Don’t Be Bitter

We just got back from Mississippi. The trip was great, even though I came down with a minor cold with aches and stuffy nose about mid-week. No big deal, though, I was feeling normal again in a couple of days.

As I’ve had time to decompress this evening and while driving home, my mind has wandered in and out of many thoughts spurred by conversations or events from the past week. Several things stick out, but one keeps bubbling back to the surface: I never want to be bitter about anything. A root of bitterness has clearly established a strong hold in the lives of people I know in Mississippi. Obviously, I won’t say who it was, but I will describe it’s effects. What is its effects?

• Very obviously unhappy.
• Unable or unwilling to maintain a pleasant demeanor.
• Rarely smiles.
• Can’t be happy for anyone.
• Laughs laboriously (as opposed to laughing easily).

These are just physical manifestations in the countenance of a bitter person. The spiritual manifestations would require a much more in depth article than I intend to write in these waning hours of Sunday evening. The end for people who strive to find happiness in everything except Jesus Christ will be disappointment which leads to bitterness. There are countless ways to find disappointment, but only one way to find true and lasting happiness – Jesus.

Don't Be Bitter

We just got back from Mississippi. The trip was great, even though I came down with a minor cold with aches and stuffy nose about mid-week. No big deal, though, I was feeling normal again in a couple of days.

As I’ve had time to decompress this evening and while driving home, my mind has wandered in and out of many thoughts spurred by conversations or events from the past week. Several things stick out, but one keeps bubbling back to the surface: I never want to be bitter about anything. A root of bitterness has clearly established a strong hold in the lives of people I know in Mississippi. Obviously, I won’t say who it was, but I will describe it’s effects. What is its effects?

• Very obviously unhappy.
• Unable or unwilling to maintain a pleasant demeanor.
• Rarely smiles.
• Can’t be happy for anyone.
• Laughs laboriously (as opposed to laughing easily).

These are just physical manifestations in the countenance of a bitter person. The spiritual manifestations would require a much more in depth article than I intend to write in these waning hours of Sunday evening. The end for people who strive to find happiness in everything except Jesus Christ will be disappointment which leads to bitterness. There are countless ways to find disappointment, but only one way to find true and lasting happiness – Jesus.

Blindness

As a follow up to what I just posted, I have been reminded about how blind we can be to our own sin. I hope you will join me in asking the Holy Spirit to remove our blindness. You and I will always have sins in my blind spot. Others may see it, but you and I won’t be able to see it.

Holy Spirit, please remove my blind spots so I can see my sins more clearly that I may confess them and kill them by Your power and for the glory of Jesus Christ and God the Father in my life. Amen.

Why Are We Saved?

[DISCLAIMER] Mark Driscoll got me thinking about this. He is partially to blame.

I think the question of “Why are we saved,” isn’t getting a fair treatment. From one point of view, we cannot know the ultimate reasons for why God chose us. But for the most part, many, if not most of us have been taught that Jesus saves us so that our sins can be forgiven and when we die we can go to be with Him thereby avoiding eternity in Hell. This is correct and any answer to this question which leaves this out would be incomplete. But an answer which only contains this would also be incomplete.

We have neglected to teach that equally important to the forgiveness of our sins is that Jesus saves us so we can live holy lives. The command to “Be holy, as I am holy,” is not given to those who do not know God, but to those who know Him. When Jesus saves us He changes our minds, our hearts, the way we live our lives; there is nothing within us that is not changed. The act of redemption is two-fold. There one side of redemption that positionally makes us holy before God immediately when we are born again; otherwise known as justification. The other side of redemption is really an ongoing process of redemption which is the progressive redeeming of our lives on a daily basis. This is sanctification – the process of becoming holy as He is holy.

The problem we endure during our life on this earth is that our sanctification will always be hindered and slowed by the works and effects of sin. Whether that sin be something in our past, or that sin is something in the moment and impulsive. You might wonder what I mean by sin from the past. Maybe you grew up with an abusive parent. Maybe you have suffered something horrible like rape or incest. Maybe it’s just the relentless fighting that went on in your home. Perhaps you directly participated willingly in an occult activity. Perhaps, you were a bully. In all of these cases, you either suffered from the effects of someone else’s sin or you willingly participated in something sinful. And you carry it with you. Being forgiven doesn’t mean that we cease to be affected by past sins. As a born again person, they no longer condemn you, but past sins can still control you. We cannot allow this to happen.

How do they control us? Let’s examine the first scenario where we are affected by someone else’s sin. Ask any woman who has endured rape or incest or has been physically abused how her trust level is with men. Ask men whose wives have been unfaithful about their trust. Neither abused women or men who have unfaithful spouses will be very trusting people, particularly toward the opposite sex. This lack of trust in people can easily become a lack of trust in God and lead to bitterness.

What about issues of race? The sins of our white forefathers has tainted the relations between whites and blacks even to this day. The sins of past racism has birthed deep distrust from both whites and blacks in the present. Generally speaking, whites and blacks attend their own churches, they live in their own neighborhoods and this separation only nurses the distrust. Honestly, it makes it difficult, even within the church at times. Yes, the effects of sins committed against us are real and if left unchecked become generational as we have witnessed with racism in our own culture.

The second scenario, where we intentionally commit sins, can control us as well. How could occultic activity affect me later in life? We see this with the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians, Paul has to correct them for not separating themselves from idol worship. Their former connection with the occult through worshiping idols was difficult to sever. Paul says to them clearly, “You cannot partake of the table of Christ and the table of demons.” The occult has a powerful grip on those who participate in it and can provide a foothold for Satan to tempt those who have formerly practiced it.

Definition: Redeem – to obtain the release or restoration of, as from captivity, by paying a ransom.

These areas of our lives need to be redeemed through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. The born again woman who grew up with out a father – or with an abusive father – needs to allow the Holy Spirit to redeem that area of her past by teaching her how to live with a husband and love him rightly. The person who dabbled in the occult needs to allow the Holy Spirit to redeem that area of their past by allowing Him to display the surpassing beauty and worth and power of Jesus Christ against the deceitfulness of idols. It isn’t until we actually allow the Holy Spirit to do His redeeming work on these areas that we will understand the true depth and destructive nature of sin.

I know I have harped heavily on past sins, nearly at the peril of ignoring the sins we commit in the present. I haven’t forgotten about them. The sins we commit in the present are equally sinful. I also know that I have tread in waters in which not everyone wants to tread. Talking about past sins we’ve committed or that were committed against us makes people uncomfortable. Here’s my thinking. Past sins cause us to sin in the present. Allowing the Holy Spirit to redeem all areas of my life, past and present, will make me more wholly His in the here and now. This is sanctification. This is part of our redemption as His children. This must become part of the answer we give to “Why are we saved?” He saves us to redeem us; not just for a future in Heaven, but He saves us for a redeemed life on this earth. He saves us so we can live wholly as He lives: Holy.

Marks of the Church (video)

There are a lot of movements in the Body of Christ that are trying to redefine our church gatherings. Not that there’s anything wrong with seeking new methods or formats for our worship gatherings, but if you want to call yourself a church and still fall under the Biblical definition of a church assembly, there are markers which must be met. Here’s a quick (10 minutes) video on the marks of the Church from Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington.

Why Are We So Messed Up?

This weekend I received some troubling news concerning some one I care about deeply. I won’t go into the details of the situation in this venue, but suffice it to say that this is the latest in a long series of “troubling” news reports, and maybe the most hurtful. It has really caused me to think about why we make the decisions we make. Here’s what I’ve been pondering.

The more I have thought about this, the more I see it in people’s lives, the more I believe it is true. Sin leads to more sin. Bad decisions lead to more bad decisions. Poor understanding only degrades into worse understanding. Scripture clearly teaches this in Romans chapter one. When an individual decides to ignore God, to ignore repentance, the course of his or her life only goes from sin to sin, from bad choice to bad choice. And until you recognize the downward spiral you are in, you won’t escape it.

This is true for everyone, even for believers. I know Romans one is describing the actions of a person who rejects God, and not believers. However, all believers still struggle with the vestiges of sin, even though we are new creations in Christ. Sin still has its seductive attraction for believers and believers are no less susceptible to sin than lost people. Therefore, we too can become entangled in sin, and even deeply so.

What makes it worse when a born again person strays is that unlike the lost person, he or she is in willful rebellion against the One who saved them. Lost people don’t willfully rebel. They cannot choose any other way to live. Saints, though, choose to rebel on a daily basis. We can choose righteous living because the Holy Spirit enables us to live righteously.

So how do we get out of it? How do we recognize when we are in a spiral? The sneaky thing about sin is that it is most deceitful. Many times we enter the spiral without recognizing we’ve entered. Sin doesn’t usually present itself to us as outright rebellion. Sometimes it tempts us overtly. But many times it appeals to our hurts and wounds as a quick fix. And I think it is here, where our hurts and wounds lie, that sin finds the easiest door to open. Anything that will help us to feel better faster is what we tend to pursue. But the real answer is not a quick fix.

At least in my life, I’ve noticed that God most often is methodical and gradual about changing me. It’s almost as if He goes slow so I will take note of the ugliness of my sin as He removes it. And make no mistake, almost always, slow is painful. So for me to quick fix my pain with something else is essentially short circuiting what God intends to do. And you could say that what might have taken God six months, turns into two or three years of painful molding; all because I won’t allow Him to do His work in me in His way and in His timing.

So the question we all need to ask ourselves is, “What is my quick fix?” Is your quick fix food? Is your quick fix money? Is your quick fix sex? The person I mentioned at the beginning of this entry thinks that romantic relationships will bring the pain and dissatisfaction to an end. Failed relationship after failed relationship, each one worse than the last. And the last one was physically abusive. When will the spiral end?

For those of us who are born again, the spiral ends when we stop looking to the pleasures of the world for satisfaction. Jesus Christ is our greatest satisfaction and until we recognize Him as that, Jesus will continue to be one priority among many in our lives, but never what He should be – our ultimate, all satisfying, all powerful, all consuming King, Savior, and Friend.

For the person who has never been born again the spiral ends when you recognize that you have offended a Holy God, and need to be reconciled to Him. And He provided a way for you to be reconciled to Him that gives you all the benefits of Heaven at His expense. Jesus Christ died, and suffered the wrath that you deserved to endure for all eternity, on the cross. Believe in Him, receive the gift of forgiveness God offers you through Jesus, and be born again. Your spiral will never cease until you do this one thing.

One more thing. The fact is that many of us have made so many bad decisions upon bad decisions that our lives have actually spiraled out of control. When you make the decision to turn about and repent, the inertia of your life will continue to push against you. Consequences may never be lifted. But God gives grace to the humble. Repentance is an act of humility. God will extend grace to you in those moments. They will keep you afloat in the whirlpool. Ultimately, God will finish the good work He begins in you when you are born again. The sum of your life is not defined by your mistakes. It is defined by God’s grace and how He still wins in spite of our best efforts to cause Him to fail. In the end, He is left standing, and what we were in the beginning is lost to eternity because He has made us like Jesus.

My heart many times wants to explode out of my chest because I so badly want people to understand the Truth. I hope that this small burst of passion bodes well with you.