Cleaning...
Back to my personal issues: cleaning out the youth center apartment. With 7 people crammed in such a small space, a lot of dust/small parts/junk accrues under furniture! Not only that, but all the dings, etc. have to be repaired, cleaned, and painted. As I look at all the things we need to do, it amazes me that we only lived in there three years! With all the cleaning, repair, and painting I need to do it looks more like 30...
But, I realized we are often the same way: we allow a lot to accumulate over the years in our spiritual lives so that instead of being free to follow Jesus, we're stuck in all the dirt, grime, dings, dents, and other speedbumps that are in the path. The worst part is, most of them are little things that we thought wouldn't add up! The lie you told someone once, the swimsuit issue you only look at once a year, the extra food we eat because we're "hungry," the way you treated that random driver who cut you off, the way you ignored that homeless man on the street, the money you needed to spend rather than tithe, etc. While each of those acts by itself doesn't seem like much, added together over many years, that's a lot of chance that we were absolutely NOT like Jesus! More than that, it's a series of behaviors that have become a pattern, a habit. And you know what, habits are hard to break!'
However, Jesus gave us a solution: grace. His death on a cross gave us a chance to live because he paid our price. Not so we could do whatever we wanted, but so that we would have the chance to be free (I picture the ending of Braveheart as William Wallace cries out, "Freedom!" to be a semi-accurate representation of how we should see our lives when we meet Jesus, heretical as that might be to some!). Those habits we've accrued don't have to be who we are. Just because they have been, doesn't mean they need or should be! The author of Hebrews put it this way: Jesus died ONCE FOR ALL, so that we could live. There doesn't need to be some continual sacrifice (although a student asked me Sunday why the Jews didn't practice sacrifice anymore as their sins are just accruing through the years without the sacrifice of goats, cows, etc.; fun question for the wrap up portion of our Bible study, huh?) to atone for our sins, there was the one sacrifice that mattered! So, to clean ourselves, we don't need to do a bunch of work and hope, we can rely on Jesus' sacrifice to cleanse us. That is the heart of the gospel: substitutionary atonement (Jesus paying the price for our screw ups).
Have you been cleaned by switching places with Jesus lately? If not, you really ought to get there, because it's the only cleaning that will last...
But, I realized we are often the same way: we allow a lot to accumulate over the years in our spiritual lives so that instead of being free to follow Jesus, we're stuck in all the dirt, grime, dings, dents, and other speedbumps that are in the path. The worst part is, most of them are little things that we thought wouldn't add up! The lie you told someone once, the swimsuit issue you only look at once a year, the extra food we eat because we're "hungry," the way you treated that random driver who cut you off, the way you ignored that homeless man on the street, the money you needed to spend rather than tithe, etc. While each of those acts by itself doesn't seem like much, added together over many years, that's a lot of chance that we were absolutely NOT like Jesus! More than that, it's a series of behaviors that have become a pattern, a habit. And you know what, habits are hard to break!'
However, Jesus gave us a solution: grace. His death on a cross gave us a chance to live because he paid our price. Not so we could do whatever we wanted, but so that we would have the chance to be free (I picture the ending of Braveheart as William Wallace cries out, "Freedom!" to be a semi-accurate representation of how we should see our lives when we meet Jesus, heretical as that might be to some!). Those habits we've accrued don't have to be who we are. Just because they have been, doesn't mean they need or should be! The author of Hebrews put it this way: Jesus died ONCE FOR ALL, so that we could live. There doesn't need to be some continual sacrifice (although a student asked me Sunday why the Jews didn't practice sacrifice anymore as their sins are just accruing through the years without the sacrifice of goats, cows, etc.; fun question for the wrap up portion of our Bible study, huh?) to atone for our sins, there was the one sacrifice that mattered! So, to clean ourselves, we don't need to do a bunch of work and hope, we can rely on Jesus' sacrifice to cleanse us. That is the heart of the gospel: substitutionary atonement (Jesus paying the price for our screw ups).
Have you been cleaned by switching places with Jesus lately? If not, you really ought to get there, because it's the only cleaning that will last...
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