Birth Defect

Does goodness equal love? A good child is loved. A bad child is hated. It is understandable how a child could grow up believing those things. I think I grew up believing that the longer I was a Christian, then the less I would struggle with sin. But we all know that perfection is unachievable. So where is the line? How good is good enough? How many offenses would it take to lose the ones I love?

These questions and fears drive us to strive for perfection and, ultimately, may lead us to deceive ourselves and others about the very existence of any sin in our lives. If we deny the existence of these failures, then maybe we still deserve to be loved?

What an insecure existence!

Jesus wants to set us free from this cycle of good works, failure, deception and insecurity.

The truth that we are born sinful is considered a very negative teaching by those outside the church. But this truth is the very beginning of our freedom - knowing that Jesus loved me anyway! It doesn't even matter how many bad things I've done. I need a Savior because of who I am, not what I've done. So, if we are born sinners, then there is no amount of good deeds we can do to fix that "birth defect."

Jesus took on flesh and walked among us. He is well aware of our frailty. But He does not despise us for that weakness, just as a parent does not despise their children for their dependence. In fact, Jesus said we cannot enter Heaven unless we come as a little child.

I have heard it taught that those childlike qualities that Jesus is referring to are blind faith and trust. But I think it is referring more to the weakness and innate dependency of a child.

Children don't work! They trust that their needs will be met even though they do nothing to earn it. Imagine a child who will not accept any help or gifts and insists on earning everything. Not only is that frustrating and insulting to the parents, but, chances are, the child will make a huge mess every time they attempt to do "good works."

I can imagine how frustrating it would be to me if my young child insisted on helping me fix dinner. What if I was fixing a complex meal and I just wanted the child to sit and watch? I like having someone else in the kitchen to talk to as I work. But if that child insisted on helping by climbing on the counter to reach a dish and by cracking the eggs and measuring the flour, I would no longer want that child in the kitchen. How absurd would it be if I told the child to just sit and wait patiently to be fed but the child felt like they didn't deserve to eat if they hadn't worked for the meal?

That must be how frustrating it is for God when we are unable to trust Him.

Why is it so easy for us to imagine the ideal parent? Even if we have never seen an example of an ideal parent, we know what that relationship should look like. It's because God, as our Heavenly Father, has put that knowledge into our hearts. Every child is hurt when their earthly parents do not live up to that ideal. but the reality is that it is unfair to hold our parents up to God's standard. Those hurts and disappointments we feel are supposed to draw us to God.

The ideal parent:

• feeds and clothes a child whether they ask for it or not
• comforts a child when they are hurting
• lovingly disciplines a child in order to instill positive character qualities
• allows some difficult situations to occur if those events will ultimately benefit the child
• allows a willful child to do some things on their own, even if the child is not really ready, in order to reinforce the child's dependence is some areas
• is most proud when the parent sees their own qualities emerging in the child

Enter My Rest

God has been using my circumstances lately to reveal my own sin to me. I spent so many years trying to avoid specific sins, and thinking I was doing a pretty good job. Then my eyes were opened. Everything in the Scriptures seems different to me now.

Just as I was going through this inner awakening, I saw Joyce Meyer on TV. She talked about how she tried to build her ministry for 10 years without much success. But God was using that time in her life to show her how to trust in Him and to prove to her that anything good coming from her ministry would only be because of God's provision. She said that if her ministry had succeeded right away, then she would have easily taken all the credit. She described those years as her "wilderness" years. Just as God had to take the children of Israel through the wilderness for 40 years, many believers go through times that are frustrating and apparently unfruitful. But those times are necessary for two reasons: to reveal our sin to us and to teach us dependence on Him. This is what I have just come out of and I am now able to look back and understand what He was teaching me.

Hebrews chapters 3 & 4 both talk about the Israelites in the wilderness. These chapters confirmed to me that this analogy of walking through the wilderness can accurately be applied to my own walk with God. The author of Hebrews is warning his fellow believers against having a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from God like the children of Israel did (as described in Psalm 95). Believers need to encourage each other daily so that we don't become hardened by sin's deceitfulness (i.e. the deceitful thought that we can go even one day without God, in our own strength and "goodness").

God said that they would not enter His "rest" because of their disobedience and unbelief. What is His "rest"? Was it the Promised Land? Hebrews says, "... if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God."

Is this "rest" referring to Heaven? Was God saying that all of those people in the wilderness would not be able to get into Heaven? In that case, it would seem that this passage should be directed at unbelievers, but it's not. Then chapter 4 verse 11 says, "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest." This could easily be misinterpreted to mean - work hard to be worthy of heaven. But it is exactly the opposite of that! Verse 10 says, "for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His." The rest that God offers us if from our own works.

I don't know if I can communicate how big this concept is for me.

The sin that kept the Israelites from entering the Promised Land was trusting in their own strength and power to deliver them from the enemy. It seems amazing that the people had not yet learned to fully trust in God. How much more could God have done to prove His power and strength? Let's review the miracles that the Israelites had seen up to that point:

• 10 supernatural plagues directed at the Egyptians demonstrating God's power over all of their gods, during which the Israelites were spared, including even death during the Passover
• Being led out of Egypt with a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night
• The parting of the Red Sea and the drowning of the Egyptian army
• The miraculous provision of mana and quail every day
• Getting water from a rock
• Victory in battle (as long as Moses had his hands raised to heaven, demonstrating that the victory was not done with the strength of soldiers)

All of those events occurred within the first two months of the exodus

• Events at Mount Sinai: smoke billowing from the mountain as it trembled violently and the sound of a trumpet grew louder and louder until Moses spoke to God and God answered back giving them the Ten Commandments
• They saw the presence of God, in the form of a pillar of cloud, repeatedly descend to meet with Moses in the Tent of Meeting
• God personally gave Moses the Law and the instructions for building the Tabernacle
• Once the Tabernacle was completed, the glory of the Lord visibly filled it.
• When the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the people followed it. Wherever the cloud settled, the people stopped, and whenever it lifted they would prepare to follow

It took two years for the children of Israel to reach the Promised Land, and yet, even after all of these signs, they still feared to enter the land because they knew they could not defeat the native people in their own strength.

How much does God have to do in order for me to trust Him? Jesus told us not to worry about what we would eat or drink or what we would wear because God knows we need these things. He feeds the birds of the air and clothes the grass of the field. How much more does He care for me? 

Rest. "Be still and know that I am God." 

None Good

(Psalm 14 & 53; Micah 7:2; Romans 3:12)

This is one of the hardest truths to accept, that there is nothing good in me apart from God. Only God is good.

The rich young ruler addressed Jesus as "good teacher" and Jesus said, "Why do you call me good? There is none good but one, that is God."

I think Jesus was asking this because:

1. He knew that the man did not really believe that Jesus was God
2. He already knew how "good" this man thought he was

How many times do we refer to others as good people? "He was a good man" or "I can't believe my neighbor did something like that! He's really a good man!"

But the truth is that our actions can never make us good. We are born sinful and there is nothing we can do to change that. We are reminded of this over and over in Scripture and yet how easily we forget.

Loving the Law

I just had a thought as I was reading several verses about the Light and walking in the Light. I am reading these verses differently now as I consider "walking in the light" to mean "confessing sin regularly." Then I came across Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Of course I've heard sermons on that verse my whole life. But the next verse says, "I have sworn and I will confirm it, that I will keep Your righteous ordinances."

I've never really understood how David could love the law of God so much. That theme is presented over and over in the Psalms. But then I saw it. "Your word is...a light to m y path." The law was given to show/reveal to us our sin, and the OT law gives instructions on sacrifices made to cleanse them of sin. But in order to make those sacrifices, they had to go publicly to the temple and present specific items - virtually forcing people to make public confessions.

David was a "man after God's own heart" and I've been taught that that refers to how quickly he confessed when confronted with sin. Confession truly does bring a kind of joy to life that cannot be experienced any other way. No wonder David loved the law. he searched it and memorized it so that he would know for sure when he sinned and could confess it. How many times does it say that he praised God in the midst of the assembly? He was very public about the joy he had found through forgiveness. It makes me think, in a way, that David was "addicted" to confession. And why wouldn't he be? Walking in the Light is the only way to have "abundant life." If life = a closer relationship with Jesus, and sin separates us from God, then confession will continually bring us closer to Him and to the abundant life we crave.