Holiness is for the Holy
Only the Lord is Holy.
10as it is written:“None is righteous, no, not one;11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12 ESVThis is True. Consider your own life. Everything is going well. Your healthy, you have a good income, your family is doing well at school, in their careers, your bills are paid, and you are enjoying certain luxuries you thought you deserve. You even go to church on Sunday mornings. You give thanks silently and are able to put a little in the offering plate. You have worked hard on gaining all these things. Is it not obvious that you are a good person. You even put a dollar in the kettle at the Salvation Army.
Then something changes. Your life is dramatically interrupted. What happened? Your company closes. You have a car crash on the way home from the movies or dinner. Your child is arrested for possession. Your spouse discovers your affair. You or a loved one suddenly has a stage four cancer. That deal you've spent months on was found to be illegal and the police are examining you very closely. Your whole world is crashing down in a whirl wind of fear, anger, panic, and doubt. You may even cry out silently inside or out loud, "Where are you God?! How could you do this to me?!"
What do you do? How do you handle this? Do you pray to God for help? Perhaps yes, perhaps no.
Do you blame God for not being their to intervene? Maybe. Do you blame yourself or others? Do you seek to sort it out on your own? Does vengeance and hate fill your mind, your heart? Maybe. So again, what about you that will make this crisis correct? What have you done to deserve this wrong? "I'm a good person. I don't deserve this!"
I am not going tell you what you do. I am not going tell how you think or feel. I am not going tell you what I think you have decided to do, be, or choose. I am simply here to give examples of Truth. I have lived and observed. I have struggled and experienced life, good and bad. I have chosen well and chosen poorly. I have been there, seen it, or know someone who has. I know this to be very true, I am not a good person. I may very well be as evil as the worse person you could imagine. I may be as good as the kindest person you know.
I will also tell you the Truth. I shall confess in this Blog my sin, my evils. I will also confess what is good, right and lovely about me. As I share I will continue the story of Truth. How I have discovered it, am discovering it and, seek to continue to discovering Truth.
My first confession to you my brothers and sisters, before God, in the face of this world, "I am a liar."
Ironic, right. In a blog I have titled, Discovering Truth, my first confession is that I lie. Well to say that I do not lie, have never lied and most likely never shall lie again, is the biggest lie of all. The first and perhaps most destructive sin imaginable. To present a falsehood is the greatest way to destroy anything and everything that is good about being a person, a friend, a parent, a child, a neighbor, or any illusion of being trusted.
I do not want to do the wrong thing. I do not want to be a bad person. I desire to do right, to be a good person. Yet for what ever reason. I often choose poorly and make the bad choice. What does this do? It creates harm. Even if my intentions have been good directly from the start, I make things bad or even worse. Why?
I think and may even feel I am doing the right thing. I even know that it is not the case. I ignore the voice of Truth to pursue my own will. Then I see the error in the end and seek to cover it up. I lie. I lie because of fear. Fear of discovery, fear of consequences, fear of loosing love. Fear of loosing the perception you have of me being a good person. No one likes or trusts a liar. Anyone who does is deceived and a fool.
Consider your own life. Have you ever lied? Sure you have. If you say that you have not, then you are either lie-ing as you read this or you are the Holy One of heaven, in whom is all Truth and knowledge.
Does this make you a bad person? Does this mean your evil even just a little? That is not for me to say. I am not worthy to judge. I have no say in the Truth about you. I only can say that this does make me a bad person. In Truth, I just have to examine myself, acknowledge my faults, sins, lies, and become a better person by striving towards a right and worthy life and lie (sin) no more.
22 "...For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
Romans 3:22-23 ESV
So, now what do you do? What do I do? What can we do? Well, we work towards becoming better people. Right! We stop lie-ing. We start being nice towards others. We even attend church or offer to be better members of our churches, right? Yes! All we have to do is make right all the lies you and I have told. Good, the right start!
Well, I made a decision. What about you? I have chosen to do the right thing! Just, like last time. and the time before that,...and before that,...and before that,...and...
This never seems to work. As before I failed. As before I forgot my promise. As before I turned back to the thing I have done before. I lie. It is so easy and reliable.
Huh. Reliable Lies. As long as I can remember the falsehood I told I can never get caught in a lie. Ah damn! I forgot the details. They'll know now. I'm Screwed! I need a new lie to make up for the old one. Sounds familiar?
"22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins." - Romans 3:22-25 ESV
I know that the Truth is I have a propinquity to sin, to lie. It is my nature, like a family member or good friend. Ha! good friend indeed. A friend who lets you drink poison because you want to see how sweet it is. We each have the same companion. We even give names to it. Like, "just being human" or "White Lie" or "didn't mean it", and the best one of all, "Blame". "The devil made me..." "If you would have...then I would never had..." etc.
Does that say: "24and are justified by his grace as a gift,
As a gift? What gift? We will find out. I shall tell about the gift. A very special gift. The only gift that has ever mattered. Forgiveness.
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