Justified

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt you needed to justify your actions to someone else?  When I was a stay-at-home mom, my husband would come home from work and ask about my day.  He was being kind and interested, but I heard “What have you been doing with your time?”   I would come up with a list of things I had “accomplished”—or would recite a list of all the things that had prevented me from accomplishing what I believed was expected.  Either way I felt compelled to give evidence that I had done enough, or at least tried to.

Am I good enough?

This was a tolerable enough existence until I got serious about the Bible.  God soon became the most important person to please, but He was mysterious and powerful and perfect.  It was the sins of omission that haunted me – the good things out there that I wasn’t doing.  I was imagining God the same way I heard my husband.  Instead of enjoying being loved, I felt the need to earn my way into His grace and to justify myself.    

So what happened?  God put teachers and friends and my wonderful husband in my life to demonstrate love that wasn't tied to my performance.  I have been extraordinarily blessed in this way - perhaps because I had such a long way to come.  John 8:32 quotes Jesus telling those who believed him, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  The Bible brought out my fears of God's judgement, but it was leading me beyond them into freedom through the truth.

pursuing the Truth...

Listen to these amazing words from Romans 4: 4-5 (with my emphasis added):  “Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.  However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

In other words, faith that God, Himself, justifies me is the beginning.  Why does God justify me?  Because He loves me and that is His very nature!  It’s that simple.  I recently heard a wonderful saying: "Why does the sun shine on the lake?  Because the lake is there."  It took a moment for the import of that to sink in, but I can't think of a better explanation of why God loves us.

Because God is love the promised day came when Jesus “…was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25)   Now each of us gets to choose whether or not we will have faith in the way God has provided to be justified before Him. 

Once this truth became clear to me (and it was hardly overnight), I realized that my attitude toward other people was based on believing that they somehow held my worth in their hands.  I thought that their opinion, or judgement, could determine the legitimacy of my life.  What a lie that is!   I was uniquely designed and created by God (as each and every one of us are).  I was redeemed from being lost to Him by my decision to accept what Jesus did for me.  I am forever justified before Him. Now I am free to have relationships with people who I'm sure have many different of opinions of me.  They can base their judgments on their own beliefs, or on my performance, but they cannot touch my true worth which has been established by God.  That is free indeed!

Trust in the Lord

What does your heart desire today?

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.  Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

Reading all of Psalm 37 I see the call to trust Him written over and over.   “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him…”(vs. 5); “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;…” (vs. 7); “…do not fret...” (vs 8); "Wait for the Lord" (vs. 34)

God knows that to turn away from His love and grace will not end well for us because we were not created to be on our own.  We are created for relationship with Him.  He will not force us to live trusting in His love, but when we do not trust Him, our actions and attitudes get out of synch with His good and perfect will. 

"Look at the birds of the air..."  Matthew 6:26

  “The meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.” (vs. 11).   "For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones." (vs. 28)  "though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand." (vs. 24)  This is the loving design that pervades His creation.  The person who trusts God’s love and goodness is positioned to enjoy receiving the desires of his heart in God's good and perfect timing.

In the world we associate surrender with the loser.  But it is one of those upside down realities of living in God's kingdom that the more we surrender to God's love, the more we experience His victory rather than loss.  And the more victory I experience the easier it is to take refuge in Him rather than to taking things into my own hands.  And it's easier to delight myself in the Lord at times when my desires are unfulfilled right now.  

My husband loves to use our dog as an example of the benefits of trust.  The more we care for Josey the more she trusts us and obeys her limits.  Then the more she obeys, the more we trust her and the more freedom she is allowed.  

Josey off her leash at the beach

Psalm 103:4 says that God is the One "who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." 

Whiter than snow

Pure and Lovely!

I love snow so much!  I guess I can afford to since I live where snow is more a novelty than something you get tired of.  But I have had that phrase, “whiter than snow” on my mind for several weeks now.  It comes from Psalm 51 and in context it says:  “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.” (Psalm 51:7-8)  It’s about guilt and I thought we might explore this together.

We all do things wrong along the way.  We make mistakes, we let others down, we might even commit a serious wrong.  We are created with a conscience that lets us know even if no one else does. So what do we do when we are guilty?

My life used to be ruled by two ways of coping.  I tried to change myself to prove that I am different than when I behaved in a wrong way.  And I tried to do lots of good things to outweigh the bad and keep my bad side from being found out.  I was trying to either get rid of some part of myself, or at least trying to cover it up.  These strategies helped me feel better for awhile, but neither allowed me to live with a sense of freedom and peace.  I couldn't let the "good" self slip -- and I was actually rejecting any part of myself that didn't measure up.

On the other hand, it offends our sense of justice when wrongdoing is gotten away with.  Even little children know the one who has been hurt is due something (especially if it is them!) and someone needs to pay.  But, sometimes it's hard to know how much is enough.  When is it fair to stop paying on the debt?  And sometimes there just isn’t any way to make up for it - ever.  I’m wondering if our human minds think there really is any way to be “whiter than snow”?   Is it fair?  Too easy?  What kind of a God says He can and will do this for us?

The God of the Bible values both the hurt one and the offender.  He sees something that is worth keeping in all of us.  Though we have become sinners by nature we are precious and valuable to Him.  We are worth the effort of being salvaged.  But it is not just a matter of forgiving us and wiping the slate clean, over and over and over again.  It is a matter of fixing the problem and redeeming us to His original plan.

Think of that beautiful, pure scene of new fallen snow.  How long does it remain perfect like that?  Life resumes its normal pace and tire tracks go through the snow.  Before long there are black, sooty piles along the curb.

Through Jesus, we are not just washed clean, but brought to birth again – the spiritual birth.  With the filling of the Holy Spirit, we are able to be taught spiritual things and we change as we accept them.  We are new creations with new abilities to hear God and know Him.  We live receiving His unconditional love, no longer afraid of making mistakes.  It was a great day when I found I could stop running from the possibility of being wrong or from the parts of me that needed to be forgiven.

The path of life is rarely straight...

God's forgiveness comes with hope for change in the future.  He has invested the life of His Son, Jesus, in us and given us freedom from condemnation.  We can come to Him and be washed clean because Jesus paid our debts and we can have hope because the Holy Spirit truly brings change to our souls.



I'm so glad that God isn't looking for perfection!  He looks for faith that believes that He is love, and trusts Him.  That's all it takes.   

God seeks us first

I hope it is becoming clear that the most important thing I want to communicate in my blog is how much God has put his love for you and me into action through Jesus Christ!  God has never waited for us to be worthy or deserving of love, forgiveness, or blessing, and He never will.

God is so far beyond...

We naturally think of religion as a way to reach God - a God who is far above us, great and powerful, holy and awesome.  It only makes sense that we must clean up and do something special to get this God's attention or his favor.  The Bible makes it very clear that the cleaning up came through the blood of Jesus on the cross.  God was the offended one, but He still made the way for reconciliation and peace.


But until we are sure of that truth for ourselves, it can be that our vision is still obscured because we read the Bible with the emphasis on ourselves.  Of course we are very important!  My whole last post was about our part in the great story God is bringing about!  But what I mean is that we can ultimately miss the whole point if we make it about what we do instead of what God has done.


This is a hard shift to make.  It has taken years of retraining for my heart to move from a self-centered to a God-centered view of our relationship.  There have been many things bringing that change about, but I must give credit to years of sitting under the consistent teaching of our wonderful Pastor* for that.  It reminds me of part of verse 2 of Romans 12 which says "...but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...".   

His works are powerful...

I can tell you that the renewal of my mind has involved a great deal of healing before I could move away from self-centered faith, but God knew what I needed.  I'm thinking of Adam and Eve again.  What did they do?  They rigged up some fig leaves to cover their shameful nakedness (which had never been a problem before).  They also hid.  And they lied.  Why?  Because they felt the need for self-protection for the first time.  They were focused on themselves because they were afraid and guilty.

We can't help but be born with the same insecurity, or quickly develop it.  For me, the world was rather rude compared to the womb I was forced out of.  And though my parents cared for me as a baby, they could not reproduce such a perfect environment.  I developed ways of dealing with life's fears and my own shame at not being perfect.  We all do this in various ways.  We learn how to survive, whether physically, emotionally or socially in whatever circumstances we find our vulnerable souls.  The challenges are different for each one.  Some seem to be minimal, some horrendous.

...and delicate

...hilarious

Even though I came to understand that I live under grace because Jesus took my guilt and shame, I still pursued illusive peace, joy and hope through efforts to live like the Bible said I should.  The Holy Spirit was in me to live this new life, but I couldn't "just receive" God's gifts.    I couldn't stop trying to make the promises happen even though the trying was getting in the way!

...and  grand!

This is where emotional healing comes in.  There have been layers and layers to go through before I could truly let go of my self-protective control and receive unconditionally from a God I could love and trust.  We all hear that God loves us unconditionally, but it is also necessary for me to receive unconditionally!


I don't say that I have it all down pat, but some threshold has been crossed that makes life very, very different now.  I know in my heart that I have found what I was always seeking, and I know that I was seeking because God was calling me.  He's calling us all.  I hope that as I continue to share what He puts on my heart, that you will hear Him more clearly, too.

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."  Luke 19:10

*Pastor Alan Wright, at Reynolda Church, EPC, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (if you ever want to give yourself a treat, click here:   Reynolda Church    and download his sermons for free!)

What now?

When you take away all the religious trappings we associate with the Gospel story woven through the Bible, it sounds like one of those myths I studied in school..., or a fairy tale.  Here is how is sounds to me:  

 was the garden like this?

 

Once upon a time there was a God who was good but he had an evil enemy.  When God made planet earth and created a man and woman to be in charge of it, His arch enemy went into the garden where they lived to lie to them and entice them to distrust the boundary God had given them regarding the knowledge of good and evil.  He succeeds and the man and woman forfeit their dominion and authority over the earth to him.  

evil brings darkness into the world

But God has a plan to redeem the relationship and destiny of mankind through his Son Jesus.  Jesus comes to earth to live as a perfect man and dies for the people who are blinded by the lies of the enemy, and have participated with him in his plans to lie, steal, kill, and destroy everything God made and loves.  The Son succeeds and the relationship is restored to whoever will believe God and love the Son.

The way is opened for the Holy Spirit (of God and His Son) to join with the human spirit so that spiritual gifts can operate through the people by faith. The people who want to be redeemed by God are filled by the Holy Spirit and given back their authority to overcome the enemy's lies.  Jesus gives them the task of walking with Him by faith, using their gifts to tell others the story and restore the earth.

I love that story!  To me, it adds glory and excitement to life here on our planet!  And I think people are very hungry in their souls for a place in a story like this.  You can see it in those myths of the past, and in video games and movies made today.  I'm not a fan of science fiction and fantasy genre's, but I've been exposed enough to know that people love to be part of something of epic proportions!  God made us that way and it was our original role.

a beautiful place to listen to God (Outer Banks, NC)

So what do we do with that?  Well, for me, the answer is to seek to know God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit as much as possible.  It is to listen, listen, listen to hear what God has to say to me about Himself, about being forgiven and loved by Him, and about the things He has chosen and equipped me to do.  

The more I know Him, the more I come to know myself, and actually enjoy being me.  If you knew the self-hatred and rejection I used to live with, you would be as amazed as I am that I could be changed so much.  I'm sure that you have a story, too, and it's not over yet!  Big things are happening in the world and we each have a place in God's redeeming plan.  If you are unclear about that, just ask God and He will answer you.  He promises.*

"For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:8