What do you consider your greatest sin?

March 30, 2023

Maria Holiness, Jeremiah 17, Matthew 5, Repentance, Saving Faith, Sin, Witnessing , , 2 Comments

I carry a heavy heart because a dear friend, Roberto, is not (yet) a believer.  Last week I had read something illuminating written by John Eldredge in his book Walking with God. He described three epiphanies in the life of a Christian. 

The first occurs when you recognize, “Oh, there IS a God.  He really does exist!  And Jesus was a real person who walked on earth and claimed to be God’s son.”  At this stage, you’re not a Christian. In one sense, you are like Satan who totally believes God is real. My friend Roberto has camped out here as long as he can remember. As an Argentinian he grew up in a catholic family, school and culture.

The change that transforms a person, that second epiphany, occurs when a person wakes up to the fact that ‘if God is real, then I have to deal with him. I have to acknowledge his presence in my life.  I can’t ignore him any longer.’

We who live this reality hope that the Holy Spirit imparts to these our friends, family members and/or the stranger on the street the power to SEE and BELIEVE the offer from the Father. We pray they now naturally repent and with relief submit to Jesus’ authority.  Plus, we want them to be amazed by the news of the accompanying supernatural benefits for now on earth 1.0 and the amazing forever future awaiting him or her as a newly welcomed Kingdom son or daughter.

I won’t mention the third epiphany or stage in the life of a Christian. But, if you’re curious, read Eldredge’s book!

God used this explanation about the progression toward saving faith together with recent tornado deaths in Mississippi last weekend to motivate me to record an audio message to Roberto explaining my respect for him and fondness as a friend and how I wanted him to know Jesus via a relationship. He’s never read the Bible for himself, let alone the gospel accounts.  His view of God and Jesus are cobbled together ‘bits and bobs’ as my English friend says.

I did explain the two phases. I affirmed that I recognizes he freely acknowledges the existence of God and Jesus. But that I wanted more for him. That there IS more to Christianity than he has heard.

He kindly responded and I could tell that what I shared was done in love.  Our friendship has grown over three years through our weekly on-line chats, both in my ESL conversation group I run for some Hispanics and one on one with him. 

But his sticking point is: “I can’t understand how a god would allow little children in Africa to suffer drought and hunger and perish.  I guess I’ll find that out after I die.”

I did follow up with Roberto but since then, I’ve been musing about how the real problem of suffering is an obstacle to many people.

This morning the Holy Spirit gave me an insight. I wrote in my journal: My sin is a far more pressing concern (or it SHOULD be) than the suffering I see around me.

That response doesn’t negate the reality of the horrors that occur all over the globe every second of the day.  But it does focus one’s attention on ‘first things’, our sin.

I thought a while about what people, even mature Christians, consider ‘sin’.  Most of us probably think of behaviors, those actions that in their mildest form are unbecoming to a believer and at the opposite end of the spectrum the traditional ‘egregious’ ones.

How did Jesus address sin?  He aimed straight for the heart, repeating the message of Old Testament prophets.

Jeremiah in 17:9 ESV declared:  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Matthew recalled Jesus’ words to the crowds in 5: 27-28 Berean Study Bible:  You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

I think Jesus would explain sin to Roberto and to us like this: 

Your thoughts and your will drive your actions.  For sure, your actions harm and damage and destroy other people. But unless you understand the deeper problem, just how your thoughts and feelings affront Holy God, you don’t know God.

The good news is that Jesus willingly came, lived, taught, and died to take care of this sin problem and to enable us to please our Father.

God is leading me slowly but surely to go deeper into the mystery of MY sin and God’s holiness. It’s been taking me a long time to start to feel even some horror and shame over my interior and invisible to the world sins. 

Oh, Father, may my friend Roberto grasp all this now and far more rapidly than I have.  It’s up to you to open his heart, like you did with Lydia.  I ask for this, Amen.

Can we be content ALL the time?

July 12, 2020

Maria Anxiety, Contentment, Faith, Forgiveness, Matthew 5, Matthew 6, Reasoning, Repentance, Thinking , , , 2 Comments

Have you ever looked at and analyzed those ‘Blessed are the….’ in Matthew 5?  You know, that famous hillside occasion when Jesus preached to many?

They seem to promise complete, 100 % satisfaction ONE DAY.  In the future.  Not now.  For instance, Jesus mentions:

  • A future Kingdom
  • Seeing God
  • Acknowledgement as sons of God
  • Mercy
  • Possession of the entire earth
  • Comfort

He teaches that the desperately needy, hurting, sad CAN BE those who GET what they crave.  He calls them ‘blessed’ because, the relief of the need is guaranteed. One day.

Some of the verbs Jesus uses in that discourse mention longings:

  • mourning
  • desiring an inheritance
  • craving mercy
  • wanting persecution to stop
  • needing one’s name to be cleared
  • hoping for peace amidst all current rancor and bitterness

I’ve been thinking about contentment a lot these days.  Lots of ‘my wants’ continue to be BLOCKED.  These desires tend to be short-term longings.  I’d like to see family and friends. I’d like to travel.  I’d REALLY like this time of anxiety-riddle uncertainty to end.

What do I tend to do with my anxious thoughts?  Journal about them, read my Bible and see how God corrects my thinking.  Here’s what happened Friday morning that prompted me to slow down and think:

  • God has given me confidence (faith) that he is who the Bible says he is.
  • Therefore, I start from the presupposition that the Bible is God’s true word to me.  His promises and his characteristics are FACTS.  They won’t go away. They won’t change because of WHO God is PLUS his nature and his commitment to honor his word.  He IS his word.
  • I can’t read the Bible knowing that God is God and NOT do what he tells me.

So, what I wrote in my journal on Friday was that reasoning with faith produces actions, which in turn produce FEELINGS! (I had gotten this from John Piper several years ago)

Then it dawned on me!  I wrote: “The only real and worthwhile category of contentment is BEING CONTENT IN YOU, because OF YOU!”

I sat back, wondering at the simplicity of all this.  If I want permanent contentment, then I need to be glad about EVERY thing God has done for me and ALL that he promises to continue to do unceasingly.

Three gifts immediately flew into my mind:

  • You opened my eyes to KNOW what kind of person I am and who YOU are: Holy God = knowledge and faith
  • Through Jesus’ life and death on my behalf, I now have a permanent relationship of favor WITH you = repentance and forgiveness
  • Your holy, supernatural, perfect spirit is IN me, permanently = matchLESS companion and counselor

Then this morning while thinking about what Jesus promises us, his sisters and brothers, brought this clarity:

  • God created us with real desires and longings
  • They WILL be perfectly fulfilled…… one day!
  • Nothing here on what I call Earth1.0 can ever meet ALL of them or any of them in a satisfying way that leads to contentment

When I brought my thinking to a close (it was time to get ready for church) I summarized in my journal:

“The only way to have genuine contentment right now in this broken, fallen world is to be content with who God is and what awaits me from his hand.  Those without Jesus as their savior and friend have no hope of real or permanent contentment.”

Okay….so with whom can I share these thoughts? Thankfully you! – who spend a few moments scanning or reading these posts.  So my question to you is this: How do you see and seek contentment? Do you keep struggling to BE content or SEEK contentment? Has what makes you content changed over time?

Matt 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

 

 

How the Lord guides us

July 24, 2019

Maria God's Attributes, Guidance, Isaiah 30, Psalm 23, Quiet, Repentance, Rest, Struggles, Walking with God , , , 2 Comments

Isaiah 30:20-21 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

Direction, wisdom, guidance from God – don’t we believers all CRAVE certainty from Him!

That’s why these verses in Isaiah linger in my thoughts; I keep coming back to them.  Turning them over this way and that way, pressing them to tell me more. How will we see our Teacher? What form will He take? Why does the voice come from behind?  Why does the pilgrim hear the voice either AS he makes a choice of which way to go or right after?  Is God influencing his opting for one over the other?  Or would either have been God’s will?

I don’t have anything specific at the moment for which I am undecided or at a loss about direction.  But the teaching here FEELS weighty and timeless.

Facts:

  1. Hard times come from God. That’s explicit in verse 20.  Makes sense, since God sovereignly creates, sustains and directs every molecule.  I’ve heard RC Sproul quoted multiple times: ‘There are no maverick molecules!’
  2. As Isaiah records, times occur when we FEEL as God is hiding. We experience darkness and confusion.  But those are periods of time that He purposes. They have a start and an end point.  Often we don’t know the reason for the hard time. I’m learning that likely my Father has LOTS of purposes for the shadow times when I don’t understand. BUT the good news is, there is an appointed end.  Whether we are Jonah, Job or Jesus.
  3. Seeing our Teacher, maybe that refers to seeing something in Scripture that pops out at us, seemingly personalized.  But what shapes me more than that idea is the encouragement to LOOK for my Teacher, rather than focusing on the problem OR the confusion. So how do I look for my Teacher who is Spirit?  With eyes of faith.  This morning I bathed in the balm of Psalm 23:6 – For sure! goodness (towb) and mercy (chesed) are pursuing me today and every day of my days on earth.  That’s how I see God – I think about what He is like, what God has promised in His Word.
  4. Staying with Psalm 23:6, I see a theme that repeats, God behind me….chasing me down, on my heels, just like in Isaiah.  I have to trust that the crossroads are not a problem for God.  Whether I go right or choose the left path, He works with that and brings me to His desired destination.

Finally, does EVERYone of us believers SEE the Teacher or experience the reassurance from Him about the chosen path? I don’t think so.  For just 6 verses prior to 21 is another landmark promise from God:  Isaiah 30:15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling.

O Comforting Holy Spirit of God –  Keep bringing me to repentance. I don’t want to wander away from You, away from Your reassuring voice.  I want YOUR rest and quiet, YOUR strength and salvation. I want to know that You alone make my path straight.  Amen!

 

 

Jesus is even better than a permanent ‘bail bondsman’!

July 18, 2015

Maria Repentance, Romans 8, Sin , , , , , Leave a comment

Meditating on the HISTORICAL fact that Jesus has lived out the judicial sentence I deserve for my past, present and future crimes against the Holy God.  I have been declared ‘debt-free’.   And Jesus now accompanies me as my SURETY.

Jesus paid my debt

What is a ‘surety’?  “A surety is an individual who undertakes an obligation to pay a sum of money or perform some duty or promise for another in the event that person fails to act.”

Because Jesus is my permanent ‘surety’, I don’t have to rely on my own righteousness. (not that it would ever be ‘good enough’) That means that I can repent EACH time I succumb to those deceptive shortcuts to happiness, aka ‘sin’.

Thank you, Father, that with Jesus grafted permanently in me because of the new birth, I can begin –  again –  to follow You with a pure heart and willing mind.

This is what God calls sincere, upright and blameless. What an amazing deal for us, that He delights in and is pleased with all these PURE-intentioned starts, SINFUL falls, HONEST repentances and HUMBLE willingnesses to pick right back up to follow Him.

Romans 8:3-4  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh,  in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

The twin evils of smugness and envy

March 1, 2015

Maria 2 Peter, Envy, Freedom, Galatians, Humility, John, Micah, Repentance , , , , 1 Comment

I was feeling smug. Admiring my ability to juggle this and that. Compared to others.  Evaluating myself next to another sister. He pulled me up short. As realization of sin spread, so did horror.

Juggling life

“I repent, Lord! Forgive me! I see! Truly! I humble myself. You don’t need to do anything else to get my attention. Seriously!”

 

For what had flashed across my consciousness about God was this:

“You, the all-wise and infinitely good God, have perfectly arranged this fellow Christian’s plate with the appropriate palate of weaknesses, strengths, characteristics, bents, abilities, talents, habits (good and bad), circumstances, and experiences all intended for her to grow in the knowledge and love of your Son. Every piece on that plate of hers is necessary to her sanctification and growth in holiness. You planned each one, the good and the ugly!”

And You have done the same for me. Who am I to boast about this or that as though they were due to my efforts and smarts? All along You are the one who has traced out our paths? And more pointedly, who am I to complain about the potholes in the road if they are according to Your will?

“Father, I see that this constant comparing of me with others produce either envy or pride and both are evil! Deliver me from these sins, please! Pride says: Look at me!  Envy says: You are a bad God not to give me what I want/deserve!”

Since that day a week ago, He has continued to show me that He does indeed ordain and govern all circumstances. Because He is in charge of every molecule in the universe I can trust what He commands me to do:

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6-8

Not evaluating, not judging the circumstances of others is wise. That’s God’s business. Do you remember Peter’s comment to Jesus as told by John after Jesus appeared to his eleven disciples post resurrection?

“So Peter seeing him (John) said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man? Jesus said to him, ‘If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!’” John 21:21-22

Several times a day as my smug-o-meter rises, (that is – when I awake to this sin), I put myself back in my place. I say to myself:

“Maria, you have died! And the life you now live, you live by faith in Jesus. (Gal 2:20) That is to say – you move and live and have your being attached to Him. If there be any good in your life, it is only good because of Him. So give it up, this thinking that there is something good in or about you alone!”

That truth not only humbles me, but it liberates me. Since all that is good in me through faith is a gift, I don’t have to worry about earning it. And since Jesus has given me the most costly gift, Himself, I can trust Him to give me any and all such that He deems good for me for godliness and life (2 Peter 1:3)

PS:  When I caught myself later on in the week doing my ‘I’m-so-good dance’, I realized that God was showing me a specific way to PRAY for this fellow Christian.  Again, I repented.  We are all different, intentionally.  He has arranged each of us in the Body of Christ as He sees fit.  Therefore, we are to encourage and pray for one another. It’s in our best interests, after all.  Another gentle smack-down!

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