Bear
with me on these thoughts....
Much
of the church’s mission (the calling of the body of Christ to live as Him,
being His body) is lost because of the difficulty we have with being real.
People
can tell when things are hidden, or when things are not dealt with, or when we
are not willing to admit our failures.
Not
to be putting condemnation on anyone.
Far
be it for me to do that, as I am guilty of having committed nearly every sin
possible in my life.
But
the wounds that have been inflicted by the body on itself are deep.
And
there is much need of healing.
Those
who have come in seeking sanctuary, often having not found it, have left and
have been wounded by our lack of truth and love and acceptance of them.
We
do not need to air our dirty laundry, but we need to be constantly aware of our
fallen-ness.
And
we need to be on guard against the kind of Pharisaical attitudes that come when
we settle into Christianity as a suit.
If
we do not live it out in truth it becomes a façade – a mask, and it becomes
simply a thinly veiled cover for the rotting sin of self importance.
But
for the grace of God there go I. (and often perhaps I am guilty of this though
I loath the idea)
Lord
keep me from this sin.
Father
help me to stay real and honest and open before You and before Your children,
and the world.
I
open my life for Your use, all of the ugliness and sin is Yours to use for Your
glory.
Let
it not be hidden, let it be out there to show that even I with all I have been
am loved by You.
Let
the pain and difficulties of my past present and future be used for Your
kingdom.
Glorify
Your Name.
From
‘today in the word’ lesson today......
The
lesson this morning talked about Joseph and the grace he was given in dealing
with his brothers.
The
exercise was proposed : fill in the
blanks....
Though others did _____ I will not do _______ in return.
This can
be a healing and gut wrenching exercise.
Healing
of this sort may take years.
It is a
grace given by God that is absorbed a day at a time until the toxin is worked
out.
Some of
the angriest people you know in life have been deeply hurt and have not healed
of it.
They
live either in denial or by flaunting it.
We (the
church) are not in business of comparing scars.
We are
in the business of healing them.
So...it
made me aware of the need for us to rid ourselves of these toxins (individually
and corporately) ...... but how?
By
living out God’s grace towards each other in open truth.
By
embracing the un-lovely who are so wounded.
By
coming along side those who are weak and infants in their faith, regardless of
their age, in honest living with them.
Joseph
offered forgiveness, his forgiveness was costly..
Ours
will be as well. We will have to give up
our masks, come out from behind our façades and be real with each other.
When
we hide these things we play into the hands of the enemy and we feed our own
sinful nature.
When
we distance ourselves from each other this way we build walls and we push away
and out the very ones that we need to embrace.
The
lie that the enemy feeds us is that we will not be accepted. That we will be shunned and disgraced.....
But
that is quite the opposite of the truth.
God would have us free from this trap.
He would have us open with each other and living in truth and love.
What
an odd word, disgraced. Sounds like
having grace removed. Silliness. God gives grace, He does not remove it.
Another
lie of the enemy.
I
like what the speaker was saying about working out the toxins.
We
all have them. No need to hide it.
The
garbage cans within the souls of the individuals in the body of Christ are full
of them.
We’ve
stuffed our stuff in them and tried to cover them with lids of works and our
attempts to live Godly in our own strength.
We
are tangled and tied up in this and it’s futile efforts.
Those
garbage cans are full of festering rotting filth that cannot be contained and
eventually they blow up with all manner of explosive destruction.
The
results as you can imagine and most likely know of, is disastrous.
And
so we’re not very good at giving out grace to each other because of it. We know what’s in there.
It
breeds fear.
It
is a scary thought to consider opening up wounds that have festered there
hidden in our secret lives.
But
how else will we learn to love as Christ would have us?
Until
we are real with each other we can’t love in truth.
Oh
Lord Jesus, help us to open our hearts to You and to each other so that we
might become real and live in the truth of Your love.
And
so that we can then be Your body here loving each other and serving as Your
hands and feet and Your heart.
So
that the world may see You and behold Your glory and be drawn to You.
Not
by might not by power but by Your Spirit Lord.
Trying
on the strength of our own self will - will produce disastrous results!
Overcoming
cannot be done in our own strength. Self
improvement will not work.
The
Holy Spirit is the answer. He does the
work. We all try to do it, or, because
it does not work, we try to hide it (as above).
It’s
not possible for us to do it on our own, so we end up in worse shape than
before. Luke 11
But
if we live giving each other grace to allow the Holy Spirit do the work,
without judgmentalism for each other, we are over comers.
We
can encourage each other in love and grace and allow God to do His will in us
by being real and living in truth.
And
there will be healing – there will be a detoxification of our body – and there
will be unity.
And
God will be glorified.
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