Friday, February 09, 2007

Haven't heard from me in a while, eh? Stuff has been happening anyway though, let me tell you. I guess I don't know how I'm going to say this because it is so simple, and in a way so cliche. I guess I've figured out what it means to focus on Jesus. To worship. To "set your eyes on the prize". I've also learned a lot about faith.

The biggest thing is realizing that I still think that Christians look at the Bible the way the Pharisees did. The look at it for rules and ways to live. We get things like "don't judge" and "love your neighbor" and tougher ones like "sell all you own and give it to the poor". The problem is that if these behaviours come from our own will-driven desire to be "good," they are idolatrous and blasphemous.

Here it is, red letter gospel:

John 5:38-9: You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.

So many of us are still just trying to be GOOD. But how? by our own will power, and when we accomplish our lack new found moral behaviour, we have just given power to our idol of pride (look how good I am) or fear (phew, no one will see how I really am). I still do this a lot.

Now if I was reading this at this point, I would be thinking, "so what do I do, just sit around a watch the TV and hope God changes me?" No. We focus on God. WHO HE IS. WHAT HE HAS DONE.

Sometimes I go out and God shows me so much about His character. I say to Him, "no one can ever teach you anything. At every falling leaf, you know why it fell, when it began the process of falling, and when its successor will take its place. You create master pieces without a single tool. You put such care into creation that it would take a person 1000 years just to make a blade of grass with the same care."

These are characteristics of God. So how do we focus on who God is? On who Jesus is? We read about Him. We talk to Him. We walk with Him. Check this out...

11And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.

12His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.

13He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

14And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.

15From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.

16And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

I think there is a need to confess sin. To be aware of our depravity. But once we have done that, to continue to look at our sin and our fault is pointless. Saying we "should" be a certain way does not give us the power to do it. Jesus' love gives us the power to do it. We need to focus on Him and let His beauty change us. We need to acknowledge our sins not just as sins, but as reflecting a perspective that we don't have the faith to believe that God is better than TV, food, people's approval, personal pleasure, and selfishness. I'll be the first to admit that often my actions suggest that looking at a girl is better than God, who created feminine beauty!

This is what I do now. This is how I change. I avoid what I can in order to have God on the throne of my heart, and I try to love others.

I would encourage us all to put God 1st in our hearts, because as we all know, it's a long fall from 1st to 2nd. We were created to worship God, lets do what we were meant to do.

Tawmis.

No comments: