sin

A Bottomless Pit of Longings

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

I spent an hour with a friend who was mourning the loss of a love in her life.

The pain she was experiencing was real. photo (14)

She was also depressed because God did not give her what her heart longed for.

I’ve been through that many times.

It’s called discontent.

It resides in the heart, and only the gospel can change it.

Here’s the real truth about you and me in times like these:

We have God and having God we have enough.

We belong to God and God belongs to us.

Since we have everything in Christ, we are rich in companionship and love with Jesus by our side.

What is showing in my friend’s life and in mine are the sins of ingratitude for all the blessings God has showered us with in Christ.

Every blessing comes from his grace, not our works.

We are surrounded by God’s lavish gifts.

“Enlarge our hearts, Lord to know you better and love you more deeply! Amen.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To Pray Really Badly

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The Lord has heard my supplication; The Lord will receive my prayer. – Psalm 6:9

The experience here recorded is mine. I can set to my seal that God is true. In very wonderful ways He has answered the prayers of His servant many and many a time. Yes, and He is hearing my present supplication, and He is not turning away His ear from me. Blessed be His holy name!

What then? Why, for certain the promise which lies sleeping in the psalmist’s believing confidence is also mine. Let me grasp it by the hand of faith: “The Lord will receive my prayer.” He will accept it, think of it, and grant it in the way and time which His loving wisdom judges to be best. I bring my poor prayer in my hand to the great King, and He gives me audience and graciously receives my petition. My enemies will not listen to me, but my Lord will. They ridicule my tearful prayers, but my Lord does not; He receives my prayer into His ear and His heart.

What a reception this is for a poor sinner! We receive Jesus, and then the Lord receives us and our prayers for His Son’s sake. Blessed be that dear name which franks our prayers so that they freely pass even within the golden gates. Lord, teach me to pray, since Thou hearest my prayers.

– From Faith’s Checkbook by C.H. Spurgeon

When I read this I was reminded of my sin of unbelief. I know God hears my prayers. I understand that much. But where I lose it is when he doesn’t answer them in the way I want him to. And when that happens, I immediately conclude he’s not listening to me, or worse, caring about me.

That’s utterly sinful because it maligns the character and promises of God. 

Truth is I want my prayers answered now and according to my will, not his.

Upon further reflection, I realized, too, that God is answering my prayers all around me, as well as in the lives of the people I pray for, but I don’t have eyes to see that because I insist on having the answers my way.

Just today a friend told me he had sold his last painting, the one that nobody wanted.

“You prayed for that, remember?” he said.

I hadn’t remembered.

That was another indictment. I  had prayed without expectation. My expectations of God were little, if they existed at all.

I was seeing things about my prayer life that were not pretty.

But instead of flogging myself and telling myself to do better next time, which I know I will fail at, I reminded myself of the gospel.

Jesus prayed perfect prayers, full of hope and faith and belief in God.

And God has put his perfect praying record to my account.

That’s my only hope. His prayers, not mine.

I can rest in that and keep praying!

 

 

 

 

 

How Three Little Words Can Change Your Life

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All world religions, no matter which one, have three words in common:

Get to work.

That is very bad news.

It means the responsibility is entirely on you to appease the god, to win his approval, to satisfy his demands.

And the worst news of all is:

You never know if you’re doing enough.

You have no confidence, no peace, no rest in your own work because you know it’s not perfect.

And the deity doesn’t help you either.

In fact, he’s silent.

In contrast, the gospel is utterly unique.

Christ’s three words are:

It is finished.

What is finished?

Everything you need in order to be reconciled to God the Father.

That is Good News!

1) Christ paid for all your sins so you could be forgiven. All your sins – the ones yesterday, the ones today, and the ones you’ll do tomorrow.

2) Christ appeased God’s wrath by becoming the sacrifice to atone for your sins.

3) Christ closed the enormous gap between you and God so now you have a Heavenly Father.

4) Christ, with his own life, paid for all your disobedience, transgressions, deliberate and unintentional sins, unbelief, and willful denial of God.

5) Christ satisfied God’s law by dying a death you should have died.

6) Christ paid the debt you owed God. You are now free from it.

Christ is the only true solution for your sin problem.

He did it all.

The job is done.

Why would you ever want to settle for anything else?

 

Happy Easter!

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“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  2 Corinthians 5:21

“When you become aware of your sin and frightened by it, you must not allow the sin to remain in your conscience.  This would  only lead to despair. Rather, just as your awareness of sin flowed to you from Christ, so you must pour your sin back on him to free your conscience.

“So be careful you don’t become like the misguided people who allow their sin to bite at them and eat at their hearts.  They strive to rid themselves of this sin by running around doing good works.  But you have a way to get rid of your sins.  You throw yours sins on Christ when you firmly believe that Christ’s wounds and suffering carried and paid for your sins.

“As Isaiah said, ‘The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’  (Isaiah 53:6) Peter said Christ himself ‘bore our sins in his body on the tree’ (I Peter 2:24). And Paul said,  ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.’

(2 Corinthians 5:21)

“You must rely on these and similar verses with your whole heart.  The more your conscience torments you, the more you must rely on them.   For if you you don’t do this and try to quiet your conscience through your own sorrow and penance, you will never find peace of mind and will finally despair in the end.  If you try to deal with sin in your conscience, let it remain there, and continue to look at it in your heart, your sins will become too strong for you.  They will seem to live forever.  But, when you think of your sins being on Christ and boldly believe that he conquered them through his resurrection, then they are quite dead and gone.  Sin can’t remain on Christ.  His resurrection swallowed up sin.” –  Martin Luther

Happy Easter!

How To Stop Digging Your Own Grave

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I read C. H. Spurgeon’s devotional entry this morning in Morning and Evening. (If you don’t have a copy, buy one. It will make your soul smile.)

It was so stunning I am paraphrasing it here:

For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. – 2 Corinthians 5:21

Why are you depressed?

Are you flogging yourself over your sins and failures?

Look to Jesus and remember you are complete in him. You are in God’s sight as perfect as if you had never sinned; actually more than that, the Lord your Righteousness has wrapped you in his perfection, which is none other that the perfection of God himself.

You have learned to hate sin, but you have also learned than your sin is not yours anymore – it was placed upon Christ at the cross.

Your acceptance is not in yourself but in Christ. God completely accepts you today as he will when you stand before his throne in the last day. There you will be free of all corruption, as you are now. Grab a hold of this truth – you are perfect in Christ.

(http://www.amazon.com/Morning-Evening-Charles-Haddon-Spurgeon/dp/0883684101/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333576818&sr=8-1)

 

Leave Your Status at the Door

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 6 Comments

In continuing with the theme of God’s kingdom, it is here that we can live status-free.

The world jostles for position all the time. It starts in the family. There’s a favorite aunt, or a special cousin. There are the relatives nobody likes, and there are others that everybody adores.

Then there’s school. The cool, the popular, and the geeks.

College is no better. Ivy league vs. state universities. Private vs. community colleges. Yale sounds better than Berkeley, Stanford more elitist than Cal State.

Once you get into the work force, you quickly slam into the status levels there. It’s called management and labor. The two great divides.

The only place on earth where this isn’t true is in God’s kingdom. There we have one head – Jesus. The rest of us are all brothers and sisters. We came into the kingdom on the same playing field – through the cross. We stay in the kingdom through no merit of our own, but solely on the merits of Christ and what he has done for us.

There is no room for posturing, snobbery, or reputation.

But there is plenty of room for compassion, love and service to one another.

Next time you’re tempted to elevate or belittle yourself – both are sin – remember that your life is defined by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He’s the ruler of the universe. You can rub shoulders with him!

A Strange Story

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In the biblical drama, all our expectations, assumptions, and cherished ideas are thrown into question. God the judge bears the sentence that his own justice demands. The offended party becomes the redeemer; even as he is subjected to further acts of the most heinous violence from those he redeems. The outcasts become royal heirs, the outsiders become insiders and the insiders outsiders, those who thought they were righteous are in fact condemned and those who were beyond any hope of moral recovery are declared righteous. A strange story, indeed. – Michael Horton

For more by Michael Horton, please visit:

http://www.whitehorseinn.org/

Bug Off!

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

God wants us to find our primary joy in our objectively declared justification, not in our subjectively perceived sanctification. — Jerry Bridges

I spent an afternoon visiting a Christian friend who was making herself sick remembering the failures, sins, and mistakes of her past. She was living in guilt, because as she said, “I see the consequences of my actions in the lives of my children every day.”

How many times a day do you do this?

How many times a day does the devil drag you there? This is one of his favorite  darts in his quiver.

Next time this happens pray like this:
“Devil, you’re going to have to do better than that. The blood of Jesus, my Savior, has paid the price of all of my sins, failures and mistakes. I stand firm in Him and I am as perfect as He is because I am robed in his righteousness. So go bother somebody else.” Then pray for your children. Remember the lives of the patriarchs, the life of David, the lives of countless others in the Scriptures that show their weaknesses, failures and sins, and yet God used them for his glory in spite of those things because they had faith in Christ. Take a look at the genealogy of our Lord’s in the gospel of Matthew if you need to be encouraged.

Oh, one more thing: there are no perfect people, only a perfect Savior.

How Content Are You?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Q: What is real contentment?

A: An inner poise, a deep seated joy that can handle anything life throws at you.

It’s not detachment or resignation. It’s not a personality trait. It’s not rooted in your circumstances.

Paul had to learn to be content. (See Philippians 4: 10-23) So do you. It’s a life-long lesson, which is not learned overnight. (How wonderful because I’m a failure at it.)

Can your contentment deal with the highs and lows of life? Both the failures and the successes? (My kind takes me on a roller coaster ride every time.)

You try to change your circumstances or fix yourself believing that will make you  content. (A better spouse, a modern kitchen, a new body, flashier clothes, whiter teeth.)

Ask yourself next time you are unhappy: who or what has seized the title to your heart? Mark that as an idol and smash it.

Here’s what true about idols: Idols can’t deliver. They lie. They trap and enslave you. Idols don’t handle the weight of life.

Who is your God? Who are you trusting?

Only Jesus Christ delivers what he promises. He gives you the meaning to the details of your life, even your suffering.

Q: What are the marks of contentment?

A: Gratitude to God for rescuing you from sin and death and giving you new life in his Son, and generosity toward your neighbor.

Contentment is found only in the gospel.

Can You Say This?

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We can put it this way: the man who has faith is the man who is no longer looking to himself. He has ceased to say, “Ah yes, I have committed terrible sins but I have done this and that…” He stops saying that. If he goes on saying that, he has not got faith…Faith speaks in an entirely different manner and makes a man say, “Yes, I have sinned grievously, I have lived a life of sin…yet I know that I am a child of God because I am not resting on any righteousness of my own, my righteousness is in Jesus Christ, and God has put that to my account.”

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones