The Power of Giving

The picture on the front page of the Rouse Hill Times this past week caught my eye.  On a hospital bed lay a man propped on pillows with a ventilator tube in his throat and a serene smile on his face!  Above the picture of this young smiling man the headline read:  "Selfless - He's 18 and paralysed, but he only wants to help others."  Inside I read the inspirational story of Blake Nixon, a young man who days before this Christmas was left a quadriplegic as a result of a tragic car accident.  Though his circumstances have been harder than most could imagine, joy radiates from the smile on his face.  Instead of focusing on his lack of ability or drowning in sorrow, Blake decided to have his head shaved to benefit the Leukemia Foundation's World's Greatest Shave campaign.

This is not the first time Blake has endured tough obstacles in his life.  His mother passed away in 2007 due to breast cancer.  Few people his age have endured these kind of struggles and for that reason his smile means so much.  Blake thinks about how to benefit others as he lays in a hospital bed.  This young man, despite his paralysed body, has done more for people suffering from cancer than most people in the world whose bodies function perfectly.  Without lifting a finger Blake's smile and the act of joyfully giving what he can lifted my spirit.

Blake's giving heart takes me back to a moving story written by Shel Silverstein called The Giving Tree.  No matter what phase of life the human character was going through, the tree always was happy and content to give.  We always think that helping involves us doing something physical:  helping mow the lawn, helping with the dishes, helping pay the rent.  But Blake has helped people through his attitude and by shaving his head to make a difference in the world.  I have not been diagnosed with cancer, but Blake's sunny disposition has been a blessing to me as well.  Good on ya, mate!

The headline made me think about my Saviour, Jesus Christ.  There is no one who has walked the earth who has given more.  Jesus Himself was also paralysed on the cross by nails which pinned Him down as He bore the weight of the sins of the world.  He also paid for every sickness, for by His stripes we are healed.  Christians should be the most selfless people in the world because Jesus modeled it perfectly.  He has granted us the Holy Spirit to empower us to live in the joy of the LORD.  What can we do to give ourselves to others for God's glory?

Thanks for the lesson, Blake Nixon.  May we never forget that Christ gave His all so we might give ourselves completely back to him and others!

The Crown of Grace

As we sang "Amazing Grace" in church yesterday, it struck me how amazing God's grace really is.  Like the peace of God which passes understanding, it is past finding out.  The brutal irony remains that the place where grace ought to flourish the most - among the people who profess to know God - is the one place grace is not found.  Instead of seeking restoration or salvation for the woman caught in the act of adultery, the Pharisees were gathering stones to injure and destroy.  It took Jesus stepping into the scene to prevent destruction.  Instead of sympathizing with the adulteress, Jesus desired the woman cease her sinning and be saved.

In my own life I have struggled with giving grace freely.  It is very easy to limit the grace we dole out, but we are rewarding according to merit.  If we only give grace where it seems warranted, it is not grace!  All people are undeserving of God's favor, for we all have sinned against Him ignorantly, willingly, and purposefully.  When we see people in sin we are not shocked, for all are sinners.  But when we see professing Christians stuck in sin, our flesh recoils in that familiar Pharisaical disdain:  how dare he!  And when we do so we become hypocrites equal to the worst of sinners.  Because we do not consider our own past faults and sins, we now stand in judgment of those who are devastated by sin's curse and condemn whom God has forgiven.

I am grieved when I see people "punished" by men after they have freely confessed their sin and repented.  That is one thing God never does.  Is not guilt and separation from God punishment enough?  Instead of the grace of God, man's method is devised of making up for wrongs through trying to do good.  "Penance" is something placed upon one who has voluntarily confessed their sin to a pastor or priest.  Penance is defined as, "a punishment usually consisting of prayer, fasting, etc., undertaken voluntarily as an expression of penitence for sin; a punishment of this kind imposed by church authority as a condition of absolution."  Should prayer or fasting ever be a punishment?  Can one work off the debt of sin through any mortification of the flesh?  I have known people who have freely confessed sin, repented, and were forced to stop all formal service for God for an arbitrary space of time.  It is as if the church refuses to believe that the sufferings of Christ are enough to pay for sin:  we must do all we can to further increase guilt and humiliation.

It seems that in the church we often construct an environment where failed people are no longer allowed to fail.  We are all failures before God, but the lie of Satan is we can never let others know how rotten we really are.  As a man, I am aware of my gross failures and past sins.  As a pastor, I am aware that many people do not feel safe or free to share their own failures because of fear they will be judged, ostracized, or condemned.  Because they feel this way, they keep their sins hidden.  Why should they confess sin and repent to be punished by man in addition to their burdened consciences?  These people can be casual church attendants or people in leadership.  All cry out and long for the grace of God.  Those in leadership feel additional pressure to be outwardly perfect and the lack of confession can not only hinder but destroy their witness entirely.

How beautiful it is that God gives us grace!  How wonderful it is when we can share church fellowship where everyone sees themselves as a complete wreck God has restored!  What a testimony to the life-saving power of the grace of God where all who repent are included, and none who are lost remain excluded:  God's grace is available to all, and it is only our own pride, fear, and selfishness that prevents us from rejoicing in it.  I am tired of the work of Christ's church being hindered because of this lie of perfection before service.  Peter was not a perfect man, nor was Paul.  But God used them anyway.  King David was a great king in Israel, and he sinned horribly with Bathsheba.  Though there were consequences in his life, God allowed His reign to continue.  Why?  Because he freely admitted his sin before God, something Saul would not do!  Though flawed, David was a man after God's own heart because he acknowledged and repented of his sin.  Allow me to share a beautiful song of forgiveness, Psalm 32.

A Psalm of David. A Contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. ² Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. ³ When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. ⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah ⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah ⁶ For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. ⁷ You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah ⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. ⁹ Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. ¹⁰ Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him. ¹¹ Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!"

Psalm 32:1-11

Let us put aside the bit and bridle of guilt and shame which prevents us from repentance.  Instead of demanding penance from those who are in sin, may we seek to restore such in a spirit of gentleness and realize soberly that we too may be drawn away from God to sin.  Let us be honest with God and one another, confess our sins one to another, and pray for one another that we may be healed.  The church is as desperate for this healing as the lost, sin-stricken world in which we live.  Do we mash a crown of thorns upon the heads of those who transgress as those who crucified Christ and in doing so pierce ourselves with sorrows, or do we lovingly adorn them with a crown of grace?  May our lives be a testimony of God's grace, forgiveness, and restoration!

Yancey quote...

I have been reading the Philip Yancey gem Where is God when it Hurts? and came across a terrific paragraph.  His point is that God made the world good, but it has been polluted by sin.  While we see the skill and beauty of God in His Creation, man has labored continually to destroy God's handiwork.  I speak not in terms of environmental destruction, through there could be a case easily made, but the wreckage man has made of His relationship with the Creator.  We have been separated by God because of sin:  sickness, death, and suffering have followed.  Praise God He seeks our restoration through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ!  Thank God for His wondrous grace.  This quote can be found on page 59:

Imagine this scenario:  vandals break into a museum displaying works from Picasso's Blue Period.  Motivated by sheer destructiveness, they splash red paint all over the paintings and slash them with knives.  It would be the height of unfairness to display these works - a mere sampling of Picasso's creative genius, and spoiled at that - as a representative of the artist.  The same applies to God's creation.  God has already hung a "Condemned" sign above the earth, and has promised judgment and restoration.  That this world spoiled by evil and suffering still exists at all is an example of God's mercy, not his cruelty.   - Philip Yancey

Satan Wins!

Much is made in Christian circles that Satan is a defeated foe.  Some downplay the attacks and deceptions of Satan through the broad application of 1 John 4:4:  "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."  So why is it then, that so few Christians seem to live a life of victory and power?  Why is our labor futile and fellowships rife with division?  If the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead fills us with that life-giving power, why do so few actually walk in the demonstration of it?  One of the main reasons is simple:  sin.   Though Christ has crushed the power of Satan under His feet, we can grant the devil legal authority through strongholds of sin.  He will gladly take back whatever territory we give him and fortify himself.

Ephesians 6:11-12 reads, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."  It was necessary for Paul to instruct the Ephesians concerning the spiritual battle they faced continually as children of God.  They likely recoiled against the immorality, idolatry, and pagan practices of the day and laboured to defeat them.  But Paul told the Christians at Ephesus that their battle was of another kind:  they were fighting a spiritual battle of hand-to-hand combat against satanic forces.  The intent of our enemy is to steal, kill, and destroy.  His easiest victories come when we don't realize he has us in a vulnerable position by our secret or unconfessed sin.  A direct assault against God's people is rarely effective because they have been granted victory over sin through Jesus.  But if we offer position by our sins, he will choke us out.  It is when we justify our lack of confession or repentance that Satan wins.

A child of God can be down but is never out.  We have the hope of salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, our LORD and Saviour.  A great lie of Satan is that we must only confess our sin to God and not to the person we have wronged through our sin.  A Christian's conscience will not rest easy until a full confession is made.  William Gurnall, a Puritan writer, had this to say about this tactic of the devil:

The very strength of some temptations lies in the concealing of them, and the very revealing of them to some faithful friend, like the opening and pricking of an imposthume (abscess), gives the soul present ease.  Satan knows this too well; and therefore, as some thieves, when they come to rob an house, either gag them in it, or hold a pistol to their breast, frighting them with death, if they cry or speak; thus Satan, that he may more freely rifle the soul of its peace and comfort, overawes it so, that it dares not disclose his temptation.  O, saith Satan, if thy brethren or friends know such a thing by thee, they will cast thee off; others will hoot at thee.  thus many a poor soul hath been kept long in its pangs by biting them in.  Thou losest, Christian, a double help by keeping the devil's secret - the counsel and prayers of thy fellow-brethren.  And what an invaluable loss is this!" (The Christian in Complete Armour, pg. 100)

How Satan will lie to us!  He will tell us we will lose all credibility, that the concealing of our sin protects others from pain, and points to our changed behaviour as an impetus not to publicly confess.  But what does God's Word say?  James 5:16 reads, "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."  The offering of Job's friends was not accepted until Job prayed for them.  Likewise, we must confess to the one we have wronged before our guilt shall be absolved before God.  Ephesus was a Christian fellowship that did well, yet God had something against them:  Revelation 2:2-5 reads, "I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; ³ and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. ⁴ Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent."

The first step of repentance is acknowledgment, agreement with God.  The second step is confession.  Without confession there is no repentance, and without repentance there is no salvation.  If we harbour sin in our hearts, we cannot expect to be filled with the Spirit because we have polluted His temple.  The temple must be purged of all filth by the blood of Christ before we can expect the glory of God to fill the most holy place.  Without the Spirit we have no power, are devoid of all spiritual discernment, become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, the Word becomes unfruitful, and put up no resistance to Satan's schemes.  We have traded the power of God for the satisfaction of our lusts, and willingly place ourselves under bondage again.  Doctors cannot treat a man who refuses to see a doctor, and God will not deliver even a Christian who will not humble himself in confession and repentance.  Satan wins when we hide our sin.

If we will but humble ourselves and confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Are you tapping out, O Christian?  Do you feel powerless in the jaws of the enemy of your soul?  No man who hides a deadly serpent in his bosom is better for it.  Confess your secret sins in agreement with God.  You can be sure Christ will deliver you and by His grace grant you the victory He purchased with His own blood!