Salvation is a gift of God given in His infinite grace. We receive it by His grace and through faith in Jesus Christ...which is also His gift to us. From start to finish, the salvation of God is never earned. That is an eternal impossibility for humanity. It is either received in humility as a gift preceded by repentance and faith or it is never known.

God opens our hearts and eyes to see that our own sin has separated us from Him. He reveals to us that He has thoroughly dealt with the sin of the whole world (ours included)in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We turn from self and our shattered and untenable life of "independence" and turn to God surrendering our whole life to Him. God, Himself graciously empowers our repentance. He opens our eyes to see sin as He sees it: deadly, deceitful, empty and insatiable.

Our life in Christ is begun by grace through faith and is lived out by grace through faith. You cannot follow Jesus any other way. Our faith depends upon Him from start to finish. The Holy Spirit takes the things of Jesus and makes them real to us and actively present in us. The upshot of this is that we are in a constant state of change.

His Life in us is always the same, but we need our minds renewed. We need our wills reoriented from feckless self to the faithfulness of God. We need our emotions transformed so that they do not rule us by whim, but are at the disposal of God to express His heart for us and for others. We need deep, life-long wounds healed. We have issues that are grounded in the brokenness of a sinful life that need transformation. There are long- standing, destructive habits in us that need uprooting, lies that need exposing so we can life in the liberty that belongs to us as children of God.

Repentance is not a "one-time" event at conversion but is an ongoing, daily part of our life-long following of Jesus as His disciples. As the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, He gives us the power to turn from folly and turn to Jesus. We are on a journey that has been called "a long obedience in the same direction."

I heard recently that when the first Apollo flight to the moon took place, the capsule was off course 95% of the time! Houston kept giving them instructions to fire the retro-rockets to make specific course corrections. They arrived precisely at the place they were meant to be. The firing of those jets can be seen as points of "repentance"...a change of course. They didn't argue with Houston, they simply obeyed the instructions. They believed that Ground Control knew more than they did.

Ah...there is the rub! It takes humility as well as real wisdom to finally "GET" the unchanging fact that God knows more about us and our lives than we do. He knows what will make for life and what will harm it. His ways are as high above our ways as the heavens are higher than the earth, He says through Isaiah. We do not innately know what makes for life. We just know we are desperately needy and try to "fill in the blanks" with all the crud the world, the flesh and the Devil offer us. How's that working out for you? A mess? Me, too!

Repentance is a daily discipline for each of us, not just for the season of Lent, but for the season of life in following Jesus. I have heard repentance called the "joy-filled" life. Listen, if what I was doing as a matter of course was going to destroy my life, I actually would want someone to come along-side and say "WHOA!" God is not trying to shame us, but to apply specifically to us the power of the Rescue we have received in Jesus Christ

It is not to condemn us that the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin in our lives, but so we can confess it for what it is (agreeing with God about it), turning from what can never meet the "need" and turning to God who knows exactly what the "need" is and how to fulfill it. The Holy Spirit then applies to us the forgiveness and cleansing by Jesus blood that is the heritage and inheritance of every true follower of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit applies the forgiveness of God specifically to our lives. We experience in time what God has given us as our inheritance in Christ Jesus. Because He has forgiven us in Jesus Christ, we can experience forgiveness in the hear-and-now.

Don't get upset when the Holy Spirit says. "WHOA!!!" Listen, agree with His assessment. repent (fire the retro-rockets), change course and keep your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith. Let Him cleanse what needs cleansing, heal what needs healing, change what needs changing, empower what is weak and show you His salvation.

The Gospel for this Sunday (Luke 12:49-53)seems disturbing on the surface.

 

Jesus said clearly that He came to "kindle fire on the earth" and "wished it were already kindled". He said He had a baptism of suffering to undergo and was distressed, bearing the greatness of its burden until it could be completed.  

 

Jesus then says, "Do you think I came to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but division. No from now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three for me and two against me, to for me and three against. Father against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother..." 

 

Jesus is called rightly the Prince of Peace. His Peace is not the "peace"of the world with its rebellion against the things of God, its compromise with truth and collusion with the kingdom of darkness. God's peace is grounded in relationship. It is not some kind of addendum to Him. Without Him, there is no real peace; it does not exist.

 

We talked about idols last week. One of the hardest ones to recognize are relational. Children demand that their parents fulfill their lives. Parents demand that children fulfill their lives. Husbands and wives demand of one another things that only God can provide.

 

Then, someone turns to Jesus, responding to His mercy. Turning in repentance and faith they receive God's forgiveness and He gives them eternal life. They become new creations with a new heart and a new spirit. They are truly alive for the first time and the singular allegiance of their lives now belongs to Jesus. They do not stop loving spouse, parent or child, but their love now flows from a different Source. It no longer tries to reap the fruit of life from a dead tree.

 

Suddenly, it's devotion to Jesus that takes preeminence. There is division. It is certainly not "politically correct" but it is eternally true, if Jesus Christ has not come to live His life in you by grace through faith, then there is another "spirit" that is at work in you and it is bent on your destruction not your good. 

 

That "spirit of the age" hates God and all He stands for. That unholy spirit despises all those who live in covenant with God through Jesus Christ. Can you see what Jesus is talking about in Luke's Gospel.

 

The fire of the Holy Spirit separates the "wheat from the chaff"even in believers.  Jesus wants to have it burning on the earth so that people do not walk around in a state of spiritual blindness deceived and doomed. There is Right and wrong, Truth and lie, Yes and no.

 

The relationship of covenant we are called into and given as a give of grace is astounding. I want to lay before you on Sunday what it means to live in that covenant you and I have been given. It supersedes any and all other allegiances and is the hope of all relationships to know wholeness, unity and true Peace.

 

Read and pray through the Word appointed for Sunday. Continue to ask the Lord to assay your life, revealing any and all alliances you may have formed that are actually coming between you and Him. Surrender those idols to Him. No one can serve two masters.

 

Peace in Him,

 

Fr. Mark+

Don't Lose Your Vision of God

The season of Lent is upon us. 

Time to do what we need to be always doing: letting the Holy Spirit do His ongoing work of changing us to look like Jesus.

It has been said that the human soul is the most prolific idol maker known. We enshrine things, people and places results that and demand of them what God alone can give.

People sacrifice their time and energy to gain the approval of people they have determined is necessary to their well being. That approval is what makes them feel they have value and worth. 

Some will drown themselves in debt to have the "toys" that society has declared to be the signs of success and prestige. 

Others may become slaves to fashion believing that having the "in vogue" wardrobe is what defines them as a person of distinction. 

Jobs, houses, cars, clothes, club memberships and the "right crowd" become idols to whom people willingly sacrifice their lives and fortunes expecting that the idols will return to them a life of contentment, fulfillment and purpose.

It never works. The stuff we turn into idols simply demands more and more of our life-blood and never returns on the investment what we had hoped for. We lose sight of who we are and our vision of God shrivels into insignificance.

When you are gazing at your idols, worshiping them, you lose your holy imagination and forget who God really is.

Your job is not your security. Your clothes are not your identity, your possessions are not the measure of your worth. Your intellect is not the end all of wisdom and understanding. When we make idols of anything or any relationship, demanding that they do for us what only God can do, our vision of God shrinks to the pitiful.

God alone is the One who can fill us with life and peace, wisdom and true strength. He is the only unchangeable source truth and mercy. He is the One who formed us and has a future and a hope for us. Our destiny and identity are found in Him. They can be discovered no where else. He is the One who reveals to us who He is that we might see with His eyes to see who we actually are. Praise His Name, God is not limited by what we know or by what we have experienced.

Jesus Christ alone can give life that can never be taken from you. Jesus alone can give you life that will never grow smaller and will never end.

Purpose and destiny are found in Him alone. If your holy imagination, your "idea" of God has shrunk so that your faith is anemic, ask the Lord to show you your idols and then repent, turn from them to the Living God and let Him astound you with the wonder of His grace and truth.

We must get our eyes off the things that have become, even subtly, idols in our lives. They are like spiritual vampires sapping us of life and peace. Don't think you don't have idols tucked away. You and I are consummate idol makers.

The Devil tried to get Jesus to fix His eyes on something other than God to accomplish His mission here on earth. Just like Satan offered Adam and Eve an alternative to dependence on God (good definition of an idol...anything we depend on in the place of God) he offered Jesus alternatives to obedience and suffering to rescue humanity from sin and death.

I want to encourage you, as we enter into the season of Lent, to ask the Lord to show you and empower you let go of attitudes, habits and actions that indicate there may be an idol in your heart's "closet". Especially read the Gospel for this Sunday: Luke 4:1-13. Pray through it and ask the Lord to open your ears so you can hear Him speak to you.

Jesus wants His people to be "idol free". That is the condition of heart, will, mind and emotion that display the winsomeness of God. With our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Holy Spirit can cause our vision of God to be rescued and healed. He wants us to see Him as He truly is; the One who makes life whole and complete. Turn from idols, look to Him and live!

God's deep peace keep you,

Fr. Mark+

The desire for power...or lust for it...I believe, derives from the loss of our intended and primary relationship with God, who is Almighty. We were meant to live is secure, fulfilled and joyful dependence on Him. When we severed that vital relationship, humanity began to grasp at power, defining it in various and sundry ways to disguise the fear driving it. We have ever since been either trying to justify it, rationalize it or just brutally exercise it. That "lust" has been overlaid with religion, jingoistic fervor, or simply displayed in undisguised bullying. Authority is a different animal from mere "power". A slight, 92-pound female police officer can stop a fast-moving hoard of vehicles on a NYC avenue by raising her gloved hand. She does so not by her personal power, but by the authority her uniform & badge convey. Make no mistake. authority has power behind it, but is different. Can authority be perverted? Yes! Anything broken humanity wields can and most likely will be twisted by the inner "twister" Scripture calls sin. God's authority has ultimate Power...but it is exercise in infinite grace and Justice...something we can only know by God showing us...by His revelation of Love in Jesus Christ.