Self-Discovery

If we are not careful, we will live as if God does not exist.  We are not atheists by declaration or by determination but rather by our disregard for God's presence in and about us.  Sin is the absence of God in what we do and think.  It rarely is blatant rebellion against God's rule;  it is almost always a careless looking away from Him so that matters can be settled quickly and easily.  Whether it is the fueling of a lust or the dampening of a once passionate affection for all things  Christ, Sin begins with passive aggression.  Remember that you become Satan's ally once you turn aside from God's rule of you.  Adam just wanted to please his new wife and took the fruit because it seemed like God wasn't looking.  A Lord so great and so all-consuming cannot reveal Himself completely until you choose Him in the silent quarters because to have life in Him you must choose Him freely without compulsion.  No one can decide for you if His redemption is good enough to take whole-heartedly; it is your call.  When you do, the Holy Spirit begins to work in you a growing disgust for everything that doesn't have the smell and taste of Christ living in it.  The most miserable people in the world are Christians who have stopped being disciples for a while and taken to the corners of faith where Christ is shadowy and troubling.  The fruit never tasted good; it just seemed good and once it was grabbed by Eve and then Adam the power of its pull was in the loss of trust in God to make all things right and truly good.  It was always a lie that God didn't have Adam's best interests at heart and that is where we begin to go when we stop thinking about and with Christ.  The mind not on God quickly descends into darkness.  Satan doesn't care much what distracts you...whether it be an "Eve" or an "apple" or the fanatic infatuation with self, it is fine with him.  Satan wants you disoriented enough to not care if Christ is with you or not.  Once you turn to God however, the powers of Heaven are brought to bear in you and you have all the mercy and love of Christ at your disposal to live in the limitless joy His personality in you can bring.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.  John 3: 21 NIV

The Check of God

Matthew 5:23-24 NIV

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Who Makes Your Decisions?

The other day I was driving on the freeway and a car was behind me in the left hand lane.  Suddenly he sped up and cut in front of me but then slowed down so that I had to put on my brakes.  I was a bit perturbed because he could have just as easily slid behind me if he had to get in my lane.  When I found myself driving five miles an hour slower because of the guy who had pulled in front of me, I began to stew over it until it became an obsessing thought.  Why did that guy have to be in front?  Was it an “alpha dog” thing?  I felt like my manhood had been stolen from me by this one simple act of this guy getting ahead of me on the freeway.  Of course my thinking about this was irrational and of course I was being immature but in a flash, I shifted lanes, punched the gas and broke into the lead, jumping in front of the guy who had cut in front of me.  Did I feel happy about what I did?  For a moment…for a moment I was quite puffed up and filled with pride…and then I just felt stupid and embarrassed and was compelled to ask God to forgive me!

Each of us has a disposition that is rooted in Sin.  Sin impacts our personality in a wide range of ways and for some of us it means we are prone to selfishness, for others greed, of using people for selfish ends or being easily insulted or angered.  Sin can lead to us being cold and indifferent to the suffering we see, make lust our dominant thought process, strip us of our compassion and honesty.  Sin wrecks our true sense of self; many despise themselves because of how Sin has affected them, others feel inadequate and generally depressed. Sin isolates us from God and from each other and makes our disposition self-absorbed and cuts us off from the spiritual realm.  By far, the most damaging effect of Sin upon our disposition is it makes us unconcerned about sin’s impact and makes us true rebels against God’s Kingdom.

There is an under-appreciated work the Holy Spirit does in us and that is He makes us aware of where we have gone wrong…how we have veered off-course.  Jesus hinted at this in the Sermon on the Mount.  "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24 NIV)  The Holy Spirit checks us…causes us to pause and think about some way that we have been wrong.  In this case it is with regard to disappointing and angering those close to us.  We see in the New Testament numerous examples of how the Spirit of God changes the disposition of His people by checking their behavior.

The Apostle Paul early in his life had the dangerous linking of a violent temper, self-righteousness and the authority to wield them as he wished.  Many have bad tempers and quite a few are self-righteous but the combination of the law and social constraints keep them both in check usually.  Paul was not encumbered by either and so he was free to unleash his self-righteous fury at will.  Paul’s wrath was directed at Christians and like Stalin and Hitler and Saddam Hussein after him, he was able to let his anger determine his actions; he was given authority to beat, imprison and kill anyone he wished.  After Paul was born again and God began working throughout his personality, his temper and self-righteousness continued to plague him.  In Acts 15:37-39 we see their lingering power over Paul.  Paul was mad at a colleague who deserted him and Barnabas on their previous mission trip and he refused to forgive his actions.  Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.  They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. (NIV)

Not much later, that temper flashed again and many would say justifiably so when Paul was being questioned by the members of the Sanhedrin when the Roman commander asked the Jewish leaders to prove the rightfulness of their charges against him. In the midst of the proceedings, the Jewish High priest, who was not known to Paul, became angry with something Paul said and ordered Paul be punched in the mouth.  Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day."  At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. (Acts 23:1-2 NIV)  Instantly, Paul responded.  Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"  (Acts 23:3 NIV)  When Paul was told that he had just insulted the Jewish High Priest, Paul backed off from his angry indignation.   Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'" (Acts 23:5 NIV) 

Now a critic of Paul might argue that the Apostle would have acted upon his anger if he had the power to do so.  What checked his temper was the force behind the Sanhedrin.  Yet, Paul was not thinking of attacking the High Priest physically, his temper only took him as far as the insult, a similar one to what Jesus used when confronting the Pharisees.  When Paul realized that he was angry with the High Priest, the Holy Spirit through the scripture checked him and he immediately backed off his temper. There is a moment when a window opens and God’s light can either come into us and fill us with His presence or we let the window close and nothing of God touches us. It is when the check of God reaches our mind and we choose to heed it or ignore it that we stand on the edge of receiving a deeper work of the Holy Spirit in us or lose that instant of intimacy with God.

The Bible often points back to the critical moment when the people of God had to decide if they were going to trust God with their lives and enter the Promised Land or close the door to Him and silence God’s voice in them.  They decided to go it on their own without God.  Of course they never would have said they were closing themselves off to God.  The Hebrews were much too religious for that.  As far as they were concerned, they were wisely not putting themselves or their families at risk.  They were still open to the Lord working with them.  He could talk to them later if He wished…that was acceptable to them.  But God doesn’t work that way something serious and terrible happened when they refused to let the check of God have its way with them.  So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.  That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.'  So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" (Hebrews 3:7-11 NIV)

The check of God is the door that opens the way for us to enter our Lord’s rest.  “Rest” in Scripture is not some sort of spiritual or even physical “lying around”.  It is reaching the sweet spot with Christ where we are secure in Him and despite all the chaos around us, we are at peace because we have obeyed the check of God.  Let’s examine a very practical example of this.  In Acts 16 we are told that Paul and his fellow missionaries did not go into the province of Asia because the Holy Spirit checked them.  It is not that they didn’t really want to go and preach in Asia, but the Holy Spirit somehow made it clear to them not to go into the Roman province of Asia.  Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.  (Acts 16:6 NIV)  Later, Paul did go into Asia when the Holy Spirit was no longer checking him.  He (Paul) sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer. (Acts 19:22 NIV)  In both situations God’s peace was with Paul and his companions because they were aligned with God.

Let’s now look at the Holy Spirit check from a different angle. The Spirit can also check us to do something.  "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.  I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.  (Acts 20:22-23 NIV)  So Paul was directed somehow, and we do not know how, but somehow by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem.  In this check of the Holy Spirit, he also was cautioned about what he would encounter there.  Later, a prophet from Judea traveled up to meet Paul in Caesarea and confirmed what the Spirit had already told Paul.  After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.  Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"  (Acts 21:10-11 NIV)  When the people of the church heard this warning they literally wept and begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem; they loved him so much.  But Paul was as calm and peaceful as a daisy in the springtime sun.  That is how it is when we let the check of the Holy Spirit have its way with us.  No matter what He might tell us, we are settled and unperturbed when in faith we obediently let the check of the Holy Spirit have its way in us.

It cannot be said how the check of God will come to you.  It may be through a dream, or a conversation, a moment of reflection while driving in the car or most likely a quiet moment while reading the Bible but the Holy Spirit will make known to you something that aligns perfectly with Scripture and it is going to be totally up to you how you respond to the check and then what happens next is in God’s hand.  You will have His rest like Israel could have had if you let the check of the Holy Spirit have its way with you…or you could be brought into turmoil by turning away.  No one is more peaceful and content than the Christian who is letting the Holy Spirit have His way in his or her life but the converse is also true.  No one is more miserable than the Christian fighting the prompt of God and turning aside when the Holy Spirit has made something clear.  Our Lord’s promise to you could not be any clearer.  You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3 NIV)  It is in your hands whether you have our Lord’s perfect peace at any moment.  With steely resolve, decide you will do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do and God’s peace will carry you through every twist and turn of your day.

Sin Unbound

We see that there is a deep advantage to being hurt by the badness of people.  It awakens us to just how profound the ramifications of Sin are.  Sin strikes at the core of every relationship we have and impacts every thought we possess.  Sin runs deep into our unconscious and percolates up into our dreams and odd reactions to circumstances...tempers we don't expect, lusts we thought we didn't possess, depressions and anxieties that seem unfounded.  The world is permeated by Sin and the cruelty and rudeness that exists is mind shattering if we give it much thought.  Even school-age children are severely damaged by the prevalence of Sin in the classrooms that we would like to believe are sanctuaries for them.  Thank God He did not close His eyes to the cruelty and corruption of Sin.  Our Lord took it on His own back and wore the brutality of it in His muscles and skin and He absorbed it fully until it was clear, "it is finished".   When we feel the weight of Sin upon us and it's cruelty marks us too, we can at that moment recognize the assignment God has given us to intercede for those about us.  Pray for the ones you see suffering from the agony of Sin induced sorrow and pain.    No heartache or wound is too deep for Jesus Christ to heal and redeem.  No fury is too great for Him to calm and no lust too powerful for Him to tame.  The Cross of Christ brings victory at every point where Sin has had its way.  The Cross is God accepting in Himself each outcome of Sin within His own body and thereby making every sin we commit and face  a broken chain that once bound us but does so no longer.  Sin still wrecks lives and brings misery but Christ Crucified gives the peace and joy of God  entrance into every human heart that looks to Him for salvation.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2 NIV

Uncommon Peace

Are we disturbed by our circumstance, unsettled by our place?  Have we grown weary of the dreary, of the humdrum common existence we share with so much of the world?  Are we tired of doing the same things over and over again,  of having to make do with what we have and of living with so little excitement?  Do we dread the boredom and despise the tedium?  Nothing smacks of the Devil's temptation more than the resistance to God's placement of us.  Lust, coveting and gossip are the symptoms of a misshapen view of what living in God is.  Solomon proved exquisitely the hopelessness of trying to get every itch scratched.  The more his craven mind searched for another syrupy substitute for the joy of God's salvation, the more insatiable his thirst.  We are not made for such wanton wandering.  We are made for righteousness, peace and satisfaction.  The last place the world searches for happiness is at the Cross of Christ.  The blood and guts of Satan's fury resulted in the one hope this world has.  Jesus Christ crucified calms the storm that rages in the human heart and satisfies the thirsty soul.  You will continue washing dishes, putting up with selfish people and unfair circumstances but you can have joy if you look to Christ for your satisfaction.  One moment of closeted prayer, a single cry for help to the God of your salvation and you can find yourself peace in front of the pile of laundry or the critical evaluation.  You are not alone in your weariness but the one who is with you will not let you remain in your self-pity.  He will lift you up from your clouded grind and give you joy if you let Him have a place with you.  Take your Bible and don't try to find something in it, some promise or bit of direction.  Simply go to it so you can be with Christ and let the Holy Spirit wash over you as you read the Words prepared for you this very day.  Let God meet you here...here where your drudgery catches up with His climb to Gethsemane and beyond to Calvary and all self-pity will be consumed by the fire of His raging love for you.  Nothing, not even the tedium of your day, can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.  Find a way to rest in Him wherever the Lord's hand may bring you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  John 14:27 NIV

The Shore of Your Choosing

We are prone at every turn to look for something new, something hidden, something interesting to entertain us.  Somehow we think we are better for our curiosity and wiser for our breadth of gathered experiences.  Since Adam, we have an insatiable interest in the side corners of our world and do our best to get at them.  Adam, unlike Eve, was not fooled by Satan's ploy; he embraced the rebellion within it.  Hidden knowledge became a lust for him and he grabbed at it hungrily.  Before the fall, knowledge and insight came directly from God; the fall provided a new way of seeing, of searching out things.  The actualization of self became the idol of Adam and it is ours too if we are not careful.  We are not made to search things out on our own but to see everything through the eyes of God.  The only way we can do this is if we obey Him at each turn.  Faith brings us to recognize our need for God.  Obedience gives us His eyes.  I cannot know love if I am not obeying God nor do I know what to do with it if I am not letting Him be King of my actions.  Lust has been thrust upon us as love; it is the unwillingness to wait for God to show us the way through each holy desire we possess.  Once we turn from Him, we grovel in lust and make no headway whatsoever in seeing and understanding.  Romans 1 is the clear way we head when we let lust take hold of our Godly longings.  Matthew 5-7 is the way we look when we obey God in our longings and let Christ live through us.  The distance between Romans 1 and Matthew 5-7 is a great divide that can only be crossed through the cross of Jesus Christ who has made the way for us to love and hope and faith in the grind of daily living.  There is nothing fascinating or captivating in the moment a man or woman of God gives a cheek to a bad man.  It is an absurdity, a clownish act for all those who have taken the way of Romans 1.  And yet, for the one walking in Christ, doing as He directs, it is the pearl of great price, the stuff of heaven and that has a fascination for him.  You can tell who directs your boat by which shore grabs your attention.  Have you found Romans 1 your harbor or do you lean out after Matthew 5-7.  No law can turn you one way or another.  You must in the end choose who you will serve…

See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.  Romans 9: 33

Nothing Lost, Nothing Gained

The sinfulness of man is not a physical inheritance...in other words the newborn baby is not already built with sin in him.  But sin all about makes him inherit a nature plagued by sin.  We are not launched into this world sin ruined but we are brought into it sin surrounded.  As soon as we begin making our way about morally we give temptation its way and then we are cooked.  Sin has us internally and externally.   Only Jesus resisted sin fully from the moment he first began to act morally.  At no point did He let temptation hold sway over a decision of His.  The average person gives so little thought to sin, let alone temptation that he hardly notices the evil he lets wreck him.  The cross of Christ is more than just a cleanser of sin, it is a redeemer of the sinner.  By faith in the Cross of Christ, we gain the nature of God living throughout us.  We no longer are the slave of sin but the destroyer of both temptation and sin.  We are not weak little children just trying to get by spiritually, we are wunderkind, powerful conquerors who have the capacity to live pure and holy lives.  The question is not will we but when will we let the might of Christ have full sway in the parts of our day.  We don't have to be a slave of lust or anger or greed or deceit or pride; we are because God dwells in us the overcomer in each place we find ourselves.  We cannot choose the temptation but we can submit ourselves to the might of Christ  and be done with that sin at that moment.  Nothing good comes of relying upon yourself...it always turns bitter for you...but when you turn to God to take back your moral place and live again in holiness, the joy of your redeemer will swell within you and you will feel the very goodness of Christ sweeping over you.    The heart has been raped and scourged and pummeled by sin but in Christ you can determine "not this time" because the Holy Spirit will as you turn to Him protect you from that tormenting temptation.  We laugh at sin and make light of it at the bar or at the club or in the gym or as our employer begins to manhandle us but it is even disguised, the beast that takes you apart.  Confess your sins rather than  belittle their magnitude.  God will forgive them immediately and scrub you clean of their poisons.  Just don't pretend they aren't there or don't matter.

"Why are you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation."  Luke 22:46 NIV