A prescription against sin

If we are walking with the Lord and truly doing what Martin Luther wrote 500 years ago, "Love God and do what you please," then our life will be a reflection of the one who is Love. We will love our neighbors, we will seek justice, we will continually renew our minds to be more like the mind of Christ. Our outpouring will be one of peace, joy and love - the fruits of the Spirit. I believe that many in the Church are so focused on personal sin that we begin to lose the focus on anything outside of our own selves. We become inwardly focused towards a goal of holiness and become fixated on our own sin. There have been times in my life where this has been the truth. During my journey through alcoholism, drug abuse, and sexual addiction I became so focused on the sin that it overwhelmed me with shame and guilt and condemnation, it kept me from seeing God's grace for me. I became confused about who God was and why His Spirit inside of me wasn't eradicating all of the pain and sin. I believe Paul was going through something similar when he wrote:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7:15-20)

Personal edification and holiness is so very important, but I don't believe it can be done in a vacuum, we must get outside of our own personal journey and share it by outpouring in service to others. Only then can we fully be healed from personal sin. The viscous cycle of sin and condemnation is broken only when we refuse to look inside of us for holiness and focus on the call of Jesus to pour out our love onto others - believing His promise that we won't remain empty, but rather He will fill us back up.

I have been reading an excellent book titled Submerge: Living Deep in a Shallow World by John B. Hayes. In it, he comments on Isaiah 58:6-12 as being not a "legalistic job description" for those who work with the poor, but rather a prescription of a healthy relationship with Christ for all Christians. It is "written for our well-being, not our justification."

“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
Feed the hungry,
and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
The Lord will guide you continually,
giving you water when you are dry
and restoring your strength.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like an ever-flowing spring.
Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.
Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls
and a restorer of homes.

(Isaiah 58:6-12)

Serenity and I have both mentioned that we have went through quantum leaps in our faith since we have been on the road. The Lord had stretched our faith, grown our desire for Him, and multiplied our hope for His Kingdom. Through the struggles, the pain and the sorrow of working with the poor on this journey, we have been much more aligned with God. Not simply because we have helped the poor, but because we have stopped looking to "fix" ourselves and began to look to the Lord. I am personally no longer stuck in the cycle that Paul wrote about in Romans 7 (For what I do is not the good I want to do, etc., etc.), I have come to the point where "I do not even judge myself." (I Corinthians 4:3) The evil one wants us to stay focused on our sin, shifting focus inwardly into a cycle of confusion, distracting us from our call to love God and to love the least of these.

In Isaiah, the Lord promises that when we feed and clothe the poor, when we free the oppressed and give shelter to the homeless, our "wounds will quickly heal." Sin will no longer be our focus, rather glory and honor to the Lord. I think the last verse, Isaiah 58:12, speaks directly to our ministry:

Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.
Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls
and a restorer of homes.

The Prodigal Son

We all have something in common with the parable of the prodigal son that Jesus told in Luke 15. To one extent or another, we have all run from God, tried to do things on our own. I find great encouragement in this parable that Jesus told to a group of "tax collectors and 'sinners.'" I think this story has spoken to me because of the Father's great and unexplainable love for His son. Sin separates us from God, but possibly just as impacting is that the evil one tricks us into believing that because of sin, God no longer loves us. The core of Jesus' message in this parable, once again spoken to a group of "tax collectors and 'sinners,'" is that there is nothing that will keep our Father from embracing us. Nothing!

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, can come between us and separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

This was a song that was sung at a youth summer camp I used to go to in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. I now sing it to my kids every night I put them to bed. It is an important verse to me, one that allows me to believe that although I have turned my back on my Father, slept in pig sties, allowed pride to keep me from going back for so long to my Father's house, He will, and has, embraced me. He loves me - no matter what. Sin separates us from God, but nothing can put a wide enough canyon between the Father and his son to keep Him from loving us.

Twelve years ago the Lord spoke to me at one of the lowest valleys of my life and brought me out of the muck and mire I had been wallowing in. The evil one still had plenty of footholds in my life, and he has used them to try to bring me down, to return me to the pig sty, but I continue to rest in Romans 8:38-39 - nothing can separate us from the Love of God. The prodigal son was embraced by his Father, just like our Father embraces us. Not with a list of things we need to do better, or after we clean ourselves up, but just the way we are. Jesus tells us that when the son "was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." (Luke 15:20) This is not a picture of a grey bearded Father wagging His finger at us in disappointment, wondering if we are ever going to "get it." This is a picture of a Father who embraces us with love and compassion, excited that we were "dead and are now alive again; [we] were lost and am now found," (Luke 15:24) and begins to celebrate, never burying us with condemnation or shame, tools that Satan tries to use to confuse us about the nature of God. Not only does our Father embrace us after years and years of transgressions, but when we turn to Him, as King David wrote in Psalms 51 after being convicted of his sins with Bathsheba, with a broken and contrite heart, He runs to us and throws his arms around us and kisses us. I'm not even sure if we can fully grasp this radical Love of our Savior for us, but if we can just embrace a slice of it, it can change our world.

Dr. King

In order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system.

Martin Luther King, Jr. - In his book "Stride Towards Freedom" - 1958

The Reverend

True compassion, is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

Martin Luther King, Jr. - From his "Beyond Vietnam" speech, 1967

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.

Martin Luther King, Jr. - From his "Strength to Love" speech, 1963