Tuesday, September 27, 2005
How Much Are You Willing To Let Go?
Broken Messenger wrote a simply fantastic post yesterday.
The gospel is good news, but it is also terrifying news. There is an apropos analogy for this time. The good news is you are going to get a brand new house. But for that to happen you have to leave your home behind you and go to a destination not entirely known and leave your current house to the vagaries of a hurricane. Think about it -- in a few years most who have lost their homes to Katrina and Rita will be in new homes, so much better than the ones they left behind, but the journey to those homes is fraught with uncertainty and trust. They must trust theyw ill find a place to stay when they evacuate. They must trust that the insurance will pay off. They must trust that there will be jobs for them when they return. There is so much that they simply must trust in.
And now I ask you, who is more trustworthy? - Governments, insurance companies, contractors and employers or the Lord God. The same Lord God who saw fit to take on human form and to sacrifice Himself on our behalf. The same Lord God that saw the Israelites out of Egypt and promises to make lions lay down with lambs. If God is who He says He is, He is so much more trustworthy than any earthly institution!
For repentance is not about telling God of the iniquities that He already knows we have committed and of our sorrow over them that also He foreknew we would be penitent over. Repentance is for our acknowledgment and recognition. It is for our own epiphany and revelation in light of what God already knows - that without Him we are lost and without Him we will never be able to change and follow the example set by the Lord Jesus Christ.Consider the enoromous contrast between that presentation of the gospel and the presentation so much more common these days. This is not the gospel as "relgious self-improvment" -- this is the gospel for what it truly is, this is placing ourselves in the hands of the Almighty. This is not a gospel that seeks to round off the rough edges, this is a gospel that seeks to remake us utter and from the beginning. This is the gospel without compromise.
And what happens at this point of realization for this need to repent? It is the recognition that God?s wisdom is superior and His righteousness is far higher than that of our own. It is from this point that we yield to Him and allow Him to begin the turn within us from the direction we had embarked upon in our own power, to a new direction under the guidance of His wisdom and in the embrace of His righteousness. And such a turning is not without a reward:?...repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord" -Acts 3:19
But such a turning is also not without a price. And that price is the willing destruction of our former selves. It is what Paul meant when he spoke of his dying daily and of the crucifying our former lives. Our desires, dreams, habits and daily lives now come under the management of the Righteous Creator. It is the unconditional surrender of our will in exchange for allowing His to operate within us. It is simply a wholehearted commitment to the notion of one simple thing that is so easy to hear, more difficult to truly understand and impossible to put in action without His aid: Letting go.
The gospel is good news, but it is also terrifying news. There is an apropos analogy for this time. The good news is you are going to get a brand new house. But for that to happen you have to leave your home behind you and go to a destination not entirely known and leave your current house to the vagaries of a hurricane. Think about it -- in a few years most who have lost their homes to Katrina and Rita will be in new homes, so much better than the ones they left behind, but the journey to those homes is fraught with uncertainty and trust. They must trust theyw ill find a place to stay when they evacuate. They must trust that the insurance will pay off. They must trust that there will be jobs for them when they return. There is so much that they simply must trust in.
And now I ask you, who is more trustworthy? - Governments, insurance companies, contractors and employers or the Lord God. The same Lord God who saw fit to take on human form and to sacrifice Himself on our behalf. The same Lord God that saw the Israelites out of Egypt and promises to make lions lay down with lambs. If God is who He says He is, He is so much more trustworthy than any earthly institution!
