The most dangerious doctrine in the Church is perferomance. The idea that if we just dance the right way, talk the right way, listen to the right music, and live perfectly, God will look down and approve of us. Such an idea has nothing to do with God. Jesus chose us when we were lost in sin. The Almighty hand picked us with all our rottenness. He knew what was in us: rebellion, anarchy, lust, pride, fear, anger, hate, lies, and the rest of the plethora of evils inside every human being. God love us in all our brokenness. He still loves us in our brokeness. There are no conditions on Christ's love. He is not waiting for you to get over that bad habit, that addiction, that hidden sin, or that shameful practice. In those things he loves you. His love never leaves you. St. Paul said it best, "Nothing can seperate me from the love of Christ." (Romans 8:38-39). Nothing can seperate you from God's love. It is a constant no matter what.
The pressure to be perfect works against love. There is nothing we can do to be good enough for God's love. We cannot merit the mercy of the Lord Almighty. We do not deserve God's love, but he loves us despite that we are not qaulified. As Christian we often feel like we need to do something for the Lord; a project or some great crusade. If we just show the Savior that we are willing to do a great work for Him, then maybe we will be worthy of his love and forgivennes. Again, we are wrong. Our good works are filthy rags before the Righteous One in Heaven. As Rich Mullins said, "We are not good to get God, we are good because of God." It is that love of the Lord that transforms us, that makes us realize we no longer want to keep doing the self inflicting, self hating, self abasing, self abusing, and self harming acts.
Mr. Mullins says in Ragamuffin, "this life is a battle." What a true word. We are in battle and in the end we will be unrecongizable we we reach Heaven. The actual Rich Mullins in the Credits of Ragamuffin says, "When we wash up upon the shore, our body disformed beyond any recongition, the angels will say what is this? Jesus will say.. It's human. I know that one." What a powerful image. This life will beat us to pieces. Our face, our body will be torn and scared beyond recongition. Our souls too. But who else suffered this? Jesus. Jesus was beaten beyond recongition. In fact, the actual Greek says that he did not look human, that his own mother, Mary could not recongize him. The Greek actually says he looked like Hamburger. Thus Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is conservative.
Jesus knows. This life and the people in it are going to tare at you. This world will wound you. Do not be suprised that if you really intend to follow Jesus, that you won't end up like him. Beaten beyond recongition. No one able to make out your face, and even if they look in your eyes, they do not see the same person. It is this brokenness of flesh and soul that draws us to the love of God. In the suffering we find solace in the Savior. He knows how much it hurts. With each word, stroke, and action people hurt us. Jesus knows your pain. He suffered it the same way you did. The only difference was that He is God.
I suppose what I want you to take away from this blog post is two things, Jesus loves you, and if you follow Him, its going to hurt. The truth is that you are going to hurt no matter what. Peopel will abuse you, use you, and mistreat you. The pain will come no matter how proud or professional you are. The difference is that you can connect to a God who has been through it too and offers in return for your broken heart the word "beloved," or better yet be loved. Man is incapabe of loving us fully. Only God can touch the broken shards of your soul. God is the only one who has seen it all: he knows the skeletons you keep in the closest, the shameful secrets, the hidden thoughts, those experiances that no one else can identify with nor knows. Only the Lord Jesus knows everything about you, he formed you in the womb and knows every hair on your head. God wants you to be broken. Big suprised huh? He doesn't want you to fake sincere smiles or to act perfect when feel like falling into a pit over your pain. Be real with God.
I know I am rambling by now, but I have some more to say. Rich Mullins said, "Never take lightly what Jesus did for you, it cost Him his life. And do not be suprised if it will not cost you yours." This is not the Gospel people want to hear. It means the death of everything. It means Jesus is enough. What do you get in exchange for losing it all, for giving it it all up for God? You get what your broken heart needs the most.. love. No person or posession on this Earth can love you like you need. The chasm in your soul can only be filled by Christ. We all have been persecuted by parents, filleted by friends, forsaken by family, and sold by soul mates. Make no mistake, it hurts. It's meant to hurt and God is not asking you to just ignore it, deny, or prentend to not be in pain. In stark contrast, he wants you to bring your lose and in exchange he gives you love. Notice how the two words in English are seperated by a letter: lo(s)e and lo(v)e. The truth: lose lets us press into the love of God.
If you are broken hearted, I want to tell you that your not alone. You don;t need to be perfect or hide your hurt from God. He knows, he sees it inside you like fountain waiting to come out. Be broken. For in your brokeness, in your vunerability, the Lord is with you. He too was broken and his heart continues to break over watching the pain of his children, not just us Chirstians, but all humankind. Yes, He weeps with all of us. Too often we don't give unbelievers the chance to know Christ. We tell them about judgement and to repent, which are important. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying to do way with the Sinner's Prayer. We need to recongize we are sinners and that we need Savior. But sometimes we need to let all people know God loves them. We need to show them that love. Because like us Good Believers, they are heart broken, hurting, and in great pain. The difference between us and them is that we know the God who was broken for us and we exchange our lose for His Love. That's it. That is what seperates us. We broken people know a God who was broken for us so that we could know his love and love Him back. Both the believer and unbeliever are broken, the difference ultimately is that the unbeliever has nowhere to take his brokenness. All we can boast in as Christians is Christ and His love; which we did not earn. To be completey frank there is nothing in our piety or purposes that makes us better or different from the rest of the world. The only difference is Christ and He, not us extended in his broken form on the cross the Love of God. The only thing he asks is for us to recieve it. We can't even take credit for recieving it, because when a gift is given the gifter gets the credit, not the reciever. The Reciever's reponse is to be blessed and let that gift of God's love heal the broken heart.
We have nothing to be proud of our boast about as Christians, save Christ. We can't call him our own, because he is God. We cannot fit Him into a box or book. He cannot be confined by our thinking or the mediums of this world. His love cannot be measured, His wisdom makes all of man's ideas and understanding look like foolishness. The divide between man and God is so wide on every level that at a glance it seems improbable, no impossible for the two to co-exist or be involved in a relationship. But that's the amazing thing about it, we seem incompatiable, God who is perfect and Humankind which is imperfect. Like marriage doomed to end in divorce. But then.. God did the unthinkable, He stepped down from His throne, He gave up his home, He limited his powers, and took on flesh. He became like us, we who were made in His Image and drifted away in our adultery, God then took on our image and said "I love you." God wants us, no matter how imperfect we are. He has propased to us marriage, we who are harlots, liars, thieves, and murderers. He wants us. God wants you! He gave everything, even His Life. That's the Love of God. We are misfits, humans who do everything to desert and deny God, and still He wants to be with us forever. That's the power of love. A love that is beyond reason and understanding. A love that looks like insanity. How could God still want us after all we have done?! He does. God knows who He is adopting and marrying, he knows your history and your future and still he says to you "I Do!" "I shall love you for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. For better or worse." The Lord Jesus will love you not "until death do you part," but "beyond death and for eternity."
The Almighty knows who he has married. He knows that each one of us comes with baggage, complexes, insecurities, sins, and other problems. All he asks from us is to say back, "I Do!" "I will love you Jesus wither I am rich or poor, wither I am sick or healthy, wither things are better or worse." God is asking for you to be successful, to prove anything, to slave under laws, to try to be perfect or to not ever make mistakes. He just wants your love. Christ knows you have cheated on him, lied to Him, and even tried to murder him with your sins. But he still chooses to love you and be married to you. He's in it for the long haul, no matter how horrible we may act. All Jesus asks is for us to love him back and take in mind he won't cheat on you, lie to you, or murder you. It's a good deal, in the marriage contract Jesus gives you eternal life, a mansion, unconditional love, is perfect, will never condemn you, will listen to your brokeness and share it with you, and so much more than I can list. He wants you no matter who you are, what you've done, or thought. He knows you will fail, that you will make mistakes and do the wrong thing; in fact He's covered it with His Blood on the Cross. He made sure to cover it so that there is nothing that can stop the love relationship between Him and us. You don't have to wallow in shame or feel like you arn't good enough to be with Jesus. He already knows why you did those things and He is faithful to forgive you when you repent.
Jesus loves you. Love Him.
Comments
Post a Comment