redemption

Beauty from ashes

/ Renee / Leave a comment

The love of God is a mystery. Why He would come to earth, willingly yield His authority, the beauty and perfection of Heaven to empty Himself, and save me, is a mystery. The Bible says that Christ, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2: 6-7). The Bible also says that He did this when we were in opposition to Him. Paul writes in Romans, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Imagine, laying your life down in the most horrific manner, while your mother, your siblings, your best friends looked on, all for those who, at the foot of the cross, mocked you, despised you, and rejected you.

On the cross, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness, gave His life all the same, redeemed the criminal next to Him by his profession of faith -the single greatest example that works contribute nothing to salvation – the love of God is a mystery. It is incomprehensible. The love of God is too great to leave us as we are. Once we accept Christ, we embark on a journey of being made into Christ’s image of willing and obedient submission to the Father; trusting in the goodness and perfection of His will, the journey we embark on is a daily death to the flesh that at all times is still in opposition to a Holy God.

John MacArthur explained the war with the flesh and the spirit in this way: there is no war if there is no spirit, the dead, un-regenerated flesh can do what it wants, it’s the point the Holy Spirit makes us alive by His indwelling in our heart that the battle begins. But, for this time, we still wear the rotting, corrupt, coat of flesh. The believer will shed that coat when we are reunited with Christ at the point of death, and glorified in Jesus Christ, but for now, the flesh still desires sin, it still desires things of this world, which is why we are commanded to take up our cross, deny our flesh, and follow Him. The mark of salvation is the war waged by the spirit to sanctify the believer, removing all lies the enemy would have us believe, and exchanging the desires of our flesh for righteousness in willing submission, as demonstrated by Christ’s death on the cross. The apostle Paul writes, in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” taking every thought captive, and making it obedient, is only activated by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

That process is called sanctification. I wanted to lay all that mysterious groundwork out there to give a tangible example through the eyes of our eight year old. She has professed salvation, she recently made a public declaration of the profession of her faith through baptism, and she’s going through a tough trial. Her best friend is moving across the country at the end of this school year.

She’s so little and my mama heart wants to just pluck this pain from her, relieve her of the nights she’s gone to bed crying, and though I’ve laid beside her stroking her hair and reassuring her that it’s all going to be okay, I know that this is part of the call as her parent to train her up. My husband and I have been struggling to know how to comfort her. We’ve offered family games, treats, special trips, anything to see her little face brighten. Recently, he said to me, “this is something that she’s just going to have to work through with the Lord. I don’t think there’s anything we can really do to help.” My heart just cringes at the thought there is something my baby is going through that I can’t help, but he’s right. This is a work of the spirit to sanctify her, and grow her in the likeness of Christ.

Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:7, “so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The genuineness of her faith is being tested. What she believes about who God is and what His word says is being refined and it is our job to train her up in this faith.

Connecting the dots for her heart is where the training is, discerning any lies the enemy might plant there, and planting seeds of truth to combat his attacks is part of what our mission is. The other part is fervent prayer covering her, and petitioning the Lord that she would rightly use truth to combat the lies of the enemy. Through this trial, she will either come out of it more like Christ, submitted to the plan and purpose of God, trusting that He is good and faithful, or she will come away with a view of God as a taker, as someone who doesn’t see her pain, and didn’t fix her problem. Redirecting her focus to the enemy, to the one who is the taker, the destroyer, is part of our work as parents. Satan would deflect blame at all cost to God. It’s our mission to make sure her view of God is rightly placed amidst her suffering.

Jesus said in John 10:10, “the thief {satan} comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” The life Jesus refers to is eternal. He came to give us eternal life. It’s why He submitted to the will of the Father despite egregious suffering, the extent of which most of us today will never know. Redirecting our focus to the enemy in times of trial, understanding that God is good, that His plan of redemption began before the foundations of the earth were laid, and rightly positioning our hearts in obedience to His will even when we’re not sure of the outcome is the refining fire by which our faith is tested and made more like Christ. God loves us too much to leave us as we are, so from the point of salvation He begins refining. He will accomplish that work despite our obedience, our shortcomings, our failures, and He is able to accomplish His purpose through the sinful, faithlessness of man.

The most beautiful picture of this was demonstrated by the healings of Christ’s ministry. When he saw the sick, demons possessed, the hurting, and the lame, He was moved by compassion and healed them, but they had to move forward from that point, and walk in the faith of the One who healed them. There’s an example in the Bible, where Jesus, who was moved by compassion, healed ten lepers. In Luke 17: 11-19, Luke records, “Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” All ten knew who Jesus was. All ten were healed. Only one received salvation. One of the characteristics of God is compassion. His grace extends to the believer and the unbeliever, but what is in our heart is what determines if we are truly well. We don’t become magically perfect at the point of salvation. That glorification will come when we shed our earthly flesh coat and are in the presence of the Lord, but in the meanwhile, we walk with the faith that it is by our faith that we have been made well, eternally well, redeemed before a holy and righteous God by the blood of Jesus Christ.

This is why we do not “grieve as those who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Our hope is eternal despite our temporal circumstances. He makes beauty from ashes, regenerates that which is dead, and puts us on a path of being made into the image of Christ. Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t accepted Jesus’ death and resurrection, receive Him today.

God bless.

Necessary changes

/ Renee / 2 Comments

My life does not look the same today as it did ten years ago. This summer, in July, marks ten years of salvation for me. Ten years of reborn living, ten years of trials that ultimately have led me into the walk I am in today with the Lord. Ten years from now, I pray that my life is marked by ten more years of a daily pursuit of the Lord. The hinge point of salvation marked a point in my life where, from that point forward, the Lord was moving me into obedience. But, it didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen easily.

Ten years ago I was living a selfish, sin filled life. I was regularly using marijuana, and drinking almost every day. My view of God was that He probably existed, and even that He probably created the world -to an extent- but that He had no time or interest in the lives of the people now inhabiting earth. I believed that He’d left us to our own devices and that if He was even aware of our suffering that He didn’t care.

A drastic change was necessary for my view of who God is to change. It started with the near failure of my marriage. I was engaged in an affair, something that is not abnormal for someone who had been the victim of childhood sexual abuse, as I had been. I justified the behavior by blaming my husband for the problems in our marriage, and choosing to believe the lie that the intruder in our life understood me better and would be a better support for me to behave in ways that were ultimately destructive and dangerous. At the same time, I didn’t want my marriage to fail, was afraid of my husband discovering the affair, and lied copiously to him, family, and friends in an attempt to conceal the true details of the nature of it.

When I reflect on this period of my life, I am filled with sadness and shame. I wish I could stop the old me from engaging in behavior that was driven by my flesh, fueled by sin, and in such contrast to the will of God for my life. Change was necessary for me to be brought into the fold of God. That July, God performed a miracle in our marriage. By the grace of God, that came through a conversation with our pastor at the time, communication barriers and walls of self-preservation that I had built with the mortar of conditioned survival behaviors and layered on brick by brick since childhood, were penetrated by the love and grace of Jesus Christ. The day after the transformation of my heart occurred, I broke off the affair. It took ten years for me to fully confess to my husband and seek forgiveness. I also confessed to the pastors and deacons of our church, seeking their forgiveness, which they all graciously granted.

I had a knowledge of God’s word. I’d grown up in church learning scripture and all the Bible stories, I even professed salvation as an eight year old, one year into the sexual abuse that continued until I was fourteen, I was baptized and believed for all intents and purposes that I’d been saved. However, it wasn’t until this point in my life, when my marriage was on the brink of failure, I was engaged in such intertwined sin patterns that I had no hope to unentangle myself on my own, where God began healing the suffering and exposing the sin that was keeping me enslaved to a life of despair and hopelessness that I surrendered to His authority and governance of my life.

From this point forward, the Lord has been moving me further from the darkness and into the light. My life would not transform overnight, there would be more sin patterns, more destructive behavior, and more hardship that, as a result of the suffering, would shepherd me into a life marked by obedience and transparency. But, a lifetime of hiding didn’t morph into a life in full view overnight. Through a series of necessary changes, the Lord moved our life into a place of greater obedience day by day, as we pursued His word and will for our life.

It’s easy to view Christians as if through a lens of having a distance from sin and, therefore, the accessibility to salvation, by someone still entangled in the chains of sin, seems out of reach. However, I exist to tell you, as someone who Jesus burst into the middle of my entanglement, loosed the chains Himself, and pulled me free, there is no place where you are hidden from His sight, no place where He can’t reach you.

The appearance of a Sunday morning sanctuary where everyone is buttoned to the collar, polite, and seemingly unattainable is a far cry from some of the bathrooms floors where I found myself, dirty, broken, and hopeless. But, God was just as present with me there as He is in my row on Sunday morning. He is just as present as I load and reload the washing machine as He was beside me when I was pouring another drink.

The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 139,

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.

There is nowhere that is hidden from God. No aspect of our lives that He is disinterested or disengaged from. My life underwent a series of necessary changes for me to realign the warped view the enemy had instilled in my mind regarding God’s position in our places of suffering.

But, I exist as a testimony that the life of obedience is marked by light, peace, and rest in the atonement made by Christ on my behalf.

Today is the day of salvation. If you haven’t accepted Christ as your savior there is no impediment to receiving the gift of His death and resurrection made on your behalf. I was addicted to drugs and alcohol, engaged in an extramarital affair, angry at God for the abuse I had suffered, and conflicted daily by the enslavement to sin, and that is where Jesus met and saved me.

Don’t neglect such a glorious salvation. Receive His free gift of grace, by faith today.

God bless.