The Saddness of Sin

You and I have been friends forever, my whole adult life. We’ve had times when we didn’t get in touch for years, and then all of a sudden we were back in contact, and while we rarely agree our conversations were sweet, and frequently challenging!

Today my heart is grieved. Not just sad; broken.  You hurt someone I love. But more than that, you hurt yourself, over and over, by refusing to see your sin and by justifying in your own head all of your actions. This time, you admit that you had an error in judgment (how could you not?) but you still keep deflecting.

The thing is, your sin isn’t just about you.

It’s about the other person. Your sin hurts the person you involved in it. Yes, their participation is their fault, but it is also your fault.

It’s about the Body of Christ. We are all interconnected. When you sin, we all hurt.

It’s about the heart of God. He grieves as well. You are hurting one of the people he loves most (YOU!). He wants the best for you. You’re not cooperating. He wants healing for you, complete healing. It won’t be without scars, and it will take obedience and submission. Sacrifice. We hate those words. I hate those words. Healing doesn’t happen without them.

We all sin. It doesn’t surprise God when we sin; he is mindful that we are dust. He knows us way better than we know ourselves. So why is it such a big deal? Because when we refuse to deal with the sin in our lives we are participating in death, and we weren’t created for death. Until we deal with the sin in our lives, the big and little sin, we aren’t free to be all that God created us to be. We aren’t free to fully participate in relationship with God and with each other. God is recreating us in the image of his Son. There is no room for sin there. There is only room for right relationships.

We are all in process. None of us has arrived, and we all have blind spots. Yep, me too. You, too. I am praying for you, my friend. I hope you are praying for me. We need each other in the Body to encourage and support each other, to help with those blind spots, to confront our sin and to push us closer to God. I love you enough to extend grace, and to confront when I have to. Nobody likes confrontation. I hate it. But I love you more. And there is no joy greater than true repentance.

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:1-2

God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Luke 18:13

Help for the Philippines

For anyone who watches the news, the horrible conditions in the Philippines are no surprise. Numbers vary with each report, but the latest that I heard was that 9.7 million people have been affected by the typhoon that hit there on Saturday. 650,000 people are displaced, and the death toll is rising. People are hungry, without shelter, and have lost everything. As if the typhoon weren’t enough, the country was still reeling from a 7.1 earthquake in October, and a smaller 4.8 quake hit one of the southern islands yesterday. These are a people who are hurting.

“Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless.” Psalm 10:12

If you are anything like me, your heart goes out to those in who have lost so much, who are in such deep need. You are moved, but don’t know what you can do. I know that I feel helpless in the face of such overwhelming tragedy.

We are not helpless.

“For He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.” Psalm 72:12-14

We are the children of the King. We have infinite resources. We can all do our part.

So, what can we do?

            1. We can pray. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:15. There are multiple verses in scripture that remind us to pray, to pray without ceasing, to pray in faith. Pray. Pray some more.

            2. We can give. I attend River Rock Church in Vancouver, Washington. We have 16 churches in the Philippines, most of them on the island of Panay and on Palawan, right where the eye of the storm went through. Our church is networking with other churches and denominations on the island to immediately provide food and meet other needs. The people of the area are extremely poor and have little resources to rebuild or care for their families. We are the Body of Christ. It is time for us to do what we can to remind these people that God has not forgotten them.

            This Sunday we are launching Operation Philippines. We are launching a website (www.operationphilippines.com) before Sunday for people to visit and see what we are doing and how they can give. We are preparing a list of needs and will be ordering a shipping container so that we can give of our abundance. We have already sent money to get them started, and will raise as much as we can in the coming weeks. Every dollar will go into rebuilding churches and houses and feeding people immediately. We will have t-shirts available saying “I (heart) the Philippines” to remind people to continue. If there is anyway you can participate in this effort, please do!

            3. Send money. So often we send stuff without knowing what the needs really are, and we end up making more problems than we solve. Find a reputable organization and send what you can. Send through our church, or through Samaritan’s Purse (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/). Samaritan’s Purse has had people and resources on the ground since before the earthquake last month. They know what the local needs are, and have the systems in place to get food and resources to people quickly. 

            God cares deeply about the people in the Philippines. We can do no less. Reach out. We can't do everything, but we can do something. Do what you can. Pray without ceasing.

“But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless… You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.” Psalm 10:14, 17

Happy Veterans Day!

            Today we celebrate Veterans Day. I am so grateful to the men and women who choose to serve so that the rest of us can enjoy our freedoms. My Dad was veteran, as is my brother-in-law. My brother served as well. I have many friends who are veterans, and are proud to serve. Veterans and their families know the meaning of sacrifice. Most of them have thought through what they are fighting for, and what they value most in life. They understand discipline and the value of hard work. They know what it is to fight for others who often cannot fight for themselves, and sometimes to fight for those who are hostile to them and their uniform. They fight anyway. The United States, the world, is a better place because of them.

            The Christian faith has been compared to being in an army. One children’s song speaks of being in the Lord’s Army. In the World War II era, the idea of an army was positive; it was a group of men who arrived to save. We had an enemy so evil that we could easily unite and agree to thwart him. In today’s society, the idea of an army is ambiguous at best. We understand that the issues are not cut and dried, that different people have different ideas about how we should interact in our world, and we see the horrors and damage that are the result of armed force. Our soldiers put themselves in harms way, and often bear the scars. Innocents often bear them as well. This post is not a condemnation of our fighting men and women. It is a reminder that the United States and the people of God are two different entities. We are not Christian simply because we are American. The two are not the same.

            God has made it clear that we are not his army. He certainly doesn’t need us fighting and killing for him. The Army of the Lord is made of his heavenly hosts, and he fights the battles for us.

“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.” Zech. 4:1

 At one point when Joshua was fighting to claim the promised land, God rained hail down upon his enemy, killing them before Joshua and his men even got there. When Gideon was going against the Midianites, God surrounded them with an angelic army, and opened Gideon’s eyes to encourage him. To God belonged the battle.

            No, we are not God’s army; we are his body. We aren’t fighting battles. God is doing that. He gives us armor to protect us, and then tells us to stand firm. He’s doing the actual fighting. We are his physical body, the way he reaches to a physical world. We are his arms, to hug and hold the hurting. We are his feet, taking his message of peace to an angry world. We are his lips, singing the songs of mercy and bringing the words of salvation.

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion,

‘Your God Reigns!’ Isaiah 52:7

           

We are to be the people with the beautiful feet! We have news to share, and it is good news, indeed. We have news of restoration and help for the people of the Philippines today. We have news of peace for people in Syria. We have news of healing and completeness for the wounded Veterans around the United States.

I am so grateful for our Veterans. I am both American and Christian, and I am blessed by both of those facts. My gratitude needs to go beyond a blog post or a Facebook posting on Veterans Day. I need to see them, to thank them, to offer whatever help I can every day. I need to live as his body.

How will we live as his body today?

Starving at the Banquet

The human body is amazing.  When it has a need, it lets us know.  When it needs fuel, it creates pain in the form of hunger.  We feel hunger pangs in our stomach, and even though we aren’t starving to death, we know it is time for a meal.  This is a normal and healthy occurrence.  We can ignore the body’s prompt to eat and the pain of hunger will subside at least until it is time for another meal, and then the pain returns.  If we ignore the hunger pangs long enough, starvation sets in. 

When the body is starving, it begins to draw from reserves it has stashed away.  Short term reserves are held in the liver.  Longer term reserves are held in fat cells.  Fat cells give up their stores a little at a time, and do so based on a value system.  The fat around the kidneys is given up later than the fat around our chest or abdomen because it is essential to the function of the kidney.  As starvation continues the sense of hunger builds.  Your mind becomes consumed with food.  But then something different happens.  Once all the reserves are used up, hunger ceases.  Apathy replaces hunger.  Even if food becomes available, the starving body has no interest in it.  It must be fed intravenously or force fed drops at a time.  Death comes quietly, without the body feeling hunger. 

Our spiritual bodies are similar.  When we are spiritually healthy, we have a hunger for the Lord.  We have a need to be spiritually fed, recognize that hunger and take steps to be fed.  We strive to be in the Word daily, and to meditate on the things of God.  When this hunger is denied, spiritual starvation can set in.  We begin by using up our reserves.  The Holy Spirit calls scripture to our memory, and we may take in small morsels by reading a short devotional or going to church.  But eventually apathy sets in.  Our hunger ceases.  We are still in need of being fed, but we don’t recognize the need because we cease to feel the pain.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  Matt. 5:6

This condition doesn’t need to be permanent.  Through obedience and discipline, I can feed my spirit on a regular basis whether it feels hunger or not.  When we do this, an amazing thing happens:  hunger returns.  The appetite is awakened, and begins to function normally again. 

“Taste and see that the Lord is good…” Psalm 34:8

Taste and see. The Word of God longs to dwell richly in you. Instead we often ration out small amounts of his Word, as if we could use it up by reading too much. Such silliness. God has given us the means to know him more. We can never know him fully and yet we hold back, choosing to wade in an ocean. The only thing holding us back from a deeper relationship with him is us.

Open your Bible today. Find out what you don’t know, what you are missing. Drink deep. Satisfy that hunger before it disappears. Discover the banquet that waits for you.

Listening

          The picture of the Church as the body of Christ is a common one in the New Testament.  Christ Himself takes on the role of the head, and we are the individual parts, perhaps down to the individual cells that make up the rest of His body.  This analogy hints at a fundamental choice God has made in interacting with our world and with us: the choice of self-limitation.  He limited Himself by taking on human flesh.  Then He died and rose, and limited Himself to the position of Head.  As Head, He establishes His presence in the world through us.  He doesn’t need us to work out His will in the world, but He has chosen to work through us. 

            Like a physical body, the body of Christ must follow certain laws to function properly.  Just as our nerves need to stay connected to our brain to properly function and communicate to the rest of the parts, we need to stay connected to the Head to truly function as His body.

“Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by…not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”  Colossians 2:18-19

           

Dr. Paul Brand tells us that if you take a frog and remove it’s brain, it will continue to swim easily across its pond.  You could get the impression that the injury was inconsequential until you look more closely.  The frog is swimming randomly, kicking its legs in reflexive patterns.  Without it’s brain, it has no purpose. Without its brain, it cannot choose to eat, or to swim faster to get out of harm’s way. 

Likewise, when we choose to separate ourselves from the Head, we can continue to go through the motions of Christian life, attending church and living basically moral lives, but our purpose, our connectedness to the rest of the body, and any hope for growth, is gone.  Apart from the head, we revert back to fleshly instincts, defrauded of the prize of our liberty in Christ. 

            Often the Body of Christ has functioned like a quadriplegic.  The head is intact and functioning perfectly, but the body remains motionless, paralyzed by sin or fear.  The Head is sending out messages and directing movement, but the body is not receiving those messages and isn’t sending any sensory information back to the head.  Only as we stay connected to the Head, obeying it’s every command, can we function properly as the Body of Christ in this world.  Only as we live in obedience can we effectively communicate God’s love and will to the world around us. 

            We are the Body of Christ.  Whether or not we choose to live as an effective, well-connected body is up to us.  Each of us must do our part to listen to and obey the Head, or the rest of the body suffers. 

            What is the Head saying to you, as a part of his body? Are you responding in obedience born of love? Each part of the body was designed to play a specific part. What part are you? Are you serving in the area he created you for? Are you listening?