Again. And Again.

Again. And Again..

The Hurting Church

The sins of the father will be passed from generation to generation until the cycle is broken with genuine repentance.  The church is full of hurting people.  Hurting people hurt people.  This is the cycle that needs to be broken in the church.  I truly believe this is causing a huge exodus that it taking place with believers.  It’s time to break the cycle. It’s time to come to Christ in deep broken repentance.  It is time to stop doing good deeds and start letting Christ in us love through us.  Forget intellectualism, theological explanations, big words, Greek words, Hebrew words, Latin words, church politics, programs and any other distraction that causes us to miss the point of why we do what we do.  Let it all go for just a moment and breathe.  Church…stop the madness and listen…LISTEN!  The Holy Spirit is speaking to you. He wants to be your guide. He wants your obedience. He wants to show you, to teach you.  It’s time to stop all the noise and listen to the voice of God within all of us. It’s time to walk in obedience to that voice and to let that Spirit teach us to love.  Stop hurting each other!

40 Days To Become – Righteous???

Well, today ended the 40 Days to Become for our congregation.  I’m not sure who participated or what the result was, but for me, well, I must say, I ended it with a big fat fail.  I am so thankful that God is not surprised by my failures and in my weakness He is strong.  Yep, the whole John 15 thing certainly proved itself today because I did not abide in Christ.  Instead, I allowed my emotions to control my actions.  I did not trust in the vine.  I did not focus on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy.  Nope.  Today I focused on me and my injured soul.  I had a huge pity party and said and did things I regret.

Today I can identify with Paul in that I do what I  don’t want to do and I don’t do what I should.

I am experiencing a lot of confusion lately (confusion is not from God) as to how to handle certain relationships in my life.  I want to make better choices and choose for God’s glory and not what I think is best for me.  I’m just not sure which is which so I will not make a decision today.  I will wait and He will answer.

I was listening to Beth Moore yesterday and she was talking about how God uses the ones we love most to test us.  We are doomed to repeat the test until we pass…but not just pass.  We must get an A.  I have repeated and failed the same test for years.  God, change me, enlighten me. Help me to know what to do to ace this thing once and for all!  Amen.

Fear of God

I keep hearing Christians talk of how there is a problem in the body of Christ when it comes to fearing God.  This has led me to seek the truth in regards to this topic.  Some of them say that it means more than just reverence and awe but it also means to be afraid. I say we are not to be afraid of God because that’s what I keep reading in His Word. The only thing we should be afraid of is a life without Him and the consequences that come from disobedience. But I do not believe that I am to be afraid of God. What has led to such a focus on fearing God in some congregations is that there is the lack of reverence that seems to be apparent in the lives of believers.  They believe that people just want their ears tickled. They do not want to hear about God’s wrath, they just want to feel good.

While this may be true for some, I don’t believe that it is the goal for most. I understand the churches focusing on “feel good” sermons all the time but the Christian faith is not about feeling good.  It’s about sacrifice.  It’s about pain.  It’s about enduring persecution and hardship.  But, it is not about fear.  It is about trusting a Holy God who strengthens and suppllies and delivers and loves and carries us through it all.  It’s about the good that comes from the pain.  It’s about the joy that comes from and in the sorrow.  

We live in a dark and depraved world full of hurting people. At some point, these people will come to the end of themselves.  Some of them will commit suicide. Some will commit murder. Some will steal. Some will turn to alcohol or drugs or any other means of ending their pain.  But some will turn to the body of Christ.  They are looking for hope.  They need to find that hope in Christ. They should find Christ through His church.  So, do they need to hear a message that God is a big, scary, wrathful God who punishes his own if they are not obedient? Do they need to hear a message on how believers just can’t ever seem to measure up, that they are losers?  Do they have to witness Christians being continuously reminded of what failures they are? What’s the point of coming to Christ if we are doomed to continue to live in defeat and hopelessness? What about Christ’s blood covering all our sin?  What about the forgiveness of all sin, past present and future?  Can we really scare people out of Hell? Who wants to serve a God they have to be afraid of when they are already living in total fear in this world? To me, that is missing the whole point.  Is the problem in the church a lack of being afraid of God? In my opinion, absolutely not!

From my many years as a Christian and student of the Word, the message I get when it comes to fearing God has nothing to do with being afraid. Believers are never to be afraid of God or His wrath.  I cannot accept that fear (being afraid) of God’s wrath is ever the driving force behind a sinner coming to grace.  If so, the reason they come is selfish because they don’t want to suffer.  From this believer’s perspective, that defies the whole reason Jesus died. The driving force behind a genuine conversion is about God’s love, grace,  and mercy (pardon for those undeserving).  It is about understanding who God is and our sinful condition.  It is about realizing how much we are loved.  It is realizing how unworthy we are to be so loved by Him and wanting to change from being self-centered to God focused. It’s about understanding grace.

Here is what I have concluded from the time I have spent with God on this subject...

First, I want to take a look at Proverbs 1:7: ” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction”  (NKJV).  

In this instance within the text, this fear is referring to a holy reverence of God that leads to salvation.  If there is any kind of “being afraid” that could be spoken of in regards to this particular verse of scripture, I would have to say that the non-believer fears the consequences of a life without God (a life doomed to God’s eternal wrath).  God’s wrath is certainly something to be afraid of but the Bible is God’s call to all of us to not be afraid to come to Him.  Proverbs 1:7 is speaking to the foolish, those who are not believers who think they need no instruction and whose lives are a mockery to God.   Fear of the Lord in this verse is for those whose eyes begin to see where grace begins.  When a non-believer experiences this awe and reverence (fear) of  God is for the very first time – this where wisdom begins.

Proverbs 9:10 – “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. ( NIV).  The ISV translates this as, “The fear of the LORD is where wisdom begins, and knowing holiness demonstrates understanding”. This leads to the next point.

The Merriam -Webster Dictionary defines wisdom as

“the natural ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand”.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding what most others cannot. This is when a person can understand grace for the very first time.  It is then, that they see God’s mercy (undeserved pardon) towards them.  It is God’s kindness, (not His wrath) that leads a sinner to repentance. 

 

The only people who should be afraid of God are those who die without Him and even then, It is not God that should cause them to experience terror, but their choice to suffer His wrath and be apart from His love and grace for all eternity.  I think we need to be afraid of not living under grace instead of being afraid of God. Proverbs 9:10 takes the believer to the next level.  Once a person receives the wisdom of God, he begins to know God and His holiness.  He begins to experience that holiness and that knowledge is understanding.  But without fear (holy reverence, respect, and awe), there is no hope for the sinner. Non-believers are not afraid of God. To the contrary, they live in mockery of God.  They are foolish and empty of wisdom.  If anybody should be afraid of God’s wrath, they should be because they will be doomed to eternity under that wrath unless they come to a place of fear (holy reverence and awe) of Him.  But, then again, terror cannot be the motivation for our surrender.  Our surrender must come from a repentant heart motivated by love or it cannot be genuine.

1 John 4: 17-19

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.

Thinking this through has led me to believe that there is never a real reason to be afraid of God Himself because God is the the definition, the the very essence of perfect love. God is where love begins and the absence of God’s presence is the absence of love’s existence. 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love.  Verse 18 says that there is no fear in love.  In fact, it is that perfect love (God’s love) that drives out fear. So, with this enlightenment, it doesn’t even make sense that a person would be afraid of God. Oh yes,  His physical presence would certainly overwhelm me to the point of falling on my face and trembling in fear (overwhelming awe and reverence beyond anything I can imagine or measure).  But, I would not tremble because I was afraid of what He might do to me in my worthlessness because I understand His love, mercy and kindness.  I understand that because of His love and Christ’s sacrifice, I am worthy. I am His child. I can approach the throne of God with boldness as His child! It is only by God’s divine grace, mercy and perfect love that we can even hope to ever come to an understanding that He is the Almighty, Holy, Righteous, God who is to be feared (awed, respected, reverenced).

This is not “tickle your ears and make me feel good” theology.  This is God’s message all through His Word.  The Bible can be summed up in one brief statement:

~1 JOHN 3:16~

 This is what fearing God looks like to me

God put the wrath we deserve on His Son who didn’t deserve it because of His love.  Jesus declared, “It is finished“.  Hallelujah!  I am free because He died for me!  I am no longer a slave to sin but a beloved, redeemed child of God!  It is not God’s will that a single person perish but that all would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and what He has done for us!  It is not fear (being afraid) of God that leads to repentance.  It is God’s kindness, mercy, and grace that is extended to all who will receive it.  It is His gift of love.  

“But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 

Matthew 14:27

40 Days to Become – Salt and Light – Week 4

 

 

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5: 13-15

 

 

I thought in the beginning of the 40 Days to Become I would write every day.  Although I did some journaling in my personal journals, I wasn’t really inspired daily to write here.  But, I am working on what will probably be a series of posts because it’s very long.  To give a sneak peek, I have come through a process and made a discovery.  As I have been traveling on this journey, I have been struggling to know what I am striving to “become” and I wasn’t seeing the fruit of the 40 days to become.  I just kept asking, “Become what?”.

The pastor who initiated this mentioned in one of his messages a couple weeks ago that we are on a journey to become righteous.  I chewed on it for several days. I thought we were on a journey to become vessels to glorify God. Is that what it means to become righteous? I thought, “Doesn’t the blood of Jesus make us righteous? So, what does this mean for me?  How can I become what I already am in Christ?” That’s the key to it all.  I don’t live out what I believe and know that I am – righteous – because of Christ.

During this time, I did the opposite of what my goal was in the beginning of this journey.  My goal was to press on and not look back.  But, something happened that stirred up so much of what I was trying to put behind me and before I knew it, I had taken my eyes off of the prize and started dwelling on all the broken relationships and the people who have abused, betrayed, rejected and neglected me…even and especially loved ones. I find it interesting that whenever I see something in me I want to change, I am always confronted with the very thing I want to move away from.  God puts me in the fire to purify my heart.

Before I knew it, I had spiraled downward, back into the same pit I have been falling into over and over again for years.  I get out of it at times and I start walking away but something always happened that caused me to go back instead of moving far away from it. It’s almost as if there is some kind of sense of security in that pit. It’s deep, dark and nobody can get to me to hurt me there. But this pit is so full of terrible things and so empty of anything good. People don’t do anything to hurt me when I’m there, but what they did in the past still allows them to inflict pain because of my choice to dwell there.  There is no love there. There is no hope there, there is no peace there. There is only darkness, pain, isolation, loneliness, suffering, pity and worst of all emptiness. But that emptiness makes room for God to fill me with His light and love.

I have asked God to help me to overcome this once and for all. I have realized the main reason I keep going back to that place.  It’s because I don’t put my hope in God (Psalm 43:5).  I don’t feel safe to let go and give it all to Him.  I was afraid of what He might do with it.  Giving certain things to God means I might have to sacrifice relationships that I want to hold on to.  It means that I would have to trust Him.  It means that I might have to accept that even though I pray for a miracle and the hearts of those who are hard against me would change towards me and that the relationship might be restored; that may not be God’s plan.  I keep going back because I think, “what if it’s not His plan”?  What if God never tells me I can have them restored? Is this being anxious for nothing?

What if?

This is worry.  This is fear.  This is self centered. It is idolatry.  I trust in these relationships to feel complete somehow.  My trust should be in God alone – should be- but, it isn’t.

This is what God tells me about this attitude of my heart.  This is the Rhema God gave to me for this situation.  Paul was under house arrest for the sake of spreading the gospel when he penned these words:

Philippians 4: 4-8

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

So, what if, indeed, God never restores these broken relationships?  Well, He is all knowing and perfect in love. If he never restores these relationships it’s because He has a better plan.  I need to trust this. My focus is to remain on Him (whatever is pure lovely and admirable). It will bring Him glory and joy begins where I end and He begins. The only thing I need to focus on in this life is glorifying God.  I must stop making it about me.  Why in the world is this so hard to do? I am here to be a witness.  I am here to glorify God by bringing hope to the hopeless by sharing God’s message of salvation through Jesus  Christ. This glorifies God.  The only relationship I need to be concerned with is my relationship with Him, my Abba.  When that is right, then everything else is right even if it doesn’t feel good. I can have joy in the midst of the worst circumstances as long as I don’t focus on the circumstances but on the God over them! This is God working all things together for Good (Romans 8:28).

Well, as always, God has heard my cry and He has answered again.  He is always there and He never gives up on me.  He showed me His glory as I asked. He spoke clearly to me through my quiet times. He spoke to me through devotional reading, Bible study and music. He spoke through walking, running, people, creation.  He speaks to us in so many ways if we just take time to pay attention.  We only have to open our eyes and ears to see His glory. Everything I heard and observed fit together so perfectly.  This is always, always the case when I come to the end of myself and fall at His feet in repentance and humility.  

Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, my sins are already forgiven, but He reveals to me where my weaknesses are.  He calls me to repent, not because I need to be forgiven. He declared that finished at the cross. The call to repentance (turning from going in the wrong direction to going in the right direction) is to create in me an awareness that I have stopped abiding in Christ.  It is a call to turn from the thing(s) that distract(s) me from that so I get my life aligned with His purpose for His glory. The end result is that I will find joy in the midst of the worst circumstances.  My joy will be Christ in me.  My peace will be in the only relationship that matters and the only one that will never fail.

I understand that in order to “become” I have to abide in Christ.  In order to live righteously, I must continue to abide in Him (John 15: 5-10). When I start going down that pit, I need to make a choice to turn away from the thinking that puts me there and turn my focus on His glory. That has been the message He has for me through this entire journey.  He is the vine and I am the branches.  If I abide in Him and He in me, there will be fruit brought forth from my life. Apart from Him I am unable to do anything “righteous” or good at all.  Because of Christ’s finished work on the cross I am forgiven.  My salvation is secure.  I will be with Him when I pass from this life to the next.  But, in order to live out the righteousness in me, I need to keep pressing on and running the race to win the prize in Christ.  

Philippians 3:12-14 

12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus

I am a redeemed and holy child of God.  I am a priest.  I am no longer a slave to sin because Jesus paid for me to be free.

Romans 6: 15-18

 ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

It’s time I started to do better at abiding and living out the righteousness that lives within me. I cannot tell others that there is light at the end of their suffering if I am sitting in a dark and empty hole of self-pity and isolation.  I must grab on to Christ and never let go.  He alone can get me out and keep me out of this same pit I keep falling into over and over again.  One day at a time.  I must trust in Him because He alone is worthy and able. I am so glad that when I let go of Him, He never lets go of me.  His hand is always there, holding on and ready to pull me out of the pit when I finally grab on and trust Him. Only then will I become salt and light.