Cleansed!

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.                       1 Corinthians 6:11

Paul makes the point that trusting Christ has forgiven us, brings with it the sense that we’ve been cleansed from our sins, made right with God.  It is also hardly necessary to say, we should, as his serious disciples, continue to live cleansed.

In the full-disclosure department, I’m as prone to do goofy stuff as much as any other human…sometimes more!  Last week I had one of those moments.  I was running a little bit behind schedule, and was picking up the pace to get on track.  We had finished a late breakfast.  We use paper plates to go easy on the dishwasher, so one of the last moments of a meal is letting Wellie (our resident dishwasher) lick the plate clean.  For a small dog, that tongue does a big job, removing every last reminder there was ever food on the plate.

Carrying the silverware, coffee cups, and Wellie-cleaned paper plates into the kitchen, I put the cups and forks in the sink.  Staring at the paper plates in my hand, time stood still for just an instant.  I had a moment of indecision-muddle, whether to put the paper plates in the sink, garbage, or with the clean dishware in the cabinet.  It was a disturbance of my peace, to say the least.

I know, and have always known, eating off the same plate a dog has cleaned (even my sweet mutt), is a disgusting prospect.  But, there it is…an unguarded moment, thinking about getting out the door for our appointment, not the task at hand; I nearly chose the cabinet.  After all, we had paid six-cents apiece for those little plates; a second use would cut the price in half!

It was then reality kicked-in.  In that moment, confronted with saving three-cents, (Six-cents if you factor-in reusing my wife’s plate too….don’t you dare tell her), in that two or three nanoseconds of indecision, common sense arrived.  There was no justification for saving three (or six) cents, stacked-up against the zillions of dollars I’d spend at the doctor’s office battling whatever exotic germs my dog had brought-in on his tongue from rummaging around on the ground in the back yard.  The plates immediately entered the kingdom of trash.

My “goofy moment” is an analogy of what’s going on in our minds, spiritually, with the whole issue of temptation.  There are things a six-year-old understands to be wrong, yet we entertain them; we give sin a foothold.  Given time, prayer, and a heart willing to align with God’s will, our decision-making becomes much stronger, rejecting the impulses we have, which our enemy, Satan is more than willing to use in ruining our witness and peace in Christ.

John Wesley’s advice on getting the best use of our time and call to minister God’s Word and blessings to others, speaks volumes to my tendency to be preoccupied, and vulnerable to the enemy’s tactics:  Be always moving, and never in a hurry.

For You Today  

Let’s let apostle Peter have the last word about this day’s caution:

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  1 Peter 5:8

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: 

The Problem with Dirty Laundry  and  When Innocence Shines

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

When Grace Carries Us

 

Monday, November 28, 2022

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.  But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.  So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?  Of course not!  Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?  Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?  For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism.  And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.  Romans 5:20-21, 6:1-4

If nothing else can be said about the grace of God, this can:

Grace changes us!

The prevenient grace of God draws us to our need of the Father, and understanding it is only through Jesus that can happen.[1]  When people find that truth has changed their eternal destiny from death to eternal life, it’s a wonderful moment of release and joy!  Sadly, too many put a period on what has happened, as if there is nothing more.

Past that salvation experience is a whole ‘nother dimension of the change God wants to bring about in us, for us, and through us.  It starts (and never stops) with God’s sanctifying grace.  It is the power of God that changes the way we live.

Over the years, in the course of pastoral work, I have met thousands of people.  Many of these are former attenders of church.  Usually, when they find out I’m a pastor, they ask me what church I serve.  After I tell them, I ask where they go.  The next sentence goes like this:  Oh, I’m a member of                church; I don’t go there any more, but I believe in Jesus.  That “I believe in Jesus” is a defensive thing, as if to protect that card-carrying-going-to-heaven thing.  They don’t want God to revoke their membership which guards against hellfire and brimstone.  I always have to stifle a little grin when that sentence comes…as if this (or any other) preacher could change anything about whether they’re going to heaven or hell.  What’s really going on is they’re just being defensive about why there’s nothing going on in their life about growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  They trusted Jesus’ grace for salvation, but that grace which makes Jesus LORD over their life just didn’t fit in the way they wanted to live.

This is where the Apostle Paul’s issue with the Roman believers comes in.  They had believed in Christ, but surrendering all of life to His will was a change they weren’t ready to entertain.  There were too many parties to attend, fortunes to aquire, and lands to conquer.  The grace that forgave was refreshing and welcome…as long as we don’t have to change too much. 

This was the first-century version of getting your name on the church roll as something of a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card.  Put it in your pocket for that rainy day when the Grim Reaper comes knocking on your door.  Whip out that card, and you pass through the pearly gates!  Well…how’s that working for you?

For You Today  

Don’t drown in your baptismal waters by refusing to go further. The same grace of God carrying you away from a life of sin, is the same grace that will lead you into a life of serving, loving, and joy. 

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: 

       Temptation - Facing the Dark Side   and   Upheld Since...

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] There is salvation in no one else!  God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”  Acts 4:12

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Christ did this, so that he would have a glorious and holy church, without faults or spots or wrinkles or any other flaws. 

Ephesians 5:27 (CEV)

Under a caption in the Detroit Free Press appeared a new prescription for retaining beauty [the ad said] “…Ladies, do you want to stay young?  Then join a church choir.  Women who sing stay younger looking.  A singer’s cheek muscles are so well developed by exercise that her face will not wrinkle nearly so soon as the non-singer.”  This is the article we have been waiting for.  Now women and men, if you do not want to look like a prune, join the choir![i]

For most of us a church without “spot or wrinkle” is a long way off!  In fact, a face without wrinkle is a pipe dream!  But, John and Charles Wesley beg to differ (at least on the church issue, if not the face).  The Wesley brothers contended that “perfection” in this life is not only attainable, it is expected in the life of a believer.  One of the questions asked by Wesley of candidates for ordination was do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?  The question remains to this day in the United Methodist Church, asked by bishops in the Wesleyan spirit.

No wrinkles, no spots…what does that mean?  Let’s look at what the Scriptures say about ironing-out the wrinkles and Oxy-cleaning the spots.  We’ll be guided by Charles’ hymn, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.

I.           Salvation from Sin v.1

Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven, to earth come down; 

     fix in us thy humble dwelling; all thy faithful mercies crown.

Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art;

     visit us with thy salvation; enter every trembling heart.

The idea of “perfection in this life is intimidating; how in the world can we actually be clean enough to have a heart pure enough to please God?  Even in the Sermon on the Mount ^{(Matthew 5:8)}, Jesus said only the pure in heart will even see God. 

Psalm 23 is a favorite for many people, green pastures, table set, dwelling in the house of the Lord forever!  But note what Psalm 24 says about that:

Psalms 24:3 - 4 (NLT)  Who may climb the mountain of the LORD?  Who may stand in his holy place?  Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.

It would seem that the benefits and promises of Psalm 23 are contingent on the obedience of Psalm 24.  Who can be that good?  Who can wash his hands and heart?

This is just the point…we cannot clean our hands and hearts, but Jesus, through his sacrifice on the cross is willing to do the scrubbing for us.  Oxy Clean® has nothing on what God can do with blood!

1 John 1:9 (NLT)  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.

God’s salvation is just that…it is God’s!  But he is willing to share it with us as we confess our need.  This is how he “fixes his humble dwelling” in us.  Paul’s image of Christ “presenting” the church to himself is Christ giving Christ a gift – us.  The word “present” means “to stand alongside”.  Like a bride and groom stand before God, Jesus is willing to have us standing alongside him once we’ve been washed in the blood!  That’s salvation!

Charles wrote it, we sing it, fix in us thy humble dwelling…

II.        Freedom from Slavery v.2

Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast!

     Let us all in thee inherit; let us find that second rest.

Take away our bent to sinning; Alpha and Omega be;

     end of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.

The target of a holy life is to be freed from the control of sin.  Sin is a very strong addiction!  (See the book of James).

The “second rest” of assurance in Jesus Christ means God wants us to be like him – holy – different from sin-loving.  It was always his plan.  Notice what he told his servant Moses to tell Israel:

Leviticus 11:45 (NLT)  For I, the LORD, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God.  Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.

The idea of a “wrinkle” is from an ancient word in Hebrew that suggests a flow, or hemorrhage of blood.  It’s a progressive draining of the life, God’s life out of your spirit and soul.  Where sin can be characterized as wrongly putting your interest and energy into the things of this life – power, money, prestige, materialism and the like, living a holy life is gaining the priority of placing the eternal over the temporal.  Peter told the church to make a choice – this world or the next:

2 Peter 3:10 - 11 (NLT)  But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief.  Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.  ¹¹Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,

This world can be a strong drug – cars, boats, houses, clothes, and all the glitz and glimmer of what you see in popular culture; stuff that will make you happy.  God wants to give you freedom from that kind of thinking. 

That’s what Charles Wesley meant when he wrote the words we can use to invite God to do this work of freedom in us – sing it together,  Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast…

III.      Joyfully Serving v.3

Come, Almighty to deliver, let us all thy life receive;

     suddenly return and never, never more thy temples leave.

Thee we would be always blessing, serve thee as thy hosts above,

     pray and praise thee without ceasing, glory in thy perfect love.

True life in Christ finds its expression in praise, particularly the kind of praise where we find ourselves serving others. 

1 Peter 1:22 (NLT) ²²You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.  Love each other deeply with all your heart.

Genuinely moving along in “being made perfect in love” is an “on-the-job-training” kind of experience.  We learn best how to love when we love.  Jesus said we would be his “church”.  The New Testament word is ecclesia – or, the called-out ones.  To be a person of faith as a follower of Jesus Christ is to think differently than the world; to be different and act differently than those outside the family.  We are to demonstrate the love of Christ to the world by loving as Christ loved the lost. 

Charles wrote:  Thee we would be always blessing.   As you serve Christ by serving others, you will be joyful…that equation never varies!

IV.      Fully Sanctified v.4

Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be.

     Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee;

changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place,

   till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise.

2 Corinthians 7:1 (NLT) ¹Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

Charles Wesley had one of the great distinctive Christian doctrines in mind in here:  God’s redemptive purpose was to reconcile His creation to himself.   

2 Corinthians 5:19 (KJV) …that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself…

To “reconcile” is to seek agreement.  When the bank sends you your account statement, you reconcile your own record with what the bank says you have in the account.  You are seeking agreement.

This world was far from being in agreement with God’s purpose and nature.  It began in the Garden of Eden, and all people who had Adam and Eve as ancestors carry the sin gene.  Now, on the cross, God did that reconciling work through Jesus’ death.  It’s called “propitiation” – Jesus paid it all!

But that only leveled the playing field; it is up to us to choose God’s gift of salvation and freedom from slavery to sin. How can you do that?  How can you “go on to perfection” – in THIS lifetime?

I believe we can count on Charles for understanding this.  He has three words, lost in wonder, love and praise.  All three of those words, like everything else in life, cannot be done “perfectly” if you consider “perfect” to be without any kind of flaw.  We are not capable! 

But the word is telios[ii] and it means not without flaw, but rather complete, in the sense of mature and functional.  It means to act as you were created to act.  A rose bush is telios, mature, when it produces roses that engage the eye and sense of smell.  A Christian is telios when he or she is living life lost in wonder, love and praise.

Wonder

…is the sense of respect and genuine thankfulness for the life with which you’ve been blessed.  You know you’re created, and you are in awesome wonder of your Creator!

Love

…is the response of the heart and life to what you’ve been made for; we were created to praise and adore God and to have fellowship with Him.  We were meant to correspond to God’s nature and reflect that glory.  The glory of God is expressed in how we live:

James 1:27 (NLT) ²⁷Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

Praise

…is the outward response of a heart and life that understands just how glorious and wonderfully our God has been in creating, sustaining and loving his children. 

Lost in wonder, love and praise is Charles Wesley’s way of describing what a divine love that excels any other kind of love looks like when it washes all over a child of God.

Pure and spotless let us be… is the prayer of a life which recognizes you would not want anything unholy to be in your life so you CAN reflect the goodness, grace and majesty of your Lord and Redeemer!

And this is the finishing of God’s new creation – turning us back to being lost in wonder, love and praise of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Message version of our text says it this way:

Ephesians 5:26 - 27 (TMSG)

Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.

Finish it, LORD, in me….finish your New Creation.  Help me to be lost in wonder, love and praise for your goodness, mercy and grace!

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1.       [i] Remedy for a Prune Face in A Treasury of Bible Illustrations, First Ed, © 1995 by AMG INTERNATIONAL, INC. All Rights Reserved. Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 2005, QuickVerse. All rights reserved.

2.       [ii] Matthew 5:48, Strongs Exhaustive Concordance