Sometimes you should be afraid - of yourself

I knew I was in trouble. We were supposed to go to youth group and then to Sunday evening worship. We decided since I had the car and none of our parents were going to church that night, we could go downtown and cruise Polk Street where the airmen from Amarillo Air Force Base hung out on the corners. Somehow someone noticed. Daddy heard. He was standing at the front door when I got home. Something in his voice and the way he watched me as I walked from the car to the door told me he knew.

“Where have you been?”

How could I cut my losses? “We took Elizabeth home.” Not a complete lie. We did take her home after we went cruising. And I didn’t call, and we weren’t at the church. And I did not just tell the truth.

Daddy just held out his hand for my key.

Why do we cover ourselves with little white lies, not quite the whole truth, when we know we have done wrong, and the lie just compounds wrong doing? I knew from experience that telling the truth always mitigated punishment. I knew honesty often left just consequences, which were bad enough. 

Would I have kept my keys instead of having to call my friends and tell them I couldn’t drive to school or to the football game Friday night? Could I have still gone to the game? Maybe, maybe not. But I was scared. And my lie just made things worse. 

While certainly not like eating of the tree of good and evil, or lying to the omniscient God, my fear was real. Palpable. Overpowering. I knew.

“I was afraid because I was naked,” Adam said. No, he was afraid because he was caught. Only one rule. Temptation. Just say “NO” I want to yell at Eve. Then at Adam. Just tell God the truth!

⁹ But the Lord God called to Adam, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He said, “I heard the sound of You [walking] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”¹¹ God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten [fruit] from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3:9-11 AMP)

It seems easier to make excuses instead of saying I caved under peer pressure. Still, the car and the choice was mine. This is a healthy fear. It should prompt right decisions, like the truth. It seems so simple. Righteousness is always rewarded. The truth will always out. And yet. . .

³² And you will know the truth [regarding salvation], and the truth will set you free [from the penalty of sin].” (John 8:32 AMP)

³ For [civil] authorities are not a source of fear for [people of] good behavior, but for [those who do] evil. Do you want to be unafraid of authority? Do what is good and you will receive approval and commendation. ⁴ For he is God’s servant to you for good. But if you do wrong, [you should] be afraid; for he does not carry the [executioner’s] sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an avenger who brings punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be subject [to civil authorities], not only to escape the punishment [that comes with wrongdoing], but also as a matter of principle [knowing what is right before God]. (Romans 13:3-5 AMP)

Sometimes you should be afraid. Not of God, but of yourself.

Righteousness

There is value, great value, in living according to God’s law. Happy are those who avoid unrighteous behavior. The effect of the righteous life is one's unwavering commitment to God’s word. To be “righteous” is to have a “healthy relationship” with God, to live wisely.

To live righteously, is to live a decent life, that is reputable, moralistic, noble, principled, right-minded, and virtuous. To live righteously, is to live a good life that is virtuous, exemplary, guiltless, inculpable, innocent, irreproachable, and pure. Righteousness is doing that which is just, acting rightly or justly; conforming to the standard of the divine or the moral law; to be just and upright, free from sin.  When one lives righteously, one lives a life without prejudice; characterize by evenness.

I remember. when we did a “hunger weekend” with the youth group. On Friday night,  we went without supper and spent the night carrying everything we brought with us in large garbage bags. We moved from place to place in the church and read aloud the prophets, the psalms, and the gospels. The next morning we went to the local grocery store and gathered a box of vegetables left by the dumpster. I remember the turned up noses, the “eeww’s,” the “I’m not eating THAT.” We cleaned and cut off moldy places and soft parts and put them all in a pot with water to simmer. That was breakfast.

We went to a soup kitchen in a nearby town to help serve lunch. The smell of unwashed bodies was offensive. When a mother, in apparent drug withdrawal, brought her four- or five- year-old son through the  food line, one could see the righteous indignation on the faces of the youth group. We went back to the church fellowship hall.  We compared what we had seen and felt to the scriptures we had read. We talked about their outraged sense of justice, decency and fair play, their sense of righteous indignation.

Trusting God in different ways came out of that indignation. All of them have mentioned that weekend to us at one time or another. For some,  it helped God call them into ministry as pastors and social workers, but for all, it changed the way they viewed others.

Every day  is an opportunity to trust God in different ways. In the midst of daily life,one can increase  trust in God, confidently and faithfully, knowing one's life is enfolded in God’s attention and love.

God is a God of power, wisdom and authority, John Wesley saw over an over the spirit of bondage transformed to the spirit of adoption as we awaken to our sin. God does not force conversion on us. We must seek adoption. However it is only God who can complete the transformation.

It is God who, hearing one's cries and caring for all like a good parent, now infuses life with “heavenly healing light.” Hearts are strangely warmed, so one's consciousness is dominated no longer by sin and law, but by God’s capacity to love, heal and make new.

We have the experience of most adopted children: once we feel abandoned to the powers and principalities, but now we can count on the kindness and support of a loving parent. Once we were bound to fear, but now we are marked with the holiness and happiness of the family of God

The “good news” is the proclamation of God’s kingdom, manifested in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. “Repentance” is not just a feeling of regret, but an ordering of one’s life as to be acceptable to God. Jesus himself receives baptism by John, joining this group of people who have ritually dedicated themselves to righteousness; to true religion.

We must not substitute rituals for Christ-centered faith. Instead, we should enter into  a life of rigorous discipline of study prayer and good works. True religion is a matter of the heart and is characterized by Spirit-inspired joy, holiness, and peace. To John Wesley, these were the irrefutable marks of the kingdom of God.

I encourage you to choose a short passage of scripture that stops or strangely warms your heart. Meditate on those words. Write them on a card and keep them  with you. Write them, with soap, on your mirror. To meditate on God’s word literally means to mumble or utter it under the breath.

Romanian Orthodox Chant - Psalm 1,2,3 at Putna Monastery

by danteselu•5 years ago•195,274 views

www.sfantulioanrusul.ro Psalm 1,2,3 at Putna Monastery, Romania 

God's Righteous Servant. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.defendproclaimthefaith.org/gods_righteous_servant.htm

 "An outline of a Bible-school curriculum". (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.archive.org/stream/outlineofbiblesc00peas/outlineofbiblesc00peas_djvu.txt

Reflecting on Our Faith - UMC.org, http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.2310045/k.4A66/Reflecting_on_Our_Faith.htm

(accessed January 14, 2013

Kim Hill - Psalm 1 Uploaded on Apr 30, 2007 Call to worship based on Psalm 1 Visit us at www.phillycgc.org

“righteous.” equitable." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (14 Jan. 2013).

Monday, January 14, 2013

Psalm 1, 2, 3, 4, 7

Isaiah 40:12-23

Ephesians 1:1-14

Mark 1:1-13

Daily Readings from The Voice, the internet web site of CRI/Voice, Christian Resource Institute, a global and ecumenical ministry dedicated to providing biblical and theological resources for growing Christians. www.crivoice.org Readings based on the Revised Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer.

The Wesley Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2009. 

Valusoft 10418 Living Word Bible (Google Affiliate Ad)

BrylaneHome Plus+Size Living Heavy-Duty Steel Cane (METAL) (Google Affiliate Ad)

Walk By Faith

God is righteous because of whom he is. God’s righteousness is inside; ours is outside.  Remember when God declared all that he created was good, yes, very good. Righteous. Somewhere along about Genesis 3, Adam and Eve – we – take upon ourselves the knowledge of good and evil. What did we do? We think if we listen to lies and deceit, we will become like God. God, I Am Who I Am, has created us in His image, made with all the right stuff. We are who we are, but by disobedience, we get un-right. We are no longer that who we were.

When God calls to us in the garden, we have hidden because we are exposed. Righteousness is no longer internal. We have become afraid of whom we have become. We try to make ourselves right. We sew fig leaves together; we try to hide the unrighteous shame.  We think maybe if we hide, God will not note we are no longer right when he finds us. We make excuses, thinking if we introduce the blame game, we can distract God from the wrongness. Instead, God sends us out to understand who we were. To discover who we are. Did anyone notice? Not in fig leaves. Not in shame. No, God covers us. If we would but see, he has given us a Robe of Righteousness. The flaming sword of His creative Word becomes the first law. We cannot return. We separated ourselves from God. He gives us the Law and the Prophets. He sends his only Son. God gives us everything we need to become who we were.

From time to time, we remember. Cain saw the carefully stored garments, but dies because his brother does not know. Abel banished and Seth born. Their sons hear the stories. We realize that even though we are unrighteous, we can proclaim God’s righteousness.  From generation to generation, the story can be told. The robe of righteousness can be passed. Often it is carefully unpacked. We learn to sing and dance. We call it prayer and praise. Then we carefully conceal it so it will not give out.

Along comes a great, great, ever so great grandchild. Enoch becomes a father. Enoch took the cloak out of moth balls and wore it – all the time. Then Enoch walked with God. He understood. He got it. Enoch’s grandson told that story. It is possible to recover one’s righteousness. All we have to do is put on the robe, and not take it off. Noah got it. When God finally got fed up with the pack-it-up, put-it-in-moth-balls, take-it-out, put-it-back. In all this time, two men – only two – figured it out, Enoch and Noah.

God chooses to start again, not from the beginning, but from the point of understanding. He made His instructions clear and unambiguous. Noah wears the Robe of Righteousness onto the ark.

Paul, a whole testament later, tells us the story. He gives us a roll call of the heroes who unpacked the mantle and wore it as they walked with God. He finds in in the Prophets, packed carefully away, the path of righteousness: wear the robe, live by faith, walk with God. The course he thought he knew until he learned on a road leading to Damascus. The path Jesus walked to Gethsemane.

One cannot go back beyond the flashing sword, but one can walk on by faith. The trust that Jesus God, true and righteous, took the sword of unrighteousness into his side. The story told by John, the beloved disciple, who took up the Cup of Salvation and heard Jesus say “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit. Thomas put your hand into my side. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.”  Wear the robe. Carry the cup. Receive His Spirit.  Walk by faith. Not from but to, Amen and amen.

Genesis 3-6, Habakkuk 2, Hebrews 11, John 20