Scarlet Forgivness

"Come along Madame Hester, and show your scarlet letter in the market place."

The end of church discipline when carried in the wrong direction, is this: "Come let us tell all what you have done you brazen hussy. Tell all that you have sinned; that you are excommunicated."

Many have recently been telling their tales of spiritual abuse. Whether it was a story of church discipline gone terrible wrong, the failures of a pastor to be who he's called to be, or the subjection of the people to the wills of a man and not to God. All bear resemblance to the story of the Scarlet Letter.

My question is this: who is man to judge repentance?

Yes, as church leadership goes there is a desire to know one is truly turning from form sin. But it is also the desire of all in church leadership to know the salvation of all their people, but they (we) do not. These two things are intertwined.

Repentance and salvation go hand in hand. And neither can be formally judged by any man.

Evidences of repentance can be shown, and they can be fake. No evidence can be seen and the repentance can be more real than any before it.

I am a cynic. I disbelieve all shows of emotion. I fight emotion in services. I don't want to be swayed by bland emotionalism; I want to be swayed by reason, sound Scriptural reason.

But that's just it. What I want has no bearing on what actually is.

We want to see repentance as an immediate thing. But it's not. We want evidence of a soul's conversion, but sanctification is a lifelong process and therefore more than anything the exercise of patience should be the primary role of brothers confronting brothers. (1 Cor. 13:4-7, in a book full of parience.)

But a piece of where we live will always look for immediacy. Our culture is the clock.

Repentance is not always fast and sanctification is a lifetime.

God works in mysterious ways. We all agree to this. So why is repentance shoved into a formula?

Yet all sin bears consequences, it's the nature of it. Some are both legal consequence as well as eternal, others eternal consequence and no legal. Where is the church to damn? We've been given the message of reconciliation. We are ambassadors of Jesus. We are not the ones to damn.

Yet sinners judge and damn out of place. We like to play as though we're gods and lend our voice in the government of the universe, casting out here and bringing in there all for the glory of ourselves.

Thus we forgive, as we have needed to be forgiven and love our brothers in repentance.

Thinking Things Through

While I worked on some things this picture came across my mind. The passage is John 2:13-22.

The temple was created for worship, much like mankind was created for worship. It was to be pure, to be spotless, to be the meeting place of God and man. Sound familiar?

Once was a garden wherein man lived and communed with God. God had made man to worship Him. It was the reason for creation, to glorify God… It still is the reason for creation.

But man sinned and fell.

The Temple created for worship, intended for nothing else but worship, fell.

Then Jesus came in and whipped out the traders, turned over the root of the issue, the money, and cleansed the Temple.

John 2:13-22 is a picture of the Gospel, of what Jesus does in the life of his people.

Traders buying, selling while the moneychangers finance it all inhabits you. Yet Jesus comes crashing into your life, whip in hand, and doesn’t simple go for the small issues, the pigeons and goats, he turns over the root of the problem, your sin filled heart. Then by the blood of himself he cleanses you and calls you, “Mine.”

Yet we are constantly being made new. Sin is continuously being routed out by the work of the Spirit, the Helper.

Jesus has done precisely what was planned. Cleansed.

Beautiful, no? To be the temple of the Spirit, the dwelling place of God. Him moving and working and causing life to be and sancification to occur. Wonderful.

Yet still there's sin.

This shows how deep the problem goes. Everything we are is corrupted by sin. Everything (Errything).

The situation ought to seem a little desperate. That we're all hypocritical messes just waiting to explode. But today I'll go to lunch at The Anchor and talk like a leader.

Because there's only one reason why life can carry on while a tooth and nail war is raged in your soul.

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness... His oath, his covenant, his blood supports me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay."

At least this must be the aim.

Creature

I got a cat. The Wichita Eagle had a classified add for, “Absolutely free kittens.” I called, went over with my sister and took one (his name is Luther and he’s at current intently watching me type while he lays upside down).

As we were leaving the place my first thought was, “These people are really going to let me walk out of their house with one of their pets? I’m not responsible enough for this! This has to be a crime.” But they did. (O and he’s litter box trained.)

Anyway, enough about the cat.

The point is responsibility, and knowing life isn’t about you. Sure you get a critter to love and nurture, but you also have to wake up to feed them, make sure their healthy, and clean up after them (it’s like an infant on an incredible light scale - but infants don’t have claws).

Learning to put others before you in a small way to begin with. Fighting your (my) sin of workaholic because there’s a creature at home.

Fighting sin to the glory of God should weigh in on many of our decisions.

Stingless Death

“My God, how many are my fears
How fast my foes increase
Conspiring my eternal death
They break my fleeting peace.
Arise, Oh Lord, fulfill your grace
While I your glory sing;
My God has broke the serpent’s teeth
And death has lost his sting.”

Death is unknown to us, and reasonably so, for none who has traveled it successfully has returned to tell of the subtle nuances of it. In many respects it is the final journey. Faced alone. “Alone into the unknown.”

But imagine this, for those who are believing the gospel, the burdens shouldered for their entire life will be finally removed on those other shores of eternity. The weight of sin rid of completely. The thorn in the side ultimately eliminated.

The fears and the foes, which increase, those conspirators of death, usurpers of peace have been beaten back to the gates of hell, and will be forever locked in the depths of their ‘kingdom’ for the serpent’s teeth are broken and death has lost it’s sting.

Though the flesh may fail our Jesus did not. Though the heart might faultier our Rock remains firm. For God will give the poor in spirit his Kingdom; comfort to the mourner; the earth to the meek; righteousness to those who thirst for it; mercy for the merciful; himself to the pure in heart; & his kingdom to the persecuted. He is & must forever be the strength of our hearts and our portion forever. He is enough. He is good. (Ps 73:23-26; Matt 5:1-12)

“But you my glory and my strength
Will on my tempter tread
Will silence all my threatening guilt
And raise my drooping head.”

Confession of a Restless Pastor

Some things I do well. Some things I do not do well at all. One of those things, which I cannot do to save my life, is rest. Taking naps is difficult, doing nothing is a strain for my mind and turning my phone off is maybe a yearly phenomenon.

But what is rest? Is it playing with friends or taking naps? Sure, physically speaking my body is rested in naps and friends encourage while we do things. But that’s the key; I’m still doing something.

Being rather than doing that is rest. Relying on a sovereign God to complete what he has begun. Trusting him to uphold me in the course of my focus on him. Having faith that God will do what he will do and being made humble by him to accept what he’s done as what I need.

I wrote a post called, “The Thinker’s Thoughts on Thinking,” and much of it has to do with rest, the necessity of turning off my brain. My proclivity is to burn both ends of the candle until I come to not simply a weary state of physical exhaustion but until I get to such a soul-tiredness that all I can do is weep…

It’s sin. Straight and simple, it is sin. To not trust the sustainer of the universe to sustain my being for a day is to tell the omnipotent God, “I got this, back off.” Essentially wanting to redeem my own soul by the sweat of my brow, the tears of my labor, and the blood of my heart. (Check out the personal pronouns in that sentence and try to tell me that’s not prideful.)

Pride is the root of unrest, prideful self-reliance. What must needs be learned is trust. Trust in God to do what he will do for his glory which is very much one with my good.