Once Separated

Have you seen the movie, Oh God? It’s about a grocery store manager who has an encounter with God. The Almighty (played by the 90 year old, cigar smoking George Burns) appears to Jerry (played by John Denver) many times throughout the movie; in a car, in the shower, over the radio. The experience is rather unnerving for Jerry and the reactions of others to his run in with God are varied, as expected.

I have conversations with God in my car. I haven’t seen Him, I haven’t heard an audible voice, and I haven’t smelled cigar smoke, but I know it is God speaking to me, because what He has said, what He has spoken to my heart, has come to pass.

I believe God wants to speak to each of us today.

Several weeks ago I was on my way to work and God spoke to me in the form of a question. And the question came with the answer embedded in it, like the music on the radio is embedded in the radio signal. His question was, “Do your sins cause a separation between you and God?” How would you answer this question? If God had asked you this, what would your response be?

Be careful before you answer.

If this question had been asked of me ten years ago, my answer would have been a quick and absolute, “Yes! My sins separate me from God.” But the young, self-strong, self-righteous, and self-confident man that I was has faded into the past, humbled by the years. Yet a new man has risen in his place; God-confident, God-assured, God-made. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. Yet I still live, and live fully. Joyfully and gratefully. Without regret. And this has been a work of His Spirit in me.

Today, with this new mind set (the word in Greek, the language of the new testament scriptures, is metanoia), I answer that question not out of self-confidence, but rather out of true confidence, as a student who has been trained by a kind and gentle Master. And my answer is a deep and firm, resounding “No, my sins do not separate me from my God.” For I have been forgiven; completely, utterly, perfectly, through and through. All sin, past, present, future, has been paid for. Christ died once for all sin.

We are loved deeply by the One who knows us completely, by the One who so loved us that He gave His Son. Every flaw, every good part; every sin, every victory. He sees it all, yet for those who have received this gift, this payment of their debts, He sees only the good. Know that.


Live loved my friends.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Fixer-Upper I have a soft spot for houses that have potential, or as some people like to call them, fixer uppers. So does my daughter Kaity. She inherited that part of me. I look at a shack and see a mansion. I walk through overgrowth and see a beautiful garden. The viewed as hopeless thrills me; makes my what-could-be senses tingle.   Not everyone looks at a blank canvas and sees a masterpiece. Thank God. I'm grateful for those of us endowed with the gift of planning and practicality; those not afraid to ask the tough questions. This world needs not only dreamers, but anchors as well.  My wife and I recently went to look at a house that Kaity and her husband Paul were considering buying. We drove up the slight hill to the house, turned left (eyeing the neighbor's do not trespass sign) and parked on the property. I think my wife's heart may have sunk a little. My heart soared. She saw the work, the investment required, the dirty kitchen stove. I saw a brand new yard,...
Read more
Image
Sometimes dreams must die. Dreams never realized can be heartbreaking, but there's nothing that leads to that craggy road called discouragement more directly than dreams realized and then lost. The hope of marriage broken on the rocks of disappointment and conflict. Booming investments in the market tail spinning into oblivion on the comment of a high political official. God's promises realized seemingly put to bed for good.  Seemingly.  I want to give you hope. She is just sleeping. The young vibrant female we call hope is not dead. She is just sleeping. But she needed to lay her head down into a lifeless slumber, lest, we come to trust in her instead of Someone greater. There's a story of a rich woman, a childless woman. Her lifelong and dormant dream was to give birth to a child. It was a hope for her, a dream; a good dream. Many of us are like her. We hope, but never get our hopes too high, lest they be disappointed; lest we be let down into the overwhelming mir...
Read more
An underlying culture exists in America today, a pattern of thought that says, "At all costs, avoid pain." And we, as the church, must take care to not let our understanding of scripture be shaped or influenced by such a world view. For from this culture we have seen such pseudo-spiritual doctrines as "name it and claim it" spring up to entice the body of Christ. We’ve incorrectly divided scriptures such as "By His wounds we are healed" to wrongly mean that we shall never suffer disease of any kind. Yet it was the disease of sin that was defeated on the cross.  Comfort is king in our "now" society and we must take care that we don't adopt that attitude in ourselves. I'm going through a dark night of my soul. Right now in my life. It's uncomfortable, and I want it to end. And I suppose that my desire for comfort, release, and escape goes beyond just the cultural norm of today. Our human nature doesn't embrace suffering. Understan...
Read more