While waiting for yet another surgery to remove any cancer cells in the muscles and tissues around the tumor site, I went to a men’s prayer breakfast where two men pulled me aside to pray with me. Specifically, they prayed that my sins would be removed and my faith would be bolstered so that my cancer would be healed. A few weeks later, the surgeons flayed my leg from my knee to my ankle to obtain “clean margins.”

Though I was offended and confused by by the prayers of those two gentlemen, I knew they meant well; they are good men. However, they told me directly that if my faith had been strong enough then I would have grown close to God that I wouldn’t have gotten cancer. Over time, I became resentful of that statement. Still, I had to investigate the truth of the matter.

Is there any truth to the belief that Christians battle illness because of sin and lack of faith? That question is too big to deal with in its entirety. The question of faith-healings and faith-healers has incessantly stalked the Church for a century and a half. Any stance taken has been and will be largely subjective. Instead of looking at faith and healing, let’s see what the Bible says about sin and sickness.

We will begin with James 5, where the brother of Jesus asserts that when someone is healed of their illness, their sins are also forgiven (James 5:14-15 NIV).

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

The relationship here, though not explained, is undeniable: the prayer of faith makes one well and raises them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

Moreover, the next verse could not be clearer (James 5:16 NIV):

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

It follows, are you sick? Call the elders, ask to be anointed with oil, pray in faith, confess your sins to one another, and then your sins will be forgiven (if you’ve sinned) and you will be healed.

Still, that is a far cry from saying that the sins of the person who is sick are to blame for their illness. There is a growing belief in people that I know who attend churches that put greater emphasize the practice of praying for the sick than they do anything else. It goes like this: many are sick because they have sinned, and because they are unrepentant we won’t pray for them, but instead we will turn them over to Satan. This is a dangerous, unloving, and calloused belief. It may be why James concluded his letter with a call to rescue the perishing.

The belief that illness is directly linked to the sins of the ill was also a common belief in the first century. But, is it a sound belief?

Let’s look at John 9:1-7 NIV:

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Here we see that Jesus and His disciples encounter a man who had suffered a lifetime of blindness. His parents would have suffered as well, raising a boy who was blind. The disciples look at the man and – in their minds – condemn him for his sins. But then they think that perhaps they are being too harsh. Maybe he didn’t sin at all; maybe it is his parents who are to blame*.

Jesus tells them that neither supposition is correct. The man had been born blind so that God would be glorified in His healing. God knows why we suffer illness, but we cannot with certainty determine such things, so we must not pass judgement.

While we cannot and must not conclude that anyone is sick because of one’s own sin (only God can say for sure), we can be certain that the path to healing begins with the attitudes and faith that James outlines in the steps in his epistle. Corporate confession (genuine confession must include repentance), faith, personal and corporate prayer, and the symbolic anointing with oil. One may not be sick because of sin, but unrepented sin demonstrates a lack of faith in Christ, and one cannot be healed without faith in Jesus.

Isn’t it interesting that the Bible never tells us (not that I can recall) that Jesus asked believers to gather together, pray, and anoint the sick with oil while He walked in this earth, but after He ascended into heaven this practice became the norm. Why? Because it is just as important to God that we (His body, filled with the Holy Spirit) love and care for each other in the same way we love God. He emphasized this in naming the Greatest Commandments (Matthew 22:36-40).

This too is certain: sickness and death have been with us from almost the beginning of this age and will be with us until the end of this age. Sickness and death, though, are not part of God’s ideal journey for humankind; sickness and death came about only because the first-created of mankind (Adam and Eve) chose to be like gods instead of loving and cherishing the true God. Original sin.

*It is interesting to note that even the Pharisees, experts in the Law, believed that this man had been born blind because of sin. See John 9:34.

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“…and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:32

We are continuing a study this week about how a person’s life is changed when they accept Christ as their Savior. One thing that should occur is that the believe is exposed to or taught that Christ is absolute Truth. We are looking at truth and relativism today on Christian Holiness Daily.

Ravi Zacharias is perhaps the world’s greatest defender of the Christian faith. He speaks much about Absolute Truth. True freedom, he says, comes from knowing the truth. What is the source of that truth, if it is not God, Himself?

It is the demise of the belief in absolute truth that has sent the world as we know it into destruction. If nothing is true then all things are relative. If all things are relative, then they’re only value is perceived, a matter of perspective. If I assign no value to the life of the unborn, then what is the harm in killing them. If I assign no value to the life of an infant, then could I not abort them as well? Believe it or not but that is the question being asked on many college campuses. Why do mass shootings occur? One possible answer is because, for many people, there is no absolute truth on which to build our lives. People are of no value in such a society because no one has told them the absolute truth about the intrinsic value of life, and no one has taught the masses about God’s love for each and every one of them.

A similar problem exists in our churches today. Because there is no absolute truth, there can be no such thing as sin. Therefore, many pastors no longer preach about sin. As a result, many young people believe they can live any way they want and God is okay with it. Many adults – who know better – have become calloused to their conscience and choose to ignore the truth. Because sin, like truth, has fallen by the wayside, the church no longer resembles the church of yesteryear. The Old Testament and large portions of the New are never preached. Parishioners are never disciplined. Churches that were once considered radical for housing a coffee shop are now meeting in breweries. Sexual perversion and other unspeakable sins now rule the lives of church leaders. What was once wrong is right. What was once right is wrong.

All because we believe God is too loving and kind to hold people accountable to right and wrong.

There is yet another result of relativism that few people perceive or discuss and if you miss this, you miss the entire point of this essay:

Many people look at the Church and wonder how they can act so hateful and narrow-minded. Why are Christians who claim to believe in a God of love so quick to hate?

Because they have never experienced grace. Follow me here.

• They have never been taught truth
• They have never been told that they are living in sin.
• As a result they have never repented of sin.
• And therefore, have never found forgiveness.
• And never experienced the grace of God.
• So they cannot share the grace of God with others.
• Healing in the church will not occur until the full Gospel is preached far and wide.
• Can the truth set us free? Yes it can and will, and if your read that verse in its context, you will understand how.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

• Abide in Word.

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Holiness is, perhaps, the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. Anyone who has striven to follow the life of Christ can likely tell you that it is impossible to do. No one can match His love, His grace, or His compassion. For no one but Jesus is perfect. Once the believer is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, though, he or she is filled to the brim with the love of Christ, and desires nothing more than to please God and follow in Christ’s steps. The love of sin is gone. In its place is a love and passion for others. That is Christian Holiness. This is Christian Holiness Daily.

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Eritrea is called the North Korea of Africa. Cut out of the north end of Ethiopia, it is squeezed between Sudan and Djibouti on the Red Sea. It began its struggle to break away from Ethiopia in the 1960s and spent most of the next 50 years at war with that nation. The tiny nation has seen so much war that, for two years, it was responsible for the majority of refugees entering Europe. Even though the country has known peace in the past few years, its government – like that of North Korea – is so repressive, over 3% of its population has fled country.

Like most authoritarian nations, the elite grow obscenely wealthy, the masses starve, and the a dictator wrestles for control of freedoms, including freedom of religion. In Eritrea, about half the people are Islamic and the other half are Christian, but only three Christian churches are recognized: The Catholic Church, the Orthodox (Coptic) Church, and the Lutherans. All others are illegal.

Other churches may register with the government, but registration is such a complicated, lengthy, and invasive processes that the independent church registration has ground to a halt.

Many churches, then, meet in secret, illegally.

The Voice of the Martyrs just released the story of a worship leader in Eritrea – Helen Bethany – who was arrested for her participation in an outlawed church. She was imprisoned for 10 months, kept locked in a shipping container with a severely mentally handicapped woman. The woman physically abused her.

In spite of her imprisonment in such harsh conditions, Helen sang and prayed throughout the ordeal, even when guards beat her for it. She explains why she sang in this quote from The Voice of the Martyrs News, August 14, 2018:

When I was in prison just worshiping, [it] just kind of gave me strength. Also when you sing, it’s a heavy stone on the head of Satan, because he put you in these kind of things and when you start worshiping he is shocked. People don’t understand when something happen they close their door and cry … so he comes with other kind of [trials] or you repeat the same exam.

But when you start worshiping God … it is totally no space for Satan to attack you again and again.

What does following Jesus cost you? Your very life. Jesus tells us to consider the cost before we commit to Him, for we must give Him that which we love most: everything that we are, everything that we do, and everything that we ever hope to be. The cost is the commitment of our entire life. Our life is His to use as He pleases or to take as He wishes, for only He sees it from the unique perspective of the all-knowing creator of life. It is His breath in these lungs that I so foolishly consider my own. Who am I to argue with the very essence of life? All that I am is His.

My Tribute – by Andre’ Crouch

How can I say thanks for the things

You have done for me?

Things so undeserved yet You gave

To prove Your love for me

The voices of a million angels

Could not express my gratitude

All that I am, and ever hope to be

I owe it all to Thee

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Holiness is, perhaps, the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. Anyone who has striven to follow the life of Christ can likely tell you that it is impossible to do. No one can match His love, His grace, or His compassion. For no one but Jesus is perfect. Once the believer is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, though, he or she is filled to the brim with the love of Christ, and desires nothing more than to please God and follow in Christ’s steps. The love of sin is gone. In its place is a love and passion for others. That is Christian Holiness. This is Christian Holiness Daily.

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Yet salvation does have a price. Of course we know that Jesus Himself paid the price, because nothing short of the death, burial, and resurrection of God could pay the price for the sins of the entire world …Because nothing we could do could ever earn our way into heaven.

Yet, Christ speaks of a cost. Think of the story of the Rich Young Ruler as it is found in the synoptic gospels (MT 19:16-30; MK10:17-31; LK18:18-30). The young man asks Jesus what must he do to attain eternal life. Jesus answers that he must keep all of the commandments.

The young man answers that he has done exactly that. Jesus then tells him, “Sell everything you own and give the money to the poor and the come and follow me.” The young man considers the cost and declines, going away sad. Why did he decline? The Bible tells us that he declined because he was very wealthy.

Why did Jesus answer this way? Well many Bible commentaries tell us that Jesus was talking about two different things: eternal life on the one hand and the Kingdom of God in the other. I don’t buy that because Christ does not trifle with one’s soul. If the man had not understood, Christ would have clarified.

Other commentators tell us that the passage is hyperbole. That Jesus didn’t really expect the man to sell everything and give it to the poor to be worthy to follow after Him. He only needed, some claim, to stop loving his material goods more than he loves Jesus. He could’ve, in reality, they say, continue to possess his goods and followed Jesus anyway.

Others tell us that we miss the entire point when Christ tells us that it is impossible with man, but all things are possible with God. And here we get closer to the truth.

Now we know that neither selling everything we own and giving it to the poor nor keeping the commandments is enough to get you into heaven. Nor does Christ tell us that everyone must give all they own to the poor.

Let’s take a look at other passages that speak of the price of salvation. At one point a scribe – a scholar dedicated to accurately copying Scripture – tells Jesus that he will follow Him as His disciple. Christ replies, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

The Bible doesn’t directly state this but implies that the scribe, like the Rich Young Ruler, left disappointed.

Another follower asked to leave Jesus to go to his father’s funeral. Jesus answered, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

That seems harsh, but Jesus never once said it would be easy to follow Him.

And with that last sentence I just lost half my audience. Many of those who remain are saying “What about John 3:16?”

Well let’s take a look at John 3:16 in the larger context of the entire chapter. We have lived so long with the term “born again” that we fail to recognize it’s significance. Sure, Christ says that everyone who believes will be saved, but how many of those who follow the prescriptive ABC of salvation really believe? I fear not many, for few can live up to the expectations of the full context of the discourse in John 3. Take a look at verses 19-21.

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

How many who consider themselves Christians actually change their direction? How many of them repent?

Christ tells us that we must be born again but he also tells us that we must die to self. In Luke 9:23, he says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”

The cross is not a symbol of hardship, like I heard growing up in church (a man I knew speaking of his life as a single father after his wife abandoned him years ago always ended the discussion with the words, “that’s just my cross to bear”). Not at all. The cross is not a symbol of hardship it is a symbol of death. When Jesus said to take up our cross and follow Him, he added a clause to the beginning: “deny yourselves, take up your cross daily and follow me!”

If we are to be born again we must also die to our own self. Christ does not tolerate a double-minded person; you should be either hot or cold but not lukewarm.

I have had preachers warn me about this message, the message of repentance. They tell me that, were they me, they would be scared of turning away seekers from the altar. I preached at a church three Sundays ago and preached on repentance. Another preacher was in the congregation that morning. He was scheduled to preach the following Sunday. When he did preach, he looked me in the eye from the pulpit and said that it is enough that people accept Jesus, believe in their hearts, and confess their sins. It is up to God to convict them enough to repent. I worry that preachers like him are convincing many sinners they are saved because they said a solitary prayer but never really repent and trust in Christ. Their lives show no fruit of the Spirit.

What does it cost to follow Christ? Just our very self.

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Holiness is, perhaps, the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. Anyone who has striven to follow the life of Christ can likely tell you that it is impossible to do. No one can match His love, His grace, or His compassion. For no one but Jesus is perfect. Once the believer is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, though, he or she is filled to the brim with the love of Christ, and desires nothing more than to please God and follow in Christ’s steps. The love of sin is gone. In its place is a love and passion for others. That is Christian Holiness. This is Christian Holiness Daily.

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The Mission Field begins 2’ outside the church door.

Just as we compartmentalize our lives into the sacred and the secular, we have relegated missions to missionaries. Maybe we entertain one missionary a year. Maybe we talk about missions in our Sunday service twice a year. Maybe we have a WMS program three times a year. Some of us might actually read a mission book. But do you see the problem? We think of missions as a department, for people who are called to that duty. And, those of us who have a burden for missions, we may even spend our vacation on a work and witness trip. But we forget that the mission field begins two feet outside the church door.

The Mission of the Church is not just missions. Missions is only part of the mission of the Church.

We are the Messengers of Jesus Christ

Chris Wright, in his book, The Mission of God’s People, asks this question: What kind of person is your mail carrier? Is he a good man? Or is he a bad man? Does he go to church? Does he cheat on his wife? Does he rob his favorite magazines from the mail? Does he follow children through the park? You don’t know because it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters to you about your mail carrier is what should matter: does he or she deliver the mail safely, faithfully, and on time. He is simply a messenger and can be replaced easily by a mail server and two computers. The same cannot be said about you and me. We are the messenger who delivers the Good News of Jesus Christ. For us to be most effective, we must surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and allow Him to make us Holy and Pure.

How many people do you know that are pure and holy? How many Nazarenes do you know that are pure and holy? How many people do know in the Nazarene Church that even believe they can live a holy life? That believe in Entire Sanctification? That even believe in REPENTANCE?

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The church sat in the countryside, but there happened to be two homes directly across the road. One of the families who lived across the road attended regularly – or, I should say, the wife and kids did. The man of the house bragged that his life was such a mess that, if he ever walked through the church doors, the roof would cave in.

So one winter day, when services were being held in the older, smaller, and not-so-well maintained sanctuary, the man crossed the street to join his wife and children at church. The very second he walked into the foyer, the false ceiling collapsed on his head.

No one was hurt, and everyone got a good laugh, and he did stay for the entire service. I am unsure, though, if he ever felt compelled to give his heart to Christ.

Here is what people fail to understand about God’s love. He loves you as you are. You don’t have to clean up your life before you give it to God. Christ says in Luke 5:32:

“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (NIV).

Are you addicted to porn? Christ is calling you.

Are you a liar and thief? Christ is calling you.

Do you have an uncontrollable temper? Christ is calling you.

Are you hated by everyone who knows you? Christ knows you better than anyone and He loves you. He’s calling you.

Are you drowning in an alternative lifestyle? Christ is calling you.

Christ loves us as we are. He proves it in this way: even while we are full of filthy sin, He died for us… to rescue us from that sin… and from death (Roman’s 5:8, paraphrased).

Worried that the roof will cave in if you step inside a church? Don’t worry. Come anyway. Come as you are, and give all your sins and worries to God.

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. – Revelation 22:17 NIV

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In the Bible water is often synonymous with chaos, sin, or evil. In the beginning, the earth was formless, void, and full of darkness… Chaotic.

When the nation of Israel escapes Egypt, God not only defeats Pharaoh, he defeats the waters. For Christians, the next generation crossing of the Jordan symbolizes the passing of life and entering life eternal.

Baptism took on new meaning for us with the resurrection of Christ. It came to symbolize our death and burial with He who saves us and our subsequent resurrection.

In the psalms, water represents our enemies, physical or spiritual. In the Psalm 69, the enemy is represented as deep waters, mire or muck, a raging flood, and an abyss. David has come to an end of himself. He is helpless, powerless, outnumbered, accused, and (vs. 19) guilty.

We too must come to the end of ourselves before God may act in His fullness. Paul says it best in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Do you feel like you are drowning, like you are ready to die? Give it up. Surrender to Christ, and He will make you alive. For when you are weak, He will be strong for you.

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“But, three or four people have died trying,” said Bobby. His brother nodded in agreement.

“If no one has ever been able to reach it, then how do you know it’s there?” I asked.

“It just is. We know,” they said.

We drove a couple hours south of town before turning off into the wilds of the Ozark Mountains. Squeezed between two hillsides, the opening was barely wide enough to slither through on my belly. Inside, though, one could sit up. In a lower cavern, I was able to stand up. The sound of distant rushing waters could be heard from below. We crawled through an even deeper passage into a large cavern. The room was cold and damp. At the far end, an underground river rushed beneath a ten-foot drop. A rope that had been tied from the top led into the river and disappeared beneath the black water.

“There it is,” said Mike, stripping down to his shorts. He plunged in, flashlight in hand.

I was frightened. The two other boys followed. I was the last one to dive in. I was afraid of being pulled under by the current and sucked into the rocks where the river again disappeared. I was more afraid, though, of being called chicken. Eventually, I, too, dove in. When I hit the water, my flashlight went out.

The boys, dived underwater. I was left in the dark. They followed the rope underwater and beneath a fallen stalactite. They came up just out of sight on the right of me. I could see the glow of their lights but, around a corner. I was left in the dark. They taunted me, and told me to follow them, but I had no idea how to get there, and no light to guide me. I could make out where they were, but just barely.

At last, I could take no more of their name-calling and dove under the water into icy darkness. I followed the curve of the slimy stalactite, eventually finding the rope, and came up some twenty feet away beyond a large rock. The little mud beach on which they sat was covered with old beer cans and the remains of several campfires. We were not the first ones to make this journey, as we had supposed. This had been a party spot for years.

I have often looked back at that day, and the many summer days after it that the four of us visited that cave with girls whom we wished to impress, and wondered why it is so easy to follow the taunts of peer pressure and so hard to follow the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. Why is it so easy to fulfill the desires of the body, and so hard to even hear the leading of the Spirit? Why is it so important to us to please the ego, while we neglect pleasing God?

That summer was all about answering the call of the cave. I learned the hard way that it is not always best to give into peer pressure. Several weeks and several visits later, some of us went back to the cave with girlfriends. The girl I was with lost hold of the rope and was swept away into the rocks before she was able to come up for air. She had a gash on her forehead and was barely able to make the swim out of the water and climb up the rope and out of the cave. Nearly an hour later, when we finally exited the cave, she was covered with blood from her head. The cut took several stitches. It was all her dad could do to keep from pummeling me. I deserved it and would have felt better had he done it.

God eventually took me to the place where I begged Him to fill me with His Holy Spirit and keep me from such temptations, but it took many more near-tragedies and many more years before I heeded His call. The cave has since been block off. The pile of rocks in front of it remind me that God no longer lets me go down to such depths. Instead, He protects me; by filling me with His Spirit, He has given me the strength to… well to live; for what I called living before, was really no life at all.

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There comes a time in every Christian’s life when God allows us to reap what we’ve sown. Specifically, immature Christians often see the wages of sin, especially sin from which we have not repented. I have.

I found myself flat on my back, having sunk lower than I could have ever imagined. I had nowhere else to turn… No one else to turn to, but to God.

Actually, that has happened a few times in my life. Call me a slow learner. Each low, after that first one, was more of a plateau. As a result, each crisis led to an ever closer relationship with God.

That’s our topic today: the life crisis that leads to surrender.

While the experiences that have led me to a deeper walk with Christ are certainly unique, the crisis experience itself is not. Most people endure at least two such experiences in their spiritual journey.

The first such crisis is the one through which God worked to lead us to salvation. Since I can rightfully assume that most of my readers and listeners are Christian, I won’t expound upon it.

The second crisis is the one that God uses to sanctify us. It is at that point that He fills us with His Holy spirit. It is that point that we realize that God is cleaning house, revealing to us or wicked hearts and asking us to repent of sins big and small. He sweeps those sins out the door and fills us with more of His love.

The great holiness preacher of the early 20th century, Buddy Robinson, described sanctification as a boiling pot in which sin rises to the top, and is skimmed away by God. At one point, he thought that if God didn’t turn down the fire, there would be nothing left to skim.

It is not a fair analogy to compare the journey of an Old Testament prophet to a Christian journey, but the parallel is so close, that I cannot resist it.

We read 1 Kings 19 where Elijah is exhausted. He’s flat on his back and tells God that he’s ready to die. He hit bottom. Here’s the lesson:

It wasn’t until Elijah told God that he was ready to die that God gave him the strength to live.

There is the parallel. Take a look at Ephesians 2. I urge you to read the entire chapter. Even will focus on verses 4 and 5 from the NIV.

…because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved.

This – described in Ephesians 2 – is the crisis experience that leads to salvation.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV – For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

I encourage you to read Roman’s chapters 6-8. This describes the crisis experience and a before and after picture of sanctification. Here are some key verses: Romans 6:11-14 NIV

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

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Father’s Day just passed, and I dutifully put a photo of my dad on my Facebook profile. My brother, a few years older than me, wrote a beautiful piece about being a dad. In it, he mentions that he wishes he could have better known our dad. I was 6 when Dad died, and David was about 9. Neither of us have many memories of him, but – even though I am the youngest – I seem to remember more about Dad than my brother. My memories of childhood are vivid, all the way back to the age of 18 months or 2 years of age. But, we both have a new father…

Dad died fifty years ago. Mom died thirty years ago. My stepdad was no role model at all. I am a mature white male who is supposed to have his act together, who is supposed to be living a life of privilege, but – in fact – I often find myself no more than a quivering child in an old man’s body (something that adults are not supposed to admit). Yet, we have another father, our Heavenly Father, and it is to Him that I look when I need guidance, when I am feeling like a child.

In Isaiah chapter 61, there is a brief picture of the Father-Child relationship that our Heavenly Father wishes to have with us. If one reads that chapter, it passes without notice. It is found in the midst of the Servant-Lord discourse, in the section called “The Year of the Lord’s Favor.” It is adjacent to the passage that Jesus pointed to in Luke 4 when he read from the scroll at Nazareth. Here is the passage, Luke 4: 16-19 NIV:

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

A little further on in Isaiah, below the section that Jesus read, the voice changes. It shifts from the voice of the Messiah – the Servant Lord – to the voice of God’s Chosen People. Let me call your attention to the first part of verse 10 from the NIV:

I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,

This is, as I stated above, a beautiful picture of the relationship that God longs for with you, his child. It is the picture of a child who has come home, restored to his or her rightful place in the house of the Father. The same picture is painted in more detail in Luke 15, where Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal Son, perhaps with this section of Isaiah in mind when told it. Luke 15 expands on this picture in the homecoming of the youngest son. Here are the words of Jesus as found in verses 21-24 in the NIV:

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Isn’t that an amazing picture, our Heavenly Father celebrating when the lost repent and come home? Clothing us with garments of salvation and arraying us in robes of His righteousness? It is incredible. He seals us with a ring on our finger indicating that we belong to His house. We were dead. Now we are alive. We were lost. Now we are found. And, all of heaven celebrates. What a wonderful picture.

Oh, for the wonderful love He has promised—
  Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon—
  Pardon for you and for me!

Come home! come home!
  Ye who are weary, come home!
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
    Calling, O sinner, come home!

– Will J. Thompson

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Those of you who have children will likely know what I mean when I say that raising boys is completely different than raising girls. It is true in many different ways. For example, when my boys misbehaved, they world rarely confess to doing anything wrong, even when caught red-handed. My girl, though, when corrected would always tearfully repent of her wrongdoing – whatever it was – and promise to change. As Christians, we should be more like my girl, ready to repent when we’ve sinned.

Repentance is perhaps the most important aspect of our relationship with God. Without true repentance, there is no salvation. Matthew tells us in chapter 4 that, from the beginning of His ministry, Jesus began to “preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'” (v. 17 NKJV).

On the Day of Pentecost, at the birth of the Church, Peter – filled with the Holy Spirit – preached a moving sermon. Everyone within earshot was cut to the quick. “What do we do?” They asked.

“Repent and be baptized in the name of Christ Jesus for the remission of sins,” Peter answered, “and you will receive the Holy Spirit.”

If repentance was message of Christ, and if repentance was the message of the Apostles, then what role should it play in our lives – me and you, 21st century believers?

Repentance should be central to our relationship with Christ. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31 that he died daily. As for myself, before I get out of bed in the morning, I lay down my life before the Lord, telling Him that I am a weak and lowly sinner who, without the presence of His Holy Spirit, can never change. And I beg Him to fill me anew and provide the power to make it through another day.

And, if I do sin, I immediately confess it repent of it, and pray for more strength so that I don’t do it again. John, in his first epistle (2:1-2 NKJV) tells us that we should not sin, but indicates that he knows we will.

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

And, that’s just it. We are liable to sin; we are only human. But if we fully surrender to God, He will live through us. If He lives through us, then we will find that those same old sins – those ones that always trap us in a snare – we’ll find they no longer tempt us.

Once God deals with the major sins in our life, then He will begin showing us sins that we thought we had kept hidden from Him, or that He didn’t care about. This is how we know that God loves us. He loves us too much to let us continue living in an manner that will rob us of His joy.

God is not a ruthless tyrant who restricts us from all worldly pleasure. On the contrary, He is a loving Father who desires only the best things for His children.

He loves us so much that He carefully watches over us. When we wander, he knows our every step, never letting us out of His sight. He collects all our tears like precious oils (Psalm 56:8).

God is like the dad who takes his child to the playground. He turns loose of the child so she may run and jump and climb and swing (how would she learn to grow, if he didn’t) but he never takes eyes off her, and he’s there to dry her tears if she falls.

I beg of you: confess and repent of your sins, and ask God to fill you with His Spirit, giving you the strength and the love to change, for we are unable to change on our own. He is not an abusive Father; He won’t be angry when you repent. He will try your tears, hold you in His arms, and fill you with the joy of His perfect love. What good father can resist hugging a crying child?

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