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!

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.

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.

Wants, Needs, and Witchcraft

So here I am at 2:00AM thinking about some of the things Ben said last night, and I figure a lot of the stuff he said was dead on point. Him talking about Wants vs. Needs really hit the nail on the head in my life, because that's something that I struggle with on a daily basis. I thought that maybe I should write down the things I was thinking. Who knows? It may help somebody else.

I think the best thing Ben did tonight in terms of an illustration was bringing up relationships. I'll even submit that I think that's one of the biggest struggles around here. Personally, I've wondered for a long time what the hold-up is. I've even said some very impatient, very disrespectful things to God about it. I've asked Him how He can see how much I fight to try and live the way He wants me to and not give me a partner to fight that fight with. I've told Him more than a few times that I don't think that's fair. Of course, that's usually in the heat of the moment and I regret it later, but I truly feel that way at those times nonetheless. What I've come to realize lately that that line of thinking is very legalistic and at times I could even classify it as witchcraft or sorcery.

Does that really sound that strange to just say? Maybe just because we have some crazy stereotypes. What is witchcraft anyway? Witchcraft is performing rituals, saying specific words, or doing certain things in order to get the powers that be, or in the case of reality, God to do something specific for us. In the world of pagans, that may mean weird things with candles and strange words. In the world of “organized Christianity” that may mean praying with certain words, only renting movies of a certain rating, only wearing certain clothes and going certain places, and then expecting that because of everything that YOU'VE done God will pay you back out of His obligation to be “just.” That's a warped definition of “just” and it's trying to control God. That's the essence of witchcraft.

That being said, does God reward believers, His kids? Absolutely. Hebrews 11:6 says that “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Notice though: what is the believer seeking? Is he seeking a wife? Money? Power? Social Status? Ease of Living? Absence of Sickness? No. He's seeking God Himself. If you're seeking God, none of those other things would really be a reward, would they? It's not what you're looking for. The reward for seeking God is God. Those other things aren't necessarily guaranteed. If You or I ever find ourselves living a lifestyle of doing things in order to get God to reciprocate and give us the things we want, we're living a life of idolatry by worshipping something other than God. Sometimes we even have the nerve to ask God to help us worship this other god. Does this sound familiar: “God, I'd do anything to get her back. Just tell me what You want!” Or how about this: “God, he's the one I want, so just tell me what to do and I'll do it if You'll let me have him! I know you can do it!” I'm definitely guilty of the first one of those two (You won't find me asking God for a guy). That's some witchcrafty type stuff right there, believing that because of some things we do that God is obligated to do things for us or believing that God is someone to be bargained with, like He actually needs anything we could possibly give Him. He made the universe by speaking! What could we possibly do for Him that He couldn't do Himself? We live lives of purity not because we're trying to earn good things from God, but because we love Him.

But even with all of that, there's nothing wrong with desiring a partner. God said in Genesis that it's not good for man to be alone; we weren't designed for life on an island, destined to live in solitude for forever. There is a deep desire in every human being for companionship. What we have done as a culture is idealize and deify this search for companionship. All of our stories are “love” stories. Even the action/adventure type movies always have the guy-gets-girl or girl-gets-guy subplot going on. Heck, horror movies even fit the bill. They're way off the mark because nine times out of ten they show sex without any semblance of intimacy and oneness through marriage, but they're still appealing to that primal desire to not be alone. We go wrong when we believe these idealized stories. We've been raised to believe that when we find this girl (guys) or this guy (girls), everything will fall into place. If things don't click, that means they must not be “the one” so we drop them and move on to the next prospect, hoping that things will be more instantaneous, more perfect. Sometimes the opposite is true. Sometimes things don't work out and we degrade ourselves, convincing ourselves with every word that they were perfect and the reason it didn't work out was completely our fault. We look for completion in a heart that is just as twisted, mangled, and carnal as our own instead of looking for completion through the Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus.

To the guys (I'm also having to remind myself of EVERY SINGLE POINT in this list): Treat girls with respect. Treat them like the daughters of God that they are. At the same time though, remember that they are only human. They make mistakes just like you and me. If you seek fulfillment in these girls, they're going to let you down. Don't put them on a pedestal that defines your manhood, because if you do you're only ever going to feel inadequate, or at best, trapped in a cycle of performance and proving yourself to her. You are made in the image of God and can find fulfillment in Jesus alone. Ask yourself this: If you were to live your life forever as a single guy, never marrying a girl, would you feel like God had slighted you? Would you be angry at Him? If so, it's good for us to remember that these are HIS daughters anyway, not our wives/girlfriends/prizes for the taking. Why do you live the way you do? Is it because you want God to give you someone in return for your goodness? That's idolatry and witchcraft. You're worshipping something other than God, and God shares His worship with no one. He's probably not going to help you worship an idol. Our God is not a weak, passive God. He's a warrior. Spend the time NOT in a relationship to learn and grow in Christ. Let Jesus show you what being a man really means. Learn how to pursue something wholeheartedly and without fear; let Jesus show you what perfect love really means, because perfect love drives out all fear (1 John 4:18). Only then will you be prepared to love a woman the way God would have you do. If you're letting the girls pursue you, something is wrong. The man is supposed to be the initiator; we love them enough as our sister in Christ first, so we give them the right to accept us or reject us. It's pretty cowardly to fear rejection so much that we allow them to make the first move. That's not being a man. That's being a joke. No real woman wants a joke.

To the girls: I'd tell you what I told the guys: don't let the love of a man define your worth and beauty as a woman. If a guy isn't chasing you at the moment, take the time to love Jesus even more and get to know Him even more. Let Jesus make you wise. Get spoiled by His love. Get used to that kind of love, so that way when a less-than-desirable guy comes along and tries to sweep you off your feet with a few sly words, you'll see right through his two-bit sham. No man can love you like God can, but if God has it in His plan for you to marry, then you better believe that He is training up one of His sons to be able to treat you like you deserve to be treated: as a daughter of the King. Wait for that guy. In the meantime, there are lots of your brothers in Christ who are in the process of growing and getting to know their Dad. These guys, not of their own choosing, are hardwired very physically. Because of that, sometimes when you think you dress “cute,” you make these guys who are trying to live for Jesus stumble. Now I'm not saying I think it's inappropriate for a girl to try to look nice...I'm just saying that sometimes one needs to think if it's really necessary to own a shirt that is that low-cut. Or that tight. The “too-tight” thing goes for pants as well. What's the goal of those clothes? What image do you want for yourself? What kind of guys do you think that will attract? We live in a world where guys are bombarded with sex everyday. According to lightedcandle.org, more than 70% of men ages 18-34 visit a pornographic website at least once monthly and the internet is a significant factor in 2 out of 3 divorces. Think about that when you go through your closet. Of the ten guys that will see you in that outfit, seven of them have seen porn at least once that month. Do you want to make yourself look anything remotely like the sex objects they've had stuck in front of them?

I've said some pretty blunt and to-the-point stuff on here, but I'm not trying to sound condemning. Heck, I'll admit that I could smack myself in the face and yell “hypocrite” really loud just for writing this, because at times I am. But we're human. If we are in Christ, we are new creations, but we still inhabit fallen bodies with a tendency to do fallen things. I love my Christian family and I know relationships and sex cause a whole lot of pain, and I don't want that for anyone. I'm not trying to condemn. I thank God every day that I have Christian friends and a church that I can discuss things like this with. Relationships, Sex...some would keep from talking about this in church because it's “inappropriate.” I think the Church is the most appropriate place in all of creation to talk about these things, because where the Church is silent, other voices will speak. It's all in love.