hope

It’s Not About Sin

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

How do you handle suffering? (If you’re like me, I want to run and hide until it all goes away.)

Do you doubt God’s love for you? Feel his withdrawal? (You bet.)

Do you think he’s punishing you for something wrong you have done? (That’s what I think of right away.)

The truth is we’ve all done everything wrong, all the time, all our lives. That’s why we need a Savior. As Romans 3 says, none of us seeks God.

If we keep to that logic, we would deserve to be punished everyday of our lives. But even that would not be sufficient to a holy God.

The truth is we cannot pay for our sins. They are too awful, too deep, and too pervasive.

That’s why Jesus came to pay for them in our stead on the cross.

God isn’t angry with us anymore.

Let me say that again. God isn’t angry with us anymore if we have placed our trust in Jesus.

Jesus paid for every sin we have committed, are committing now, and will commit in the future.

If we believe in Jesus as God’s solution to our sin problem, then all of our sins are forgiven. We are adopted children of God. God now is our Heavenly Father. He loves us.

So with that in mind, trials and suffering are meant to mature us and build the image of Christ in us. There’s a real purpose to them. Read Romans 5 & James 1.

Don’t waste this opportunity to stretch your faith.

 

 

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.

Where’s Your Focus?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Q: What does the Christian life look like?

A: The Christian life is a race. (See Phillippians 3:12-21) It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Your focus is on the finish line and so you don’t get bogged down with other things. Your whole life is like an arrow flying toward the target, which is Christ. It’s one, single, focused direction. Christ defines your life.

Q: What if I struggle with my past, which keeps me from that pointed direction?

A: Past failures, mistakes, shameful acts, gross sins–all are forgiven in Christ, therefore you faithfully forget. Even if you have been sinned against. Choose to forget. Forget your successes too. You are no longer bound by your past or your present. You are bound to Christ for your future.

Q: What slows me down and keeps me from this?

A: Spiritual coasting–laziness, apathy, indifference, or spiritual ADD–you are distracted by everything, living for your appetites. Both extremes produce a spiritual fatigue and you lose your white-hot intensity.

Q: What awaits me at the finish line?

A: The new heavens and the new earth with Jesus returning to gather you up with his people. It’s a beautiful renewal. You are going to be made whole.

So fix your focus on Jesus because he has fixed his focus on you!

Enjoy Your Life

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 3 Comments

Q: If we’re sure to be bad Christians no matter how hard we try, why should we try at all?  It all seems so pointless.

A: We ought to try hard to love God and serve our neighbor, but we don’t do these things to become better Christians in this world or brighter saints in the world to come.  We do them because God deserves our love and our neighbors need our service.  Unlike self-help programs, the Gospel frees us from ourselves, our failures, our successes, and best of all, from our performance reviews!  Have you ever been on a diet?  Oh, what a life!  You become obsessed with results.  Every morning you wake up worried about what the bathroom scale is going to read. If you’re down a pound or two, you’re giddy; if you’re the same, you’re disappointed; but if your weight is up, you fall into despair and turn to the fridge for comfort.  The Christian life is not a diet, it’s a feast!  What Christ has done for us is so good we don’t think about our enjoyment of it, but the thing itself, and in doing that, we truly enjoy it.

Do your best.  Accept your failures.  Trust the Lord.  Enjoy your life.

Is There Any Hope?

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Q: Are you saying then that we’re destined to live lives of spiritual defeat with only little respites along the way, and that’s as good as it gets?

A: Not at all!  God’s goal for us is to be like Christ.  At the moment, Jesus is triumphant and glorified at God’s right hand, and God’s guarantee to us is that we will someday share in this magnificent image.  But when Jesus lived where we do, His life was not the glittering thing it is now.  It was marked by weakness, suffering, and by a genuine and daily dependence on His Father in Heaven.  Not even He could rise from the dead until He first died.  The road to Glory runs through the Cross, both for the Lord Himself and all who want to be His disciples.

Q: What about the verses that say we are more than conquerors in Christ, that we can do all things through Him, etc.?

A: We believe the verses, of course, but the success and triumph they promise look a lot like failure and loss: ‘tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, being killed all day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter’.  In this life God does not give us victory over these things: He gives us victory in and through them.  Just as He did for His Son who learned obedience through the things He suffered.