The Foolishness of God Saved My Life

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe" (1 Cor 1:18)

Paul is pointing out in this verse that there is a stark difference between the world's wisdom and God's wisdom. What God calls wisdom is seen as foolishness by the world. I can remember moments where I scoffed at church and Christians as a kid, in high school, and even in college. Those memories are shameful to me now, but exhibits the kind of scorn that I had during my developmental years.

I learned all about science in school and the theory of evolution. I went to the best schools from primary through college. No where was I taught spiritual disciplines and truth, but at the same time no one could say that I'm not fully trained in the wisdom of the world.

But what kind of behaviors did my scorn of Godly ways develop? I turned into an unhappy and lonely young adult who didn't feel like I had a sliver of hope or meaning in my life. I was empty.

It was not until I resolved to let God run my life fully and completely that I knew that I had a purpose. I wasn't just a number amongst the seas of evolved accidents, but I was fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together in my mother's womb. I also knew how to conduct myself more and more as I read the scripture and learned that God's wisdom was unchanged from the beginning of time. What I had once believed as foolish, gave me the greatest wisdom in the world.

My life changed, and even more importantly, the Holy Spirit had come into my life. I no longer walked alone. Frequent moments of loneliness that I used to have were completely gone. I knew that even when I sat by myself, the Lord was with me. It was an amazing thing - a miracle by itself.

When I hear of suicides or similar acts of desperation, I always despair that that person obviously tried to handle all their problems and issues alone. The weight of the world wasn't meant to be handled by our own strength. As created beings, we were meant to walk with our Creator. I always think, "What if they had only called out to Jesus - not just for a miracle, but to resolve to do everything God's ways?" I know they would have discovered the strength to change, and the way to a life deeper and more fulfilling than they could have ever imagined.

Lord Jesus, thank You for the way out of the downward spiral of my life. Thank You for loving me so much that you continued to pursue me even when I mocked You. If there is a way for me to help others know You, let me do so. In Jesus' name, AMEN.

Sin = Enslavement; Jesus Breaks Sins and Gives Life

"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. for the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts." (Romans 6:8-12)

In Christianity, we hear of the free gift of Christ very often. Here in Romans 6, Paul details to us what exactly Christ has done for us. Christ sacrificed Himself for the death that we should have died because of our sins, and being God His death has the power to cover all our sins. In addition, only the death of a perfect man under the law could serve as that sacrifice as a sinful man would already deserve death on his own faults. Christ's resurrection of Himself on the third day evidences that death's power has been overcome by Christ's sacrifice. If we believe in Him AND become His follower, then His death is extended to us because we die to our old selves, and are renewed in Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin - but are now slaves to righteousness.

This message isn't a simple one - and although I've been a Christian for a few years now, I also had to struggle with the above paragraph to try to break it down to something simple for me to write...and I only think that I half succeeded.

The part of Romans 6 that has really struck me though is the concept of Lordship. We are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.

Sin attracts us because we want to be free to do whatever we want to do. Our society tends to live by the motto: "If it feels good, do it". Well, sin always feels good at first. There is a rush of doing something that even our souls know is illicit. We are going against God and rebelling feels good.

But as we do our sin more and more, something terrible happens. The enjoyment level falls but the craving to keep doing it increases. Soon we are slowly consumed by the need to sin more and more, while the only enjoyment comes from thinking and doing more perverse ways of sinning. We fall into a deeper and deeper cycle and addiction. Sin, which seemed so attractive and free, has ensnared us.

As we become enslaved to sin, the enjoyment of life decreases. It is difficult to live because we need to sin. We are not free any longer and we have given over our souls to sin.

But Christ is the light that saves us because He alone can break the power of sin. Yes, by accepting Him, we become His followers and His children. But, being our Creator, He knows the optimum ways in which we need to live. He has given us guidelines through His Word to direct us in the ways that will be beneficial to us - ways to maximize our enjoyment and our freedom. But one of the first things that He does for us when we become Christians is that He breaks the shackles of sin, and provides us with a way out of those sins. For some people it is a dramatic turnaround. For others like myself, it is a gradual working and changing of my life more and more towards His ways.

It is such a paradox that although Christ gives us commandments which seem to be so constrictive, our true freedom, peace and happiness is derived from those boundaries. It is like a rule that we can't eat a poison berry. Yes, the berry may taste sweet and delicious, but the poison will ultimately kill us. While eating the berry may seem like freedom, the death that it leads to is the anti-thesis.

Lord Jesus, today You have allowed me to think once again about all that You've done for me in my life. I know that I need to renew my understanding from time to time in order to keep strong in my faith - especially because I have such a short term memory and we are bombarded with messages to sin and live with the world on a daily basis. But, when I recall Your power to break sins, I have to sit and marvel at all the changes You've made in my life. While I am not perfect, You have given me new life, and I am so grateful for it all. I am free in ways I have never known and I have peace and joy deeper than I ever could have imagined. Thank You Jesus. In Your name I pray, AMEN.

Remembering God's Grace To Overcome Temptation

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools..." (Rom 1:20-22)

"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." (Romans 1:28-32)

How do we know God? Paul tells us that we know Him intrinsically in our hearts via the power of our own creation as well as the creation that is all around us. The sheer wonderment of the world is our proof and evidence of the invisible attributes of the God we are to worship and obey.

The penalty of the rejection of God - foolish because we are already given ample evidence of His existence - is to be left to a debased mind...wallowing in a list of miserable sins. The picture that Paul provides is of a person who is a selfish sociopath, uncaring of others, narcissistic, and one who enjoy scheming, inventing and doing evil.

It is a stark reminder for me of my life before I gave my life to Christ. Outwardly, I was a normal guy, with a good group of friends and a budding career, but inside I felt so empty. Charity and charitable acts seemed like a waste of time and resources, and I was a bit of a sociopath too.

I knew of God, being blessed to have been forced to attend Sunday School as a kid, but I wanted to live the life that was glamorized on TV. I thought the TV life was the type of life that I should have, and as reality never measured up to the media, I was deeply unhappy.

I remember the day that I decided that my way of living life wasn't working. I remember giving my life over to the Lord. It was the most informal prayer I've ever done. I simply said, "Lord, I am tired of trying to do things my way and failing. I'm going to try it Your way from now on." There were no tears, no fanfare.

And the Lord has been faithful to gently show me that He loved me, that He was real, and gave my heart joy, fullness and the capacity to love.

I know that it can seem like the ways of God seem harsh and restricting. It seems like the freedom to sin is the greatest thing in the world - and like an illicit narcotic, it is fun to sin at first. Everyone is laughing and egging you on. It feels good to be accepted, especially when everyone is participating in the same stuff. But, because the fun is so short-lived and empty, it soon becomes a drag...an addiction that needs to be fed over and over again to feel alive.

The reason I write this today is for myself. I needed to remember my old life and to remember the deep emptiness that came out of that life. I needed to remember how far God has removed me from all that over the past 12 years or so. I am deeply contented today, and I cannot count the blessing that have come my way, in good times and bad.

I needed to remember because life has been hectic recently, and there are times in weak moments that I am tempted by my flesh and wicked heart to remember sinful thoughts. It is easy to see the fun in sin, but difficult to remember the depths of destruction and emptiness it can bring.

I would not trade my life for any other, and I have to remember to be vigilant by recalling how destructive and empty my life was before the Lord...knowing that I never want to go there ever again.

Lord Jesus, You have been so good to me. I cannot conceive of a life that is lived without You. Truly, you have saved me from myself and the life that I lived before. Truly, you have done wonders in my life that I could never repay. Thank You for loving me, Your creation, the way that You do. May I live every moment and second in worship for what You are and all that You have done. In Jesus' name, AMEN.

Why We Forgive

²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. ²³ Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. ²⁶ The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ ²⁷ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
²⁸ “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’^{b]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[b]} ³⁰ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. ³¹ So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. ³² Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. ³³ Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ ³⁴ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
³⁵ “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

(Matt 18:22-35)

Forgiveness is a really tough issue and one that we have to wrestle with every day. The truth is that we don't live in a world where everything is perfect, and we also live in a world where we each have free will to do good and evil. So there are real times when we are hurt by the events in our lives.

What I've noticed here in this passage are some of the following:

Forgiveness is personal: The reason that we feel so free as Christians is that we have been forgiven our transgressions by God. Yes, we have done many terrible things and each sin is in the end a denial of God's ways, but when we come to Christ, our sins are washed away by his shed blood. We no longer face death in eternity, but life. In the same way however, as we begged our King, Jesus Christ for forgiveness, which he then provided - we must also show that same compassion when we are faced with the chance to forgive.

Forgiveness is a personal choice. No one can make that decision for us, but instead we must exercise it by our own volition. Unlike other faiths, Christians believe that forgiveness should be extended regardless of whether or not someone comes to us and asks to be forgiven.

The main motivation for me is that Jesus Christ has absorbed my sins, and I have given my allegiance and Lordship to Christ. My life is not my own any longer, and it is not myself that I represent, but Christ. In the same vein, I do not take offense and judge on my behalf, but instead I defer all judgments to Christ who will judge us during the end-times. In that sense, there is no longer anything for me to take offense over. Everything I am is given to Christ.

Another more personal reason for this is that keeping the offense within ourselves is toxic. If we remain in a state of offense, we will rehearse and re-live our hurts over and over again. Each time we do that, we are stabbing ourselves with the past and killing our joy. The Lord saved us to be free from sin - those that we have committed and those that have been committed against us. We are new creations, and we should not carry around our offenses because they will act as an anchor - keeping us from becoming the person that God is molding us to be.

We are expected to act according to the way God has treated us: Above all else, God is desiring for us to be cleansed of our sins and of the sins of the world. He desires that we should have eternal life with Him. In the same way, we should not be focused on the faults of the people around us, but we should be focused on seeing their souls saved, that they might have eternal life instead of eternal hell.

When we take offense and keep it with us, it prevents us from seeing the deeper roots - that we are here on earth to spread the good news of the gospel above all else. And in doing so, it is natural and logical that we'll be in the world with non-believers - like missionaries.

In those situations, we must seek to be like the Lord and suspend judgment because they are non-believers. We must be lights in the darkness.

In the case of believers, we must confront sins in a specific way as described in Mt 18:15-17.

Forgiveness is not forgetting: While forgiveness entails a measure of letting go of judgement and not holding it against a person, it doesn't mean that we forget what happened. In this example, the King clearly remembered what the hypocritical servant did, and then paid him back according to his actions when the servant did not extend the same type of forgiveness to others.

Unlike Christ, we don't have the power to grant eternal life via forgiveness of sins. However, we do have the power to let go of our judging of a situation and giving it over to Christ. We will not forget someone's actions against us, but we will not let it simmer within us at the same time. That is ultimately what forgiveness is - suspending and giving the ultimate judgment to Christ - and He is a just and perfect judge.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your gift of life. Thank You for loving us so deeply that You came to die on the cross. We not only have eternal life, but we have freedom and forgiveness from our sins. Likewise, we have given our lives over to You, and as such, we have passed judgment to You as well. Nothing in all creation is hidden from Your sight, and because of that, You can and will judge everyone fairly according to their deeds. We can rest in that and trust in that. Let us then be focused to the people around us. Let us then be ready to pray for our enemies and seek them to know You more and more. In Jesus' name, Amen!