Truth and consequences

So, if my own heart is deceitful and Satan is the father of lies, if I'm surrounded by people who have the same mountain of lies to overcome, then I need to make a conscious effort to search out truth. Too many things are trying to keep me from truth for me to be relaxed about what I decide is true.

I need to also admit that its highly likely that right now I believe some sort of lie about something I'm doing or about someone else.

The consequences of me living under a cloud of deception are dire. Without me knowing the truth about myself and about my motives, I could be hurting others with unconfessed arrogance, pride, hate, or lust. Maybe not even unconfessed but perhaps you've got a lie that is helping you justify the sinful actions abd attitdes you have.

Its so good to know that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Get yourself into His light and watch him shine into all of the dark nooks in your heart.

Eyes fixed on Jesus

I know that I have been mistreated. I know that people have done bad things to me and that they are to blame. I've been hurt by people I trusted and I can prove that they are at fault, completely guilty. It's true for you too, I'm sure of it. We've all been pushed around and bruised. It feels bad to be the target of someone's attack.

Paul says this in Ephesians 4:26-27:

4:26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger. 4:27 Do not give the devil an opportunity.

While it can feel bad to be attacked, we should not sin because of that feeling. Being a legitimate victim does not make it right to counter attack with the weapons of the flesh. Using these carnal weapons that we all turn to so easily gives the devil a foothold, an opportunity. You are exposing a kink in your spiritual armor that he's going to shoot his fiery darts at. Paul lists these sinful responses that we need to learn to supress a few verses down in Ephesians 4:30-32:

4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 4:31 You must put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk. 4:32 Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.

None of us have been bullied more than Jesus. It's hard to be indignant about the wrongs done to me when I'm thinking about Him. My feelings are real, but they should not be my guide when deciding how to respond to my mistreatment. If feeling bad leads me to bitterness and slanderous talk, then I've got an unhealthy focus on myself. I care too much about me if I find myself wrathful and angry, if I'm giving out the evil eye to people that I consider enemies.

When I'm living each day to please God, it's easier to feel bad without doing bad. After all, Jesus didn't enjoy the cross, and there will be things we won't enjoy in life too, but there is a joy beyond the cross that allowed him to suffer and not sin. That same joy awaits us as we carry our little crosses. That same joy of someday being with the Father is waiting for us. We can have God's perspective on these small offenses that we suffer, and learn to shrug it off, forgive because I've been forgiven. Keep your eyes on Jesus on not on yourself.

Paul tells us this in Philippians 2:14-15:

2:14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 2:15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world

Then he says this in 2 Timothy 2:24-25:

2:24 And the Lord’s slave must not engage in heated disputes but be kind toward all, an apt teacher, patient, 2:25 correcting opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance and then knowledge of the truth

And finally in Hebrews 12:1-4 we read:

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, 12:2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. 12:3 Think of him who endured such opposition against himself by sinners, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and give up. 12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed in your struggle against sin.

When we are upset by our rights being infringed upon in our personal relationships, we are thinking too much about ourselves. There is much to be unhappy about if we are focused on ourselves, but if we are focused on Jesus and the throne of God there is so much more to be happy about. May we not grow weary today, in our souls, no matter how beaten and bruised we are. There is glorious life and resurrection awaiting us.

Let's not be back stabbers and bitter bickerers, engaging in heated disputes and full of grumbling. Let us be patient and gentle, forgivers and forgetters, people living in hope for our future and a hope that those who wrong us will be granted repentance and knowledge. Keep your eyes on Jesus and off of your feelings of hurt. Think of him and you will not grow weary and give in to sin when you feel bad.

Confession and Grace

I tend to try to build complicated formulas out of things, after all, I am a computer programmer. But one of the important lessons that I've learned after being a programmer for many years now, is that the simpler I can make the program, the better it will work. More complicated programs have more opportunities for errors and more places where I can mess things up.

I've also noticed the same is true in my relationship with God. The more complicated I make my relationship, the harder it is to have the relationship. For example, I'll make my new year's resolution to read 4 chapters a day. Then on January 3rd, the baby wakes up and ruins my sleep and I'm a zombie the rest of the day trying to keep up with work. It isn't January 5th until I remember that I've missed 2 days and 8 chapters. Now I've broken the contract I made with God. Now I'm ashamed and the relationship is damaged because I'm hiding and feeling guilty.

Guilty about what? About my own laws that I've invented. I make up rules that I can't keep and then I blame God for being too harsh. God freed us from the laws that prescribe what to do and how much of it to do. I don't know if you've had the pleasure of reading Leviticus, but there are some very complicated rules and ways to make sacrifices in there. We're freed from that complication, God's given us the law of liberty, but we want to go back to the complicated law of works. The more complicated the system, the more opportunity for error. It shouldn't be a surprise to a programmer that the law of liberty works better. There's less error, less dependency on me to get it right.

So now I prefer simple formulas. David knew how to distill things down. Read Psalm 32:

32:1 How blessed is the one whose rebellious acts are forgiven,
whose sin is pardoned!
32:2 How blessed is the one whose wrongdoing the Lord does not punish,
in whose spirit there is no deceit.
32:3 When I refused to confess my sin,
my whole body wasted away,
while I groaned in pain all day long.
32:4 For day and night you tormented me;
you tried to destroy me in the intense heat of summer. (Selah)
32:5 Then I confessed my sin;
I no longer covered up my wrongdoing.
I said, “I will confess my rebellious acts to the Lord.”
And then you forgave my sins. (Selah)
32:6 For this reason every one of your faithful followers should pray to you
while there is a window of opportunity.
Certainly when the surging water rises,
it will not reach them.
32:7 You are my hiding place;
you protect me from distress.
You surround me with shouts of joy from those celebrating deliverance. (Selah)
32:8 I will instruct and teach you about how you should live.
I will advise you as I look you in the eye.
32:9 Do not be like an unintelligent horse or mule,
which will not obey you
unless they are controlled by a bridle and bit.
32:10 An evil person suffers much pain,
but the Lord’s faithfulness overwhelms the one who trusts in him.
32:11 Rejoice in the Lord and be happy, you who are godly!
Shout for joy, all you who are morally upright!

Confess your sin, confess your rebellion. Agree with God that you mess up, don't continue to lie to yourself that you are just fine. It's that agreement with God, the confession that my acts are not always righteous, that gives happiness and joy. Confess your sins and see what He will do.

It's not just agreeing with God that you are a sinner that makes it work though. You have to also trust in His grace. Trust that even though God knows exactly how bad your mistakes are, He forgives and cleans us up. As we admit that we are wrong and the He is right, we also have to believe that He is good. He doesn't want to have a relationship with us based on guilt and failure. He wants a relationship built on love and acceptance. In our complicated systems that we invent, we can convince ourselves that God doesn't want anything to do with us, after all, I'm horrible.

The apostle John was another one who knew how to keep it simple. John said things like "God is love" and "God is light". Those are great statements. You can't fool God into believing your lies about yourself, even though you may have even fooled yourself into thinking you are righteous, He is light and can't be deceived. The love of God is what made Him send His son to die so that we can be reconciled to Him. The whole point of Jesus coming was that because he knows how bad our sins are, extreme measures had to be taken so that he could dwell with us. He loves us and wants us to see Him face to face. He knows you're horrible, but He's going to fix all that.

John says it all best in 1 John 1:7-9:

1:7 But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1:8 If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1:9 But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

My job today is to confess that I make mistakes. His job is to pour out His grace that forgives and cleanses. Keep it simple. Don't let the evil little programmer in you complicate your relationship with God. Don't forget David's line in Psalm 32:10, "the Lord’s faithfulness overwhelms the one who trusts in him". Trust that his grace will overwhelm you today!