I can’t recall where I heard this story of a little girl who found a pretty ring in her box of Cracker Jacks. It was a plastic ring painted the color of silver and with a pink resin “gem.” How the little girl loved her ring. She would day dream about wearing it to her prom and on her wedding day and how she would never stop wearing it.
This little girl had a father who loved her very much. And as she was getting older, he decided he wanted to give her a real ring with a genuine diamond and platinum band. He came home one day and said, “honey, I want you to give me your ring.” The little girl was greatly alarmed; she did not want to give her most prized possession. Her father looked hurt and said, “don’t you trust me that I have something better for your?” But the little girl refused to give up her treasured ring. She preferred to hold onto her cheap plastic over a genuine jewel. Sure she trusted her father, but she couldn’t see what he had. So finally, the father showed her the diamond ring, but the girl still preferred the pink colored plastic “gem” to the white genuine diamond. She chose the cheap and worthless over the genuine and priceless.
Many of you may know where I am going with this. But we are like that little girl when it comes to how we relate to God. We won’t give up all those things that we are holding onto, all the things of this world that we treasure in our hearts. And I am not speaking of simply material things that we desire, but our hopes and dreams and goals – we treasure these in our hearts.
Basically, we are not interested in God’s promises of spiritual blessings and eternal rewards. Sure we want spiritual blessings, we want eternal rewards, but we are not willing to give up our love affair with the things of this world that hold our heart, that direct our priorities, that we strive for and are enamored with obtaining or achieving. We don’t want to give those things up in order to get God’s gifts.
I guess maybe we really don’t believe that what God has for us is more precious than those things which perish. Jesus says that if we wish to follow him with must daily choose to die to ourselves, to crucify our desires and to live for Him.
Matthew 16:24 “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Matthew 10:38-39 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”
A handsome, popular young man married the love of his life and had a child when he went off to a dangerous mission field. He was betrayed and ultimately murdered by those people he went to reach. His wife stayed and continued to try to reach those lost people. Others thought it was foolish of him to risk so much, his life, his family and happiness. But in a journal entry he wrote, “He is not fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot loose.”
Anything you have or desire in this world, you can’t keep. What do you need to let go of so that you can grow in the spirit and power of Christ in your life and receive the precious gift of greater intimacy with God? What have you been unwilling to have pried from your hands to gain the precious hope that the Lord offers and realize the joy of your salvation?
Do you trust your Father?
Ephesians 1:3 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ”
Marc James - Surrender
"I'm singing you this song, I'm waiting at the cross"
Friday, March 5, 2010
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Out-sinning God’s Grace?
I was listening the the radio the other day. And Steve Arterburn from New Life was saying how people worry that they have sinned too much for God to possibly forgive them, and that they have "out-sinned God's grace."
That really hit me. I certainly have faced times when I felt that way. I feel like I don't deserve God's grace. Although that sounds humble, it is in fact a prideful attitude because it assumes that we should be able to be good enough in ourselves to deserve God's grace. Further it assumes that when we feel or receive God's grace it is because of how good we are, or our inherent goodness and righteousness. It is basically saying that we think that we have the ability to earn it and that we are trusting in ourselves and not God - that it is about our righteousness and not God's goodness.
Lastly, it demeans the sacrifice of Christ. Why does it demean Christ's sacrifice? Because we are saying that Christ's sacrifice was not good enough and not powerful enough to cover our sins. As if Christ just isn't enough to handle it, and that we need to supplement it with our works. It also demeans the goodness and mercy of God.
We sometimes loose focus on our purpose in life. We are to be about the kingdom of God, and it is a battle for the hearts, minds and souls of those in this world.
Steve went on to share a story in this broadcast. Imagine a sports team. Imagine they are in the locker room about to go out to compete. Can you hear the coach say the following? "Ok, now I want all of you to remember every mistake you make. And if you make a big mistake, I just want to to think about it the entire game and never let it go. I want you to remember what a looser you are and how you've hurt the team and relive every moment of that mistake. Furthermore, we won't want to have anything to do with you if you do mess up."
Of course not! No team would say this. They want to win and in order to win each player needs to be effective. You can't be effective if you just mediate on your previous mistake. What really happens when players make mistakes? Their other team mates come to them and pat them on the helmet and say that it's ok. What do they do when someone is injured or inexperienced? They work harder to make up for the slack to hold up that weaker player.
If we are to be effective in God's work, we cannot meditate on our mistakes of the past. When we feel convicted of unresolved sin, that is the work of the Holy Spirit, but when we feel convicted over sins that we have turned from and given over to God then that is the enemy. We are going to make mistakes as we are being transformed from glory to glory. But if we are about God's work and about God's purpose in our life, he will be faithful to complete His work in us. But we do need to be about God's purposes and not our own goals, feelings, emotions, desires and superficial commercial wants. We also shouldn't minimize sin. But I will leave that for another post.
1 John 1:9
Romans 8:1
Psalm 103:12 - As far as the east is from the west,So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
In His Love.
That really hit me. I certainly have faced times when I felt that way. I feel like I don't deserve God's grace. Although that sounds humble, it is in fact a prideful attitude because it assumes that we should be able to be good enough in ourselves to deserve God's grace. Further it assumes that when we feel or receive God's grace it is because of how good we are, or our inherent goodness and righteousness. It is basically saying that we think that we have the ability to earn it and that we are trusting in ourselves and not God - that it is about our righteousness and not God's goodness.
Lastly, it demeans the sacrifice of Christ. Why does it demean Christ's sacrifice? Because we are saying that Christ's sacrifice was not good enough and not powerful enough to cover our sins. As if Christ just isn't enough to handle it, and that we need to supplement it with our works. It also demeans the goodness and mercy of God.
We sometimes loose focus on our purpose in life. We are to be about the kingdom of God, and it is a battle for the hearts, minds and souls of those in this world.
Steve went on to share a story in this broadcast. Imagine a sports team. Imagine they are in the locker room about to go out to compete. Can you hear the coach say the following? "Ok, now I want all of you to remember every mistake you make. And if you make a big mistake, I just want to to think about it the entire game and never let it go. I want you to remember what a looser you are and how you've hurt the team and relive every moment of that mistake. Furthermore, we won't want to have anything to do with you if you do mess up."
Of course not! No team would say this. They want to win and in order to win each player needs to be effective. You can't be effective if you just mediate on your previous mistake. What really happens when players make mistakes? Their other team mates come to them and pat them on the helmet and say that it's ok. What do they do when someone is injured or inexperienced? They work harder to make up for the slack to hold up that weaker player.
If we are to be effective in God's work, we cannot meditate on our mistakes of the past. When we feel convicted of unresolved sin, that is the work of the Holy Spirit, but when we feel convicted over sins that we have turned from and given over to God then that is the enemy. We are going to make mistakes as we are being transformed from glory to glory. But if we are about God's work and about God's purpose in our life, he will be faithful to complete His work in us. But we do need to be about God's purposes and not our own goals, feelings, emotions, desires and superficial commercial wants. We also shouldn't minimize sin. But I will leave that for another post.
1 John 1:9
Romans 8:1
Psalm 103:12 - As far as the east is from the west,So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
In His Love.
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