God's Promises

Maybe you're a little bit like me in that you find some of God's promises to be particularly exciting.  Or gratifying.  Or comforting.  Or hope instilling.  When we get to know the living God, there are several things that change.  Among them are our perspectives. Let me explain.

In a true relationship with the living God, my perspective changes regarding who I am.  I begin to see the limitations of my power and ability, and the ugly truths about my sinful nature.  You might say that I start to get a reality check.

In a true relationship with the living God, my perspective about who God is also changes.  I begin to know His nature and His character.  Having intellectual knowledge about such things as the fact that God never, ever changes ... helps me to understand how God thinks about my perspectives, my circumstances and even my relationship with Him.  Again though, it is a reality check.

In a true relationship with the living God, my perspective about life in general changes radically.  Having no fear and not being intimidated by the challenges and strife of the modern world, I learn to be at peace regardless of what my circumstances would suggest.  I have more confidence in the promises of God. 

I'm reading through the Bible right now, start to finish.  Slogging through the Old Testament can be a bit challenging.  I mean it's hard to stay engaged when it parts of it can seem so abstract to my current reality.  But I see the nature of God.  And it encourages me greatly.

This morning I was reading in Ezekiel.  God had disciplined Israel for its flagrant and continuing sin and rebellion.  But given that Israel's suffering had achieved its purpose (to move Israel to repentance), God had something to say about how life would be now.  Look at what He has to say to the Israelites about what their lives will be like.

"I will show how holy My great name is.  And when I reveal My holiness through you ... then the nations will know that I am the Lord.  Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.  Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.  And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you.  I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.  And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regualtions.  And you will be my people, and I will be your God.  I will cleanse you of your filthy behavior ... the ruins will be rebuilt ... and everyone will know that I am the Lord."  - Ezekiel 36:22-38

So did you catch all that?  Look at God's words.  He acknowledges my sinful nature, my disgusting thoughts, my hardened heart, and my filthy behavior.  But He boldly announces my cleansing.  He casts a vision for me that is filled with hope ... and even wonder.  The ruins of my life will be rebuilt in a manner that will let everyone know that He is the Lord and that He is my Lord.

I have to tell you, I don't think it could be any more exciting than that.  I actually find myself feeling sorry for people who "grew up in church" or who never had an amazing conversion experience.  Jesus said that people who have been forgiven much tend to be the most grateful people.  I definitely fit into that category.

I've been forgiven so much.  I've been forgiven more than most people.  And I know it.  It compels me to live for Him each day.  It compels me to break into song nearly every day, praising the name of God. 

There are people who meander through this life without God.  They call themselves atheists or agnostics.  Honestly, I don't know how they do it.  If I didn't have God and His wonderful promises, along with His transforming power, embracing love and magnificent strength ... well I shudder to think what my life might be like.

When we know how saved we are - when we know how forgiven we are - we can embrace who He's made us to be.  We will be His people and He will be our God.  And because of that, the whole world will know that He is the Lord.

Oh, praise Him!  Oh, praise Him!

Catholic Heresy

To my dear Catholic friends and loved ones --- please forgive me, but today's blog is about the insane level of deception in your faith. I mean the Catholics are more deluded than the Jews.

These are hard words for me to write, because I have some very dear friends who are both Catholic and Jewish. I pray for both groups of loved ones. I pray that they will stop being deceived by their own religions and religious traditions. I pray that they will see the truth.

It is easy for us to write off the false world religions like Islam, Hindu and others. But the Jewish faith and the Catholic faith seem so very close to Christianity. They seem so very close to the truth. We tend to think highly of them and regard them well. We shouldn't.

Today's Jews are denying that Jesus is who He said He is. That puts them on par with the Muslims --- they both seem to believe about the same thing about Christ. Quite frankly, that's an easier proposition for Christians to deal with.

But the Catholics take Jesus Christ and pervert Him in so many ways! I have blogged before about Catholic heresy. (I think the last time was when they cancelled or closed "limbo" for babies who haven't sinned but can't get into heaven because they haven't been baptized.) Today, we are faced with a comeback of the Catholic notion of "indulgences" regarding "absolution."

In Catholic terms, "indulgence" is the full or partial remission of the temporal punishment for sin which has already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the (Catholic) church after the sinner has confessed and received "absolution." This "absolution" is just forgiveness imparted to the sinner in the name of the Trinity (Father, Son & Holy Spirit) on behalf of the (Catholic) church. Absolution is usually not granted until after "penance" has been assigned by the priest receiving the confession of the sin. Penance is simply a penalty to be paid. It can range from repeating "Hail Mary" prayers to self punishment in physical forms to making restitution of parties injured by the confessed sin.

Did you catch all of that? Did you see all of the heresy in this? It is most noteworthy that not a single bit of this Catholic crap is Biblical. Let's break this apart a bit and examine why.

First of all, there is no such thing as "temporal punishment for sin which has already been forgiven." When our sin is forgiven by God, that is it. There is no punishment. Natural consequences will still belong to us each. God rarely intervenes to take those away from us. But there is no punishment. Jesus took the punishment for our sin, on our behalf, on the cross. When He did it, His closing remarks were, "It is finished." And it was! So no priest (or anyone else for that matter) has the power to take the punishment for our sins away from us. Even if they did, the only way they could would be to take the punishment on our behalf --- like Jesus did!

Second, forgiveness of sin (absolution) cannot be extended to a sinner in the name of the Trinity on behalf of the church. God never authorized any church to forgive sin. He instructed men (and women) to forgive each other. He said if we don't forgive each other then we will not ourselves be forgiven. But nowhere in any Bible does God delegate authority to forgive sin to the church or any other worldly body of mankind. The Catholic church is guilty of thinking more highly of itself than it ought to (a sin that the Bible warns against).

Third, penance is not Biblical, except in the context of making amends to those we may have wronged with our sin. God doesn't want our worship (of Him) if we have fractured relationships with each other. He specifically says that if we are coming to Him to worship and find that someone else has something against us, we should set aside our worship and go be reconciled with our brother (or sister) before returning to worship God. That is the entire definition of penance in God's book. It really does go no further than that.

The simple truth is that we are to confess our sins to God. When we do, He forgives them. End of story. We are also to confess our sins to "each other" (meaning a "saint" who is at least as spiritually mature as we are). When we do, He heals us from those sin patterns that control us. Forgiveness and healing. They are the only two consequences that God has in store for confessed sin.

The news reports are that the Catholic church is bringing back indulgences as a way to incent its members to confess their sin. Incentive or not - it is still heresy. Let us not be deceived by heresy, be it Catholic or otherwise.

And let us pray earnestly for our Catholic brothers and sisters who want to believe on Jesus Christ. They are unfortunately trapped in an ungodly religion that takes the Jesus who is and perverts Him to such an extent that He is unrecognizable --- and untrue.

I Blame You!

It was a familiar phone call. Someone phoned me to ask about a family matter. It started with, "You won't believe what she did!" He went on to explain what someone in his family had done that he found so offensive. He said, "I am so angry I don't think I can ever speak to her again." Clearly, he was hurt by the actions of the family member.

After listening to the details though, I had to prepare him for the fact that he would not like what I had to say about it. My explanation? Despite the fact that he was hurt and offended, the other party had actually not done anything wrong. Their actions seemed innocent and sincere. My guess was that she would not have even imagined that he would be offended or hurt by what she'd done. At most, she might be guilty of not thinking about it. If we wanted to be mean, we could say she was thoughtless. But then, I believe most human beings have that problem. Thoughtlessness seems to be part of human DNA.

So there it is, the sad truth - that just because someone offends or hurts us doesn't necessarily mean they are wrong. How many of us are conscious of that? All too often we think if we are hurt or offended or upset ... then the other party must surely be in the wrong.

But wrong would be sin. And the simple truth is that someone doesn't have to sin to offend us. You may have hobbies, beliefs, habits or other aspects of your being that I find offensive. But that doesn't make them wrong. It doesn't make you wrong.

I'm sure the world would tell us that what I'm explaining here is tolerance. I don't think so. I think the world's definition of tolerance including tolerating what's clearly wrong (sinful). That's not what I mean. There is something else that we must do with things we find offensive, but for which we can find no real sin in.

My advice to my dear friend? I told him I saw three things he could do.

First, forgive the other party. Oddly enough, someone else doesn't have to be wrong to require forgiveness. Instead, forgiveness comes from me to you. It's a change in how I view the situation. I surrender my right to be right. In fact, my forgiving you is really more about me than it is about you!

Second, we can explain to the other party how we are reacting to them or to what they do, like, enjoy or believe. And we can ask them to assist us with that problem. We make that all about us though - being careful not to even imply that they are wrong. For example, "John, I know you love snakes and enjoy them. But they really creep me out and I get very upset when I'm around them. Could you please enjoy them without me?"

Third, we can separate from the other party or their actions. In other words, we don't have to participate in things we find offensive or that hurt us. If John continues to catch snakes every time we go to the park, I can quit going to the park with John! There is nothing wrong with declining to participate in things that offend or hurt us. In other words, the same grace we extend to the other party by agreeing that they don't have to be wrong when we're offended ---- gets extended to us. Just because I don't like snakes doesn't make me wrong. And if I choose not to go to the park with John any more --- that doesn't make me wrong either.

So maybe there's another definition of tolerance here. It's called grace that Christ-followers automatically extend to each other.

Forgiven Much

In the seventh chapter of Luke, Jesus is confronted with the dilemma of a very sinful woman making a fuss over him ... with the disapproval of those around him. Jesus explained, in so many words, that those who are forgiven much are grateful much and love much. By contrast, he explained that those who have been forgiven little, love little (Luke 7:47).

Overflowing love and gratitude seem to be the natural response to forgiveness. They are also the appropriate fruits born of true faith. But only those who realize the depth of their sin can appreciate the complete forgiveness that God offers them through Christ Jesus.

You see, Jesus came to rescue all of his followers, whether they were extremely wicked, or just conventionally good before they met him. And herein lies the dilemma. Most of us in modern American culture will, if we are honest, admit that we tend to think of ourselves as conventionally good.

When I first became a Christian, the truth of the matter is that I thought of myself as a generally good person. But I believed the preacher when he told me that if I didn't have Jesus I would go to hell. Being no fool, I chose Jesus! But the truth is, I really didn't believe in my heart that I needed a savior. Even the sins that I was aware of I could justify because I was a victim of this or that circumstances.

It was many years later, after some very intense spiritual growth, that I began to realize and own my own brokenness. I was in despair when I realized the depth and breadth of my sinfulness. And then I was reminded that I do have that Savior that I so desperately need.

So I've talked before on this blog about Christians who behave badly. I've lumped many of them into the category of people who call themselves Christians but don't act that way. But I see that perhaps the real problem is that they just don't know how sinful they really are. They aren't aware of how much forgiveness they've already received. So they only love a little.

How big is your forgiveness? Why do I ask? Because that's going to be directly proportionate to your capacity to love.

Learning Forgiveness

The Bible says that when we confess our sins to God, we can trust in the fact that He is faithful to forgive. It further says that He then separates us from our sin "as far as the east is from the west." Have you ever wondered what that means? Have you ever wondered what the implications of that are?

Forgiveness is a complex matter. To really understand it, I think we need to look to God's example. We readily recite the Lord's Prayer, which says something like, "forgive us as we forgive each other." Do we --- forgive each other? The Bible is pretty clear about the fact that we should. In fact, we must. The Bible says that if we don't forgive --- we aren't forgiven! Holy cow!

So how does God want us to forgive? I think it's like He forgives. You see, God never ever remembers the sins we commit against Him after they've been confessed. If I confess a sin, but later commit it again, God doesn't say, "Well there you go again!" How does He actually do this - forget the sin we commit and confess? It seems to be something which we as humans aren't capable of. In fact it is.

So if this forgiveness that God requires of us is impossible for us to give, what should we do? I think we look to God's example and strive to model ourselves after it. And what I'm learning is that we can get better at it. As we grow to be more like Christ, we will acquire God's ability to forget the confessed sins of the past.

So when you do something that offends me and later repent and confess it, I must forgive you. It doesn't matter what you've done. If you're truly sorry and confess it, I am obligated to extend the same kind of forgiveness to you that God extends to me. You know, it's the kind that separates me from the sin "as far as the east is from the west." It's the kind of forgiveness that never allows me to recall it and use it against you.

I've found that this kind of forgiveness takes a lot of practice. I may think I've extended that perfect forgiveness to you --- only to later find myself harboring some bitterness and resentment about the offense you were supposedly forgiven for. Folks, that means the forgiveness has failed. Unforgiveness has crept back into our relationship - and in my mind, I've re-associated you with the sin you already confessed.

I expect to be working on building my forgiveness skills for the rest of my life. How about you?