Righteousness

One of my favorite Scriptures, and a great reminder of the wonderful news in Jesus Christ:

http://bible.us/Rom3.21.ESV But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—

He did what I was unable too... Yes, and, Amen!!

Carried

People have said that going through the more difficult things in life, though they would not choose them, actually allows them to walk more intimately with the Lord than they ever had before.

I'm beginning to understand that more...

It's like when you are going through the presses of life, He carries you in ways that are simply supernatural.

It's unexplainable.

When things are toughest, it's then that He sustains you.

It's like the "Footprints" poem, except, you know it is He who is carrying you along.

It is Jesus who said to Paul,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

If it is when I am weak that I can sense Him all the nearer...

If it is when I am most worn out that I am empowered...

...then may it be so.

Walking with God

I have a brief, few minutes to share what God has been doing in my heart.

Let me first say, that God is so loving, so kind, so gracious toward me. As His child in Christ, I feel Him taking me by the hand lately and walking me through life. He is both walking with me and leading me. It's so intimate, so kind, so personal.

The fact that God is even mindful of me is astonishing.

But to sense Him actually walking with me, and even better, sensing His love and delight toward me... It's unexplainable. It's unfathomable!

How can God love me?!

As I have wrote recently, it has been hard for me in the past to believe that the all-powerful, all-mighty, perfct and holy God would delight in imperfect me. But through Jesus, He does. I have been grafted in, I can partake of His love, I am beloved and part of the family. It was He in His love who chased me down even before I ever knew Him!

And the fact that He is even walking with me through this life is truly amazing.

How can this be? God with me?

That's it. Simple, yet miraculous. Seemingly common, but all so real to me lately.

I'm so grateful.

Psalm 103

Psalm 103 is a rich Psalm, and is a great reminder of the Lord's grace, mercy, kindness and love towards those who fear Him. It's a great reminder for me today that I can trust in His character. I can trust in His Name and that He loves me, even when my own mind and heart condemn me.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103:8-14 ESV

Today, I'm so thankful that He is abounding in love, that He is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger. I'm thankful that He doesn't deal with me according to my sins. And I'm thankful that He is well familiar with my frame - He knows I am but dust.

It's Scripture like this that reminds me that it's not what I can do, but all about Him and what He did through Jesus Christ. He was condemned, so I could go free. He took my shame, and lifted my head. He was rejected, so I could be accepted into God's family. He took my sin and God's wrath, that I might be forgiven.

This is my God.

Yea, thankful today.

A Deadly Disease

I have a disease - I put too much stock in my efforts and accomplishments before God.

That's right, it's a disease.

It's a disease that keeps me from experiencing the fullness of His love and grace. It's a disease that centers on what I have done (nothing) instead of what Christ did. It's a disease that leads me to try to earn my keep with God, instead of trusting that it's He who keeps me. It's a deadly disease that leads me to be short on mercy and grace with others, and abundant in judgement, because that's how I interpret God's dealings with me.

Call this disease what you want - self-righteousness, legalism, righteousness by works... Whatever you call it, it's a deadly disease.

And I got it.

It sucks the life from you and prevents you from living in a grace-empowered life. It's filled with condemnation and fear rather than peace and faith. It focuses righteousness before God on me rather than He.

I have been desiring lately to experience God's love for me in a greater way. I want to experience His love and grace in a way that brings freedom and peace, that I might share that same love and grace with others. Especially with my family - those who feel the brunt of my self-righteous and condemning gaze the most.

I wish I didn't have this disease. I want to offer others the same grace and mercy that God offers me. Problem is, if I myself don't walk in His grace and mercy, and instead try to earn my righteousness, I won't be able to offer that grace and mercy to others. In fact, I pass that same demand for "righteousness by works" on to others.

I can't give you my love and approval unless you tow the line just so.

It's not God's heart. It's wrong. It's sin.

But there is a cure to this disease - the cross. The cross of Christ turns my righteousness before God back on what Jesus did, and not what I can do. Because, you know, I never could do. And all my "do-ings" no matter how good I think they are, are nothing but filthy rags.

So I repent. Again. And chose to live a cross-centered life today. That I might not spread the disease of self-righteousness to others, but rather, spread the cure - God's grace, love and mercy found in Jesus Christ.

[Aside: The Lord has been dealing with me on this issue over the past few days, and reading this post this morning inspired me to return to the cross for the cure to my deadly disease... Read it here.]

Love

Yesterday morning the Holy Spirit began speaking to me about His love for me. I went first to the Song of Solomon. This book is a beautiful picture of the love shared between a man and woman, but I believe that it is a greater revelation of the love shared between Jesus and His bride, the Church.

I read how the husband adores and finds such pleasure in his bride, and I knew that is how God sees His Church. I have known these things of course - that God loves me - but as I wrote in an earlier post, I found myself not wanting to believe that God would truly love me to the point of finding pleasure in me. Even delighting in me!

Me? Me? I'm not worthy of His love...

No, I'm not worthy. I never was nor never will be. And that's the beauty.

I found myself thinking on Revelation where we as the bride are united with Christ at the end of the age. We are the Bride. He is the Bridegroom. And the love we have for Him is not one way. This is a two way love relationship - as we delight in Him, He too is delighting in us. As we long for and are passionate for Him, so He is, even more so, and perfectly, towards us.

In fact, it's because He was passionately in love with us first, that we can even love Him.

Romans 5:8 says, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.


While we were weak to save ourselves, while we spit on His face and crucified the Lover of our Souls, He showed how great His love is for us by displaying the greatest love - laying down His life for us. I only love because He loved me first.

So I am finding myself enjoying an old truth in a new way the last couple of days...

God loves me! He really does!

There is freedom and joy in embracing and receiving His love for us. And I want to know Him and His love for me all the more. I am more motivated to serve the Lord and enjoy Him when I am motivated by His love, rather than a false feeling of guilt or condemnation.

While I was pondering His love for me yesterday, a song by Brian and Jen Johnson came on as I listened to an album of theirs, We Believe. The song was "You Have Ravished My Heart" - a song about God's passionate love for us.

Check out the song below, and I pray God reveals to you and I once again, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:18-19

Meditate

I have found myself recently going back to a familiar portion of Scripture for me. It's where Paul describes all the reasons why he could have confidence in his flesh; how he, if anyone, could put confidence in his own efforts before God.

Yet, after listings all his accolades, he describes these things as being gain for him, and not for Christ. They were all things that he could glory in. They were all things that pointed to his strength and what he could do. None of it pointed to God's strength, and what God could do.

He was doing good things, but it was still all about him. It was all about his work, and what he could do. (Of course, as he describes in Romans, all his efforts fell drastically short.)

When, in reality, it's all about what Jesus... Did.

Here's the passage:
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ... http://bible.us/Phil3.3.ESV

Grace... Again

Yea, I need to visit it again. I need to dwell on it again.

The richness of His marvelous grace.

We know about Romans 3:23, in fact, we are Romans 3:23. But it's verse 24 that points to the miracle of the cross. It points to Jesus. It points to His grace.

I needed to visit His grace yet again today, as I can so easily forget that it was Him who made me right with God. Not me or my actions.

Stop trying to earn His favor, stop serving from fear. The grace of God has saved me, not me saved me.

So here it is, one of my favorite passages and great reminders of my wretched state apart from Him, contrasted with His great sacrifice and grace that rescued me...

Find it here.

My Favs

One of my favorite portions of Scripture, from Romans 3:

as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

There are none who are righteous, not one. Let's receive and walk in His grace today.

Perfect Love

I'm a perfectionist.

I'm trying to come to grips with that :0)

It's hard to know you have a problem when you have lived that way for most of your life. When we have an ingrained way of thinking, it's hard to see outside of ourselves objectively at that way of thinking. Thus the importance of friends we trust who can speak into our lives, and the need to hear the voice that matters most in our lives, God's voice.

I feel that the Holy Spirit is revealing my tendency toward perfection to me (thankfully). Through God's help, and the help of trustworthy friends, He is I believe showing me some of the downfalls/negatives/consequences of that way of thinking.

For one, my perfectionist tendencies lead me to live a defeated life. They drive me to works before God and, of course, my works never add up. I come to God and can only think about the ways I fall short – at least to my mind. It's funny though, in His presence I find freedom. When I am in His Presence, I am accepted. The fear and works fall away.

I'm realizing that many times my reason for obedience to the Lord is driven by fear. However, under grace, my motivation for obeying His commands shouldn’t be fear and punishment, rather love and thankfulness.

I'm also realizing that the fear and perfectionism I live with, I pass that on to my kids. Though I would never want to admit to this, it's almost as if they are never accepted by me or "right in my sight" unless they are perfect, or do things just the way Daddy would like. But I have to be honest with myself, it’s the way I live before God, and probably how I lived before my parents, so without realizing it, I pass that pressure/fear/perfectionism on to my wife and children. It's not right or fair to them.

The wonderful thing about God is that when He reveals things in us it's not to just point out our sin and shortcomings and then leave us high and dry, rather, His desire is to bring healing and change. So in the midst of learning about my perfectionist mindset, I am also learning about the remedies...

1 John 4:7-21 speaks about the fact that God is love and that perfect love casts out fear. A remedy to my perfectionism is His love.

Another remedy is realizing that my perfectionism is only gain to me. Paul talked about his accolades, yet referred to them all as gain to him, and counted loss for the sake of Christ.


Finally, there is nothing like Romans 3 to dismantle any sort of attempt to work or be perfect for God's acceptance. None are righteous, none are perfect, not even one. We are justified by His grace as a gift, and there is no boasting in our efforts of abilities.


I'm still learning here. But I am thankful I have a loving God who cares about me enough to mold me into the image of His Son, and make me into a useful vessel for His kingdom.

Perfect

I think I can live life perfectly on my own efforts. I wouldn't generally admit to that, but its what I [try to] do. I can feel it when the Holy Spirit or my wife calls me out on it. I'm caught up trusting in my own efforts and righteousness.

Romans 3:10-12 states,

as it is written:
   "None is righteous, no, not one;
 no one understands;
   no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
   no one does good,
   not even one."

Generally, this isn't an encouraging verse. And, it isn't. It's the bad news that precedes the good news in Christ spoken of later in the chapter. For me, the fact that no one is righteous, not even one, is also good news. It's good news because I can stop striving. Stop trying to live on my own accord, my own merit. Stop trying to earn His favor or acceptance, and instead receive it as a free gift.

While spending some time with the Lord this morning, this thought came to me:

Instead of trying to live this life perfectly; I need to trust in the Perfect One.

I read something similar to this in a tweet from someone I follow on Twitter yesterday. I don't know exactly what it said, but this truth came back to me at the right time this morning.

I. Can't. Do. It.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

It's never a burden to me to revisit the gift of God's grace. I'm accepted and declared righteous because of Jesus Christ this morning, not because of my own efforts. And it is by His grace, that I am empowered to live a holy life.

Ahhhh....

So once again, this morning, I surrender to your grace, Lord Jesus.