A lifebuoy is offered

So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. (Colossians 3:5, 10-11)

Put to death...put on your new nature. These are very clear instructions - put the old away, put on the new. Stop going back to the old - stick with the new. How? Be renewed - we need a renewal process to occur. It is not enough to just say 'yes' to Jesus - one must press in to know him well, forsaking all manner of sin, and embracing this new life in Christ with all the passion we once put into pursuing our sin!

In counseling realms, we call this the 'put off - put on' dynamic. We 'put off' some behavior that is not good for us to pursue and we replace it with one that is honorable, upright, and 'good'. We stop and we start. Seems pretty basic, doesn't it? Yet, we have the hardest time with this when it comes to putting it into operation in our lives. As silly as it may sound, when a counselor advises us to write a letter, putting all our thoughts, hurts, and even our anger into that letter, then rip it up, there is a cathartic effect to that task.

While God doesn't ask us to 'write a letter' putting in all our hurts and hangups, he does ask us to bring those things to him, allowing him to be the one to 'destroy' them in our lives. He asks for us to have a catharsis - where sin once dwelt, let it go, be done with it, move on. Put something else in its place - the Word of God, a new action that brings honor into our lives, or even just the peace he gives when we finally let it go. He moves heaven and earth to help us be free - why do we still hold so tightly to those things that he asks us to purge from our lives with his help?

If a drowning man was offered a lifebuoy, do you think he'd reject it and just keep sinking deeper until he finally drowned? Only if that was his ultimate intent! Most of us are drowning in our sin, not sure where our help will come from, but when Jesus offers us that lifebuoy, will we take it? I think so! When he offers us a way to be free of the things that weigh us down and give us such trouble in life, do we let them go? If we are smart, we would! Just sayin!

The perimeter of sin

God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes. (Philippians 2:13) 

When God enables us, he makes us able, giving us the power or ability, as well as the means by which to live holy and upright lives. Consider who is doing the enabling and we might just begin to see our course of action as different than what we might have originally believed it ever could be. On one hand, we work hard to obtain or realize a goal, without anyone really helping us realize that goal. On the other hand, when someone comes alongside, bringing talents we don't possess and apply those talents toward the end goal, we might just realize the project comes to fruition quicker and easier than if we struggled to do it alone. There is something about being enabled to do something which gives us a certain freedom or liberty to pursue it with a greater passion and purpose, isn't there?

Imagine your spiritual goals. You should have some, you know! If you don't, then maybe that is the place to start - with an honest conversation with God about what it is in your life that requires some adjustment in order to be a better example of his love and grace. Spiritual goals may seem a little lofty at first - like wanting to be free of some life-dominating sin or point of consistent compromise in your life. You might not imagine yourself fully "free" of those things, but you can "hope" there might be a point when you would be out from under their weight. At first, the impossibility of "being on the other side" of the habit, sinful pattern, or consistent compromise seems a little bit like you might never be "truly free", but you know scripture declares that you are not only "set free" but being continually "renewed" in that pattern of being "set free". This is referred to in two terms in theological circles: Salvation and Sanctification. Salvation makes you free (you are saved out of whatever it is you were in bondage to). Sanctification makes you continually free (helping you to live free of those bonds over and over again until you stop returning to the place of your bondage completely).

An elephant can be chained to the immediate ten-foot radius around a peg and a chain attached to his rear leg. For a while, he will pull and pull at that staked chain to attempt to be free. In time he will come to think his "freedom" only consists of the ten-foot radius around that pegged chain. In a while, he could even be unlocked from that chain, and he wouldn't move out of that area. Why? He has developed the pattern of bondage. He has accepted his confined place and no longer believes he can escape it. Sin is kind of like that in our lives - for a long time we might resist the hold it has on us and even chafe against it a little. Given enough struggling to be "free" of that sin and we might just come to the place we give up on ever being free. At salvation, the moment we say "yes" to Jesus, the chain is loosed, and the shackle is removed. If we only focus on the thing which held us in bondage for so long, we may never explore the freedom outside of that ten-foot radius! We will believe we are still bound - but if we get outside of that radius even just a little, we begin to experience life as it should be - free and full of good things God intends for us to enjoy fully.

God's plan is to remove the shackles AND the peg that held us in bondage. The evidence of bondage is long gone, but sometimes we continue to remember the peg and shackles as being there, making it almost impossible to escape 'sin's radius'. Remember, he not only 'unshackles' us, but he removes every trace of the thing that held us in the perimeter of sin. Just sayin!

Holding back?

Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. (Romans 6:12-14)

The command is to 'not let sin control the way we live' - the action on our part is to not give in to sinful desires. Can our desires actually change over time? Yes, both physically and spiritually. We might not like a particular food as a child but find ourselves enjoying it as an adult. What happened? Our desires changed. In much the same way, a desire that led to us taking some action that led to sin in our lives can change. How? We get into the Word of God, allow him to change our heart, and the mind's desires will follow!

Give yourself completely to God. What does that actually look like on a daily basis? It could be we spend a little less time on the tablet randomly searching social media feeds, giving that time instead to exploring what God wants to teach us through his Word. It might mean we spend time with others instead of always being on the go. It might also mean we just get quiet before God and listen to what he wants to say to us. God has likely been showing us how to 'give ourselves completely to him', but we haven't been hearing what he's been saying.

Use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. That is a pretty practical instruction, isn't it? Take your thoughts, give them to God. Allow your emotions to be settled by God. Use your talents as God directs you. Your whole body - nothing left out. This may be the rubbing point for many of us all because we want some 'small part' of our lives to be 'our own'. We don't want to have to give it over to God. The good news is that you don't 'have to' give it over, but if you choose to give it over, great things are about to happen! We won't know what those might be until we determine to let go of whatever it is we are holding back. Just sayin!

A change of heart

I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

God's people will continue to struggle with the influence of those 'religious individuals' around them who seek to 'bind' them with rules and regulations. In Paul's epistle to the Galatian church, he recounted the purpose for the Law of Moses - to point out the need for a Savior - but he also reminded them how impossible it is to ever keep ALL of the Law. In fact, he goes so far as to say the Law was meant to be kept in its entirety, but no one was actually able to do that, so depending on those rules and regulations as your means of being made right with God was quite foolish. Grace came to us through the sacrificial offering of Christ dying on the cross. Grace differs from the system of works in the Law - one is God doing it all for us, the other is us trying to do it all for God!

In our passage today, we observe Paul's earnest desire for each of us to understand the unlimited resources available to those who enter into this relationship with God through faith in the finished work of Christ. His Holy Spirit comes to empower us to live right - something we find very difficult without his presence guiding us out of 'slavery' to the way of living by 'rules and regulations'. There is something powerful that happens when we stop 'trying to work our way to God' and we begin to trust that God has already worked his way into our hearts. We begin to find rest and a sense of peace that permeates our every fiber. Is sin still a constant temptation to us? Yes, as long as we live on this earth, sin will tempt us, but with God's Spirit within, sin need not win.

The 'inner strength' that comes from being empowered by the Holy Spirit is more than our 'internal willpower'. Our own willpower is quite ineffectual in changing our motives. Our motives are changed when God's Spirit energizes our thought life, moves upon our emotions, and settles into our heart. The desire to 'live right' or 'upright' is not something we can 'will' ourselves into - it is a condition of the heart that is accomplished when God's love begins to permeate the mind, emotions, and spirit of man. Religion keeps us bound to 'doing' and 'redoing'. Relationship with God sets us free to realize a change of heart we can never accomplish on our own. Just sayin!

Needed: One Rowing Partner

All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. (Havelock Ellis)

Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us. (Hebrews 12:1)

We make moment-by-moment decisions to let go or hold onto whatever makes us feel good, validates our feelings, or determine to be of some value to us. To be painfully truthful with you, I have held onto some things I would have been better off letting go of, determined somethings to be of great worth that really had very little worth, and listened to my emotions way too much in this lifetime. Those things only served to trip me up - keeping me in a place I didn't want to be. When I finally let go of what I thought was so important to hold onto, I found myself pursuing God with a greater focus and a deeper love.

Why is it we hold onto things? I know we don't always know the thing we hold onto so tightly is going to do us so much harm, or keep us from pursuing things that would be more beneficial in our lives, but we hold on for dear life. We get 'wrapped up' in stuff that keeps us bound in the muck and mire of life, all the while missing the point that what we are holding onto is more of an anchor than an oar. For some of us, it is time to let go. We have held onto past hurts, bad memories, limiting thoughts, and dark secrets. It may not be evident to you that these things exist, but if you are not moving forward, you are probably stuck.

As Ellis said, it is both letting go and holding on that must be balanced, but what I know from my own experience is that it isn't always clear what I should hold onto and what needs to go. I have had to ask God on more than one occasion to show me very clearly if what I was holding onto was actually deterring my progress forward. Was that hurt ever dealt with and forgiveness given? Was the perceived threat ever acknowledged as no real threat at all because God was in control all the time? Did that thing I thought would give me a sense of worth really just mislead me into some dead end? 

Be very cautious when you pray for God to reveal any anchors, though. You must be willing to not just be set free from the anchor - you must also be willing to take up the oars. A boat set free from the anchor will just drift if there is no one to take up the oars. God expects us to put in the effort to be free from the place where we have been so deeply anchored - to 'take up the oars' and move on. That may be the sticking point for many of us, because 'rowing' isn't easy, but know this - two can row much better than one! Ask God to bring you a 'rowing partner' to help you. You might just find the one he brings to your aid knows now just how to row, but the direction you should be rowing! Just sayin!

Trying to do life alone?

Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. (James 1:13-15)

Did you realize that sin actually grows in the dark? That is why it is so wrong for us to hide our sin - in the dark it has a greater chance of growing. We lust and that leads to looking - looking leads to action - trying to stop leads to us thinking about that sin time and time again. It is a cyclical thing. Shame makes us want to hide our sin - but that is the worst thing we can do when we sin. Don't conceal your sin - confess it. Sin needs to be brought into the light in order to be free from it. "You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them." (Proverbs 28:13) Confessing your sins to God brings forgiveness and cleansing - healing comes when we confess our sins in honesty to others. We are not meant to live this Christian walk alone - because we cannot fight the appeal of sin on our own. We need the accountability that comes when we 'partner together' to overcome sin in our lives.

We deal with this 'internal' temptation to given into sin in community with others who know how to walk close to Jesus. We find we are not fighting alone - we have others fighting along with us. As we 'fight together' we are sending the enemy into flight in large ways. Emotional healing comes when we stop hiding our sin and begin to realize we have help from others who walk with us while we are fighting our sin. Sin is a killer unless we deal with it - hiding it doesn't deal with it - it just attempts to cover it up. The peace we crave comes when we stop concealing our sin. We are only as strong over our sin as we are honest about our sin. That scares a whole bunch of us, doesn't it? Honesty about what we struggle with the most is tough business, but as long as we conceal our sin we allow it to grow - to continue to entice us from within.

Some of us are intent about living free of our sin - some of us are 'kind of intent' - when we partner with one who is more intent than we are, we find our level of accountability is brought to a new level. We begin to set new limits on our temptation - we stop hiding that sin and bring it into the light. A pastor friend once told me we will always seek to hide until we are surrounded by others who don't hide. It is a lot easier to stop hiding when we begin to allow others to see our 'real' life and who live 'real' lives themselves. If we have a tendency to always hide our sin, we may be hanging around with a group of others who also are hiding their sin. Remember, when we are with someone who craves righteousness, we find we are freer to crave the same things.

Sin needs not only forgiveness - it needs healing. Sin's forgiveness comes through Christ - at the foot of the cross. Sin's healing comes in community together - as we partner together with others who crave righteousness (freedom from sin). Eventually the appeal of sin will become less and less in our lives - because the appeal of righteousness will be greater and greater. God guides our steps toward confession, but he also guides our steps toward healing. Don't try to do life alone - it isn't going to end well. Just sayin!

A little 'history' lesson

When I was much younger I first heard the saying, "Mountains out of Molehills". Have you ever heard that one? It is that kind of behavior that some would refer to as 'histrionic' - kind of always recalling the past and making WAY more out of it than we should. There have been times I have latched onto a memory of something I have done or said and done just that - made WAY more out of it than I should have. It was a 'slip' of the tongue, an action not becoming a child of the King, or a moment when all sensibilities just melted away and I indulged way too much. In an of themselves, those things mattered, but they didn't deserve the continued attention I paid to them by looking back all the time and recounting the 'depth of my sin'. We make mountains out of what really was just a little puff of dust in the scheme of things! A "mountain-maker" is kind of 'over-reactive' - there just isn't the 'substance' to make a mountain, but we keep looking until we can find something to add to the heap until it resembles a 'mountain'!

When wickedness arrives, shame's not far behind; contempt for life is contemptible. (Proverbs 18:3 MSG)

In the purest sense, this tendency or attitude describes our response to life that is disproportionate to whatever it was that really occurred. We all have a tendency to exaggerate a situation once in a while. Yet, as it comes to the shame we experience and often express over our misdeeds, I think we start out standing on a molehill, or a mere puff of dust, and before long it becomes a mountain in our minds. We don't have moles in my neck of the woods, but we do have prairie dogs or gophers. Those tiny mounds of dirt they push up as they burrow into the ground are certainly not very "ominous" in appearance at first glance. Yet, if you are the ground hog, those very small mounds of dirt serve some very significant purpose. They provide a barrier against the forces that would seek to invade their burrows, such as rain water. They act as tiny "walls or dams" to keep out the waters. They provide a vantage point for them to spy out their territory. As they perch on the top of one of those mounds, they can look all around. Only problem - their view is limited to this very "low" perspective. There are all kinds of "overhead" viewpoints which clearly expose those little critters scurrying about on their mounds. They also provide something to hide behind. They can barely peak over the top and begin to "sense" if there is safety in the immediate area. They can quickly retreat back into their hole if a threat is sensed. I wonder if that is what we do with out 'molehills' - use them as a place of retreat when life gets a little too harried for us.

Do prairie dog holes act as a good example of shame in our lives? Rain comes into our lives in either the form of "healing" or "cleansing" rain - direct from the throne of God. If we build dams against the "rain" of God's grace in our lives, we never really expose ourselves to the very thing which will totally cleanse and free us! The barriers we place between us and God in the form of our walls of shame actually serve to keep us from receiving the very thing that he lovingly provides for our healing. We also think we have a good view of our own sinfulness and misguided steps - seeing our shame in these steps as this huge mound of guilt we stand upon. Problem is we don't have as good of a vantage point as we think we do! God sees our shame as molehills or puffs of dust, while we see it as mountains! Our shame looks like an impossibility we have to overcome. If we were truthful here, we sometimes don't want to remove those walls because we have worked so hard to get those walls built! We hide so cleverly behind those mounds! We think they cover us from view, but guess what - - it is hard to hide from God behind a molehill or puff of dirt! Try it and you will find you have very little "cover" in the scheme of the Almighty's vantage point. There is nothing that covers sin like the blood of Jesus. Whatever "cover" we try on our own will only be futile.

I guess we focus on the molehills way too much. God focuses on the mountains - the places he desires for us to truly dwell. We find shelter in our molehills of shame and misery, all the while hearing God clearly call us up to higher places in his presence. Peace is ours in the mountains. High atop the mountains of his grace, we have the vantage point to see our sin for what it truly is - misguided steps that God will help us to not walk again if we give them to him and allow him to free us from the 'dusty places' of our past lives. We get all 'histrionic' - but the only 'history' that matters to God the Father is the history of the cross! Just sayin!