God without the Guilt

Romans 21-31 (The Message) “But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness. So where does that leave our proud Jewish insider claims and counter-claims? Canceled? Yes, canceled. What we've learned is this: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We've finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade. And where does that leave our proud Jewish claim of having a corner on God? Also canceled. God is the God of outsider non-Jews as well as insider Jews. How could it be otherwise since there is only one God? God sets right all who welcome his action and enter into it, both those who follow our religious system and those who have never heard of our religion. But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don't we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.”

It’s time to fully equip the people to begin activating the word of God. Instead of beating down, we need to be encouraging and enlightening and portraying a more exciting view of being saved than what has previously set us apart from the world.

   Our vigilante services of upholding the law until Jesus comes back is giving people supersized servings of guilt with our regular portions of God. We are putting the very people we should be setting free into a different type of bondage using their sins to bind them. Instead of allowing them to walk in the fullness of God, we trip each other up in our tangled webs of deceit, not allowing the subject or the tormentor to fulfill their purposes. We expect others to give us unconditional love while feeling it is our duty to remove the planks from their eyes. What we forget is that the sliver in our own eye can often be just as distracting from truly seeking the will of the Father. By creating the distraction of what the people in the church are doing, Satan gains access into a place that he is not welcome. What may be a plank to one, may only be a sliver to another, yet it causes each of us to stumble.

   God did not leave a remnant on earth with the directive of policing the people, but to go out and reach the multitudes. His love was for relationships, not rules. We miss the point when we puff ourselves up in pride by putting a value system on sin, making sure our total isn't as great as the rest of the world. As we purpose to be drawing near the Father's heart, it's time to drop the swords that are cutting off ears and allow the ones who persecute us in closer than arms length. Jesus put that ear back on, even though he knew why that soldier was there. He looked past what he was presented with and still touched that life in spite of the soldier's mission that day.
When we choose to get married our eyes are full of the good and wonderful things about our beloved. When the newness of that love wears off we begin to see fully what that person was with faults and the good, still making the choice to love them. When presented with the unlovely attributes and the truthful hot spots, before marriage, we merely shrug them off in the high of being in love. As time passes, we either choose to love them through what they aren't, as though they are, or we begin to build up a legal file of reasons not to love that person anymore. It's easier to stay disgruntled with what the other person is not and not choose to change what we aren't, hoping that that perfect love inspires them to change as well.

   If God meant for us not to have free will, He would have surrounded the Tree of Knowledge with barbed electric wire with an alarm that said that we tried to cross the boundary. Instead, He said don’t touch it. He didn’t control our access to it. That wasn’t His intention. Even after the boundary was crossed, He continued to seek out ways to have a relationship with his people.
 
   As we begin to change the lifestyle of an apathetic generation, we begin to teach the brother to father concept. Instead of being the jealous brother of the prodigal son, we become mothers and fathers to a new generation that is picking up the vision that was given to us by our Heavenly Father. The brother to father concept is a constant workout that changes the actions, making a more definite change because of the thoroughness of refining all of the areas in our life. It’s a complete workout that requires the mind, the heart and the arms to work together to strengthen the body. First love is not lost with this type of relationship with Christ. It is the beginning of changing a lifestyle, the dynamic of your very being.
   

   We are a very controlling country that likes a clean environment. We push recycling, sanitizing, clarity, cleanliness but in truth, life is messy. When God moves, sometimes it is messy. In order for everyone to like or approve of church, we sanitize everything and wash up our fallen people instead of loving them through their own refining process. In creating such a sterile environment God has resorted to taking his message to places that we have deemed unfit so that the rest of the world can hear his message. Hollywood is a wonderful example of this. I have heard many songs recently that have struck my heart chord as I begin to see what God is saying through people that may or may not realize what they are writing about. We have turned denying ourselves into denying ourselves to feel, to have emotion, to live. In business, people in the corporate world look the same; we have business attire and a business face. It is very stoic and void of emotion. The arts compensate with a wide array of passion that we also deem as ungodly. By denying ourselves of being passionate, open armed and hearted; pushing logic and a similar front, we make everyone clean and approachable. If you do not appear the same as the rest, you are made to feel guilty and incapable, putting people in their own prison to keep them neat and tidy.

   Christianity as a culture has denied ourselves so much that we also deny others out of God. It’s not about one experience with God. Nor is it about warming a seat and paying a salary to a puppet behind a pulpit. We often pull the strings of our Pastor marionette from the designated chair that we purchased, creating a gospel of our own, presented with a personal agenda.
Passion is messy. Life can be messy for the good or it can also be messy in the bad. I have found my life turned upside down in a manner I never thought possible. As I explore the things that God has been laying on my heart and in my head, I have found myself a new creation in Him. I am feeling things that I have never felt before. I have loosened up the strings of what I thought was the way I was supposed to be to experience more of this new revolution of grace and love. I find myself reflecting a love for people that is so genuine and new. I see the beauty and value in them that I know that God also sees in them. I have never been an outwardly emotional person but I have found myself consumed by this sincere love towards other people. It is broadening my horizon in the way that I talk to people, in the way that I approach my peers and in the way that I feel about what would have otherwise been an intrusion of my space. My middle daughter inspires me all of the time with her lack of selection in who she finds worth in. She has a sheer joy and love for all people that is so beautiful in children. I feel like in the last couple of months, God has released that inner child in me to feel and to love others like He would want me to.

   By acknowledging that life is messy, we can eliminate the guilt and deal with the consequences as they come, always being an example of God’s grace and love while we help people through the transition from a bad mess to a good mess. By allowing guilt in our life, we hinder God’s use of us.
Recently, I was shocked in reading a local news article about transients. In the comments, someone referred to the homeless as “undesirables”. My heart leaped in indignation as I thought, “God doesn’t find ANYONE undesirable”. I started to develop my take on this presentation of the person’s attitude. In every social structure there are “undesirables”. They come in different forms. It weighs heavily on many hearts to reach out to the homeless and to other countries that aren’t as fortunate as we are in America. Jesus encouraged it in his ministry. I firmly believe that this is a way to open your mind and expand your heart to love people for who they are and to see the worth that God sees in them. It’s not necessarily to change them, but to adjust our own sights and develop grace in our own outlook on people in general. What hit the message home to me was what we breed in ourselves when we deem someone undesirable. We cultivate selfishness, pride and condemnation in our own hearts against people. The hang up is in ourselves and what we do when we allow those things in our life. That is sin. Those things are not fruits of the spirit no matter who they are directed to. It’s not for us to change them; it’s for us to change ourselves when we look at them. If we allow those things in our life, we block a vital connection to God.

   God’s grace is for everyone. There are no qualifying factors, no levels of sin and there should not be guilt. Instead, we should have an ever seeking desire to please the one who gave us the grace to live without those things. When we allow ourselves to give guilt to others, we also incriminate ourselves, putting ourselves in a greater bondage than the person that you delivered the guilt to. God’s passion is for a relationship with people. His business IS people. Every day, we have a chance to participate in His purpose. I know that I don’t want to miss out on this incredible opportunity to bring freedom, joy, hope, love and grace to people that may not have it or haven’t fully utilized it. I want to continue to press closer to God and to hear His voice and in doing so, I don’t want to be hung up by the seeds of self that can be so easily distributed accidently. It is a new season full of passion, love and grace. Let’s live in it fully and go forward together to influence a nation in need.