On God's Timetable

The Screwtape Letters, Ch. 13 (C.S. Lewis)

"And now for your blunders. On your awn showing you first of all allowed the patient to read a book he really enjoyed, because he enjoyed it and not in order to make clever remarks about it to his new friends. In the second place, you allowed him to walk down to the old mill and have tea there –a walk through country he really likes, and taken alone. In other words you allowed him two real positive Pleasures. Were you so ignorant as not to see the danger of this? The characteristic of Pains and Pleasures is that they are unmistakably real, and therefore, as far as they go, give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality. Thus if you had been trying to damn your man by the Romantic method –by making him a kind of Childe Harold or Werther submerged in self-pity for imaginary distresses –you would try to protect him at all costs from any real pain; because, of course, five minutes' genuine toothache would reveal the romantic sorrows for the nonsense they were and unmask your whole stratagem."

I started this blog intending to write about enduring and being patient. God had other plans. He wanted me to realize not the severity of my test, but the extent to which I had blown up the “troubles” that I have been “enduring.” This isn't so much testing as it is a greedy child, the prodigal son, wanting his entire inheritance at once. How much of my struggle is created by my own greed and impatience? How much of this “test of endurance” is really just me not being willing to slow down?

Long story short, I find myself in a season of life in which I have a lot of decisions to make. I have lots of choices in front of me. But even as I was sitting there whining and thinking about how I could write it down and make it come across like it's a really big deal, I'm guessing God kind of raised the eyebrow at me.

Let's examine my situation.

I'm living in the United States of America, where I have the right to believe whatever the heck I want to believe. If I were to hang a sign on my front door that said “I'm a Christian and I'm proud of it,” then the police wouldn't come and take me out of my house. On the contrary, if they did, I could sue them.

The last time I was hungry, I walked over to the dining hall and grabbed two slices of pizza and two glasses of Powerade. I didn't grab a cookie for dessert, but I could have if I wanted to. I listened to my iPod while I was walking down the sidewalk on what is (periodically) a sunny day.

My vision isn't exactly perfect, so I have a pair of glasses on my face right now that are covered by insurance. I have a vehicle of my own and there is gas in my tank.

Let's be real. I am a person defining trial right now who gets impatient when his soba noodles aren't cooked by the microwave fast enough. Whether or not God acts by my timetable isn't really His concern. He loves me. He's my dad. But He's also the sovereign God of the universe who isn't really as urgent about me getting some things as I am. He'll do all that He wishes to do through me...in HIS time. Not necessarily mine.

I was thinking about this and the story of Abraham came to mind. Not the usual way I go though, because normally I would be thinking about how he did his own thing with Hagar and ended up with Ishmael. I was thinking more about when he went over into Egypt.

Genesis 12:10-20

“Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” When Abram Entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.” But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. SO Pharaoh called Abram and said, 'What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.' And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.”

What to notice here is that God had already promised Abraham (Abram at the time) that He was going to be a father of many nations. He'd already given him the promise of how things were going to be for him. But Abram got scared when he heard there was a famine and so he ran to Egypt. He found the closest thing that was the answer for his problem and went running to it instead of to God. Our existence is to bring glory to God. Now I'm not saying be unwise, but how awesome would it have been if everywhere was in famine except where Abram sat down? I mean yeah, he left with a lot of stuff from Pharaoh, but how much stuff would he have gotten if he was the only agricultural game in town? And his response when people asked him why his crops weren't dying would be? “My God is good and has promised good things for me.” He didn't take that opportunity to trust God though.

Even in his poor decision making though, God was still with him and still took care of him. Abraham basically had to pick between two blessings. The closer, immediately tangible blessing of Egypt or the promised provision and protection of God. He chose what he could get his hands on at the time.

I feel like I have that problem, too. I don't really want to condemn Abram and talk about how stupid a move that was and how obvious it was that God was giving him the chance to experience something amazing because I do this same thing every day. I decide that what is most immediately available must be what God wants for me, and so I jump. I'm impatient. And quickly God lets me know that I've done so. And shortly after He shows me that, He hits me with the same trial again. He is relentless in conforming me to the image of Christ, and if that means He has to hit me with the same stuff over and over again, He's got all the time in the world (haha, literally) to do it with. Some of the guys in my small group came up with this combination of scripture:

Ecclesiastes 3:14-15

"I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away."

Plus

Jeremiah 29:10-14

“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

They just used 29:11 in Jeremiah, but I'm going to add the other verses in with it. God has an eternal plan for everything that cannot and will not be stopped. That includes our lives. It's arrogant to think that somehow we could do something that would dislodge or derail the plan of an all knowing, all powerful, ever-present, and eternal God. That plan that He has includes the plans that He has for us, plans for a future and a hope. Those plans cannot and will not be dislodged or derailed. Now does that mean that everything will run smoothly? Nope. Notice that before God tells them that He has a plan for them, He also tells them that they're going to have to wait until their time in Babylon is up. He is the one who drove them there. He is the one that has made them wait.

My gut reaction when I realized this was to say “that's not fair,” but then I remembered that fair would be me burning in hell for the sins I've committed, so I decided against arguing in favor of fairness.

God works tirelessly to conform us to the image of His son Jesus, like Romans 8 says. If I got everything I wanted when I wanted it, I wouldn't be being conformed to the image of Jesus. I would be conforming myself to the image of...well, myself.

1 Peter 1:6-9

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

I need to remember that my trials are minimal here, my blessings are many, and my impatience is great. God is a very good God who does send trial every once in a while in order to strengthen our faith, and He is faithful not to put more on me than I can bear. But if God loads me down with what I can bear and I generate more trials for myself through my own greed, indecision, and impatience, then I carry no guarantee that I will be able to bear those. My faith is to be constantly tested and I'm constantly being conformed to the image of Christ, but that is done on God's timetable—not mine.

Psalm 25

To You, Yahweh, I lift up my soul.

O my God, I trust in You;

Let me not be ashamed;

Let not my enemies triumph over me.

Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;

Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.

Show me Your ways, Yahweh;

Teach me Your paths.

Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

For You are the God of my salvation;

On You I wait all the day.

Remember, Yahweh, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses,

For they are from of old.

Do not remember the sins of my youth,

nor my transgressions;

According to Your mercy remember me,

For Your goodness' sake, Yahweh.

Good and upright is Yahweh;

Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.

The humble He guides in justice,

and the humble He teaches His way.

All the paths of Yahweh are mercy and truth,

To such as kept His covenant and His testimonies.

For Your name's sake, Yahweh,

Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

Who is the man that fears Yahweh?

Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.

He himself shall dwell in prosperity,

And his descendants shall inherit the earth.

The secret of Yahweh is with those who fear him,

And He will show them His covenant.

My eyes are ever toward Yahweh,

For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.

Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me,

For I am desolate and afflicted.

The troubles of my heart have enlarged;

Bring me out of my distresses!

Look on my affliction and my pain,

And forgive all my sins.

Consider my enemies, for they are many;

And they hate me with cruel hatred.

Keep my soul, and deliver me;

Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,

For I wait for You.

Redeem Israel, O God,

Out of all their troubles!

You also, be patient.

"Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful."

James 5:7-11

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I figure now is just as much an appropriate time as any, because I seem to think and mull things over the most when I write.

I'm flat out not a patient person. I constantly rush things, am never content with where I am or where God has me at the moment. My fallen nature tends to get the best of me, and instead of focusing on all of the good things that God has put in front of me to enjoy and give Him glory for, I focus on the one thing I don't have and subsequently make myself miserable.

I've been going through the book of Ecclesiastes lately. Somebody today called it a very "backwards" book of the Bible. I kind of see where it's coming from. You've got a man, likely Solomon, writing about how all of life is vain. Of course, Solomon had neither a concept of an afterlife nor the knowledge of who Jesus is, but in a temporal sort of way, it makes sense when you think of where he's coming from. He's a man who had everything. He had wisdom like the wisdom he showed in Proverbs. He had, at one point, a happy, Godly marriage as seen in Song of Solomon. And then somewhere after those books it all fell apart. He falls into this pattern of thinking:

"Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, 'See, this is new'? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after."

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

I've really keyed in lately on the verse that says "All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full." I want to stop being the sea and start being the stream. I'm tired of just soaking up all of these blessings and not pouring some out to others. I don't feel like the earth is futile, because I know that there is a loving God running it. I know that He is a Dad who loves me and has taken care of me for longer than the 21 years I've been alive. He knew me before I was born, and will know me long after I die. He knows my likes and my dislikes, my wants and my needs, my sins and failures along with the things He's done through me and the high points of my life. He knows me inside and out and won't leave me. But somehow I've lost sight of the stability of the world.

There is a beautiful stability in Solomon's words. True, the streams will always run into the oceans for as long as the world exists. And the oceans will never be filled. But that's what they're supposed to do, isn't it? The streams go to the same place every time, the sun rises and goes down in the same place every day, both in complete obedience and submission to their God. Instead of being futile and depressing, I feel like they're teaching me a little bit about obedience. As Jesus designed them to be, so they are: unquestioning, obedient, and loyal servants of the King of Kings. And what is the result of this obedience? A planet full of life, warmed by the sun and watered by the streams that flow through the land. The oceans support fish and tons of other life. The wind that blows carries seeds and pollen that causes plants go grow all over the world.

How did we come to the conclusion that the world works better when we're in control?

How did I come to the conclusion that my life works better when I'm in control?

I want to be the stream. I want to go where Jesus tells me to, and flow into the oceans that Jesus commands me to. I want to rise when He says rise, and set when He says set. I want to stop looking for the things that I think I want and simply do what He wants me to do. He is a good Father that won't give me a stone when I ask for bread. He won't give me a serpent if I ask for a fish. He won't leave me without the things that my heart needs. I just have to be patient. I have to be satisfied with seeing, satisfied with hearing. I have to stop desiring more and more and more and just desire Him. I want Jesus to work that miracle in me, to change my desires from those of an impatient, unfocused 21 year old college guy to those of a man with wisdom and patience given to him by God.

But that will only happen if I stop trying to control my own life. I see the evidence of my Dad stepping in every day. It's a very humbling experience to know that even when I feel like I planned something with its own purpose, God is accomplishing His plan on a much higher level than I could ever dream of. Every single step of my day is not only known to Him, but planned by Him and shaped by Him. There is no defeat for the believer. God will accomplish his will. I think it was C.S. Lewis that said, "We all do the will of God, but some do it like Judas and some do it like Peter." I've come to realize that for a believer, all "taking control" does for us is increase our frustration with ourselves, because we notice the power of God in our lives, and it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to obtain something that is our desire or want, God has the final say. It is visible to us that "the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD" (Proverbs 16:33). When we try to take control, its impossible for us to ignore the influence of God on every single aspect of our lives, and our fallen nature, the root of our controlling rebellion, is insulted by its insignificance compared to the power of God.

I've been rebellious and controlling and impatient lately. I've been convinced that I have to make all the moves, I have to control every piece of my chess match, I have to be here at the right time, there at the right time, say the right thing, shut up at the right time. Really the solution is that if I'm just worrying about Jesus, if I just worry about His will, His will includes a perfect, holy, sanctifying, and perfectly fulfilling plan for me. By submitting to His will, I'm submitting to a loving, God-honoring and God-glorifying, conformed-to-Christ plan for me. What else could I possibly want? Because every single need I have is contained in that plan.

Jesus doesn't love me because of what I do. He loves me just because He does. Same with all other believers. He is patient with me, so I should be patient with His plan for my life. He's better at my life than I am anyway. Maybe I should just let Him live it.

What a novel idea.

Fast Horses and Falling Breaches

You know, there are those moments in life that you sit there after praying for a while and get just a little bit of an inkling that God is speaking to you. And then there are those times when God makes Himself so abundantly known that a deaf man would not need a hearing aid to notice His voice. This is kind of one of those times.

I've really had my brain stuck in Isaiah 30 lately. I'll go ahead and throw that out there. Here goes:

"Woe to the rebellious children," says the LORD, "who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who walk to go down to Egypt, and have not asked my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, and trust in the shadow of Egypt shall be your humiliation. For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them, or be a help or benefit, but a shame and also a reproach."

The burden against the beasts of the South.

Through a land of trouble and anguish, from which came the lioness and lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who shall not profit; for the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore I have called her Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.

Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and note it on a scroll, that it may be for time to come, forever and ever: that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the LORD; who say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."

Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:

"Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perversity, and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant. And He shall break it like the breaking of the potters vessel, which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare. So there shall not be found among its fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water from the cistern."

For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:

"In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength." But you would not, and you said, "No for we will flee on horses"- Therefore you shall flee! And, "We will ride on swift horses"- therefore those who pursue you will be swift!

One thousand shall flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a banner on a hill.

Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

Isaiah 30:1-18

Yeah, I thought that those were a pretty beefy 18 verses. I could've kept going, but I'm just going to cut it off there for now. Let me break down why this has been impacting me so much. Basically what we have here is the children of Israel looking to find their strength in places other than in their God. He wants to take care of them, but they want to take care of themselves. They look for counsel and advice, but they never go to God with it. They make plans without ever paying any attention to the plans that God may have in mind. They have a control complex.

They also have a security complex. The next part of the passage may refer to when they were led out of Egypt and wanted to go back. If it does, think of this: the Hebrews had just seen God unleash the plagues on Egypt. They had seen the sky blotted dark, the death of the firstborn, and other ridiculous things, not to mention the fact that God parted a dang sea for them to walk through on dry land. They got out there and had one day without water and were begging to go back to Egypt. Maybe that's not even referring to the Mosaic period. Maybe it's talking about a more recent time. Either way, Israel isn't trusting God to provide; they're trusting Pharoah and Egypt to provide. They basically want to be proactive and take over the reigns of their lives.

So what is God's response?

Fine. Go ahead. Take your riches, take your wealth, and wander through the wilderness. Go to your Egyptians. You will be no help to them so they will not want you. They also won't be able to help you.

C.S. Lewis said it pretty well. There are two types of people in the world: Those who say "Thy will be done," and those who refuse to obey and to whom God says, "Fine. Have it your way." These Israelites were doing just that. And God let them do exactly what they wanted and took their success from them. Actively.

To make it even worse, God says the Israelites here have told the prophets that He sent not to tell the truth. They didn't want to hear it when God was telling them that they were going the wrong direction. They didn't want to hear that God wasn't pleased with the way they were acting and that He would deal with them if they didn't change. These things that God wanted to tell the Israelites were all for their good, but they still would rather have the lies instead of the truth.

And what was the result? God said that their disobedience and resistance to hear was like a bulge in a high wall or a breach ready to fall. What are breaches? Breaches and walls are both defenses in a time of war. An army or a city builds them in order to keep the enemy out. A breach that is built shoddily is constantly ready to fall. What happens if the breach falls? The army/city gets overrun. Easily. Same with a wall. If the wall is built sturdily, it will be level throughout. A bulge is a sign of shoddy construction and compromises the structural integrity of the wall. A bulging wall is easy to tear down, and we all know (or at least should know) what happens when the wall falls down. Destruction. Total destruction.

What's most interesting to me is who tears the wall/breach down. We live in an age where the Church likes to blame everything on the devil. "The devil messed up my life...things just won't work out! I keep praying for a breakthrough, for God to work this out for me"; I don't know how many times I've said this or heard this from someone else, but it's almost too many times to count. That's not what's happening in this passage. Jesus is actually the one who tears down the Israelites defense and allows them to be defeated. Check it out: "And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter's vessel, which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare. So there shall not be found among its fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water from the cistern" (Isaiah 30:14). Isaiah has been called the fifth gospel for a reason; it talks about Jesus almost as much if not more than the four New Testament gospels. The whole Bible is about Jesus from cover to cover, but for the Old Testament Isaiah is extremely explicit. He shows up in this verse and ransacks a people.

So what is the solution? For the people to sit down and shut up. Return to God and rest. If they would return to Him and rest, be quiet and be confident that He is sovereign and in control, then He would fight their battles for them. He would do the footwork for them. But they would rather get on fast horses and ride away. They would rather run away from the danger. That doesn't work when God controls the danger, though...we forget that He does that. His sovereignty has no bounds. So you want to run away on fast horses, huh? Fine. I'll send fast pursuers. And they will catch you. When they do, they will utterly destroy you. You'll be stuck on the top of a hill surrounded and have nowhere to go. You'll be utterly surrounded and utterly defenseless. That's what you will get for running.

But God, who loves us enough to die for us, shows His grace and mercy again. He shows patience and promises to wait so that He can be gracious. Instead of utterly destroying an utterly unfaithful people, He gives them yet another chance. There is pain involved in getting to that point, but if the people will wait for Him, He will give them justice because He is a God of justice.

So all that to say this. I've come to the conclusion that we're just like the Israelites. We have things that concern us and so we seek counsel. Like the Israelites, we're quick to seek counsel that isn't necessarily what God would counsel us to do. If someone comes along who actually warns us that what we're doing or that path that we're going down doesn't necessarily match up with what God has revealed to us in His word, then we either gloss them over or tell them that they've lost their minds. After all, the advice they give us sounds nothing like the counsel that we like, the counsel of people who tell us what we want to hear. It sounds more like the Wisdom with a capital W that God imparts, and that stands in the face of all our fleshly desires.

It's easy to forget that it's not all about us. It's all about Jesus. It's all about His glory. It's all about His name, His fame, His grace. Attempting to take control from Jesus is mutiny. He is a sovereign God who honestly does love us. He wants the best for us. He gives us grace and mercy beyond our wildest dreams.

So why do we always seem to think our plans are better than His?

I have a bad habit of "seeking counsel." Unfortunately when I "seek counsel" without praying, I'm really looking for people to tell me the things that I want to hear. I seem to think that the more people tell me something the more right it is. Then after finding several people who are willing to regurgitate what I feed them by asking loaded questions (which I'm good at, sadly), I assume that, since I've asked a large sample, they must be right. I then ball up all of the answers I get into a little digestible clump and feed them to my soul, convincing myself that they are what God wanted to tell me. Without fail, I end up jacking up my life because of this habit. I'm not really seeking counsel. I'm seeking myself. I'm living a life of idolatry by worshiping myself. I take my words and my desires and esteem them above the words and desires of God. I seek counsel, but not of Him.

What did this do to the Israelites? Ended up being like a bulging wall. Who tore it down? Jesus. Same thing happens to me. I try and take control and overstep my bounds into the realm of God's sovereignty, and for my own good Jesus thwarts my plans. This is an act of mercy. If I, a stupid human, got what I wanted every time, my life would be terrible. If we're honest with ourselves, how many times is what we want really what we need? Not many. Run on fast horses, get fast pursuers. Try and control your life by manipulating others? Be prepared to get manipulated. If that's your method of control, be prepared to meet the bigger fish in the pond. Get ahead by scheming? Better watch your back, because it's coming for you. We reap what we sow; this isn't just Old Testament here. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you (Matthew 7:2). Those are the words of Jesus. Same idea, huh? Makes sense, Him being the same God that spoke Isaiah into being.

So let me ask this: if we claim to be waiting on God, resting in quiet confidence that He goes to battle for us and will provide for us, are we still trying to get our fingers in the mix and control things ourselves? If we are, are we really waiting? If we're doing that, are we really trusting God, or are we trusting ourselves? Maybe we should do what Jesus said and "go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly" (Matthew 6:6). If we would return to our God and rest in the quiet confidence that He is God, then maybe we would stop getting ourselves in the messes that we find ourselves in because we're convinced that the counsel we manufacture is better than the counsel He's graciously willing to give us. He knows what we need. We don't need to doubt that our God realizes we have needs that need to be fulfilled. He made us that way and knows us better than we know ourselves. He alone is able to provide us what we REALLY need.

So are we seeking His will in our lives, or are we looking for the nearest fast horse to jump on?

And the lack thereof.

Ok, so this may not be as long as my normal posts due to my collegiate studies (or lack thereof). Hebrew's been feeling the need to kick my butt for the last few hours, but because of something that happened earlier today, I've just got to write right now.

Rewind.

I was sitting outside an SLC classroom today waiting for class time to get there and decided to respond to one of Ben's posts over at the Harmony Baptist Church Youth/College Ministry Facebook Group. I typed this big, exhaustive response and was pretty excited about it. And then the server reset and wiped the whole thing out and trashed everything I had written.

Boom goes the dynamite. I was a little ticked off.

So here I am now, back with a vengeance.

Basically if you haven't read Ben's post, this won't be read in the same context. You can find Ben's post here. Ben asks the question "are we responsible for our actions." In short response, yes we are, but I feel the need to add something to that.

There are two types of sin: sins of commission and sins of omission. Sins of commission are exactly what they sound like: they're sins that we commit. We're probably the most familiar with these. Sins of omission, however, like to kind of fly under the radar. They're sins that take place in our lives because of things we don't do. Check out what Jesus said:

"If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;" (John 10:37)

So what comes next? What are the works of the Father? We're joint heirs with Jesus, right? Sons and daughters of God through the power of His blood? Then this applies to us, too. Check these out:

God stands in the congregation of the mighty;
He judges among the gods.
How long will you judge unjustly,
And show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Defend the poor and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy;
Free them from the hand of the wicked.

Psalm 82:1-4

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

James 1:22-27

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe- and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

James 2:14-26

The guys at the BCM are doing a study called "Get Uncomfortable." This study is all about how we live out our faith in a world that is a consumerist pigsty. We root around all day in the trough worrying about ourselves first. It's even seeping into the church. A pastor is only as good as his last sermon, some places. Which church you go to can be seen as a status symbol. "How many projectors does so-and-so church have? Really? Well this church just built a brand-new youth building with stages for their 3 bands! Isn't that great?" We like to see just how many bible studies we can get into and just how much Jesus we can soak up without taking that same Jesus to a world that is outside our doors, within view of our steeples and dying. They're dying because we can't put down our Beth Moore or Louie Giglio books for a few minutes to go outside and tell them who Jesus is. Not that Beth Moore and Louie Giglio are bad, because they're not. I'm just using the popular names to make a point: the church has become just as consumerist and insider-oriented as the rest of the world, and I'm just as guilty as any other Christian for making it this way.

Follow my logic for a second. I'm as much of a grace person as I can be, and I love it that way. But look in John for a second: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) He came full of grace and truth. Part of that truth was that the world was dead in sin, and dead people are pretty helpless. Only after imparting us grace through his sacrificial atonement for our sins on the Cross are we alive and capable of doing real good;in fact, not only capable of doing good, but INTENDED to do good (see Ephesians 2:10). We were created to do good works. We're not saved by them, but they ARE the natural next step following regeneration, as well as the evidence of that regeneration.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that If we don't do good things God won't love us. But I may just be saying that if we don't walk in those good works that He prepared beforehand that we might walk in them, we may not really be loving God. There are over 2000 verses in the Bible about taking care of the poor, needy, widowed, fatherless, and injured. We talk all the time about how once we're saved, God does a miraculous work in our heart by changing our desires. We no longer want to do evil because it's contrary to the nature of God. True, we war in our flesh between carnal things and spiritual things because our body is still fallen and subject to the curse, but the soul is regenerate and doesn't want to live that way anymore. But this is only talking about sins of commission...that's what we normally talk about. But what about our sins of omission? Isn't it just as sinful to NOT do something we know we should as it is to do something we know we shouldn't? We have to make war on that sin, too. Jesus changes our heart to not want to commit sin, but in the process our heart is made to want to do good. If we're not doing what Jesus has for us to do, then we're failing at our job.

Disclaimer: I am also super-convicted about this.

We're the hands and feet of Christ right? So can we stop getting in our little love-huddles and stop giving each other the unspoken "Jesus is an insider just like us!" hugs and get out there and share Him with the rest of the world? I heard once, and I really liked it, that most of the time we pray that we'll stay unless God tells us to go. Instead, we should go unless God makes it abundantly clear that we should stay. I'm guilty of sins of omission, the sins of not reaching out to the people I know that are dying and going to Hell, even though I know the answer to their problem. The answer is Jesus. The answer is His grace, love, and mercy. If I don't go and do what He has told me to do, then I'm like the Pharisee who stood on the temple mount "praying" for forever about the things he DIDN'T do and then left unjustified. I'm like the man who received a talent from his master and then buried it. Upon the masters return, he deemed that servant a wicked man and gave away his portion to another.

So I guess the point is this: Yes, we're responsible for our actions.

And the lack thereof.

The Most Controversial Thing I've Ever Written...I Think.

So I'm all about not being judgmental. That's great.

But I tend to think about being a fruit inspector more than I think about being a judge, and here's why:

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner- not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."

1 Corinthians 5:9-13

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:16-26

Now that those two passages have been put out there, lets follow the current theme of wolves and put this one out there too. This one's from the Son of Man Himself, Jesus:

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"

Matthew 7:15-23

Disclaimer (because I know I'm gonna need it...): I'm not advocating salvation by works by saying this. If you know me, you know that's one of the last things I would ever do, right on up there with cauterizing an open wound with lye. Salvation is by grace alone, and not through works.

THAT BEING SAID, does that mean we should sin more that grace should abound more? Nope. That's Paul, too. Let's break this down.

In the first passage I threw out there from Corinthians, Paul talks about judgment WITHIN the brotherhood of believers; he speaks pretty bluntly, too. See, the Church at Corinth was basically the church gone wild. They'd lost their minds. Here's how crazy it got: a man in the Corinthian church was sleeping with his father's wife. Check out 1 Corinthians 5:1. Paul said in that verse that this act was so out of control that even the gentiles were shocked by it. What shocked Paul even more, as seen in verse 2, is that the church there wasn't saddened by it at all. What Paul is trying to get across in the later part of this chapter is that judging, or discernment, has its place. Why should we judge outside the church? They are still enslaved to the flesh; they shouldn't be expected to act any different. Those are the people we're supposed to be going to and showing the love of Christ, so we should know what's present in their flesh and expect it to be there. But professing believers are a different story. If you profess Christ and profess to know Him, your life should show evidence. Just because you claim the name of Jesus and do wondrous things doesn't really mean that you know Him...see Matthew 7:15-23. How did Jesus say the wolves would come? In sheep's clothing! The wolf doesn't show up advertising its wolf-ness. It wants to blend in. It wants to have "fellowship" with the sheep, but its purpose for being there is different. It wants to steal the benefits of friends and fun and dating prospects, kill the healthy Christian relationships and familial love, and destroy the hope that God wants to give a community through that fellowship of believers.

We've put a lot of stigma on that word...judgment. Judging is automatically written off as an evil thing. Judging really means, in this case, nothing more than to ascertain or discern something. So if that's what it means, what are we ascertaining/discerning? In light of the passage from Matthew, we'd be discerning whether or not we're dealing with a good tree or a bad tree, a sheep or a wolf. So how do we tell? Paul gave us a few things to look for: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Notice it doesn't say mission trips, camp counselorships, being a person who prays on Wednesday nights, being a person who doesn't make out with their boy/girlfriend during lock-ins, being a person who doesn't show his or her pride from being a good little legalist. The fruits of the Spirit are all conditions of the heart that come from being around the Person Jesus Christ, not from doing things. It's completely possible to be a person who prays on Wednesday night just because they are envious of the good reputation someone else gets from doing it. It's possible to have an outburst of wrath because somebody interprets a passage of the Bible different from you. Do I need to even mention how our boy/girlfriends can become idols to us? What kind of fruit are you showing?

The important thing here is keeping your relationship with Jesus first. If you love Jesus, you will love His family, which consists of your brothers and sisters. Sin hurts them! Judge and discern whether or not the actions in your life are good, beneficial fruits. Make war on the sin in your life, not because God won't love you if you don't. Do it out of love for Him and for your brothers and sisters in Him. We should want to be holy because He is holy. We should want to have no tolerance for tolerating sin. God doesn't tolerate it. He died to pay for it...is that winking at it or ignoring it? If we do ignore the way we live, we can hurt our brothers and sisters. Check out some stuff from Proverbs:

A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends. 16:28
A violent man entices his neighbor, and leads him in a way that is not good. 16:29
The north wind brings forth rain, and a backbiting tongue an angry countenance. 25:23
Where there is no wood, the fire goes out;
and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases. 25:20
As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. 25:21

And I'll throw this question out here really quick too, just as much for me to think about as for anyone who reads this. If this angers you, if you're quick to say don't judge, what is your reason for that?

Luke 12:2-3

Psalm 146

Psalm 146

Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
While I live I will praise the LORD;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish.

Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps truth forever,
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD gives freedom to the prisoners.

The LORD opens the eyes of the blind;
The LORD raises those who are bowed down;
The LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and the widow;
But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

The LORD shall reign forever-
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the LORD!

Concordances are funny things, you know? If you've ever used one you know that they can be really useful. I was walking around this morning, and started thinking about freedom in Christ. It was all kind of downhill from there:

Freedom in Christ -> Freedom from what? = Sin -> How does Sin bind us? -> Guilt

And at guilt, it gets kind of complicated. See, here's the way it works. Before we had Jesus and His forgiveness, we were basically dead men and women walking. We were already condemned to Hell and were basically dangling by the thread of life hanging over the flames (thanks, Jonathan Edwards). That's basically exactly what it says in John 3:18b: "but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Thankfully that's not the only half of that verse. The first half, John 3:18a, tells us what happens after Jesus yanks us out of that position: "He who believes in Him is not condemned." Simple enough, huh? Condemned vs. Innocent. Eternally, we have nothing to fear because the victory is already His.

But I doubt that there's a human being who knows Jesus on the planet that hasn't felt like sometimes, there are still chains. We know Jesus has forgiven us, right? So why do we feel this way?

I think we do it to ourselves.

Don't take this the wrong way; sin still has consequences. If you break a brother in Christ's trust, you can go to him and ask forgiveness, and he should give it to you. That's the Christlike thing to do. But that doesn't mean that he's going to trust you again. And depending on what happened, it may not even be right to expect him to without a long process of earning it again. Sin does have consequences. I'm just saying that I think sometimes we execute the sentence of those consequences on ourselves.

Maybe the consequences to certain sins are more of the same. Take idolatry for example. Devote enough of yourself to an idol, and if that idol gets taken away (which is in fact a MERCY of God) it feels like part of you gets taken away with it. At this point you have two choices: you can either return to the forgiveness, grace, and mercy of Jesus, or you can mourn the loss of the idol that was eating you alive. You can become fruitful again, or you can render yourself useless in terms of being usable by and teachable to God. If you choose the first choice, there may still be consequences, but God can help you deal with them and make a recovery. I would even venture to say the consequences may be far less if you take this route. If you take the second route though, the consequences tend to increase. In the idolatry example, this may take the shape of being mopey and lazy. Heck, I've been there. I skipped two days of classes last semester in what I now see as the mourning of the loss of an idol. This may, in the case of some people, result in idol substitution. Instead of returning to the love of Jesus, the person will cut down another tree and carve another idol for himself. We lock ourselves in this prison of sin, going back to the things that should repulse us, like a dog returning to his vomit.

The reason I say concordances are funny is that when I looked in the concordance in the back of my bible under the heading "freedom," I expected to find a lot of new testament verses. Instead, I found one section- in the old testament, no less: Psalm 146. Jesus brings freedom to the prisoners. If we put our trust in some other thing, like a person, then we're going to be disappointed. It doesn't matter how wise this person may be, this person will die. And when they die, their plans amount to nothing. Their wisdom amounts to nothing. Their followers will die just as they did. Jesus opens our eyes, heals our wounds, and though our bodies may die, He grants us eternal life and the promise of new bodies one day: bodies that will not age, decay, or get sick. Jesus wants good things for you, but if you lock yourself in the chains that you forge yourself, you won't be able to enjoy any of it.

Symptoms vs. Disease

A couple of days ago, I was sitting at home thinking about AIDS.

I know how random that is, but think about it for a second. It's a crazy disease. You know why we haven't figured out how to cure it yet? It's because it mutates, the same reason we can't cure the common cold. These two diseases, with completely different outcomes, are invincible for the same reason. See, one minute, the virus looks one way, is shaped one way. The next, it's completely different. This keeps any of our drugs from working.

Once somebody is infected with AIDS, currently there isn't much we can do for them. We can provide them with antiretrovirals that slow it down, but we don't really have a cure. We can mask the symptoms, but we can't kill the disease. Eventually the virus catches up to everything we do to hide it, and the victim dies.

I've been thinking that sin is kind of the same way. Look at this parable that Jesus told:

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men: extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 18:9-14

It seems to me that this man, the Pharisee, was a victim of sin-mutation. This Pharisee was a fallen man, which means he had in his heart the urge to live unjustly, just like Romans 8:7-8 says: "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." This man also kept his nose in the law 24/7, and actually did a pretty good job keeping it by the sound of this parable. His problem was that his sin mutated. It changed from extortion, injustice, and adultery into pride, and pride is a dangerous thing. I think pride is probably the reason that we can't be justified by the law...those who follow the law can't possibly be sinless because they'll be proud they keep the law (or at least that they think they do). So what does it matter if you don't drink, don't steal, and don't sleep around if you're a proud person? Congratulations, you're moral but you commit the same sin that got Satan thrown out of Heaven: Pride. That's not really progress.

This Pharisee had things mixed up. He was treating the symptoms and not the disease. He failed to recognize that his actions stemmed from his condition. He didn't really understand what the word "righteous" meant. Being righteous, being justified, being holy...none of those come from what you do.

If you're an unbeliever and you seek to please God by living a certain way, you're wasting your time. All righteousness was and is lived through Jesus. Righteousness and Holiness are a Person, and Justification is given through that Person alone. That person is Jesus. By yourself, you have no power to live right. You have no power to change your nature. God is the only one who has the power to do that. If you try and weed the sin out of your life by any other means, you're on track to be drowning in pride. You're treating the symptoms, but not the disease. Eventually it will catch up to your patch job and it will kill you.

If you're a believer and you're concerned about the sin in your life that you keep coming back to, maybe you're trying to deal with it the wrong way. We all have our things that we struggle with. If you grit your teeth and fight tooth and nail against this sin that keeps yanking you back, you're going to lose. Attacking the sin in your life isn't really the way to deal with it, at least not directly. Let me ask you this question, and answer honestly to yourself: are there people in your life that you act differently around, for better or worse? Maybe a friend, maybe a youth pastor? We all do it, whether or not we want to admit it. If certain people are in the room, who we are shifts. We tend to take on the attributes, mannerisms, and tendencies of those around us.

Now, following that train of thought, does Jesus sin? No. Has He ever or will He ever sin? No. Does He love you and want good for you? Yes. So why not hang around Him?

The cure for the sin in your life isn't taking your computer away if you're a porn addict. It isn't pouring out your bottle collection if you're an alcoholic. The cure for your sin is Jesus. The more time you spend with Him, the more you'll look like Him and act like Him. Jesus said "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Mark 2:17). I don't necessarily know all of the underlying problems in your life, all of the ins and outs of who you are. Jesus does. For some people, certain things may be necessary. For others, not so much. Let Jesus do those things through you, because He knows you better than you do anyway.

Stop trying to treat the symptoms, and let the Physician heal the disease.