paradise City at the time.)

     When you feel like that, don't run away; run to God. Go to church anyway. You're not a hypocrite- you're a sinner admitting your need for Jesus The Saviour and Lord. And you'll find that you haven't messed up beyond the measure of grace after all. When you come in faith and repentance, you'll find The Lord is right there waiting for you with open arms, ready to forgive and absolve you of all sins once more. The Father is always watching for us. 1 John 1:9 is still true for Christ followers who have run off that narrow trail over to the hollow pursuits of the broad way and gotten sick on its short-lived pleasures. He puts us back on the path, clears the guilt from our consciences and restores to us the joy of our salvation in Christ once more and reminds us how much infinitely better Jesus is than sin!

      It's crazy how the worship music and the sermon was targeted right at me today at church and spoke to just what I needed. (Not so crazy- hat tip to The Holy Spirit for His work. :-)) The pastor quoted from "Love Lifted Me" and we sang "How Great Thou Art" at the end, both of which I could happily sing after confessing my sins to God, asking His forgiveness and help to not do it again. And we also sang this beautiful, new-to-me worship song I have linked below. The lyrics are amazingly powerful and just what I needed today, along with the sermon from Ephesians 4:17-24, reminding me to put off my old self that's corrupt through deceitful desires and to instead be renewed in the spirit of my mind and put on my new self, created after God's likeness in true righteousness and holiness. That's what He has called me to do and that's what I want to do all the time.

    I am sorry for the many times I fail God in so many ways. I confess that I am far too often a lazy, undisciplined, gluttonous, lustful, lascivious, prideful, jealous, wrathful, fearful, lying, cheating, thieving, covetous old sinner- and likely much more could be named if everyone saw the depths of my heart and soul like The Lord does. For those of my friends who see the man of God I want to be on here and in my life, please know that I have no place to be on any pedestal or to cast any stones. I struggle with the old man of sin constantly and while I know Jesus has won the war already, it still hurts to lose battles along the way. Yet I continue on in the fight knowing it's not I but Christ through me. There is no good in me of my own. Any good in me is Jesus. Pray that I might continue to fling aside the garments stained by the flesh and instead put on the garment of praise that is the new robe of righteousness God The Father gives His prodigals who repent with an amazing Grace and love that overwhelms me.

     May this encourage you to keep standing with God, even enduring mistreatment over the fleeting pleasures of sin, as Moses did. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. (See Hebrews 11:23-28) Let's also go to Christ outside the camp and gladly bear the reproach He endured as we look for the lasting City to come! (See Hebrews 13:10-16)  And when we fall and start to sink like Peter, let us immediately turn our eyes back unto Jesus and cry out to Him for salvation- He's always there to pull us back up and set us on the narrow path again because He loves us with an everlasting love! (Jeremiah 31:3) And He removes our sins as far as the east is from the west! Bless The Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- He forgives all our iniquities when we ask! He heals all our diseases and redeems our lives from the pit! Praise God for His love and forgiveness! If you don't know this kind of Love, put faith in His death and Resurrection that pays for all sins for all time and follow Him in faith and repentance to receive His Grace and salvation today! If you do know Him and His love, be encouraged today as we traverse the narrow road together, fellow brother and sister pilgrims. Be blessed, be a blessing and most of all- be God's. (Romans 14:8) :-)

https://youtu.be/zundjUFazfg

("Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me" by City Alight) 

Slam Dunk Sin

"Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." (1 Peter 4:1-11)

 I wanted to offer some commentary here but first I thought it better to let the Scripture speak for itself and I didn't want to distract from it, so that's up front and center.

    I read through both 1 Peter and 2 Peter recently and some convicting words hit me in 1 Peter 4. Christ has suffered for us to reconcile us to Him. Now that we have come to faith in Him through accepting His death and rise to pay for our sins, we must live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but instead for the will of God. The time that is past suffices for all the stuff the world wants us to do- we've already spent more than enough time in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. The world is surprised when we don't join them in debauchery and thus they malign us; but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 

   To be sure, we will all stand before Lord Christ's judgment seat, but those not in Christ will be judged on their deeds in the body and found guilty of sin that only Christ can forgive and erase- and thus rightly receive the punishment of the Hell they chose by rejecting God's offer of love. Those of us in Christ will be judged for the deeds in the body after receiving Christ, to determine what rewards we should receive, like the unfading crown of glory mentioned in 1 Peter 5:4.

     With the end of all things at hand, we suddenly seem to get a lot more serious about the way we live. Though none of us knows the day or hour of Christ's return, we know He will come and we will be in His presence that way or we will die one day and pass into eternity and in His presence that way. One of those two events will happen in our lifetime. Whichever comes first, we must be good stewards of God's varied grace. Be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of our prayers. Above all, keep loving each other earnestly! Love covers a multitude of sins! Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. Use the gifts God has given us to serve one another- so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ! To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen!

    In other words- we've spent enough time goofing off and making errors and turnovers. It may be fun to clown around like the Harlem Globetrotters for a while but the first half is over. The pep talk from Coach Jesus in the locker room is to let Him ice up your sores and wounds and then get your head in the game! We have to work and play as a team and keep our eyes on the prize for which we have been called Heavenward. We already know the Coach has won the game for us! He's got an unfading championship ring (for the purposes of this metaphor :-)) waiting for us! We need to play hard until the clock runs out though and be faithful to play the best game we can, not only looking to sink baskets for our stats, but to make assists to help the team's stats as a whole and ultimately give all the credit back to our Coach! And let the way we play the game be reflective of His coaching so that others want to join the team! :-)

    The best part about this team is that there are no try outs- it's entirely a team of walk-ons. And no one ever gets cut once they're called by the Coach to join the team. :-)

     So keep playing a good, steady D (1 Peter 3:15) and no trash talking (also 1 Peter 3:15 ;-)), and keep dribbling and making good passes and taking good shots as the Coach leads. And make like Jesus in Mark 8 when He healed the blind dude at Bethsaida- make sure to dribble but no double dribble! ;-) If that happens, call a time out and you may even have to sit out a bit as a reminder to play the game right but then get back in there when the Coach trades you and the sixth man back out.

   Like Hebrews 11, we've got a great crowd in the stands cheering us on. And like Pistol Pete, Larry Legend, Magic, Air Jordan, etc. (insert your favourite B-baller here ;-)) on a hot streak, we've got the Holy Spirit setting us on fire to make the plays that He has called for us to make, according to our Playbook, all along. Follow His lead and make good passes and take good shots, and we will see some baskets drop, knowing we win in the end! :-)

    Slam dunk! 

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)

Life Goals

(Note: With my birthday coming up in about three weeks, this seems fitting for my sometimes annual reflection.)


   One thing that I think is important spiritually is stopping everything once in a while and taking stock of life. The prudent gives thought to his steps. (See Proverbs 14:8 and 14:15) While running/walking this evening, the thought came to mind for me in thinking about the ongoing struggle with sin and striving to live for Christ, as well as making choices for life's trajectory that are pleasing to Him-
Is my life about me or is it about Jesus? That was a sobering thought to ponder. How many times do I ask that in making a decision? How many times do I center my life around making decisions to do things that bring me pleasure rather than seeking to bring God pleasure and glory?
   If I am crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) and I have died and my life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-4), and God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever and I desire nothing on earth besides Him (Psalms 73:25-26) and The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want (Psalms 23) and a day in His courts is better than thousands elsewhere (Psalms 84:10)- then why do I not always live like it?
    Far too often I identify with Ecclesiastes 2:11 "Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun." In the same book, it says in chapter 3 (verses 1-8) that there's a time and season for everything. The book concludes in 12:13-14 by saying that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments. That's also the only place we really derive any meaning in life. As Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 says, apart from God, who can eat or have enjoyment?
    I have often found this with temporary goals on earth. There are things and pursuits that give me much pleasure and I enjoy them. There's nothing wrong with that, provided they are pleasing to The Lord. As Shakespeare said though, all good things must come to an end. I love reading and I can amuse myself with books, but eventually I finish a book series and that pleasure is gone. The same goes for watching every episode of a beloved television show or watching a favourite movie. The same goes for any life pursuit, whether it's marriage and raising children, career building, property acquisition or publishing of some sort. Even altruistic measures can fall into this pattern if the motivation is to make myself feel better and look good. What's the point of me saying something and bragging about something in the hopes that people will remember it and share it in the eulogy at my funeral? I won't even be there to enjoy that! (Which is all the more reason we should say all those nice things to people now rather than save them all up for the wake.)
    As one of my favourite poets, Robert Frost, has said, "Nothing gold can stay." I agree with him to a point. There is one gold thing that can and does stay- the streets of gold. Those are forever. And Heaven is where I want to always have my mindset. As C.S. Lewis has said, it is often those who thought the most of the next life that have done the greatest good in this life. Having a Heavenly mindset should cause me to do more good in this life for the sake of Jesus and others. That's where I find my joy- in The Lord and not in things. I can find fleeting happiness in some things but true joy only in The Lord. This is one reason I periodically do a purge of my belongings, as it helps remove idols from my life and makes sure I am focused on Jesus first.
    There's a certain panic and terror that comes at times when I have a quiet moment by myself to analyze my life. It especially weighs heavily as the clock keeps ticking onward and reminders of its passage come up, particularly birthdays. It feels more so that way to me as a single person. Perhaps this is due to having had an American ideal instilled through movies and TV shows of the American dream that everyone is supposed to have. After you get through school, you're supposed to go to college and get a degree and get a good job that pays a lot and get a house and get married and have children and eventually retire and enjoy your golden years together. I made it through school and got both a bachelor's and master's degree in college and I got a job I enjoy and I have a place of my own to live. But I am nearing the end of my 30s and I still have not gotten married and thus have not had any children.
     It feels bad to say but sometimes it is hard to be happy for the friends and family I have watched get married and have families of their own. I have gone to so many weddings and while I do celebrate with those who are rejoicing, there are twinges of jealousy and regret. I look back at times and think of opportunities for friendships that I pushed away at the time. I think of romantic possibilities not realized that I wish I had pursued more. I was never super interested in dating until my late '20s or so and I wonder if that wasn't partly because of subtle peer pressure when I saw what seemed like everyone around me getting married all of a sudden and it seemed like the thing to do. That's not to say I didn't have romantic thoughts about girls when I was younger and hitting puberty though. There have been a lot of women I have liked but few I have really dated and only one that I feel like I've truly fallen in love with though. And rejection can make you so introspective, desperately reliving every moment and analyzing them to see where a different choice could have been made so that things could have turned out differently and you could still be walking through the city hand in hand with her, feeling an excitement of euphoric exhilaration race through your body!
      Alas, when the relationship doesn't work out as you would like, it's hard to trust that God still has a good plan and knows best. It's hard to let go of that time when everything was right and you both felt like you and she loved each other more than anyone else on earth and that feeling of ecstasy felt so good.
There are moments in time I can flash back to and I just want to stay there for a while. But eventually I get awakened from my reverie by reality and I have to move on. And I wonder if I'll ever love another woman like that again and if I'll ever get married and have children. I do want to have all that for that experience and for the joy of loving someone like that and being loved by her like that and raising my own children. And to be really honest, I want to have sex and experience that beautiful union between husband and wife that is an intimate expression of their love for each other. I want to have that kind of intimacy that is honoured and guarded to the highest degree as my one and only who is my beloved and betrothed to me- and I am fully hers in body and mind and heart.
    It seems cruel at times in having those desires but not being at that place yet and knowing there is no morally correct way of having a release for that sex drive until that time of marriage comes. That's where temptation can hit so hard to give in to sexual fetishes and fantasies and enjoy the erotic pleasures of an erection, which themselves are also fleeting and short-lived, and lead to only shame and guilt afterwards. When I think of those I know who are Christ followers who struggle with homosexual tendencies, I can't imagine what an awful struggle that must be in that same scenario and knowing there is no release on this earth. And if I remain unmarried, then I am in the same place as them in that regard of dealing with the desires of a sex drive that can't be fulfilled. Passages like 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 make this very clear.
    All of this gets back to my original point and question though. Is my life about me or is it about Jesus? If I am to follow Jesus as I say I want to do, then I must lose my life to find it. Jesus says I must take up my cross, deny myself daily and follow Him. (Luke 9:23) I must believe that His lovingkindness is better than life. I must store up my treasures in Heaven because Jesus is my real treasure. Even if I do get married and have children, my real joy can never be found in my wife or kids. Jesus is better than my potential wife and kids. Jesus is better than sex. Jesus is better than possessions. Jesus is better than sin. Jesus is better than anything this world affords today. Would I really rather have Jesus than anything my heart desires? Is Jesus really my number one passion and desire? Is He the ultimate lover of my soul Whom I am so in love with above all others?
I know don't desire God as much as I should but I want to desire Him more. I want to want Jesus and want nothing else. As Rich Mullins wrote, "The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the Giver of all good things." "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ...." (Philippians 3:7-8)
     Matthew 6:33 tells me to seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto me. What things? The things I need- not necessarily all the things I want. As I seek God more, I believe The Spirit will make the things of this earth to grow strangely dim (as the hymn "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" says) in the light of His glory and grace. Psalms 90:12 beseeches The Lord to teach us to number the days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom. To be sure, this of course applies for every follower of Christ. Married couples have to decide how best their union can glorify The Lord. How do the husband and wife help each other grow closer to The Lord and be used more by Him for His glory? There are some advantages for the single person as there is no entanglement with trying to take care of a spouse and children. The time and energy that would be spent in that can be spent in other things. Am I using time just to indulge myself though or am I using it to serve God and others? (See 1 Corinthians 7 for a lot more on this.)
     Jesus gives us the ultimate example. Philippians 2 is such a beautiful picture of how He humbled Himself and put our needs before His own. He gave up His rights and didn't count equality with God something to be grasped but instead took the form of a bondservant in the likeness of men- and humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross! For this reason God raised Him up and gave Him the Name above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. We are commanded to have that same mindset. (1 Corinthians 2:16 indeed says that we have the mind of Christ.) We are to do nothing out of selfish ambition and conceit but in humility count others as better than ourselves! As Philippians 2:21 says, too many folks- and too many times we ourselves are in this number- seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. My interests are to be those of Jesus Christ. I am to look to others' interests before my own.
   Just as Jesus said in regards to the most important commandments, I am to love The Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and love my neighbour as myself. (Matthew 22:34-40) I try to keep those two directives constantly in mind, along with Ephesians 4:15's admonition to be "speaking the Truth in Love." Part of loving God and my neighbour is sharing The Gospel with others as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:18-20. I tell others about God's love that pays for all sins through our faith in Jesus' death and Resurrection and I show others God's love through helping with their physical needs as well. (James 2:15-17, 1 John 3:18)
    What can be said in conclusion then? How is my life demonstrating God's love and grace to others as well as warning about His judgement? How is my life pursuing and displaying the needs and desires of others and ultimately Jesus first? "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of The Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with The Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to The Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God The Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." (Ephesians 5:15-21)
    I must give thanks to God in all things and for everything because it's all His blessings! He has me in exactly the time and place He wants me. (Acts 17:26) His plan for me will come through. (Psalms 138:8)
Thus, I must do all things without grumbling or disputing that I might be a blameless and innocent child of God without blemish, as Philippians 2:14-15 says. As it goes on to say, then I can be shining as a light in the world in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. That is what I want my life to be doing and Jesus is who I want my life to be about always. I quote this next verse often as my writing goal but it's true of life in general: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." (Psalms 19:14) Lord Jesus, may that always be true of me in all I say or do. May I always find my contentment in You because I know godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:6)
"For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) 
 

 

Cross Beams

      Maybe we shouldn’t pray for God to take away sinful desires. These continue to plague us in the form of temptation and that won’t go away until the devil is locked away in Hell for good. They also plague us in the form of the spiritual battle between the old man of sin and the new man in Christ. That battle will continue to wage until the day we are in Heaven with Jesus. And until that day, the world will still be here egging us on to accept what God says is wrong. This is the three-pronged war we must fight every day.
      Instead, we should pray for God’s grace and help to stand up under temptation and not give in to it. Pray that He will strengthen us to resist the devil so that he will flee from us. Pray that we will have His power to ignore the world and its evil desires that are passing away, and instead do the will of God- that is the way of life eternal; knowing Christ as Savior through trusting His death and Resurrection for salvation.
       And then we are called to keep walking on the straight and narrow path, though it be beset with painful trials and struggles that we must endure. Yet we keep on, asking Jesus to pick us up and set us right again when we fall, but always moving forward on that path and still seeking to obey God out of gratitude to Him and reverence for His precious sacrifice. It is not a misguided effort to repay Him or earn what He’s already given to us for free- it is rather an effort to fulfill the call and charge He gave to us in Ephesians 2:8-10. We must do the good works He prepared in advance for us to do. And He has warned us that following Him will not be easy. It will be hard and it will demand harsh sacrifice on our part as well. But we can never give more than what God has already given. Our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us on the day of Christ Jesus. No matter how hard our sufferings are, let us boast in our weakness so that Christ may be revealed as strong in us.
      And let us trust God not to lead us into temptation but rather to deliver us from evil. Let us trust that He can and will give us the way of escape when we ask Him for it. Let us endure hardship like good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Let us deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus daily. And as for you brothers, never tire of doing what is right. God bless and Godspeed.

A Faith That Works

      It's the classic faith vs. works paradox of Christianity. I've struggled with it much too. 1 Corinthians 3 is true- you can't throw that out. But 1 John 4 is true too. It is primarily about knowing and loving Jesus. When it becomes all about what good works we do for God, it reverts into Judaism, hoping to be saved by keeping the law. But if I'm just loving and knowing God and I'm not doing any good works, am I really saved?
      I mean- James 2 is there for a reason too. Well, if loving and knowing God doesn't naturally drive me to do the good works He designed for me to do all along, then yes- I'd question my salvation experience and my real level of love for God and knowledge of Him. But if I'm always doing good works because I know it's expected and not out of a heart that loves and knows God, then I become a works-based Pharisee. It's got to be both. But the order goes like this- FIRST- Jesus loves me for no reason I can understand except for just being who I am- God's creation.
       Brennan Manning once said that he believed God the Father will ask one question and one question only on Judgment Day- "Did you believe that I love you?" And I think this is why he said that. His love and grace is the foundation for everything else. It's because I believe I am known and loved by God that I put faith in His salvific work through Christ's death and Resurrection. And that love for Him naturally drives me to want to be like Him and obey Him. If Chewbacca can faithfully follow and obey Han Solo because he owes him a life debt, how much more should we do the same with Jesus to Whom we owe an eternal life debt? But Chewie is not Han's slave- he's his loyal friend who loves him fiercely and deeply first and foremost.
    That's a good model of our love relationship with King Jesus. We fall out of fellowship when we sin but the love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13) That's why we have 1 John 1:9 and that's how it is with real true friends. We forgive each other and restore the fellowship. God doesn't love us for what we can do for Him. John 15:5 says we can do nothing apart from Him anyway. Jesus also says that if we love Him, we'll obey Him.
       I know this is true in any good romantic love relationship too. When you truly love someone, you naturally want to know everything you can about them. I can think of a girl that God has blessed me with knowing that I felt this way for and still have a deep philio love for as friends even though the relationship didn't work out. And every time I see anything to do with her home country I get excited. We talked with each other for hours at a time and never got tired of it. There were always new things to learn. I loved to reference her name anywhere I could- just thinking about her made me happy. Just looking at her picture and reading her letters made me smile. I wanted to name drop her everywhere.
       The romantic eros love is representative of the desire God has for us and the desire we should have for Him. (Just read Hosea 2.) And when we love God with that kind of passion, we find ourselves not only learning about Him and knowing Him more but desiring to please and obey Him more- and eventually becoming like Him more. As in the relationship with my friend I described, I found both of us becoming like each other in some ways because we know what each of us likes and our particular emotional needs and such. This is of course exactly what happens in the covenant marriage relationship as husband and wife become one unit that works and operates together. The wondrous thing is that their individuality is not diminished but they become more themselves than ever before, much as our union with Christ, as C.S. Lewis explained it.     
      This brings us to the marriage of faith and works as we see laid out in The Bible in passages like Ephesians 2:8-10 and Philippians 2:12-13. Yes, we are saved by Grace through faith alone. However, as John Calvin said, saving faith is never alone- it naturally brings good works with it. Jesus Himself said in John 8 that we would show ourselves to be His disciples by our fruit. But if it's all about our works, why did He come down on the rich young ruler and tell him he still lacked one thing- he needed to sell all he had and give it to the poor and then follow Him? I think Jesus was trying to get him to do a heart check.
     I think the rich young ruler thought he was following God by law-keeping in itself but it wasn't because he really desired God. His reaction of leaving in sorrow proves that he loved his stuff more than God. In Matthew 13, Jesus describes salvation as someone who finds treasure buried in a field and in his joy, the man who finds it, sells all he has to buy the field and get the treasure. That is a picture if how we are to desire Jesus.
      The grace and faith that save us drive us to do the good works that God had already planned for us to do. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it's God who works in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Thus, it's not an either-or situation, but a both-and situation. The order is always paramount though. It starts and ends with God. He draws us to Himself and saves us. He moves in our hearts to be more like Him. When we fall because we have cut off fellowship with Him, His Spirit draws us back and we repent and the fellowship resumes- but the relationship is always intact.
      My parents have often told me an approach in prayer life that is applicable here- pray as if it all depends on God and work as if it all depends on you. I believe God honours our faith and particularly when we demonstrate it by taking action. This is the great paradoxical nature of the faith and works relationship in The Bible and in our lives. It all comes down to the heart and motives.
     We can either fall into two errors, as seen in the two brothers in Jesus' parable of the lost son in Luke 15. One is openly defiant to his father and blatantly lives in sin and then finally comes to his senses and returns in repentance. Note that the Father runs faster than The Flash, Road Runner, Speedy Gonzales and Superman combined to his son as he comes down the robe. The love of the father is totally undignified as he enthusiastically embraces his most likely muddy, smelly, pig slop-covered son and showers him with hugs and kisses before he can get a word of his prepared apology out. Now, make no mistake, the son did admit he had sinned before his father and Heaven and came in humble repentance but the father's love was already there and poured out.
      Too many times we have the attitude of the elder brother who is as lost in his righteousness as the younger son was lost in his wickedness. The elder brother cites his years of service and faithfulness and complains that he never got a young goat to barbecue with his friends. The father explains that he is always with Him and all he has is his but it's fitting to celebrate this lost brother who was found; this dead son who is now alive. It seems both the younger and elder son wanted their father for his stuff- the younger forced his hand in rebellion for it but the elder thought he could earn it through righteous works. The truth is that it's freely given to all of us- it's The Father's good pleasure to give us the Kingdom! (Luke 12:32)
      We must repent of both our errors though. The younger son had to repent of his wickedness and the elder son had to repent of his righteousness. We can't earn God's love or deserve it or pay Him back for it- it's a free gift. (John 3:16-17, John 8:32-36) We are all desperately in need of it and once we've experienced it, it should so change us that we want to live a life of love to God and others in gratitude, with a heart set free to love and know others in agape love as He has known and loved us first!
     P.S. I must acknowledge Rev. Timothy Keller's excellent book "The Prodigal God" for much of the ideas about the parable of the lost son as well as Brennan Manning's incredibly awesome "The Ragamuffin Gospel" book, both of which I highly recommend reading! I have read and reread and reread the latter and cried over it numerous times. As I have said before, the most profound theologically rich Christian song I know is still "Jesus Loves Me". Rest in that Truth today. :-)

Blog in Your Eye

I wish I could get as passionately outraged and morally indignant at my own sins first as it's so easy to become at others'- and then learn to show more mercy and grace and let God handle the judging.
(Psalms 139:23-24, Matthew 7:1-6, Matthew 5:7, Romans 7, James 4:11-12, 1 Peter 4:8, James 2:12-13, Philippians 3:18-4:1, 1 Timothy 1:15-17)
(Note: Yes, there is a place for rebuke within the church and we should do that with love and humility. Titus 1:13-16, Ephesians 4:15, 1 Corinthians 5, Philemon- particularly verses 1:8-9) As two of my favourite songs say- "I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to make a change. And no message could have been any clearer- if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change." ("Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson- his best song, in my opinion)
But we must do this by The Holy Spirit and His power in us, not by our own strength. (Galatians 5:16-26)
And before we look to judge other Christians and help them with that speck, let's remember the log in our own eyes.
"It's me, it's me, it's me, oh Lord- standing in the need of prayer! ....It's not my father, not my mother, my sister, not my brother- but it's me, oh Lord- standing in the need of prayer." (Classic Sunday School song)
Thankfully, Jesus is there to help us. His death and Resurrection paid for all sins for one time and He has forgiven me because I've put my faith in Him and His righteousness because I know I've got none of my own. And He's still working on me and sanctifying me more each day (Philippians 2:12-13, Ephesians 2:8-10) and in the end, He'll lead me Home to Heaven with Him. :-) (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)
Thank You, Lord. Help me to love more, judge less and when I do make a judgment- to make a righteous one, never forgetting that we are all equally in need of Your grace.

A Prayer of a Ragamuffin

        "We seem to have concluded that God chooses to only use spiritual giants, the highly gifted, multi-talented, faith-filled people of this world, and not spiritual pygmies like me and perhaps you. But frankly, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, God has a well documented history of working through the broken vessels of this world, the 'scalawags and ragamuffins'. For just one example, even after committing adultery, which led to murder, David was called by no less than God 'a man after His own heart.' "- From "The Art of Helping Others" by Douglas C. Mann

:-)       I'm so glad that God loves to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. This way, it's easier to not get confused and think that the extraordinariness was anything from the person; rather, it's all from Jesus. I know I am just a ragamuffin in desperate constant need of "the reckless raging fury that they call the love of God" (as Rich Mullins put it). And I know that Jesus makes beautiful things out of the dust of me. As I have heeded Your call to "come and know Me better, man" (like James 4:8 might read in the Dickens translation ;-)), thank You for knowing and loving me, even though You know all about me and how much of a stingy, rotten, foul, greedy (and badly dressed ;-) Scrooge I am on my own. Thank You that just as Scrooge was changed by his supernatural encounter with ghosts, You have changed and are changing me by my supernatural encounter with The Holy Ghost. Thank You for salvation. Savior please, keep saving me. I have been saved, I am being saved and I will be saved- not by anything that I am or anything I've done- only by Your grace and favor. Help me to trust You more and stand firm in faith, not shaken by insecurities, worries and doubts from my many failings. Cleanse me from sin, wash me clean and keep me walking as before when I first made my good profession of faith in You- it's You who enabled that and led me to that and You who have maintained and continue to maintain everything- thank You for choosing to use ragamuffins like me. Hold me, Jesus and use me to encourage others to You too. Move in me because I'm nothing without You- there's no way I can make it without You or do anything without You. And whether I ever feel anything or not- whether I ever see a burning bush not consumed or a wheel turning within a wheel- like You said in John 20:29- blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. I trust You whether I see or feel any further confirmation or not- I trust You are there and working- Help me to be found faithful. Thank You for loving and using vain and weak things like me to confound the wise of the world. (1 Corinthians 1). Help me to walk confidently in the dark with Your light as my candle on a stand, glowing for me and all others so we can all glorify our Father in Heaven.
          John 15:5- Amen. I am nothing without You, Jesus. Galatians 2:20- I am crucified with You, Christ- I no longer live but You live in me. Colossians 3:1-4 - Help me to keep my mind on Heavenly things and not just earthly things, Lord. I have died and You are my life now. Live in me as You please. I need You to live and move in me because I have flunked this thing called Life so many times- it's the same result any time I do anything on my own strength. It's all on You, Lord- and I know You got this. And I know You've got me because You are faithful and I have trusted and still trust You to be there for me and hold me now. Thank You, Savior and Friend. Help me to show my thanks by my life.
        Galatians 5:1-12- It is for freedom Christ has set you free- stand firm and don't be burdened again by slavery. - also John 8:32-36 - If The Son has set you free, you're free indeed. Ephesians 6:1-20- walk confidently with the full armor of God on fast- belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, feet prepared with the readiness that comes from The Gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, Sword of The Spirit (i.e. Word of God) and pray and supplication at all times. Be bold and make known the mystery of The Gospel. (It's crazy but God loves us like crazy and did something crazy to prove it- Romans 5:8- Jesus' death and Resurrection forever declare the eternal love of God for all people.) Philippians 1:27-30 -whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of The Gospel of Christ. Don't be afraid- keep standing firm and contending for the faith of The Gospel. It's a sign to the opposition that they'll be destroyed but that we will be saved- and that by God!!! It's ALL by God- yet He still works in us too. It's been granted to us by Christ to not only believe on Him but to suffer for Him too. (Philippians 2:1-13) Be like Jesus in your attitude- humble and like a servant. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God The Father and every knee will bow to Him. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling- but remember that it's God who's working in us to will and act according to His good purpose. Philippians 3:1- Finally, my brothers, rejoice in The Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. (Boy, do I need that safeguard over and over and over again.) Colossians 1:17- He (Jesus) is before all things and in Him all things hold together. (He created it all and holds it all together!!!) Thank You, Lord Jesus Christ. Keep reminding me of Your truth and Your love over and over and over again- it's always new and incredible and refreshing- let it flow out of me to be a fragrant aroma to others that draws them to You.

Season for the Reason: A Corollary to Last Time's Blog

Note: Here is a follow up piece to my last blog entry. This is in reaction to a related article to the topic of the Old Testament Law versus the New Testament covenant of grace. This article was brought to my attention by two different friends at the same time and it is definitely interesting to consider. Thus, this entry here is based on this article from Patheos and serves as a further expounding on some of the points I was trying to establish in my last piece on this topic.
As always, there is plenty more that could be said on this topic, but I do hope this entry will be helpful in shedding some light on this tricky topic and ultimately be presented in a loving, Christ-like manner, always seeking to point people to The Light Himself, Jesus Christ. (John 8:12)

        This is an interesting piece- a nice and concise summary of some key Christian teachings and I like a lot of what it has to say. (And let me say from the outset that I do not intend this response to come across as just a criticism of the author and his writing. I do not wish to mar his work here, but rather use it as a springboard to point out some discrepancies I noticed and that come up at times in discussion on this topic of Old Testament law versus New Testament grace.)  However, I do have some observations on it. Was this in response to something that the author was reading? And while I gather that the author was offering his take on Jesus' statement about coming to fulfill the Law rather than abolish it (Matthew 5:17), I am not sure that I see exactly where he was going with his conclusions. I looked at the Bible passages mentioned as I read the article and it seems to me that they are all in agreement with the fact that Christians are no longer bound to the Old Testament Law as the Hebrews were. The overarching point I wish the author would have mentioned is that when the New Testament Scriptures speak of this fact, the context is generally in response to a bigger question that has been struggled over in the Christian church and that is the question of faith vs. works for salvation.
          (This can be a complex matter in itself, but essentially- The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone- see Ephesians 2:8-10. However, when you read verse 10, you will see that we are saved to do the good works God intended all along for us to do. The order of operations is very important here though. Because we are sinners by nature who have no good in us of ourselves, and even the good things we do are considered as filthy rags in comparison to God's perfection [Isaiah 64:6], we cannot do any good works to save ourselves. We must rely solely on Christ's righteousness and His death and Resurrection to save us. Of course, if we have truly put our faith in Christ's saving work on the cross, then we should be transformed by God's Spirit to obey His commands and do good works (such as loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves). James 2 makes it quite clear that faith without works is dead. [As I have mentioned before, this is one reason why Christ calls people to count the cost of following Him beforehand. Some people mistakenly get the idea that salvation is nothing more than asserting a mental belief in Christ as God and His death and Resurrection. Yet Jesus states that following Him involves a full surrender of the will and all rights to Him. [see Luke 9:23] Thus, the good works performed after putting faith in Christ are the sign of a living faith that is true. As Jesus Himself said, why do people call Him, 'Lord, Lord' and don't do what He says? (Luke 6:46) And in even starker terms, in Matthew 7, He clearly warned that many would call unto Him, 'Lord, Lord' at the judgment day that will not be admitted into Heaven but rather they will be sent away into Hell, because they did not do the will of God the Father. [i.e. While they may have made the mental assertion of Christ's divinity and even called upon His Name, their hearts were not truly changed and they did not truly seek after Christ or obey Him.] In the end, faith and works come together in tandem, but faith always leads the way and is foundational, whereas good works are just the fruit.)
          And all of that was mainly to say that if people are seeking to uphold the Old Testament Law (or the New Testament laws, for that matter) in an attempt to appease God and earn His favor, it is a misguided attempt that will never work. This is the whole reason for Christ- He came and did for us what we could never do on our own. He fulfilled all The Law and died to pay for our wrongs and rose again. So we don't look to the Law anymore for salvation, but rather the New Covenant of Grace that Jesus has established through His work at Calvary on the cross.
          And while I agree that we don't necessarily find the OT laws neatly divided into various categories as such, it is fairly easy to distinguish at least some dietary and ritual laws from moral laws. (In the Old Testament there would be no reason for there to be any such distinctions because all of it was The Law together- it was a moral reflection on the Israelites if they failed to keep any one part of it.) When we get to the New Testament, we find that God Himself has rescinded the dietary laws, when He gives Peter his vision of unclean animals upon a cloth and commands him to get up and eat. (See Acts 10). (There are other supporting passages for this too, of course- a number of which the author mentioned- such as Colossians 2:16-17.)
           Hebrews 10 is an excellent chapter to look to in reading as to why the ritualistic laws (of sacrifices and festivals and not wearing clothing made of more than one fabric, etc.) are no longer needed. As the author mentioned in the article, 1 Corinthians 8-9 are also good chapters for this topic, where Paul speaks of giving up his rights and conforming himself to the Law in places where it might make a brother or sister stumble from the Gospel if he did otherwise. (In the context, he is speaking of dietary laws and/or ritual laws- never the moral law as he states that he is under the law of Christ in 1 Corinthians 9:21). Also, in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 (which I believe the author also mentioned), The Bible states that neither circumsion nor uncircumsion counts for anything, but rather-keeping the commandments of God. Thus, since circumsion would be a ritual law (as this is one of the things Israelites did to set themselves apart from the rest of the world), the ritual law is nullified, but the moral law is upheld. Galatians 4 and 5 also speak well to this point. Note that in Galatians 5, after Paul (under The Holy Spirit's inspiration) notes that anyone who accepts circumsion [as an effort of pleasing God] is obligated to keep the whole law. They are severed from Christ because they are seeking justification through keeping the law, rather than from grace. (This verse- Galatians 5:4- is actually where we get the phrase "fall away from grace".) But as we go on to read in 5:16, we must walk by the Spirit and then we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And if we're led by The Spirit, we are not under the law. Verses 19-26 tell us a list of things that are the works of the flesh- a list of sins that we fall into- but, in contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control- against such things there is no law.
That is the New Covenant we live under- Christ's grace which compels and empowers us to live by the Spirit (as the Holy Spirit indwells believers in Christ) and the fruit of the Spirit are the results- some of the good works we are called to do after putting faith in Jesus.
While I appreciate the author's call for Christians to remember Christ's summary of the greatest Laws of the Old Testament for us to follow (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18) in Matthew 22:34-40, I am still not sure as to his purpose in this conclusion. If the goal is to say that it is no longer necessary for Christians to follow out the dietary and ritual laws of the Old Testament, I wholly agree. However, in telling us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength first and foremost, Jesus certainly expected us to obey God's commands- His moral law, a point which Jesus makes very clear in passages like Matthew 7, Luke 6:46 and John 14:23-24 and 15:10-14, among others.
        In conclusion, the main thing I want to remind people of here is that as we are called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves. (As Jesus told us in Matthew 22:34-40). And as Ephesians 4:15 tells us, we must be speaking the Truth in Love. If we can keep these things in mind, it helps everything else fall in place. Jesus has kept all the Law for us- and we rely on His obedience to justify us for salvation. (And of course, as Philippians 2 tells us, His obedience took Him to the cross and to His glorious Resurrection, which brings us our salvation.) And after justification, Jesus continues to work in us to make us holy for our sanctification, which ultimately results in glorification in Heaven. (Philippians 1:6) In obedience to Christ, we seek to obey His commands out of gratitude to Him, but we never rely on our own deeds to obtain God's favor. It's all through Him- and even faith itself is His gift.

Separated- I cut myself clean

[Another (slightly updated) entry from the archives- March 17, 2008 to be exact. Some of the references in here are from one of my previous workplaces- and the experiences related here are fairly typical of me. LOL. :-) And yes- of course that's a DC Talk reference in the subject line. :-)]

Another weekend has ended and another week has begun. Tomorrow is our prayer meeting at work. I always look forward to that! :-) I managed to get lost not once, but twice this weekend!!! LOL- Friday night I wound up driving all through Maudlin and Simpsonville and out towards Belton and Honea Path before I finally turned around and got back home.  So that was an interesting drive.  Then on Sunday afternoon/evening/night I drove way out towards Marietta and Cleveland (the one in SC, apparently- not Ohio!) and eventually out by Table Rock- which is a beautiful state park, by the way.  My uncle and aunt’s family go there for vacation fairly often.  And so I wound up going to Rocky Creek Baptist Church Sunday morning and had a great sermon taken mainly from Joshua 23, all about following God’s call to be holy and separate from the world.  And then in the evening, in a totally different county (I was somewhere near Pickens or Pumpkintown or something by this point)- I visited at Holly Springs Baptist Church and heard a great sermon taken mainly from 1 Peter 1:13-16, all about following God’s call to be holy and separate from the world.  Talk about deja vu, huh?
Wow! I just find it so awesome how God weaves together stuff like that to flow together so smoothly- even though I wasn’t even at the church I’d intended to go to that evening- but instead got way lost and went to a church in another county- and yet both messages I’d heard that day were very much on the same lines of being holy.  It was also interesting talking about being separate from the world- note that Jesus said we were to be "in the world- but not of". (See John 17:15-17)  We don’t have a choice about being in the world, obviously (I mean, unless you’re dead or you volunteer for that NASA mission to Mars or something ;-)) - BUT, we don’t have to be of the world- and if you’re in Christ, then you’re not of this world! (as Petra pointed out in an awesome 1983 album and song! :-))
In fact, as both sermons talked about, Christians need to be separate from the world and its influence and instead surround ourselves with friends who will help build us up in the faith.  But there is a slight caveat here.  This verse came to mind during church on Sunday- and I’ve just now been able to track down where it’s located (as I’d been trying to remember and racking through the New Testament)-
"I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people- not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world." (1 Corinthians 5:9-10)   Right- there’s no way you can fully get away from the immoral people in the world because as it says here, you’d have to leave this world to do that!  But if you read on in verse 11, it says to not associate with someone who calls himself a "brother" (i.e. Christian) but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. In fact, it says with such a man, do not even eat.  God will judge those outside the church- but expel the wicked man from among you (within the church).  But as one pastor pointed out, we should love everyone because God loves everyone.  The example of homosexuals was brought up, as it’s continuing to be a big issue in America today- yes, we should love those who identify as homosexual because God loves them [and of course, we should love everyone because God loves everyone] - but we can’t condone their lifestyle because God doesn’t. [i.e. Just to clarify, while I do believe, due to our fallen world, people can be and are born with homosexual tendencies- but the sin comes in when people choose to act on these tendencies and engage in lust, same sex relationships and sexual encounters.] And we should definitely befriend unsaved gay people and all lost people so that we can share the Gospel with them. [Also to note: I specifically mentioned gay people here because of the example raised in the service, but also to address a tendency some Christians have of avoiding those with particular temptations to sins that we perhaps may not deal with nearly as strongly or just don't understand and perhaps feel uncertain of how to relate with them as a friend. Of course, I think this is exactly how we should relate to all people- in a manner of friendship driven by a sincere love of Christ, which in turn drives us to sincerely love one another.]  (Now I know my brother Kevin would probably interject at this point- so let me clarify. I don’t think that you should ever establish a superficial relationship for the sole reason of "converting" someone to Christ. People can (and will) see right through that. People are people- not prizes. Establish friendships with people to be friends with them- and through that window, by all means show the love of Christ to them- and as God opens up opportunities- share with them about Christ.  And always remember that it’s the Holy Spirit who does the work of converting- we just share the Good News.)
Anyway- I just thought both sermons were great- and that it was cool to hear some of the things that one pastor mentioned- because it’s some that I must admit don’t always get addressed very often in Southern Baptist churches- but at least one pastor went there!  We looked at 1 Corinthians 6:17-20 to focus on sexual purity in particular, and also the Biblical prohibitions we have in place via The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17 or Deuteronomy 5:1-21 - it’s in both places!) - And it’s also good to remember that they are prohibitions in some aspects, but there’s also things that we should do as well.  And ultimately, the laws enable us to truly live the good life that God wants us to live if we follow them as we should.  So they only prohibit us from destruction and woe.
We also hit on 1 Corinthians 8:8-13 (talking about being careful not to be a stumbling block to a weaker brother) and 1 Peter 5:8-9 (watch out for the devil- a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour!)
And we looked at 2 Corinthians 6:14-18- and here, let me get back to what the pastor mentioned that doesn’t always get addressed too often.  Smoking is harmful to the body- so don’t do it!  God tells us to take care of our bodies because they’re His temple- so smoking, drugs, alcohol and any other substances or lifestyles that are destructive to our bodies should be avoided. (The pastor said- "I know some of you will say, ’I have an uncle who smoked all his life and he lived to be 90.’  Well, he might have lived to be 100 if he hadn’t smoked!"- :-))  And the pastor also talked about gluttony- which is eating too much.  And it’s a sin just as much as anything else. Americans are killing themselves because of eating too much.  People are getting heart attacks because they’re too fat. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth- and that’s why I need to be careful myself of being gluttonous and making sure to get out and get some exercise!
Well- I know I’ve been going on for a while here- I just thought there was a lot of good stuff in there.
So anyway- be separate from the world- not by "shunning all evildoers"- but by not allowing the world’s influence to be your main influence- that should be God and His Word.  Let your life stand out so starkly from the rest of the world that people take notice- and as the Sanhedrin noted of Peter and John, let the world take note that "these men had been with Jesus".  I trust that everyone can say of us who follow Christ that we have been with Jesus and are walking with Him

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)

Cut It Out!

[Note: Here's another one from the archives- August 28, 2008 or somewhere thereabouts. This is one of the times where I really felt The Holy Spirit showing me new cool stuff in Bible verses I'd read a million times before, and as someone who particularly struggles at times with knowing if God has really spoken to me and such- these kinds of moments are always very awesome to experience and a great reminder to me of Jesus' work in my life. So I hope it's helpful for you. And yes, I totally had to reference Joey Gladstone from "Full House" in the title, so you can imagine the appropriate snipping hand gestures with it too. :-)]

I want to segue a bit into a spiritual matter for a second. I want to post this because I was doing my quiet time on Sunday and I felt like the Holy Spirit had really shown me something new from some familiar verses (He's always doing stuff like that when I'm paying attention ;-)) and I wanted to share with someone- for the moment I wrote it down in my notebook.
     Anyway, I was reading Matthew 5, where Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount. I've read all these verses many times before, but Matthew 5:27-30 really hit me. Jesus tells us that to even look at a woman lustfully is the same as committing adultery with her in your heart. And then He goes on to say that if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. (Which is really kind of significant in His Jewish culture there, because for most people in that area of the world, the right hand is their "good" hand. Not in the sense that it's necessarily the hand they write with- but typically the left hand was reserved for one duty only- wiping your butt. Seriously. Thus, the right hand was used for shaking hands and so forth.) Just interesting to note. But Jesus said it's better for you to lose one part of your body and get into Heaven than to have your whole body intact and be thrown into Hell. So yeah, even if you're left with just your poop-wiping hand, it's still better to be one-handed and get into Heaven than to get into Hell with your whole body intact.
         The point is that Jesus takes sin very seriously. I don't think He literally means body dismemberment here necessarily, but perhaps there's other things in our life that we need to cut off completely if they cause us to sin. This can range from movies, TV shows, videos, books, comic books, music- any of it. If it causes us to think impure things or dwell on sinful things- get rid of it! This definitely also applies to habits. It might mean to stop hanging out with certain people and to not go to places of temptation. Whatever you have to do to cut the sin out. (1 Thessalonians 5:22) "Avoid every appearance of evil."
 -Also, this ties in to what Jesus was saying about cutting off body parts because whatever a man dwells on, he becomes! (Proverbs 23:7 KJV- "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.") Thus, it becomes a part of his body when a man sins and since as Christians we are the body of Christ, we have to cut off whatever slows or hinders us or causes us to sin. (Hebrews 12:1-4) We must be perfect and holy because God is perfect and holy. (Matthew 5:48)
And we need to do Philippians 4:8 - think on the pure things of God alone.
       Anyway, I just thought that was a really practical way to put those verses into practice- and when I say all this, believe me- I'm preaching to myself too.