WHY FEEL BAD ABOUT SIN?

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight.  Ps. 51:4, R.S.V.

Why do you feel bad when you sin?  Do you fear that God will think less of you?  Or do you fear that someone will think less of God because of you?

That question is far more than just theological nit-picking; it touches on the deepest motivations of the heart.  If your incentive for avoiding sin is so that you will not lose face before God, your basic motivation is selfish.  If, on the other hand, your reason for avoiding sin is out of an intensely high regard for the reputation of One whom you love, your basic motivation is unselfish.

When we get right down to it, motivation makes all the difference.  We shall have the mind of Christ only when the fires that burn behind our eyes are those of unselfish love.  The law can truly be kept by those who love, for it describes how loving people act.  Selfishness cannot produce unselfishness.  When I have a selfish reason for wanting to become unselfish, it just won't work.

God knows that, and for this reason He gave us totally unselfish reasons for wanting to become like Him.  Having entirely met all our needs (and thus healing our selfishness), He then drew us into love with Himself.  More than any concerns for ourselves, we become jealous for the good reputation of our Friend.  We know that others shall be making eternal decisions about Him, often based on what they see in us.  And we want them to think well of Him!

David knew this, too.  When he sinned, he knew exactly who had been hurt the most.  Beyond the grief his sin would bring to his own life, David knew that many in Israel would wonder whether God was adequate in David's life--if David had to so clearly depart from God's will in order to get his "needs" met.

There is no evidence that David feared to approach God.  He knew that his Father does not use the leverage of emotional rejection to bring one's life into line, for such would only deepen the selfish grasping that led him to his sin in the first place.  He knew that God desired not groveling self-mortification but "truth in the inward being" (Ps. 51:6, R.S.V.).  And God's loving acceptance made it easier for him to face that painful truth about his weaknesses.

February 27    GIVING THANKS IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  1 Thess. 5:18, R.S.V.


A baby dies by falling out of a speeding car.  Can the mother thank God for this?  A teenager becomes a quadriplegic when his car is hit by a drunk driver.  Are the parents to thank God for his now-limited future?  I hear it again and again: Christians are saying Yes to these questions.

And that yes has an edge on it!  "If you, as a Christian, do not answer Yes, then you do not believe that God is in control of your life.  You do not believe today's text.  In other words, you are not much of a Christian."

Well my answer to the above question is No!  God is not drilling us to become unfeeling automatons.  We are not to swallow our intelligence and go through the motions of praising God for things that are horribly wrong.  God does not expect us to thank Him for all circumstances, but to thank Him in all circumstances.  Thank Him for sustaining us through the crisis that would drive us insane were it not for His abiding presence.  Thank Him that we know that this world is not the last statement of what shall be.  Thank Him for all that He is, in spite of all the slander that has been heaped up against His name--often in the name of religion and right.

To thank God that your baby fell out of a speeding car is to indict God as a murderer.  "But," you say, "I've asked God to take control of my life and the lives of my children!  He let it happen!"  Remember: We are on enemy territory!  And that enemy is the destroyer of souls.  We can expect only that he will be allowed to demonstrate that fact until the great controversy between good and evil is ended.  In the meantime, God has promised to be with us and to help us make the kinds of decisions that will enable us to live not only responsibly and accountably but confidently and productively as well.

Dear reader, if there are painful circumstances in your life in which you can see little or no good, look beyond them to the mighty God, your tenderhearted Father.  His goodness is never-changing, His love for you is unbudging, and His plans for your life and the lives of your loved ones are far greater than your highest thoughts can reach.

Rejoice and be exceeding glad!  Our God is larger than any circumstances in our lives.

OUT TO GET THE JUDGE

Satan answered the Lord, "Has not Job good reason to be God-fearing?  Have you not hedged him round on every side with your protection?"


The encounter between God and Satan in the book of Job has all the essential features of the final judgement.  There is conflict between two great protagonists in the universe-wide conflict.  On the surface it appears their conflict is over Job.  God has said that Job is a good man; Satan has countered with another opinion.

However, the conflict has a much deeper dimension.  We begin to realize that Satan cares hardly at all what becomes of Job; his real target is God Himself!  And Satan has in his countercharge a twofold attack against Him.  First, he implies that God really doesn't know what He is talking about.  God has placed His confidence in Job as a worthy example of His restorative power, certain Job will remain loyal to Him.  But Satan asserts that if God really knew hearts, He would find how fickle Job is, given a change of his pleasant circumstances.

In his second charge Satan is essentially asserting that no one would place his faith in God wholly on the basis of who God is.  He claims that we humans are selfish through and through, and that the only way God could ever draw us to Himself would be to appeal to that selfishness.  Job, he claims, is an example of purchased loyalty, not of faith.  Faith that is rooted entirely in an appreciation of God simply doesn't exist, Satan claims, because God just isn't worthy of such confidence.

What would happen if Job were to crumble under the test?  What would the universe think of God?  About His ability to know the hearts and motives of His creatures?  About whether anyone really will worship God for God's sake alone?  The judgment here is not primarily focused on Job.  From Satan's point of view, what's one puny human, more or less!  He is out to get the Judge!

It's exciting to see how God handles the charges.  He could have said, "You've got no right questioning My opinions.  After all, I am God!"  But He didn't.  Without any defensiveness He simply said, "Let's let the matter be decided on the basis of evidence.  Go ahead and take away all those blessings that you assert have purchased Job's loyalties."

We know the outcome.  God concluded that Job spoke of Him what was right (Job 42:7).  Can He say the same of us?

ARE YOU LIVING THE LIFE OF FAITH?

Examine yourselves: are you living the life of faith?  Put yourselves to the test.  2 Cor. 13:5, N.E.B.

Today's text challenges us to explore honestly our ongoing relationship with God.  However, it is not meant to motivate us to see how many good works we are performing.  As a matter of fact, examining our "good deeds list" may hinder us in our ability to discern candidly the true quality of our friendship with God.

It is like trying to determine how good your marriage is.  A husband might reason, "I earn a good living, stay home nights, fix the washing machine, take out the garbage..."  And a wife might reflect, "I do the laundry, fix meals, keep the house tidy, mend his socks..."

While these things are commendable and even necessary, for the most part, they are poor barometers with which to take a reading on your relationship.  Really, not many couples end up in court with the complaint "He didn't empty the garbage!" or "She didn't mend my socks!"  Granted these things can irritate, but it is not the things we do so much as the way we relate to each other and how we feel we are being related to by the other that make marriage work or make it intolerable.

Likewise, our relationship with God is defined not so much by the actions we do as by the attitudes we have toward God as our personal friend.  It is defined also by how we perceive He is relating to us.  In our efforts to please God we might ask as did the disciples, " 'Then what must we do...if we are to work as God would have us work?'  Jesus replied. 'This is the work that God requires: believe in the one whom he has sent' " (John 6:28, 29, N.E.B.).

We believe that Christ is representative of all that God is.  We know that when Christ healed people God our Father in heaven was showing us that He desires to heal our lives from all that makes us hurt and hurtful.  When we see Mary forgiven we exclaim, "God has forgiven me!"  When we witness the look of tenderest compassion on the face of Jesus for Peter, even as Peter denied Him, we understand: God still wants me, even though I sometimes deny Him.

As today's text implies, I should ask myself: "Am I living confidently and securely in my relationship with God?  Is God my friend?"

​February 24    WHY SELL IT ALL?

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.  Matt. 13:45, 46, R.S.V.

When Jesus tells a parable, even the little details of sequence and timing are important to the story.  In this one-sentence parable Jesus speaks to that all-important issue of why one would choose to be a committed Christian. But notice when it is that a person makes such a choice.

More closely than we might recognize at first, we can identify with the merchant's insistence on obtaining only fine pearls; nothing less than the finest can satisfy the deepest longing of the heart.  We who have sought satisfaction in the trinkets and plastic gems of this dusty planet know the emptiness they leave behind when they crumble.  Though we stagger at the anticipated price, we know that were we to find the ultimate pearl we would give up every lesser gem to obtain  it.  Meanwhile, we hang on to what we have, for it seems to us better than nothing at all.

In Jesus' parable the merchant first finds the pearl and perceives its great worth.  Then, with a knowledge of what he is about to gain in the transaction, he willingly sells everything that would divide his attention, every investment in something of lesser value, in order to obtain that which would ultimately satisfy.  Were you to ask him if he is paying too costly a price, he would laugh and tell you he is getting the bargain of a lifetime.

Jesus is Himself the pearl.  He is available immediately to all who will embrace Him as the center of their lives.  But we must recognize that He does not ask us to give up all that we presently cling to until we recognize the value of His friendship.  This really says something very practical about our Saviour.  He does not urge us to step from our sinking iceberg until we know that what we are stepping onto is firm soil.

Jesus has nothing to gain by hiding from us the great value of the pearl, then urging a blind leap in the dark.  Nor does He rebuke us as perversely selfish for clinging to the only securities we know.  Instead, He persuasively shows us His great value as a friend.  Then, on the basis of such evidence, we choose the security of obviously greater worth.

​February 23    HOW GOD DEALS WITH SIN

To wink at a fault causes trouble; a frank rebuke leads to peace.  Prov. 10:10, N.E.B.

A teacher discovers that one of his students has been cheating on his exams.  Should he ignore this and act as though nothing has happened?  Or should he rebuke the student and suspend him from the classroom?  From our text today it seems that the latter would be the more profitable choice.  Or would it?

In Proverbs 10:12 we read, "But love turns a blind eye to every fault" (N.E.B.).  Is this a contradiction?  Is there a difference between turning a blind eye to every fault and winking at them?  In the Good News Bible, verse 10 states: "Someone who holds back the truth causes trouble."  To wink at a fault is to avoid dealing with the issues entirely--and to leave them unresolved.  This holds back reality.  And God is committed to teaching us to live in reality--to live responsibly and accountably in every situation.

Yet it says that love turns a blind eye to every fault!  For clarification let us read another translation of verse 12: "But love forgives all offences" (T.E.V.).  God does not ignore, but forgives, our offenses.  The "blind eye" is His chosen attitude of temporarily commuting our death sentence, that we might live to learn a better way.  Forgiveness does not hold back the truth; it is not whitewash.  Forgiveness is God's intelligent and loving position toward us.

I believe God has chosen this third alternative.  He deals with us, holding aside the sure consequences of our actions while He gives us the opportunity to understand the problem and make an informed choice as to how we would like to relate to Him in the future.

So often we think we have only two choices in dealing with those who have sinned.  To show mercy we ignore the offense.  To show that we take sin seriously, we either expel the sinner from our presence or take stern action against him.  Either way, we lose any chance we might have in retaining a healing relationship with the person involved.

Let us cherish the third option!  Let us gently and intelligently work through the realities of each problem while expressing every step of the way, that the individual involved is of more value than any of his presently unwise choices.  That's how I would want to be treated.
wo intelligent persons to converse?

GROWN-UP PRAYING

Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Matt. 6:10.


"Dear Jesus," the sweet young voice pleads, "bless me today, and make my puppy come home."  Meanwhile her mother is praying, "O Father!  You are welcome in my heart.  May I be more secure in Your love, and thus less defensive."

As we mature spiritually, our manner of speaking in the Father's presence will change.  There will be less begging for blanket blessings, more aligning with His will.  The difference comes from our deepening knowledge of who the Father is.  Instead of seeing Him as an ordinary dispenser of blessings, we increasingly see Him as the author of wisdom, the designer of ideal patterns for living.  We grasp more fully the inherent wisdom of those ways, and see that our problems do not stem from God's reluctance to give blessings but from our reluctance to walk in the paths of blessing.

It dawns on us that the purpose of prayer is not to change God's posture toward us but to change our posture toward God.  There is no need to beg or grovel before Him, no need to persuade Him to recognize problems He may not know.  Such would be insulting--to both of us.  When we see how good God has been to us, begging gives way to praise.

Jesus taught us to pray "Thy kingdom come."  Later He said, "The kingdom of God is within you," which means that the truest essence of Christ's kingdom is not its physical location but the ideals and values by which its members live.  To pray Jesus' prayer, then, is to make a conscious choice to let our minds and values be brought into harmony with the mind and values of God.  This represents submission in the highest sense of the word.  It represents not a fearful cowering in the face of superior firepower but an intelligent aligning of the mind with superior wisdom.

At this point many of the blunt imperatives of our prayers begin to fade into other forms.  Rather than praying, "Bless me today," we might pray, "I give You permission to nudge me should I begin to walk outside the paths of blessing."  Instead of "Bless Uncle Charlie," we will likely pray, "Lord, I am willing to be used by You as some means of bringing joy and healing into Uncle Charlie's life."

And isn't that how we would expect two intelligent persons to converse?

FINDING YOUR CONTAINER

Return, faithless Israel....Only acknowledge your guilt.   Jer. 3:12, 13, R.S.V.

There's nothing more frustrating than preparing school lunches only to find the supply of lunch sacks depleted.  Or to be at the ocean, hands full of shells and other treasures, knowing that there is no way to get them home.  Or worse yet, to have the container in which you are bringing home ripe plums rupture just in time to leave your car the recipient of a soggy mess.

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field" (Matt. 13:44, R.S.V.).  Treasure!  How can we obtain it?  Listen: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32, R.S.V.).

We ourselves are the containers for this treasure.  "We have this treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Cor. 4:7, R.S.V.).  The preceding verses explain what this treasure is: It is the truth of who God the Father is, as revealed in the life of Christ.

Since Eden we have been hiding from God.  Hiding because we are afraid.  We do not need to hide!  Our fears have been based on the false report of the deceiver of men.  Through Christ we have seen the character of God and how He relates to fallen mankind.  We've seen His love for us, His acceptance of us.  And this truth is the treasure that God desires to freely give us.  He wants to fill our lives with His friendship.

It is up to us to give God our containers.  And we won't give them to Him until we realize that they are empty, so horribly empty.  "Only admit you need My treasure," pleads the Father, "so that I can give it to you!"

What is your response?  If it is one of denial, then He is forced to help us deal with the reality.  Ever so carefully He begins to explain to us our condition.  At first we think He's caught us in the bushes.  But as we stand shaking in our nakedness before Him He just covers us, with His own robe, His own perfectly loving life.  "Here, He offers, "this will make you more comfortable."

And it does.  Before long we are more than warm; we are reconciled!  It is then that He begins to fill our vessels with the treasure of who He is.  Let us quickly acknowledge that we are empty, for empty containers are just what we need in order to get the treasure home?

​HEAVEN'S ACTIVITIES

They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit....And my chosen people shall long enjoy the work of their hands.  Isa. 65:21, 22, R.S.V.

Jesus told His friends that He would be building mansions in heaven for all the redeemed.  It's a comforting idea, knowing that our arrival in the New Jerusalem won't catch anyone by surprise and that our needs will be well met.

But I fear it has given some the idea that in heaven God will do for us everything that needs to be done, that we will enjoy some kind of well-deserved vacation from responsibilities.  God will build; we will inhabit.  We could even conclude: God will compose the music; we will learn it.  God will write the poetry; we will recite it.  God will create, and we will observe.  "After all," we might say, "God could do a much better job than we could in all these things."

But could God Himself find satisfaction in a heaven full of appreciative spectators?  Would it bring delight to Him to have the balconies of heaven full of applauding audiences, while He does what God does, especially alone?  Would God give us the capacity to be creative, only to let it become dormant in heaven?

I have a growing picture of a God who will approach His friends in the new earth and say--with eager expectancy--"Will you show Me the house you have just built?  I'd be delighted to see how you designed the landscaping and crafted an appealing life-space."

I can picture Him coming to another and saying, "Please, sing Me the song you have just composed!  You've always blessed Me with your music in the past, and your abilities are really soaring into new realms."  I can see Him meeting another on a golden boulevard and asking him about the new components he has been creating in his experimental laboratories.  Or listening to yet another as he finds new ways to express his insights into the history of redemption.

God created His people that He might enter into the delights of two-way interaction with them.  This means--incredibly--that we humans are God-built with capacities to satisfy the heart of God Himself!  What other reason would He have had for creating us in the first place?

Should it not follow that God takes delight even now in seeing His people develop their creative capacities to think and to do?

THE GREATEST OF THESE IS GOD

He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.  1 John 4:8, R.S.V.


In our quest to know God, let us explore 1 Corinthians 13 in view of our scripture for today.  Since God is love, we may confidently use His name in place of the word love.  Listen to what this familiar passage says about Him:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not [God], I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not [God], I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not [God], I gain nothing.

"[God] is patient and kind, [God] is not jealous or boastful; [He] is not arrogant or rude.  [God] does not insist on [His] own way; [He] is not irritable or resentful; [He] does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.  [God] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

[God] never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away  When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have fully understood.  So faith, hope, [God] abide, these three; but the greatest of these is [God]"--in whom we have faith! (R.S.V.).

It is not enough to say that God does loving things.  God is love!  In today's text God is not making an accusation against us.  He is stating the truth, that we might learn the Source of love.  He seeks to bring us to the realization that He understands us fully.  He knows our past, our upbringing, our education, our failings, and our dreams.  But this knowledge is consistently flavored with His love.  He knows nothing about us apart from love!

God longs to have us understand Him too.  But He knows that this can never be until we are fully secure in His knowledge of us.