A hole filled cross

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. (Galatians 5:24-25)

Hey, does your cross have a bunch of holes where the nails have been driven time and time again? I know I have a seen God drive a nail home when he convicts me of something he wants to change in my life, then after a while, there I am with the hammer trying to remove that nail! Nail and hammer in hand, I go about doing the very thing God asked me to allow him to nail to the cross! It is likely we all struggle with that from time to time, all because we want to control the course of our lives just a bit too much. The 'control thing' is really a combo of our pride and our lusts getting the best of us. We want what God says we should not have, then we struggle with the desire to possess it, before long giving into that desire instead of leaving that thing nailed to the cross where he helped us to secure it in the first place. God's greatest hope is that we give him the hammer and allow it to remain there!

Passions and desires are not a bad thing unless they are moving us away from Christ's best for our lives. When God convicts, our response is usually repentance. That conviction leads to God taking up the hammer and driving the nail home - we experience a change in our actions because that sin was nailed to the cross. Whenever we take our eyes off Jesus, we find our desires soon gravitate once again toward what we were asked to leave on that cross. Taking up the hammer and trying to remove that nail will only leave holes in the cross and 'holes' in our heart! We need to leave it there - like it or not. The struggle to do what God says we shouldn't do is real, but the more we lean into Christ, the less likely we will be to feel the pull away from the cross. 

We have frequently explored the need to keep the right focus, but it cannot be said enough. What we focus upon, we lean upon. When the cross is what we lean upon, we will find there is less likelihood of us trying to take back what God asked us to leave there. The cross isn't a 'temporary holding place' for our sins - it is the place where they find permanent death. In order for death to occur, they have to stay on the cross! If you find you have your hammer at the ready almost immediately after God asks for you to relinquish control of some sin in your life, nailing it to the cross, then it is time to also give him the hammer. We may not want to immediately relinquish the hammer, but the more we lean against that cross, the quicker the death to that sin will actually be. Just sayin!

Now, that bespeaks love!

We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side of God’s throne! (Hebrews 12:2)

The twelfth chapter of Hebrews begins with the words, "...we must rid ourselves of everything that slows us down..."  Do you have things which slow you down in life? We sometimes have very "regular" things in life which slow us down - sometimes external to us, like another person, sometimes kind of internal, like raw emotions or fear. There is nothing which quite slows us down as much as the weight of sin in our lives, though. No person or other weight quite exerts the same pressure sin does - pulling us down, loading us with guilt, and holding us in miry links to our past. Maybe this is why the rest of the verse we started with today goes on to say, "...especially the sin that just won't let go..." Sin has a way of holding us back - not letting us out of the clasp of its grip. This kind of puts a different spin on our sin, doesn't it? It isn't just us moving toward it and giving into that temptation, it is that sin holding onto us like it would be losing its best friend if it let go! It is hard to walk away from something that has a grasp on us - especially when there is ANY kind of emotional tie between the two!

There is a race laid out for us - one which we must actually engage in if we are to ever get beyond the starting blocks. Somewhere along the way, we tire, feel the pull of fatigue, and want to just give up. The effort comes not in starting, but in finishing. The emotional warfare is hard. Breaking free is one thing; living free is another. We live free by changing our focus. The one crossing the finish line isn't the one who just toddles along aimlessly - it is the one who keeps their focus on the prize ahead. It may amuse some of us to see how we move toward sin at break-neck speed, but then tend to have the speed of the tortoise when it comes to turning away from it! It doesn't surprise or amuse God, though. He knows the hold our past has on us, and he isn't surprised by how much pull it exerts on us to get us to quit once we have started this race toward a new life in his freedom. You would think one taste of freedom would make us really ravenous for more and more freedom, but as is often the case with anything held in captivity for a long period of time, when freedom comes, we just don't know what to do with it!

Keep our eyes on Jesus so that we stand the best chance of breaking free from what has held us captive. We come to understand freedom only when we are being led into it! Christ leads us into freedom and then he helps us walk in freedom until we become familiar with it - at first liberating, then a little uncomfortable because we don't fully understand what to do with this new-found freedom. It gives us liberty and we don't know how to handle liberty sometimes. Maybe we take it to excess, or just don't use it at all. He is there to help us know moderation, develop a "tolerance" to freedom, and to remind us repeatedly to forget what is behind. It is Christ who helps us run the race at break-neck speed toward the right goal - who helps us develop the snail's pace to return to the things we left behind! Christ endured the cross - not because he had to - but because he wanted to on behalf of each one of us. He had us in his mind as he took those final steps toward Calvary those many years ago. He has us each in his mind today as we take the tiniest of steps toward the freedom he calls us into. He endured what we could not - he provides what we cannot. He knew his effort on our behalf would be his greatest reward - for our freedom came at a huge cost - his life. His life for ours. Now that bespeaks love! Just sayin!

Do we have to do more?

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. (Colossians 2:13-15)

We might use a phrase such as, "I am dead to this world", at the end of a busy day. We have hurried here and there, stood way longer than we anticipated, waited longer than we wanted, got involved in tasks we did not plan, and we are bordering on sheer exhaustion. To 'be dead to this world' has a different meaning in a spiritual sense, though. It means we actually take on 'new life'. The first way of thinking says we are about to get some rest for our weary bodies, while the second one anticipates a 'rest' of a whole different kind!

Paul is speaking with the church at Colosse about circumcision, and other religious pursuits that some were saying 'had to be done' in order to be a follower of God. He wanted them to know that there was an 'exchange' of character that occurred the moment they said 'yes' to Jesus. He uses the 'ritual' of baptism to indicate this 'exchange' has occurred - the 'putting to death' of our old nature and giving way to the new nature within. Nothing speaks of a 'parting of the ways' from the old to the new like death. Death to the old self and life to the new nature that is birthed within us in saying 'yes' to Jesus.

Truth be told, we are all dead because of our sins, and we deal with this crazy sinful nature that needs a good 'excision' in order to be rid of it. The good news is that this is not our work, but God's. If I had to do this all on my own, I'd be a mess! The 'charges' that our sinful nature brings against us are innumerable, but they are done away with at the cross. I am delighted to know that the 'spiritual rulers and authorities' that want to make us feel like we need to 'do more' to be right with God are disarmed - they have no weapons that they can actually use against us!

They might try to make us think we need 'more' than our simple faith in the finished work of the cross, but God won't let them pull the wool over our eyes on that one. He has taking painstaking care to lay out the truth of our 'freedom from sin' and our 'sinful nature' in scripture so we don't get misled by those 'crafty devils' who want to entrap us in religious philosophies. We just need to trust the finished work of Christ to make us whole and free - this 'exchange' isn't physical as much as it is 'spiritual'. We might see the physical change because as our inward nature changes it is only natural that our outward appearance and outward actions will change right along with it! Just sayin!

The cost of grace

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

As my pastor read this passage from the NIV yesterday, I was reading along in The Message translation and these words just popped out with such meaning. Read them a couple of times, if you will, and see if God doesn't just speak a bit louder to you about the tremendous gift of grace he has given each of us through the finished work of his Son, Jesus. A couple of things really spoke to me:

- It was OUR pains he CARRIED. If the cross wasn't heavy enough, he carried another load to the cross - our pain. All the things which 'disfigure' our lives - more than crooked bones, cancers, and diseases galore - EVERYTHING that 'disfigures' our lives was upon his shoulders. Everything that defiles our lives was taken to the cross. However short or long that journey was for Christ, he bore not only the weight of the timber cross, but the burden of our disfigurement.

- We might have thought we were the ones being punished for our sins, but all that defiled us was put upon him. He bore the TOTAL punishment. Not just physically, but emotionally, and I daresay spiritually, as well. Remember, there was that moment in time when he prayed and it was as though all of heaven was 'closed' to him. He felt alone, isolated, and the pressures of all that 'punishment' was fully upon him. 

- All of us have done our own thing, gone our own way. No matter how good we think we might have been, nothing we have done will ever do what has been done for us already in the work of the cross. EVERYTHING we have done (even those unrealized sins) were placed fully upon him. Stripped, beaten, hurting beyond measure, he bore those things without complaint or anger. Did he want to be out from under the burden? It may come as a surprise to you, but when he asked his heavenly Father if there was any other way, he was maybe facing a bit of fear over what would come next for him. Even our fears were part of his walk to the cross.

We might not realize perfect healing in our physical bodies until we reach heaven's gates, but trust me on this one - we HAVE healing. We may not realize the depth or breadth of our need for a Savior - our 'sin' may not seem that big. We ALL needed that finished work - we ALL can say we deserve way more punishment that we do grace. Grace is a gift, but that gift had a steep price! Just sayin!

You still gonna stink

Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good.
Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.  “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. (Isaiah 1:16-18)

When something is settled, there is no further discussion. It is fixed - established - no change is forthcoming. The condition of relationship is to come - to lay down one's own agenda and to submit oneself to obedience to the Lord's will. We can try to wash ourselves up and be clean all on our own, but we still gonna stink! Until we are willing to give up and learn at his feet, we are still gonna stink. We can do all manner of good works, but we still gonna stink. Until we come, lay down our sins, and sit at the foot of the cross, we are gonna stink!

Obedience is what comes next - we get that backwards, though. We work on all the 'steps' of obedience before we get ourselves into right relationship with Jesus. We think we can somehow work our way to God, forgetting or not even realizing that he has worked his way to us through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ! We NEED relationship - not good works. Good works alone is religion, pure and simple. Volunteer all you want - you still gonna stink. Give all that you have to the poor and needy - you still gonna stink. Come to the cross, submit your heart to Christ, and that 'stink' is gone!

I have pointed out the 'stench' of sin and the sin nature more than a few times today. Why? Too many times we get so caught up in the 'signs' of right-living that we forget there has to be a heart-change that comes with them. The heart needs to be made right with God FIRST, then the 'signs' of right-living we might refer to as 'good works' or 'good deeds' actually flow from a different place in us. They begin to flow from the place of trust, not the place of hope. Good works to GET us somewhere or something in life is a place of hope. Good works that God actually blesses flow from a heart that has trusted in the finished work of Christ to deal with our sins once and for all. 

The washing up we need most is accomplished at the cross. The 'cleaning of the slate' or the 'removal of all sin' is done at the cross. We 'give up' as we come - we leave behind as we go. The cross is no place for weaklings - it requires a significant amount of strength to give up and leave behind all that we have hoped in up till that point. To move into a place of trusting in the finished work of Christ to remove our stink requires strength - the strength to admit we are weak, unable to cleanse ourselves from the stink, and standing in need of a change of heart and mind. Just sayin!

What distance is enough?

Stop for a moment to consider the distance between here and there. If you are considering the distance between your forefinger and your nose, it is likely not further away than the end of your arm! If you are considering the distance between your home and a small island in the Pacific the distance may be two or three thousand miles. Consider the distance to Mars and your journey just got beyond what you have ever traveled before. Now, consider the distance between your guilt and your sin - it is likely a lot closer than you'd like it to be! When God's grace comes on the scene, though, that guilt and sin go through a separation far greater than any distance we are capable of understanding with our finite minds! Our sin is separated from us as far as the east is from the west. That includes the guilt associated with that sin - if we allow God to separate us from it at the same time he separates us from the sin. Too many times, we hold onto the guilt and go through some form of 'separation anxiety' because we cannot fathom how completely God has removed our sin from our lives.

He has not punished us as we deserve for all our sins, for his mercy toward those who fear and honor him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:10-12 TLB)

The key is in first understanding God's position on our sin - it is already forgiven in Christ Jesus. We think of it as something we must endure some form of 'punishment' over, but when we fully begin to appreciate the purpose of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we begin to realize the 'punishment' for our sins (past, present, and future) was already placed squarely on his back! The 'separation' of us from our sin was accomplished at the cross - the 'separation' of us from our guilt over that sin is accomplished at the foot of the same cross. Guilt serves a purpose - it tunes us into something that is problematic in our lives. It gets us to the point of admitting we need to stop, take notice, and allow some adjustments to be made in our lives. It causes us to refocus and get our attention rightly placed. It isn't to be held onto, muddled over, allowing it to build up into waves of shame. It is to be the thing that causes us to realize God's grace brings separation - as far as the east is from the west - of us from our sin.

Guilt isn't about God forgiving us - it is about us forgiving ourselves. Since the beginning of time, we have had the hardest time giving ourselves 'absolution' when we know we have done something 'wrong'. God built us with this internal sense of 'imbalance' that comes when we have engaged in behavior that is not good for us. It is this imbalance that he intended as a means of communicating where it is we need to adjust our choices. Guilt was always intended to help us, not to drive us deeper into despair or fretting. It was not ever supposed to drive us into the self-pity of shame. We need to learn to see and use our guilt as God has designed it - as a warning to consider what we have been doing and then to adjust our behavior so that we are back in line with what we know we should be doing. 

If God is able to remove our sins as far as the east is from the west, do you think he might also be able to remove our sense of shame over those same sins? Shame is really what comes as a result of what we, or others, are telling us about that sin. If we start telling ourselves the truth that God tells us about how wide this separation is, maybe we would have less opportunity for shame to take hold. I think that may be a lesson we all need to embrace - God's grace is sufficient to cleanse us of our sin, but his Son's actions on the cross were more than sufficient to remove both the guilt and the shame of that sin. The distance we put between our guilt and us begins at the cross and it never meets up with us again. Just sayin!

Grace Guides

"Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself?" Thomas a Kempis

There can be some pretty tough fights we go through in our lifetime, but I think this clergyman of an era gone by hit the nail square on the head! There is no harder fight hand the one we fight with ourselves - especially when there is some 'flaw' we see within ourselves we feel must be overcome. The more we strive to overcome it, the harder the battle gets, and the worse we feel when we find ourselves not 'doing well' in the fight. We are invited to live life to the fullest - in Christ Jesus. Attempting to find a 'full life' outside of that relationship is impossible and can yield some of the toughest fights we will ever have to fight in our lifetime. Our sins are dealt with once and for all. The freedom to live the right way and the desire to live as we should are both provided at the foot of the cross.

This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.
He never did one thing wrong, not once said anything amiss. They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls. (I Peter 2:21-25)

Peter began this chapter with the reminder to make a clean sweep of some of the most basic of sins such as envy and hurtful talk. The simplest of things some might assume, but the hardest to actually live out in our daily choices. Learn to live without needing to boast of one accomplishments, or put another down with words that cut deep and you have learned a great lesson. Live life like this all the time and you are living a life free! There are lots and lots of things we need to be 'free of' that are revealed in our daily choices. Things we might not realize we need to let go of, or that need to let go of us! As God points even one iota of those things out to us, we need to carry them to the foot of the cross and leave them there. It is only as we do that we are ever going to be truly free.

I am always grateful that God doesn't just 'tell us' to live right and make right choices. He gives us the step-by-step instructions, illustrations through lives both well-lived and those lived without restraint. We don't have to flounder or wonder. We can see plainly in his Word, in the lives of those he puts up before us as both positive and not so very positive examples of how we are to live. These are 'grace guides' to help us through this journey of letting go of what needs to be left at the cross and then lay hold of that which will become the way of obedience.

Where are your areas of greatest struggle today? Are they in the area of your attitude or words? Are they in the realm of your lusts and desires? Are they perhaps in the choices once made, repeated, and now formed into solidly bad habits? It matters not where the struggle is, the same means of freedom exists for all of them! The cross provides the means of deliverance - the repeated direction of our "grace guides" helps us live free each day. These are not mystical 'guides' from the netherworld, but rather the truth of the Word of God, the examples of grace given to us in lives clearly touched by his presence, and the reminders of his Spirit deep within to truly 'live free'. 

We don't have to fight with futility. Our battles have all been declared as 'won' in Christ Jesus. We just sometimes need to 'dispossess' our enemy from the land! We might just never feel totally free until the 'enemy within' is totally and completely sent packing! Where is it that this battle is won? At the foot of the cross and no other place! You don't have to be 'spiritual' - you just have to be real in God's presence. You don't have to be 'perfect' - you just have to be transparent. You don't have to know what it is you are battling - you just have to be willing to listen to your Commander in Chief. Just sayin!

Consider the cross

But he was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace; he was lashed—and we were healed! We—every one of us—have strayed away like sheep! We, who left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us! (Isaiah 53:5-6 TLB)

It wasn't for HIS sins, but OURS. What kind of a man would take upon himself the penalty of so many without consideration of his own pain? It was for us that he died - no sin of his own - for he was the perfect lamb sacrificed to all. In the Old Testament worship practices given down to Moses by God, God taught of the need for an "atonement sacrifice" - a perfect sacrifice whose shed blood would 'cover over' the imperfect sins of the many. Christ was that "atonement sacrifice" - his blood shed for the imperfect condition of each of our souls. Believe it or not - it is your choice. But...if you do choose to place your trust in that finished work, oh how wonderful life is!

Who would ever think a man's beatings would prove to provide the greatest of peace for the hurting and wounded souls of so many? Who would ever believe the innumerable lashes cutting deeply into the flesh time and time again of an innocent man would provide so profound a healing of so many? In reality, we think first about ourselves, and perhaps we may venture into the realm of thinking of others just a little bit more than we think of ourselves. In truth, we don't usually get to the point on our own of moving out of the place of our own need - we need the help of Christ to actually do that! 

Guilt for sin was ours - not his. Sinful deeds were our doing - not his. Separation between us and a holy God was our choice - not his. Yet, all he did was for US. Beaten that we might have peace. Lashed that we might be healed. Have you ever stopped to consider the weight of your sin? If all the sin of your lifetime was placed in a scale and weighed, what would it weigh to carry all that sin upon your back? Now imagine that the sin of all of mankind, from Adam till the tiny baby being born today in some hospital somewhere - ALL that weight of sin he bore on HIS back. It was his back that was lashed, allowing that burden to really sink in and the weight of it to be felt even more as the day wore on. It was that weight he sought to free us from - that guilt and shame. 

As we stop for just a moment to consider the cross today, let us not forget the tremendous love that kept Jesus on the cross that day. He could have been like us and recanted his commitment that day, but he didn't. He could have said the weight is too great and the pain too deep, but he did not. All he did was with one eye on his Father and one eye on us. He never lost sight of what the action of ONE would accomplish for so MANY who were incapable of those actions themselves! Just sayin!

The altar alters

In times long ago, God gave instruction to Moses to build a "traveling tabernacle", a sign of his presence with Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness and made their way into the Promised Land of Canaan.  The tabernacle was made in a particular manner, with specific instructions for its dimensions, materials for construction, and furnishings.  Each element of the instruction was with specific purpose and if you study this subject a little, you will see how each of the "things" which went into making up the tabernacle actually pointed to some aspect of God's character and/or what he would do through his Son's life given for many.  One such furnishing was the altar - a place of some pretty "gruesome" offerings.  I am kind of glad we don't offer the blood of bulls, turtle doves and the like today in our worship because this killing of the animals and consuming of their bodies on the altar is kind of gross at first glance.  It wouldn't make me want to invite someone to church with me!  In fact, I might just think they might get a little "put off" by the gruesomeness of it all!  Yet, if we look at "where" and "to what" the altar was pointing God's people, we will understand its purpose.  The altar pointed toward blood sacrifice - and that of a "perfect" lamb.  The cross would become the ultimate "altar" and Christ would be the "perfect Lamb".

Listen, God! Please, pay attention! Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries? King-God, I need your help. Every morning you’ll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend. (Psalm 5:1-3 MSG)

I have often said it is at the altar we are altered - for the altar never left anything untouched - it could not come away from the altar the same as it was when it was taken to the altar.  The same is true of the cross - we cannot go to the cross and walk away unchanged - we are altered by it!  When we look a little bit at the altar as a "type" of what God was foreshadowing by its use, we begin to see how much God really uses the altar to do more than just receive things on the altar - at the altar things are transformed!

- The altar is a place of sacrifice.  In Old Testament times, the altar was a place for the sacrifice of animals - even grains were sacrificed.  The one bringing the offering was instructed on the purpose of each offering - each sacrifice had a meaning.  For example, the burnt offering could be cattle, sheep, goats, birds, etc.  In bringing this offering, you were not only bringing part of what you "raised" and sacrificing it upon the altar, but you were bringing the best of your flock.  If you know anything about raising animals, you know giving up the best to be slaughtered and consumed on the altar is just not something most would do.  Maybe this is why God required it - because it was contrary to what most would do!  He was showing the significance of Christ's death - it was contrary to what most would do and definitely contrary to what any COULD do!

- The altar is a place of bloodshed.  One of the things done in bringing the animals was the "shedding" of their blood.  This blood was then sprinkled upon the altar as part of the process of offering the animal.  If we stop for a moment to consider the blood, we know how important it is to life - without it circulating through our veins and arteries, we die!  Clearly, in the shedding of blood, God was pointing to the sacrificial death of his Son, Jesus.  Yet, why was the blood so important as part of the burnt offering?  The carcass of the animal was burnt upon the altar, so why sprinkle the blood there, too?  Why separate it from the carcass?  Anything "without life" is really just an object, isn't it?  It has no animation, no capacity to live or breathe or produce life any longer.  Maybe this is why God included the blood in the offering - as a means of reminding us of the life-giving blood of Christ - in giving of life, he produced the capacity for us to live again!

- The altar transformed everything placed upon it.  This is the easiest part of us understanding the altar - for all placed upon it was either burnt, producing an aromatic savor such as we might experience whenever we place meat upon a spit over an open fire today.  Even the grain offerings produced an aromatic scent which was "altered" a little by the incense added to it.  Why add incense?  Have you ever just burned grain by itself?  It isn't all that aromatic - it is rather like burning charcoal - lots of smoke, but not a very pleasant aroma.  Adding the incense insured the aroma remained pleasing to the nostrils of God.  So, even the grain was transformed by the altar - adding sweetness and savor to what would otherwise be rather pungent and unpleasant.  The altar altered all placed upon it - whether animal or grain.  It had a way of transforming it from one thing to another.  The cross of Christ is the ultimate means of transforming one thing to another - a sinner into a saint!

- The altar consumed what was placed upon it.  Some of the various offerings were to be left upon the altar until everything there was totally consumed. Others which were offered provided an allowance for the priests, to give them a means of partaking in the offering.  At first, this may not seem significant, as we may think it was just God's way of "feeding" the priests.  I would like us to consider for a moment why some were to be offered and consumed in their entirety (no portion going to the priest), while others might be shared with the priests (to provide for their needs).  Maybe the altar offerings which were totally consumed were pointing to the issue of meeting the requirements God demanded for the sinner to be made clean!  In other words, God demanded a perfect Lamb - and the Lamb had to be totally consumed - blood shed, sprinkled, body sacrificed and totally consumed.  The cross didn't leave room for "partial" sacrifice - it was all or nothing for Jesus.  In being totally consumed, he met the demands of the need for a perfect sacrifice for sin.  In so doing, he secured life for those who would forever come to the cross (God's altar).

- The altar provided a means for provision.  As I mentioned, some sacrifices were actually a means by which the priests could have their needs met. Grains, animals, and the like could become a means for the priests to "partake" of the sacrifice brought.  At the cross, we are invited to partake of what has been done on our behalf - nothing is required of us except for us to partake.  The one bringing the offering actually did the work of preparing the offering (slaughtering it and preparing it for the altar).  The altar did the work of preparing it for the priest to partake of it.  Their part was to be present - to be at the place of provision.  Our part is to partake - to be present at the cross - the place of provision.

In considering the altar, we might just see Christ's offering on our behalf in a different light.  We did not stop to consider the lamb being brought to the altar, did we?  I wonder what it thought when it was led to the slaughter?  Do you think it knew? Not likely, but trust me on this one - Jesus knew full-well what awaited him at the cross, for all presented in our Old Testament altar sacrificial system was a foreshadowing of what he would accomplish on the cross on our behalf.  Just sayin!

What inter-dependencies do you have?

Incapable:  Not having the necessary ability, qualifications, or strength to perform.  Some of us might even equate being "incapable" to being incompetent - lacking not only the strength, but also the knowledge behind the needed action.  If you asked me to fix the engine on my car, I'd admit I am incompetent - I don't have the strength to do some of the work anymore, and I sure don't have the knowledge to know how all those pieces fit together so they work exactly as they are designed.  I could go to school to learn the "how to", but it is not until I have practiced it a while that I develop some of the skill to actually say I am "good" at the task.  Yet something is still lacking  in the picture - I may know how it is supposed to all work, but I still am not as familiar with the engine as is the creator of the engine!  The creator has the most intimate knowledge because he envisioned it before it took form, designing each "moving part" to fit together a certain way, and knew the inter-dependencies of the parts he was designing.  It is this vantage point of the creator which gives him the unique position of being both capable and qualified to take the greatest care of that which he created.

When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross.  (Colossians 2:14 MSG)

Solomon spent a great deal of time evaluating some of the things he had encountered in life.  As a matter of record, we have his conclusions in the book of Ecclesiastes.  Some of this book has some pretty sad observations - almost as though he was concluding the worst with very little hope for the best.  About in the middle, he pens these words:  God made men and women true and upright; we’re the ones who’ve made a mess of things.  (Ecclesiastes 7:29 MSG)  I don't know about you, but I couldn't agree more.  We certainly do make a mess of things, don't we?

I think Solomon was simply saying we don't see how all the moving parts of our lives are fit together for good, so we do a lot of adjusting without really understanding the way our creator designed for our parts to function.  In reality, our lives are only functioning at their best when rightly connected to our creator - God himself.  Any other connection leaves us feeling a little incompetent - simply because we might have some "developed skill" to deal with life's challenges, but we lack the intimate knowledge of how the creator envisioned us working together for his purpose.

The most important thing we need to realize is our inter-dependencies.  If you are a strong-willed, mostly self-sufficient individual (like me), you probably struggle with this one a lot.  We don't want to admit we cannot take care of business on our own.  We don't see the missing "value" of the inter-dependencies.  Let me give you a little illustration to consider the importance of the inter-dependencies God has uniquely designed in our lives.  I have taken the back off of a watch on an occasion or two.  What I find behind the shiny backing is an inner working of multiple tiny gears, springs, and arms.  On tiny part "playing" on the strengths of another.  In contrast, all those tiny parts also are dependent on the weaknesses of the others.  Get just one out of position and the whole inner workings of the watch fail.

God has developed us to work best only when we are rightly positioned to allow all the inner workings to play upon the strengths of the other.  For example, if our emotions are out of whack - the inner workings of our mind begin to be "played" by the emotions.  Where the mind begins to go, the body is soon to follow.  The body responds with all kinds of hormonal changes, slowing this function, speeding up another.  In turn, we "feel" the way our emotions are leading us.  The old adage, "Laughter does a heart good", it more true than we might just realize.  

So, what does this all have to do with our passage today?  As easily as one tiny gear is dislodged in the watch, gumming up the works of the entire watch, so is the effect of us not being rightly related to God.  Sin disturbs this right relationship.  The fact is, we need to have our "gears" put back into right order by the master watchmaker himself - for only he knows how all these moving parts were actually created to work.  We could probably identify the one which is out of whack pretty easily - but only he knows how to get it into right position again, perfectly balanced so its inter-dependencies are played upon perfectly.  In Christ, God does this for us.  He brings about the ability for us to respond again to his touch in just the manner we were designed to respond from the beginning - all in the actions of the cross.  

It is often in the discovery of the "hidden" inter-dependencies of our life where we discover the absolute need for the wisdom and touch of the creator to put them into right order again.  Just sayin!

Get me off this hamster wheel!!!

Have you ever felt "stifled"?  You know what I mean - the feeling like every step you want to take is just held back, like every dream is crushed, or there is some force just standing in the way of you moving forward.  The feeling might be one of the walls "closing in" around you - like you just can feel the very space you occupy on this earth as getting smaller and smaller!  In the most literal sense, being stifled means something similar to being choked out, much like we'd "choke out" a campfire.  You smother it with something like dirt long enough and in sufficient quantities until it just has no way of receiving the very thing it needs to continue on - oxygen!  As a result, it is "choked out" - smothered or stifled.

For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate.  (Galations 6:14 MSG)

Did you ever stop to consider the position of being a "people-pleaser"?  Whenever we assume the role of trying to live up to some standard set by this or that individual in our lives, we are allowing them to determine what is expected of us, how we should respond, and even what we should feel as a result of our actions.  In the end, we are quite miserable - because it is IMPOSSIBLE to please people!  Try as we might, the target is a constantly moving, so ever being in a position of really "pleasing" another is quite difficult!  I have been trained to hit a moving target - but the ability to hit the moving ones doesn't allow me much accuracy in my shot - it only allows me to "graze" them on occasion!  At best, we "graze" the demands of another - never really hitting them "dead on".

It is quite easy to get caught up in the little spinning "hamster wheel" of being a people-pleaser, isn't it?  It truly is a "hamster wheel" kind of experience - just spinning endlessly without any real end to the demands.  Today we spin a little, thinking we are making real progress, but tomorrow, we realize the wheel is moving, but we are really in the same spot as we were yesterday!  Being on the "hamster wheel" in relationships where we become wrapped up in pleasing people is tiring business.

Paul says something quite revealing in our passage.  As long as we are on this "hamster wheel" of being "people-pleasers", we aren't keeping the Lord central in our lives.  Here is the crux of our decision - do we put Christ first, even in our relationships, or do we continue to allow others to determine our steps?  Scripture tells us the steps of a righteous man are "ordered" - they aren't spinning out of control and going nowhere.  They are "ordered" - done according to specific principles and well-planned.  When we are wrapped into the control of always trying to please this one or that one, we find fulfilling each of their demands begins to violate some principle we know better than to violate.  For example, we begin to lose control of our time.  We find our time for things which "add to" our character begins to wane - time for meditating on God's Word, time for being quiet before God for a while, etc.  The principle of seeking the Kingdom of God FIRST begins to take second place, then third, until one day we find our time for relationship with our Lord in last place!

The cross changed everything in our lives.  Nothing remained the same - the patterns we followed changed.  I think this is what Paul hoped we see - the hamster wheel is no longer our "place" of operation.   We stepped off the wheel the moment we embraced the cross.  We exchanged positions - no longer living by the changing rules of those who make demands of us, but living by the unchanging grace of God!  Why do we ever drift into the "spinning wheel" of being people-pleasers?  Isn't it because we aren't really sure of our identity apart from their approval?  Paul wants us to recognize our "identity" and our "approval" are linked to the cross of Christ.  We find our true selves at the foot of the cross and we go about living as our true selves by keeping ourselves right there!  Move back on the wheel, and our identity becomes governed by the approval of others once again!  So, where we chose to "anchor" ourselves makes all the difference!

Pleasing others is really stifling.  This requirement added to the next one eventually chokes out the very thing we need for life!  Nothing stokes the fire of our hearts better than being close enough to God to actually feel his breath gently nudging fire from the embers of our heart!  On the spinning wheel, we only feel the pressure of the wheel.  At the cross, we feel the breath of hope, grace, and love.  One takes away our breath - the other breathes life back into a tired and worn-out spirit!  Which one will you choose?