No greater gift

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. (Hebrews 9:11-14)

With his own blood - we are bought with a price we could not pay; given a gift we could not earn; and brought into a position we could never possess apart from Christ. One sacrifice - one time - for all time. We are secure because of his gift - the gift we received so many Christmas morns long ago. The old passed away and the new has come. What the 'old systems' of worship and good deeds could never do was done in one moment in time, but it lasts an eternity.

What all our good deeds (good works) and acts of 'contrition' could never do for us has been done through the blood of Christ - our consciences are made pure. If you have ever dealt with a sense of guilt because of your past deeds, something you have said or done that just didn't 'sit well' in your conscience, you know the extreme joy and peace that comes when you finally bring that thing into the light and get rid of it once and for all. The conscience has a way of holding onto the 'bad' we do, but it also reminds us of the 'bad' we are!

The purity of conscience Christ offers is not just a one-time deal. It is a lifetime of us feeling 'guilt' for misguided actions and poorly spoken words, bringing those things to him in full repentance, and feeling that 'load of guilt' lifted. Peace settles in around our souls and we feel 'at one' again with Christ. There is no greater gift we could 'open' this Christmas - for that gift has been given already. We just need to open up our hearts to receive the gift. Just those wrapped gifts under the tree this season, this gift is received when we accept it as ours. Just sayin!

No grit should remain

Only the person involved can know his own bitterness or joy—no one else can really share it. Laughter cannot mask a heavy heart. When the laughter ends, the grief remains. Only a simpleton believes everything he’s told! A prudent man understands the need for proof. A wise man is cautious and avoids danger; a fool plunges ahead with great confidence. A short-tempered man is a fool. He hates the man who is patient. The simpleton is crowned with folly; the wise man is crowned with knowledge. (Proverbs 14:10, 13, 15-18)

Whether we know it or not, we often bear our bitterness alone - although others may step in to attempt to help us bear it, it is primarily something we bear alone. We can experience great joy, but no one can fully experience it the same as we do. Emotions are really something others attempt to share with us and we with them, but in essence, the joy or bitterness of another is something we can never truthfully fully comprehend and experience in the same manner as the one experiencing it personally. Bitterness is a harsh emotion. I have a dark grey/black quartz kitchen sink and if I us an abrasive cleanser to clean it, I usually see something after having finished the cleaning - a residue. I don't wear gloves in the process, so I usually experience a little bit of an "after-taste" of the cleanser on my skin when I bring my hands to my face. Bitter things often leave an after-taste and a lot of residue in our lives. The after-taste and the residue are really experienced by the one with the bitterness - although others may see the mess left and get a little flavor of the issue which led up to the mess they see just by being around the bitter person.

Laughter is often used to attempt to conceal either the mess which has been left behind or the sourness which remains. Even after the laughter ends, a heaviness frequently returns - unspoken, but real to the one experiencing its weight. Things that are hard for us to bear, or wear us down, are never meant for us to bear alone. They aren't meant for us to hide deep within and never express. Try as we might, we really can never conceal what leaves a residue or gives a sharp after-taste anyway! The prudent carefully consider their steps unlike the fool who just believes everything he sees or is told. Now, consider how we might deal with bitterness in another. Brush the surface of that 'offended' area and we know something is hidden deeper because we experience the "grit" of bitterness. If we "listen" with our hearts to the 'concealing' laughter of the one who is really dealing with the mess left behind in their life by tragedy or misguided steps, we might just hear the extreme hurt and haunting emptiness bitterness has left in its path.

Laughter is an action or sound. In most circumstances we'd think it was linked to joy or excitement, but in some situations, it may just be a masking of something wearing the individual down on the inside. We use it as a tool to hide the real emotions we are experiencing. We have become quite proficient at concealing our emotions - using one thing or action to mask another. The wise will see beyond the action of laughter or the sound of "cheer" it may resemble. What they will experience when the laughter fades away is the "after-taste" of bitterness. If we really want to help another bear up under the weight they are experiencing, we need to cut past the laughter and get at what has left the residue - what brings the offensive after-taste in the first place. When we considered my sink, scrubbed a little raw by the cleanser, we might just have believed what remained is just a sign of the "cleanliness" of the sink. If we are truthful, the residue which remains isn't very attractive, nor is it pleasing to us because it rubs off on those who come into contact with it, the food rinsed in it, and neither is all that pleasant.

How do we deal with the cleanser's residue? Don't we rinse it time and time again until it has finally all found its way down the drain? Maybe we might just learn from this illustration as it applies to the residue of bitterness in our lives. We need a little more than the initial "cleansing" of those bitter feelings - we need the continual rinsing provided by the Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit until the remaining residue and sour after-taste is finally gone! We often don't see the residue because we believe the cleaning was all there was to the matter. A close friend may be the one who will actually point out the need for the "rinsing" of the residue! If they experience a bit of the 'grit' of bitterness, they might just say something - we need to hear what they say. Just sayin!

Bathed, Clean, Freshly Dressed

It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this. (Titus 3:3-8)

Hmmm...both stupid and stubborn...not exactly the way I would want to be described, but in truth that description isn't too far off!  In our sinful, self-absorbed life "before Christ", we are all both stupid and stubborn.  Stupid implies that we were lacking the ordinary quickness or 'soundness' of mind that we now possess with having the mind of Christ.  Our thinking outside of Christ was pretty dulled, especially where it came to the things of deep spiritual awareness or knowledge. It was slow as it comes to the spiritual things and pretty wishy-washy to boot.  We'd like to "clean up" the description of our state of mind as "foolish", but truth be told - it all means the same thing!

Stubborn is quite applicable to our state of 'being' prior to Christ.  Stubborn carries the idea of being so fixed on some way of thinking or course of action that we are resolute in that course of action regardless of where it will cause us to end up.  We don't "want" to waiver from it because we have "willed" to continue, in spite of the consequences - we might not even consider the consequences because we are so attached to the pursuit we can see nothing else.  I'd say "stubborn" about wraps up our condition of "willful" disobedience prior to Christ taking over the controls of our lives! I might even go so far as to say stubborn describes some of my current actions because I just don't let go of stuff that I know clearly is the wrong stuff to be pursuing!

The neatest part of this passage is the "but when".  But when God...
Think about it - when God stepped in, he saved us from the dulled thinking and placed us on a course that would not take us off some deep end into a pit of despair.  I love the "buts" in the Bible - there is always a hope for something better when we see that the condition we are in is not determined to be our permanent condition because we have a merciful and gracious God that reaches out to lift us out of our stupid and stubborn life pursuits. The 'buts' are there to help us realize we aren't 'bound to' being the stubborn and stupid individuals we can be apart from Christ!

We have been washed us inside and out by the Spirit and that washing is a continual thing.  We are washed so that our choices will be affected - so the actions we exhibit won't be as stubborn or stupid as they would be if we remained steadfastly committed to doing things 'our own way'.  Choices begin in the thought life - if it is moved from a place of 'lacking soundness' to a place of 'soundness of mind', won't the choices we make be better?  Certainly!  Actions proceed from our thoughts - so the way to better actions is through better thinking.  The way to better thinking is an exchanged mind - renewed (washed) by the Spirit of the living God!  We've been given the freedom to exhibit a new life - the life given by the Spirit of God. It is not 'positive thinking' - it is 'positive living' because our thoughts have been purified (cleaned up) by the Spirit of God within.

Our new life demands new choices and new actions.  We don't take a bath and then put on our old, filthy clothing we just finished the yard work in an hour before.  We put on fresh undies, don a freshly laundered shirt, and pull on a clean pair of shorts.  Snug in the feeling of freshness that we experience through the "bath" and the "donning" of the clean clothes, we feel like a new person!  Translate that into our spiritual life for just a moment.  We are "bathed" by the Spirit and the Word - cleaning up our minds, washing away the dirty effects of sin in our lives.  Then we are told to clothe ourselves with some pretty awesome stuff - peace, joy, righteousness, etc.  There is a "freshness" in the renewal of the mind that produces a "freshness" in our "appearance". I guess it goes without saying that I certainly don't want to embrace a life of stupid decisions followed by stubborn actions - that would be silly.  My life has been transformed - I've been bathed by the Spirit.  How about you? Just askin!

Don't buy sticky, red soda when you have teenagers!

I watched a nature show last week in which a bald eagle landed on some fresh black tar laid on the roadway.  It was still hot and very sticky.  He became trapped in the sticky substance, all while trying to catch a meal nearby in the same mired mess.  Sadly, neither accomplished their task - the bird of prey did not get his meal, nor did the rodent cross to a place of safety.  I believe it may have been Joel Olsteen who said something like: "No matter where you at this very moment, this isn't the place you are meant to get stuck or hang out forever.  Each of us was created to rise above that present level and begin to soar to new heights."  Those aren't his exact words, but you get the idea.  I think it goes without saying - we all get "stuck" at some level in life where we just don't really know how to break free of whatever it is we are mired in.  Those times can be the hardest, but they can also be the most rewarding because they will test our faith, challenge our determination, and refine our focus.  We should never stagnate there, content to just "deal", but rather look upward and ask God how it is we are to break free into flight again to the next place he has prepared for us.

So since we stand surrounded by all those who have gone before, an enormous cloud of witnesses, let us drop every extra weight, every sin that clings to us and slackens our pace, and let us run with endurance the long race set before us. Now stay focused on Jesus, who designed and perfected our faith. He endured the cross and ignored the shame of that death because He focused on the joy that was set before Him; and now He is seated beside God on the throne, a place of honor.  (Hebrews 12:1-2 VOICE)

This present level we face may be the greatest challenge we've face to date, or it could be the most delightful of places we have ever been.  It almost stands to reason we would want to escape the one challenging us and remain anchored in the one we have found delight and joy within.  Yet, both places are not a permanent placement for any of us.  We were meant to grow, expand, come into new experiences with Jesus - that means we cannot ever become content in just "living" where we are at right now.

Weights need to be dropped - those things which burden us unnecessarily.  Easier said than done - I know!  Sin is a weight we cannot afford to bear, but it has a way of wanting to cling to us even when we lay it down.  A few years back, my kids had a graduation party at the house.  We obtained all the obligatory munchies, subs, and sodas so they could really have a good time just hanging out.  I recall this one episode with a two liter, red sugary soda which really taught me a lesson.  For some unknown reason, the soda was under way more pressure than it should have been (maybe because the house was full of teenage boys being boys).  Upon uncapping the soda there was an immediate explosion of red liquid everywhere - from cabinet to floor, wall to wall, appliance to doorway.  Immediate clean up took place, but you know what I noticed?  No matter how well I thought I'd been able to scrub that sugary drink from the recesses it sought, it kept showing up again and again!

If you have ever had one of those things happen to you then you understand what I am about to say next - no matter how hard we try to escape the invasion of the sugary mess, it kept being the thing we'd find in some places we never ever imagined it could have gone!  Weights and sins have this same effect - they creep into places we didn't imagine they could ever have gone!  Before long, they are clinging to parts of us we just didn't imagine they could have influence over. In order to be free of their effect and "clinging hold", we need some pretty determined "cleansing" to occur.  I had to take apart every kitchen drawer, remove all the items within, unload the kitchen cabinets, then begin the process of scrubbing each and every surface - inside and out.  Then the items within needed to be washed and dried, replaced where they belonged, with new shelf liner to boot.  It took me time, energy, and a great deal of tenacity to "rise above" the invasion of the sticky red substance, but when it was all done, you know what I realized?  My kitchen sparkled!  Every drawer had a good cleaning and organizing.  Unwanted stuff which had just collected as clutter was gone.  My kitchen was transformed.

I don't know what needs transforming in your life today, but today's level is not the level you were meant to stay at forever. It may take a great deal of focus and dedication to rise above where you are today, but tomorrow's heights are calling and there is a transformation just waiting to happen!  Just sayin!

Got a little residue or after-taste?

Each heart knows its own bitterness.  We pretty much bear our bitterness alone - although others may step in to attempt to help us bear it, it is primarily something we bear alone.  We can experience great joy, but no one can fully experience it the same as we do.  Each of these emotions are really something others attempt to share with us and we with them, but in essence, the joy or bitterness of another is something we can never truthfully fully comprehend and experience in the same manner as the one originally experiencing it.  

Only the person involved can know his own bitterness or joy—no one else can really share it.  Laughter cannot mask a heavy heart. When the laughter ends, the grief remains. Only a simpleton believes everything he’s told! A prudent man understands the need for proof. A wise man is cautious and avoids danger; a fool plunges ahead with great confidence. A short-tempered man is a fool. He hates the man who is patient. The simpleton is crowned with folly; the wise man is crowned with knowledge. (Proverbs 14:10, 13, 15-18 TLB)

Bitterness is a harsh emotion.  If you have ever used an abrasive cleanser to clean your sink, you might just see something after you have finished the cleaning - a residue.  If you did not wear gloves in the process, you might just experience a little bit of an "after-taste" of the cleanser on your skin.  Bitter things often leave an after-taste and a lot of residue.  The after-taste and the residue are really experienced by the one with the bitterness - although others may see the mess left and get a little flavor of the issue which led up to the mess they see.  

Laughter is often used in such a manner so as to attempt to conceal either the mess which has been left behind or the sourness which remains. Oftentimes, even after the laughter ends, a heaviness remains - unspoken, but real to the one experiencing its weight.  Truth is, things which are hard for us to bear or which wear us down are never meant for us to bear alone.  They are also aren't meant for us to hide deep within and never express.  Try as we might, we really can never conceal what leaves a residue or gives a sharp after-taste anyway!

The prudent carefully consider their steps unlike the fool who just believes everything he sees or is told.  This is important in considering how some deal with their bitterness.  When we only brush the surface, we know something is deeper as we experience the "grit" of bitterness.  Yet, if all we do is "listen" to the laughter of the one who is really dealing with the mess left behind by life's tragedy or missteps, we might just hear the extreme hurt and plaguing emptiness bitterness has left in its path.

Laughter is an action or sound.  In most circumstances we'd think it was linked to joy or excitement, but in some situations it may just be a masking of something wearing the individual down on the inside.  We use it as a tool to hide the real emotions we are experiencing.  In fact, we have become quite proficient at concealing our emotions - using one thing to mask another.  The wise will see beyond the action of laughter or the sound of "cheer" it may resemble.  What they will experience when the laughter fades away is the "after-taste" of bitterness.

If we really want to help another bear the weight they are under, we need to cut past the laughter and get at what has left the residue and what brings the offensive after-taste in the first place.  When we consider our sink, scrubbed a little raw by the cleanser, we might just believe what remains is just a sign of the "cleanliness" of the sink.  If we are truthful, the residue which remains isn't very attractive, nor is it pleasing to us because it rubs off on those who come into contact with it.  

How do we deal with the cleanser's residue?  Don't we rinse it time and time again until it has finally all found its way down the drain?  Maybe we might just learn from this illustration as it applies to the residue of bitterness in our lives.  We need a little more than the initial "cleansing" - we need the continual rinsing until the remaining residue and sour after-taste is finally gone!  Truth is - we often don't see the residue because we believe the cleaning was all there was to the matter.  A close friend may be the one who will actually point out the need for the "rinsing" of the residue!  Just sayin!

Purify me

Yesterday we discussed passion and purpose.  We have one more character trait to consider in our "P" List which is purity.  Now, this sometimes gets overlooked in our consideration of character traits to "put on" because we don't live in a very "pure" world, do we?  It is hard to make pure choices when all around you others are bombarding you with all kinds of wrong ones.  Purity is the freedom from anything which debases (reduces in quality or value), contaminates (adding/mixing in that which makes unclean), or pollutes (corrupts or defiles).  In the most literal sense, impurity is the "adding in" of something which does not belong.  That which does not belong actually changes the consistency or integrity of what does.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.  (Matthew 5:8 MSG)

But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.  (I John 3:2-3 MSG)

Purity of heart - mind, will, and emotions untainted by that which "adds in" the things with confuse, bring conflict in our motives, or sets us up to rely upon the unreliable.  It is with pure hearts we are able to see God - for God is pure.  Children like to emulate adults, don't they?  They mimic behaviors they see in the adults they are frequently around.  The same is true of a child of God - we mimic the behaviors of the one we behold the most frequently.  If we are beholding Christ, we mimic his behaviors.  If we are beholding others who are not like Christ, we might just begin to mimic theirs.  

In essence, purity is the absence of something.  I think this is where we sometimes get it wrong, because we somehow think purity is the "adding" of something rather than allowing something to be removed.  Throughout scripture, there are portions which refer to things like the refiner's fire.  The fire of the refiner burns hot, allowing the metals to melt, bringing to the surface the things which are "contaminants" in the metals - those things which will weaken the integrity and strength of the metal.  We also see the idea of the threshing wheel - the place where the grain is turned over and over again until the grain is separated from the unusable part known as the chaff.  The chaff is blown away, the wheat remains.  There is also the idea of the winemaker observing his wine.  As the grapes are crushed, the juices are extracted, leaving behind that which will only add bitterness and impurity to the finished product.  All these speak to the idea of being free from something which contaminates, weakens, or renders less than useful. 

Purity is the absence of the "contaminating" influences which impact our choices in life.  Whenever we are faced with choices, we find ourselves "weighing" the choices.  Why?  One appears better than the other - it has some "merit" which makes us want to make one choice over the other.  When we are making choices from a pure heart, they will be wise ones.  When we have impurities in our heart (mind, will or emotions), we might just find ourselves making choices which don't produce the purest product in the end.

Purity is actually the result of several things:

- Cleansing:  We often think of cleansing as that which is accomplished through some process of scrubbing, sanitizing, or sweeping away.  God might just think of cleansing as any process which actually empties us.  Empty vessels are readied to receive something afresh.  Cleansing actually "freshens" us - readying us for the new thing God wants to do within.

- Sifting:  Mom had a sifter back in the day.  We don't so much use them today.  In fact, they are hard to find.  The purpose of the sifter was to separate.  The coarse parts were separated from the finer parts.  This is exactly how God uses this process in our lives - he separates the coarser (unwholesome) parts from the finer parts.  

- Burning:  Not too many of us want to jump at this one, because the furnace is a "hot" place.  If a farmer has a stump right in the middle of his field, he may work at removing that stump for a long time.  Digging it out may not seem practical.  Leaving it there allows for it regrow and is a hindrance to the plow.  He will often resort to burning it out.  He exposes it as much as possible and then burns it.  As the burning process occurs, the stump is "consumed".  In the consumption of the stump, it reduces in size and strength.  The fire of God's Word is kind of like this in our lives - it consumes us, reducing anything which will present a hindrance to our spiritual, emotional, or relational health.

So, as we wrap up our "P" List today, let's keep in mind passion and purpose in light of our latest trait, purity.  Purpose is the reason we exist, passion is what gives us the "umph" to fulfill our purpose, and purity is the basis by which we see God's purpose fully come alive in each and every aspect of our lives.  So, instead of resisting the cleansing, sifting, and burning in our lives, maybe we'd do well to embrace it as the means by which we come into what God fully purposes for us.  Just sayin!

Washed up and Walking on!

Clean hands and a pure heart - two conditions we often find eluding us.  Our hands get "dirtied" by the things we do - the actions we take.  Our hearts reveal their "soiled" condition by the words we speak, the thoughts we entertain, etc.  Today's passage points to the benefits of both clean hands and a pure heart:


³ Who may go up the mountain of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? ⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart. He who has not lifted up his soul to what is not true, and has not made false promises. ⁵ He will receive what is good from the Lord, and what is right and good from the God Who saves him. (Psalm 24:3-5 New Life Version)


The question posed - who may go up to the mountain of the Lord?  Today we don't find ourselves making the journey to the city of Jerusalem in order to go to the Temple of the Lord.  In the times of the psalmist, this was a regular journey for the worshipers of the Lord.  In fact, there were regularly "scheduled" feast days when all of Israel was to gather, bringing various types of offerings.  Each offering served a purpose - some to make "atonement" for sins, others to offer thanks for the tremendous harvest taken in from the fields.


Today, we think of "going up to the mountain of the Lord" as approaching the throne of grace.  It is the same as us going into God's presence, sitting at his feet, and worshiping him.  Since the completed work of Christ at the cross, we all have this access to the "holy place" of God's presence.  In fact, scripture declares we may come boldly into his presence!  Yet, the "condition" of our hands and hearts may give us a little concern in doing so!


Clean hands and a pure heart are not a one time condition.  The ability to keep clean hands is impossible without frequent washing!  Think about it - how many times in a day do you "physically" wash your hands?  Why do you wash?  Simple - to get rid of what "contaminates" those hands!  You desire they be clean before you eat, after you touch something which "soils" them, or just as "good measure".  The same is true of our "spiritual hands".  They need frequent washing to remain clean!  


Purity of heart is elusive if the heart is not continually touched by the great healer himself.  In time, our physical heart will become "occluded" with all kinds of fatty build up and hardened by "calcified" crusts.  A similar process occurs when our heart is not continually renewed by the touch of God's healing.  We begin to feel the "choking off" of the very supply we need in order to survive.  We become hardened to the things which move his heart so freely.  Our hearts need "tending" and "mending" in order to beat as his does!


Look at the passage again.  He who has not lifted up his soul to what is not true and has not made false promises will enter boldly into the presence of God.  Guess what?  All of us struggle with getting a grip on truth!  All of us absent-mindedly promise things we have very little intention of ever doing!  Yet...by the grace of God, we can enter boldly into the presence of God.  It is as we "wash again" and submit to the "purifying process" of God's touch we are made "clean" and "pure".  


No one struggles alone - we are all in the same boat!  Maybe this is why God encourages us to look out for each other, spurring one another on in this walk of grace!  We all need grace - renewing of our minds, cleansing of our hearts, and anointing of our actions.  So, who goes up to the presence of God - ALL who are willing to be washed!  We don't wash alone!  There is BIG "sink" in God's house!