shame the wise

“I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” -God through Isaiah; Romans 10:20 ESV

A person does not have to hear a specific message, say a specific prayer or go to a specific church to find God. You don’t have to ask the right questions or look in the right places. Longevity doesn’t give you an edge. Your parents can’t nurse you in. You can’t be sorry enough, be selfless enough or want it bad enough. You don’t have to want it at all. You don’t have to know anything to know the truth. God busts through people, convention and manners to get to you. People will give you criteria, God will reveal it’s uselessness. People will doubt your sincerity, God doesn’t wait for your sincerity.

You can’t do enough. You can’t want enough. You can’t be sincere enough. You can’t ask enough. There is nothing you can do.

That’s why He does it for you.

‘…not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…‘ -1 Corinthians 1:26-28 ESV

freshly threshed

Yesterday was part 1 of my ‘Black Sheep’ story on Jenni Clayville’s blog. I’ve been talking about the change that comes with experiencing grace. Today I talk about having any sense of forgiveness or purpose now that my life is reshaped by sin.

One of the biggest battles I faced while I was healing was in never being able to get away from the fact that I have left a very real trail of pain in my wake. Hurricane Serena. And I had no way of fixing it.

I felt toxic. I was detached from myself. The thinking part of me hated the rest of me. I wouldn’t let people befriend me.

Every once in a while I would feel a sense of ‘want’. I want to go back in time. I want to wake up. I want to be able to pay for it. I want to get away from myself. I want to be a good person.

I couldn’t do anything and I was tortured. I couldn’t make what I did go away. I would have done anything. But, there was nothing I could do. Every single bit of life was dimmed to a faint image and I lived inside a hell I can never adequately explain.

Clinically, I was experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. My memory is very splotchy for that time frame. I can remember what was happening in my spirit, but I cannot remember anything about my physical life. Movies, birthdays, Christmas, my pregnancy, divorce… are lost in the peripheral. I couldn’t sleep. The invading thoughts were too powerful.

I don’t want to get weird, but if I’m being honest, I have to say that something very demonic was having a field day with me. There are a lot of things I can’t adequately explain and this is another one of them. It makes you forget about everything in the human experience. There is a part of you that is connected to Eternity and it’s very seldom that we tap into that. My eternal identity was under attack and there is no fear like that. Even a person in the face of a painful death can still find rest in the fact that the pain is over when death comes. A person whose eternal life is being threatened with painful death can find no comfort. An eternal scream of despair and regret.

You ebb between thoughts of an end only to remember that there is no end. Then there is despair. In order to survive the despair, you grasp for hope in thoughts of an end and the cycle continues. A rat running for her life on a wheel in a cage.

The only reason I am telling you what it was like is to show you the contrast of what may be happening inside someone you know versus what you may think based on the arrogance and selfishness in which they previously acted. I sinned shamelessly. I lied without hesitation. I was heartless, sneaky, reckless and unapologetic. My venomous vanity sunk deep into the heart of people I had legitimately cared about. And that makes it worse. I am not a victim. So don’t give me any excuse just because you’re detached enough to be able to.

People tend to think that those who choose sin are enjoying it. I’m writing to tell you just how ‘fun’ it is.

I believe that if God didn’t care about me, I would’t have been taken to the ‘threshing floor’. I wouldn’t have experienced the unspeakable or dragged into the unmapped. I believe that God let me smell the breath of hell because that’s the only way I would have gotten what He wanted me to get.

This was actually an answer to prayer. I wanted to be pure. For a solid year, long before this happened, I would pray the same prayer every day. “God, please remove anything from my life that is not put there by you.” In another period of my Christian life, I prayed for God to use me. I didn’t care what it was, I just wanted my entire life to be used by Him. I remember feeling the sense of Him asking me if I knew what I was asking for. I wrote in my journal: ‘God wants to know if I have limits to what I’m used for. What If I would never agree to be used in the way He chooses to use me had I been asked?’ I thought about this for a while. It was sobering. But, I agreed completely. I said yes. I wrote a little about it here. I just re-read it and I’m crying.

The fire came. The Builder tore down the poorly laid bricks. Every part of me was sent through the fire and very little was left when I came out.

Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely. -1 Corinthians 3:11-15

I emerged a weak, insecure, lonely, speck of a person with a very poignant message. A message that is so much bigger than I am that it hurts to carry it. I, as a person, am not much to speak of. I keep to myself and struggle with feeling over-exposed. But my sense of purpose is something entirely different. God used my sin to do what, possibly, nothing else could have done. I hate what I did, but it has been turned into something that I would never wish away.

Now, I’m waiting. I want to speak. I want to write. I want to share my eye witness account of Jesus, my ‘testimony’, because that’s how ‘the accuser’ is defeated. He’s defeated by the Blood of the Lamb and our eye witness account of Jesus. So, when you withhold grace from someone, you’re actually witnessing for the other side. You’re with ‘the accuser.’

“Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…” -Revelation 12:10-11 ESV

a page from my journal

rebellion and grace

It’s easy to feel like you can never be rescued when you’ve knowingly ’squandered your inheritance’ and hit bottom. Why should you be rescued, after all? It was your choice and you knew better.

The amazing thing about God is He can see worth in what has, so far, proven to be worthless.

We all make bad choices. We all ‘know better’.

Grace is rebellious. It’s disagreeable. It supersedes the rules and reaches places that most would never want to travel.

“Is there a person here who, finding one of your lambs fallen into a ravine, wouldn’t, even though it was a Sabbath, pull it out?” -Jesus, Matthew 12:11

There are people out there who have the foundational belief that grace is only made available to people who make the right choices. That doesn’t even make sense. The message is: You’ve messed up big time, but God will forgive you and bless you if you just do the right thing. If you make the wrong choice, I don’t know how God could ever redeem this.

People actually send these messages. What the heck kind of God are they serving if there is actually a possibility that you could go so far in the wrong direction that He wouldn’t know how to save you? There is such a strange desperate energy from people who are spouting off the eternal death sentence of hell for those they’re trying to shock into submission.

People have a limited capacity for patience, grace and suffering. They take their own limitations and personify God according to them. The degree of pride is repulsive. I wonder if they ever take their god off the leash and let him run around.

Grace isn’t a cupcake shaped pillow sitting on a daybed in the guest room of some out of touch fairy godmother wannabe.

Grace makes people mad. They’re so out of touch with the awful (as in awe-inspiring) magnitude of what the sacrifice of Jesus means, that it’s offensive. Grace says something and the do-it-yourself religious don’t like what it says.

I understand the fear of someone getting away with the pain and hurt that the selfishness of sin causes. There has to be a payment made.

Oh, but there was. Don’t you remember? The truth that saved you is the very same truth that saves them. Were you so unchanged by your experience with the thunderous roar of the Lamb of God that you doubt the salvation power for someone you deem ‘worse’ than you?

Grace always wins and it doesn’t need the approval of self-tainted man. It doesn’t matter if you’re the only one who trusts that what Jesus did was enough to cover the nakedness of what you’ve done. You don’t have to fear the judgment of men when they have nothing to do with your eternal lodging.

‘Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life–body and soul–in his hands.’ -Matthew 10:28

Don’t you dare start pointing your finger at those who have their finger pointed at you. That’s you entering a paintball match of morality with no point and no winner. If they lose, you lose. If you lose, they lose. Like it or not, you’re in it together. Everybody gets to feel what it’s like to be completely wrong. This is me rolling out the welcome mat.

It’s one thing to be dealing with your own sin, don’t be cheap and try to alleviate your guilt by comparing it with the guilt of others.

For you who hear about the crazy power of grace, you say you agree but feel the overwhelming impulse to cap it off with the responsibility to live a moral life. You’re trying to sound so smart and religious. It’s the same thing as telling someone not to dive in three feet of water or not to strap your toddler’s car seat to the hood of the car.

‘What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How shall we who died in sin still live in it?’ -Romans 6:1-2 ESV

If someone even cares about grace, it’s because they can’t find a time machine to go back to the day they chose wrong. Do you think that grace makes them forget wanting to make different choices? Grace doesn’t erase a person’s memory, it erases their guilt. It gives them the chance to do it right the next time around.

But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in the competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life–a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. -Romans 5:20-21

‘All sin can do is threaten us with death.’ If you’re sending someone, who’s taken a wrong turn, scary messages of damnation and eternal destruction, then you’re speaking for sin. Threatening with death. You are the mouth piece of sin. You are the audible voice of sin. Tell me again, who are you speaking for?

There is a message that saves. It’s that message that makes the do-it-yourselfers squirm in their control tops and clip-on ties. Here is that message….

‘Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use to him.’ -Romans 5:6-8

go after them

Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your name. You’re mine. -God, Isaiah 43:1

There are people who are dying inside because of the mistakes they’ve made. They know what they’ve done and when they can’t find a way to take back the pain they caused. They are being crushed by an onslaught of terror. The kind of terror that drowns out their eternal hope.

It’s our responsibility to remind them of grace. They’re forgetting. They’re losing it.

They’re hearing voices that tell them that they can’t come back from this. They’re being told that they are forever stained.

Find them. Search them out and ignore their dirt. Separate the person from the sin. Treat the person one way and treat the sin another.

The pit of hell is rising against them. The forever blackness and eternal nothing is closing in on them.

When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. -Isaiah 43:2

The church, generally speaking, is terrible at grace. They kick their battle wounded out and they end up scattered in a spiritual desert. Homeless, hungry, thirsty and naked. People think they’re doing the right thing when they separate themselves from the sinner.

The one who failed doesn’t just disappear. Their heart is still beating. When you have nothing to do with the person who made a mistake, you’re doing it in the name of God. This sends them into isolation with demonic forces being the only thing interested in their spirit. Their spirit which is very much alive and can feel everything.

God says that He is with them. So, the question you must ask yourself is: Are you with God?

I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you. -God, Isaiah 43:4

God is busy with the ransoming and the rescuing. He’s already taken care of the punishment. He’s already done away with their sin. It’s His baby out there. His lamb got lost and He’ll sell off everything He owns to get them back. He’ll leave you behind to go after them. Where are you?

‘Send them back. Return my sons from distant lands, my daughters from faraway places. I want them back, every last one who bears my name, every man, woman, and child whom I created for my glory, yes, personally formed and made each one.’ -God, Isaiah 43:6-7

This is your calling. This is your message. Grace. Mercy. Restoration. Go and get them. Give them a safe place to sleep. Feed them. Give them something to drink. Clothe them. Nurse them back to health.

But what about their sin? What about all the people who are pained just to be reminded of them?

“Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history.” -God, Isaiah 43:18

In God, everything is brand new. Can you treat your old friend according to the new? I know it’s hard to forget the indecency and selfishness. You’re human. But can you see what you’re doing? You’re separating yourself from the very thing you’re trying to uphold. You’re counteracting God’s grace with God’s old law.

But I, yes I, am the one who takes care of your sins—that’s what I do. I don’t keep a list of your sins. -God, Isaiah 43:25

When you base your actions, opinions and words on their sin, you’re not basing them on what Jesus accomplished. You’re letting sin tell you what to do. You’re justified by their sin.

‘I will remember their sin no more.‘ -God, Jeremiah 31:34 ESV

Can you even call it justified when God has no idea what sin you’re talking about?

Instead of building a fortress from bricks of gracelessness and the mortar of self-preservation, designs that keep God out, here’s what you should do:

Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. -Jude 1:22

honor goes like this

We all want to know what God’s plan is. We want to know what He’s doing so we can do it, too. God spoke through Isaiah and laid that plan out. He says that He’s had a plan since the beginning. It’s the same plan now as it was before Day One.

Isaiah 53 starts out by foretelling the agony that His Son will suffer for the sake of humanity. The first nine verses illustrate His rejection, grief, bruises, torn flesh, oppression and judgement. All horrific prophesy given by God and verse ten says it has always been His plan:

Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. -Isaiah 53:10

Do you ever wonder why God made the human race knowing that they would turn on Him? We have a free will, but God gave us that free will, therefore, it’s secondary to His will. He has a plan and we play our part in it. Free will and all.

God is not limited by sin, He uses it. You can get a better understanding of this when you consider how you came to a place where you knew you needed a savior. It was when you knew your sin. Need grew in the courtyard of knowledge and the thirsty plant of ‘need’ drank the rain it never noticed when it fell on the empty courtyard many times before. What good is ‘Living Water’ when there is no ‘thirst’?

God uses sin as a doorway to Him. His plan rigged the system to fail proof your life. You might consider that we are set up to fail. There is scriptural evidence to that effect:

In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in. -Romans 11:32

We think about God’s standards, make those His will and His plan goes completely over our heads. He has standards and He’s never backed away from them. His will is that you know Him and His plan works it out so that you have no way out of His way in.

He makes sure that you feel what it’s like to be on the wrong side of right because the only way you can get to Him is through Jesus. Jesus didn’t come to square dance with saints, He came to rescue sinners.  He fulfills His purpose when He tells His Father that you’re righteous when we all know you’re not. The more the contrast, the more honor. God honors Jesus when He takes the failures under His wing. The less they are, the greater He is. In this way, the least become the greatest.

God uses sin to display His sovereignty. If sin is a certainty all by itself, then there is nothing new set loose by acknowledging the Truth about what God does through it. There is only freedom to be set free. If sin is free to terrorize, then God made it His slave. He made the worst become His biggest tool. He didn’t eliminate it, He put it to work.

The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him. -Isaiah 53:10

God is honored when the worst of men experience His life changing grace. The bigger the debt, the greater the gift and it’s all about the gift. You are not measured by how much you’ve achieved, you’re measured by how much you’ve received. God is not looking for your sin, He’s looking for His son.

I’ll reward him extravagantly— the best of everything, the highest honors—Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep. -Isaiah 53:11-12

It’s not about you, it’s about Jesus. Jesus is rewarded ‘extravagantly’ when He embraces ‘the company of the lowest’ and takes ‘up the cause of all the black sheep.’

In light of that scripture, it doesn’t take much to figure out how to be like Jesus. Stick your neck out for those who the rest have washed their hands of. You might be rejected by your ‘brothers’, but you’ll be honoring God who honors Jesus who passes His honor on to you only to receive more honor for what He’s done for you. And they cycle continues to ‘life, life and more life.’

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. -Romans 8:31-34

Take up the cause of Jesus and embrace the worst, the lowest, the least, for Him. He’s in front of the Father ’sticking up for them (us),’ so you stand in front of everyone else and stick up for them, too. Not because the person is innocent, but because the work of Jesus is ‘finished’. When you carry the weight of another person, you’re not doing it for them, you’re doing it to Him.

I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me. -Matthew 25:40

the silent strength

There are some who are sorry because they got caught. There are some who are sorry after they see the damage their selfishness caused. My sorry came later.

Nobody ever dreams of becoming a thief. I didn’t ask for this life, I just sort of fell into it. I suppose, if I had the means, I wouldn’t have had to steal, but this is real life and I had needs. I only stole from the rich and haughty and if you ask me, they deserved it. I resented their superior attitude and I never felt bad about the things I did.

I pulled off some great heists. I wasn’t selfish with my loot. I shared with my fellow poverty stricken comrades. I considered myself a Robin Hood of sorts and I wouldn’t have been surprised if I got some sort of standing ovation while I received my Nobel Peace Prize.

When I got caught, it was over something stupid. For someone with my natural skill, the occasion to kick myself for such careless stupidity was consuming. I’m a believer in fate and I knew my time was coming. I had grandiose dreams of how I’d be caught, though, and as I mourned my due spotlight, I bowed to fate and took its apron of service with humility.

My chamber was modest. The ‘Soldiers of Doom’, as I like to call them, were preoccupied with some guy down the corridor. I listened for my name from the crowd outside. I imagined immaculately decorated signs for my honor. There was quite a mass gathered and all I could make out were the one’s gathered for the other guy. This isn’t at all what I imagined. Death for such a mediocre crime was the fashion of the Romans, but it would have been so much easier had my fans turned out like I thought they would.

My confident courage was waining and the time was ticking in audible seconds. I was scheduled to be hung on the same day as another thief, but I didn’t exactly know what the deal was with the other guy. I’ve heard ‘treason’ and ‘blasphemy’, but the way they were tearing him apart, I couldn’t imagine mere words on the part of a lunatic would trump my great feats of stealth and deception. I’m not a bad guy, mind you. I’m merely an opportunist. An opportunist whose grandeur was fading.

The beating that echoed through the halls was amplified by the stone. The thing that stuck out to me most was the fact that I couldn’t hear him fight back. He never begged for mercy, he never proclaimed his innocence. He didn’t say anything. He just took it.

Maybe that’s why they kept hitting him. Maybe they wanted him to break, so they kept torturing him. I hate admitting this, but in my own reduced state, I cried. I sat in my cell and felt the blows that the Silent Strength took. I call him the ‘Silent Strength’ because that’s what he became to me in those minutes (hours?) of hearing them beat him.

I could feel myself changing into…something. I was at a more guttural level of my humanity and I was being transformed into a nothing when all of my ’something’ faded in obscurity.

The guards came to unlock my cell and lead me out to slaughter. I kept looking around for the Silent Strength but couldn’t spot him. I could just hear the crowd in the distance ahead of me and followed his trail of blood as I walked the path he just took. I found a sense of peace as I placed my feet in his footsteps. Not really footsteps, I couldn’t make them out, but in my imagination, I was following the Silent Strength, step by step, with a sobering sense of purpose.

I gleaned from him. Wrong or right, I fed off his courage to walk when I don’t know how a man could walk after what he’d just been through.

When I got to the hill, I saw the other thief spitting and spewing his ugliness as he took his cross. The contrast between he and the Silent Strength was staggering. That man looked at the sky as though he were looking for someone to meet his gaze. I don’t think he ever found it because he cried to the sky, “Why have you forsaken me?”

I waited for him to notice me, my heart caught in my chest with his words and though I was confused, I still felt like I was witnessing something so much greater than anything I’ve ever witnessed in my life.

When the nails were in place and the ropes were tied, the Soldiers of Doom made our cross placement count. We slammed in the ground with a horrific thud and I heard the Silent Strength cry out.

He said something that sent me over the edge. He looked to the sky and cried, ‘Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.’

I couldn’t take it.

I watched them make fun of him. ‘King of the Jews,’ they cried, ’save yourself!’

Women were wailing and he held them up with words. “Don’t cry for me. If they do this when times are good, think of what they’ll do when times are bad.’

I looked at the crowd and found, what I think was, his mother. Her frail frame was supported by a younger man as she cried out his name. Jesus. Then, I heard him separate himself from them.

‘Behold your mother,’ he said. ‘Behold your son.’

They fell into each other as I was losing consciousness.

If only I could sleep until I’m dead, but breathing was nearly impossible in that position. I could feel my life grow weary as I gasped for air. Crucifixion is an effective form of death by slow torture. If they get sick of us holding on to life, they break our ankles so we can’t stand up for air. I could see their mallets in the dirt under me and I wanted to not fight, but my survival instinct was more powerful than my will for death.

I was watching the Silent Strength, Jesus, from the corner of my eye. I heard the other thief join in the mocking. It seemed he was half spitting-half hoping when he said, ‘Are you not the Christ?! Save yourself and us!’

My heart wailed and I screamed words I barely recognized as my own, ‘Have you no fear of God?! We’re getting what we deserve, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong!’

My head was spinning. Somewhere between my ego-centric god complex, I discovered the Truth. I know I deserve my death, but everyone knew that this other man didn’t. They all knew it and still they strung him up like a cursed piece of meat. A sacrifice to the fabricated god of religious politics.

I knew he was fading. I knew my time was short. I felt a sense of desperation when I spoke to him.

‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.’

I was His first. My glory was not in my valiant feats of thievery, though I never would have met Him if I had not done wrong. I’m thankful for my own failures because I never would have heard Him say:

‘Believe me when I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

inspired by the crucifixion as told in Luke 23.

get over yourself

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. -Collosians 1:15-17

God, who is Love, planned for Jesus before He planned for you. Jesus came first and He comes last. (I’m not trying to show off with redundant and forced proclamations about a sandy blonde half surfer-looking/half halo endowed Nazarene whom I know nothing about. I’m saying this to an end that should set you free.) The plan for Jesus came first. Knowing that, believing that, you have to let it complete its implication that your sin has no power.

I’ll try to explain this the best way I can.

Jesus and all that He finished on the cross comes first and nothing can trump that.

It is Jesus and …nothing but Jesus. You may say, ‘but, sin…’ However, you still have to follow it up with Jesus. There is no, ‘Jesus, but sin’ There is only ’sin, but Jesus.’ I’ve heard many people say, ‘Yes, Jesus died for our sins, but you have to….‘ I’m saying ‘NO!’ you don’t ‘have to‘ anything.

‘For everything, absolutely everything,…‘ even sin? ‘For everything, absolutely everything…finds its purpose in him.’

If you believe that, then you are free. Is this making sense? If you mention sin, you always have to mention grace. Why not just live in grace and let sin die? Don’t speak the ‘dead language of sin’ just speak the life language of grace.

From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did. -Romans 6:10-11

Sin illuminates Jesus.

More need, more provision of grace. Jesus wins. Grace wins. We find our (a sin flawed human race) purpose in Jesus. If He was destined to be our Savior, it was because your destiny, without Him, is to die in sin. When you fall down, you are reminded of your insufficiency. It’s never a bad thing to be aware that you need Jesus. It’s a beautiful picture of God’s sovereignty over what is designed to destroy you. When you fall, take inventory of your weakness, trace it down to the root and submit it to God, then move on. When any attack comes and tries to hold you down, tell your attacker that your sin is irrelevant because of Jesus.

He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. -Collosians 1:18-20

People are terrified to teach you these things because they think it sets you free to sin. It just sets you free.

Your inclination for sin is and will always be there, so instead of leaving you high and dry, God sets your feet firmly planted in Him. You shouldn’t be scared. It’s not a ‘freedom to sin’ it’s a ‘freedom in spite of sin.’ You’ll sin whether you’re free or not. Jesus, simply put, took care of the problem of death.

Ask any Christian, any person with a heart after God, if they want to sin. Better yet, ask yourself that question and you’ll find a screaming ‘NO!’ But, is your desire to not make bad choices enough to keep you from them? At times, yes, but overwhelmingly and ultimately no. Paul beautifully described the battle that we can all identify with. Grace doesn’t make you want to sin. Grace sets you free from the death it demands.

Grace and your belief in the finality of Jesus’ sin conquering death marks you for life.

You are a slave to grace, never free from it, never able to outrun it, never able to out sin it. Your life and all of its flaws are a perfectly crafted petri dish specimen of God’s plan for humanity. Jesus is the constant and you, in Him, are an example of what His death accomplished. You see here that not even sin can mess up God’s purpose, it only magnifies it and continually creates the ‘new’ in His already written and published story of His salvation power.

I’m saying this: Alright, so you messed up. So what? Learn and get off your butt. My gosh, get over yourself and get on with your purpose.

You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. -Collosians 1-21-23

‘if you love something…

…set it free...

Let the balls drop and get off the unicycle. It’s time to go home and wash off the makeup. Leave the circus to the bearded ladies.

If this isn’t about you, then you can do what you want. Have you thought about what you want lately? I bet not. The circus is a time consuming act. Think about it. Sky’s the limit, you can’t mess this up. You’re free to eat what you want, drink what you want, say what you want, touch what you want. No punishment, no death.

What do you want?

Freedom is a purifier. Honesty is a starting point. Being real is the only way to get anywhere real.

Slaves don’t think about what they want because they don’t know what they want. Give them freedom and let them figure it out. Keep them slaves and they remain dehumanized. Fear is the only reason why you wouldn’t set someone free to do as they please. There is this corrosive belief that men, when left to their own devices, will conjure up an insurmountable evil. I have three things to say about that:

1. Fear is the opposite of Love. So, it’s the opposite of God.
2. Men are not left to their own devices. Has it not occurred to you that God is real?
3. You project what is within yourself on to those around you. What you fear and try to control in others is only a reflection of what you see in yourself. You’re the one with the problem. Get the plank out of your own eye so you can see clearly.

…if it comes back it’s yours…

He set us free because He’s not afraid of where we’ll go. He is real. And He has really taken up residence in your heart, so He’s not afraid of an evil He has crowded out. When He projects what is in Him on to us, we glow. He trusts the ‘Him’ in us. This isn’t an arranged marriage and it’s not a duty. He knows that when you give a voice to what you want, you’ll want Him.

Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to …reject… It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! -Galatians 6:15

He’s not afraid. He can sleep through the chaos of what terrifies you because He knows how this story ends. He had you figured out long before He created Eve’s womb. He’s been carrying you from the beginning and if you’d stop squirming long enough you’d realize that. No matter what you do, you’re still a child on the shoulders of the Father who saves you from drowning in your own flood.

I’ve been carrying you on my back from the day you were born, and I’ll keep on carrying you when you’re old. I’ll be there, bearing you when you’re old and gray. I’ve done it and will keep on doing it, carrying you on my back, saving you. -Isaiah 46:3-4

…if it doesn’t, it never was.’

Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. -John 6:35

instructions

God’s will supersedes ours. He wins every time and we don’t even have to know what His will is to play our part in this Story of His creation.

How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. -Romans 9:30

We have free will and make plans, take steps, set goals and graph progress, but it’s all meaningless smoke if it’s not what God is doing. You can do nothing and it’s done. You can do everything opposite and it’s done. Nobody is taking your will away from you, because your will is useless. You have a will because you’re made in His image, but unless your will is plugged into His, it’s a cheap squeaky toy. The ride is free and it’s going whether you want to take it or not. Your only choice is to take the blinders off or leave them on.

Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word. -Proverbs 16:1

Put God in charge of your work, then what you’ve planned will take place. -Proverbs 16:3

God made everything with a place and purpose; even the wicked are included…-Proverbs 16:4

We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it. -Proverbs 16:9

We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God’s purpose prevails. -Proverbs 19:21

Our actions are responses to His action.

What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative. -Romans 9:13

There is nothing that we can do to mess up His plan. It’s all written in black and white yet, we still find ways to exert our control and explain it away. He’s kept no secrets about having a plan for us, but we keep believing alternate messages that take the power from Him and attempt to put it back in your hands.

Think about this. Wrap your minds around it. This is serious business, rebels. Take it to heart…I am God, the only God you’ve had or ever will have— incomparable, irreplaceable—From the very beginning telling you what the ending will be, All along letting you in on what is going to happen, Assuring you, ‘I’m in this for the long haul, I’ll do exactly what I set out to do,’ … I’ve said it, and I’ll most certainly do it. I’ve planned it, so it’s as good as done. -Isaiah 46:8-11

With these verses, we can assume that there is more to what is going on than what we can sense. His purpose envelopes us. Bad and good. We can watch things work out in spite of themselves. We can witness perfectly constructed plans fail. Again and again, things defy common sense with no explanation.

The Bible tells us that we don’t know what’s going on, but we still behave as though we do. Assume, for a moment, that you don’t have the glasses needed to see things the way they are. Can you even imagine how ridiculous all of your strutting and declaring looks to those who can see clearly?

Your fears are unwarranted and a waste of time. People who are led by fear are dead weight. Your scrambling and grasping is bizarre and embarrassing. Getting offended is evidence of no assurance. People with no faith look backward and never see what’s right in front of them.

God gives us very clear and simple guides to keep us from running all over each other like sewer rats. His orchestra of creation is playing with or without your cooperation, but it absolutely sends Him through the roof with joy when you catch sight of The Maestro and join in.

Let go of your shortsightedness and know that you know nothing.

Don’t talk so much, it shows your ignorance.

Even dunces who keep quiet are thought to be wise; as long as they keep their mouths shut, they’re smart. -Proverbs 17:28

Don’t be quick to get angry, it shows how blind you are.

Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools. -Ecclesiastes 7:9 ESV

Be quick to forgive and quick to restore. These are evidences of your faith.

If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. -Galatians 6:1

The most intelligent people know that they don’t have it all figured out.

We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete…We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. [So,] for right now,… we have three things to do to lead us…: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. -1 Corinthians 13:9-13

one way

This post is third in a series of three.

You can read part one here and part two here. This post is built on top of those.

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” -John 1:29 ESV

Scripture is like a steering wheel. As soon as you veer to one side or the other, it will come in and set you straight. There are many scriptures which seem to contradict themselves and I believe that current ‘understanding’ gets in the way. Scripture supersedes doctrine. No one has it perfectly right, so be where you are, but know that there’s more.

Does Christ’s sacrifice cover every sin?

Yes. Jesus died once for all.

The thing that I haven’t quite figured out and probably never will is that it’s scripturally clear that you cannot come to God unless he calls you, those He calls eventually come running. Then, I read scriptures like this:

He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. -1 Timothy 2:4-5

I’m a thinker and I want to know the Truth. I don’t believe that scripture contradicts itself, I believe that my understanding contradicts my understanding. I am flawed, not scripture.

‘He wants not only us, but everyone saved…everyone to get to know the Truth we’ve learned.’

…we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. -1 Timothy 4:10

He is the Savior of all people. His sacrifice covers every sin. This tells me that what He did is sufficient for every sin, but those who believe will receive the effect. He wants everyone to know the truth. That knowledge keeps me from thinking about who may be ‘chosen’ and who may not be. That is no concern of mine when all I need to know is that God wants everyone to be saved and everyone to know the truth.

Is there more than one truth?

‘…there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free.’

That is the Truth.

Theological elitism and discrimination is on a flimsy layer of ice wearing heavy shoes of pride. We are all connected by One Spirit and any person trying to illuminate divisions should be questioned about who they’re representing. We have separate parts and purposes, but one Source of Blood, one Heart and are led by one Mind.

God wants us all to be saved even though it’s clear that not all will be. It’s our responsibility to do our part to never give up on anyone. Represent God’s forgiving love and mercy to those who seem to be packing for an eternal vacation to Hell.

Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul. -2 Timothy 2:14-17

God’s purposes and plans do not need to be cleared by you. He was at it long before your ancestors could form a thought. He deals with each of us on an individual basis.

Every person is on their own journey. I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it: Until a person is dead, their story is not over.

Meanwhile, God’s firm foundation is as firm as ever, these sentences engraved on the stones: god knows who belongs to him. -2 Timothy 2:19