Tag: Sin

Posted on

Kings, Subjects and Faithfulness

Dear Sister,

My Old Testament readings lately have been in the Kings and Chronicles–the recounting of the rise and demise and obituaries of the kings of Judah. It’s easy to think that the longer we walk with the Lord and see His mighty acts and His faithfulness it most certainly ensures that we will be found faithful in the end. Alas, it is not necessarily so…

As I read these stories about the Kings of old my thoughts focus on finishing well. Some started with so much promise, so godly, so obedient, and each time we want the Scriptures to report that this king or this prophet remained faithful to the end, but not always so. There seemed to be that one thing, that one little sin, that one idol that was not torn down completely. I’d rather the report of my life, when I’m dead and gone, state, “She started shaky, but she finished well, all to God’s glory,” not,  “She started well, but her ending crumbled.”

In my Bible Study a while ago, as we broke into small groups, one of my precious sisters, in answer to a question about our greatest fears before God, answered something like, “I’m always concerned I’ll walk away,” and she mentioned someone in her life who had walked away and it frightened her for herself. I have had that same fear. “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love…”, says the old hymn. How often I have sung those words and sensed the dread of them. Then comes the plea, “Take my heart, O, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.”

It is reassuring and comforting to know that if we are indeed in Christ, true believers, there is no condemnation, but we can still bring shame by our disobedience. We can dishonor our husbands, our children, our friends, our brothers and sisters in the Church. We can bring disgrace upon our once bright testimony and bring untold glory to Satan. Just ask the fallen pastors if they would relish a godly do-over. Would they check their sin in its beginning buds? Would they be more vigilant over their own souls and not just the souls of others? When did they stop consuming the Scriptures for their personal hearts instead of just checking it off a to-do list or to prepare for a sermon or Bible Study? When did that first dishonorable thought refuse to be brought under the Spirit’s control? When did the horror of a particular sin become a thing to cherish in the mind and eventually an action? Rarely, perhaps never, is a grievous sin in a believer who is faithfully walking in love and obedience, a quick thing. It results from a mind and heart continually left unchecked.

Don’t for a minute think that we girls are off the hook because we are not tempted like some pastors or leaders or ordinary men have been tempted because women certainly can fall in like areas also. Adultery, pornography, embezzlement, and the like. But sin is usually more subtle than this. Materialism–just one more unsatisfying item bought. Anger and bitterness–you don’t know what I’ve had to put up with.  Ruining reputations with our tongues–cutting to shreds with our lips those made in His image. Food. Even making idols of good things (children, spouses, grades, jobs, clean houses) so they become our god rather than worshipping our God.

Oh, Father, may my private, inward life match my outward profession. Remind me, as the old Puritan wrote in his prayer, “I have often loved darkness, observed lying vanities, forsaken Thy given mercies, trampled underfoot Thy beloved Son, mocked Thy providences, flattered Thee with my lips, broken Thy covenant. It is of Thy compassion that I am not consumed.” May I hate my sin more than I despise the sin of others, prays my pastor. “Sin is always crouching at the door,” God warns Cain. Peter’s sober admonition is that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion intent on devouring God’s own children. Check that sin. Stop it. Do not allow it to encroach and grow. Wage war against it. That is the battle of the faithful life. Do not fight this war with broken down walls allowing easy entry for the enemy of our souls. Build those walls, not with twigs and sticks and branches but with bricks and mortar and steel, partaking of His ammunition, His building blocks, His means of grace…the Word, prayer, the Lord’s Supper, fellowship with godly people, worship. You must not neglect these or you cannot, will not, stand. You cannot love the world and its things and its friendships and love God at the same time.

We are unable to do this in our own strength. Let God’s Word have its way with you. Pray.  Do not dismiss the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Repent. Hold on to Christ for all you’re worth, and in the clinging, you will discover He is holding you in His strong hands and will not let His very own child go.

“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Look at Jesus daily in His Word and become like Him.

May we finish well, loyal and steadfast to the end of this life, until we are ushered into His presence because of His faithfulness to us. May our epitaphs read, “The faithful God kept her faithful.”

Love,
Cherry

Posted on

Hope in the Forest of Life

My family has had many changes recently. Since November, we have flown to Ethiopia to bring back our 18 month old twins, said goodbye to sweet friends, packed up our lives and memories in Okinawa, Japan, flew from Seattle to Boulder to Virginia and then to Kentucky visiting friends and family, moved to Puerto Rico, and are still waiting for our household goods to land so we can move into our new home. We have lived out of 4 suitcases, 2 pack and plays, 3 car seats, and backpacks for the entire time. I’ve had shingles, we have all been sick in bed, and Barrett started his new job. I wish I could tell you we weathered all this with grace, joy, and peace while trusting in the Lord’s Providence, but that would be a lie.

I’ve been short and mean with my children, I haven’t loved my neighbor as myself and, worst of all, I did not enjoy my husband and kids…and sadly, this revealed that my hope and joy were dependent on them rather than Christ! But that is another lesson for another time.

Dear sister, your story might not look exactly like mine, but you know that you have a circumstance, relationship, or depression that has left you like me: crying out to God, begging Him to help because you hate living this hypocritical life of saying you trust Him in all things yet your life was far from showing it. Own it friend. Acknowledge the sin you are holding on to of unforgiveness, jealousy, control, anxiety, or pride that has produced its fruit in your difficult time, leaving you feeling like life is hopeless. Oh sweet sister, you need to acknowledge the weight of this sin. You need to grasp how any one of these sins can push your life into the path of hopelessness. Don’t be afraid; don’t look away. Because it’s right here, when our sin bears down so hard, that the grace Jesus won for you at the cross will restore your hope and lift up your head!

What is this grace? Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. It’s my husband buying me a cupcake on the way home when we still aren’t OK. It’s my kids waking up cheering after I blew up at them the night before. But ultimately, grace is Jesus taking my sins—trying to control my husband and kids, losing my patience, not being kind to my neighbor, being jealous of the life SHE has, and fearing that life isn’t working out the way I planned—and nailing it to the cross. He bore the weight of God’s wrath on Himself for me. For ugly, sometimes unrepentant me! And then, don’t miss this, and THEN, he gave me His righteousness. He made me perfect in God’s eyes. This is grace! When God sees me, He doesn’t see the sin that deserves his wrath, He sees His perfect son and accepts me.

This is our hope! This is the big picture we can’t forget while walking in the son-blocking path in the forest of life. This grace reminds us that we are forgiven and have the hope of heaven! We have Christ forever!

Please don’t misunderstand me that all hardship is caused by personal sin, yet His grace on us should still bring us hope. When everything falls down around us, we know that we are forgiven and righteous because of the grace of Christ. Oh Lord, as we meditate on your grace, may that give us hope in hard times and motivate us to give grace to others.

Your sister in Christ,

Colleen

Posted on

Joy in Dark Times

Dear sister,

One of our homeschool mom’s stood in front of our group with tears in her eyes as she recounted her time spent comforting her friend whose husband was killed in a helicopter crash off the shores of Hawaii. She described how his extra boots stood watch at the door and how the mechanical smell of the uniforms he left behind laced the house. The widow and her four children grieved deeply, asked why loudly, and some became silent as they turned inward sadly. They were used to having him absent for long spells, but contemplating him never coming home tore their hearts.

Two days later, I listened to an Indian women give her testimony of how her husband broke her neck and spine, smashed her head on railroad tracks, and pulled her sari so hard it stripped her naked in the streets. She managed to run away only to face the condemnation from women who told her she should have stayed with her husband. She told of her reoccurring blackouts as a result of years of beatings and how she was threatened by the mafia to stop trying to free their slave labor children or else.

Both women cried out to God saying that He must have made a mistake! How could this God they loved, allow this guttural sorrow and pain to his child and then say He is the comforter of the widow, father to the fatherless, and head lifter of the broken? As they were sharing this part of the story, through their tears something remarkable appeared: A smile. Not one that declared madness or hilarity, but one that revealed the hope they had that the scripture was true and their hope secure in Christ. This God declares that He will bind up the brokenhearted, never leave or forsake His children, is able to catch all the burdens we throw at Him, and wipes all our tears away forever. The widow clings to the knowledge that she will dance with her husband again in heaven while the abused knows vengeance is the Lord’s. Because of this, she now rescues those from the slavery and bondage she knew well.

After hearing the testimony of the widow’s friend, my daughter declared she wanted to watch “Inside Out”. As I saw Joy and Sadness try and help Riley out of her newfound pain, I realized the cartoon explained to me something simple: sometimes we need sadness to bring joy. We do not realize the pain of sorrow often alerts us (and others) of our need for encouragement and help. Our emotional marbles cannot be parsed. They are not simply red, blue, yellow, green, or purple. They are often mixed. These women experienced this in their own lives; the body of Christ came in their deepest need to sit, listen, pray, and be the hope they needed when they had little. And joy came in the morning.

Now what does this all mean for us sisters? Oh sister, there can be joy in the sorrow when our faith is grounded on the foundation of the Word. The Bible’s narrative is true. There is sin in the world and bad things happen because of the curse of Eden. This world will never be perfect again until Christ returns and takes us home (which is our Blessed Hope). Yet, from the beginning, God promised a deliverer and rescuer to come to save those who trust in Him. The Old Testament points to the coming One, the gospels reveal this Messiah, while the Letters tell us how to live in light of what Christ did on the cross. Christ endured the suffering of the cross for the joy of our salvation. He is our example of going through pain with a solid, sturdy, joy of trusting and obeying His Father. He had joy in His suffering.

What about us sisters? What are we grounded in? Will we have joy when sorrow and pain knock us off our feet? Will this deep joy come from our knowledge of the Word and it’s hope of a Savior? The assured hope that we serve a Savior that was abandoned, spat on, hated, and cursed, yet trusted that His Father had Him and would never forsake Him? That He found joy in the trial of even death itself? Like these sweet, broken women, feed yourself on the truth of the Word so when storms rage, you too can break into a confident smile because you are loved, will never be forsaken, and that joy comes in the morning because his mercies are new every morning and His faithfulness is great.  Our hope comes with joy!

Joyfully Yours,

Colleen

Posted on

Imagined Image

Dear Sister,
I’m guilty. Are you? I often live my life according to how I think others think of me. I have no idea what they are truly thinking, but that does not matter. My image is formed by imagined thoughts of others. As a kid, my image was determined by having the “in” shoes and style for the first day of school, having good grades for my parents, being the best soccer player I could, and being at every church function available. My teenage image had all of those but added the desire to be liked by popular guys and girls. Onto college and my image morphed into being the most perfect person I could: from daughter to student to Christian. You see, I wanted the perfect perceived image inside and out. I wanted to make everyone happy and feel comfortable around me. Now as an “adult” my image is still formed by what I think others are thinking about me: I need to be a good mother, hot wife, best lover, best friend, thoughtful, servant hearted, and hospitable to others. At other times I want others to imagine (ha) me as not caring about any of these things so I become apathetic. This gave me a humble image, right? Are you tired? Phew I was/am. I honestly almost died trying to meet this imagined image of myself. I became anorexic and was sent away for two months to begin healing and repenting of this sinful pattern of life where I lived for an imagined image rather than for the image for which I was created. Genesis 1:26a says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” Hmmm…there is nothing in there about looks, ability, grades, or perfection. It says that our image is determined by the Trinity, not by what we think other human’s think of us. Our worth is being made in the image of God. But wait, there is more!!!

Sin tarnished our image forever, but God has told us in His Word that He made a way for our image to be restored once and for all eternity. He sent Jesus to live a perfect life and die for all sin once and for all. He rose again conquering sins penalty of death so those who put their trust in Christ will be forgiven and their image will be restored to what is was in the garden. Look at what Paul says of the image of the believer in Ephesians 1:3-14

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard he word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee4 of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Holy cow! Do you see this? Paul is reminding believers of their identity because we forget it!

• He has blessed us in Christ with EVERY spiritual blessing
• He chose us before the foundation of the world
• We are holy and blameless because of Christ
• We are adopted into the family of God and have full inheritance
• We have redemption, we are no longer slaves to sin, we have been saved into a family because of Christ
• We are FORGIVEN of all past, present, and future sin to the riches of His grace
• He LAVISHED his grace on us

I could go on and on…and Paul does in every letter to churches. He reminds the believers in the churches of what their image truly is before correcting behavior or addressing questions. Why? Because I forget the gospels meaning and power in my life. I try to form my imagined image on my own instead of remembering who we are in Christ and letting that form my image.

Sweet sister, we act like we believe. If we believe that our imagined image is what is important, then we work at it with all our might! We buy certain shoes and clothes, we join certain groups, we eat certain food, and we behave in a certain way. I pray this New Year we will all stop. Stop letting things and behavior determine our imagined image. I pray that we will actively think on what our image truly is: we are created in God’s image with intrinsic value, we were bought with a price, we are adopted, forgiven, showered with grace and mercy, loved, and have an inheritance, all to the Praise of His glory! Now act accordingly!

Your Sister in Christ,

Colleen

Posted on

Son of God, Light of the World

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8: 12

Dear Sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ,

It is December 26, night has fallen, and a bit of the blues of another Christmas Past clouds my evening. Alas, all the house decorations, all the gifting particulars, all the music practices, and all the festive gatherings culminated in, what is now, yesterday. Christmas Day has come and gone. Already I await the First Sunday of Advent—next year! That sets my mind on something merry and bright for the next 52 weeks! O Come All Ye Faithful!

Thankfully the delight of Christmas lights that twinkle and shine in the neighborhoods, in the shopping centers and in the parks extend the spirit and the joy—hopefully until Epiphany, January 6. That is the celebration of the visit by certain wise men who brought gifts to the Christ Child. These men, who studied the position of the stars, for whatever reason important to the culture of the times, were fascinated by one specific star in the east. Familiar, also, to the Hebrew Scriptures, they expected the birth of the King of the Jews. The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2, verse 2 contains this narrative:

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?
For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

These highly educated men depended on the Scriptures and the knowledge that God gave them to seek Jesus in order to worship Him. What a precious reflection of the way God draws us to Himself—through His word and in His creation! We do not have to be academicians to know God. The magnificence of the creation tells about the Creator. Indeed, this is exactly what Paul states in Romans 1, verse 20:

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

They followed the star to find a King, and when they found Him, they fell to the ground and worshipped Him. Then they presented Him royal gifts: gold for splendor, frankincense for fragrance, and myrrh for soothing. Imagine that—not being Jewish themselves, there was something that moved them to worship this Child-King. Memorialized in the Gospel of Matthew, our Christmas traditions have, through centuries, included the wise men—and gifts—and stars.

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light.

In our dark world, where sin abounds, where anxieties and fears paralyze, where troubles and sickness hurt, where things and desires overtake, where hatred and warfare kill, we need the Perfect Light. That Light is Jesus, who took upon Himself our sins and guilt on a dark day in the midst of a blaming mob, so that we, who believe on Him and trust that He died on our account, will have eternal life with Him. Jesus, the only Son of God, left His resplendent Heavenly throne to become like us in every way, but sin, and obeyed His Father in every aspect, where we could never obey Him.

In retrospect, Dear Sisters, this day after Christmas has actually turned into a sweet and joyful time. Our Christmas tree never looked so sparkling, there are still a few radio stations playing Christmas music, and there are still some cookies in the tins. Above all, I am glad that you and I have spent this time together, reflecting on the True Light. Joy to the World!

Merry Christmas,
Mimi