Crosswalk.com--The Devotional

[Judy Harder]

February 21, 2011

Blessed are the Meek
by Sarah Phillips, Crosswalk.com Family Editor


Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Mt 5: 5 (NIV)


I used to have a strong dislike for the word "meek." It brings me back a decade to a defining moment during my sophomore year of high school.

I was a shy teenager who had stepped outside of her comfort zone by enrolling in several theater classes, including a class on "behind the scenes" theater productions. This should have been the easiest of all the courses for my sensitive nature. But my instructor, while delegating roles for the Spring production of Peter Pan, proved me wrong when she voiced her choice of stage manager like this:

"I've chosen Melissa because I need someone with a strong personality - someone who isn't meek, like Sarah."

Of course, I only drove her point home when I didn't stick up for myself. I spent years after that scene developing assertiveness, determined to prove that Sarah Jennings was not meek. Like this teacher, I associated meekness with weakness and both were traits that needed to be eradicated if I was going to get anywhere in life.

At least that's what I thought until I found that dreaded word jumping off the pages of scripture at me in the Gospel of Matthew. There it was, one of the first things Jesus says in his famous Sermon on the Mount.

Our deacon offered some thoughts on this verse that helped put things in perspective for me. He shared that it's in the Sermon on the Mount where we see Jesus begin to expand on His true purpose - and to the disappointment of many, He was not going to be an earthly king bestowing power and prestige on His people, not just yet. Instead, God's plan for mankind included an interior transformation of souls for the sake of an eternal kingdom. To properly prepare us for this kingdom, God rejected earthly methods of acquiring power in favor of the healing that comes with merciful love.

It is God's mercy that changes our hearts from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. It's Christ's humility, His lowliness, that beckons us into a relationship with Him. And ultimately, it was Christ's willingness to give up earthly glory that opened the door for us to share in His eternal glory.

Now, as much as I would like earthly power, He asks us to "learn from him." As our souls find rest in God, He can continue His redemptive work through us as we display these same "weaker" virtues to the world.

This isn't to say God lacks power or that Christians should throw out virtues like courage. I think sometimes cultivating traits like meekness and humility are trickier than learning boldness because we can easily tip the scales too far and become passive. It's a difficult balance, but a necessary one if we want to reflect Christ to a hurting world.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Is there a situation in your life right now that would benefit from a little meekness, humility, or gentleness on your part? Ask God to show you how to have a meek and humble heart like His - one that offers healing and restoration while maintaining your God-given dignity.

Further Reading:

Psalm 37: 11
Ephesians 4: 2
James 4: 10

[Judy Harder]

February 22, 2011 

Fits Any Niche
By Shawn McEvoy, Crosswalk.com Managing Editor



Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105


All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16

As the editor responsible for all devotional content here at Crosswalk, one of the questions I'm asked most frequently by our beloved users goes something like this:

"Your devotional offerings are great, but could you please include one for cousins of divorcees with sleeping disorders who have befriended agnostic vegetarians? Because that would be really great."

Okay, that's an exaggeration (but only barely). And it's not like we dislike filling niches. We have devotionals for women, the workplace, weight loss and the list goes on. We're continually adding to the selection and have plans for a men's devotional, a children's devotional, a singles devotional, and more. To an extent, we're at the mercy of what's well-written, theologically sound, recognizable, and most of all, available.

But when I'm asked a question like, "My fiance and I are interested in a devotional for yet-to-be-married couples living in the mid-Atlantic from different church backgrounds who are both post-millenialists. What do you recommend for us?" my answer is always the same:

Just study the Word, man.

Whether you find it here or somewhere else, locate a ministry, author, preacher, or regular old Joe/JoAnn whom God has gifted with insight into his holy scriptures, and read their take regularly. Follow that up with your own deeper individual study. Take that into praying with a spouse, accountability partner, disciple, or mentor. Join a group Bible Study. And take notes during sermons.

It's not much more complicated than that. We sometimes make it so. We pigeonhole ourselves or our current life situation or level of belief, and so risk hindering the effective wholeness of the Word. 

Besides, if there's one thing I've noticed through almost a biblical generation of life, it's that our specific situations are many times made more complex by our non-stop obsession with them, and are often made more simple by backing off and getting at them indirectly through solid study that may not at first seem related to what we are going through.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to hear which verses were blessings to folks who have gone through heartbreaks or challenges similar to what you are now experiencing. What I'm suggesting is that the Word of the Lord never returns void. And that there have been several topics I've tried to understand (and been disappointed in the lack of direct guidance the Bible appears to give on the subject), or several life situations I've wanted to study (and not known where to start or how to find others who have biblical wisdom to offer in the form of a devotional) that have been solved when I stepped away and just studied sound teaching with prayer.

One example is when, as a young man, I wanted to find everything the Bible said about the "big sins" our youth ministers were so concerned with keeping us from -- sex and drinking. I shortly exhausted all the verses that dealt directly with these topics. But it wasn't until I backed away from a focus on these issues and began more comprehensive studies of what God had to say about all things that the picture grew bigger and the reasons for abstinence, purity, sobriety, and not causing others to stumble became clear in the light of grace, righteousness, sacrifice, and ministry.

Another example is the time I was battling a crippling depression. I found few answers and little comfort in attacking the problem directly - even if there didn't seem to be a lack of correlative verses or devos, which only would have reminded me double of the state I was in. What did help was reading other topics from the Bible, and books from established Christian authors and preachers about the Bible itself, about faith, about truth. Eventually the clouds lifted, and I was stronger for having gone through the darkness and for the overarching principles that brought me home.

Let me encourage you today not to wall yourself off from the full richness of the Word, but to seek out sound doctrine and study on general principles regularly that I promise will apply to your specifics, whether directly or indirectly, immediately or eventually. 

Further Reading

A Plea to Use the Bible Every Day
How to Have a Meaningful Quiet Time   

[Judy Harder]

February 23, 2011

Freedom from Sin in This Life and The Next

Alex Crain
Editor, Christianity.com

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith."
1 John 5:3-4 NASB

We know that Christ secures heaven in the next life, yes. But we often forget that Christ is our basis for a growing freedom from sin in this life as well. It's easy to slip into self-effort and start thinking that it's up to us to somehow overcome our sin and selfishness.

First John 5:4 says that faith is the victory not self effort. As we have seen in previous study, the Christian faith is never just faith in faith. It is not just some leap in the dark. It is faith in the objective truth of Christ in space, time and history. Christians trust in a Person—the Lord Jesus Christ.

First John 5:4 says that faith is the key to victory, and the key to faith is Christ. Our ongoing focus must be Him—all that He is—not just what He did at the cross. Instead of compartmentalizing Christ to merely being our Savior, we must value all that He is—His perfect life, death, resurrection, ascension, current ministry of intercession, and His promised return. The Apostle Paul says in Colossians 3:4 that Christ is our life.

If we neglect the full scope of who Christ is and what He did and we only focus on a part of what He did at the cross, we will fall apart in our practical living.

Francis Schaeffer wrote of this fully orbed, Christ-saturated view of living the Christian life in chapter eight of True Spirituality:

"It is not we who overcome the world in our own strength. We do not have a power plant inside ourselves that can overcome the world. The overcoming is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ... if we raise the empty hands of faith moment by moment and accept the gift. This is the victory that overcomes the world—our faith."

Intersecting Faith & Life: 

Ask God for grace to remember throughout the day today that victory over sin, doubt, and discouragement rests solely on the person and work of Christ.

For Further Study:

Consider memorizing Romans 8:32-34

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;

34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 

[Judy Harder]

February 24, 2011

God is a Sports Fan
By Ryan Duncan
Fish.com Editor

Back when I was in college, I witnessed a "debate" between one of my Bible Professors and a Philosophy major. What were they "debating" about? Was it the idea of a Triune God? The infallibility of Scripture? Predestination? Actually, it was about Football.

The Super Bowl had come around again, and the Philosophy Major was arguing that sports, at their core, drew our focus away from God and should therefore be considered idols. His basis for this was that every student would be watching the game Sunday night, and would probably skip Chapel Monday morning.     

I had to admit he had a point, some students made a habit of sleeping through the schools 10 am chapel services, but when there was a game of Ultimate Frisbee or Soccer they never failed to show up. I tried to imagine what Church would be like if people came the same way they did for a Super Bowel, bodies painted and ready to celebrate. Maybe we were losing our focus.

Still, did that really make sports an idol? That seemed a little extreme to me. It would be years later when I'd find the answer in a familiar story, Matthew 25:14-26, the Parable of the Talents.

14 "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

19 "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.'

21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

22 "The man with two bags of gold also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.'

23 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

24 "Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'

26 "His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

Traditionally, we are taught that this passage relates to our spiritual gifts, but I believe the talents of this parable can also be used represent our faith in Christ.

Sometimes we Christian become afraid of God. We know God is a harsh master, asking us to stand against an entire world that has turned against him, and we fear that if we start enjoying things in this world like Football or Soccer that they'll steal our faith from us.

So, instead of interacting with the world and engaging it with our faith, we bury it in the Bible to keep it safe, like the third servant. We turn our lives into one endless Bible study. Problem is, when the Master returns, when God calls us into his service, we discover that our faith hasn't grown! We've spent our entire lives studying how to be a Christian, but never actually living as one.   

Honestly, I think God wants us to be part of this world. He wants us to enjoy games of sports, to write stories and poetry, to study math and science and discover more about his creations. Yes, we need to be careful these things don't replace God, but when handled correctly, they allow us to engage the world, enjoy our faith, and understand those we are called to witness to.   

Intersecting Faith and Life

Do you have an unhealthy fear of God? Take some time and study the character of Jesus. 

Further Reading

Matthew 17:20 

[Judy Harder]

February 25, 2011

When We "Sort of" Obey
Laura MacCorkle, Crosswalk.com Senior Editor

But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." 1 Samuel 15:22, NIV

Recently I witnessed a dangerous near collision while driving in traffic.

I was headed toward an intersection where my light was green. A few cars were ahead of me, but none of us was speeding. From the opposite direction, a car was sitting in the turn lane and waiting to go left when there was a break in oncoming traffic from my direction. As I drove nearer, I saw the turn-lane driver becoming antsy. He edged out into the middle of traffic and looked like he was going to make a dangerous turn that was way too close to the cars in front of me.

And sure enough he did—narrowly, and I mean narrowly, missing the oncoming traffic. Had there been a collision, I would have surely run right into the crash or would have caused my own accident by swerving to miss the one right in front of me. So why did the driver do that? And why didn't he wait until it was safe—as we're all instructed to do in drivers' education and required by the law—to make his turn?

Well, after witnessing the almost-accident, I started thinking about my life and how I don't always want to wait on God or follow his ways either. I also get antsy and take matters into my own hands. Why is that? Pure and simple, I am disobedient and don't always trust in the Lord and his plans for my life.

Saul was like that as well. In 1 Samuel 15:1-29, we see how he followed his own instructions and completely missed the blessing that the Lord had in store for him.

Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them.'"

Simple enough, right? But what did Saul do? Well, he "sort of" obeyed, you might say. Which is really code for "disobedience." Sure, he attacked the Amalekites, but he spared the king (Agag) and kept sheep, cattle and "everything that was good." Now why would he do that? Well, why do any of us take "creative license" with what God is telling us to do in our lives and then do what we want?

When Saul was confronted by Samuel about his actions, he told him that he had "carried out the Lord's instructions." (Hey, not so fast, Saul.) To which Samuel replied:

"What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?" Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest."

Excuses, excuses, excuses! Sort of like, "The devil made me do it," or "God wouldn't have put _____ into my life if he didn't want me to ______." How lame is that? And how often do we twist what God is saying to us in order to get our own ways? We don't want to wait on him and follow his instructions, which means we don't want to obey, which means we miss out on the perfect plans that God has for us and we can make serious messes of our lives.

Then Samuel replied to Saul:

"Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams ... Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king."

That's a hard lesson to learn, my friend. But it's been written and preserved for our instruction and application in our lives today. Let's both learn from Saul's example as we strive to obey the Lord, no matter what he asks and without any excuses.

Intersecting Faith & Life:

Are you guilty of "sort of" obeying traffic rules when you're driving? Think about the driver described in the earlier scenario, and then see if that example applies to any area of your life. Are you living recklessly? Are you proceeding how you want to in your life? Who's instructions for living are you following?

Further Reading:

Acts 13:22, NIV

James 4:17, NIV 

[Judy Harder]

 
February 28, 2011
Title


Renewal in the Desert
By Katherine Britton, Crosswalk.com News & Culture Editor



"Therefore I am now going to allure her [Israel]; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her." - Hosea 2:14

The prophet Hosea certainly had one of the least enviable jobs ever. God commanded him to take a wife who both God and Hosea knew would be unfaithful, so Hosea married Gomer, a prostitute. They had several children together, but at length she went back to her old ways. She left Hosea, went back to her lovers, and ended up betrayed into the slave market.

Hosea then did the unthinkable. He bought her back.

"The LORD said to me, 'Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress...' So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, "You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you." (Hosea 3:1-3)

In a very real sense, Hosea redeemed his wayward bride. Instead of leaving her to the natural consequences, he brought her back into the covenant of marriage.

From the very beginning, the Lord makes it clear to Hosea that the pain of betrayal, ingratitude, and inconstant nature of Gomer was nothing less than God himself experienced at the hands of his bride, the people of Israel. Idolatry far exceeded faithfulness to the covenant, and the nation became increasingly entangled with foreign kingdoms, against God's direct commandment. They were the wayward bride, and their fate would be no less than Gomer's. Hosea assured every Israelite that the natural consequences of their action - slavery and destitution - were coming.

And yet the Lord did not abandon them. Instead, when everything they had trusted was stripped away, he pursued them. God said,

"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her ... I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion." (Hosea 2:14,19)

Once emptied of its treasures, its gods, and its affluence, Israel found that they were not an object of ultimate wrath, but of ultimate mercy. All this despite the broken covenants, promises, and ingratitude toward the God who had already saved them from slavery. The commentator Matthew Henry notes the incredible grace displayed here in the Old Testament:

"When it was said, She forgot me, one would think it should have followed, 'Therefore I will abandon her, I will forget her, I will never look after her more.' No, Therefore I will allure her. God's thoughts and ways of mercy are infinitely above ours; his reasons are all fetched from within himself, and not from any thing in us; nay, his goodness takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious... the design is plainly to magnify free grace to those on whom God will have mercy purely for mercy's sake."

Let's never forget that in God's hands, even the desert is a place of restoration.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Are you in the desert right now? Financially? Relationally? Spiritually? Take comfort in knowing that God strips away our luxuries to return our focus where it belongs.

She shall be as a traveller that not only knows not which way to go, of many that are before him, but that finds no way at all to go forward. ... The disappointments we meet with in our pursuits of satisfaction in the creature should, if nothing else will do it, drive us at length to the Creator, in whom alone it is to be had. - Hosea 2: 6-12

God will have us to know, not only that we have all our creature-comforts and enjoyments from him, but that he has still an incontestable right and title to them, that they are more his than ours, and therefore are to be used for him, and accounted for to him. He will therefore take their plenty away from them, because they have forfeited it by disowning his right, as a tenant by copy of court-roll, who holds at the will of his lord, forfeits his estate if he makes a feoffment of it as though he were a freeholder. He will recover it, will free or deliver it, that it may be no longer abused, as the creature is said to be delivered from the bondage of corruption under which it groans, Rom. 8:21. 

[Judy Harder]

March 1, 2011 

Merciful Redeemer
by Sarah Jennings, Crosswalk.com Family Editor


But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.  1 Timothy 1:16 NIV

Paul is one of the most beloved Saints of all time. His love for the Lord, preserved in the canon of Scripture, inspires many to this day. Yet, even this extraordinary man was a sinner -- according to his own words "the worst of sinners." How can this be? Surely he is just exaggerating for effect? Or taking humility a little too far?

But I like to take Paul at his word here. After all, this man had persecuted Christians before his conversion. He had done horrible things in the name of righteousness. Surely, he knew his shortcomings more intimately than you or I. So, let's say Paul truly was the worst of sinners -- and yet we see God did not withhold His mercy.

One of the most moving stories in the Bible is that of another terrible sinner - the woman with the alabaster jar. Interrupting a dinner party at a Pharisee's house, this woman (in what I think would be a very socially awkward moment) wept over Jesus' feet, wiped them dry with her hair and applied perfume from the jar.

Simon, the hosting Pharisee, was disgusted at this public display of humility, especially by a woman known to be a sinner. Jesus replied to his indignation with this story as recorded in Luke 7: 41- 43:

"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."

"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.

Jesus went on to say, "I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven -- for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." (v. 47)

So often, when we think of our sins and shortcomings we feel ashamed. We want to hide from God like Adam and Eve hid after eating the forbidden fruit. We think God, in His divine perfection, could never want us back or look on us again with the same love as before. Perhaps you've even experienced this kind of rejection in a tangible way -- through the abandonment of a family member or loved one.

But this isn't the way God works.

The amazing thing about God's mercy is its accessibility. The bigger the sin, the more anxious God is to pour out His mercy at the first hint of repentance. The Bible tells us that when one sinner repents, heaven rejoices (Luke 15:10). And through Paul's testimony, we can know without a doubt of Christ's unlimited patience and unfailing love. God seeks the love of sinners -- no matter how many times you've sinned or how dark the sin, He desires to shower you with His mercy if you are willing to receive it.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Matthew 5: 7 says Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. We are called to show mercy just as Christ shows us mercy. Is there someone in your life in need of your mercy and forgiveness? Give it.

Further Reading

Hebrews 4: 16
Proverbs 28: 13

[Judy Harder]

March 2, 2011

Tsunami of Emotion and Understanding
by Shawn McEvoy, Crosswalk.com Managing Editor

"Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"
Job 2:9 

This week, I came across a story that is all at once heartbreaking and hope-giving, tragic and uplifting, devastating and determined.

This excellent article by the International Mission Board's Shawn Hendricks chronicles what has happened to and through one Christian family on India's east coast since the tsunamis of late 2004. I encourage you to check it out. If you do, it will effectively function as your devotional for today much better than what I am about to write in response to it.

In a real-world account of events straight from the Book of Job, Paramesvaran and Choodamani lost all three of their children the day after Christmas that year. My heart breaks for families who lose one child, much less three. Imagine having lost one of them who was in your arms but who you were just not strong enough to hold on to against the crushing force of so much water.

Imagine being mocked by your friends and family for your faith while you are suffering such tragedy and burying your own offspring.

Imagine being so full of grief you discuss a suicide pact.

But then... eventually... the clouds lift, first for one spouse who is gifted by a word from the Lord about the blessing that her husband survived when so many others did not. Then, later, the husband feels the tugging of the Lord letting him know that his children are safe with Jesus, they're okay, they're full of praise and life.

The real, personable, meaningful faith in God pulls the couple up, and back together. They are blessed with two new children. But beyond that...

...the fact they are alive and together allows them to become adoptive parents to TWENTY orphaned children. Each of them has come to a saving relationship with Jesus, several helping their new father preach the gospel throughout the area. 

The example of the family, assisted by donations of Christians around the world, has "brought the Good News into areas that were once unreceptive to Christianity."

The ends of things are truly never known until later. Purpose is often invisible until it isn't. Damaging floods can become cleansing baptisms through the passage of time and reflections from fresh perspectives.

Job refused to curse God and die. He instead decided ultimately to acknowledge that nothing he ever had was his, and that the only thing worth living for was the knowledge that God is awesome, powerful, and beyond our comprehension. And yet, loves us beyond measure.

His story is not just a fable or morality tale. It can seem that way to our modern ears, which are unaccustomed to the reality of THAT much tragedy. But that much tragedy occurs all too frequently around our globe, and when it does, it should not shock me to the extent it did when I read this story. I feel like I should nod knowingly about the cost and fragility of life on this big blue ball, and how despite all the shaking and quaking there can still be a steady security when I give up any notions that I am god, that I am in control, that my job is to do anything with my time here but praise and share, worship and help, live and move and be every minute that he allows. 

Intersecting Faith & Life: May God continue to bless the ministry of Paramesvaran and Choodamani, and increase the strength in them that was built from climbing out of their tragic valley. May I not complain today about events that matter not. May I continue to see God's hand in everything as long as I have eyes to take it all in. And should I or my loved ones suffer anywhere close to this much, may we never forget this example of coming out the other side reborn, making ministry from the madness.

[Judy Harder]

March 3, 2011 

Stinky Kitchen Rags
Alex Crain
Editor, Christianity.com

"...All our righteousness-es are as filthy rags..."
Isaiah 64:6 KJV



"Gross. Who left this rag in the sink full of dirty dishes?" I asked.   

No answer.   

I picked up the soaked, dripping, smelly, slimy, green towel from the bottom of the kitchen sink—pinching it with thumb and forefinger on the driest corner possible.   

"Well, whoever it was, please hang it up next time instead of leaving it in the sink. Thank you," I said as I dropped the rag into a plastic bag before taking it outside to dry.   

Isaiah 64:6 didn't come to mind at the time, but what a great reminder of what our self-effort looks like to God. "All our righteousness-es are as filthy rags," says the King James Version. (Yes, apparently, there's a plural for "righteousness.")   

An article I read recently made this connection for me. The writer, Ann Dunagan, said: 

We may think our own self-efforts help us earn "brownie points" with God. But, to Him, our human works are as worthless as stinky rags.
If we try to earn favor with God — instead of trusting in Jesus — it's like collecting yucky rags. The more they pile up, the more they stink and mildew.   

Of course, the rags being referred to in Isaiah 64 are technically more 'unclean' in a biblical sense if you know what I mean (see notes on v. 6 here and here) than smelly kitchen rags, but the picture is clear.   

Colossians 3:4 says that Christ is the believer's life.  Our moment-by-moment mindset is to be Christ—His perfect life, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession for us, and promised return to rule forever.   

If I lose that moment-by-moment focus on Christ and fall into sin, it does me no good to try to return to God with self-effort—that's like offering Him stinky rags.  Only the cleansing sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross can make us righteous before God.   

Hebrews 12:10 says that God disciplines us... "for our good, so that we may share His holiness."   

And 1 John 1:9 assures us that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

"If we have sin in our lives, and we go on, and God does not put His hand in loving chastisement upon us, then we are not children of God," so wrote Francis Schaeffer in chapter eight of his book True Spirituality.   

He went on to make the point that God disciplines us not only that we may share in His holiness, but that—as Hebrews 12:11 says—we may have the "peaceful fruit of righteousness." God wants us to experience relational peace with Him, not just be right with a rule book. As a perfect Father, He deeply loves His adopted children.   

"This is what we ought to expect," says Schaeffer, "Given the biblical teaching that God really exists, that He is personal, and He has a holy character."     

If this is what God is... and if I have become His child, should I not expect that when I have sinned, when I have done what is the opposite of His character, I must go back to Him as a Person, and say I am sorry?   

He is not just a doctrine, or an abstraction; He is a Person who is there.     

The first step of restoration after I have sinned, then, is in exactly the same line [as in becoming a Christian]. I must acknowledge that I cannot live the Christian life in my own strength or in my own goodness. I must raise the empty hands of faith for God's gift—only the finished work of Christ in space, time, and history, back there on Calvary's cross is enough. I must bring the specific sin under the blood of Jesus Christ, by faith.     

Everything rests upon the reality of the fact that the blood of Christ has meaning in our present life, and restoration takes place as we, in faith, act upon that fact in specific cases of sin.     

When my heart condemns me and cries, "You've done it again," I am to believe God again as to the value of the finished work of Jesus Christ for the present.   

Intersecting Faith & Life: 
If you want a restored relationship with God, you can have it as His child. But not until you humbly call specific sin sin.

Ask God for the grace to stop trying to return to Him with the rags of self-effort, to see and confess any sin in your life to Him, and then—as Schaeffer says—raise the empty hands of faith, counting on the availability of the blood of Christ for forgiveness and restoration in this present moment.

For Further Study:
Read Hebrews 12 and 1 John 1

[Judy Harder]

March 4, 2011

A Jonah Moment
By Ryan Duncan


And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. - Mark 11:25

Last week I had a Jonah Moment. I was on Facebook, e-mailing some old friends, when I noticed a message posted on one of the walls. A guy I knew from school had just been admitted to the hospital, and though it wasn't anything serious, he had still sent out a Facebook post asking for prayers in the days ahead. Now, this guy and I had never gotten along, and I'm ashamed to say that my first thought after reading the post was "Ha, you deserved that."

A day later, I was reading my Bible when I came across the story of Jonah. Most Christians probably learned this story in Grade School. They'll remember how God commanded Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh, but Jonah, hating Nineveh, tried to sail to Tarshish instead. God then sent a great fish to swallow him and deliver him to the city. Look at what's written in the very last chapter of the book.

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."


But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?" Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.

When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" "I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die." But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" -  Jonah 4:1-11

We Christians usually give Jonah a lot of grief for not following God's commands, but the truth is we aren't much different. Like Jonah, I had let my pride and my past feelings get in the way of my duty to God.


God does not allow us to carry old grudges, and if we think becoming a Christian means Christ will beat up on our enemies, we will be sorely disappointed. Instead, Jesus has commanded us to live in harmony with our Christian Brothers and Sisters, and forgive those who have sinned against us. After all, that's what Christ did for us.

Intersecting Faith and Life


Is there anyone in your life you feel anger towards? Take some time to pray about it, and seek peace with God.   
 
Further Reading

Proverbs 20:22