"you are just "one of those people."
one of those who as a kid, didn't swear except alone on my bicycle when angered, never had an interest in drugs or alcohol, remained a virgin until marriage. was homeschooled, loved Jesus, went to church and did church things. in college my friends found pleasure in "educating" me in some of the more vulgar meanings of sexual innuendos. my first kiss was in my first relationship at age 23. my second relationship turned out to continue into marriage with my husband. since then my husband and i have decided to monitor what we take in with media. we are cleaning up our diet/educating ourselves. wanted and did a water home birth with our son. have strong belief's on what we believe to be important biblical truths. the list goes on on how the phrase "those people" has been acquired. depending who you are, this list could look nice or confusingly ridiculous. regardless....
i'm still a sinner. wrestling with my flesh. i have Christ in me, but until the day he redeems me forever, i must wrestle with my flesh. i still live in the sinful shell, the only difference, with Christ, the shell no longer has dominion over me.
fear. selfishness. pride. lack of trust. idolatry. all my sins really are a form of idolatry. a worship problem. while i was/am being one of "those people" i am making light of what Christ did on the cross for me by making excuses for my sins, trying to justify myself. outwardly, i may serve God, but inside, there is a battle going on....
that is....if...if i am choosing to fight.
sometimes i just don't want to deal with my sin. i don't want to have to work at it...or maybe it just doesn't seem like a big deal if it isn't hurting anyone else. or, sometimes after working for a long time and finally seeing victory in an area of my life, i just want a vacation. i deserve a vacation, right?
it was just new years. so many people make resolutions to do better, be better in the next year. they start out with a bang...i know, because i couldn't find one dang bag of kale at Trader Joe's probably because every dang person in the whole dang world decided that kale was good for you and they need to consume it in mass quantities...thus leaving me empty handed of kale in the store. anyway, i bunny trail. my point is, people talk about their resolutions or need to change to their friends, and i talk to my friends as well. but then...sometimes, we find ourselves in the same patterns and cycles of sin or bad habits that we talked and talked about wanting to leave.
talk. that's all we do sometimes, isn't it?
(from Tedashii's Make War song, Intro, john piper):"I hear so many christians, murmuring about their imperfections, and their failures, and their addiction, and their shortcomings. And i see so little war! Murmur, murmur, murmur. Why am i this way? Make war!"
make war?? wait! what about that vacation?
Job 7:17-18: "what is man that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning, and test him every minute?"
woah. God set's his heart on us...what's more he visits us every morning and tests us every minute. that means, there is no time for a break from growing. in learning. in pursuing God and holiness.
we don't have time to be lukewarm Christians. we don't have the ability to just "cruise" in life...
not without a price.
let's just take a moment and focus on sin, and the enemy. our enemy who is called the father of all lies. let's talk about war on sin and ....
WHY we fight
'Tedashii: I make war! Cause sin never sleeps/It's got me in a trance/You can see it in my dreams/I make war!'
sin bites. haunts. eats at us. kills us. when we spend enough time doing what we want to do and ignoring the Spirit, we come to know that quite well.
Our enemy.
satan never rests. no, he is the very virtue of patience and his patience will pay off. he wants us to die. he wants us to be miserable in separation from Christ he wants us to be drawn away from christ and devour us. 1 peter 5:8 "your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour" satan hates us. Jesus said that "the thief comes to steal kill and destroy (john 10:10).
he delights when we give into small battles so that he can use them to weaken us to lose the big ones. i know this when i spend time letting my mind park in my fears when they come instead of fighting the fear with truth. after giving into my thoughts and imaginations over and again, worrying and being anxious...i will act out in sin to prevent that fear from becoming true. this is when i am focused on my flesh rather than the spirit. Romans 8:6 warns us "for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace."
satan is crafty and can be very subtle (Gen 3:1) but we know his devises (2 Cor. 2:11) when we know the Lord and the Word. when we aren't daily fighting our flesh, daily relying on God's grace to do so, but rather just let ourselves be comfortable or give into little "trivial" sins, we are slowly giving ourselves over to satan's desire for us: death.
i love the lyrics of "slow fade" by casting crowns:
"it's a slow fade when you give yourself away
it's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
when you give yourself away
people never crumble in a day
it's a slow fade, it's a slow fade."
we are either growing closer to Christ or pulling away from him. like it or not, we cannot, cannot afford to rest in our fight against flesh, for it never rests in pulling you down. john owen said "be killing sin or sin will be killing you."
slaves or free people?
The Gospel. Let's not forget the Gospel in all this. why we make war on our sin...it isn't just because we "have to" or because we want to avoid the pain of sin. it is true, sin hurts us...but ultimately it hurts God. it hurt God so much that he had to send his son to die for us. because he died for us, we can live. we can live! Sin crushes and kills us. but...we are no longer slaves to it. sin and death no longer have dominion over us. and because we are no longer slaves, we must not live like we are such. we must live as our identity in Christ let's us live. holy. free. we do so by his grace alone.
I have to include this huge chunk of Romans 6 in this blog, it is so, so good!
"let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. for sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace...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.... For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For 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."
(Tedashii):
"Do you even have a clueWhat happened to you when he diedWhen that tomb got rolled when he rose in the skyI think we emphasis sin so muchThat it makes us paralyzedAnd glorify struggle so muchThat it makes us terrifiedAnd deemphasize the fact that we have been sterilized from our own lives and thusWe gotta snap out of itWe aint in no straight-jacketWe freeWhen jesus died in our lives something strange happenedHe gave us powerYeah i know that we sinners but since he rose he's renewing the image of god in usNow, we gotta start making warNow we can start saying noTo them fleshy impulses that jesus christ is paying for"God is perfect. he is worthy of praise and worship. there is none like him. he is good in every way.
God commands us that "you shall have no other God's before me." idolatry. a worship problem. my worship problem. while living in our flesh here on earth, we can never live a perfect life..until redemption we will never be completely sinless or rid of idolatry issues. sometimes it just seems like too much to fight. hopeless. the only thing we have good in us is Jesus.
...the only thing good in us is...yes!!
Jesus.
--- if we have found him good, then we will long for him, and everything of him! 1 peter 2:2-3 "like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good."
---if we find ourselves weary of fighting, in need of encouragement... "consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood" (hebrews 12:3-4).
---God equips us with everything we need to make war on our sin and to run our race with patience.
Ephesians 6:10: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. put on the whole armor of god, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. therefore take up the armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. to that end keep alert with all perseverance..."
---we fight sin because we want good...that is, Jesus. the more we have of Jesus, the more we hate sin. we don't work to earn our righteousness, but we are counted righteous because of Christ. in our thankfulness and in the joy of our salvation, we want to live like Christ.
therefore...
Tedashii:
I make war!Man i beat my fleshTo the deathEvery breathLike i beat my chestI make warSun upI make warSun downI make warTime inI make warTime outI make warAgainst lustAgainst prideAgainst meUntil i dieno more excuses or self-justification. no more laziness. no more murmuring. no more half-hearted obedience.
I. Choose. Life.
CHRIST
this might look like my best war face (or not):
WORSHIP:
....and PRAYER:
....on my knees.
and finally,
the sword of truth:
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