Posted: April 13th, 2011 |
Filed under: God | Tags: grace, love wins |
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Here is an interesting thought: God wrote the Old Testament Law to reveal His nature to His people. It’s clear that He does not tolerate sin. The interesting part of all that is that He also included the format, in intricate detail, of how to provide sacrifice for the temporary cleansing of sin (which means ‘missing the mark’ [Strong's #266]). He did this not in case they fail, but when they fail.
It’s apparent that when He laid down the guide for right living, He knew that the mark would be missed and so He provided a means to start anew.
If we are looking for God’s character we can see that He has standards and that He knows we cannot meet them. He didn’t leave anyone without a way to be redeemed. Everything He does is an act of Love.
Jesus was not an afterthought. This means he was not a ‘Plan B’. Humanity was created for relationship with God and with the ability to break that relationship. The ability to break that relationship is a gift…a blessing of freedom. But, God doesn’t stop there. He also created a way for humanity to be in eternal relationship with Him, and through Jesus we have that. It’s a promise that says “Let me be your righteousness so you can be ‘free indeed’.”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. -John 8:34-36 ESV (emphasis mine)
Missing the mark, or failing, is not a reason to throw the rest of the story out the window. With Him, you cannot have one without the other. Sin without sacrifice, sacrifice without sin. God has a plan and that plan is finished. He knows that we will all mess up and use our freedom, our choice–His gift, in a way that is contrary to His nature. However, being true to His revealed nature we are never left to die in our sin or to be orphans abandoned by our Father. “The Son remains forever.”
He knows, has always known, that we can’t do this on our own. He did it for you.
Once you tap into the grace grooved reality, you have no room to walk in fear or rejection. You will know that you have not been abandoned when you know that you have always been, are, and always will be intimately and fully known.
Not once has God ever relaxed His commands because He doesn’t have to. He sent Jesus to fulfill them for you. He is and always will be fully Himself and the beautiful part of that is that He is fully Himself when He embraces every single bit of you.
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. -Romans 3:22-26 ESV (emphasis mine)
You are accounted for and claimed.
Let that sink in. Let that transform you. Transformed, continually, through Jesus. It puts you where He wants you and where you have always wanted to be. Free. Even the undoubtedly flawed and painfully marked are relentlessly loved by Love Himself.
Gather into your imagination the power of a hurricane, the force of an earthquake, the tearing wind of a tornado under which phenomena no man can stand. Now imagine the power of nature’s forces combined into a torrential and consuming display of love and you might have an idea of the force in which He loves you. A force of love under which no man can stand.
enabled
Posted: March 30th, 2011 |
Filed under: God, life | Tags: grace, love wins |
18 Comments »
What a person believes about grace influences everything. Some believe that grace gives the recipient the power to not sin. Others believe that grace is forgiveness for sins. What a person believes about grace may be the most crucial operating system in the life of a Christian because it affects the levels of love, fear, and pride. Love evicts fear and is the key to getting it right, and pride is the pretentious bride of sin.
It may help you to understand where I’m coming from if I tell you that I equate grace with the finished work of Jesus. The finished work of Jesus is the foundation of the Christian faith. Therefore, it influences everything.
However, grace is an issue that divides intelligent people. With so much at stake, the believer has to examine their faith to see if it is actually Jesus that they believe in, and not some form of religious superstition.
The best way to examine what you really believe is to explore the implications.
If grace gives you the power to not sin, then what does that imply? Off the top of my head…
- There are people who do not sin.
- There is a point, given enough grace, when you will not sin.
- Anyone who sins is not under grace.
- People possess the power.
These implications give the individuals, who hold this belief, the power to condemn those who sin because they are not under grace. It also spurs them to teach that grace must be earned by not sinning. This perpetuates the appearance-based religion that buries the person who must hide their shortcomings in order to remain in the Christian community.
Those who know that they cannot measure up to the impossible standards of never failing end up rejecting a system that makes them feel inadequate. Their refusal to lie about the deepest parts of their flawed condition will cause them to turn away from Jesus because, in reality, what they are being taught about Him has turned out to be a lie. It is a lie because they have not received, though they have tried to muster up the faith and do everything they can to avoid sin, the ability to not sin. They live buried in defeat and hopelessness. They feel abandoned by God and doubt the power of the finished work of Jesus.
If grace is forgiveness of sins, what does that imply? For starters….
- People will still sin.
- There is never a point when you will not sin.
- The more sin, the more grace.
- Jesus possesses the power.
These implications give the individuals, who hold this belief, the power to forgive and show mercy to those who sin. It also spurs them to teach that grace cannot be earned. This perpetuates the power of the finished work of Jesus Who has the ability to remove the sting of death that sin delivers. This teaching sets sin’s captives free to get up with they fall and do their best, even while knowing their best is not good enough. They teach that Jesus does not just make up for their lack, but that His power is made perfect in their weakness.
Those who know that they cannot do it on their own end up being conduits of grace in the lives of others. Inadequacy is crucial to understanding need and need is the reason Jesus rescued them. The deepest parts of their flawed condition no longer have the power to keep them separated from God. They no longer have to hide in shame. It keeps them at the feet of Jesus. What they have been taught about Him is the truth that keeps them connected to Him. They are no longer buried and condemned by their sin because they live in the hope of salvation. They do not want to sin, they try to keep that sin nature in check. The evidence that grace does not give people the power to not sin is found in the fact that they still sin. However, they are no longer buried in defeat or feel abandoned by God. Their hope is that Jesus is Who He says He is and grace wins over what sin attacks.
So, which is it?
I looked for any sentence with any combination of the words, “power”, “sin”, and “grace,” in ESV, NIV, AMP, KJV and The Message Bible translations and there were none. I could find no scriptural support for the belief that grace gives the person the power to not sin.
I also did a word search for every place in the New Testament where the Greek word “charis” (grace, translated to English words) occurs and found it in at least 163 scriptures. This helped me find the use of the word in context.
The scriptures where the power of grace is discussed refers to the ability of a person to boldly share the Gospel of Jesus because of their understanding of grace.
And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. -Acts 4:33 ESV
But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God. -Romans 15:15 ESV
In at least nine times in the book of Romans, grace is referenced in direct contrast to sin. It talked about the power of grace over sin, but it is not referenced as the power to not sin. It says that grace wins in spite of sin.
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. -Romans 5:20 ESV
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. - Romans 6:14 ESV
The message of the free gift is so profound that there are several places where the writers of the New Testament feel the need to make sure the readers understand that grace is not an excuse to sin. If the message were that grace gave you the power to not sin, then that reminder would not be necessary.
Grace cannot be earned in any way. It is a free gift, so if you were able to earn it, it would not be free. The message that teaches that grace must be earned, or that a sinless life is the only way to be under grace, is false. It undermines the power of Jesus, giving the person the power, thereby making the person equal to Jesus and causing Him to be useless. This is a very blatant anti-Christ theology designed to either make you feel, at best, hopeless or, if you are deceived enough, make you feel self-righteous.
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. - Romans 4:2 ESV
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. – Romans 4:4 ESV
I hope this helped you understand what grace is and what it isn’t, what it does and what is doesn’t. It is important to understand because it changes everything. We do not have the power, Jesus does. It is only because of faith that you can live in the open spaces of a free life, flaws and all, and still have hope. Do not ever let someone tell you that you are beyond grace. The only thing that can take grace away from you is you, and you do that by not believing.
The man who is fully aware of his inability to measure up to the impossible standards of righteousness has this message:
But [God] said…, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV
Belief about grace will still divide intelligent people, but you have to stick to the finished work of Jesus. Let that message do the dividing. Remember, they are not rejecting you. They’re rejecting Him. Be patient, full of love, and drenched in grace. Those qualities are what God uses to call His children to Him.
…When we preach the gospel to every creature, the gospel makes its own division, and Christ’s sheep hear his voice, and follow him. - Charles Spurgeon
Posted: March 10th, 2011 |
Filed under: God, life | Tags: love wins |
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“What will it take for Christians to stop putting each other down?” – A question asked on Yahoo Answers
“Christians don’t put each other down….we judge each other by our fruits….GOD’s word has been distorted by many and we have to preech the truth. obviously theirs’ gonna be ‘fights.’” -An answer provided by someone calling himself “Christian Dude”
You don’t have to look very hard to find that ‘Christian Dude’ is not alone in his sentiment. While I support the need to discern what people, preachers, or anybody else is saying about God and their use of scripture, my skin crawls when people start arguing, name calling, and completely writing someone off. What you put on the internet is there forever. Even if you delete it, there is still a cached picture of what you wrote. You are immortalizing the dirty emotional outburst. (What enemy would want the imperfection of Christians to forever stain them? Who hired the hit man?) There is no question that scripture is mishandled. However, when a blind warrior starts slinging that sword, nothing resembling unity is left in tact. Everybody loses when that happens.
There are people who feel like their spiritual calling is to find people they disagree with and relentlessly attack them. I don’t know what goes on inside their heart when they’re peeking in their neighbors windows, but I am grieved just thinking about the level of negativity that would go along with that. I can only imagine what motivates people to set aside their call to love, to cultivate a life in common, and to fight to stay together.
I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I’ll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common. I bring this up because some … brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you’re fighting among yourselves! I’ll tell you exactly what I was told: You’re all picking sides… I ask you, “Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? -1 Corinthians 1:10-13
I can only assume that these people have been hurt by religious leaders somewhere along the line. It’s never a good idea to base your life’s purpose on resentment and anger.
I can’t even begin to relate how disturbing it is. I am so grieved at the bitterness and the level of excitement that delivers the bitterness. I was hurt by some professing Christians, too. However, I choose to counteract the hurt with Love. And, believe me, I get attacked for that, too. I just see it as an open wound that needs the healing balm of grace.
These people will talk about love and they’ll claim to believe in God’s grace, but they deliver it on a rock thrown through the window or screaming at you from a street corner.
“What am I to do with you, …? What do I make of you, …? Your declarations of love last no longer than morning mist and predawn dew.” -Hosea 6:4
The fight is against grace. People think that grace will make people think they don’t have to obey God’s commands. The fight is against the message of Love. They’re crying out for more judgement. They’re lovers of wrath. They want to see the wrath. God has wrath, but it’s not for who they think it is…
“That’s why I use prophets to shake you to attention, why my words cut you to the quick: To wake you up to my judgment blazing like light.” -Hosea 6:5
This is not a message of condemnation for those who live their lives with their eyes squinted in criticism. This is supposed to be a wake-up call. It is scripture telling the religious busy-bodies to find something else to do with their lives.
Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. -Philippians 3:2
It’s also scripture telling you to stay away from people like that.
I used to be one of them. Some of you used to be one of them. Paul used to be one of them and that is what he’s talking about here (Please read it, it’s good!):
The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.
The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness. -Philippians 3:3-9 (emphasis mine)
There are those who will discredit a point because they didn’t like the Bible translation. Speaking only for myself, I study in four different translations and read arguments from both sides of what I glean from my study. I look for where I could be wrong, continue to research the subject and then I write. I quote The Message because of its conversational style. It flows well. Anyone who wants can look up the scriptures and research for themselves. I don’t mind it because if they actually research, they’ll find all the other supporting evidence that I didn’t have room for. It’s a win-win. (No longer speaking only for myself:) However, people will spit on the whole thing and refuse to consider that their discomfort is actually God applying pressure to their chest to get them to see Him.
So, what does God want?
“I’m after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.” -Hosea 6:6
I use harsh language when it comes to people who think they are pleasing God by tearing down other Christians. Especially Christians who have messed up. That is something I will fight for. However, God speaks much harsher than I.
You broke the covenant—just like Adam! You broke faith with me—ungrateful wretches! -Hosea 6:7
What is the covenant? The rainbow is a covenant. God’s promise of salvation is the covenant. Peace is the covenant.
Grace is the covenant.
“The covenant . . . is an act of grace on God’s part for reconciling man to himself, but man’s response should not be overlooked” -Smith’s Bible Dictionary (emphasis mine)
Don’t worry, God’s commands come in there, too. Anyone who, as Paul says, knows Jesus ‘firsthand’ knows this already. It’s not about keeping a list of rules. They just end up making you feel better as you check them off. A false sense of righteousness. It’s much more selfless than that.
When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. -Romans 13:8
We are imperfect human beings. Even though we desperately want to get it right, we will still mess up. We will fail. Just don’t turn your back on the covenant and lose your faith in what Jesus did. There are so many ways to get this wrong, but one way to get it right.
You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love. -Romans 13:10
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Posted: March 3rd, 2011 |
Filed under: God, life | Tags: freedom, grace, purpose |
9 Comments »
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” –Luke 9:62 ESV
For someone trying to let go of their past, this is a crushing scripture. It’s another thing on the pile of wrongs under which they are already suffocating. Jesus says that if we cannot let go of our past, we are not fit for His kingdom.
When you sin and are fully aware that you cannot do, pay, or apologize enough to make up for it, you feel condemned. Hopeless. To add this scripture to it, it seems to condemn you even further.
When your sin changes the way your life looks, changes who you are, it feels impossible to walk in grace. Every step you take has been molded by your sin. How can you let it go when every aspect of your life is a glaring reminder that nothing is or will ever be the same?
This is a very big concept to grasp, so I want you to really think about everything that I am about to show you. This is the moment-of-salvation under a microscope.
“…you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” –Jesus; John 8:31 ESV
The reason you are not experiencing freedom is because you either have not heard or do not believe the simplicity of the truth. The truth is very simple, but it has a very sharp way of shocking our sensibilities. It can be offensive to the core of ‘self’, if it is ‘self’ that you intend to keep in tact. (For the sake of a case study, I’ll leave the comments open. If you want to see the desperate fight of ‘self’ play out, just watch the comments. They may show up there.)
Here we go….
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. – Ephesians 1:11-14 ESV
I am going to be explicit even though I do not have the space in this blog to write a book. I know you will have a million questions and I might even be making you angry, but I will not back down from the Truth. Study the scriptures yourself. Think critically. Part of thinking critically is to examine the implications of what this blog is saying and determine what that means. Compare your determinations with scripture and let the thought process roll around in your brain for as long as it takes. I am about six years into this thought process and I am still processing.
With that said…
(Compare the following paragraph with the scripture above [Eph 1:11-14])
You have a pre-determined purpose that God gave you. He works out everything according to that purpose. Because of the nature of free-will and the mistakes we make with it, we have Jesus to make sure that our free-will never has the power to trump God’s will. When you believe the Truth, the Holy Spirit seals it within you. It is a guarantee, an absolute, and the sealed Truth within you is what you can chew on until the end when all of the missing puzzle pieces come together and answer the missing questions.
This leaves you completely dependant on Jesus and completely safe in the purpose of God. You do not have to fear, you do not have to worry. You do not have to stay down when you fall. You do not have to kick yourself for your failure or kick someone else out of panic or fear for their eternal future.
I will say, there are people who use the Truth as an excuse to sin and I am not talking about those people. The Truth sends you running in worship to the feet of your Creator. It does not equip you with the ability to live in the smoky side-streets of selfishness and decay. I can speak the Truth without dumbing it down for those who use it as a means for selfishness. That would be me letting the sin of others determine how I spin the Truth. That’s not something I will ever do. Besides, when God decides that their time with the pigs is finished, He’ll open their eyes and show them their filth and they’ll need a home to come running to. Wash the sheet in your guest rooms. Stock up on the Truth to wash their stench and make sure you have a warm robe to cover their shame. The Truth calls people home. Church, be ready to be that home.
I’m going to let you watch a conversation, based on the words I shared above, play out. I know this blog is long, but I’m on a roll….
The following is a conversation between a reader and me:
Reader: There are times in my life that SATAN gets in my head and tells me….”Your sins are too great!”
I get so caught up in MY SINS (past) reliving the shame, reliving the sorrow, reliving the anger, reliving the SIN…. and can’t seem to move forward.
Even with repentance, even with PRAYERS, and meditation and Bible study, my SINs haunts me………
and I feel insecure about EVERYTHING.
Satan is cunning and I know that HE is lurking there…. in my mind…. I know that in those DARK places….growth, real growth happens………. but I am growing tired of the battle.
I surrender……….ALL.
(You think that is what God is waiting on…..my TRUE surrender?)”
Me: I hear what you’re saying. I’ve been there…
For the purpose of leading you to a thought process, I have a question for you:
- What have you learned from your failure?
Reader: What have I learned? That I stand in judgment of NO ONE…because I am as much a sinner as anyone else.
I learned that God’s love is the greatest HIGH ever. I felt it once so strong in me…surrounding me, that I felt “in HIS arms!” PURE LOVE! and I want that feeling every single day!
I learned that this life is full of stress, disappointments and at the end of the day, I know NOTHING! My hope rests in GOD taking over my life…
therefore, it all comes down to TRUST. Am I trusting enough the words that flow from my fingers……right here…right now… to KNOW that GOD HAS ALREADY GOT THIS! I just have to let go.
Me: What you have learned, through your failure, lines you up with scripture better than any Sunday school class could have. These scriptures have become a part of you. They are no longer something you try to do. See?…..
1) That I stand in judgment of NO ONE
2) I learned that God’s love is the greatest HIGH ever.
3) I know NOTHING!
4) My hope rests in GOD taking over my life…
5) it all comes down to TRUST
6) to KNOW that GOD HAS ALREADY GOT THIS!
7) I just have to let go.
- Luke 9:62; Philippians 3:12-13
The key to understanding the magnitude of grace and the key to being able to let go of your past is to see that God is using your life experiences to mold you into who He created you to be. Your failures no longer have the power over you, they are used by God to teach you the things you need to know and equip you with the tools that you need for your God designed purpose. See your failure as a teaching tool, not as a flaw. Grace gives Life where there was supposed to be death. Grace gives failure a purpose. When you ask ‘why’, answer your own question with what you’ve learned.
The proof for what I am saying is in your own words/experience and it is backed by scripture:
Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. -2 Corinthians 1:9
Remind yourself of this every time you try to look back over your shoulder to determine your future…..
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead… Philippians 3:12-13
Reader: Thank you for showing me HIS truth through the WORD. Your blog is a must read for me! Thank you for this ministry.
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Don’t look back. It will only turn you into a ‘pillar of salt.’ Gather your lessons and move forward into the wide open spaces of freedom in grace.
Posted: February 25th, 2011 |
Filed under: God, life | Tags: grace, purpose |
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A while back I had a conversation about sex before marriage. The focus of the conversation was pertaining to how to teach your kids about pre-marital sex and why they should wait. This blog is not about pre-marital sex, but I am using it as an example to reveal a bigger picture.
Sex is not a bad thing. However, sex outside of the security of marriage is damaging. Sin is not about what you do. It is about what the doing does to you. The damage is found in the consequences. It is found in the aftermath. Sin is like a pebble thrown into a body of water. The water ripples further and further out. The ripples disrupt the peace of the water. I lost my virginity when I was 16. I never held sex to the standard that others do. My biological mother was a prostitute and I was a victim of sexual abuse. Sex never meant anything pure or beautiful to me. The result of my formative years left me with a flippant view of sex and that view removed many of the typical obstacles between point ‘a’ and point ‘b’.
Sex is like surgery. Marriage is like anesthetic. Sex before marriage is like surgery with no anesthetic.
My view of sex enabled me to shrug my shoulders at the idea of religious restraint. My attitude was that I could do what I wanted and my distaste for religion made it even more of a total slough-off. Religious rules, I later found, were not about God, but rather an attempt to be godly. Despite the fractured fumblings of religion, God’s design and order to things remains. Disregard for the design does not make you immune to the order. Though I did not care about keeping myself sexually pure, I did experience the pain of rejection, uncertainty, and vulnerability of stepping out of order. What little self-worth I had plummeted.
You don’t have to be a Christian to experience the pain of going outside of God’s order.
It is not about stepping out of order, it is about the pain that comes from doing so. It is about the lies you believe when you fail. The damaged self-worth, the fear that everything is ruined, and the overwhelming sense of hopelessness are all lies. The power in the message of the Gospel is that what Jesus did wins in the competition of what sin can do. Consequences are not to be confused with punishment. Punishment was taken care of by Jesus. Consequences are like the law of gravity. If you throw something into the air, it will come down. God has made it so that the crash landing cannot destroy you.
The Christian community tends to abandon the failure in the aftermath and even uses the unbearable hopelessness to pound home the belief that they are further from God than ever. However, hopelessness is the fertile soil ripped open and ready for the seeds of hope. Hopelessness reveals the need for hope. Sin reveals the need for Jesus.
Mistakes are made when professed ‘believers’ fail to believe that the dead can be raised to life. The message that people perpetuate is that if you experience the death of sin, then you are dead, done-for. The logic is that avoiding the failure is the key to salvation. People who have suffered their own sin are faced with the self-oriented message that they cannot be made new. They cannot be raised from the dead.
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. -1 Corinthians 15:12-17 ESV
The message of grace is under attack by those who fail to believe in the finished work of Jesus. The attackers refuse to see grace and spend all of their time magnifying the sin of those who received it. They are “misrepresenting God.” The Giver of Life is glorified in the spaces where compatibility with life is hopeless.
If you are the equivalent of the girl who gave herself away and you are crushed under the death of your innocence, the message of grace is for you. Your failure revealed a truth about God and life that you didn’t know before. Do not believe the hopelessness that you are damaged goods and ruined forever. You cannot go back and make different choices and that fact is the glaring stamp of “guilty” across the pages of your future. Guilt is the the prerequisite for salvation. You do not reach for what you do not need. The understanding of bitter failure increases the comprehension of grace. The greater the thirst, the sweeter the water. The more you have been forgiven, the more you love. Consider that what you learned from this is the key to understanding your purpose. With that in mind, consider God’s purpose in the big picture and let that blow your mind for a little while.
“I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” -Luke 7:47 ESV
It’s a mind-boggling twist to not only understand a fresh start, but to know that the fresh start would not exist without what should have destroyed you forever.
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Posted: February 18th, 2011 |
Filed under: book, God, life | Tags: grace |
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Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. -1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV
Even though they are not supposed to, people have a scale for sins. Anyone can look at that list and categorize them from least to greatest. People who cheat on their spouses and people involved in homosexual relationships seem worse than people who vilify (revile, condemn) them. The girl who got drunk would not be kicked out of her church like the boy who had sex with another boy. The materialistic (greed, idolatry) woman would not be shunned like the woman who cheated on her husband. The man who lied about (swindled) another man in order to take his possessions would not be questioned if he were convincing enough. The girl who had an abortion to hide her pregnancy gets to stay in the youth group while the other girl who kept her baby is called “a bad influence.”
“Don’t be deceived…”
They all have the same weight. Everyone is guilty. Everyone is equal.
“And such were some of you.”
You may not have done all of these things, but you are guilty of some of them. Depending on where your journey has taken you, you may feel relief or your skin may be crawling. Is your pride welling up or do you feel hope? Do you feel cornered or do you feel free?
“There comes a point in the game of tit-for-tat where you are just comparing stench of excrement.” – Grace Is For Sinners, Chapter Four: Lamb Lost
The only way out of the ping-pong hell is to drop the paddle and run to Jesus. After the list of sins, there is a ‘but’. But grace.
Scripture is used way too often to condemn the failure. However, if you actually read it, scripture holds the key to setting the condemned free.
Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. –Romans 14:13
It is easy to get caught up in your idea of what it is to be a good Christian and completely miss the opportunities to learn from someone who is not like you. What can the man, who is attracted to men, teach the one who condemn people like him? What can the greedy woman learn from the pregnant teenager? …more than you can imagine.
Communities need to rise up and create a place for the girl who had an abortion to escape the hell of guilt she is trapped in. They need to learn how to nurture the faith of the failure, not for the outcome they want, but for the sake of that person’s faith. People may never do what you want them to do. You have to find a way to go beyond the sin and focus on the message of salvation. Salvation changes the person, not the other way around. The things you would say to an unbeliever you are trying to convert are still true for the believer who messed up. Christianity is not a bait-and-switch operation.
“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Posted: February 17th, 2011 |
Filed under: God, life | Tags: grace |
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Well, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn’t succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy. -Romans 11:7
Let God pursue His interest.
Where a person can fail is when they try to pursue their interest in godliness instead of letting God pursue His interest in them. Chasing after representations of God has a destination of self-satisfaction. All of the good that we do, the sacrifices we make, are stored in our hearts as ammunition against our sin. We make the mistake of thinking we’re ‘good’ when we are so far from it. We find our ‘good’, our self-worth, in the things we do. It’s the mistake of thinking if they’re big enough, then they can cancel out the other not-so-good we do.
That isn’t how it works.
What is it in you that can bear witness to what Jesus accomplished? That’s the only thing worth your effort.
It takes no amount of faith to show a person where they’re wrong. Anyone can do that. It takes an immeasurable amount of faith to bypass the sin and show, with your life, grace.
If you were called into “court” to testify, who would you be testifying for? There is an accuser: Satan, and there is a Redeemer: Jesus. When you gossip about, make decisions about, or do anything other than take up for the fallen, you are standing with the accuser. This is hard to spot because it’s easy to bury a person in guilt by using scripture. It looks Godly and devout.
There is enough scripture to bury every single one of us.
It takes no amount of faith to be a good person. Anyone can do that. It takes an immeasurable amount of faith to bypass your failures and accept, with all of your hope, grace.
If you are hauled off to “court” as the accused, admit your guilt. Stand in the nakedness with no excuses and leave yourself open, even to shame. Make yourself available to it and the Redeemer, will take up for you. Jesus will cover your shame with Himself. Anyone who attacks you will have to go through Him. They already did. He’s already taken up for you. Every sin was nailed to the cross. All that can be done was done and He didn’t back away. It is finished. A current decree.
People will forget that and you have to separate yourself from them. Don’t let the disbelief of others, no matter who they are, cause you to doubt that what Jesus did was for you, too.
…the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” -Romans 10:11 ESV
There is much to fear. If you stand with the accused, you’ll be accused. If you stand accused and remain naked, they’ll see everything. Love is fearless. Jesus doesn’t need anyone to protect Him. He’s already won. There is not a single person in this world who can refuse forgiveness and grace on God’s behalf. When they do, and some will, they are separating themselves from God. They are pursuing their own interest, but they won’t succeed.
God gets the last word and that word has already been delivered. The Word became flesh, the flesh was punished, the Blood was spilled, the sacrifice was made, and the Son of God walked out of the grave (so you can, too).
It is scary to not pursue your own interest – to not stand up for yourself. Just remember that God chose you to put Himself on display in you. God is Love. The greatest act of love is to lay your life down for your friends (John 15:13). Jesus, God’s act of Love, brands you with legitimacy. Faith fuels bravery.
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, or his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble… -Psalm 107:1-2
This is me saying, “So.”
Posted: January 20th, 2011 |
Filed under: God, life | Tags: purpose |
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God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? -Numbers 23:19 ESV
Two perspectives exist in the life of a Christian, the eternal perspective and the here-and-now perspective. God knows everything and we know only what we see. God is sovereign, yet we have free will. God doesn’t change His mind, yet we’re instructed to pray. One will superseding the other. One reality subject to another. Meaningless in one is given meaning in the other.
We are in submission to God, not the other way around. We know a little, but we don’t know it all. We don’t know enough. Certainly not enough to wave around our God’s Will Barometer. People clearly go against God and it doesn’t seem like anything happens from it.
One story that comes to mind is when the Israelites demanded a king…
The here-and-now perspective: God knew that their asking was them blatantly rejecting Him. He told Samuel to warn them that a king will only be out for his own interests and end up treating them unfairly. Despite the warnings, they still wanted a king. Their only authority under God was a judge. Samuel was the judge, but he was old so his sons were taking over some responsibilities. The people wanted someone who would be good at leading them in their wars. They continued to ask, so God had Samuel anoint Saul as king. Saul seemed like an obvious choice because he was good-looking and much taller than everybody else. He seemed like the best candidate to lead them in their wars. He was more visually appealing than an old man and God’s promises.
The eternal perspective: Jesus was set to be born through a royal bloodline. Up to that point, there was no royalty. The warning about a king being “only out for his own interest” wasn’t a big deal to the Israelites because Samuel’s sons were that way with them already. Saul appeared to be the perfect choice–the luck of timing and provision, but something bigger was going on…had been going on the whole time…before time. Some say Saul was about 30-years-old when he became king. That means God chose Saul at least 30 years before He became king, long before the Israelites asked for him. We know this because Saul’s name means ‘asked for.’
Live long enough to start chasing milestones to the cause, to cause, to cause. Consider the sovereign plan and let your thoughts go further and further back. You’ll never reach the origination of God’s ideas. Life unfolds in real time, that’s our perspective. It’s all laid out in completion, that’s God’s perspective.
We choose according to what we want–free will–but God’s reality, His will, supersedes ours. God is omniscient. He is eternally ahead of you and eternally behind you. Nothing has been or will be done that can mess up His plan. Even blatant rejection plays a role because His plan is our salvation. This gives us something to hold on to during the stormy confusion. Hold on to who God is and let it ground you during the roller coaster ride of uncertainty. God is not uncertain. He’s the one who gets the last word.
So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does. -1 Peter 5:10-11
Posted: January 17th, 2011 |
Filed under: God, life | Tags: grace, purpose |
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…thoughts continued:
Blasphemy is a strong word because it has deadly implications. When scripture speaks of ‘death’ in this context, it is referring to eternal death as opposed to eternal life. Not as much emphasis is put on physical death simply because humans do not cease to exist when their bodies die. The emphasis is on humanity’s eternal whereabouts and scripture applies emphasis to eternal existence.
Blasphemy is an informed disbelief, which is why it is the only unforgivable sin, or ‘the sin that leads to death.’ It makes sense when you consider that the only way to have eternal life is to believe in Jesus. The opposite is the way to have eternal death.
Unbelief out of ignorance is not the blasphemy that leads to death.
“…though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,…” -Paul, 1 Timothy 1:13 ESV
If you bad-mouth the Son of Man out of misunderstanding or ignorance, that can be overlooked. But if you’re knowingly attacking God himself, taking aim at the Holy Spirit, that won’t be overlooked. -Luke 12:10
A person cannot say that he or she believes in Jesus and His grace while refusing to offer it out of that belief to another. It’s double-talk. Scripture calls is, ‘sawing off the branch on which you are sitting.’
This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse. There’s nothing done or said that can’t be forgiven. But if you deliberately persist in your slanders against God’s Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives. If you reject the Son of Man out of some misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit can forgive you, but when you reject the Holy Spirit, you’re sawing off the branch on which you’re sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives. -Matthew 12:30-32
It’s not possible for one person to condemn another definitively. Only God can do that. It’s more likely that they cannot stomach God’s grace for another. That is not blaspheming, it is a symptom of the shock and confusion of pain. When emotions keep someone from the ability to reconcile, it is not blaspheming. It’s a momentary spot on the individual’s journey.
You’re not dead, so there is still some traveling to do. If you’re both headed toward God, one destination, it is certain that you will meet each other there. We meet God as one body, one bride, so you have to reconcile eventually. Your focus should just be on God as you head in the direction in front of you. Each person must travel down their own personal path gathering souvenirs and seasoning before the place where reconciliation is possible. The timing will be obvious. Reconciliation is asked of us, God has the final say on the timing.
To blaspheme, you have to fail to believe what you believe. Logic tries to imagine someone finding evidence contrary to the Truth and believing evidence over scripture. However, there is no evidence that can outweigh the Truth. It’s not logical to assume evidence, which doesn’t exist, has been found. If, to them, it has, then they didn’t know (haven’t been ‘enlightened’ with) the Truth. This calls for quiet patience out of the assurance of hope. Unity is the ultimate goal and it requires individuals to remember that we are all in process.
You can’t forget grace. Whatever may compete with the revelations and clarity God gives you will not win. Things will expand out of those initial revelations and your faith will grow. If it seems like your faith has dwindled from a fire to a smoldering coal, it is because God is refining it. The boat of faith rocks when it’s about to explode and expand.
When you consider the things that make your faith wane, they are the painful things. This is God showing you how big He is. He’s not limited to being your Dr. Feelgood. He has a Sword of a scalpel that will cut you wide open and make you more dependent on Him. He’s setting you up to win because the mere experience of being human is rigged for your utter failure. The human condition is clothed with the need of a Savior and the Savior has been provided. He’s created a loophole and is knocking everything out of the way so that you can fit through it. It hurts, but it’s for your good. You can withstand more pushing and prodding when you see them as crucial to your spiritual molding. …warm clay on a spinning wheel.
Life is a journey. You’re not finished yet. Drive.
Posted: January 12th, 2011 |
Filed under: God, life | Tags: grace |
14 Comments »
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. -1 John 5:16-17 ESV
Everyone wants to know how to respond correctly when someone sins. This scripture makes it clear. Above ‘correcting them’, or reciting the law, you are supposed to pray that God gives them life. To put this in practical language, I’ll tell you what I pray for people more than anything else. ‘Show them who You are.’
The only stipulation is that it has to be a sin that does not lead to spiritual death. We are not supposed to pray for that. I don’t completely understand why we aren’t supposed to pray for that, so I have been studying up to try to find the answers in scripture.
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. -Matthew 12:31 ESV
The sin that leads to death is blasphemy. Blasphemy is speaking sacrilegiously about things of the Spirit. A person who speaks sacrilegiously is someone who misuses things of God or things of the spirit. A blasphemous person misuses scripture, the Gospel.
I hope you’re following me. I am trying to be as clear as I can be. This turns everything on its head. This changes everything. According to scripture, it is not the person who falls down in their spiritual walk who is at risk for losing their spiritual life. We all fall and Jesus came to give us life in spite of our mistakes. God does not give up on the person who fails morally. This puts the pressure on the person who uses things of God to undermine what Jesus did and attempts to condemn that person. The person who ignores the life giving power of the resurrected Christ is the one who blasphemes (misuses) the message of Christ.
‘Everything we do wrong is sin’, but all of it can be forgiven. The only thing that cannot be forgiven, the only sin that leads to death, is believing there is something that a human can do that cannot be redeemed. When you water down the Gospel in such a way that you remove the hope of salvation and redemption by putting the responsibility on the person and not on the free gift of grace, you blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
It’s a bizarre twist of human logic for scripture to not be pointing at the sinner, but at the one who claims scripture as the grounds to give up on the sinner. People who use the name of Jesus as the fuel to hold another under the strong arm of guilt and shame are the one’s who are committing the sin that leads to death. I believe that we are instructed to not even pray for that situation because it is so muddled and twisted that we can get caught up in the confusion that we end up trapped in the barbed wire logic in the process. Scripture is trying to protect us from the traps of logic the enemy (who knows scripture better than we do) sets to trip us up and make us feel like we’re pleasing God when we’re kicking our fallen.
How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? -Hebrews 10:29 ESV
The punishment is worse for the one who has disrespected the gift of Jesus, grace, because grace is the only thing that made them okay in the first place. To say it another way: When a person, who is saved by grace, makes it harder for another to believe in the free gift of God’s forgiveness (the blood of the covenant), they remove that covering from their own sin. It’s worse for that person because they are trying to make another earn what they, themselves, did not earn. It is a person who was forgiven a debt they could not pay, but will not forgive the debt of another. The only reason a person would hold another’s sin over their head, fail to restore them with forgiveness, or give up on them altogether is because they believe that is what Jesus did for them. Those people may be religious, they may know scripture, but they do not know Jesus. Blasphemy turns the Gospel into a lie. It turns grace into something that has to be earned. It ‘outrages the Spirit of grace’.
more thoughts….
