The most real thing any one has said to me in the last
couple months was this: “When a father sees his child disobeying
him, he notices it, isn't pleased and disciplines him. How much more
does your Heavenly Father see your disobedience? Knowing this, saying
grace covers all is theology from the pit of hell.”
This week has been a week of struggle and overcoming some giants in my life (I haven't said that before...). These words have been a bit of a reoccurring thought in my mind as I wrestled through some things with the Lord. They are good, sound words that need to be said more in the church, and in the world in general. To often i find myself doing things I know to be wrong, wasting time on frugal and worthless endeavours, or trying to work out thoughts and situations on my own that just won't be resolved. To pull out some lyrics from one of my favourite bands The Color Morale, “Real family and friends will always stab you in the front, and the end result is not one damn thing after another, its one damn thing over and over. We are condemned and this is how we learn.” The use of the word damn is meant in the context of being condemned. Like it's not a bunch of things that we do that seem to irk people or rub them in the wrong way, but it is usually only one thing that we do over and over that sets people off, and I find that to be the same way with our relationship with the Lord. Let me get this clear. We, apart from Jesus, stand condemned before the Lord in judgement. Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” and also Revelations 5:1-5 says that there is no one in Heaven, or on Earth or under the Earth that is worthy to open the scroll, except for the man, Jesus Christ. And there are multiple things that we have done to make us undeserving of the Grace of Jesus. What my point is is that in our lives, there are life long struggles that we will have to deal with until the day of our completion. My other point in all of this is that it is those people who are intentional with us, addressing things that they see as wrong behaviours, motives, or straight up sin in our lives that will help us out in our walk with the Lord. And it is those people that we need to be as well. Revelation 2 and 3 are chapters in the Bible where the Lord is reaming on churches about their sin and telling them to repent. How does he do it? THROUGH A MAN! Through the vision that John (the author of the book Revelation) is writing down and delivering to the churches! The Bible is filled with examples of people being intentional with sin. In Ezekiel 3:9, Ezekiel is told that he has a forehead of the hardest stone so that he can but-up against Judah, because they are a rebellious house. Paul goes as far to say that he has, and should hand certain people over to Satan to let them learn that the things they are doing are wrong (1st Corinthians 5:3-4, 1st Timothy 1:18-20). My friend has a saying: “Christians love people into hell” meaning that the church in general does not confront people with with their sin, but just says that they are loved, and that is good enough. They may pass it off as just planting seeds and then leave the rest up into Gods hands like the blood of the unsaved is cleared from their hands. Ezekiel 33 talks about the Lord sending the people of Israel watchmen, to tell them when they are out of line. If they do, then the peoples blood is on their own hands, but if the watchman cowards from his duty, then the peoples blood will be on his head. Another thing that the church says that if people say a prayer when they are 5 years old, go to church and youth group, start a family and bring them to church, they are saved. What a shallow Gospel. To live and receive the gospel message is a complete 180 in the way we live. Jesus in Luke 9:57-62 says this: “As they were going along the road, some one said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.' and Jesus said to him, 'foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.' To another he said 'follow me.' but he said 'Lord, let me go and bury my father.' And Jesus said to him 'leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' yet another said, 'I will follow you Lord, let me first say farewell to those at my home.' Jesus said to him 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”. This yells out that we can not be the same when we encounter Jesus Christ. To take the words of Paul Washer “When you are hit by a big semi truck, you will be changed. How much bigger is the Lord, and how much more should we be changed when we are hit by Him?” If you call yourself a christian, what sets you apart from the rest of the world? What makes you different? In Mark 5, Jesus sets a man free from demon possession ( I have heard a very sound argument that this man was possessed by something like five thousand demons). As Jesus was leaving that area, the man comes to Jesus and begs him to stay with him. But Jesus says to him “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” To often, we forget what the Lord has already done for us, and want Christ to fix our situations, or show us some grand sign that everything is going to be alright. Christ is not some formula, and more then likely, there will be no sign given. Back to the first things I said, we might have struggles, things we wrestle through, for the rest of our lives, only focusing on those struggles, and forgetting all that has already happened. For this demon possessed man, he went away rejoicing and telling others what the Lord has done for him. Is that not all we are to do? Praise the Lord for his great works and tell others about him? Revelation 12:7-12 says that we (christians) will be accused by the great deceiver, but we will overcome by the blood of the lamb, and the word of our testimony.
There are all my current thoughts on a page. Not sure that any of it actually flowed together. In summary though, we (Christians and the church) need to be more intentional in our endeavours with each other, asking the tough questions, calling people out if we see wrong, and if we are called out, take it to prayer and if there is found to be something wrong in your conduct, change. Proverbs 29:15 says “The rod and reproof gives wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” Also though, be kind with one another. Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 2:7-8 talking about confronting people, and them changing, “...so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.”
I hope that this is in some way a blessing to those who read it.
David
This week has been a week of struggle and overcoming some giants in my life (I haven't said that before...). These words have been a bit of a reoccurring thought in my mind as I wrestled through some things with the Lord. They are good, sound words that need to be said more in the church, and in the world in general. To often i find myself doing things I know to be wrong, wasting time on frugal and worthless endeavours, or trying to work out thoughts and situations on my own that just won't be resolved. To pull out some lyrics from one of my favourite bands The Color Morale, “Real family and friends will always stab you in the front, and the end result is not one damn thing after another, its one damn thing over and over. We are condemned and this is how we learn.” The use of the word damn is meant in the context of being condemned. Like it's not a bunch of things that we do that seem to irk people or rub them in the wrong way, but it is usually only one thing that we do over and over that sets people off, and I find that to be the same way with our relationship with the Lord. Let me get this clear. We, apart from Jesus, stand condemned before the Lord in judgement. Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” and also Revelations 5:1-5 says that there is no one in Heaven, or on Earth or under the Earth that is worthy to open the scroll, except for the man, Jesus Christ. And there are multiple things that we have done to make us undeserving of the Grace of Jesus. What my point is is that in our lives, there are life long struggles that we will have to deal with until the day of our completion. My other point in all of this is that it is those people who are intentional with us, addressing things that they see as wrong behaviours, motives, or straight up sin in our lives that will help us out in our walk with the Lord. And it is those people that we need to be as well. Revelation 2 and 3 are chapters in the Bible where the Lord is reaming on churches about their sin and telling them to repent. How does he do it? THROUGH A MAN! Through the vision that John (the author of the book Revelation) is writing down and delivering to the churches! The Bible is filled with examples of people being intentional with sin. In Ezekiel 3:9, Ezekiel is told that he has a forehead of the hardest stone so that he can but-up against Judah, because they are a rebellious house. Paul goes as far to say that he has, and should hand certain people over to Satan to let them learn that the things they are doing are wrong (1st Corinthians 5:3-4, 1st Timothy 1:18-20). My friend has a saying: “Christians love people into hell” meaning that the church in general does not confront people with with their sin, but just says that they are loved, and that is good enough. They may pass it off as just planting seeds and then leave the rest up into Gods hands like the blood of the unsaved is cleared from their hands. Ezekiel 33 talks about the Lord sending the people of Israel watchmen, to tell them when they are out of line. If they do, then the peoples blood is on their own hands, but if the watchman cowards from his duty, then the peoples blood will be on his head. Another thing that the church says that if people say a prayer when they are 5 years old, go to church and youth group, start a family and bring them to church, they are saved. What a shallow Gospel. To live and receive the gospel message is a complete 180 in the way we live. Jesus in Luke 9:57-62 says this: “As they were going along the road, some one said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.' and Jesus said to him, 'foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.' To another he said 'follow me.' but he said 'Lord, let me go and bury my father.' And Jesus said to him 'leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' yet another said, 'I will follow you Lord, let me first say farewell to those at my home.' Jesus said to him 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”. This yells out that we can not be the same when we encounter Jesus Christ. To take the words of Paul Washer “When you are hit by a big semi truck, you will be changed. How much bigger is the Lord, and how much more should we be changed when we are hit by Him?” If you call yourself a christian, what sets you apart from the rest of the world? What makes you different? In Mark 5, Jesus sets a man free from demon possession ( I have heard a very sound argument that this man was possessed by something like five thousand demons). As Jesus was leaving that area, the man comes to Jesus and begs him to stay with him. But Jesus says to him “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” To often, we forget what the Lord has already done for us, and want Christ to fix our situations, or show us some grand sign that everything is going to be alright. Christ is not some formula, and more then likely, there will be no sign given. Back to the first things I said, we might have struggles, things we wrestle through, for the rest of our lives, only focusing on those struggles, and forgetting all that has already happened. For this demon possessed man, he went away rejoicing and telling others what the Lord has done for him. Is that not all we are to do? Praise the Lord for his great works and tell others about him? Revelation 12:7-12 says that we (christians) will be accused by the great deceiver, but we will overcome by the blood of the lamb, and the word of our testimony.
There are all my current thoughts on a page. Not sure that any of it actually flowed together. In summary though, we (Christians and the church) need to be more intentional in our endeavours with each other, asking the tough questions, calling people out if we see wrong, and if we are called out, take it to prayer and if there is found to be something wrong in your conduct, change. Proverbs 29:15 says “The rod and reproof gives wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” Also though, be kind with one another. Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 2:7-8 talking about confronting people, and them changing, “...so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.”
I hope that this is in some way a blessing to those who read it.
David
