It’s not about You!

February 3, 2013

Maria Gospel, Sanctification, Sin, Uncategorized , , Leave a comment

Do you ever feel ashamed of the lack of sanctification in your life?  Does that keep you from telling someone about Jesus?  Afraid to promote the cause of Christ because you can’t point to much visible difference He has made in your life?

Last Friday at the gym I listened to a podcast as I was doing my stretching routine.  What the pastor explained liberated me from that mouth-shutting fear and set my thinking right.

All along, I have thought:

“If I tell someone who really knows me the Good News about how God came to Earth to save us from our sins, that person will probably find me hypocritical.  All he or she has to do is contrast my DECLARATION that Jesus has made a difference in my life with RECOLLECTIONS of past unkind remarks I might have made to them, an aspect of my selfish attitude, my self-centeredness…..you name it.”

These thoughts have worked together to keep me from taking advantage of opportunities to talk about God.

But the Good News is NOT about the differences in ME that others can see.  The actual change is something INVISIBLE, that is not physically noticeable to material beings/ aka those who are alive and walking around in bodies.

The enmity barrier between God the Father and each one of us is REMOVED when we turn from our dead, futile works of trying to make ourselves acceptable, when we put our trust in CHRIST’s righteousness offered to us.

You can’t see either the wrath hanging over an unbeliever’s head, but it is there!  You can’t see the Holy Spirit implanted forever into the heart of a believer, but He is there!

So what we are free to share JOYFULLY & ENTHUSIASTICALLY & FREELY is that by  receiving this gift of mercy, all our sins (past, present and future) have been forever nailed to the cross when Jesus’ hands and feet were pierced and fastened to that wood.

My life doesn’t have to be exemplar before I open my mouth.  It’s not about me.  It’s about Him and what He has done for me, for you!  That takes the pressure off.

Has being added to God’s Forever Family made a difference in my life, that is – my actions and attitudes?  Yes!  But a lot of that is still being worked out as my mind is being renewed and changed.  Although I received the Holy Spirit implanted in me at age 24, I didn’t start to grow until joining Bible Study Fellowship the fall after my 40th birthday.  Fossilized thought patterns and resultant actions take a while to be transformed.

As the saying goes, “First God catches fish and then He cleans them”.  So go ahead  now and tell other fish you encounter about the most marvelous Fish Food imaginable.  About the Fisherman-Artist who…… once He pulls you out of dead, stinky waters, puts you into Fresh water and starts lovingly crafting you into a new creation.

 

 

The Logic of Love

November 18, 2012

Maria Hebrews, Sanctification, Sin, Thankfulness, Thinking, Uncategorized , , , , , 2 Comments

Logic won out the other day in our household.

My husband sometimes puts me up on a pedestal by thinking that I am ‘the more Godly’ of the two of us. (imagine THAT kind of argument:  “ No, I’m worse than you!  Here let me prove it to you….”)

He sometimes indulges in a kind of self-pitying spiral of feeling bad about himself. One evening last week, I nailed him with an undeniable deductive argument that was both valid and true.  He had to smile in spite of himself.  I was truly Holy-Spirit inspired, because I don’t think I would have come up with the proof myself.

My reasoning was this:

God only gives good and perfect gifts.

God gave me my husband.

Therefore, my husband is a good and perfect gift.

Now I’m not saying my husband is without sin.  I’m using the term ‘perfect’ to mean 100 % suited for me in every way, sent to bless me, to aid me in my sanctification.  I know, ‘sanctification’ is a fancy Christian-ese word. What it means is the process that is meant to “rub off the rough areas of your personality….train you in humility….give you practice in self-less living…..strengthen your submission muscle to make you teachable to God”

You see, learning to love Michael is helping me grow in holiness for, “….. without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14b

So no matter how difficult it gets living with another person, knowing that my heavenly Father picked him out for me, from before the creation of the universe, helps me accept more easily all that happens between us as coming from the hand of God.  This reasoning softens my approach and keeps me praying in the midst of a disagreement,

“Thank you, Father, for this painful encounter.  You mean this for my good.  May I see this as ‘gift’ and respond in the way you want me to.  Guide me. And bless my husband.  Thank you for him.”

I don’t always reason through like that.  In the heat of emotions, I can feel sorry for myself and get a chip on my shoulder with the best of you.  Remembering that God is in control of ALL that comes to us keeps my conclusions from veering off into ‘untruth’.   It’s also humbling and painful to think that God may be allowing my hurtful, sharp and ‘irrational’ remarks to wound my dearest friend for his own good.

Thankfully I can report, that the Holy Spirit is causing both of us to see and regret more quickly the pain we cause one another.  We are learning to repent and ask each other’s forgiveness within the same segment of the day, often within 30 minutes or fewer.

And more broadly speaking, why does God allow such sin?  One reason that I can see, is that the reconciliation Mike and I experience after hardness of heart is the sweetest sensation we have ever felt.  I think we are meant to taste and see in those moments the wonder of reconciliation with the Creator of all things, our Father and Eternal Logos.

So on this start of Thanksgiving week 2012; I give thanks to God for His gift of Michael Francis Cochrane.  “Je t’aime fort, mon petit ours!”

I resign!

September 23, 2012

Maria 1 Timothy, Control, Peace, Sin, Trust, Uncategorized, Zechariah , 1 Comment

Jesus…the blessed (happy, blissful) controller, King of Kings, Lord of Lords (1 Tim 6:15)

You’d think I would have learned by now that I am not in charge!

After all, the book my friend Kris and I are studying  together Calm My Anxious Heart – A Woman’s Guide to Finding Contentment presses us week by week, reminding us just WHO the Blessed Controller of the universe is.  And it’s not me, or the President or luck!

So yesterday I handed my life back over to Him – again.  Whew!  Maybe that is what Jesus meant when He offered rest and an easier yoke. We were not meant to run things or people besides ourselves.  And even managing ME is a joke sometimes.  I have hidden recesses of evil sin lurking under my seemingly nice veneer.  I even fool myself!

It’s like my friend Sue shared with me yesterday.  We had both read Tim Keller’s book, The Prodigal God.  Sue said that coming to the end, she thought, “Well, I certainly don’t have to struggle with legalism like the Elder Brother!” and boom – God’s poke was sudden.  The next morning at the Y for her ritual swim, feet dangling in the water, Sue waited with the other swimmers for the 6:30 am ‘tweet’.  They sat there for about 5 minutes, watching a rule-breaker calmly swim laps, waiting to see what the lifeguard would do. Sue confessed to her secret enjoyment of watching the lifeguard gently chastise the errant swimmer. But as soon as she savored the look of embarrassed horror on the woman’s face as she suddenly noticed all the other swimmers waiting and watching, Sue felt God say with a touch of humor, “ So, you don’t think you have any ‘elder brother’ tendencies!?”

I’ve been trying to pre-manage some events in my life and I was gently reminded by two good Christian friends whom I admire, that I am not in charge.  And that actually it is a sin to worry.  I am definitely not a Happy Controller, but a miserable and misguided controller-wanna-be. Besides, what makes me think that I know best?  There’s ANOTHER sin to confess – presumption.  What a blessing that Jesus’ blood covers all my sins in the future, too!

I was reminded by God’s word to the prophet Zechariah that God really is the only resource we need and the only effective one.  God tells Zechariah to tell Zerubbabel who is rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem the following: 

“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. Zech 4:6

And then God goes on to instruct Zerubbabel on how he actually IS to do what seems almost impossible – getting rock from the surrounding mountains into the city for the construction.  He’s to pray out loud to the mountain in faith, in full hearing of his work crew, and then, confidently relying on and resting in God’s abilities, he is to continue to manage the rebuilding:

 “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘Grace! Grace!’”Zech 4:7

So I am resting this day, fully happy to hand over the reins to my Blessed Controller.

Lord, help me to trust You that no matter what happens, (even if outcomes don’t match my idea of ‘good’), You are using IT for my good. And what is ‘my good’?  –  Your plan to conform me, a daughter adopted into your ‘forever family’, into the likeness of the BEST elder brother there ever could be.

 

The Logic of Massive Wrath or Massive Rescue

September 9, 2012

Maria Gospel, Guilt, Hebrews, Revelation, Sin , , , , Leave a comment

There is a fallacy in logic called Bifurcation, – the Either/ Or Argument.  It goes like this:  “Mom says that I must choose an in-state school if I want her to pay for college.  I guess that means I have to go to either Thomas Nelson Community College or the University of Virginia.  I don’t want to go to a rinky-dink school and I probably won’t get into UVa.  I’m doomed!

This high school senior has purposefully and unnecessarily limited her choice to between 2 options unacceptable to her.   People indulge in this form of fallacious reasoning usually to make someone look bad.   In this case, she wants to paint her mom as being unfair.

But in the case of eternal life, there TRULY are only two options.  And they are as different from one another as night and day, war and peace, life and death.

Today in church, our pastor preached from Hebrews 10: 19-39.  We’ve been making our way through the book of Hebrews.  I have always viewed this New Testament book as the most difficult in the entire Bible.  But it is slowly but surely becoming my favorite.  Although the author is unknown, I think Paul deserves the honor – or at least someone who shares his excellent writing and thinking skills.  As in Ephesians 1 or Romans 8, each phrase leads to the next in tight logical fashion that makes it a pleasure to follow.

Here is what I took away from today’s sermon that filled me with awe:

  • Every sin we commit (by not loving God with our whole heart, mind, strength and soul) requires the death of someone.  In the OT, God provided His people, the Jews, a system whereby animals died in the place of sinful people.  Pete, our pastor, made the point that before Christ’s death on the cross people were NOT saved because they obeyed the law.  They were saved because they believed God when He said that He would expiate or cover their sin with the blood of an acceptable animal, a live spotless creature slaughtered in their place!!!  To the degree they believed God, they were saved.
  •  When Christ died on the cross, there was no longer any need for animal sacrifices to reconcile people to God.  Christ IS the once and for all sacrifice sufficient for all those who trust Him.
  • Jews today have a SERIOUS problem – what to do with their guilt!  The celebration/ceremony of Yom Kippur does nothing to take away their sin.  No blood is shed.  And even if temple sacrifice were still practiced & animals were slaughtered to ransom each person, the shed blood wouldn’t count since Jesus has come and made obsolete the previous method.  God declares through Paul in Romans 10:4 that Christ is the end (completion/fulfillment) of the (sacrificial) law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.  (my emphases in parentheses)
  • My overwhelming thought as we moved from Pete’s sermon into Communion was this:  There are only 2 realities in life that matter.  And they loom more massively and breathtakingly than I ever realized:

On one side hovers                                                           On the other side shines forth

Everlasting Destruction              vs                          The most creative BLOW- 

& Judgment                                                                          -your- MIND Rescue Operation

For everyone on earth                                                  Sufficient for Repentant Rebels

 

There is no other option, no 3rd way.  This description of reality does NOT commit the fallacy of bifurcation or false dilemma.

When we diminish our sin and guilt as in this hypothetical but fairly typical rationalization,

(sure I have ugly thoughts about people from time to time, and sure I have blown my cool and taken out my frustration on the kids or other drivers and sure I have taken office pens and hidden taxable income, and maybe I even had an affair behind my spouse’s back, or still indulge in occasional unhealthy coping mechanisms…….BUT I’m no worse than the average person)

we minimize what God means when He calls us to be holy and perfect as He is. Moreover, it follows, then, that we diminish the merits of Christ’s sacrifice and perfectly-lived life available to be applied to OUR account.

In conclusion – we have a big problem.  And we can’t help ourselves.  As much as we resist being helpless and NOT in control, we live in God’s world.  Jesus is the only savior, the only rescuer.  That’s not fair, you say?  Fair is that we all get what we deserve.  And no one deserves heaven.  But mercifully God has made a way. Something is true whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not.  Wake up and THINK!!!  Make a rational, logical decision based on the evidence.

Final thoughts worth praying on –

Acts 4:12 – Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

I am so grateful to God for providing us Jesus…..

Rev 1:5… who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,

 

Painful start to summer vacation

June 10, 2012

Maria Idols, Sin , , , , , Leave a comment

Thank God for Christian girlfriends and a Godly husband who have been holding me up recently.

School is out and I have frittered away 2 of my 11 weeks with not much to show for them.  I have been anxious and depressed.  (Does this come from too much time on my hands?)  Or am I being confronted with one of my many idols?

– My worth consists in my productivity.  Here is what I did today!  Just call me superwoman.

My other idol that has me bowing and scraping as a willing slave is a fit body.  As a recovering bulimic I think constantly about food and exercise and how my body feels and looks.

“Time for the training wheels to go, Maria!”  Suddenly, I have been confronted with the hollowness of my props.  But not alone.

In divine preparation, one friend gave me a book that has had me meditating on living in the present moment. I’m learning to construct a new reflex of gratitude, while trying to remember that all I do and think should glorify God.  That I can thank God FOR the previous moment that brought me HERE and live in that particular HERE, dependent on Him honors Him. That sacramental attentiveness in lieu of my customary rushed oblivion actually slows down T-I-M-E because it makes me aware of how the eternal I AM (Yahweh) is the God of the present moment.

Last Saturday in one of my rare ‘Ecclesiastes’ moments, I couldn’t think straight.  I kept saying over and over, “J’ai perdu mes repères!!! – I’ve lost my bearings.  I don’t know where I am and where I’m going.  I don’t how to frame my life!”  I finally thought, ‘I should share with my husband, after all, he needs to know what is going on and be a priest to me.’  I was in the bathroom cleaning the floor when he came up to change clothes to mow the lawn.  We sat down on the floor, leaning against the bed.  I told him what I was feeling (same ole, same ole).  As I teared up, he held my hand, listening to me.  When I didn’t know what else to add, I glanced up at him, embarrassed and spent with my emotion.  I saw that he was silently crying, entering into my pain.  Then he prayed for me.  Didn’t offer any advice.  Just sat WITH me and LOVED me.  Never have I felt so tenderly understood and accepted.

A few days later over coffee, another friend opened up about her anxiety in a way that gave me freedom to share my pain about being a slave to fitness. Then and now via email she has been listening to me and my customary thoughts (kept private up until NOW) and reflecting back to me how irrational they are.  (Anything that doesn’t align with God’s Truth needs to be ditched!)

Thursday,  I picnicked with another dear friend who is a classics expert and Godly woman as well.  I got up the courage to share with her what was going on with me and how these first 2 weeks of summer vacation have been painful, fleeting and have felt wasted.  (She teaches at my school and is on the same schedule.  One of the differences between us is that she knows how to rest without guilt.)

She reminded me that we live in wartime.  She pointed me to Revelation 12 where I read how the Accuser pursues us.  Sensing his time is short and driven in his Satanic Smear Campaign he boldly marches right up to the very throne of God bringing stinging condemnation.  Not bothering to address him, the Holy Father just points to the Son sitting next to Him, as if to say, ‘Why bother, these children of mine are clothed in my Son’s purifying blood, you can’t smear them!’ But Satan doesn’t give up:

17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring —those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.

So dressing in gospel armor with my helmet of Salvation is a daily necessity!  (There is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ)

Finally yesterday, I was catching up with one of my favorite young friends who inherited ME when she married our son.  She shared what she was learning about anxiety – that it is fear about the future.  As such, it is SIN.  And God has provided us with the gift of repentance.  We can experience FREEDOM from guilt, as much as need. Her anxiety is not a condition that God has given her and that He will remove if she prays fervently enough.  In hearing how she is processing anxiety, I was drawn to applying how I live with condemnation which drives me to live by law.  But that TOO is SIN.  And I can repent and move back into the realm of Grace where I am welcome.

Have I enjoyed my first two weeks of summer vacation?  NO!  But I think this is a gift whose time has come.  It’s time for me to unwrap the present and learn the lesson.

Thank you, Lord, for your gift of pain that is preceded by and accompanied with Godly friends and family.

‘How blessed, blissful, to be envied – i.e. ASHER, is the woman (having her sins covered because SHE repented) who now trusts and relies on the unfailing love of the Lord’  Psalm 32: 1 & 10

 

Weddings, Part 1: Lewis and Logic

January 30, 2012

Maria sacraments, Sin , , , Leave a comment

One is either pregnant or not pregnant.  One is either in Christ or not.

Just as you can’t be a little pregnant, you can’t be a little Christian. Nonetheless, it should not surprise us that pregnant and non- pregnant women could exhibit similar symptoms, i.e. craving for pickles.  We would not necessarily conclude about a pickle-loving friend that he or she must be expecting a child.

So also it is possible that non-Christians can be kind and generous. Their commendable behavior, however, does not make them Christian. But my point is not about examining someone to see if they are Christian, but to assert that there is no sliding scale for determining whether one is in Christ. There are truly only 2 groups of people: Christians and non-Christians. The Law of Non-Contradiction explains God’s logic.  You can’t be X and non-X at the same time.

Why is this important?  Because God has proscribed how we are to treat both kinds of people.

CS Lewis broke into my consciousness when my mother, as a new Christian, lamented the fact that she could not make sense of Mere Christianity, that it was too deep for her.  My first personal introduction to Lewis was reading the Chronicles of Narnia to Graham the summer he was 8.  We took advantage of Wes’ naptime to lose ourselves in the magical world of Aslan and the adventures of the Pevensie children.

Then I, myself, journeyed through Mere Christianity with the help of a weekly group at my former school.  I moved on through Surprised by Joy, The Abolition of Man and The Great Divorce as well as devotionals based on Lewis excerpts.  But what has renewed by delight and lifted my thoughts heavenward is a collection of essays named for the first, Weight of Glory.

Here is Lewis’ stunning and arresting premise: there are no ordinary humans.

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”

Lewis continues by starkly laying on his reader the burden of considering first how we treat each person we encounter.  We are either helping them heavenward or assisting them toward the horror of Hell.  And if that thought were not enough, he goes over the top with this addendum, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object present to your senses.”

So….what are we to do?

I was thinking about how we Christians are like members of the bridal party, getting ready for the big event that actually is not about us, but Jesus and His Church.  We’ve all been invited and are considered valuable participants.  When we criticize a brother or sister in Christ for not being strong or gifted in a particular manner like us, we are acting ridiculously.  Instead of sniping at one another, we should marvel at the other’s differences and thank our creative Lord.

My normal reflex is to be the Pharisee who prides herself in being good at X, unlike my fellow Christian/ fellow bridal party member who obviously doesn’t have it together in MY area of strength.  My busy gloating, secret smugness and touch of disdain prevent me from seeing her God-assigned role and her God-endowed gifts.

And what about those unfortunate souls not including in the bridal party, how are we to treat them?  Actually it is possible that we are incorrect in our assessment. So since we are not privy to the Heavenly Wedding Plans of Christ and His Bride, we would do well to treat all neighbors as possible fellow participants.  Kindness is never wasted.

Next week – Weddings Part 2:   God and Love

The sin of fear and how to fight it

August 20, 2011

Maria Deuteronomy, Fear, Hebrews, Romans, Sin , , Leave a comment

A young Christian woman I met confided that she had recently lost a baby at 28 weeks and that was after 2 previous miscarriages.  She asked that I pray for God’s help in dealing with her persistent fear that she might lose other precious members of her family:  her 3 yr old daughter or her husband.  My heart lurched when I read her email.  What pain! Imagining what she might be going through made my heart sink.  I could well understand her fear, her drawing back and throwing herself in front of her husband and daughter as a brave ‘warrioress’, shouting:  “No further, Angel of Death!”

John Piper gave a talk at a recent Passion weekend to college students about why we should memorize scripture.  He reminded the audience that the Sword of the Spirit, i.e. God’s Word, is the ONLY offensive weapon we have.  He said that when we talk, announce, declare, shout out God’s promises which are ‘alive and full of power’ (Hebr 4:12) we wage active war against our sin.  And the first sin he mentioned was FEAR.

Fear and its cousin, anxiety, are ever-present enemies.  They are sins because they replace our trust in God.  John Piper who has battled depression and fear throughout his life has a useful acronym.  I shared it with the grieving mom and thought it would help all of us.  It is:  A-P-T-A-T

A – admit you have a need and are helpless, whether it is worry, lack of wisdom, money problems, ANYTHING that you can articulate. Spell out the problem.

P – pray and ask for help from God (remember that we have not because we ask not – James 4:20)

T – trust God that He will provide.  Pick a particular promise and make that your friend.  I googled ‘verses to fight fear’ and found a whole list. Here’s a good one from Deuteronomy 31:6   Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them (i.e. fearful, anxious thoughts); for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”   When the fear thought pops in to your mind, you can say, “No!! I will not fear.  I WILL be strong and courageous for God is my Lord; He is THE ONE who goes with me.  He will not leave me or forsake me….and…(you can add other truths like – He is Jehovah Sabaoth – Lord of the angel armies)

A – act and do what you have to do, counting on the Holy Spirit to be with you and provide what He has promised.  We have to move out despite the fear.

T – thank God for what He IS doing and has done to slay that sin.

And I would add an R.  APTAT and Re-APTAT…as in, when we succumb to the sin of fear, anxiety, lust, idolatry, self-centeredness (and the list goes on…) that we REPENT and start again.  Even if we have to use this tool multiple times a day, it doesn’t matter.  There is ‘NO (SHAME or) CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).  It’s pure pride to give up and say, “That’s just the way I am, I am a worrier, I am a fearful person, I cannot overcome this sin of ______!”

Let’s put on our boxing gloves, and fight the good fight of faith, using the ONE weapon God has given us, His Holy Word.

If you want to hear the talk by John Piper on God’s word as a weapon and the power of memorizing scripture, here’s the link:

John Piper’s talk

 

The blessing of guilt

May 19, 2011

Maria 1 Peter, Sin, Witnessing Leave a comment

I just heard, via my French news podcast, the sad tale of a mid-wife trainee who administered the medication for a D&C to the wrong patient.  A baby died because of this error.  The reporter talked about the mother’s shock and grief.  But my heart wrenched not only for her but also for the poor young mid-wife trainee whose mistake cost the baby’s life.  What does she do with her guilt?  How can she live with herself?

A day later, the political world was rocked with the public accusation of sexual assault.  The French head of the International Monetary Fund apparently forced himself on his hotel maid.  Barely 48 hours after this news we learned of a child, fathered (outside of his marriage) by movie icon and former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What do these three people have in common?  They are burdened with guilt.  They, like us, have to face the question:  What do you do with your guilt? That is a question that has both eternal significance as well as a day-to-day impact on the quality of our life here on Earth.  In their circumstances as well as in ours Jesus is the only answer that can bring healing, justice and freedom for both victim and victimizer.

Guilt is part of the human condition ever since we turned our backs on God in the Garden.  There are two aspects to guilt and I think we fixate on one more than the other.  There is objective guilt – we fail to meet a standard, we are judged lacking.  (That is actually easier to address).  But there is the affective side of guilt, the feelings that plague us even after our objective guilt has been handled.

If I were the midwife, my instincts would kick in and I would be saying to myself, “What can I EVER due to make up for the life I took?”  Without the knowledge that Jesus paid for her culpability in that baby’s death, no matter what or how much she does , she will be haunted until she dies.  The French justice system will evaluate how much she should ‘pay’ given the circumstances and motives.   But unless she has a way to handle her feelings of guilt, she will be miserable.  The fact that Jesus took on all our punishment & guilt, the fact that he died means that we don’t have to be punished more than the State deems.  A forgiven, redeemed Christian lives in the land of “No Condemnation!” Sweet words!

And Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Frenchman?  And Arnold?  I pray that God uses the publicity of these egregious & wicked actions to bring them face to face with their need for a Savior.  Pride goes before a fall.  It is a temptation to be rich, famous and powerful.  Those people need our prayers.  But God is sovereign.  As they say, if we don’t humble ourselves, God will.  The two women who are victims (and everyone else caught in the webs of pain these men have generated) need Jesus.   They need to know that perfect justice will be had: both Arnold and Dominique will pay for their crimes when they face God as their judge, OR, the punishment has already been borne by Jesus on the cross (if they accept the gift of Jesus as a stand-in for them by repenting and putting their trust in Christ).  In this latter case Jesus has been declared ‘guilty’ and has suffered for the crime.  Either way, perfect justice is guaranteed.  The crimes do not go unpunished in the cosmic court.  God knows and sees everything.

Two ‘take-aways’:

(1)  – instead of gloating when the haughty proud fall, instead of hopelessly lamenting the loss of a baby, we need to pray that this severe mercy bear fruit and all involved come to a saving faith in Jesus.

(2)  – remember that we have an opening with which we can share the Gospel.  A question that pertains to everyone we meet, “What do YOU do with your guilt?” might just be the words to cause your neighbor to think about God and to ‘fear’ Him properly.

Implication?  Let us always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have!  (1 Peter 3:15b)

Dead to Sin and Remembering

July 25, 2010

Maria Disciplines, Reflections, Sin Leave a comment

In Romans 6:2, Paul says, “We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?

I am a typical human.  I forget most of what I hear or read.  When I wake up in the morning, I have to remind myself of God.  I’m usually awake 2-3 minutes before I think of Him, even if my last waking thoughts were about God.  Like morning mist, He has vanished and has to be beckoned back.  But this is an improvement on my earlier life.

I used to live my life not even thinking about God.  The first time I was in church was when I was in a children’s choir in 2nd and 3rd grade.  We didn’t go to that church or any church, but my mother must have thought it was a good idea.  At the end of the year, we kids would sing at the two services, making for a long Sunday morning.  But that had nothing to do with God.  That was just choir and I even came to dread Thursday afternoon rehearsals because I wasn’t very musical.

I share this with you so you know that my early childhood was not spent in church.  I have come to God gradually, regularly attending from age 9 on, initially as a church-goer, not yet a believer.  But even when the Gospel became real to me at age 23, I still wasn’t in the habit of thinking about God all the time.  And now, at age 53, although my conscious thoughts go more often to God, I still find myself even going a couple of hours at a time without a thought of God.  That is a dangerous place to be.  It’s like being unarmed in a war zone.

If there were any verb that I would rate next in importance to BELIEVE or TRUST, it would be REMEMBER.

Psalm 78:42
They did not remember his power— the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

Deuteronomy 7:18
But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh

Deuteronomy 15:15
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today and to all Egypt.

Psalm 137:6
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy

Psalm 106:7
When our fathers were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.

There are a host of verses like this.  They tell the truth about God and about who we are.  They call us to remember God’s past provisions to us, how He has rescued us when we called out to Him.  They remind us of God’s amazing promises – our true riches.  And finally they emphasize how we are new creations, recreated in Christ with certain powers and different duties and delights.

This brings me to the fact (that daily bears repeating) that we are NOW dead to sin.  Frequently I have to remind myself that I have a new nature with Holy Spirit power actually in me to resist those things my flesh tempts me to do.  Sometimes I forget and fall back into embracing as truth, the lies that call out to me:  eating this will be pleasurable/ sharing a juicy tidbit about someone will grant me the floor and everyone will listen for a moment / bragging on myself or my kids will make me feel important and I like that feeling.

So remembering who I am (an adopted daughter), where I am (in Christ at God’s right hand ……as well as…. here on earth with the HS in me) and what privileges and power I have (more than I can ask or imagine) all help to break the spell that sin has on me.

We would pity an heiress to a fortune who has forgotten that she has access to financial blessings and privileges.  It would be silly for her to live as a beggar-woman.  We, too, are rich beyond belief.  To the extent that we remember who and whose we are, then we can be free from the power of sin over us and live the life of the spirit which Paul tells us IS life and peace.   Now that is worth remembering!

Why can’t God just overlook or forgive our sins?

February 15, 2010

Maria Forgiveness, Romans, Sin , 3 Comments

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. Romans 3:21-25

Why couldn’t God just keep on passing over our sins, i.e.  FORGIVE our sins, without Jesus having to die? I was thinking about the nature of sin the other day during a Chapel talk at my school.  I suddenly realized that we have to accept that a property or feature of sin committed in God’s world is that it automatically incurs God’s wrath.  We can’t get away from that aspect.  It’s incontrovertible – not open to being challenged.  God set up the world and is the final authority on what everything means and what the rules of the ‘game’ are.  And since He says that sin has to be paid for – ultimately, then He can’t just forgive it.  The whole package of sin includes this wrath-incurring aspect.

When a friend fails to do what she says and lets you down, you experience at the very least the pain of disappointment.  Even if you forgive her, you still suffer.  Suffering can’t be separated from sin.  God’s active, avenging anger is the same way.  It is part of the nature of sin.

So when Paul tells us that God is righteous, it means that He acts consistently with the nature and consequences of sin.  He doesn’t go against the system He established – there is actual wrath to be dealt with.  We normally would absorb that wrath as a consequence of being the instigators of the sin.  But the amazing, outside of the box, reality is that Jesus in covenantal agreement with the other two members of the Trinity, absorbs that wrath in our place.  That is what ‘propitiation’ means.  God the Father accepts the work of his Son in absorbing the entire wrath due us for our sin.

It’s not that we are declared not guilty. We ARE guilty.  It’s that our debt or penalty to God has been paid for and we get to walk out of jail free.  It is incorrect to say that it is though we never sinned.  We DID sin.  Appropriate punishment was meted out and paid for/absorbed by Jesus.  And now we are welcomed back into society.

But our reentry into the community is far better than going back to ‘normal’.  Think about a man charged with being a sex offender who spends time in jail and then when his sentence has been completed, he is released.  The problem for him is that no one wants him living in the community near them.  He lives with shame the rest of his life.

Our crimes against God are FAR WORSE than the sex offender.  We rebelled against the very One who created us in the first place.   But God does not leave us to stew in our shame.  He invites us to a NEW normal.  We are actually given a place of honor, the opposite of shame.  God, the Father, invites us to share in the privileges of children of the King with full inheritance rights.

May we meditate on this unexpected grace.  May we revel in thoughts of the inheritance waiting for us.  May we frequently daydream about the full fellowship we will enjoy when we are face to face with the One we sinned against and the One who absorbed the punishment due us.

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