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Foxes, Forgiveness, Freedom, and Romans 7-8

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—-through Jesus Christ our Lord!…There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…”

And yet, I’ve been thinking a lot about sin lately. Partly because it’s the New Year and I tend to take deep stock of my life at the end of each 365-day turn of the calendar. How has God worked? Where is warfare necessary to clean up spiritual clutter and debris and re-establish a peaceful, clean, and glad soul? And partly because I have so much of it, sin, that is, and I hate it, though not as much as I want to. I tend to loathe it more in others than I do in myself. I can pinpoint it so easily in my husband and in my children, but when introspecting, I sometimes hurry through and make concessions and justifications and rationalizations for things God definitely abhors. Not the gray. Not the doubtful. The black versus the white. How many times have I asked the Lord to cleanse me, but did not follow with the hard work required for mortification of my flesh? Shallow and quick repentance is fairly easy, but it doesn’t get to the fundamentals of my heart—that it is deceitful and desperately wicked, often bearing false witness to me about my motives—making me proud with self-righteousness. So much so that God says, “Who can know it?” Certainly not I, the one who is sometimes able to be a master of hiding, deceit, refusing to be laid bare before the mirror of God’s Word. I get so weary of it, the doing, the glossing over, the confession, then the replay a few days or even hours later. I can blame it on no one else. It is I—I who chooses to sin instead of submitting to the control of the Spirit. Who will deliver me?

Which all brings me to Romans 8. And to Romans 7 before it. Chapter 7 tells me I’m double-minded about my sin. I have a love-hate relationship with some of my failings. And it tells me that Jesus is the only one who can free me from its mastery. It’s not in my will-power to do this. I’m grandly comforted because, believe me, I’ve tried on my own.

Then comes Romans 8. The pinnacle. It relieves my lingering fears, my doubts, my lack of assurance of being His. It gives me confident hope. It lifts my head, with Paul, to lofty praise for my Savior who frees me, not just from sin’s master/slave relationship but from ever being condemned for it. Because of what He did for me in His perfect life and substitutionary death, He and I now share life, He in me, me in Him. Praise to my Father in heaven who loved me so much He sent His Son to condemn my sin in His own flesh, not in mine. Praise to the blessed Holy Spirit who powerfully enables me to set my mind on Himself and holy things, giving me life and peace and the promise of being raised on the last day. I am no longer in slavery to the sin which deceitfully creeps in as I make, what appears to me in the moment, inconsequential wrong choices here and there. And sometimes the sin seems to charge in, as if unbidden, unannounced, with full fury. But sin is no longer my master, I’m told. I do not need to sin. The Spirit gives power to put to death these sins of the flesh. I need no longer be in dread of my Father. I need not hide nor dress myself in scant fig leaves.

I have been adopted into His family, my heart crying out to my benevolent Father, “Papa!” It is that intimate…that sweet. And when I fail again and again I am told that the Spirit helps me in my weakness, in my sometimes soul agony. Even when my lips fail me with words, I am told He intercedes for me with groanings too deep to utter.

The thing about true love is that it will not endure rivals. Sin is the enemy to true love on both sides. First, God, who loves and is jealous for His own children whom He has chosen, will not allow us to continue in iniquity because it displaces Him in our lives. He who is utterly sinless must reign supreme. Second, we ourselves will not keep allowing sin as the direction, the practice of our lives because that would signify we do not belong to the Savior. It is antithetical to whom we are. “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.” Praise God for the tension in me when sin rears its ugly head for it is a proof of my sonship. The Spirit in me creates that agitation, grants godly sorrow and repentance, cleanses and preserves me for the Father and the Son. (Study 1 John for more on this.)

Half the time I do not know “the why” of the Lord allowing these struggles of my heart, but I’m promised that no matter what His design, what the particular lesson to be learned, even in my sin, He is the Always Good, it is for my good, making me more like Jesus than the last struggle effected. Why? He chose me to be His daughter in eternity, He called me to Himself in time and space, He made me right with Himself, and He will make me fully pure and perfectly holy when transitory earthly life ends and I am ushered into His presence. He is readying me for eternity with Him, cleansing me, changing me, making me more and more into the image of His Son.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” He won’t bring any charge against us. He won’t condemn us for our sin. After all, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, not things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Not even our sin, if we are His. God has set us free because He was satisfied with His dear Son’s life and death in our place. He took our sin and God’s wrath. In exchange, we wear His white robes of righteousness.

I still get frustrated. I still confess my sins. I weary of my weakness and imperfect love for my Savior, depleting me of the joy of my secure fellowship with Him—and so I ask Him to give me strength and conviction and discernment to notice the “little foxes” creeping into my heart which, if left unchecked, will eat me up. I repent more quickly and deeply. I take steps to avoid the pitfalls which lunge me into my favorite sins. I work hard to stop sinning, knowing that it is God who is working in me to even want to stop falling short of His glory, of grieving Him, and giving me the power to change lest I think transformation is from me. (Philippians 2:12-13) I pray for Him to overwhelm me with His love and patience and preserving power on my behalf, assured that nothing will separate me from His love. And because He will never condemn me due to my status in His Son, I desire to not sin. I want to please Him and put Him on display in my life as an evidence of gratitude and love.

We are “more than conquerors”, says Paul, when we are born again. More than? “Super conquerors”, says one pastor. He gives power through Christ to overcome our sin, our distresses, outward onslaughts, inward stresses and temptations, and keeps us for Himself, never, ever to be lost.

Tell someone what great things He has done for you.

Soli Deo Gloria

Love,

Cherry

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits—Who forgives all your iniquities…Who redeems your life from destruction, and crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies you with good so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:1-5)

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The Kindness of God in Christmas… Part II

Dear sisters,

Meeting or just seeing from afar a well-known or famous person can be a heady experience. In my younger years I went to a political rally and saw my presidential candidate from hundreds of feet away surrounded by bullet-proof glass and I was all a-flutter since I just knew he had actually looked my way as he waved to a crowd of thousands. That man received my vote and he was grateful for everyone’s ballot on his behalf, but it was not anything personal. He did not know me from the next person in a sea of blurry faces. He had not invited me in particular to his rally. He would never, ever remember me because he did not remotely know me nor did he ever see me.

I did sit right in front of one of my favorite on-line/radio pastors once as he preached a series of messages over a week’s time. This man did see me sitting there since he actually looked at all of us in the small audience and even conversed with many of us in group settings, but if I were ever to be in his presence again and have the opportunity to ask, “Hey, remember me?”, he would have to reply in the negative. For someone of great renown who meets countless people over a lifetime, he could not possibly remember every face, every conversation.

Our Lord Jesus is different. He is far bigger and grander than any other human being, no matter how famous, powerful, or influential. He is the Creator of the galaxies, the stars, the planets, the earth, the seas, and all inhabitants, animal and human. He designed all intricacies of every single thing—every molecule, every cell, every atom, every speck of dust. He holds the worlds together by the word of His mouth. He creates life and makes life cease. He is sovereign over all things and circumstances, for all eternity. And He has always existed, uncreated, self-existent, no beginning, no ending. My 9-year-old grandson says such thoughts make his head hurt. And yet, for all this otherness, this grandeur and unfathomable power, Jesus actually knows me, my name, every line of my face, every hair on my head, every thought in my brain. He recognizes me instantly in the throngs of humanity. In fact, He knew me before I was even conceived. He knew me and continues to know me through all eternity. He chose me from before the foundations of the world, from all the billions of faces that would ever be, and said, “You are my daughter.”

Sin entered the created world and the Godhead put the eternal plan in motion, the plan which would save me and all others chosen to be His children. And wonder of wonders, the plan was not one to be accomplished from afar, but a very personal and close-up plan, enabling His children to see Him, living in close proximity to them, living a perfectly obedient life to His Father, eventually incurring the wrath of the Father on the rugged cross in our place for all our falling short of the glory of God.

How could God do this? How would the plan be initiated in time and space so that we limited persons could understand His love for those He personally chose? How would a transcendent God, one above and beyond His creation, accomplish His saving work?

The Scriptures tell us God is good and compassionate, benevolent and kind in His sovereignty. A kind, tender-hearted God is not distant and aloof. Love does not stay away. Those who love want to be with the object of their affection. And so, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, with a body like ours. He condescended to our fleshy weakness. God became man, made under the Law which He obeyed perfectly…to redeem those of us under the Law that we might receive adoption as sons.

And so, on that still night in the little town of Bethlehem, in a stable with smelly lambs and goats and mice and donkeys, God-pleasing, young Mary gave birth to the Son whom the Angel Gabriel had promised in that fearful encounter with the heavenly being— the One the Holy Spirit had placed in her womb—as Joseph must have wiped her brow, caressed her face, and looked on in wonder, remembering the gracious words of the angel, assuaging his fears about the origins of this child. And they named Him Jesus, because He would one day save His people from their sins. He has many other names and titles, ones old Isaiah had prophesied long before the baby’s coming. Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace. He is the unblemished Lamb, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Rejoice in the kindness upon kindness of God this Christmas. Tenderhearted. Gift of all gifts. Far above us yet with us. Immanuel. God Almighty condescended to dwell with us—“and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” And He continues to live with us by the indwelling Spirit of God.

Another kindness awaits us. Another physical coming. The resurrected Christ is returning to take us to Himself and He will live with us again and we with Him, forevermore, never to be parted. Maybe today.

Love,
Cherry

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The Kindness of God in Christmas

Dear sisters,

I just read an article on the sinking of the titanic.  The author was saying how the 1997 movie did not accurately describe those final moments when the boats were being filled will terrified people.  The movie led us to believe that brash rich men pushed their way past women and children to get a place inside the lifeboat, but in real life that did not happen.  Even one of the richest men in the world at that time, John Astor, gave up a spot for his wife and unborn child.  History records that no rich man survived that doomed vessel.  Instead, the men chose to die out of a supernatural kindness and sense of self-sacrifice that I bet they didn’t even know they possessed. These men showed kindness to those they loved and for the good of those they didn’t know.

We are not born with a desire to be kind.  This side of the fall all mankind strive for their own greatness, worth, and name. When Adam decided not to be kind and protect Eve from eating the fruit, it changed the world for all time.  No longer do we seek others more than ourselves. No longer do we love our neighbor more than ourselves.  No longer do we choose kindness over getting what we want.  Wars have and are being fought to win ultimate ruling power. People are being murdered because they look scary or are walking in the wrong neighborhood.  People are condemned before they are even asked their side of the story.  A political pundit cares more about an issue than of the people affected by this issue. Hate is the game of today.  Hate is what motivates the masses, not kindness.

Although we shake our heads and pontificate on how we’ve gotten where we are, let’s be honest, the hatred that led to murder began with Adam and Eve’s first two children.  It has not gotten better, it only spiraled from there.  God warned His people that when they forget who He was, they would become miserable, be conquered, or even die.  All but one family were drowned by a flood.  An entire generation died before the Israelites could enter the promised land. Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Rome were all used as tools to show Israel their sin of forgetting their first love. The prophets warned them to repent and they even killed the prophets.  Finally, the God who had always been there, was silent.  Silent for 400 years.  Generations heard nothing from the God who made them.  Their sorrow was great.  What was God doing?  Why were they not hearing from the One who chose them?  Had their sin finally separated them for good?

Then, in the still of the night a baby was born to a virgin.  A new star shown in the sky.  Shepherds were blinded by the shine of a choir of angles singing of this baby’s birth!  In the depth of their gross sin, a Savior had been born.  Was this Savior deserved?  Was this Savior earned by how they lived their lives?  No.  This Savior was given out of the kindness of a God who loves the unlovable.  He loves the broken, orphaned, and outcast.  Yet he chooses to provide a way for these unruly, hate filled people to be forgiven.  And it started in a little town called Bethlehem.

Sweet sister, this Christmas, celebrate the kindness of God that provided a way for you to be restored back to the fellowship Adam and Eve had with God before that fateful choice.

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”  Titus 3:3-5.

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Gratitude Matters

Dear sisters,

Don’t we all remember our mothers and fathers saying to us, in front of others, “What do we say?”, and we dutifully answered the prompt, “Thank you.” If we have small children or grandchildren of our own we echo what our parents instilled in us. My dear mother reinforced this coaching by guiding me in composing meaningful thank you notes and I taught my children the same. Even my daughter with special needs reminds me it is time for her to write her thank-you note for the gift some thoughtful loved one presented to her recently.

Gratitude is commanded by God and it is essential for healthy psyches and for our spiritual selves. Even a secular health site I occasionally visit touts the salutary benefits of living lives of gratitude. If we are thankful people, thankful for all things in our lives, we are not grumblers, whiners, complainers, dissatisfied ones. We give credence to something or someone outside of ourselves for bringing good things to us. It is an antidote to pride and self-sufficiency. It hints of admission of dependency.

To whom are we grateful? We could be just appreciative in a nebulous sort of way, not really crediting anyone for actually giving us the thing we are thankful for. I’m so thankful for my health. My children are wonderful and my grandchildren even better! My bills are paid. I’m glad she’s my good friend. But to what or whom are we grateful? Our lucky stars? Fate? DNA? Our own hard work or charm? And what if what we received does not seem good, is unwanted, even painful? Are we supposed to give thanks for that?

I remember being on an argumentative family forum once when I commented on being grateful to God for all things. One of the responders asked why I had to thank Him. Couldn’t we all just be grateful, period? Just an attitude of being, not an act or attitude of heart toward an ultimate giver. Well, I suppose that’s slightly healthier than being a whiner, but…

As always, we come back to Scripture, our truth, our compass, our steadiness, the authoritative written Word of God. And God says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks IN all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1Thessalonians 5:16-18) Again, in Ephesians 5:20, we are told to “give thanks always and FOR everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Giving thanks can show how appreciative we are for something we really like given by someone else, but we do not often thank people for being mean to us or hurting our feelings or such things. But God tells us, in our relationship with Him, to give thanks, not just IN all things, but FOR all things, as evidenced in the Scriptures just referenced. There is a difference. Lord, thank you that I can trust you during this difficulty. Thank you that you are conforming me to the likeness of your son in this circumstance. That’s gratitude IN. And that is good and commanded. But how about, “Thank you, Lord, for this illness, thank you for the breach in this relationship, thank you for this financial trial—knowing that God is always good and is working whatever is happening for our good in His great providence and wisdom. This is not an easy thing to do, but it is the time to adjust our hearts to correct theology about who God is, His love and care and compassion and wisdom—all seen in the circumstances He brings into our lives—the good and the seeming bad. And it is good for us because everything He tells us to do is good and right and beneficial. Not doing what He commands is not good, not right, and harmful.

Thankfulness to God displays obedience, trust, and rest in Him and His manner of gifts. It recognizes He is in command of every circumstance of life and acknowledges He is good in His decrees. It tears down prideful independence. Lack of gratitude shows disobedience, faithlessness, dissatisfaction, self-righteousness, unrest, and lack of contentment in His giving and His goodness.

We may not feel very grateful to people for everything they give or dish out, but we can give thanks to God for these things, asking Him to change our hearts, knowing there will somehow be blessing in the obedience and God is glorified when we acknowledge that His ways in our lives are worthy of gratitude. Obedience is often a sacrifice, a surrender, a denial of self, a putting God foremost in our thinking and agendas. A heart of gratitude is not in rebellion. It is a humble heart. It is a dependent heart. Without Him we are helpless and undone.

We have the promise that, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies Me…(Psalm 50:23a) This sacrifice includes the denial of self-power, of self-reliance, of self-aggrandizement, giving place to new desires and motives of pleasing Jesus. And whatever is done for Him, whatever honors Him and not self, matters, now and later.

I will ask God to help me remember these things when I sit with my family around the Thanksgiving table this year—the table with one less setting.

Love,
Cherry

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Scared Straight

Dear sisters,

The fake cobwebs, tombstones, and ghouls have already begun to appear in our housing community in Puerto Rico.  Families, seem to compete on who can have the scariest decorations, not to deter the kids, but to bring fun to their neighborhood romps.  How often do I slip behind a door or slink low to scare my husband when he comes home from work?  Why do we do these things?  We think it’s fun to make people jump as it gives us a moment of control over them. Horror movies do the same, they manipulate our emotions in order to get a certain response from us that they dictate. Our trust in what we have known as truth has been twisted and the result can be shivers down the spine, goosebumps, or even verbal screams.

That idea of known (or even perceived) truth being skewed is what scares me. When God asks me to trust Him over my own perceived truth, that’s when I shiver, get goosebumps, and even scream.  When you boil it down, it means that He is calling me to trust Him and His word over my perceived truth of having control in areas of my life.  Can I trust Him for my salvation?  Absolutely, no doubt.  I have no fear over that.  Can I trust Him with where He sends our family through my husband’s job? Absolutely.  I have no fear with going to any duty station as God has control over that, I accept that I don’t.

But…what about me submitting to my husband when I think he is wrong and I am right?  Can I trust the Lord with the husband He has given me? Shivers.  What about my kids?  Can I trust the Lord with their hearts and minds as I see them wanting their own ways rather than obeying me?  Goosebumps. How about me befriending THAT person? The Lord knows how I feel about them…can I trust Him that He will protect me through the heartache or embarrassment that may come?  Shivers. And just recently, can I trust the Lord when cancer and sickness consumes those that I hold dearest? Screams.

This is the scariest thing the Lord has asked of me.  To trust Him in all things, not just my salvation.  Trust is when I rely or place my confidence in someone or something.  I tend to rely on myself, to have confidence on my own abilities, education, or gifts.  I don’t trust the Lord when I have confidence in myself.  I doubt Him when he says to trust Him with my marriage, kids, family, health, or even my schedule.  My perceived reality of control is skewed.  The way I think life should work is challenged and often my response is fear, not trust.  Yet I am reminded of Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Trusting in the Lord with my day to day life is the scariest thing He asks of me.  I have to remind myself that He made me, promises to take care of me, is good, is for me, and has me.  It is not a blind trust as He has proven Himself trustworthy not only to me, but for millions before me.  So sweet sister, as your perceived reality is skewed as the Lord calls you to trust Him rather than your perceived truth, you may shiver, have goosebumps, or scream, but don’t let that keep you from acknowledging Him to make your path straight. He will.