God's child

So I have been listening to Shawn McDonald a lot lately, and I hit on his blog. This picture came up, which I'm assuming is his son, Cohen. I thought it was adorable. 

The longer I looked at it, the more I enjoyed it and found myself relating to the facial expression. 

Many days I feel like a little baby, whose heart and head totally confuse her. I thought the picure was really telling of this feeling. 

This feeling has been really apparent this week. As I was reading Romans with some friends, we stopped at this passage: 

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, wich leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at the time from the tings of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:15-23)

So for me, this passage really emphasized that I am a slave to righteousness, and those things that confuse my heart and my head are, in some instances, sinful.

I need to focus on Jesus and nothing else. Under Him, my heart and my head will be focused on the "free gift of God" that is eternal life "in [and only in] Christ Jesus our Lord." 

My love for Him needs to be first and foremost. I must strive for Him more than anything else in this world. I need to remember that the fruits of my sin are nothing, but the fruits of righteous through my Savior are all-encompassing. 

So, though many days I feel like an infant, struggling to understand the world, I have a free gift in Jesus, who came and died for all of my sins, making me God's child. 

And now that I am God's child, He will center me on Him, and my heart and head will not confuse me. He is in control.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:14-17)

Christ Died for Us

This past weekend being Easter, I was interested to see the pictures contained on The Big Picture website. What I saw truly broke my heart. 

The picture show many different traditions of Easter week. Most have to do with Catholic traditions of burning candles to the Virgin Mary and worshiping depictions of Jesus. 

What really disturbed me were the pictures of men whipping themselves as penance.  Or the man who was actually nailed to a cross. Why would you do such a thing? I understand that they think it is a way of paying for their sins, but wait. Aren't they celebrating the death of Jesus and with Him, their sins? Aren't they celebrating the resurrection of the living Christ? Aren't they celebrating the fact that He died for their sins so that they do not have to? 

It says explicitly that Christ died for sins in Matthew 20:27-28:

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

Though I can understand that people might interpret this as just being metaphorical about the covenant, it is not. It literally means his blood being poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. In His sacrifice, His death, the new covenant is sealed. But it is literally that He will be a sacrifice for us. Literally. Like He was nailed to a tree, bloody and dripping, dying of asphyxiation, bearing the weight of the sins of the world, even the ones not committed yet. It was so terrible that God had to turn His back upon His Son. He could not look at that sin. 

Paul reiterates this in his letter to the Corinthians: 

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he ws raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

(1 Corinthians 15:3-5)

Now we are to remember that Christ died for our sins, so we do not have to. We all deserve a gruesome death for the things we have done, the sins we have committed. And yes, sins is an over-used word, so let me rephrase. We all deserve death for the depraved, disgusting, stomach-turning, despicable, repugnant, icky, wrong things we do. We are only human, but because Christ died for our sins and has forgiven them, we are covered by His blood. And we do not have to die! Our punishment has been taken by someone else. Praise Jesus! 

What we have to do is accept His grace. It is a free gift:

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God....And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:12-13; 16-17)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

This is a gift of God, something He freely offers to those that believe in Him. He took the punishment for our sins, all our yuckiness. He fixed us up and is now refining us in the fire, but only if we accept His gift of grace. 

And this is why it saddens me to see people beating themselves out of penance. The sins have already been paid for. All you have to do is believe! 

If you have any questions about what I have said, drop me a message (no doubt, you are reading this on facebook.). I would love to talk to you about it all. God is good, even in hard times, and He will always love you more than you can even fathom. 

A Poem for Good Friday

"Good Friday" 

by Christina Rossetti

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,

To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss,

And yet not weep? 

Not so those women loved

Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;

Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;

Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon

Which hid their faces in a starless sky.

A horror of great darkness at broad noon - 

I, only I.

Yet give not o'er 

But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;

Greater than Moses, turn and look once more

And smite a rock. 

"Growing up in a home divided between the passions of an Italian father and the moral rigidity of an Anglo-Italian mother, Rossetti's life is marked by two conflicting themes: her unconventional passion for intellect and her search for God and His divine direction. These tensions led her to writes some of the most arresting and original religious poems of the Victorian Age.... In 1871 Christina contracted Graves' Disease, a form of hyperthyroidism, which froze her face like a mask. Though racked by pain for the next twenty years, she continued to publish works of devotional poetry and prose, including a commentary on the book of Revelation, The Face of the Deep, published two years before her death of cancer" (Shadow and Light: Literature and the Life of Faith, 2nd Edition, 437). 

"With groanings too deep for words"

Today it really hit me that I have once again let my mind stray from God. I have been focusing on things of the flesh. Well, that won't do. It says plainly in Romans 8, that those who live by the flesh, die by it: 

For if you live according to the flesh you will die... (Romans 8:13a).

But the verse also goes on: 

...but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13b).

It seems so ridiculously plain, and yet, it is so hard to live by. But those who are Christians are also drawn to that which is of the Spirit. There is a deep longing in the soul to remember that God is our Father, and He sincerely loves us. He has adopted us as sons and daughters, and in that, He has given us hope:

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him (Romans 8:14-17).

He loves us enough to make us heirs in His kingdom. Think about that. Heirs to the Kingdom of God. That is amazing. How can we even fathom it? 

Because He loves us this much, He gave us the Holy Spirit. And I'm so glad He did. Often enough, I desire what I want to desire, going back to the fleshly living. I pray for the things that I want, not what is most glorifying to Him. Thus: 

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26). 

That is something else to think about: "groanings too deep for words." As an English major, words are very important to me. I can almost always find a word to describe something. But this--this groaning--is too deep for words. Too deep. The note in my Bible says: 

"The Holy Spirit strengthens us in our state of weakness, of which we are constantly conscious. Perplexity as to how to pray for oneself is a universal Christian experience. Our inarticulate longings to pray properly are an indication to us that indwelling Spirit is already helping us by interceding for us in our hearts, making requests that the Father will certainly answer" (The Reformation Study Bible).

It is something to think about. The Holy Spirit is there, taking our "inarticulate longings," and making them requests to the Father with "groanings too deep for words." Look at that. He takes the longings of the deepest regions of our souls and makes them known to God, especially when our flesh takes over. 

We are adopted as heirs to the Kingdom of God, blessed with the reminder that those who live of the Spirit will surely live, and the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us, takes up our deepest desires to the One who matters most. 

How great is our God? More than we can fathom, I'm sure. 

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26).

A Poem for the Week

No Beauty We Could Desire

by C.S. Lewis

Yes, you are always everywhere. But I,

Hunting is such immeasurable forests,

Could never bring the noble Hart to bay.

The scent was too perplexing for my hounds;

Nowhere sometimes, then again everywhere. 

Other scents, too, seemed to them almost the same.

Therefore I turn my back on the unapproachable

Stars and horizons and all musical sounds, 

Poetry itself, and the winding stair of thought. 

Leaving the forests where you are pursued in vain

- Often a mere white gleam - I turn instead

To the appointed place where you pursue. 

Not in Nature, not even in Man, but in one

Particular Man, with a date, so tall, weighing

So much, talking Aramaic, having learned a trade;

Not in all food, not in all bread and wine

(Not, I mean, as my littleness requires)

But this wine, this bread...no beauty that we could desire. 

Isaiah 53

A Poem for a Thursday in Winter

One Winter Night in August

by X. J. Kennedy

 

One winter night in August
While the larks stand in their eggs,
A barefoot boy with shoes on
Stood kneeling on his legs

At ninety miles an hour
He slowly strolled to town
And parked atop a tower
That had just fallen down

He asked a kind old police man
Who bit small boys in half
“Officer, have you seen my pet
Invisible giraffe?”

“Why sure I haven’t seen him,"
The cop smiled with a sneer
“He was just here tomorrow,
And he rushed right back last year”

“Now boy come be arrested
For stealing frozen steam!”
And whipping out his pistol
He carved some hot ice cream

Just then a pack of dogfish
Who roam the deserts snows
Arrived by unicycle
And shook the policeman’s toes

They cried, “congratulations
Old dear, surprise surprise
You raced the worst, so you came in first
And you didn’t win any prize!”

Then turning to the boyfoot bear
They yelled, “He’s overheard
What we didn’t say to the officer
(we never said one word!)

“Too bad boy, we must turn you
Into a loathsome toad!
Now shut your ears and liten,
We’re going to explode!”

But then with an awful holler,
That didn’t make a peep
Our ancient boy, age seven
Woke up and went to sleep.

 

A Poem for the Day

"Obedience" 

by George MacDonald

I said, "Let me walk in the fields." 

He said, "No, walk in the town." 

I said, "There are no flowers there." 

He said, "No flowers, but a crown." 

I said, "But the skies are black;

There is nothing but noise and din." 

And He wept as He sent me back;

"There is more," He said; "there is sin." 

I said, "But the air is thick, 

And fogs are veiling the sun." 

He answered, "Yet souls are sick,

And souls in the dark undone." 

I said, "I shall miss the light,

And friends will miss me, they say." 

He answered, "Choose to-night

If I am to miss you, or they." 

I pleaded for time to be given. 

He said, "Is it hard to decide?

It will not seem hard in heaven

To have followed the steps of your Guide." 

I cast one look at the fields, 

Then set my face to the town; 

He said, "My child, do you yield?

Will you leave the flowers for the crown?" 

Then into His hand went mine,

And into my heart came He;

And I walk in a light divine

That path I had feared to see.