‘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

cast out, out cast

“This man received sinners but he repulses none. We come to Him in weakness and sin, with trembling faith and slender hope; but He does not cast us out. We come by prayer, and that prayer broken, with confession and that confession faulty, with praise, and that praise far short of His merits, but yet He receives us. We come diseased, polluted, worn out and worthless, but He doth, in no wise, cast us out. Let us come again, today, to Him who never casts us out.” -Charles Spurgeon

who called whom

It’s so important for you to study the scripture for yourself. There are people within the Christian faith who claim to be leaders and masses of people listen to them. They regurgitate whatever they’re told to believe. How will you know if you’re being lied to or mislead of you don’t know the truth? No man is perfect and everyone will get it wrong in some form or another. What they get wrong maybe you can get right. Maybe you can take what you hear that is right and add it to your own scriptural insight to get a better panoramic view of God and His ‘Kingdom life.’

Scripture is controversial, but mostly in the religious culture. If you can’t believe the Bible, then what can you believe? Sometimes we have to choose to trust the scripture in spite of our doctrinal upbringing. That’s not an easy thing to do, but your ‘real life’ depends on it.

Is it true that some people will not ‘choose Christ’?

Yes, it’s true. The whole thing, at best, sounds irrelevant to them. There is nothing you can do to make people see a need for Jesus in their lives. Any attempt that you make ends up making you sound like a self-righteous butt. If they don’t see a need, you try to poke holes in their existence while comparing their lives to yours. It doesn’t take them long to not want anything to do with you because of your ‘Christianity’.

The only way you were able to ‘come’ was by answering a ‘call.’

‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.’ -John 6:44 ESV

If you made the decision to become a Christian because of a lifestyle change, the desire to be a ‘better person’, then your decision originated with yourself. It’s not a conversion it’s a modification. You can decorate every aspect of your lives with His name, work in His name and pray in His name, yet still not have a clue who He actually is. Worse, He doesn’t know who you are.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…-Matthew 7:21 ESV

How do you ‘choose Christ’?

You don’t. Nobody can come unless they are called. People can and do respond to the ’seed’ scattered by ‘the farmer’, but when the time passes, they will return to what they believe. (Matt13:18-23) The people who belong to Jesus leave a particular flavor to life that some are receptive to and some are oblivious to. Even reception is a gift from God. You are ’saved by faith’, faith is a gift and that gift is irrevocable.

“This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.” -John 6:65

You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you…-John 15:16

You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. -Matthew 13:11 ESV

…by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. -Ephesians 2:8

..the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. -Romans 11:29 ESV

We respond to a call, we don’t initiate it. We are given faith, we can’t summons it. We are given insight, we can’t learn it.

But, can we say no if we’re called? Can we believe the truth but still walk away from it? That’s what I’ll write about tomorrow.

fiber optic god

Who is God to you?

We limit our awareness of God’s control by dividing that control among people and circumstances. We credit others with control and pray that God takes it back. God’s sovereignty has become a sentiment. Emotionalism that makes us feel better but still something that we hold out at arms length.

We cannot understand anything written in the scriptures if we don’t understand who God is.

What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. -Romans 1:21-22

Are you faithful to God or to your idea of God?

When was the last time your idea of God was transformed? If we cannot comprehend the reality of eternity, then how can you comprehend the reality of God? How can you be in a position to lock in on an idea if you, at the same time, are aware that He is beyond understanding? We are creatures of habit, seekers of comfort and security. We all reach a point where we are unwilling to change, simply because we’ve gotten good at navigating ‘the way it’s always been.’

He is in control of our circumstances and we reject Him and what He is doing when we are in circumstances that don’t feel good. Our idea is that if God is good, then a perfect union with Him feels good. Jesus was in perfect union with God and He suffered immeasurably. Sparkly masks of peace and happiness are donned while the spirit underneath remains in the dark.

God makes no sense to our natural understanding, yet we still look for Him there. We dismiss ideas that contradict the trinket we’ve put our faith in. If your idea of God is not continually being transformed in to something less and less understandable, then you have latched on to a pacifier.

They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. -Romans 1:23

Can you stomach God?

God is eternal. Eternity does not only stretch backward, but also forward. Time is something that humans use to make measurements, but we serve a God who is not bound by the rising and setting if the sun. God knows everything, uses everything, is in everything and has everything in His hand. God goes before you and follows behind you.

You are never off His radar and nothing takes you out of your path. Where you are is where you’re supposed to be. Where you are is crucial to who you are becoming. It’s not an accident. There was no big boom from which consequences and evolution ensued. In all of our theories and the beauty of science, we still cannot find any scientific explanation for how initial life began. It was a very specific purpose and set of events set into motion by the only hand that can create and sustain life.

He pays attention to every minute detail. Consider the the power of a single atom and all of the ways in which they come together to form the matter you take for granted. Are you, a unique code written on a strand of DNA, so faithless that you refuse to know your author simply because it makes you smaller than He? Would you prefer a Jesus who bounced on your dashboard?

Has the floor in your life fallen out? Where do you look to find meaning? We trace our steps and look for someone to carry the responsibility. You chose this, she chose that. Stupidity, selfishness, sin and evil. Where is God?

“God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to Him for not recognizing that He ordained the situation.” -Oswald Chambers

Is your faith in a god of easy times and fiber optic blessing? Can you stomach a God who would allow your world to cave in because He had a reason for it? Can you submit to a God who doesn’t explain Himself? Holding God responsible for the happenings around you is your act of worship. You release yourself and others from the position of control and focus your helpless dependance on an eternal force who has set something in motion and will stick around to see it through.

Do you see God through yourself or do you see yourself through God?

He says, ‘Don’t be afraid.’ But, how can you not be afraid? He says, ‘Don’t worry.’ But, everything around you tells you to worry. If your own actions or the actions of another have the power to knock God’s purpose off its hinges, then you are worshipping self and/or others. You have rendered the Creator of the Universe incompetent, slow to act and trumped. How often do we do this? We become this frazzled mess while the rest of the world watches us completely contradict the things we say about God when all is well.

‘Our Lord is dethroned more deliberately by Christian workers than by the world. We treat God as if He were a machine designed only to bless us…’ -Oswald Chambers

It takes faith.

We are saved by faith. That’s why our faith is under attack. We are bombarded with a drugstore Jesus. We wobble on the stilts of an answer holder while secretly lost in a fog of confusion. We’re afraid and uncertain which results in us doubting our Christianity.

It takes faith, but faith is dead without action. The action is in the assurance. Assurance makes us behave a certain way. The behavior is not what is typically sought. There are a lot of behaviors in the religious community that can be faked, but this is something you can’t counterfeit. The behavior is the ability to sleep on the stern of a boat when a storm is taking it down (Mark4:35).

‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.’ -Job; Job 13:15 KJV

what do rocks know?

They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son. -Genesis 22:9-10

If I could have a conversation with Abraham, I would want to hear him talk about what he knew about God that gave his legs move.

For now, I can only guess. Abraham had seen a lot by this time. His wife had a baby, he saw fire destroy a pair of cities, a woman turn into salt, God appear as three men, the debacle with calling his wife his sister. Maybe that was it? Maybe because of what he learned when he lied about his wife, God showed him who was in control?

Abraham comes from new blood. He’s not far down the line from Adam. What kind of stories about God were passed down from Adam? Or Noah. Noah had to have some crazy stories. What did he talk about when he had too much wine from his vineyard?

Abraham’s great-grandfather never died, he was just taken up with God …long before Elijah. Whatever Abraham knew, it gave him the release to not worry about what that day looked like and just keep walking.

“Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” -Abraham, Genesis 22:5

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A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! -Mark 4:37-38

What did Jesus know that eased him enough to sleep when everyone else was sure they were going to die?

He moved about with ease. I don’t remember reading anywhere that said He was worried. He had emotions, but he had no fear. He cried with Mary and Martha when Lazarus died. He got angry at the corruption happening within the church and he was blunt and unapologetic to those who thought they were religious superiors. He even broke down in the the garden of Gethsemane because He knew they were about to murder Him, but He never panicked and never forgot…what? What did He know that made it seem, to others, that He didn’t even care?

They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?” -Mark 4:38

———————————————

“I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” -Luke 19:40 NAS

What do the rocks know? What is creation aching to scream?

“BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!” -Luke 19:38

——————————————–

I don’t know what Abraham thought was going to happen when he brought the knife down on his son. But, he knew that God was bigger than whatever came from that day and he trusted God more than he trusted what made sense.

There is something bigger going on right now. It has deep roots and a purpose that goes way beyond your physical existence. You are a part of something. Nothing more.

The place where Abraham was to sacrifice his son is said to be the same place where God dug his fingers in the dirt to create Adam. That it was used as Araunah’s threshing floor…where chaff was separated from wheat. It’s said that David built an alter there. It’s the same place where Solomon built his temple. The same place where the temple Jesus turned tables over in was located. The same place where the temple split when Jesus died.

Abraham was asked to honor God in a place that was much bigger than he was. If that were us, we wouldn’t do it. We have learned how to make God fit into our lives and make our little worlds run the way we want. You’re a bead on a string. You’re a mist before dawn. You have a purpose, but that purpose is not you.

Abraham knew something we need to learn. He didn’t say, ‘What about me?’ because the testimony of creation would answer back, ‘What about you?’ God can do whatever He wants to do and if He asks you to be a part of it, then jump at that opportunity. Who cares what role you play…you get to play a role!

Do you know the thing you need to know that lets you sleep in peace when everything around you tells you it’s time to panic? God can do whatever He wants to do and no amount of panic will stop the storm unless He calls for it to stop. If you knew that you had a specific date assigned for your death and you could not die until then, what risks would you take and goals would you accomplish in the interim? Forget ‘live like you were dying.’ Live like you weren’t. Abraham won a battle where he was ridiculously outnumbered just because he fought it. Is it possible that he knew he wouldn’t die until his wife bore a son and so, until then, he wouldn’t live in fear?

They say that a person with no common sense and no capacity for intelligence is ‘dumb as a rock.’ But the rocks have been a witness to the timelessness of God stringing beads of stories and lives of purpose together for centuries. Rocks have seen the miracle of our Creator at work and has seen this masterpiece come together. The rocks bear witness (Josh24:27) and if you don’t get it and if it doesn’t rip through your body in an outburst of praise, the rocks will cry out in your place.

“Surely the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafter will answer it from the framework.” -Habakkuk 2:11 NAS

be holy

‘You shall be holy because I am holy.’ -1 Peter 1:16

As far as I could count, the command for a person to be holy is found six times in the Old Testament (KJV) and twice in the New Testament (KJV).

Purity and sanctification are goals because we believe it’s God’s will for His followers. As a group of people who want to offer our best and keep ourselves from immorality, we use precaution. We’re told to safeguard our lives in order to keep us in ‘right relationship’ with God.

The foundation of the Christian is belief in Jesus and the label ‘Christian’ carries the weight of responsibility. A responsibility to be pure. To live a sanctified and holy life. Anything that falls short is a piercing alarm. It’s either a cause for concern or a ground for excommunication. Either way, your connection to the body of Christ is questioned.

The problem is in how to fight the fear of failure that permeates the culture. If you think ‘the fear of God’ pertains to divine expectation and the wrath of discipline, then a fear of failure is a dominant and inevitable force.

Fear is the knuckle cracking step-dad wearing a beer stained wife-beater.

There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed lovebanishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love. -1 John 4:18

Fear is the opposite of love. Fear marks the sign on the street corner: ‘The party ends in Hell.’ Fear sits on the shoulders of the kid who watches his ‘non-church’ friends play from his window. Fear is the pivot of the heel as the friend distances himself from the fall.

The fear is warranted. When you are living with the kind of religious responsibility required to be holy, the opportunity for stumbles and spills is overwhelming. You’re on a minefield of morality bombs and you’ve seen far too many comrades get blown to pieces right in front of you.

Fear is the knowing that in safeguarding yourself, there must be something that you’re missing. And they’re right. “Now if a person sins and does any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, though he was unaware, still he is guilty and shall bear his punishment.” (Lev5:17NAS)

You can’t pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God’s law and ignoring others. -James 2:8

No wonder people are afraid. Murdering is found in the same law as picking up a dead fly (Lev5:2NAS).

So, where does Jesus come in? He’s claimed when the man notices that he can’t reach the mark. The assumption is that he’s sufficient until he’s not, but at least there is a length of self-sufficiency and that length is the measuring tape for which he judges everyone else.

You’re either sufficient or you’re not. Jesus is not an extension cord. He’s not your safety net. He’s not your back up plan.

Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. -Romans 3:21-22

You cannot make yourself holy. You cannot expect others to be holy. Sin is not evidence of a missing relationship with Jesus. Sin is evidence of a continual need for Jesus.

An inside track to God is not found in your good reputation. Jesus is the only way and you find your way to Jesus through awareness of sin. Your sin calls for grace and grace makes you sufficient. Your insufficiency is His specialty.

Grace is a supernatural gift that changes the recipient from unclean to spotless. The fear of the disillusioned self-sufficient is that forgiveness of sins opens the door to more sin. If a punishment doesn’t ensue, then the criminal has no reason not to offend again.

Grace is not a new suit, grace is a new identity. By the supernatural character of the gift of grace, the recipient is transformed and made innocent, not just by decree, but by nature. There is an innocence that was missing from them before. There is a desire to maintain the innocence and the lesson that only the guilty could have learned.

Grace makes you a better person because you have the wisdom of guilt and the heart of innocence.

You can’t do this for yourself. Soap can’t get all the sin off. ‘Being’ something you’re deeply not is no different than putting on another man’s suit.

‘You shall be holy because I am holy.’ -1 Peter 1:16

‘You shall’ is not just a command, it’s a proclamation. If God can speak four words and the sun appears in the sky, then He can speak four words and create His light in you. He commands it and it happens.

I’ve said it, and I’ll most certainly do it. I’ve planned it, so it’s as good as done. -Isaiah 46:11

Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ So, it is finished.

the hard road

‘…come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God…’ -Hebrews 6:1-2

We have this innate belief that we have to earn our way. That we are responsible for our purity, our salvation. This is evident in those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but cannot forgive themselves for their sins.

We have this unfounded belief that we have the ability to not sin. We try to be good, cutting out things that may cause us to sin. Yet, we still sin.

Why is it that you think you can carry out what you could not begin? When you first became a Christian, you knew the truth. You knew that you could not make yourself pure, so you accepted the gift of salvation because you believed the truth about Jesus. What gave you the notion that your salvation made you your own savior?

I believe that, because of the changes within yourself, you got cocky. You were proud of the things you were able to get under control and you got comfortable in your new identity. It started out as your identity in Christ, but somewhere along the way, it became your identity by achievement. Jesus was enough to get you started, but then you drifted away from the Source when you found your own footing.

How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up! -Galatians 3:2-3

Human effort always runs out.

Scripture tells us who we are. We are ’saints’, ‘children of God’, ‘one with Jesus.’ Churches build this up and up and we own it to the point of excess. Your true identity is the internal Eternal. It’s true what the scripture says. It’s great what our churches teach. It’s faith and assurance to own it. But, it’s talking about the eternal you. The inner you. Have you forgotten that the outer you, the mortal you….the flesh and blood you is still in the picture? I believe you have.

You are not made one with your flesh and bones. You are to ‘die’ to that. You do not take the body with you. You are not that body. You are not that ‘human nature.’ You are not that! If you forget that, then you will be confined to the limits of it and its finger-painting faith.

It’s a hard road to for the believer because we forget who we really are.

You will sin until you physically die. You will choose yourself over God, often. You will always need Jesus. You can never do this on your own. If you are unable to forgive yourself, it’s because you have stepped away from that truth. Somewhere along the way, you started relying on yourself.

You have two choices, either you maintain your salvation or you trust that Jesus does it for you. You can’t have it both ways. If you believe you are responsible to keep yourself presentable to God, then it’s impossible for you to trust Jesus.

Once people have seen the light, gotten a taste of heaven and been part of the work of the Holy Spirit, once they’ve personally experienced the sheer goodness of God’s Word and the powers breaking in on us—if then they turn their backs on it, washing their hands of the whole thing, well, they can’t start over as if nothing happened. That’s impossible. Why, they’ve re-crucified Jesus! They’ve repudiated him in public! -Hebrews 6:4-6

Washing your hands of the way of salvation is when you turn to an alternate way of salvation. It’s thinking that you could do what only He could. It’s not forgiving yourself for your failures because something deep within you believes you had the ability to not do whatever it is you did.

If you had the ability to not sin, then He did not need to die. Jesus came to do what you could not do. If you believe you can avoid sinning, you are rejecting Him.

You can always look back with a new pair of eyes and see where you should have turned. It’s not hard to see why you can, now, think you have the ability to make different choices. It may be because ‘now’ you do. For that particular space in natural history, you have learned a lesson you feel you should have already known, and you ‘now’ have the vision needed to equip yourself to not repeat that exact mistake. Don’t use that amazing knowledge to condemn yourself for your past behavior, use it to avoid the same pitfall in the future.

What’s done is done. Mourn it until the mourning process is over. Make it right if it’s in your power to do so. Then, let it go.

You are not your mistakes.

Self-condemnation is evidence of pride. I’m not trying to add to your load, but think about it. You thought you were better than that, right? You were above that level of failure. Are you walking around with your wounded heart, trying to earn the forgiveness of others?

There is no set time limit for the aftermath of sin. Sorrow is good because it’s the mother of repentance. It’s not the same as feeling remorse for the one’s you’ve hurt. I’m talking about a sorrow that goes deeper than that. You can’t rush the introduction of that kind of sorrow. But, when it comes, then it’s almost over… repentance isn’t even swallowed before deliverance sweeps sin off the table.

With no sin, there is no longer a place for sorrow. Sorrow stayed for the night. Rejoicing comes in the morning. Don’t fake this, the judgement of others doesn’t affect you, but if you’re still dragging the old behind you, then you have not experienced Godly sorrow.

If you have come to the realization that there is nothing that you can do to make this right and you trust in the finished work of Jesus, then let it go. Do you believe or not? Are you in or are you out?

‘There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ -Romans 8:1 NIV

stay together

You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness. -Ephesians 4:4-6

There is so much friction and division among believers, you would think we all serve different God’s. Maybe some think they do. I’ve heard professed believers communicate with each other using the phrases, ‘My God…’ or ‘Your God…’ It’s usually in defense of a particular brand of scriptural understanding and it’s never with the goal of ‘staying together.’ It’s with the goal of ‘being right.’

What if two offended brothers had to stay outcasts until they could get along? What if they had to be locked in a room together, forced to hear each other out? You may never agree, but you have to find a way to get along. To live together…

I believe that we’re not supposed to give up on each other. We’re not allowed to write one another off. You can’t scratch out a name on God’s invite list. It’s not your party. So, with that in mind, how do you propose you get along?

We all have those people who see our worst when they look at us. They twist our words and hear what they want to hear. They try to put us in the mold they’ve made for us. It’s so tempting to want to lash out, to defend ourselves, but that is not our job. We can be firm, speak plainly, practice self control, but sometimes we lose our patience and want to bite their ears off. The temptation is to belittle them.

We serve one God. We’re all on the same path and will, one day, eat at the same table, worship side by side and be eternal neighbors.

You cannot get away from your family because of the Blood that ties you together.

But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. -Ephesians 4:7

We’re a multi-dimensional, multi-cultural, extremely diverse family, we’re not supposed to be a freaky group of clones. With so many differences, it’s no surprise that disputes occur. In a ‘church’ of actual people, there are going to be mistakes, hurt feelings and flattened toes.

The best way to do your part to stay together is to approach one another with humility. Be slow to speak, slow to anger and be patient. There is nothing more antagonizing than when you’re trying to have a conversation with someone who thinks they are spiritually or intellectually superior. The pretension is nauseating and impenetrable. The best way to deal with that is to hold your tongue. Time will tell the truth.

It’s an act of submission. Choose to be last. Be the least important, the least ‘right’, the least…

“So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.” -Jesus, Mark 9:35

You’re not submitting to ‘man’, you’re submitting to the under current of the way God works. He lets those, who like to talk, talk themselves into their own trap with no help from you. Soon enough, the truth will be known and there will be no words needed to explain.

It’s an act of worship. We trust Him to defend us when we’re lied about and correct us when we’re wrong. When you hold your tongue, you get to learn the lessons in private rather than out in the public arena. We’re all being taught. Don’t draw attention to yourself with your relational drama and incessant need to be agreed with. Maturity helps you get along with others.

Maturity knows that God can take care of you better than you can take care of yourself.

May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus! Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.-Romans 15:5-7

It is utterly inhuman to not want to get your own way. It may be the hardest thing to do, but forgiving others and restoring relationships is the a blatant act of selfless God worship. Your dignity does not come from being the least guilty. Your worth does not come from the perception of the crowd you’ve drawn. Your honor is not in winning the debate. Your grandeur is in forgiving and forgetting.

Smart people know how to hold their tongue; their grandeur is to forgive and forget. -Proverbs 19:11