Heaven's Fridge

I learned something new that blew my mind: God delights in us. I know that shouldn't have blown my mind but I get so wrapped up in my sins and failures that I forget that holiness is possible in this life and to what end we were created. We were created for good works and God works in us to will and to work for his good pleasure. In this, He also doesn't expect us to be perfect or the best at what He calls us to. As Kevin DeYoung writes, "If God only accepted perfect obedience from his children, the Bible would have nothing good to say about Job or David or Elizabeth or anyone else except for Jesus."

In one of my favorite books, John Piper writes:

Sometimes people are careless and speak disparagingly of all human righteousness, as if there were no such thing that pleased God. They often cited Isaiah 64:6 which says our righteousness is as filthy rags. It is true–gloriously true–that none of God’s people, before or after the cross, would be accepted by an immaculately holy God if the prefect righteousness of Christ were not imputed to us (Romans 5:19; 1 Cor. 1:30;2 Corinthians 5:21). But that does not mean that God does not produce in those “justified” people (before and after the cross) an experiential righteousness that is not “filthy rags.” In fact, he does; and this righteousness is precious to God and is required, not as the ground of our justification (which is the righteousness of Christ only), but as an evidence of our being truly justified children of God. (Future Grace, 151)

It is possible, by God's grace, to please Him through our acts of devotion and service. Many scriptures point to actions that believers can take that will be pleasing to God. DeYoung sums it up by saying, "Basically whenever you trust and obey, God is pleased."

I have this picture in my mind of God being my father and I bring Him a really crappy drawing of a castle or  a landscape where the sun is the upper right hand corner and is inexplicably wearing sunglasses, and God sees the love behind the drawing and doesn't care about the quality of the drawing. He delights in it, like someone might delight in a Monet and He takes the drawing and puts it on His fridge and He smiles every time He sees it. He doesn't hang my sins on His fridge, He hangs my attempts to serve Him and love Him and He cherishes them.

 "Lord, search my heart, create in me something clean. Dandelions, You see flowers in these weeds."

An Unfinished Painting

One of the many jobs that I've held in my life is painting and like every job, I had annoying coworkers. These two guys in particular had an annoying habit; because I was the junior guy on the crew they would often walk by the wall I was working on and point out things that were unfinished, even though I had not yet reached that part of the wall. It was incredibly frustrating to be scolded for not being perfect and completed when I wasn't close to being perfect and completed. The walls were works in progress.

Last week, I was doing a favor for someone involving painting and while prepping a wall to be painted, I remembered those guys. Strangely, I wasn't angry or bitter but I was grateful because of where my mind went next; God does exactly the opposite of those guys. When He walks by the unfinished wall that is my life, He doesn't point out the drips or brush marks but instead He sees the perfectly painted, fresh wall that it will be upon completion. He is also the one doing the painting; with the blood of His Son, He covers the flaws and imperfections, slowly making me a perfect work of art. Sometimes the prep for His brush requires painful scraping but I know that a master is at work, and He is making me better and He will complete it. 

The toughest part of this for me is seeing myself and others in this same way. I see my flaws and I know the pain and hurts I've caused. I don't always believe that I will be a fully finished painting and instead believe that the sins and imperfections will always be there. Doubts creep in. Faith wavers. But God keeps painting. When I look at myself, I need to be aware of my sins, confess them and seek repentance but I also need to see the finished work that is mine/me by the work of Jesus. This is also how I need to see others. When a fellow Christian wrongs me, or when I see someone's sin, I need to trust in that work of Christ. He is working on them, just like me. He sees them as a perfect, finished work, just like me. I need to love them as Christ loves them; not focusing on their imperfections but rejoicing in the painting that's already been done and the painting that will be done. Encouragement for the grace I see, not a focus on the sin that is bound to be there, should be the norm in every one of my interactions.

 So, Lord, give me your eyes.

See: 1 Philippians 1:6 and 1 John 3:2

Faithfulness

Why is one of the hardest things to do trusting God? Recently, something about my future that I assumed was sure to happen, became something that was unlikely to happen at all. I'm being daily forced to trust that God is actually establishing my steps and has a plan for my future.
I have a faulty memory (which is weird to say considering I can recall exact dates of life events and almost every line of The Princess Bride). This memory has holes in it. Despite the preponderance of evidence showing God as good and faithful in every believer's life, I have the darndest time remembering God's faithfulness, everytime a new trial arrises.
I can, and should, look back and see specific and general instances where God has guided, protected, loved, disciplined and cared for me and yet in the face of this new situation I forget and then worry, fear and sadness creep in. It's made even tougher when I dwell on my lack of faithfulness. I run the risk of feeling condemned and unworthy when I see this as a response to my unfaithful actions. Jen Smidt has summed it perfectly when she says, "When my focus is on my faithfulness (or lack thereof), I begin to believe that God must be far off – that I somehow shook him off in my wanderings."
God has promised he will never leave believers. Psalm 139 is full of the promises of a faithful God. "You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me." I cannot escape His love, despite how I feel about my own faithfulness, or lack thereof.

"Embracing God’s faithfulness to himself frees us from the devastating effects of thinking we have anything to do with the way he sees us. God sees his children through the atoning blood of his Son, covering us for every act of treason and rebellion we have committed. He isn’t faithful to us because of anything we have done well or poorly. He wouldn’t be faithful to us if he was looking for us to uphold our end of the bargain."

So here I am: praying that I can daily/hourly/minutely remind myself that God is not a witholding parent who's own faithfulness is based my own. He has brought me through before, and will again and that brings a peace that passes all understanding.

Tears of Sorrow

I recently was grieved while I watched tears I'd caused roll down the face of my girlfriend. It grieved me to see her hurt, especially when it was my stupid words that caused the hurt. In the midst of this I was convicted; convicted not of my sin towards her but rather of a lack of grieving about the pain I cause God.


While God is not mortal and does not feel human pain, my sin is serious in His eyes. My sin required that He send His only Son to earth to be the perfect sacrifice for me in place of the perfect life I could never live. The SON OF GOD had to die because of me. Why does a momentary pain in the life of my girlfriend cause me more sorrow than pain caused to the Sovereign, Holy, Perfect, Creator of the world?


This is because every human fails in two areas of the law. Matthew 22:36-40 has those areas: loving the Lord your God with all your heart, and loving your neighbor as yourself. Elyse Fitzpatrick writes,

Pure, unadulterated, consistent love for God and pure, unadulterated consistent love for others is the summation of all the law God has given us in both the Old and New Testaments. Of course, the problem is that we never obey these simple commands. We always love ourselves more than we love God or others. We are always building idols in our hearts and worshiping and serving them. We are always more focused on what we want and how we might get it than we are on loving him and laying down our life for others. The law does show us the right way to live, but none of us obeys it. Not for one millisecond.

So when these moments of failure and conviction happen, as they inevitably will, where can we turn. Clearly we can't turn to the law and work harder to earn salvation because this is the same law we are blatantly failing at. Elyse continues,

The law of God also hinders our advance toward righteousness because, in our pride, we think that if we just try hard enough or repent deeply enough, we’ll be able to obey it. We read the promises of life for obedience and think that means that we can do it. The promises of life for obedience are not meant to build our self-confidence. They’re meant to make us long for obedience and then, when we fail again, they’re meant to crush us and drive us to Christ.

Our only option in these moments is to throw ourselves into the loving arms of our Heavenly Father who never runs out of grace for our constant failures.

Is This Me?

This blog has been full of what I hope are great ideas and encouraging reminders of the gospel. But it isn't me. It's me in the sense that I can talk the talk just fine but this blog has mostly been about preaching to myself. I don't know these concepts in the sense that I don't always live them out. I came to a realization that in some ways, I only sin when I want to. True, there is temptation and lies of the devil in there, but it seems like most of my sins recently have been willfully committed with little regret.

I can point to exactly why I should not be doing what I am, there is no attempt to justify it, but I am continuing in sin. Why is this? My friend Jace told me he believes it is because I am not tasting and satisfying myself in Christ. My sin holds a greater "joy" for me which needs to be less than the joy I find in Him. I need to use the joy of the Lord as my strength.

It also seems that I need to trust in God. My pride has been rising and I have been doubting that God told me not to do certain things out of His love for me, a love that I can trust over anything else in the universe. He has called me to be upright and pure. I am not.

In the past I have taken solace in the fact that so many great members of our faith have stumbled before me. I perpetually return to Genesis where Abraham has heard the literal voice of God, promising him a great nation coming through Sarah and himself. In spite of this, Abraham doubts and tells the King of Egypt and Abimilech that Sarah is his sister, to save his life. He is doubting God, and yet it was counted to him as righteousness because of His FAITH. I can take comfort in the failures of others because I am not alone in my struggles and not the first to fail our perfect and holy God. Jace blew my world when I told him this. He upped the ante. He told me that even if I was the only person who ever had or ever would face this trial/temptation/test I am called to be holy.

So for now I am seeking to grow in a fear of God and meditating on 1 John. "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. " Now, that verse might be discouraging to some, because if you're like me you read that and see all the ways we aren't walking in the light. Thankfully, the books goes on, "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

My buddy Sean described this as the "Rinse and Repeat" verse of 1 John. As you read, if you become discouraged, return to chapter 2 verse 1. "But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." I have an advocate, you have an advocate.

Mercy over Sacrifice

Despite my previous post on New Year's Resolutions, I started a Bible Reading Plan and for the umpteenth time I started reading Matthew and Genesis, as well as Acts and Ezra. Surprisingly, it's been two weeks and I am still reading. Even though I've read Matthew many times, this time I noticed a phrase that I don't remember being there. It was “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” I didn't really pay attention until it cropped up 3 chapters later.

They are both said by Jesus, quoting Hosea 6:6, and both times it is said in rebuke. It comes at the end of a well known passage in Matthew 9, “But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”” Then in Chapter 12 it says, “And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” Because both are directed at the Pharisees, they clearly had not learned in the time between when the verses were spoken.

So what does it mean? Mercy, in Hosea, is the Hebrew word Hesed which is translated “steadfast love”. Sacrifice in this instance is a reference to religious rituals, or sacrifices. So Jesus is telling the Pharisees, that Jesus and also God, that steadfast love for sinners in more important that mere rituals, or being “religious”. Too many Christians are just going through the motions, thinking that all it means to be a Christian is doing the right things, saying the right things and knowing the words to the right songs. Christianity is more than just a Sunday occurrence and our “good works” and perfect church attendance won't get us to heaven. We need to love, like Jesus loved, those around us.

I cannot remember the last time I shared the gospel with someone. How about you? If I were to cut through all my excuses and backsliding about sharing the gospel, my only excuse/the only reason I can find that I don't do it is because I don't love the sinners around me. If I believe that I know the good news, the only way the people around me are going to be saved from an eternity of suffering apart from God, and I do not not share it with them, isn't that the great lack of love I could show? I am keeping the best most important news they could ever hear from them because of my fear and lack of love.

I need a heart full of love for the lost around me, informed by Christ's love, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, never failing to show love by sharing what Christ has done for me and can do for them.

So, show some steadfast love today.

Why Resolutions Fail

Source:http://lifehacker.com/5726305/why-your-new-years-resolutions-are-doomed-to-fail

Ray Williams, writing for Psychology Today, points out that setting a resolution is a form of "cultural procrastination" because people fail to set realistic goals and aren't ready to change their habits. This makes a lot of sense when you think about the most common resolutions: reduce debt, lose weight, stop smoking, and so on. All of these goals are fairly broad, and few of us take a step beyond defining what we have resolved to do.

Chances are if you want to quit smoking, you've wanted to quit smoking before the new year. An excuse—in the form of January 1st—isn't going to help you do it. What it will do is give you an entire year to plan to quit smoking with no real set course of action. This makes it very easy to procrastinate. Before the new year you'd simply wanted to quit smoking soon. Now you want to do it this year. The only thing that's actually changed in this scenario is the time frame. While "soon" isn't specific, chances are an entire year is a lot farther off than "soon."

None of this even accounts for how easily you'll forget your resolution if you allow yourself such a lengthy amount of time to solve a fairly simple problem. Instead of making resolutions this year, start making an actionable plan to solve your problems one by one, as they come up. Don't be overly ambitious or you'll run out of energy, but make a concentrated effort to solve problems for the sake of solving your problems and not because the date has changed.