Washed by the Light

We celebrate the birth of Jesus on earth at Christmas time. We celebrate that God came to earth to save us from our sins. I fear, however, that too many of us put on the appearance of Christianity without allowing the Christ to change our innermost parts. Those parts are often so black and ugly that we don't want to admit them, even to ourselves, and so they remain hidden, diminishing the Light that is within us. Jesus is the Light of the world but He also called us the light of the world (Matthew 5). Our ability to shine is hindered by the black darkness in us, which we keep from the Light. As we allow God to expose our hidden secrets--first to ourselves and then (horror of horrors) to others, those secrets begin to lose their power and strength. They (and we) begin to be overcome by and washed by the Light.

Washed by the Light. Oh the glory of it! Sit back, close your eyes and imagine what that would look like. How would it feel? For me it brings me to a place of intimate union with God that is indescribable. This is why Jesus came to earth as a baby. This is what He longs to do for and with us--to wash us and bring us into that intimate and unbreakable union with God Almighty, the Creator of the universe and Lover of our souls.

Overcoming Sin

Merry Christmas!

Sometime ago someone wrote to me in response to one of my posts. I'd like to share an edited version of my reply.

God is more than able to help us overcome the sin in our lives and not only is He able, He is willing and eager to do so. The thing is, that we need to want Him more than we want the sin and often times we don’t really. We enjoy the sin too much. And though certain sins are really enjoyable, afterwards we often feel horrid. Satan does that. He makes sin seem so attractive and then, once he’s got us snared, he takes away the attractiveness of the sin and lets us see it for what it really is—until the next time.

So what can a person do to overcome the sins that they can’t seem to be rid of? Several things. First of all, you must confess what you have done. Then you must repent. Repent means to turn around and go in the other direction. Confessing says, “Yes, I did it.” Repenting says, “I don’t want to ever do this again. I choose to follow God instead.” And then renounce your sin and everything associated with it. In one of my previous posts, "Repenting, Renouncing, Breaking and Blessing", I talk about this process. In the example I gave there, I renounced the lies I believed associated with masturbation. Ask God to show you what lies you’ve been believing. But renouncing isn’t just about the lies. We can renounce desires and the act itself. Then break off (with your words) anything connected to the sin. If you want, look to the post I linked to to see examples. Finally, thank God for His forgiveness (He promises to forgive when we confess them) and ask for His blessing on you.

These steps are very powerful and after I went through them for myself the day I described in that linked post and the ones connected to it, something changed in me. I have not masturbated since then and, in fact, the urge has not been great to do so. God’s also changed other things in my life such as my attitude towards my husband and towards food. (It’s really been amazing and I hope to write a post in the near future about just how wonderfully God has been working in my life since then.)

But following steps for anything can be something we do with our mouths and we don’t really put our entire hearts and being into it. And so there is something else that is crucial to walking God’s way instead of our way and that is to put our focus and desire completely and totally on God. We need to feed on Him.

We all have great hunger and thirst in our lives. We have a great need for love, acceptance, affirmation, comfort, etc. Satan’s lie says that we can get these things through sexual pleasure, through people, through eating, through alcohol and drugs, through hard work, etc. The truth is that the only true source for any of these needs to be met is God, through Jesus Christ. This is sometimes very hard to believe because God seems so intangible and far away and sex, people, food, drugs, etc. are easy to grab onto and hold.

Jesus said, I am the Living Water, drink from Me. Isaiah (or was it Jeremiah?) talked about how the people were going to empty, broken and dirty cisterns to drink, trying to dig their own wells, when what God wanted them to do was come and drink from His well, a well of pure, clean water that brings life instead of death.

But how do we do this? God promises that when we seek Him and seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him. For the past four years, I have made this the focus of my life. I had a very wise friend near the beginning of that time who advised me to not focus on my problems (my sins) so much as to focus on God. And she was right. The closer I come to God, the less I’m inclined to give in to Satan.

I think the first step is to ask God to give us the desire to want Him more than anything else because truly, even this desire is a gift from God and nothing that we can manufacture. And then begin to seek Him. Read your Bible. Read much each day. This is where you will learn about God. When you read, ask God to show you what He wants you to hear that day. It doesn’t really matter where you start reading but I do encourage you to read the entire book (I know it’s long and it might take months and months to do this but it is worth the perseverance). The Bible is a story of God’s love. I know that most people don’t have that perception of the Bible, especially of the Old Testament, but it’s true. So as you’re reading, look for God’s love. It is there, no matter what you’re reading.

I believe that knowing, not just in our minds but with our very being, that God loves us makes an incredible difference in how we behave. We are much more responsive to someone we FEEL loved by, than to someone we think is distant and uninterested. God loves you intensely, dear reader. He is passionately in love with you.

What else can you do to seek God, besides reading His Word? Talk to Him. Ask Him questions, tell Him your thoughts. I sometimes do this in writing because it helps me from being distracted. Others prefer to do it out loud for the same reason. Some go for a walk so they’ll be alone while they talk to Him. Others have a special place in their home. The truth is that we can talk to Him any place and any time. We can talk to Him while on the bus, in the dentist’s chair, at work, at school, as we go to sleep, as we wake up, anywhere.

Listening to Him is a good thing to do too. God often speaks to us in nudges. Have you ever had a little thought come to mind and you begin to argue with it or dismiss it as silly or unimportant? Often, those little thoughts are from God. Listen to them! Ask God if it’s Him and then act on those nudges. And these nudges won’t be earth-shattering things. For me, they started out being things like, “Close the gate” as I went through it or “Lock the door” as I left the house—things I don’t like doing. But as I began to tune my ear to those nudges from God, the nudges began to be about other, more consequential things, like going to spend a few minutes with my husband when I didn’t feel like it. When we are faithful in listening in small things, God will begin to give us greater things to listen to and obey.

Spend time worshipping God. Turn on some Christian music (not essential but it does help) or go out to a favourite place in nature and simply sit, lie or stand there, soaking in God’s presence and then pouring out to Him (not necessarily audibly) how wonderful He is. If you have trouble doing this, start by thanking Him for things and after each statement of thanks, just savour the beauty of God doing or being that for which you’re thankful. Sing songs of praise to Him. Pour out all your adoration towards Him. This can radically change one’s thoughts, mind and attitude and is a good thing to do frequently throughout the day (as you get experienced in doing this, you’ll be able to put yourself, in your mind, at the places where you have experienced God).

Spend time with others who are committed to having their lives focused on God. When we surround ourselves with others who have the same quest, we find ourselves encouraged to continue and we can, in turn, encourage them. This is one reason why church is so important. If you’re not going regularly, begin to do so. If your church seems dead, find another where the people are alive to God in their lives.

As God begins to do good things in your life, no matter how small, tell someone else. This is what witnessing is. You don’t have to tell a stranger or even a non-Christian. Witnessing is speaking about what you have seen God do. God is even now doing things in your life and as you begin to share with others what He has and is doing, your faith will be strengthened. Also, write down the things God does for, in and through you. Such writing makes it possible for you to go back when you’re feeling discouraged and be reminded of what He’s done and how much He cares for you. Sometimes we think something that happened was just our imagination. If we wrote about it, we can look back and realize it really DID happen.

As you push towards God, He will begin to change your life. You will continue to struggle but the struggles will, over time, lessen and the ability to obey and follow Him will become easier and more joyful. When you’re aware that you’ve sinned again (and this happens to all of us), go back and repeat those steps I mentioned above and seek to return to the place you were with God before you sinned.

I hope you find this helpful.

With Jesus’ love,
Maggie

Day of Judgment

I have a long term project of memorizing the Gospel of Matthew. I started many years ago and, over time, memorized the first 12 chapters but it’s been a few years since I have faithfully reviewed them and, memory being what it is at my age, I need to bring them back to memory before proceeding on to subsequent chapters. The past month or two, I’ve been working on chapters 11 and 12 (I’m going backwards) and circumstances today gave me a two-hour block of time to spend reciting the chapters repeatedly to get them soaked in my head. It was while doing this that a few things hit me.

Degrees of punishment

I’ve always thought that the consequences were the same for everyone who didn’t go to heaven—the fires of hell (what an icky thought)—but it seems (this might not be news to you) that not everyone receives the same punishment. In chapter 11, Jesus is condemning the towns in which He performed the bulk of His miracles because they did not repent and what does he do? He compares these three cities to cities from the Old Testament that received severe judgment, saying that it will be worse on the Day of Judgment for the cities of His day than for Tyre, Sidon and Sodom.

Obviously, not everyone will be receiving the same consequences for not turning to God before they die. I never realized this before. That helps me know what to say next time someone asks me, “My aunt/grandma/father was a good man but didn’t become a Christian. What will happen to him?” I’ve always known that God is a just God but now I can reassure others that no, their aunt/grandma/father will not suffer the same fate as Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler.

Capernaum worse than Sodom?

Many people treat homosexuality as the worst possible sin and cite Sodom as an example of how severely God views homosexuality but in Matthew 11 and 12, Jesus gives us two answers to that. First, in chapter 11, He says it will be better for those from Sodom on the Day of Judgment than for the Bible-believing, synagogue and temple-going religious folk of Capernaum who refused to repent when Jesus performed His miracles there. Say what? Can this be true? I wonder how He’d compare the self-righteous Christians of today to well-meaning but living-in-sin homosexuals who call themselves Christians? Who would He have his harshest words for?

In chapter 12, Jesus makes it very clear that all sins and blasphemy can be forgiven except one. That one unforgivable sin is not homosexuality or, indeed, any sexual sin but rather the sin of speaking against the Holy Spirit. How many people who call themselves Christian do that? Far too many. I grew up in a church that taught that speaking in tongues was of the devil. Interestingly, Jesus’ teaching about this unforgivable sin comes on the heels of the Pharisees accusing Jesus of using the power of Satan to drive out demons. This is what Jesus condemned most and said could not be forgiven. This is for what Jesus reserved His harshest words.

How do we evaluate sin? Do we use social norms to decide what’s worse than something else or do we use the Word of God?

We won’t stand alone on the Day of Judgment

Jesus condemned the cities in which most of His miracles took place because they did not repent and then, when (in chapter 12) some of the Pharisees asked for a miraculous sign, He threw up His hands in frustration and warned them that not only would they be standing before God on the Day of Judgment, but standing beside them to accuse them, would be the people of Nineveh who repented when Jonah preached to them and the Queen of Sheba who travelled from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.

I didn’t know anyone but Satan would be accusing us. It’s a fearsome thought. Who do you know who would have a just case against you in the court of heaven on that day? How many might join together with him or her?

But if it’s true that other people can stand with us on the Day of Judgment to condemn us, might not the reverse be true? Might it be that those who have reason to defend and commend us might also stand with us on the Day of Judgment and speak on our behalf? Who might those people be in your life? And which group would be bigger, those condemning or those commending?

Christmas Blogging

My friend Francine has been writing a series of thoughts on Christmas which I've been enjoying. You might like them too. You can find her blog at "Words from the Heart".

Shadows

I remember walking home from school in the middle of winter. It was already dark outside in our northern city and the street lamps cast interesting shadows of the trees, the houses and anything passing by, including my sister and me. Our shadows would change in shape and size as we moved from one pool of light to another and this change fascinated me.

There’s something about shadows. We can get an idea of what is casting the shadow. For instance, I could tell my shadow from my sister’s as we walked down the street or ran along the tops of the snow banks at the edge of the street, but how much could those shadows tell about the two little girls that made them? All they showed was our shape and that was distorted depending on our distance from the light. The shadows said little about our facial features, what we were wearing or what we were carrying and had nothing to say about hair colour, our state of emotion, our thoughts or our character. The shadows didn’t show the intricate stitchery of our mother’s handwork in sewing matching fake fur winter coats, nor the warm lining she put inside. The shadows didn’t show the loss we had inside from losing our father, the confusion I felt from the unkindness of kids my age or the pain of my sister from years of plastic surgery to repair an accidental burn on her face. Shadows show very little about the real.

As I was driving home from work last night, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. We live in a shadow. We can’t see reality, only the shadow of reality, as we move through the days that have been ordained to us. This is hinted at in several passages of the New Testament. Colossians 2:17, in referring to “matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths,” says, “These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” (NLT) 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.” Shadows.

What we see, what we experience, what we know here on earth is merely a dim outline of what is yet to come. Think of it! Think of the deepest love you have ever had. It’s just a shadow of what’s yet to come. Think of the most delectable foods you’ve ever tasted. It can’t compare to the tastes of heaven. Think of the most exquisite sexual experience you’ve had. Our time with God will far surpass that pleasure. All the delights and pleasures that God has graciously given us to enjoy are merely shadows. All the delights and pleasures that Satan uses to lure us away from God are merely shadows.

So what am I living for? Am I chasing shadows, looking for meaning, joy and delight in them? Or am searching for substance and reality? Where do I find my meaning? Will I settle for the shadows because they are immediate or am I willing to wait for the Real?