Laura, in a Little House On The Prairie re-run, was told those who are closer to God are more apt to have their prayers answered. The episode closed with Laura, face aglow, at the foot of a mountain, preparing the arduous task of “getting closer to God.”
While we smile at a child’s literal interpretation, there are adults who believe they can move closer to God by sticking pins in themselves or walking on burning coals or dragging a heavy cross for hundreds of miles. Others think seclusion will do it, retreating to caves, monasteries, bomb shelters or isolated communes. A southern California religious school even moved out into the desert and now advertises itself as being “fifty miles from the nearest sin!”
Label them naive, nutty, or fanatical, yet it is not wrong to want to be close to God. In fact, He commands it. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you...” (James 4:7). But how can man draw near to God?
David, the psalm-writing king of Israel, asked the same question, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?” (Psalm 24)
David answers his own question with, “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.” The rest of James 4:7 agrees. It says, “Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded.” But both raise another question, “How can I be clean and pure?”
The answer is again found in David’s psalms. He confessed after he committed adultery with Bathsheba, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done evil in thy sight . . . create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me . . . . For thou desires not sacrifice else I would give it . . . the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
David recognized two things many of us never think about. One that God is utterly holy, utterly beyond our reach. Two, that unless He in mercy reaches down, there is no mountain high enough, no sacrifice great enough, no retreat far enough to make us clean enough to come close to Him.
David also knew the secret of coming closer. It is not in climbing higher but in bowing lower. Isaiah wrote, “For this is what the high and lofty One says, He who lives forever, whose name is Holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.’” Jesus echoes with, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
In other words, outward religious activity does not bring us closer to a God who knows what goes on inside our hearts. We need inward changes. James says we need to humble ourselves in submission to God. Humility is never easy. We would rather redefine our sinful condition, or rationalize it, excuse it, cover it, deny it, or even be perversely proud of it, anything but humbly admit we cannot make ourselves fit to draw near to God. Besides, contrite submission to Him means turning away from our own efforts to draw closer and coming to Him in the only way He accepts.
Laura, with the humble faith of a child, may find God at the top of her mountain, but not because she scaled his peak. God meets His people even in the valleys, as long as they come admitting their spiritual poverty. He doesn’t care where we are, but what we are — on the inside, where only He can see. When we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, He promised to lift us up — and draw us close to Himself.
Showing posts with label purity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label purity. Show all posts
Monday, July 14, 2014
Friday, July 11, 2014
Three Kinds of Minds ...................... Parables 142
Sometimes we frustrate our children by complaining one day they are stubborn with a mind of their own and the next day wishing they would think for themselves. “Don’t you even have a mind of your own?”
While our kids may ask, “Make up your mind!” occasionally I get asked, “Are you out of your mind?” While not wanting to be considered a few bricks short, I am beginning to think that would be a good experience. Let me explain.
The Bible. describes three types of minds. One is called NATURAL mind. It is the mind we are born with, so everyone starts out with it. However, I Corinthians, chapter 2, says the natural mind, regardless of age, education, intelligence, or experience, leaves us clueless when it comes to the things of God. They are beyond that mind’s capacity, at least, as it is.
The Christian, according to Scripture, has a different kind of mind. It is given to him, not at physical birth but when he is re-born. (Jesus said all who enter the kingdom, of God experience this re-birth, see John 3) This SPIRITUAL mind is able to discern spiritual truth from the Word of God, but not because of superior intellect or training. Instead, it is a direct result of having received Jesus Christ through faith. When he comes into a person’s life, He brings with Him His wisdom, His righteousness, His holiness, and get this, even His Mind!
The Apostle Paul says, “. . . we have the mind of Christ!” (I Corinthians 2:16), so Christians actually have the capacity to think the thoughts of God. While the people of God are sometimes ridiculed as “having thrown their brains away” our real problem is exactly the opposite. After receiving such a marvelous gift as the mind of Christ, we still have our old human sinful desires and thoughts. When these govern our thinking, Paul calls this a “CARNAL” mind. If we could toss it out and think just with the new mind of Christ, living the Christian life would be far less a struggle!
Throughout Scripture, the people of God realized the problem of the mind. The Psalmist asked for a united, pure mind. The writer of Proverbs exhorts, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding.” The prophet Isaiah declared that whoever kept His mind on God would be kept in perfect peace. Galatians 5 says that the Christian constantly wages battle, the spirit against the flesh, the thoughts of God against the desires of the old sinful way of thinking. We are told to, “have a transformed, renewed mind.” Christians are to “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Of course, Jesus had a mind committed to do the will of the Father.
The old mind produces such corruption as evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy slander, arrogance, and folly (see Mark 7). No wonder the Bible constantly warns the believer not to yield to it or its desires. The fact of the matter is, the old mind is deceitful, easily led into sin, choking the life of Christ. However, the new mind honors God.
Most of us do not realize the capacity of a mind at rest in Jesus Christ. Science says the natural man only uses 10% of his cognitive power. God says even that 10% is marred, but through faith in Jesus, He offers a change of mind, a transformation, a totally different way to think. Then, as we yield to the Lord and our minds think His thoughts, our lives begin to match. He produces from within, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.
Yes, maybe being “out of my mind” is not such a bad idea.
While our kids may ask, “Make up your mind!” occasionally I get asked, “Are you out of your mind?” While not wanting to be considered a few bricks short, I am beginning to think that would be a good experience. Let me explain.
The Bible. describes three types of minds. One is called NATURAL mind. It is the mind we are born with, so everyone starts out with it. However, I Corinthians, chapter 2, says the natural mind, regardless of age, education, intelligence, or experience, leaves us clueless when it comes to the things of God. They are beyond that mind’s capacity, at least, as it is.
The Christian, according to Scripture, has a different kind of mind. It is given to him, not at physical birth but when he is re-born. (Jesus said all who enter the kingdom, of God experience this re-birth, see John 3) This SPIRITUAL mind is able to discern spiritual truth from the Word of God, but not because of superior intellect or training. Instead, it is a direct result of having received Jesus Christ through faith. When he comes into a person’s life, He brings with Him His wisdom, His righteousness, His holiness, and get this, even His Mind!
The Apostle Paul says, “. . . we have the mind of Christ!” (I Corinthians 2:16), so Christians actually have the capacity to think the thoughts of God. While the people of God are sometimes ridiculed as “having thrown their brains away” our real problem is exactly the opposite. After receiving such a marvelous gift as the mind of Christ, we still have our old human sinful desires and thoughts. When these govern our thinking, Paul calls this a “CARNAL” mind. If we could toss it out and think just with the new mind of Christ, living the Christian life would be far less a struggle!
Throughout Scripture, the people of God realized the problem of the mind. The Psalmist asked for a united, pure mind. The writer of Proverbs exhorts, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding.” The prophet Isaiah declared that whoever kept His mind on God would be kept in perfect peace. Galatians 5 says that the Christian constantly wages battle, the spirit against the flesh, the thoughts of God against the desires of the old sinful way of thinking. We are told to, “have a transformed, renewed mind.” Christians are to “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Of course, Jesus had a mind committed to do the will of the Father.
The old mind produces such corruption as evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy slander, arrogance, and folly (see Mark 7). No wonder the Bible constantly warns the believer not to yield to it or its desires. The fact of the matter is, the old mind is deceitful, easily led into sin, choking the life of Christ. However, the new mind honors God.
Most of us do not realize the capacity of a mind at rest in Jesus Christ. Science says the natural man only uses 10% of his cognitive power. God says even that 10% is marred, but through faith in Jesus, He offers a change of mind, a transformation, a totally different way to think. Then, as we yield to the Lord and our minds think His thoughts, our lives begin to match. He produces from within, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.
Yes, maybe being “out of my mind” is not such a bad idea.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Becoming White as Snow ................... Parables 141
Snow is a marvelous cover-up. November’s drab dresses up in sparkling white. Muddy vacant lots, once eyesores, are beautifully blanketed. Naked black branches are draped in layers of shimmering crystal, outlined against a pearl grey sky.
While not so inspiring, our backyard grass needed one more cut, one more rake, but the snow hid it all; the jobs that didn’t get finished are covered; our lawn looks just as good as the neighbors who were more ambitious.
We have one tree that stubbornly refuses to yield all her leaves to winter. But this morning, the cold wind won a round. The snow was speckled with drab, round gold pieces - spots on an otherwise unblemished blanket. They looked like acne on a teen’s face, or mud splattered on a snow white Cadillac.
Later I thought of Christ who promises to wash hearts whiter than snow. (Isaiah 1:18). We need it, you know. The Bible says Jesus is our snow-white standard, but there is not one life who can match His unblemished purity. How short we fall. Yet the New Testament says we are made spotless by faith in Him. His blood is applied as a cleansing agent for those who believe, powerful to wash away our sin and remove it”as far as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12).
After that is done, Scripture says He is able to keep us blameless before God and present us faultless on that day when He comes to receive all who believe in Him (1 Corinthians 1:8, Jude 24).
But, James 1:27 warns Christians to keep themselves unspotted from the world. In fact, I found references warning against a “spotted” and “blemished” condition in nearly every book of the Bible. We are not to spatter our new life in Christ with blotches of sin. Yet when it happens, we can be made white again.
The good news is, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin, and if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:7,9). Our part is to admit our sins, confessing them to Him, and come with a heart that is willing to forsake them. He will do the rest.
The snow covered everything. Along came the wind that shook the tree, blotching that pristine perfection with leaves. The snow will return, likely in the night, The next time I look those leaves will be hidden. The mystery of Jesus’ blood goes one step further. Yes, He covers sin, but somehow He cleanses and washes it away, changing and remaking our lives pure and clean.
Such a glorious truth. No need to try and erase that which defiles, even if we could. Instead, we have His saving power to forgive and restore us when we fail. We can take any transgression to Him and leave it there, trusting His eternal power to save us from it completely, just as He promised He would do.
While not so inspiring, our backyard grass needed one more cut, one more rake, but the snow hid it all; the jobs that didn’t get finished are covered; our lawn looks just as good as the neighbors who were more ambitious.
We have one tree that stubbornly refuses to yield all her leaves to winter. But this morning, the cold wind won a round. The snow was speckled with drab, round gold pieces - spots on an otherwise unblemished blanket. They looked like acne on a teen’s face, or mud splattered on a snow white Cadillac.
Later I thought of Christ who promises to wash hearts whiter than snow. (Isaiah 1:18). We need it, you know. The Bible says Jesus is our snow-white standard, but there is not one life who can match His unblemished purity. How short we fall. Yet the New Testament says we are made spotless by faith in Him. His blood is applied as a cleansing agent for those who believe, powerful to wash away our sin and remove it”as far as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12).
After that is done, Scripture says He is able to keep us blameless before God and present us faultless on that day when He comes to receive all who believe in Him (1 Corinthians 1:8, Jude 24).
But, James 1:27 warns Christians to keep themselves unspotted from the world. In fact, I found references warning against a “spotted” and “blemished” condition in nearly every book of the Bible. We are not to spatter our new life in Christ with blotches of sin. Yet when it happens, we can be made white again.
The good news is, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin, and if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:7,9). Our part is to admit our sins, confessing them to Him, and come with a heart that is willing to forsake them. He will do the rest.
The snow covered everything. Along came the wind that shook the tree, blotching that pristine perfection with leaves. The snow will return, likely in the night, The next time I look those leaves will be hidden. The mystery of Jesus’ blood goes one step further. Yes, He covers sin, but somehow He cleanses and washes it away, changing and remaking our lives pure and clean.
Such a glorious truth. No need to try and erase that which defiles, even if we could. Instead, we have His saving power to forgive and restore us when we fail. We can take any transgression to Him and leave it there, trusting His eternal power to save us from it completely, just as He promised He would do.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Made clean .......................... Parables 096
Occasionally something happens in our household that I hope no one ever finds out about. The first Saturday in January was one of those occasions.
We had a family meal together just before leaving to spend the holidays in California. At that time we planned a turkey dinner with all the trimmings for January 9, after we returned. On the 9th, our daughter arrived early to help in the kitchen. She wanted to make a green salad so began pulling out ingredients and asked her brother to get down the salad bowls. When he did, out came groans and words like “yuck”... The top bowl was clean...but the four underneath it and the large serving bowl had been put back into the cupboard without first making a trip through the dishwasher.
We couldn’t decide whether to throw them out or boil them in bleach. The kids were soon laughing because no one had a clue “who did it.” Even the person who did will never know because none of us would have done it deliberately (we are generally a family of “cleanies”) and it had to have happened at that last meal together before Christmas, too long ago to clearly remember. So out came the puns, wisecracks, and accusations. It will become a family memory of sorts, one to bring up when we are reminiscing over a bowl of popcorn (especially if it is served in that salad bowl!)
After the turkey leftovers were in the frig I began to think about a promise that God made to the people of Israel, a promise that also applies to any who will claim it: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
How does God clean up the sin that disgusts Him? Do we have to be recycled, boiled in bleach, or is it possible to be so disgusting that His only option is to toss us on the scrap pile and look for better material?
His response to our sin could be described by my rough paraphrase of that verse in Isaiah: “Come now, let’s think this out together, says the Lord: though your sins be as disgusting to me as month-old leftover salad is to you, you can be as appealing and as pleasing to me as turkey dinner with all the trimmings has been to you.”
The next promise God gave about being clean from sin is in Ezekiel 36: “...then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you... and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgements and do them...”
The promise was fulfilled in the New Testament. Following a description of sinners, I Corinthians says: “And such WERE some of you but NOW you are washed, but now you are sanctified, but now you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
He makes sinners clean! How does He do it?
The Father said that without the shedding of blood there would be no forgiveness for sin. So the nation of Israel were commanded to trust God and sacrifice unblemished lambs. However that did not change their sinfulness.
When Jesus, the Lamb of God, died on the cross, the Word of God says His blood was shed not only so those who believe in Him could be forgiven, but so we could be cleansed as well, and our very nature changed. “How much more (than the blood of lambs) shall the blood of Christ... purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Our part is to believe in His provision for cleansing, confess our sins and remain in the light of His Word: “If we confess our sin He is “faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Sin may be repulsive to God but because of His power to make clean, we can be clean; not cast aside but made precious to Him.
We had a family meal together just before leaving to spend the holidays in California. At that time we planned a turkey dinner with all the trimmings for January 9, after we returned. On the 9th, our daughter arrived early to help in the kitchen. She wanted to make a green salad so began pulling out ingredients and asked her brother to get down the salad bowls. When he did, out came groans and words like “yuck”... The top bowl was clean...but the four underneath it and the large serving bowl had been put back into the cupboard without first making a trip through the dishwasher.
We couldn’t decide whether to throw them out or boil them in bleach. The kids were soon laughing because no one had a clue “who did it.” Even the person who did will never know because none of us would have done it deliberately (we are generally a family of “cleanies”) and it had to have happened at that last meal together before Christmas, too long ago to clearly remember. So out came the puns, wisecracks, and accusations. It will become a family memory of sorts, one to bring up when we are reminiscing over a bowl of popcorn (especially if it is served in that salad bowl!)
After the turkey leftovers were in the frig I began to think about a promise that God made to the people of Israel, a promise that also applies to any who will claim it: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
How does God clean up the sin that disgusts Him? Do we have to be recycled, boiled in bleach, or is it possible to be so disgusting that His only option is to toss us on the scrap pile and look for better material?
His response to our sin could be described by my rough paraphrase of that verse in Isaiah: “Come now, let’s think this out together, says the Lord: though your sins be as disgusting to me as month-old leftover salad is to you, you can be as appealing and as pleasing to me as turkey dinner with all the trimmings has been to you.”
The next promise God gave about being clean from sin is in Ezekiel 36: “...then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you... and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgements and do them...”
The promise was fulfilled in the New Testament. Following a description of sinners, I Corinthians says: “And such WERE some of you but NOW you are washed, but now you are sanctified, but now you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
He makes sinners clean! How does He do it?
The Father said that without the shedding of blood there would be no forgiveness for sin. So the nation of Israel were commanded to trust God and sacrifice unblemished lambs. However that did not change their sinfulness.
When Jesus, the Lamb of God, died on the cross, the Word of God says His blood was shed not only so those who believe in Him could be forgiven, but so we could be cleansed as well, and our very nature changed. “How much more (than the blood of lambs) shall the blood of Christ... purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Our part is to believe in His provision for cleansing, confess our sins and remain in the light of His Word: “If we confess our sin He is “faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Sin may be repulsive to God but because of His power to make clean, we can be clean; not cast aside but made precious to Him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)