A Portrait

The more I learn of God's truth and love, the more compassion I have for others. We had a wonderful message Saturday night at church about losing our religion, so that we can have compassion for sinners. If it wasn't for God's grace, we would be in the same state as them, so we should never be offended by how they act. They need God, just as we need God.

I would like to expand on that. I have been thinking about this topic for quite some time.

There is another person that needs our compassion. Let me paint you a portrait of that person.

This is the Christian that is wrapped up in bondage, overpowered by strongholds, trapped by their flesh.

This is the Christian who feels unable to break free. You are full of guilt and condemnation for your actions. You ask God for forgiveness over and over and over and you promise God you won't repeat your sin, but you end up going back to it over and over and over. You may even make deals with God, promising to stop sinning, if only He would do (fill in the blank) for you. You don't feel you can come near to God, read His Word, go to church, it just makes you feel worse. You feel God is consistently mad at you and you feel you deserve His anger and wrath. Or you spend hours in prayer, crying out to God, reading your Bible, fasting even, to break free, to no avail. You are bound by strongholds. Strongholds are things that keep you from walking the victorious Christian life. You are saved, but you are bound by addictions, fears, sickness, disease, anxiety, and lusts.

This person is not to be confused with the rebellious Christian. You have one foot in the kingdom, one foot in the world. You enjoy the world, you love it. You want it both ways. You feel you deserve a bit of "fun" from time to time. You disregard God's Word, you ignore it's warnings. You don't even listen to the sermons in church. You don't feel guilt or condemnation, in fact, you may even justify your actions because you're covered by the blood, you are saved by grace, after all, not your works.

The rebellious person needs a kick in the pants. They need to be shown all the passages of the Bible that show God's wrath, His anger over sin, His justice. They need to read Numbers 32:23. They need to know that they will have to give an account of their actions. You are abusing God's grace.

How can you tell if you fall into this rebellious category? Do you feel sorrow over your sin? If so, you are not rebelling against God.

You need help. You need to be aware of God's grace and love. You need to be aware of God's power to help you overcome, to help you change from the inside out. You need deliverance.

Now, I don't know why this is, but some people experience immediate deliverance at the moment they're saved (or really, truly commit to Christ), but others don't. I hear stories of people that drank and then had zero desire for it after coming to the Lord. Unfortunately, I think that this type of person can tend toward less compassion on the ones that don't see immediate deliverance. We can tend to say to them, "well, maybe you haven't really repented."

The fact is, though, none of us can see into a person's heart. We cannot (rarely) tell if a person falls into the former or latter category that I have detailed here. We look on the outside, God looks at the heart. We see their actions, He sees their motives. The actions of the rebellious and the bound often look the same. In fact, the bound may even say things like, "Prayer doesn't work, I quit, God doesn't love me, God doesn't want to help me." They may appear to give up on God, to even turn away from God, but they are in ignorance and God will not hold that blame to them. See I Timothy 1:13 where Paul explains that he formerly blasphemed, but did it ignorantly, so he obtained mercy.

I am constantly reminded of the story of Lazarus. I posted about it recently, here. I was re-reading it just the other day and something new stuck out to me. Lazarus was resurrected, that is a picture of the new birth we experience. But he was still wrapped up in his mummy clothes, that is a picture of our strongholds, the things that are weighing us down, hindering us from walking the victorious Christian life. Jesus says to loose him and set him free, this is where we all need to be, walking in victory, free from addictions, worry, fear, sickness, disease, full of joy and peace. But the thing that most stuck out to me the other day was the detail included in verse 44 of John 11--Lazarus' face was wrapped with a face cloth. There is the key, folks! We are bound up in our strongholds when we are blinded and ignorant of the truth. It is when we take the face cloth off our eyes, see the truth in God's Word, that we will be free from the mummy clothes!!! The strongholds will break.

Rather than always reaching for your Bible to make yourself feel better, to find something that will bring you that immediate deliverance you so seek, instead, look to the whole counsel (Acts 20:27) of God, to learn more about Him and see what His Word has to say about you, about who you are in Christ. Make a point to study, to educate yourself. This is how you come out of ignorance. This is how the blinders come off and you will see the light. Dig in and learn about who God is, who you are, who the devil is, who Jesus is, what sin is, what forgiveness is, what rewards God has for us, what His plan is for man, etc. There is a lifetime of learning there.

It may take time, but your thinking will change, the strongholds will be broken, you will see the evidence in your daily life. You can be free!

Now I'm speaking to the whole Body of Christ. This is the group that needs our compassion. We need to create an environment in our churches where they feel secure in coming for help, and won't be afraid of being shunned (even some of our leaders fall into this category, and I wrote about that here). These are the people Christ came to save, we need to do all we can to help them. Rather than tell these folks they need to change, tell them how the Word will transform them. The Word is powerful, but God has also given people wisdom in certain areas and we need to utilize that, as well. Sometimes a person needs to go to a doctor for physical needs, sometimes a psychologist for mental needs. We need not rule these avenues out, especially for those that have suffered intense traumas and abuse in their formative years. These events actually rewire the brain and cause thoughts and feelings and desires that are in contrast to how this person really wants to live. A professional counselor/psychologist (preferably Christian) can walk this person through that trauma, help them to process it properly, and move past it. And we need to have discipleship programs and classes in our churches, to teach people the foundational doctrines, to give them a whole education, to show them who God is, who they are, what God's plans are, and so much more.

Most of all, this person needs your love. They need to know you're not condemning them. They need encouragement in the Word. They need to know who they are in Christ, that God has totally recreated their spirit and it is perfectly pure and righteous, no matter how their soul and body are acting. They need to know God has provided a way of escape from their temptations (I Corinthians 10:13) and sometimes that way out is to call you up and ask for your help. Will you be there for this person?

I am not saying we accept and tolerate sin. We need to speak the truth in love, hold this person to God's standard of purity, set up boundaries in areas they have broken trust. Don't become an enabler, allowing them to continue in their sin, but don't just tell them to shape up. Teach them about the power God has placed on the inside of them, to shape them into the image of Christ. Teach them about renewing their minds, to break old thought patterns and form new ones, in line with God's Word--their actions will follow these thought patterns. And most of all, pray that God will open the eyes of their understanding (Ephesians 1:16-23).

Delivered

I love all the pictures we have in the Old Testament. When I was growing up, it seemed, that the entire Old Testament was just stories for kids. I don't recall sermons preached from the Old Testament. The thinking was that we are New Testament believers that have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), we aren't under the law (Romans 6:14), so what use is the Old Testament to us? (Now my memory could be skewed, but that is what my perception was.) This is, however, entirely false. The Old Testament is chocked full of wonderful stories with so many layers of depth--many, if not all, explaining truths in the New Testament. So, as I said, I LOVE those illustrations that are in the Old Testament.

I was explaining a concept to my son today, so I used an Old Testament illustration. (On a side note, if you have kids, one of the best things you can do for yourself, is teach them the Bible. Light bulbs will go off in your head. It is a wonderful thing, how it works.)

If you recall, in the story of the Exodus, the Israelites were in slavery to the Pharoah. Moses was sent by God to deliver them. God did numerous signs and wonders in the process. After the 10th plague, God led them out of Egypt and out of their slavery to Pharoah.

We can analyze the significance of the details.

Slavery in Egypt = slavery to sin--this is a picture of us before we come to a saving knowledge of Christ

Coming out of Egypt = getting saved

Now there are pictures of two types of Christians after the Exodus.

1) A Wilderness Wanderer - this is someone that is saved, but they don't walk in victory, don't have peace and joy, they go around the mountains in their life over and over and over.

2) A Promised Land Dweller - this is also a Christian, but they walk in victory. They don't go around the mountains in their life, they fight their battles with God on their side. They enjoy peace and joy.

Something significant stuck out to me this morning, that I had never thought about before. At what point did the Israelites "get saved"? I noticed two important events.

1) The Passover--The Israelites were commanded to spread the blood of a lamb on their doorposts in order to be "passed over" by the death angel. So they were saved from death by the blood. We are saved from death (the penalty of sin) by the blood of Christ. This is a once, for all, atonement. See Hebrews 7:26-27, 9:11-12, & 10:9-10.

2) The Crossing of the Red Sea--The Israelites left the same night of the Passover. They traveled until they were trapped by mountains and sea. Pharoah came after them to get them back. God did a miracle by parting the waters of the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to cross over on dry land. The Pharoah and his army chased after them, but God let the waters cover them, drowning them, assuring the safety of the Israelites. So this is the point when the Israelites were truly free from their slavery. It happened through water. We are delivered from our slavery to sin by the water of the Word. See Ephesians 5:24 We must wash in this water as often as we can.

Something else to note, that I find very interesting, is that once the Israelites were out of Egypt, God never sent them back (that would be a picture of losing salvation). There were lots of people that disobeyed and there were consequences, but no record of anyone going back to Egypt, either voluntarily, or by command of God. Neither do we "lose" our salvation when we sin. We can lose our inheritance, like the Israelites. The majority of them didn't get to go into the Promised Land (their inheritance). They didn't have faith, they didn't obey. In fact, Moses was one of them that forfeited the inheritance, he did not get to enter the Promised Land.

I am fighting to keep this a short blog. There are so many things in this I want to develop, but I will leave it at this. I encourage you to read the story in Exodus, in light of these things I have brought out. There are even more analogies I could draw. Can you find them? You may also do a word study on reward and/or inheritance. Do you want to be a Wilderness Wanderer or a Promised Land Dweller? Read the story of Joshua and Caleb, in Numbers 13 and 14, to see what it takes to be a Promised Land Dweller.

Armageddon

Well, we were studying the character qualities of God and one week I hadn't done any research on a new quality so I decided we would randomly pick some Psalms to read.  This was for our breakfast reading with my kids.  (I do reading at breakfast with my kids and my husband does reading at dinner for our whole family.)

I picked Psalm 2 to read, which appears to be a dialog between three voices.  This Psalm opens with a question, "Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a worthless thing?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Annointed, saying, 'Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.' "

I asked my son if it seemed at all weird that kings of the earth would want to fight against God.  He thought that sounded ludicrous, as did I.  

So after reading Psalm 2 we turned to Isaiah 63 and read the first 6 verses.  This passage describes Jesus trampling His enemies in fury, having his garments stained with their blood (symbol is of stomping grapes in a winepress).  

I asked my son if it seemed weird that Jesus was angry and had enemies?  He answered and said it must be the kings from Psalm 2.  I said, "You're right!"  (It's thrilling to see their minds understanding and processing God's Word!)

I told him about a battle that will take place called the battle of Armageddon.  Mention the word battle to a boy and you've got his undivided attention.  :)

So then we turned to Revelation to get the full picture.  Starting in chapter 19, verse 11 and reading through to the end of the chapter we see the image of Jesus riding on a white horse to make war.  This is an image not many of us think about when we think of Jesus, that's why I wanted to introduce it to my son.  It's very important to me that my children get the big picture of the Bible.

Jesus is clothed with a robe dipped in blood and again we see the symbolism (idiom) of a winepress.  I wanted to point that out to my son also, since idioms in the Bible are consistent.  Verse 19 tells us again of those kings that want to make war against Almighty God.  

But we already know the end--Jesus will defeat them with the sword that proceeds from His mouth!  This, of course, was exciting to my son--the good guys win!!!  And I ask my son, "what is the sword?"  God's Word, he tells me.  Right again!!

For you adults, this may be some new information.  You think of Jesus as gentle, kind, compassionate, and He is all those things.  He is our Redeemer, but He is also the Avenger of Blood.  He will come to judge those that rebel against Him.  

Read the Book of Ruth for a great picture of the Kinsman Redeemer (Christ is our Kinsman Redeemer, He became human to redeem humans), but read Numbers 35:9-34 to learn about the City of Refuge and the Avenger of Blood.  This is part of the Mosaic law, but it is a type and shadow of Christ.  He is our City of Refuge, the High Priest that died, AND the Avenger of Blood.  

I'm so glad He's my Redeemer and in the Battle of Armageddon I will be on the winning side!  This gives us not only a healthy fear of the Lord, but also hope that the evil in the world will one day be eradicated!  I don't know about you, but that is exciting to me!

I would love to hear from you if you have questions.  There is more detail I could go into, but didn't have time.