Active participation

P 3302 Sin.

/ DVH

Today is the day, we remember that our sin has been conquered and permanently defeated by the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us. Praise Him! I pray this Good Friday that we will be enabled by the precious Holy Spirit to understand, how wide, how high, how deep His love is for each one of us. However, we dare not take sin lightly. Any kind of sin when it is tolerated, produces fruit. Bad fruit. Sin separates us from God and others.

Let’s be clear, our devotion toward the Lord, must extend to being open and honest, acknowledging the true state of our own hearts. Poverty of Spirit brings its own blessing. (Matthew 5) Despite our best intentions, other people have been affected by our actions – or lack of them – and we can cause them to stumble. Sin affects everyone around it. The bible tells us this: “Or do you have no regard for the wealth of His kindness and tolerance and patience [in withholding His wrath]? Are you [actually] unaware or ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness leads you to repentance [that is, to change your inner self, your old way of thinking—seek His purpose for your life]?” Romans 2:4. We cannot afford to esteem what Jesus has done for us, lightly.

The purpose of repentance is change. Not evasion, or punishment, or explanations, excuses, or tears … or even self-flagellation! Repentance means acknowledging or confessing our sin, and active participation in reparation. Then we experience transformation facilitated by the Holy Spirit’s guidance. God is so kind! His Grace lifts us up, into a brand new life. Now, because of what Jesus did for us, we can look at who we really are, without any shame or fear. But the crux of the matter is this — our engagement and co-operation in these matters is essential. Prayer without repentance and appropriate actions, is just hot air. Let’s learn daily to rely on His redeeming Grace, and never abuse that grace or replace it with casual carelessness. Repentance is a serious business. 

Here is a truth about a scripture in Hebrews 4:12. Our intentions matter. But we cannot discern those intentions without the Holy Spirit’s help – He’s the One with the sword! This means our intention is not an escape clause either. Let’s choose to examine our hearts and deliberately repair things, so we can openly and honestly participate in our relationship with the Holy Spirit and others. God’s Word is our scalpel, and the Holy Spirit is the one and only extraordinarily proficient and accurate Surgeon. His Word cuts between our soulish, sinful and sometimes childish attitudes and responses, plus any desire for revenge or self-defence, to the heart of the matter. The bible indicates a clear path between our intention to harm, and our ever-present desire to avoid the truth about our motivations.

“For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energising, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  Hebrews 4:12.

We need His wisdom to show us what our intentions really are! Is our attitude spite, or hurt? Regret or Godly sorrow? This work the Holy Spirit does is so fine, so careful, so intricate—He can lovingly expose the very things we do not want to face about ourselves. I believe we need the deepest parts of our nature exposed, because we often settle for less than God’s glorious ideal as our standard. His standard is His Son, Jesus. I’ve found it useful to prayerfully look at the things I have done, or the things I am still doing! … and then I ask the Holy Spirit for His help. He also helps me to repair things.

Let’s remember that the Lord does not divide our thoughts from our intentions, to make us feel guilty, or stumble, or fall away. His incredible kindness wants us to be free to become more acquainted with Who He is – because in that knowledge lies our total transformation. Sometimes, we may need to know why we did what we did, so that His Spirit can transform our hearts at the cellular level. That’s when we begin to want and long for what He wants. After that we can quite easily identify within ourselves, any malicious judgment and intent to harm, and separate it from just plain carelessness and a lack of awareness of others and their lives. 

King Herod finagled a way to kill the infant Jesus – He killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem! “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.” Matthew 2:16. This is an example of a wrong heart attitude. Another one appears in Acts, with Ananias and Sapphira, who were strategising about cheating the Lord, and their brothers and sisters. This matter was dealt with swiftly and thoroughly because it happened in front of the entire fledgling church. This couple’s plan abused God’s Grace! It was not about money – it was about the intention of their hearts. 

Sin occurs when we dismiss the intention of our heart to harm, callously calling it — “only natural under the circumstances.”  Let’s call sin, ‘sin’ and repent from it. Our focus in this matter is coveting a closer relationship with the Lord Himself. No amount of pretty words can cover up sin. It is poisonous to all of us. Bye. 👋

P 2670 It’s later than we all think.

/ DVH

Romans 13:11-14: “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

In these difficult times, we can get extremely busy, and then we forget WHO we belong to. We start acting and re-acting like the people around us. Sadly, their god is often their appetites and misery. Even our own ideas of down-time and entertainment can sometimes wander off into hedonism and violence. Like Paul said – that stuff is not for us. I exhort you to treat entertainment like food, and pray over everything. I believe the Lord Himself will show anyone what is good, or not good in their life, when we ask Him. My own policy is this – when in doubt, don’t!  I have a pretty fertile imagination and so I’ve learnt you can’t un-see or un-hear stuff once you’ve sat around absorbing it!

As for casting off the works of darkness, the things of the darkness aren’t always on TV or in some game …we can easily be distracted by an argumentative spirit, or a bad temper, or a negative or critical attitude. The enemy’s deceptions are not obvious like sexual deviancy or a violent response to provocation! ‘It is the little foxes that spoil the vines…’  Likewise it is the things that we make allowance for, that drag us away from the Lord’s ways. We are exhorted to number our days, because they are few. Actively choose to learn to co-operate with the Holy Spirit, nobody else can do that for you.

The bible tells us clearly what to put off … let’s do that and leave our feelings and needs out of it! Currently practically every generation on this planet is held captive to how it feels at any given moment. Human beings are bigger than their feelings! Praise God, the bible doesn’t just tell us what to put OFF – it also tells us what to put ON. We put on the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords using our faith in His power within us…We do this one day, one interaction with Him, at a time. Basically Paul is saying: ‘Don’t make a space for anything that will entice you away from loving and serving Jesus. The things of this world will drag you under into despair and shame.’ Amen!

Our lives are geared into working hard, so we want to allow for relaxation. And if that pleasure is taken away, then we think the sky will fall, because we instinctively know that we need rest. We get our REST from Christ! Anything else is a poor substitute. Just because there are times when we are not good at achieving that aim, that does not mean we have permission to let loose, and ignore things. Pleasure itself is not bad, but exalting anything over our passion for Him, will result in the Lord ending up in second place. And eventually, if we are not careful, He slides right out of the picture. 

That’s one of the things I truly love about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They will not force Their Ways on us. We don’t have to do anything! We choose to do it, to remain close to Him, and daily learn more about our new life in Christ. There are times I wish preachers would talk more about falling in Love with Him, because I think the Body of Christ really needs this kind of exhortation. When we love someone we will do anything for them, and abstinence is not painful, because it is a joy to be close to them. Personally, I love to hang around with someone who knows Him much better than I do. I can learn from them how to hold Him up in such a way that my response is pure worship. The more we invest in His life in us, the more His life will flow out of us.   

Our contribution matters – even if it is unseen. Many, many people underestimate their contribution. A loving heart that wants the best for everyone around them, makes a far greater contribution than someone who is caught up in their own needs and wants. To live like Christ did, we must actively, daily, choose to die. Physically, the truth is, we are all dying anyway – we start to die the moment we are born! But if we cling to this life and withhold our loving contribution from others… our true self will die a lot faster!

James 4:14: “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.” Let’s learn to respect the fact that we are visitors in this life. None of what we have been given belongs to us. As one very far-sighted person once said: “You will never see a U-haul trailer filled with this world’s goods, attached to a hearse!” Only God knows how valuable each contribution is – and how much it affects the people around us. Instead of languishing away under how hard life is – let’s learn to celebrate the fact that now we have the Author of life, living within us. That will involve our active participation. It is MUCH later than we all think.

Bye. 👋

Romans 14:8: “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”