sin

Celebrate!

Posted by

0

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)

Author James Bryan Smith gives us this affirmation:

“Jesus rose from the grave. (Because I have been raised with Christ,) there is nothing I cannot rise from. Even death cannot hold me down. Nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

It’s all because of the Resurrection. As Christians, all we believe hinges on the resurrection. The Resurrection has the final word. It has the last laugh. It is our victory, our healing, and our hope. Because of the morning the tomb was found empty, we celebrate Easter.

But our celebration shouldn’t stop then and there. We should celebrate this ultimate and underlying victory every single day. Defeat is no longer an option. Death no longer has any hold. Sin no longer has any power.

Because of Jesus and our faith in Him and His resurrection, you and I are raised with Him, and as a result, you and I can rise above it all! As Smith says above, “There is nothing (we) cannot rise from!”

Celebrate!

Consider…

Posted by

1

I just have to share what I just read:

“Out of love Jesus was conceived and out of love he chose to die. There is something in us that God finds lovable. It is certainly not our sanctity, nor is it our fidelity. When I look at my own baseness, my incredible ability to sin at a moment’s notice, I wonder what God sees in me.

“Just recently I experienced a wonderful hour of prayer. I felt all warm inside, centered on God’s love, and ready to share that love with everyone I met. While driving to work, someone cut me off on the freeway, and immediately I began screaming at him. Where did this anger come from? It was in me all along. It is a good thing that God does not wait for us to be perfect in order to accept us.

“‘But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). God’s love for us is amazing in that he loves us without much of a reason. If we doubt it, all we have to do is consider the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ. For centuries that has been the clearest sign of God’s radical acceptance. Too often we reduce the cross to a mere decoration when in fact it is the most glorious demonstration of love that has ever been.”

— Embracing the Love of God, James Bryan Smith

Forgiven much…

Posted by

1

In Chapter 5 of his book, The Good and Beautiful Community, James Bryan Smith talks about “The Reconciling Community”, one which forgives readily and lives healed, healthy lives. He expounds on The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

You may know the story: The servant has a huge debt that he owes his master, and the master tells him that he’s going to lock up the servant and his entire family until he can pay the debt. But the servant pleads for mercy and the master relents and gives him more than he deserves: freedom. Free from debt and freedom from being a servant any longer.

Then the forgiven servant immediately goes to someone who owes him money and, instead of paying it forward, he demands repayment. The master hears of this atrocity and brings the forgiven servant back, reprimands him and throws him and his family back in jail to be tortured. The lesson is simple for us: Because we have been forgiven, we should forgive. (See Matthew 18:21-35)

But James Bryan Smith points out two things:

First, we don’t forgive to feel better. We are told that if we would just forgive, it would help us heal. But forgiveness is not therapy. In some situations, it seems impossible to forgive. That’s because it is — in our own power. We can’t will ourselves to forgive.

Because of the work on The Cross, we have been healed. We have been forgiven of our sins and all the collateral damage that sin brought into our lives. From that healing – in Christ – we have the power to forgive. We forgive from our healed hearts. We don’t forgive to be healed. We are healed and therefore, have the power to forgive.

His second point is where the healing comes from, at least for me. In the story above, the unmerciful servant was originally forgiven a HUGE debt. He could have worked the rest of his life and still not paid the debt. The debt was huge and he got more than the debt being wiped clean… he and his family were given their freedom!

In comparison, the debt of the one who owed this servant money was miniscule. James Bryan Smith points out that the first debt is over 600,000 times larger than the smaller debt.

Meditate on that for a moment. The things that we have been forgiven of (and that we will be forgiven of in our lifetime) are overwhelmingly huge. As James Bryan Smith says, “The point is clear: we have forgiven for so much more than we will ever be called on to forgive.” But not only has the slate been wiped clean, we get the Kingdom, too!

This is not be glossed over. This is a point to be pondered and internalized. And this is where the power to forgive comes from. As we get this narrative deep down within us, we receive healing and out of that healing, we find the power in Christ to forgive.

This does not minimize the deplorable things that have been done to you and me, whether it be adultery, sexual abuse, rape, or even the murder of family or friends. But as you and I meditate on how much we have been forgiven, we find the grace we need to forgive.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)

Utterly Undone

Posted by

0

If you do something right or something admirable, you are rewarded or praised for it.

If you do something wrong or disobey, you are punished.

That is the narrative we all have been raised with since we were children. Good behavior gets rewarded. Bad behavior gets punished. That’s justice. That’s how the world is supposed to work. That’s the law in action. It’s neat and clean and controllable. If _____, then ______. It’s what science is built on. Laws of physics. Laws of nature. It’s explainable and it makes sense.

Then comes grace.

In Chapter 8 of Tullian Tchividjian’ book, One Way Love, it reminds us of the fabulous story in Les Miserables. Whether you’ve seen it on Broadway or watched the screen adaptations, you know the story. Javert, the unrelenting, rigid inspector tells Jean Valjean as he gets out of prison that he will always be a criminal and when Valjean breaks his parole, Javert spends the rest of his life hunting him down like one. Although encountering Javert under assumed identities, Jean Valjean always treats his pursuer graciously. Inspector Javert is consumed to bring Valjean to justice. In the stage version, he even sings, “Mine is the way of the law.” Here’s what Tullian says:

“Valjean refuses to play by the same rules of quid pro quo, going so far as to be gracious with Javert in their several encounters. Valjean’s treatment of him haunts and radically disorients Javert. In the climactic scene, instead of doing away with him once and for all, Valjean saves Javert’s life. Javert is utterly undone by this unexpected act of mercy.”

“Utterly undone.” That is one of the best descriptions of what grace can do. Yes, it can completely wipe away and “undo” my past sins, but that is only the factual part of it. However, when the reality of grace really hits me, and I mean REALLY hits me, I am utterly undone.

All the performance-based rules of how I am supposed to behave our thrown out the window. I am free of them. Now, when I’m good, I am loved and rewarded. When I’m bad, I am loved and rewarded (by grace!). Don’t get me wrong: This doesn’t mean I want to go out and misbehave or disobey. To the contrary. Because I am completely and utterly undone, I now am completely and utterly in love with Jesus. I have no desire to misbehave or disobey. I am compelled to live totally for God.

God’s love, shown by His radically disorienting grace and mercy has the power to move mountains. I have seen it set people free from seemingly impossible bondage. I have seen husbands and wives reconcile when all was seemingly lost. Shoot… it has radically transformed me at the age of 55! All because of His “one-way” love.

Surrendered?

Posted by

2

I attended a church service in June or July of 1996 and I was never the same afterward. I’m ashamed to say that I don’t know my “Re-Birthday”, but I think it was July and it was definitely ’96. I was changed. That was nearly 18 years ago and I think that those who knew me in college and high school would say there’s been a change. I would have been voted “Most Likely to Waste Their Life” because I was getting wasted all the time. It’s an apt description… what a waste! I nearly did waste my life; that is, until 1996.

Thereafter, I hungered for the things of God. I devoured the Bible in six months. I knew what I was supposed to do. I had the knowledge. But the obedience didn’t follow. I fell into sin, and as is the unfortunate case with most Christian failings, the perpetrator is ostracized or shunned. Those that knew about my sin tried to get me to turn away but after a couple of tries, they would have nothing to do with me.

Normally sin will keep you from the desire to seek the things of God, but not so with me. I still hungered and at the same time, was tormented by what Christians would call the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

I discovered grace (again) in February of 1997 when I first attended a new church, Community Fellowship Church of the Nazarene. It felt like a safe place from the very beginning. I had lunch at Captain D’s Restaurant with its pastor, Jeff Griffith, and he showed me the true meaning of love, forgiveness, grace, and restoration. Through his leadership, I found that, incredibly, God could use my failings and brokeness to bring encouragement, healing, and victory to others. And God did, amazingly. I still shake my head in amazement.

I attended that church for 16 years, and being the Type-A personality that I am, served as hard as I could. Looking back, maybe it was God’s burning desire rekindled in me or maybe it was an effort to repay God for His forgiveness and restoration. Maybe it was both. I was constantly trying to do more, learn more, study more, work more, and even surrender more.

My wife and I sadly left that church last August. It was the hardest decision of my Christian life. Looking back after seven months, I’m glad we left. I miss the people terribly, but without leaving, I would have never discovered the liberation I now have after finding another facet of God’s grace.

Every Sunday, Christians hear a message of forgiveness and surrender. They are encouraged to surrender or to surrender more, and some pulpits will even declare a message of trying harder. I can’t remember a message of trying harder, although I know that it’s preached. I’ve preached it. I’ve taught it. “Read more.” “Pray more.” “Serve more,” is the mantra.

As I’ve struggled in my journey of faith, I’ve always thought my problem was that I hadn’t surrendered fully. There must be areas of my life that I haven’t fully turned over to God. I haven’t fully yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit. That must be the problem, I thought. That’s what I’ve been taught and that’s what’s been preached (at least that’s what I thought I heard).

That may be true, but to a Type-A personality and perfectionist like me, surrender then becomes an obsession, and actually becomes – in some crazy way – a work. It becomes something I must do in order to become more like Christ. Maybe that sounds crazy to you. Maybe it sounds strangely familiar.

For me, liberating victory has (again) come through the Gospel. Yes, the Gospel. The Good News.

Knowing that Jesus paid the price for my sins is one thing (and yes, the MAIN THING), but there’s more to it than just that (although that’s great news by itself).

It’s also knowing that…

… because Jesus won, I’m free to lose.
… because Jesus was strong, I’m free to be weak.
… because Jesus was someone, I’m free to be no one.
… because Jesus was the ultimate leader, I’m free and content to be a follower.
… because Jesus was (is) extraordinary, I’m free and content to be ordinary.
… because Jesus succeeded, I am free to fail.
… because “It is finished”, the work is done.

There is such freedom in those words, but there’s more.

I’ve said it before but I have to say it again and again because it is such Good News: There’s nothing I can do to make God love me more and nothing I can do to make God love me less. There is nothing I can do to repay God. There is nothing I can do to curry God’s favor, including surrendering more.*

Surrendering more is something that occurs naturally by getting the statements above the 18 inches from my head down into my heart. Surrendering more is something I don’t have to do; it just happens. As I discover the full revelation of God’s love and grace, it fills me more and more with the things of God. He’s all I think about or want to think about. I see the futility of living any other way and see more and more my need for Him everyday… mostly to save me from ME. It’s still a constant battle, but one that Jesus has already won for me.

I’m not sure if any of this resonates with you, but it is life-changing with me. Isn’t God’s grace truly amazing!?!

 

* to read a better description of this liberation, read any of Tullian Tchividjian’s books, such as One Way Love or Jesus + Nothing = Everything

I thank God for his fresh teaching on the subject.

“I’m a Recovering Fundamentalist”

Posted by

0

I love Mark Lowry. He is so funny. You can go from laughing to the point of tears to crying real tears in a nano-second. You may do the same watching the video at the link here: http://youtu.be/4aWIQFogJAc

He says, “I’m a recovering fundementalist.” I can relate. In fact, many people would call me a liberal. But there are so many political, social, or moral issues that we, as Jesus-followers, get caught up in that actually hurt the cause of Christ. All the while, we have a plank of wood in our own eye, as Jesus might put it.

Perhaps my favorite quote from the video is:

“We say, ‘Love the sinner and hate the sin.’ But I think it ahould be this: , ‘Love the sinner and hate your own sin.’ I’ll hate my sin, you hate your sin, and let’s love each other.”

We are so forgetful. We have amnesia. We forget how we used to be and what Christ saved us from. And here’s a News Flash: We haven’t “arrived” yet. Many of us still struggle with the same things we struggled with before we came to know Jesus: anger, lust, gossip, laziness, foul language… the list goes on. These are still part of our lifestyle. Yet we’re quick to point out how sinful someone else’s lifestyle is. I know because I do it, too.

It’s a long video. 10 minutes. You should watch it. Actually, you don’t need to watch it. You can just listen to it on your phone as you go down the road on the way to work.

Maybe you can’t afford to take the time. But maybe you can’t afford not to.