Wearing the Mess You Made

 

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Do not gloat over me, my enemies!  For though I fall, I will rise again.  Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.  I will be patient as the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him.  But after that, he will take up my case and give me justice for all I have suffered from my enemies. The Lord will bring me into the light, and I will see his righteousness.  Then my enemies will see that the Lord is on my side.  They will be ashamed that they taunted me, saying, “So where is the Lord—that God of yours?”  With my own eyes I will see their downfall; they will be trampled like mud in the streets.  In that day, Israel, your cities will be rebuilt, and your borders will be extended.  People from many lands will come and honor you—from Assyria all the way to the towns of Egypt, from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River, and from distant seas and mountains.  But the land will become empty and desolate because of the wickedness of those who live there.  O Lord, protect your people with your shepherd’s staff; lead your flock, your special possession.  Though they live alone in a thicket on the heights of Mount Carmel, let them graze in the fertile pastures of Bashan and Gilead as they did long ago.  “Yes,” says the Lord, “I will do mighty miracles for you, like those I did when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt.”  All the nations of the world will stand amazed at what the Lord will do for you.  They will be embarrassed at their feeble power.  They will cover their mouths in silent awe, deaf to everything around them.  Like snakes crawling from their holes, they will come out to meet the Lord our God.  They will fear him greatly, trembling in terror at his presence.  Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people?  You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love.  Once again you will have compassion on us.  You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!  You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised to our ancestors Abraham and Jacob long ago.  Micah 7:8-20

Of course the story of Israel, starting with Abram, is like the story of us all, starting with Adam.  The story begins with God’s kindness and gifts; it quickly progresses to a fall.  Sin is more than endemic, or pandemic, it is universally common to human DNA.  I have (what is probably) an annoying habit of taking impromptu surveys when I preach.  I may have asked one question more than any other; how many of you have NEVER sinned…not even once?  In 40 years of preaching I’ve never seen a single hand raised to claim perfect innocence.  The obvious conclusion is that we ALL make a mess of life.  Jeremiah said so in the Old Testament, and Paul validated it in the New Testament: 

Lord, we confess our wickedness and that of our ancestors, too.  We all have sinned against you.  Jeremiah 14:20
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Romans 3:23

If you listen very closely to what Micah wrote about Israel’s mess-up, and how the prophet steps into Israel’s shoes, he, on behalf of his people, is owning it, confessing it, wearing the mess.  And in the middle of that messy-dress admission of guilt, the prophet speaks a word to every one of us who possesses human DNA:

When you’ve messed up it’s right to confess two things:

     1.     That YOU messed up, you’re not a victim; you’re the perp!

     2.     That God’s not done with you, because you’re willing to admit the mess-up, and ask for help to change.

For You Today

It’s important to see the hand of God mete out punishment for our sinfulness.  And it’s just as important (maybe more so) to see that God derives no joy in doing so; as the perfect parent, our Heavenly Father punishes in order to correct.  And that tells us He hasn’t written us off.  You correct what you are still going to keep and use; you don’t throw away what you love.

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

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

Made...with Flaws

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Monday, June 4, 2018

Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God?  Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”  When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?  In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.  He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.   Romans 9:20b-23^(NLT)

To say that we are perfect (in the sense that when we are born there are no flaws), is to completely ignore the reality that we are born into (and of) a fallen human family; this is a sin-touched world.  To say the flaws are nothing more than parts of the sum of who God made me, and therefore perfectly alright, flies in the face of the necessity of the cross for salvation.  Literally, that kind of thinking says, I’m OK and you are also OK…we have nothing in our character or being for which we should be ashamed…or from which we need to be redeemed.  Scripture takes a 180^o opposite take on that:

 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Romans 6:23^(NLT)

It’s true we are made with flaws.  God has allowed, in His patient love and because He gave us free will, this world’s flaws to exist in us; that is our right and it is what we all choose with that free will.  But that also presupposes that, even in the patience of God there is accountability and judgment for what we do with what we’ve been given.

I have written before about the “universalist” thinking ^(here) which claims the cross was God’s unilateral acceptance of all humans, regardless of their actions or beliefs.  I cannot think of anything that so blatantly denies Scripture and flaunts sin as this heresy. 

The LORD God, Jehovah of the Old Testament declares through the prophet Malachi ^(3:6) that He does not change, and He ends the New Testament with judgment for those who have not received His Son, Jesus, and a shopping list of sins those who live the lie of universalism.  If all are forgiven, why are there sheep and goats?  If all are forgiven, why is there Hell?  Why would Jesus teach about Dives, a wealthy man who winds up in Hell because he lived outside of God’s ways, treating a poor man as if he didn’t exist?  If all are forgiven, what would be the point of a Great White Throne Judgment? 

All these teachings and more, added to common sense, and an innate knowledge of eternity, evil, and accountability imprinted in our very being by God[2] make it abundantly clear that denying the coming judgment amounts to nothing more than ignorant whistling in the dark.  Living outside the express will of God, by purposefully rejecting what God has said, is the very definition of the flaw of sin.  We are born with it, but Christ has made the way possible to have our flaws addressed.

But it isn’t all passive (as universalism suggests) – salvation is received when sins are forgiven.  There is not a sin too big to be forgiven.  There is never a sin too small to be confessed.  And therein lays the trap; we humans think we get to judge what is a small sin.  The truth is, even the smallest, hairline crack in your car’s windshield will eventually make the thing come apart.  It isn’t IF a crack will bring ruin – it’s WHEN; it’s always just a matter of time!

It also isn’t a matter for we humans to judge what sin is…it is not for the jar to tell the potter how to define a crack in its’ being.  In the same way, humans must acknowledge sin for what God has declared in His Word.  If you look at the condition of our world today, sin is rampant, and that means we are ripe for judgment; Greed…Lust…Fornication…Homosexuality…Infidelity…Anger…the list is massive!

Only the cross of Jesus has healing for our sin…and that only when we repent of our sins and trust in His grace.  Blaming God for our flaws, saying this is the way He created me, makes Him an implicit co-conspirator in our evil.  We are Adam all over again, offering our excuse, instead of our confession, blaming the Creator instead of admitting to having chosen evil over righteousness.

For You Today

Arguing with God over sin didn’t work for Adam and Eve; does it work for anyone?

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart.  Ecclesiastes 3:11^(NLT)

Victory Always

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Friday, June 1, 2018

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?  If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?  Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?  No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself.  Who then will condemn us?  No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.  Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?  Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)  No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:31-39^(NLT)

When you ponder life from the statistical side you have to wonder how anyone can ever imagine considering our existence a continual victory.  Statistically, it just doesn’t add up!  And yet, here’s Paul telling us despite even being slaughtered like sheep, the Christian life is an overwhelming victory. 

Well…a little explanation is begged, please! 

One of the most monumental achievements in baseball lore is batting .400.  That would be an average of getting four hits in every 10 tries.  The guy who was best at it statistically was Tip O’Neill (not the politician) in 1887.  His average was .485 that year, playing for the St Louis Browns.  The last man to accomplish this Iron-man record was Ted Williams 77 years ago, hitting .406 as a member of the Boston Red Sox[2].  But, statistically, even the best .400 sluggers (and there have been 35 of them since 1869 when Major League Baseball began) were failures at the plate more times than not.  (Do the math – if you get up to the plate 10 times, and get 4 hits – the other 6 times you didn’t!)  One of the most recognizable names in baseball was Babe Ruth.  He held the all-time record for the most home runs in a season (60), and in a career (714) for decades.  But the Bambino (as he was nicknamed) struck out almost twice as many times as he hit home runs (1330).  Statistically he was not always victorious!

Translate that into real life.  If, as life-livers, we strike out more than hit home runs, we are also hard-pressed to claim victory always.  Consider your credit score, total number of times with a temper flare-up, traffic accidents (or speeding tickets).  Add up the number of times you showed up late, or broke your promise in some other way.  And lest we leave anyone out, have you ever lied, taken something that didn’t belong to you, or betrayed a friend? 

Let’s face it, you’ve never been victorious always.  And that has more to do with the score-keeping than the reality of how score is really kept.  By keeping the statistics of human accomplishment (or failure) we see just how fragile and prone to failure are these earthen vessels.  Yet Paul declares our victory is overwhelming – far greater than hitting .406 in a season.  The Apostle declares that our victory, our life, our eternity is dependent not on human ability, but on the love of God…which never fails.

For You Today

A great exercise today would be looking over your lifetime batting average.  Take note of the hits and home runs…but pay attention to the times you struck out, received a pass, popped-out, fouled-out, were benched, or even failed to show up for the game.

Then remember – it was all those failures (including your supposed successes) for which Christ died, and the loving grace of God covers.  Then thank Him that His record book in Heaven counts, and yours will remain unpublished.

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Baseball Almanac