How long I have lived with the basic mentality that when we are saved, God "wipes the slate clean" and therefore can love us, looking at a "forgiven" person. Yet every day, I keep sinning, and feeling that "now God is angry with me because my slate is no longer clean." I know in my head that this isn't theologically correct, but my heart still lived by it.
But God has finally made my heart see! When I am saved, it is not so much as if He wipes my slate clean, then loves me based on how well I keep it clean. It is more as if I come to the throne room of God, and the agents at the door say, "let's look at this person's record to see if they can be admitted." And when they look, they see a notation that says, "see Jesus' record." And looking there, they see a perfect, spotless record; and so in Jesus I am admitted to the presence and love and smile of God.
This is what makes a heart free! This is what causes me to love my God. To live out from under the perpetual burden of guilt. To learn what it is to be "[cleansed] from dead works to serve the living God" (Heb.9:14).
It is not that sin no longer matters; that would be like saying I can offend you and act as though nothing is wrong in our relationship.
But it means that my sin, my perpetual failure to be perfectly what God commands - my sin does not turn away His love from me or close His arms to me. He does not wear a perpetual frown and have a mentality of "I cannot love you at this moment because you are not measuring up." On my own two feet, yes. But not in Christ. In Christ, His record is what matters, though mine keeps getting defiled. Jesus' record is what God looks at, as it were, to see if He can love me at this moment. And that record always passes the test.
Praise be to God!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
worry
Worry is the fear that God will not do you good (in a given situation).
No wonder then that worry is an affront to Him; we are disbelieving His goodness toward those whom He paid so much to redeem! "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Rom.8:32). If you really believe He is good, and is always good toward His beloved children through Christ - then you will be at peace, believing that whatever He works out in your life, it will prove to be an expression of His goodness.
Worry is fearing that God will not do what you want Him to do. We believe that He loves us, but we want to define what that love will look like. We think we know best what is best for us. We are a child who says to his mother, "if you loved me, you would let me ______ " (eat ice cream all day. play in the busy street. have a gorilla for a pet. not go to school. not give me unpleasant consequences for disobeying.) And we tell God, "If You really loved me, You would do what I wanted!" (Not allow me to be sick. Give me a pleasant life with no uncomfortable circumstances. Not allow people I loved die or move away.)
Believe His wisdom. Believe His goodness. And having taken all your concerns to Him, rest your heart.
No wonder then that worry is an affront to Him; we are disbelieving His goodness toward those whom He paid so much to redeem! "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Rom.8:32). If you really believe He is good, and is always good toward His beloved children through Christ - then you will be at peace, believing that whatever He works out in your life, it will prove to be an expression of His goodness.
Worry is fearing that God will not do what you want Him to do. We believe that He loves us, but we want to define what that love will look like. We think we know best what is best for us. We are a child who says to his mother, "if you loved me, you would let me ______ " (eat ice cream all day. play in the busy street. have a gorilla for a pet. not go to school. not give me unpleasant consequences for disobeying.) And we tell God, "If You really loved me, You would do what I wanted!" (Not allow me to be sick. Give me a pleasant life with no uncomfortable circumstances. Not allow people I loved die or move away.)
Believe His wisdom. Believe His goodness. And having taken all your concerns to Him, rest your heart.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Kids update - December 4, 2007
It's been a long time since I've "blogged." Mostly because I'm a perfectionist and think I need to be all comprehensive every time, and there never seems to be spare "time" with nothing else to do in which to write things.
Anyway, here's a recent picture of the girls, wearing dresses that came from my sister Elizabeth after her girls outgrew them. (Ok, so maybe black pants don't match... tights just seem too much trouble.)
Emily is hitting that verbal explosion that I remember Katherine coming to, where she has the ability to attempt to imitate any word you say (if she wants to). She still uses hand motions for "please" and "thank you", though they occasionally come out verbally too. She can communicate what she wants (as long as Mommy remembers that "poooo" (spoon) is not the same as "poo" (food) or any other similar "word" of hers).
She also has a great sense of humor, and likes to do things for the purpose of being funny (as opposed to, kid things that she does being innately funny to adults). E.g., she put part of her cheese sandwich on her head for a hat, and yes, it was funny. (who thinks of making food be a hat??)
Katherine is learning to read with a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" - thanks to Jolene, who was using the book with Anna when we visited them in July. It's nice because pretty quickly they add a little "story" to each lesson (which at the beginning might be all of 3 words), and she looks forward to that.
We try to do some math too, but really dropped the ball on that during November. Maybe we can do better in December. She really likes to do it, it's just a matter of Mommy making time for it. Now that I'm not so exhausted all the time, maybe we can make it a priority again.
Anyway, more to write, but Katherine's waiting for the books I promised to read before bed.
Anyway, here's a recent picture of the girls, wearing dresses that came from my sister Elizabeth after her girls outgrew them. (Ok, so maybe black pants don't match... tights just seem too much trouble.)
Emily is hitting that verbal explosion that I remember Katherine coming to, where she has the ability to attempt to imitate any word you say (if she wants to). She still uses hand motions for "please" and "thank you", though they occasionally come out verbally too. She can communicate what she wants (as long as Mommy remembers that "poooo" (spoon) is not the same as "poo" (food) or any other similar "word" of hers).
She also has a great sense of humor, and likes to do things for the purpose of being funny (as opposed to, kid things that she does being innately funny to adults). E.g., she put part of her cheese sandwich on her head for a hat, and yes, it was funny. (who thinks of making food be a hat??)
Katherine is learning to read with a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" - thanks to Jolene, who was using the book with Anna when we visited them in July. It's nice because pretty quickly they add a little "story" to each lesson (which at the beginning might be all of 3 words), and she looks forward to that.
We try to do some math too, but really dropped the ball on that during November. Maybe we can do better in December. She really likes to do it, it's just a matter of Mommy making time for it. Now that I'm not so exhausted all the time, maybe we can make it a priority again.
Anyway, more to write, but Katherine's waiting for the books I promised to read before bed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)