Hope Abandoned

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

“So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven.  Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come.  Matthew 12:31-32

At the beginning of the 14^th-century, Dante Alighieri wrote a description of hell, based on Scripture, in which he described the abyss as having an inscription over the entryway:  Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.  Years ago I watched on TV the sentencing of serial killer Ted Bundy as the judge looked him in the eye, and said, "What you have done is unforgiveable." 

The question comes to us all:  Is there is something we could possibly do that is totally unforgivable?  I want to state unequivocally that human free will includes choosing to step past the line of even God’s forgiveness!  Many folks would rather deny that fact, or ignore it.  It tends to make one uneasy to think about it, but to the person who is more inclined to face truth and be prepared for reality, the words of Jesus ring a bit harshly, but without a doubt…true!

As a pastor, whenever I surveyed a congregation about topics to preach on, this is invariably the most requested topic.  The usual reason is fear that they, or a loved one or friend, may have committed this sin, and be lost forever.  That fear is reasonably-solid ground for drawing the conclusion that you HAVE NOT committed the unpardonable sin. 

John Bunyan was a drunkard and worse.  He was afraid that he was beyond redemption.  Yet the Lord forgave him, and he wrote Pilgrim's Progress, the world's second-best seller of all time, behind the Bible.  (Yes, even more than Harry Potter).

For You Today 

I have been asked if I've ever known someone who's committed the unpardonable sin.  I must answer honestly that I cannot look in another's heart and judge.  But I have been around some who exhibit every indication that if it can be known to a human mind, they are beyond redemption. 

We can be freed from all doubt.  That way is to give our life to Jesus.  William Cowper was a sensitive young man.  He loved the Lord, but he was afraid that he'd committed the unpardonable sin, and that he was lost…forever.  All hope was abandoned.  The thought of it drove him to attempt suicide several times.  By the third time, he became convinced that if he hadn't committed the unpardonable sin before, certainly the attempts at taking his own life removed all doubt.  He became filled with the darkest of despair and grief.  Then someone lovingly showed him the reality of the cleansing of blood by the Lord Jesus:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  1 John 1:9 

Cowper accepted Christ, took Him at his word, and was saved.  Was the transformation complete?  Did Cowper have assurance against the devil's lie of an unpardonable offense in his life?  Listen to the words of William Cowper in 1771:

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.

Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.

Scripture tells us to not harden our hearts against the day of judgment.  So….soften…soften…repent, and be forgiven.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Images:  Wikipedia.org   Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Guilty! - Part 3

Friday, October 7, 2022

When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.  Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.  My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.  Psalm 32:3-4

If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   1 John 1:9 ^(NRSV)

So far in this series, in part 1, we’ve looked at how Reuben and his 10 brothers were consumed with guilt over selling their youngest brother into slavery, and Peter’s well-published guilt over denying the Christ he said he’d die for.  Added to those were the contrast of the sociopathic thief on the cross next to Jesus who mocked, and the remorseful penitent who asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus entered His kingdom.  We said with Isaiah that nobody is righteous; we have all fallen short with our sins:  We feel guilty because we ARE guilty.

In part 2 we looked at how false it is to develop our ways of dealing with guilt –  denial, or blaming others for what was (clearly) our choice.  The little boy in his white Sunday suit, who was told to stay clean, chased the family pet beagle, Buster, with a can of green paint, and wound-up caught, busted…paintbrush in hand.  Peter was caught in his betrayal.  King David was nailed by a prophet’s bold accusation.  Guilt consumes us from the inside-out, and there’s no such thing as a secret sin!  There’s no wondering about where the old saying comes from:  No peace for the wicked.   

Friend, if you’re eaten-up with guilt over something and have not confessed it to God, you will never feel forgiven because you aren’t forgiven!

So…what to do?

Here are a few simple, but vital steps to take

1.  Make certain you confess your sin

Don’t rationalize (hide the evidence or shift blame)…God already knows you’re a sinner… just confess, admit it to Him and be forgiven.

2.  Be humble – learn from past mistakes

You cannot do anything about what happened yesterday, but God rejoices in your confession, and loves to forgive and rebuild you!

3.  Pray for growth to use your past for kingdom good

Stand ready to help others in the areas you’ve been blessed by forgiveness.

4.  Spend time thanking God for his blessings

This is why we have the Lord’s table…come, ye forgiven, and beloved sinners...and rejoice!  

For You Today

Guilt was never God’s intended inner profile for His human children.  That’s why He came to us in a manger, innocent, and ready to die for us, so we can be forgiven, cleansed, washed whiter than snow…and restored to fellowship with our Creator.  Don’t miss THAT!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Old Brooms & Common Sense   and   Black Ice

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

Paul's Conundrum

 

Thursday, June 30, 2022

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.  I love God’s law with all my heart.  But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind.  This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.  Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  So you see how it is:  In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.  Romans 7:21-25

One of the dictionary definitions for the word conundrum is a riddle, or a question asked for amusement, typically one with a pun in its answer.  A second definition is:  a confusing and difficult problem or question.  Paul’s conundrum has none of the first definition; there’s little humor in struggling with sin, doing the one thing you hate most, and not doing what you really want to do, because it is the nature of darkness drawing you to it, with all the power of Hell behind it.  Paul’s conundrum is the second type, a confusing and difficult problem, and the question behind it…why can’t I do better than this?  In short, it’s a living Hell.

Paul’s conundrum is ours.  Somewhere between the cradle and adulthood, most everyone with a reasonable grip on reality begins to understand this most awkward of life’s realities:  you know you were created for better than what you do…and you also know you can’t help yourself.  It’s like that with the chocolate-covered Payday bar that has been sitting on my desk since my birthday three days ago, that I do not want to eat, yet I want to eat it more than take my next breath. 

If I had any sense (about my weight and health) I might be able to take one bite and put the balance in the fridge for next week’s bite.  It would last a month or six weeks, and I’d need that long to burn off the extra sugar thinking about doing some exercise…which is another thing tied to Paul’s conundrum.  (But I digress)

Paul’s condition (that which led him to label himself the worst of all sinners[1]) is, an unanswerable riddle, a plague in the life of everyone in Adam’s lineage.  Paul agonized over his desire to do good, and the eventual result of messing up…again, and again!  And, if you can say with a straight face that you’ve never encountered that in your personal experience, you haven’t lived long enough, sinned big enough, or honestly come face to face with reality of the human condition.  Hang around a little longer, think a little deeper, and keep your eyes open.  You will see the DNA of your personal goodness come untangled at some point.

The good news of Paul’s (and our) condition is, when you ask the same question, Who will deliver me from this hell…there is, and always has been (in the heart and lovingkindness of God’s plan) an answer for any who are willing to bend a knee.  The answer is Jesus Christ; he will BE the power that overcomes sin for you, because He knows you cannot do it by yourself.

For You Today

If you haven’t bumped into this question/conundrum, you either haven’t been honest, or you’ve not been listening.  It’s there, and it is related to whatever troubling behavior, and nagging guilt exists in the back of your mind.  And God has provided the only remedy for what ails you:

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.               1 John 1:9

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

For other posts on this topic:  Impossible and Free Will

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

---

[1] This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.  1 Timothy 1:15

Kingdom Living Series - Part 7 PROSPER

 

But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.  Matthew 5:48
Those who listen to instruction will prosper;
    those who trust the Lord will be joyful.  Proverbs 16:20

If you’re old enough to remember the days of Vietnam and when McDonalds first put up the Golden Arches, you are also probably old enough to remember Julie Andrews’ song “Practically Perfect” in the movie “Mary Poppins”.   Mary Poppins was the nanny who was “prac-tic-ally perfect in every way”. 

About the same time as Mary Poppins entered the scene, Mac Davis introduced us to his version:

O Lord, it’s hard to be humble,

When you’re perfect in every way

I just can’t wait to look in the mirror,

‘Cause I get better looking each day

Now, those were fun things, Mary Poppins, and an arrogant cowboy…priceless!  But Jesus laid out a tougher plan; He said we should be perfect.  What’s a believer to do with that?

The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, believed^[1] it was possible for followers of Jesus to achieve spiritual perfection – to the point of not sinning by being unloving.  Indeed, he held that God expected it.  Wesley believed the pursuit of Christian perfection in love should shape our lives here on earth.

To become “perfect,” one would have to get rid of a whole shopping-list of bad things.  The problem is that we love those things because we have a base nature that tends to get worse, not better. 

When I was a kid, I used to come in from a hard day of playing in the dirt and Mom would have the bath ready.  I'd go sit on the edge of the bathtub, wet the end of the washcloth, and clean a little spot right in the middle of my forehead.  I could then announce with a clear conscience that I'd washed; Mom would say, get real!

Reality says that if you are not 100% perfectly-clean you are still dirty.  In a spiritual sense, you are not clean, simply by quitting one or two bad habits and going to church.  That is reformation; speaking of which, we are right at the 503^rd anniversary of The Reformation started by Martin Luther.  This was rearranging church life and thought to get it right.  It didn’t.  Every denomination, church, and believer in the body of Christ hasn’t gotten it perfect….ever!

If you get rid of all the bad habits, go to church all the time, go on visitation, sing in the choir, and give all your money…well, that is incredible reformation.  And it still isn't perfection! 

In fact, that's not even what God requires, or what He wants!  God doesn’t really want your reformation; God requires a transformation!  And only the grace of God can do that!

Now, there are a lot of different ideas of exactly what Jesus meant by telling us to “be perfect” or morally healthy.  It takes a lot of thought to get our minds around this one.  We know ourselves, and we know how hard it is just to stay on a diet, or quit smoking, or quit cussing.  But to do it all – to  actually be perfect before God….that is a monumental concept. 

John Wesley’s sermon on Christian Perfection (going on in this life to perfection in love) is over 20 pages long (be thankful this one is only 4!).

So, where do you start?  How is it possible to be perfect in love?  How do you do that?  How do you change?  The answer is, YOU don't!  Christ does it in you! 

In John’s first epistle the Apostle gives us the starting place for Christian perfection: 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.^[2] 

The word “purify” (or “cleanse”) is much different than the washcloth plan I tried to pass off as having cleaned Russell.  Beloved, when Jesus cleans you, not even your mother can find a dirty spot!

Now, if this is the starting point, where is the finish line?  How can we (as Wesley asked Methodists two centuries ago)…how can we “go on to perfection in love”? 

I believe with all my heart that the answer to that question is two-fold: 

1.   RECOGNIZE AND ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOU CANNOT DO IT  

Only God can create in you the kind of moral character that “perfection” suggests.  Everywhere in Scripture we are told to follow-after Jesus and his righteousness (see Matthew 6:33).  But it is not following-after-to-catch righteousness that we are urged to do; rather it is in the following-after we will find ourselves transformed^[3] by the righteousness of Jesus Christ! 

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  Romans 12:1-2

2.   Commit to the truth that the longer you give yourself to Christ’s will, without reservation, totally abandoned to His leading, the more you will become like Him, and less like your old self.

Committing to this truth means you will find yourself loving others even if they don’t love you back.

It has been said that the Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint.  It was never truer of something than this one issue. 

Elizabeth and I got married on February 12, 1967….and a lot of changes have taken place…yes, sir!  Hanging out with her for the past nearly 54  years has changed the little boy who tried to convince mama with a “little-dab’l-do-ya” washcloth.  Now there are no socks dropped on the floor (mostly), crumbs routinely left on the table , or messy garage (occasionally).  And do you know what?  I now like it that way! 

It is the same way with hanging out with Christ – there will be changes…you will be going-on to having your ability to love increase towards perfection as you learn to submit to His leadership. 

That’s what the Apostle Paul found out.  He first met Jesus on the road to Damascus.  He followed Jesus for the next 30 or more years, still learning.  But one thing he’d learned and found to be unequivocally-true, and the most important thing about Christian perfection:  when you hang out with Jesus you learn to love what Jesus loves, and, keeping your eyes on Jesus, the rest somehow fades away…

It’s much like Helen Lemmel’s hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus:

…and the things of earth will grow strangely dim,                                                                                     in the light of his glory and grace.[4]

So…you want Christian perfection?  Say it with Paul:

I want to know Christ…this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:10a, 13b-14 ^(NRSV)

Father help us to let go of this world’s ways so we can prosper in the ways of Your blessed Kingdom. 

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father. 

Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!

 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation  Matthew 10:24-39©

Watch Sermon Video

---

[1] John Wesley, sermon #40 “Christian Perfection”:  http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/40/

[2] 1 John 1:9

[3] Romans 12:1,2

[4] Lemmel, Helen, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, The United Methodist Hymnal (1922 Nashville, UMC Publishing House) No. 349

 

The Light of Truth

 

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Declare me innocent, O God!  Defend me against these ungodly people.  Rescue me from these unjust liars.  For you are God, my only safe haven.  Why have you tossed me aside?  Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?  Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me.  Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.  There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy.  I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God!  Why am I discouraged?  Why is my heart so sad?  I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!  Psalm 43

Sometimes when you read Scripture it’s an easy mistake to read in a bubble of isolation.  That is, you see the Biblical characters as if their lives are somehow different from ours.  Technology and science aside, there is not a breathing human living on the planet at this moment who is any different from those who dwelt in caves or wrote on clay tablets (as opposed to iPads and PC’s).

King David’s life was not lived in a Wonderland-like rabbit hole; his ethereal “aura” had real rocks and streams, and the danger of enemies, both human, as well as ferocious bears and lions.  When armies went to war, real men died.  Disease took hold in pandemic waves, and the cancer of lies was just as caustic and devastating as today.  And when David (just as you and I) faced those human conditions he felt helpless and confused at times.

Hence his prayer recorded in the Psalms; it was the heartfelt cry of a needy, troubled soul, looking for the light of God’s truth to guide him into a right course of action to deal with the evil oppressors who lied their way into places of power, and were now unjustly attempting to overwhelm David’s life with their schemes.

Sometimes we imagine evil in others or are simply fooled by accusations, fabricated stories to make an evil person seem better than he is (that should be an easy call in an election year)!  But sometimes evil is so great it’s driven from below the surface, demonic, an evidence of the greater struggle between God and all that is unholy. 

That may seem surreal to the modern mind, but it’s merely evidence of something that existed long before you and me, or David, or even Adam and Eve.  Before the creation of earth and the universe there were seeds of doubt and pride, a canker ready to usurp the very throne of God.  These seeds became the fruit of rebellion, which is recorded in Isaiah’s prophecy as Lucifer, God’s beloved angel, thought to replace God Almighty, but was rejected, defeated, and consigned to eternity in Hell for his unfaithfulness:

“How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning!  You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world.  Isaiah 14:12

The seed of sin spread to Adam and Eve and multiplied in less than a full generation as one jealous son, Cain, killed his brother, Abel.  And it has been so ever since.

To listen to the news media, politicians, and fear mongers, it’s all about racism.  The problem with that is an attempt to point fingers at a single outcropping of an endemic, epic cause, while side-stepping the long-entrenched human condition, sin.  We look at what’s happening in today’s culture as if it is something new…or at least an outbreak of a problem about to be dealt a crusade-ish death blow.  Racism did not start in the 1620’s.  It is merely an evidence of a deeper human condition that surfaces in many different ways.  You cannot cure racism or any other social evil with an edict from Washington, or by building more churches, bigger churches, and more entertaining, culturally-fashionable churches and worship styles.  No politician has a legislative agenda to stem human evil.  And no movement claiming their space matters, or their 15 minutes of fame will make all the difference, is going to stem the tide of the pandemic of sin.

For that, there is only one cure, the blood of Jesus Christ!  When received, this blood works in the human heart as no other force in the universe:

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.  1 John 1:9

This is the light of God’s truth.  It is only the cleansing of the human heart by the forgiveness of God that leads to what David prayed, that God’s light and truth would set him on a true course, one that leads to joy.

For You Today

Course correction:  kneel at the cross…get up with truth and light as your guide.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

GO TO VIDEO

Title image:  Pixabay.com   W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Truth and Light see:  Walk With Integrity and Truth, Whole Truth, Nothing BUT the Truth