Saturday, April 4, 2015

My Sins, Whiter Than Snow Part 2

When Jesus came, everything changed. He put an end to the law and the need for animal sacrifices, not by destroying the law but fulfilling it once and for all. (Matthew 5:17) Judgment and the lingering feelings of condemnation, guilt and shame for sins vanished, if we chose to receive what Jesus has done on the cross.

The law required that the sacrificial lamb be perfect. Then, after the sins of a person were transferred, the animal would be put to death and the blood spread on the altar.

Jesus, being the Son of God, remained a sinless man. Before He was sacrificed on the cross, all of mankind’s sin past, present, and future were transferred to Jesus. Then He died. Unlike the animals of the Old Testament, though, Jesus had the power to rise again from the grave to claim victory over all of mankind’s sins and the death penalty as well once and for all. 

This means, we are free from God’s judgment and we do not have to carry around thoughts of condemnation, guilt, and shame anymore. We carry God’s grace because we have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. No sin can ever steal our righteousness away. Now when I sin, I say I’m sorry, I remind myself of God’s promise of grace, I thank Him, and then I ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom to avoid that sinful situation in the future.

God showed me a vision pertaining to this recently. I could see myself standing there with lots of dark spots (sins) all over on me. I tired to get them off but I couldn’t. When I hear the gospel, I saw myself accepting Jesus into my life and every last one of those dark spots immediately fell to the floor. Instantaneously, Jesus gave me a glowing white robe and I saw myself putting it on. Jesus told me it was my robe (gift) of righteousness and it would never come off even when I sinned again. From now on, He would take the responsibility for my sins and reminded me that His grace is sufficient.

Then the scene changed. I sensed I wasn’t ‘feeling so righteous’ anymore because I was still sinning. Guilt and shame permeated my thoughts. I felt like the dark spots should reappear to represent my present sin. I could see myself picking up the pile of dark spots and trying to make them stick by rubbing them back on my robe of righteousness but they slid off and fell to the ground.
  
As I pondered this, I realized that most of my life I did not understand the full significance of all that Jesus had accomplished on the cross for me. I knew in my heart my sins were forgiven but my mind was plagued with thoughts of guilt, shame and never measuring up from the enemy. Unfortunately, my mind (soul-mind, will, and emotions) ruled over what my heart wanted to believe. Fear overwhelmed me at times and I would go through bouts of depression. I felt unrighteous and my relationship with God was affected. I felt I had to “do” more to cleanse the sins I was still committing. Carrying around the guilt and shame was part of my penitence. I was never fully cleansed. Thus, I was never free from condemnation. In my mind, it always kept me at a distance from God.

Then I discovered:

The law is about ‘what I can continually do’ to remain righteous
but accepting Christ is about
being in a state of righteousness continually’ forever.
When I am in Christ,
I do not have to do anything more to stay righteous.
He is my righteousness!


What I had failed to comprehend years ago was that the sins I committed from then on did not affect my righteousness or God’s opinion of me. I had always measured up not because of me (my self-righteous activity) but because of Christ (the Cross). I was ‘in Christ’ and he had continually taken care of whatever sins I had. That truth does not make me want to sin more but love more…love the Trinity more. Share Christ with more of those around me. The fear and depression? It gradually melted away the more I meditated on: My sins were really gone forever and God loves me no matter what. Carrying around the guilt and shame as penitence was neither necessary nor desire by God. Now, we are freed to be grace-conscience instead of sin-conscience. When we accept that sacrifice of Jesus into our lives, we become whiter than snow for eternity.

The knowledge that I am truly free from the law of sin and death has turned my sorrow into great joy!

Blessings to each of you in this season of our Savior! 

(Romans 8:1-2, Galatians 5:1, John 8:32, Philippians 3:9, 1Cor. 1: 30) 

Friday, March 20, 2015

My Sins, Whiter Than Snow

I got excited recently when I hear it is going to snow. When I noticed the first flakes falling, I made a mug of tea, pull my over-stuffed chair around so it faced the picture window, and watched until peace filled my soul.

While I was enjoying the beauty of the snow, a verse permeated my thoughts and I knew the Lord desired to speak:

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me,
and I will be whiter than snow.
Psalms 51:7

“I will be whiter than snow” was the phrase He highlighted so I kept rolling that over in my mind. Hummm…snow looks really white, Lord, but there must be something about snow I’m not seeing.

So…I researched how snow is formed and found out an interesting fact. Snowflakes are formed from dust particles in the air. When the temperature of the cloud is below freezing, water vapor collects on those tiny particles of dust/dirt/pollutants and turns into ice. The tiny crystals stick together until they form snowflakes.

In David’s time, atonement for your sins (dust/dirt/pollutants) was a requirement by God to stand right before Him. Sins were transferred to the spotless lamb and then the sin ladened lamb was killed and his blood was drained and placed upon the alter. (Leviticus 17:11) The Jewish people came back yearly for their sins to be completely washed away by this ritual. However, the Jewish people were never completely rid of condemnation, guilt, and shame-consciousness for their wrongdoing and ungodly attitudes. Soon after the cleansing ritual would be completed, sin would again begin to accumulate. Being whiter then snow was only a momentarily blessing.

As I continued to meditate on the scriptures, God showed me the picture of a long wooden table, which I understood represented the entire life of a Jew who went through the yearly cleansing ritual for his sin. Next, I saw a long blood red silky fabric that had been gathered from one end to the middle. As I continued to look, an accumulation of what looked like black dirt (sins) appeared on the table, located just before the silky fabric. Suddenly the fabric moved to cover the dirt then stopped. I could see there were bumps from previous years. Then it moved again over a new accumulated pile of dirt that appeared and then once again. The process was representative of the blood of the lamb covering the yearly sins of a Jew. When the silky blood red cloth covered the full length of the table perfectly, it meant the person’s life would have been over with all sins covered under the blood of the lamb. As long as he kept up the yearly trip to the temple, his sins were covered.

This sacrificial system went on for hundreds of years and it was the only way the Jewish people could be free of God’s judgment in their lives.


Then...when the time was right Jesus came
…and everything changed!!



Part 2 of My Sins-Whiter Than Snow
Next Week




Friday, February 13, 2015

A Boy's Mistake, The Father's Mercy

Buying a new bed and a mattress, there is nothing like it.

Step one…find the perfect bed. I had waited for this moment for along time so I wanted to enjoy the process. At first, I thought I wanted a poster bed. Ya know…the ‘princess’ look but I could not find one I liked at first. Finally, I found two different styles that I thought would be perfect and they were displayed together. In the end, I decided against the poster bed for one with a tall headboard. I thought that bed would look better when spread one of my handmade quilts on it. I set up the delivery date for the next week.

Now, on to step two…go for the mattresses. I knew exactly what I wanted when it came to that…a tempa-pedic. I just had to find the best price. In my small town, there are not many options. However, I found a store that was moving and needed to sell their inventory. Thus, I got the good discount I was looking for. I set up delivery for the day after the bed would arrive.

The bed came as promised. It was big and heavy but there were two nice size men handling the job.

Then the mattress arrived the next day. A man and his twelve year old son got out of a pickup truck, looked to see where the mattress would be going, and then started to untie the box springs to bring it in first. As the father and son worked together, the father patiently instructed his son on how to maneuver each step of the way. You could tell the son was new at this but the father trusted him to do a good job. The father lifted his side over the footboard first. Then the son followed…but…the son dropped his end on the footboard shelf. When he lifted it up again, I saw the gash. Neither the son nor the father noticed the gash before going back out to get the mattress.

In those next few moments, the Lord cautioned me to hold my tongue. Then, he said,

“Look at what is really going on in this moment. This father and son are working well together and building a lasting relationship. Please don’t disturb their teamwork. Forgive and be at peace.”

Oh how my selfish side wanted to speak forth. However, in the end, I realized God’s request was much more important than my new piece of furniture.

Then this scripture came to mind:

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24


To deny yourself in this context means to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self and one's own interests. It means to say ‘No’ to your self and ‘Yes’ to God.

There was something going on in the spirit and I was asked to step aside and show mercy. Afterwards, when the father and son had gone, God filled me with great joy! I felt my obedience was a victorious moment for both My Lord and me!


What about you? Has God asked you to deny yourself for another in some small way? Remember and Rejoice! Denying yourself is not always some big public persecution event. Sometimes, it is just quiet affirmative smiles between you and Your Heavenly Father.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

All Dogs Go To Heaven

It happened again…

Two years ago, I woke up about the normal time, grabbed Maggie, my dachshund, and put her on the floor, then headed off to the kitchen to start the coffee. A little while later, I noticed Maggie hadn’t followed me into the kitchen as normal. Curious to see what she was up too, I went to investigate. There she was…still in the bedroom. She would not move. I took her outside to potty and she attempted to stand but she obviously couldn’t.

The vet’s office ran some test and took some x-rays. When the doctor took me into his office for the consultation, I knew the prognosis would not be good.

He clipped the x-ray over the light as he explained that Maggie’s back was deteriorated to the point that she could not walk. He could give her some back treatments that would help her walk again or do surgery but it would not heal her back condition. Then he said she was in a lot of pain. I felt horrified. I had no idea she had been suffering. She never whined or cried out at all. Still climbing the stairs.

The doctor never mentioned putting her to sleep until I asked what he thought. He said it was my decision but he reiterated she was in pain and the treatment would only be a temporary fix. I decided to do the back treatments. I was not ready to let Maggie go yet. They started right away.

Over the next couple of days, I prayed and agonized over what to do. I did not like this ‘live or die’ decision-making. While I was out on the porch the next afternoon, the Lord gave me a vision.

I saw His hands came down and take Maggie lovingly from my lap as he spoke these words: “Here let me take care of her for awhile.” Peace flooded my soul at the Lord’s offer. I knew then she was heaven bound.

The morning after, I took Maggie outside to potty. I was standing about 10 feet away when I looked over at her. She was sitting with her eyes barely opened. I felt her communicating this message to my heart: I will be here for you as long as I can but I am really tired and ready to go home. Maggie was helping me to understand her heart. She was at the vet’s within the hour.

Now… it is my lab, Buddy. His knees are badly deteriorated. He is in a lot of pain. The vet said we could try the pain meds to see if they would help, if not…

For a couple of weeks, I tried to comfort and baby my Buddy but the meds were making him sick and I knew what needed to be done. Again I saw the Lord’s loving hands come down with the same loving response.

For one last time, my daughter and I took Buddy out to the Christian camp for one last romp. He swam in the lake and frolicked like a pup. It did my heart good to see the measure to which Buddy enjoyed life all the way up to the end.


Have you lost a beloved pet recently? Animals are so important to our lives. They bring us joy, they alter our perspectives, and they give us loyalty and devotion like no other. When we lose them, it is like we have lost our best friend …so, if it has happened…take time to grieve. Afterwards, take time to remember where it all began. As the good memories roll, let the joy spill forth.

Link to related post: Check Your Resolve Part 2