We are none of us perfect, and all a
work in progress. It can be disheartening, falling down again. We
push and we struggle and we try for every inch of holiness and still
we have so far to go. Worse yet is the sight of those who are “further along”
than we are. It would be easy to get lost in the comparison. It
would be easy to see yourself as less, or wrong, or even to doubt
your salvation because you're not moving as quickly or as far.
Don't let that happen. We must
remember that we all started at different places, at different times,
and as different people. We all walk our own road to heaven so to
speak and it would be folly to compare the paths. Don't confuse what
I'm saying by the way, there is only one way to heaven and to God,
namely through Jesus Christ, but what I'm saying is that no one walks
the same steps on our journey. Some of us had the blessing of
growing up in Christian homes with Christian parents or having a
great biblical church to attend or having great teachers to learn
from; others did not. Some people started in more shadowed worlds,
or eventually found themselves there. Some of us have more dust to
shake off than others.
What is important is not your position
on the journey but that you're making it all! Whether you're a baby
Christian experiencing God for the first time or an elder nearing the
end of a lifetime with Jesus, we're all going home. Don't worry so
much about how much more work God has to do in you, the greatest
saint is a horrid creature when compared to God.
Ultimately God is the one to compare
ourselves to, the one and only standard. We may be saddened when we
compare our black soul to another's shining white but when laid
before God we are all just shades of gray, only He is perfect! It
should be a humbling and a hopeful thing to see ourselves compared to
the Holy God. We appear so much worse and He appears so much better.
Let that remind you that we are all just travelers on the journey,
no one any better than another, and to all of us God has blessed us
greatly with salvation undeserving.
If we can keep a right perspective on
ourselves and others we will be better prepared not only to continue
our own journey but to help out others with theirs. That perfect
saint you see may be battling demons inside that are tearing him
apart or that struggling new Christian with the course mouth may be
just bursting with the love of God! Remember that our only
comparison should be vertical, Man to God. Forget how others may
look to you or how you may look to others, ask God to help you see
everyone -yourself included- as He see's them. That's how to move
forward, onward and upward, to eternity.
Perseverance of the Saints. I'm sure
you've heard of it. It's one of the primary doctrines of
Christianity and one that offers great hope to us all. Unfortunately
it is also a doctrine that is widely misunderstood. The idea behind
the doctrine is God's people cannot lose their salvation, sadly it
has been used and abused by quite a few preachers.
“This
is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live
with Him. If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.”
(2
Timothy 2:11-12)
“Then
Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, 'If you abide in My word,
you are My disciples indeed. 'And you shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.”
(John
8:31-32)
Let's
look at the problem. The common saying used these days is the well
known “Once saved always saved.” Now to be honest there is
nothing said by that phrase that isn't true. If we are really and
truly saved by God we cannot be taken from Him. The problem lies in
the path that saying takes to get there. When you say “once saved
always saved” the thought behind it is that nothing I do will make
me go to hell. Again, nothing being said is technically wrong but it
SO the wrong attitude! The attitude expressed here is that I don't
have to worry, I don't have to try, and I don't have to care at all,
because I'm set. I've got my fire insurance, I prayed my little
prayer, I went to the front of the church and that is all I need
right? Wrong! There is so much more to Christianity and so much
more to perseverance than that! It may sound like nit-picking but we
have to remember that the words we use have power and the meaning and
attitude behind them has a ripple effect as it moves away from us.
What we meant to say will probably not be what the fiftieth person to
hear it hears.
"My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. "And I
give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall
anyone snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given
them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them
out of My Father's hand. "I and My Father are one."
(John
10:27-30)
“Moreover,
brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which
also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are
saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you; unless you
believed in vain.”
(1
Corinthians 15:1-2)
“For
I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor
height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans
8:38-39)
Now
for the truth. What is meant by perseverance of the saints is that
those who are truly God's will endure until the end. We will
stumble and fall, we will sin and sorrow, but we will never full
leave God's side. We will outlast temptation and make it to the end
of this long road, we will meet our Father at the highways end.
God's power keeps us going and the only real sign of a true believer
is endurance. We will see fruit from their efforts and we will see
growth indeed but so much of this can be mimicked by hard work and
human effort. Remember that God rules over everything and nothing
surprises Him. He knew from the moment you came to Him -from the
moment of creation really- every sin you have and will ever
commit. When He forgives your sin He forgives ALL of it, what could
you do to lose that salvation that doesn't fall under “all?”
You could do nothing to save yourself. We cannot earn our salvation
and thus we cannot disqualify it either. The true saints of God will
continue!
Take
this to heart, Christian, if you mire in worry and doubt. Are you
working to get closer to God? Does your sin burden you? Do you
always come back and repent no matter how far you stray? That
presence in your soul, that burden on your heart is most likely the
Spirit of God dwelling in you and keeping you! Don't fear doubts,
face them! Don't get lazy and don't give up, God will empower those
who are His own to last to the end! Our work doesn't save us, but as
James points out it acts as the evidence of a changed life. So work
out your salvation as the Bible says, seek God, ask for strength and
don't sit on your laurels and assume that your prayer saved you. For
it is the changed life and new hunger for God and His path for you
that signifies your salvation.
I know where you are right now. Alone
and angry and frustrated. You're sitting in the dark as you rail
against yourself. “Again.” You ask yourself. “Why have I done
this again?” For the hundredth time you find yourself in the
aftermath of sin, of sin you chose to do for reasons that have now
evaporated. I know this because I've been there, we all have. The
life of a Christian is not one of perfection and sadly we often find
ourselves repeating the same bad choices we swore never to make
again.
The first thing I'll say is this: Use
it. Sin won't stop at merely getting you to choose the 'flesh'. It
will use your grief to drive you further from God. Grief and guilt are
unusual. When used properly they can keep us humble, drive us to do
better, and cause us to draw closer to God. Often though, our guilt
makes us unwilling to approach the perfect God and can actually push
us to further sin. It's important to remember that we are
undeserving of His grace and deserving of His punishment, but we
can't focus on that. We have to keep that fact in mind so that it
informs the wonder and awe we experience from the knowledge of what
He has done for us. That the Holy God of the universe would deign to
save such as us shouldn't make us cower into the dirt, it should have
us shouting for joy and praise! On the flip side, we must examine
our sins and our behaviors and our history to be sure that the
overall pattern is growth not simply a lack of freedom from sin. God
has given us freedom, we don't -have- to sin, but we will. Not until
glory will we be totally free. Use it, don't let your guilt simply
sit there. Go to God and repent, ask for His help and He will be
there with you.
Furthermore, remember that you never
deserved your salvation in the first place. I know that when I sin,
when I have to repent of my actions, one of the first things that
comes to my mind is the question “why on earth would God have saved
me?” It's helpful to remember that God didn't save you because of
anything within 'you'. To put it bluntly, He saved you because He
chose to. That's it and we may never understand the reasons. We
were utterly unworthy of salvation in the first place so we can't
become less worthy than that. God saw all of your sin, all of it,
from the time that He made time itself. He knew exactly what He was
getting into when He saved you. There are no surprises, there are
no regrets, and there is nothing that will cause Him to revoke that
which He has given. If you're saved, if you really are, then know
that you will never fall fully away. You will always return, God
will always be calling you back or even dragging you back.
So don't give up. Use your guilt and
your mistakes. Take what the enemy want's to use to destroy you and
give it to God so that He can build you up instead. Repent and move
on from that dark room you find yourself in. Keep your eyes on the
bright horizon and keep walking, keep fighting for every step and
when you fall, get back up.
How do we deal with suffering? How can
we understand the reasoning behind the hard times, or the necessity
of struggle? The question is so often asked; “Why do bad things
happen to good people?” As we journey through this life we often
find more trouble than peace and it so frequently leads people
astray. Is there any way to cope with it? The problem of pain is a
complex issue, one not solved with a single paper or a pithy phrase,
but we can spend some time today on a few hope-filled truths.
Probably the most harsh answer to the
issue of suffering, to the question of 'why do bad things happen to
good people is this: they don't. Bad things do not happen to good
people, bad things happen to bad people and we are all bad people.
This is yet another instance of how having your theology straight
affects your understanding of other things. The Bible clearly
teaches us that we as a race are fallen from birth and are enemies of
God by our very nature. As soon as we have the ability to choose we
choose sin, we desire after it, we want to rebel. So as I said the
harsh answer to the problem of pain is that we all deserve everything
we get. From the lost job to the flooded streets to the death of a
loved one to the death of ourselves; everything is the end result of
a fallen world brought about by our sin. No one is innocent,
everyone is guilty, we have no right to complain.
That being said there are more
comforting explanations for struggle. Growth for example. Going
back to my previous statement, having a systematic theology helps you
to understand the questions that arise in life. When we understand
the nature of God (as much as we can as finite, fallen creatures) and
the plan He has for us, we see that ultimately God is not worrying so
much about our 'happiness' as He is our 'holiness.'
“but
as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct..”
(1
Peter 1:15)
“...just
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in love..”
(Ephesians
1:4)
It's
not that the Lord doesn't care about our happiness it's that He
understands the truth that we will not be happy until we are in Him!
True joy will come not from constant pleasure, not from an easy life,
not from myriad possessions but from a closeness to God! Even in the
most dire of situations, in the darkest of places, we can have joy!
Maybe not shouting from the rooftops and dancing in the streets joy,
but the joy of lasting peace and trust in the God who guides our step
and directs everything that happens. And we can trust Him, because
He knows what we don't. He knows that the man in the pew behind you
won't be made more holy by getting that new job, but that being
unemployed for a few more months will teach Him to rely on God for
his every need. That women praying at the steps of the stage won't
become more like Jesus in some particular way unless her son rebels
against God for another year; and her son won't learn to love God
above himself unless he see's just what sin he is capable of. We
wouldn't choose that path, we wouldn't choose these lessons but God
knows what we need and since He cares more for our holiness than our
'happiness' He will rain fire down on the life that wants rain!
“But
may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you.”
(1
Peter 5:10)
“In
your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of
shedding blood. You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to
you as sons: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he
disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges." Endure your
trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what
"son" is there whom his father does not discipline? If you
are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons
but bastards. Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to
discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not (then) submit all
the more to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a
short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit,
in order that we may share his holiness. At the time, all discipline
seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the
peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.”
(Hebrews
12:4-11)
Have
you ever compared the sorrows of this life to the suffering of Jesus
on the cross? Has anything you've gone through been like that? Has
it even been close to even the physical pain of His death? I doubt
that it has and I know that nothing you or I or anyone has ever gone
through is even comparable to the suffering He endured under the full
wrath of God against our sin! Our pain in this life is but a shadow
of death. A specter of the true punishment we deserve. God is using
these 'minor' pains to tell us something. If this is what earthly
pain looks like, if this what temporary physical suffering feels like
how horrible must an eternity in Hell be! If this is what it feels
like to endure the wrath of men, how must Jesus have felt under the
wrath of almighty God! God allows the shadow of death to cross over
us in part so we can appreciate the sacrifice of Jesus and so we can
run to Him for salvation. He allows it so that we would flee in
terror to Him.
Finally,
as Christians, we suffer because we are not of this world. There is
a promise in the New Testament that cannot be missed, Christ was
hated by the world and so we will be hated as well. If we seek to
live this life as God would have us live we will rub people the wrong
way. If we show them the holiness of God it will point out how
unholy they are, if we show them that their sins can be forgiven it
will force them to look at the sins they have hidden or denied. We
may not live a life of constant persecution but it will come from
someone in some form.
“Yes,
and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecution.”
(2
Timothy 3:12)
I
know that this isn't every reason, but it's a start. Regardless of
the hows and the whys we as the people of God can find comfort in
Him. He is our rock and our cornerstone, our redeemer, brother, and
friend. He will hold us and keep us safe even in the midst of
trials. We may not understand, but that is when we have to trust Him
because He does know what is best. Pray for peace and comfort from
Him, pray for those you see in trouble around you and remember that
you may be the one that God would use to help them. When all the
world is falling apart, God will always stand sure; and when everyone
has left you, He'll be there.
We love a process don't we? Everyone
has a twelve step program or three simple rules or five things you
should know or whatever. People everywhere are constantly on the
look out for the rules to follow to make their lives better. There
is a problem with that though, namely that the Christian life isn't
usually about following a process or sticking to a strict set of
guidelines. There are rules of course and there are guidelines but
the Bible actually gives us a tremendous amount of freedom in our
daily lives.
I've seen a few blog posts and
articles both from Christians and non-Christians that lay the blame
for bad things at the feet of some statue or ideology. One writer
blames their youth for their failed marriage another blames the path
they took to get there and others simply give up and say that the
divorce rate is just the modern way. Well to be honest everybody is
wrong. Not literally everybody of course but the point I want to
make is that we love the process and the system because not only does
it give us something to follow (we are sheep as you know - Isaiah
53:6) but it gives us something to blame when we screw things up.
For example, I read an article
(http://www.thomasumstattd.com/2014/08/courtship-fundamentally-flawed/)
where the author makes the case that the somewhat recent “courtship”
movement is, as they put it, 'fundamentally flawed.' Now the author
makes some good point and some not so good points but the thing I
disagree with the most is that 'courtship' is blamed for the failed
marriages that resulted in the lives of the people they knew and in
the lives of others. I'm certain it contributed since what the
author describes has some serious flaws but the reason those
marriages fail -why any marriage fails- is because people allow it
to. There are, of course, contributing factors but eventually the
choice is made to end it. If we then narrow the field to marriages
comprised only of two faithful Christians...what are you doing? Who
told you to give up? Who told you that you could walk away? Does
not the Bible tell us to make your yes 'yes' and your no 'no'? You
vowed before God and man, you made a covenant, once you're in -you're
in- and it doesn't matter what path you took to get to that vow or
what your family was like before then or what baggage you bring to
the party! The process isn't to blame, the steps aren't to blame,
the rules aren't to blame, you are.
We bring this desire for steps and
rules into our general Christian walk as well. How many times have
you lamented your lack of growth because you 'didn't know what to
do?' What do you need to know? The process of sanctification is
basically God changing you and you working with Him. It's somewhat
straight forward, you pray and ask God to point out the things you
should work on and then you read what His Word says you should work
on and how you should be according to God and then you work on those
issues! Excuse the wonky sentence but God has said that the
Scriptures contain what is necessary for life and doctrine, why do we
keep looking elsewhere for instruction? We aren't expected to
perfectly understand everything, that's why we look for good
teachers, but we needn't spend our lives trying to find the secret to
growing in grace; read the Bible! It doesn't matter what devotional
book you follow or whose teaching you study or what treatise you read
if you're not reading God's Word and spending time in prayer.
"And
keep the charge of the LORD your God: to walk in His ways, to keep
His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies,
as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all
that you do and wherever you turn”
(1
Kings 2:3)
“The
law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the
LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are
right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes; The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring
forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your
servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward. Who can
understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your
servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over
me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great
transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my
Redeemer.”
(Psalms
19:7-14)
Remember that we are not ruled by procedures, we are
not enslaved to steps, we are not chained by guidelines, and when you
mess things up it's because of the choices you made not necessarily
because you didn't have the right instructions. We lose a great deal
of understanding when we try and pass the buck or lay the blame
outside ourselves and our sin, and that can actually lead us farther
from the truth than we were to start. Read God's Word, seek wisdom
and understanding and discernment and you'll be equipped to make the
right decisions apart from any program.
Father, may You hear this prayer. I'm
sorry. Sorry. How hollow is that word and so small. When weighed
against my sin how little that one word means. How can I be sorry,
how can my regret mean anything at all when I understand so little of
what I do; when the enormity of my sin I cannot even start to
comprehend? I need you oh God! These hands are filthy and I
cannot scrub them clean, neither palms, nor wrists, nor even one
single finger. All around me are smiles and welcome and much esteem.
Would they love me if they knew me? Knew me as You do? As the man
who chooses the wrong again and again and AGAIN, who fights a battle
against himself and seems to so often lay his sword aside and present
his neck to the blade. If on some lonely night a screen were erected
on which to project my life and thoughts and deeds done in solitude
how many would speak to me again? How many would break off all ties?
How many would forgive? How many would take pity? How many would
help? Anyone? Anyone at all? Would anyone at all look on me with
pity or with love? Would I find one sympathetic soul to take my
hand? Would you? Would anyone?
Father, may You hear this prayer. To
You alone can I turn to in the night that is myself. From You alone
can I seek forgiveness and grace. For You alone have provided a way
for salvation. I am weighed down with guilt. Every lie, every
half-truth, every wayward thought, every flash of lust, every selfish
action, every MOMENT that I have spent on the flesh and it's fallen
desire pulls me to the floor and I CAN'T BREATHE from the weight of
it all! Yet you are there with me. Lord Jesus you are there with
me, under the mountain of crushing evidence and crime. It is Your
back that bears the burden now, YES, I can feel the burden lifting!
In Your blood stained hands my sin lies crucified forever on the
cross of Calvary! The weight, that crushing force that held me down
is rising now and I can stand and breathe and see another day!
Thank you.
.
.
thank you.
Two words. They too sound hollow. How
can two words, and two syllables, and eight letters, and one
language, and one mind, and one soul, and one lifetime be enough to
convey my gratitude? How can I show my joy? I have not the words to
say, nor the songs to sing, nor the tears to shed to express it! How
can I thank You? How can I say I'm sorry? How can I convey such
meaning that even my heart cannot contain? How can I?
Father, may You hear this prayer.
This life is Yours now, as it was before but now by more than right
of Lordship. Now You have paid for it with the blood of Your Son.
This life that was meaningless and stained and broken, this life that
had no worth and no point is suddenly more valuable than all the
jewels, and all the gold, and all the precious things of all the
worlds combined because You have set the price. You have shown what
You would pay...for me. I cannot understand why You would do such a
thing. Why You would pay so great a price, for me. For us. For
anyone.
So many words. So many songs. So
many lives and so many souls given to the worship and praise of Your
name, and it's not enough. There will never be enough singing, never
be enough dancing, never be enough stories told, or poems written, or
dramas played out across the stage to encompass what should be said.
I cannot say enough, I cannot even begin. So I will say what I can.
We Americans have a hard time
separating different aspects of our beliefs. This is a good thing in
a way since we as Christians should know that our position in Christ
effects our position on everything else. That being said, we also
need to remember that this is not our home. We have the habit of
identifying our political or social beliefs so closely with our
spiritual beliefs that when they get attacked we respond as if they
were attacking God Himself!
We worry about the state of our
country, and rightly so. As citizens of this country we are granted
the special gift and heavy responsibility of being directly involved
with our government. Many of us have some pretty strong opinions
about how things should be done and many of us (myself included) feel
that our spiritual beliefs greatly inform those opinions. The
problem comes when our side of the debate loses popularity, as it is
today. So many of us begin to simply freak out and start worrying,
fearful of what the future holds. Let me be honest here, you're
sinning and you need to repent! This country, though great, is not
our primary concern. These laws, though important, are not the laws
of God. This culture, though woven inside us, is not who we truly
and ultimately are. All these things will fade away in time and we
are promised nothing more than that God will be with us through the
good times and the bad. Do we need anything more? When you allow
the issues of this world to damage your calm, to push you into worry
and fear you are going against the direct command of Christ!
“Then
He said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry
about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will
put on. "Life is more than food, and the body is more than
clothing. "Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap,
which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how
much more value are you than the birds? "And which of you by
worrying can add one cubit to his stature? "If you then are not
able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? "Consider
the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say
to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. "If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the
field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He
clothe you, O you of little faith? "And do not seek what you
should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. "For
all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father
knows that you need these things. "But seek the kingdom of God,
and all these things shall be added to you. "Do not fear, little
flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom.”
(Luke
12:22-32)
Our
political landscape is constantly shifting and public opinion along
with it. Many people today are concerned with what will happen
should our people and government turn against Christianity, what will
we do? Well I can tell you one thing, we'll probably explode in
population and spiritual strength. We don't like to think about it
but persecution has proved to be one of the great driving forces of
Christianity. When Christ ascended He commanded that we go out into
all the nations, but the early church mostly just huddled in
Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. They enjoyed their communion
and aside from a few exceptions (I'm looking at you Corinth) were
fairly obedient, but they weren't 'going forth'. So what happened?
Rome decided it was done with Israel and burned the place to the
ground driving the early church along with the Jews out into the
world. Instead of wiping out the new church it served to spread it
further than ever before! Take a look at the Church in China today:
though oppressed and hated by the government it is growing, and
growing fast! Remember America is not in the Bible, few of our
modern nations are. We don't need a country that agrees with us, we
don't need a comfortable environment, we don't need an easy
lifestyle, we just need Jesus.
So
be thankful for the lives we have, that we in America and other
western nations aren't actively persecuted and attacked. Praise God
for his Grace in allowing us this position of safety from which we
can support and encourage our less fortunate brothers and sisters.
In a way though, many of them are the more fortunate. Reading
stories from “third world” countries and the Christians there
will often show a picture of people who have a much stronger faith
and a closer walk with God than many of us. They have little and so
they can rely on and focus on God all the more. In a way, all of our
blessings are just in the way. I like this quote from G.K.
Chesterton:
“Meaninglessness
does not come from being weary of pain. Meaninglessness comes from
being weary of pleasure.”
Remember,
we work for a 'better world' because our opinions are informed by our
beliefs. We cannot however, allow ourselves to be completely wrapped
up in what the government or the culture or the world is up to.
Everything that is not of God is against Him, we should not be
surprised when they make decisions contrary to His word. Look
forward to our Heavenly home and remind yourself that you're only
passing through.
