Their feet pound as they make their way across the terrain. They are the chosen. They’re His children.

Long journeys make them bored and tired. They get on each other’s nerves. Their stumbles bruise and scrape the people closest to them. It’s tempting to separate yourself from the failures of others.

They’ve been promised something better, but the promise fades when the journey drones.

They bring souvenirs. They take travel advice from the locals. They find ways to make their journey easier, only to find that it makes it harder.

Empty backpacks, abandoned egos and a transient disposition is required, but surely there is something for the ’self.’ When reward doesn’t come for their hard work or justice for their wounds, they rely on their own interpretation and bring their own repayment.

the conflict:

The ‘hard to come by‘ becomes the goal and soon it’s dog eat dog. Survival of the fittest is a blood bath. Fend for yourself and leave the weak behind.

Their feet pound as they make their way across the terrain. Spread apart and split off. Little ants scattering to find shade from the desert sun. Hunters lost in the woods. Spiraling in circles while a predator watches them, waiting for them to get tired.

If they could have stuck together, they could have fought off the attack. But they didn’t. They’re being drug off, one by one. They’re used against each other. Their desires and what they feel they deserve become the weapons.

Wedges are forged in the lives the chosen. Rivers rage a separation between sickness and healing. They’re designed to be united, but when they’re too far apart to hold each others hands, their sickness lingers.

They have one Source of Blood and the blood ties them together. You can’t get rid of your family because every time you sit down to eat, you have to sit with ‘them’ because when He ‘raised us up with him’ and He ’seated us with Him.’ (Eph2:6)

They’ve made each other enemies and it takes two to build a bridge over the raging river between them.

The predator seduces and makes you remember the sin. ‘Don’t walk with them, they did you wrong. Don’t trust them, they’ll hurt you again. Don’t forget the sin.’

The predator seduces and makes you feel justified. ‘You’re a good person, it doesn’t have to make sense. You need this. You deserve this.’

The predator tells you whatever you need to hear, whatever you’ll listen to, to separate you from the group. ‘You’re the only one who ‘gets it.’ The others are dragging you down. Dust your feet off and go off on your own. Forge your own path. Be the hero.’

If you are isolated, then you are weak. If you’re afraid, then you’re in the dark. If you have to focus on the sin, then you’re using your pain to feed your actions.

the climax:

If one member suffers, all suffer together…-1 Corinthians 12:26

When you fall down, you have to see it for what it is. You’ve been seduced by the enemy and your weaknesses were used to trip you. Get back up, do your best to fix the mess and keep walking.

If you’ve been hit by a Christian in a tailspin, you have to see it for what it is. You’re walking a rough terrain and tripping is inevitable. I know it hurts, but they’re your family. Help them to their feet and help them pick up the pieces. The sooner the two of you can walk again, the better. You’re connected, so if they’re left behind, so are you. If you try to move forward you’ll find that you can’t because a piece of you is within them.

You have one option when dealing with others. The one option is segmented in two. You either see others as though you’re seeing yourself or you’re seeing others as though they were Jesus. It’s tangled and inseparable. You’re incapable of separating yourself from yourself, so when you refuse to walk with a fellow believer, you’re refusing Jesus.

[Jesus] said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” -Luke 10:27

“He will answer them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone …that was me—you failed to do it to me.’ -Matthew 25:45

Empty backpacks, abandoned egos and a transient disposition is required. Everyone is either you or Jesus. If you love Him, you’ll love all of them. If you want to walk with Him, you have to walk with the ‘them.’

Are you trying to figure out the godly thing to do with a person? Are you struggling with keeping yourself safe and giving up your right to self? It’s likely that the person you’re holding the furthest from you is the very antibody for what is causing your pain.

The prescription has and will always be Love. Do your part and help build the bridge.

the impressions:

• Do you think it’s important to set aside differences for the sake of the bigger picture?
• What is the bigger picture?
• When you’re sitting at home in your pajamas and you’re not trying to impress anybody, what is that one thing/person/circumstance that is ‘undone’ in your life?

the challenge:

• What can you do today to start being a link for reconciliation?

coming out of the dark

If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place. -Proverbs 24:10

Buildings built on faulty foundations eventually come down. Poorly organized spaces have to be redone. If you want it to be better, then it will have to get worse. Everything is ripped up and pulled out into the open. With everything displaced, you can see things clearly. If you feel displaced, ripped up and pulled out, don’t be afraid. This isn’t for your end, this is for your new beginning.

Go up through her vine rows and destroy, but make not a full end. Strip away her branches, for they are not the LORD’s. -Jeremiah 5:10 ESV

Raw places and phantom pains. It’s okay to cry. Trust that the hand that prunes can be gentle, too. A shivering twig with so far to go, now knows nothing except Who’s in control. Now you know how little you knew when you thought you knew so much. Resting in dependence, lost without Him, what if something attacks you now? What if someone kicks you while you’re down? The One who keeps vigil hushes your trembles. He sings the song of the Keeper over new branches growing while you rest.

“I, the LORD, am its keeper. Every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day. I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together. Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.” -Isaiah 27:3-5 ESV

He’ll meet your attackers at the door. Armed with fire to burn them where they stand, yet overcome with compassion if they’re open to make peace.

Yes, let them make peace.

‘I’m as good as dead! Every word I’ve ever spoken is tainted— blasphemous even!’ -Isaiah 6:5

In all that God said through Isaiah’s mouth, Isaiah was still a man who, in the presence of God, saw that he had unclean lips.

According to Matthew 5, we’re supposed to pray for our enemies. In the reality of the Christian sub-culture, our ‘enemies’ are often other believers. If another Christian is hurting you, condemning you or excluding you, then pray for them.

Matthew 5:44, Romans 12:20 and Proverbs 25: 21-22 talk about praying for and showing kindness to your enemies. According to these scriptures, your response to them will ‘heap burning coals on their head.’ I don’t care how much I want someone to pay for the hurt they caused, I can’t say that I want them to experience that kind of torture.

However, if you consider Isaiah in the presence of God, he saw his error and begged to be cleansed. When I pray for my ‘enemies’, I pray that God reveals himself.

‘Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with the coal…’ -Isaiah 6:6-7

He was cleansed with burning coal.

The purpose for praying for and showing kindness to your enemy is so they can be in the presence of God. If Isaiah is any hint of what being in the presence of God is like, then no man can stand. He will ask to be cleansed and God will heap burning coals.

If you want someone to see the error of their ways, then love them. God changes people through love. He saved the world through love. God is love.

When they have been cleansed, you’ve made a friend (Matthew 18:15). Together whole and healed (James 5:16). That has been the goal from the beginning (John 17:20).

“Look. This coal has touched your lips. Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out.” -Isaiah 6:7

...if she listens, you've made a friend. {matthew 18:15}

]]> http://www.graceisforsinners.com/life/in-light-of-it/feed/ 6 http://www.graceisforsinners.com/life/choose-your-own-adventure/ http://www.graceisforsinners.com/life/choose-your-own-adventure/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:54:44 +0000 Serena Woods http://www.graceisforsinners.com/?p=512 ‘Forgiveness is the ultimate middle finger to the very entity of evil.’ – ‘Grace Is For Sinners’

Matthew 18:21-35

Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?” Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.”

When Jesus says something, Christians might consider actually listening to it. Especially when he’s telling us a story to illustrate what the Kingdom of God is like. 

Therefore, the kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants.

God is like the king in the story. He has his ledger open and is calling his people in, one by one, to pay their debts.

As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars.

This guy owed the king the equivalent of one-hundred-fifty years of wages. It was an impossible debt. There was no way he could pay.

Going by the books, the servant had to be sold into slavery. In the same way, going by the books, the wages of sin is death.

He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market. The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.

He took pity because this man, stupid enough to rack up 150 years of debt, was in over his head. 

But somebody had to suffer the loss. Just because a debt is forgiven doesn’t mean that the debt disappears. The king absorbed the loss when he threw out the ledger for this guy. 

God shows us mercy because we, as humans, are in over our heads. We cannot pay our debt. So, Jesus absorbed the debt and threw out the law book when he died on the cross.

The man no longer lives under the law, if he did, he’d be a slave. In the same way, we no longer live under the law, if we did, we’d be slaves.

The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’

The man brought the ledger back out when it was he who wanted to be paid back. 

The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid.

The guy owed him money and he had every right, under the law, to throw him in jail. It wouldn’t matter if it was two cents. The law doesn’t have a scale, it’s black and white and has no mercy.

The guy is all about throwing out the law book when it benefits him, but isn’t a supporter when it costs him.

The problem is, you can’t serve two kingdoms. Whatever kingdom you implement when it comes down to it is the one you serve. You can’t have it both ways.

When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king. The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt.

The man chose the law, so, the law he gets. If he wants to be paid back by those who wronged him, then he has to pay back his own debt. 

And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.

If you want to be free, then you have to set others free. 

Just because you forgive the debt, doesn’t mean it disappears. Somebody has to pay. Jesus absorbed our debt. We absorb the debts of others. How else are we going to be crucified with Christ? 

I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ.  - Paul, Galatians 2:20

You’re at a fork in the road. Which kingdom do you serve, law or grace? It’s your choice, God will honor it. 

Wouldn’t our song have more life? If we could erase the pain, wouldn’t our step have more bounce? The memory and the scars tear us down to skin and bones. Bitterness soils our sheets. Pain flavors our toothpaste. Our resentment turns our coffee cold. Our shoes are heavy. Our empty stomachs bloat with stress.

Where is the glory of God in his forgiveness? Where does it help you for him to forgive them? They’re not even sorry! 

Are we like Jonah? He preached to the Ninevites. Vile sinners, open and flagrant. Shameless. He told them what God told him to say and they repented. Then, Jonah, a prophet, a man of God, was furious. He practically spit on the work that God did when he pardoned the huge city of sin from their due. 

‘Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!’ - Jonah 4:1-2

The audacity of grace. This two-fisted forgiveness that uses no gauge. Mercy that shows no respect to whom the mercy takes justice from. 

Where is the glory of God in his forgiveness, you ask? To whom do you wish to bestow glory? Yourself? Isn’t that why you’re angry? Isn’t that why you withhold grace? 

Where does it help you for him to forgive them, you wonder? Is this about you? Maybe it is, but not in a way you think it is. Maybe it’s a device to aid you in letting go of your ’self’. Maybe your pain is your plank. 

You think they’re not sorry? What makes you an expert on the inner workings of another man’s heart? 

‘So don’t get ahead of the Master and jump to conclusions with your judgments before all the evidence is in. When he comes, he will bring out in the open and place in evidence all kinds of things we never even dreamed of—inner motives and purposes and prayers. … It’s important to look at things from God’s point of view. I would rather not see you inflating or deflating reputations based on mere hearsay. For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart?’ – 1 Corinthians 4:5-7

You can sulk if you want.

‘God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up. But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint.‘ – Jonah 4:6-8

You can complain about the shade tree God grew for you one night and took away the next.

 ”What right do you have to get angry …?” – God, Jonah 4:9

Don’t be so shortsighted that you forget that there is so much that we don’t know and the only way to be right is to LOVE.

‘When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.’ – Romans 13:8

One of the hardest things for a believer to do is remember that there is another perspective that we’re supposed to be keeping. We live in bodies of flesh and blood. Our true selves, our spirits, are what remains after these bodies have gone. (John 4:24 MSG)

We’re spiritual beings. We are connected by the Spirit that lives inside of each of our beautifully created bodies. Maybe knowing the spirit of Jesus lives within each person who believes in Him, we can understand how what you do to another, you do to Him.

Separated by our arguments and failures, we are giving our ‘flesh and blood’ lives the power. We make decisions based on emotional inclinations. This puts us in an unfortunate plight. Your ‘flesh and blood’ response to a situation is bound to change over time and you’re setting things in stone that will be irrellevant in the light of day. Yet, those who are building their emotional fences are surrounded by encouragement. 

We are told that we don’t know enough about what’s really going on to be able to make any decision other than to act according to Love. (1 Cor. 13) Yet we don’t remember what is true in the spirit when we are dealing with what hurts in the flesh. We are told to be quick to forgive, yet we put restrictions on that forgiveness, in effect restricting our freedom along with it. Can’t we, for a second, consider that God may know what He’s talking about and so we should act out of trust that He’s trying to keep us from any futher harm? 

What if we run after peace? What if we chase down the loose strings and turn a frayed end into a forceful knot? Spirit to Spirit, forgiving the shortcomings of a flesh that we knew was corrupt before we saw the evidence. “Fool me once, shame on you….fool me twice…” We’re afraid of being hurt, we’re afraid of looking like fools. 

Forgiveness defuses the bomb. Love covers a multitude. Hands joined together are better than arms crossed against chests. It’s not about staying alert for the inevitable Satan Attack, it’s seeing your role in the attack that is well underway.

If we turn on each other, then he doesn’t have to.

Deny the flesh. Run after peace. Make your love the talk of the town. When they ask you why you’re still holding hands, then tell them the Truth.

inspired by 1 Peter 3:8-22 MSG

You can’t get love if you don’t give it. You can’t be free unless you loose what is bound. Hatred breathes and grows and consumes what is owned and the object of what you despise may never know what you wish to demise. Forgiveness is your weapon. Love is your power and your reward.

We are one breed, one in kind and classification. We shred ourselves by divisions in race, religion, failure and aspiration. Misery loves company and the only thing to show for your union is a dark and damp offering to the gods of the diseased selfishness. Love is the hardest thing to choose because it causes you to deny yourself and open up to the failures of others.

Superstitions and dusty traditions hold back the innovators and originators. How can you be something new if you don’t do something you’ve never done? How can you learn if you don’t open up to the idea that you have something yet to learn?

Take everything that you can physically lose and mentally lose it. Find who you are in the loss of everything that has always defined you.

Befriend the unlikely. Forgive the blameworthy. Love the insufferable.

Be the upheaval.