Equal =

Seems like today there is a lot of talk about "equality." And yes, we are all equal. What do I mean by this? My sin, is not greater than yours, and yours in not greater than mine. Do you believe this?
It's a hard concept to grasp, and most of us don't take the time to really do the heart work to figure out what this even means to us.
But I'll tell you one thing my friend, the Lord has been asking me to dig deep within my thinking and pull out some junk that has taken root fairly deep. The thinking of judgments.
It's is so easy to look at someone and think, "Surely, I am not as bad as that person over there am I?" Why is it that when we point fingers at others, we think by doing this we diminish our own sin? I think many a believer or non-believer has been sucked into this false thinking.
We are not worse, nor are we better than anyone else.
There is only ONE who is perfect, and that is of course Jesus.
When I fall into the thinking that either I am worse, or better than another person in my sin, I either magnify my "righteousness" Or I diminish my sin.Or I magnify my sin and diminish Christ's finished work on the cross that extended me grace fully.  Either way, I'm wrong when I think this way. When I diminish my sin, I say essentially that I, am better than all the other "sinners" throughout history. I dare not make this claim. OR if I  magnify my righteousness, I say that God's grace is needed, but perhaps not needed in such great proportions as "that person" over there. I dare not think this.
Either way, I'm flawed.
Jesus tells me I'm steeped in sin, Psalm 51 depicts deeply how we are born sinners from our mother's womb. Our mother Eve sinned, and as long as we are born of her and Adam's "seed," we need a remedy for our sin. We do not think, act or live righteousness on our own. Any good that is in a man is because God has empowered that man in that moment to respond as HE would have him respond. God is the one who covers us with His grace and mercy and makes us righteous before the Father, not by anything we have done, so that no one can boast in his or her own abilities.
So yes my friend, we are all equal, apart from Christ, we all deserve death. But thanks be to God, that He sent Jesus to be a pardon for our sin.
It is hard to imagine what this life would be like without all the judgments of our thinking...the way life was before in the garden, before the sin happened. Before the mess began. But God in His infinite wisdom knew man and for-knew man, that man would chose his and her own way. So He made a way out for us, and the way out is Jesus. We need however to recognize our desperate need for His saving.
Until we see our sin for what it is, the normal tendencies and organic condition of man, we will never understand the destitute life we live.
Sin makes us destitute, and my sin, is not cleaner than your sin.
Your anger is no worse than my lie. Your stealing is no different than my covetous thoughts. Your lust is no different than my lust. We all have sin, and it's all equal.
God does not look down from heaven and point to you or I and say, this one is better, or this one is worse. No, all He sees is this, "saved by grace," Or not saved by grace. There is no middle. There is no lesser, or greater. It's either covered by His grace by the recognition of sin and confession of need for the Savior, or it's not there because of not recognizing sin and not confessing the need for the Savior. There is no middle ground.  And our sin without Him? It's all =.
It's all the same.
Shall I say it again? We are all equal in our need. We are all equal in our sin. We are all equal in how we have the opportunity to receive grace.
Grace. Chosen. Adopted as God's children.
If this is a foreign concept for you, then dig deeper into the Bible, into the concept of grace, sin and your need for the Savior.

"Father, forgive me for all the times I look at my sin as less than others, or the way I so quickly judge a person who's outward sin's seem darker than mine. We are all the same in the eyes of the Father. SINNERS IN NEED OF A SAVIOR.
Thank you Father for your saving grace and thank you for you love, patience and deep kindness.
Thank you for equally saving us all. "
Amen.

"For It is by grace you have been saved, through faith--this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8

"It does not therefore, depend on human effort OR desire, but on God's mercy." Romans 9:16

The Truth About Freedom

You've heard it said before, "I've never felt so free!" But what is true freedom? What does it really mean to be free? A few thoughts are: nothing holding you back, ability to be and go, move about freely, room to run, ability to act and be. No regrets. Nothing hanging over your head. No guilt.
I used to think this: "being  a follower of Christ is like being in a cage. You can't do anything, you can't have fun. Nothing could be more boring."
Have you ever felt that way? I wish I could come through the computer screen right now and let you see the passion in my eyes as I say these things that I am about to say, because what I now know about being free is so different than what I ever thought it was.
Freedom to me now is not getting to do whatever I want, anyone can do that, but there are always consequences.
I will tell you how I see freedom now and why "freedom in Christ" is the freedom I seek.
The reality that we have to accept as believers is that we need a Savior. If this concept is difficult for you, your not alone, people all throughout the Bible and history struggled with accepting that they could not save themselves. That they needed help. How dreadful to be helpless. To not have a leg to stand on. How weak.
But in my weakness, Christ reveals His strength. IN my helpless estate He rescues. And He alone can give me the strength to stand.
You were brainwashed. (someone might think)
Brainwashed may have been a term I used some years ago, when I felt people wanted me to fit into a box of the "perfect christian life" and their lists, and rules of not-to-do's. Again, I could not have been more wrong.
The way I used to view Christianity was simply by what I could not do. I never even looked at Jesus. I never even glanced at the cross. I knew the verse, "God sent His one and only son to die so that I can have eternal life.." but what good was eternal life if the life I would eternally live was not in the slightest bit appealing to me? Who wanted to live a life eternally trying to be perfect, and never being able to truly live out their "dreams and desires?"
The best thing about Jesus is this: He meets us where we are at. If we are feeling skeptical, He wants to hear about it, and for a while I just defiantly poured out my anger to Him. Then after I felt I had spoke my peace, He opened my eyes.
It was if He said this to me..."You think you can do this, save yourself, and be pretty good all on your own don't you? You think I'm a big meanie who doesn't really care about how you feel? Then child, you don't really know me. You see your son, your only son over there, I had one of those too. I sent mine to die on a cross. My sweet son, I gave to you as a ransom for the sin's and insufficiency you won't acknowledge. You need me so bad you can't even see how bad you need me child. "
I was very defiant. I was very angry. God had done some things in my life that had made me come to a fork in the road, a place I had to chose.
I never read my Bible all that in-depth. I didn't actually know how to hear His voice, or see His fingerprints, I didn't have the slightest idea about what the real christian life looked like.
The abundant life. The free life.
Until I surrendered. I walked out of the cage I had been sitting in for 20 some years. The door was open the whole time, but I defiantly told the Lord I would find my own way out.
The reality of how fragile life was had hit me a few different times in my life, but I never understood what it felt like to walk through life without fear, because I trusted One bigger than myself. I never even wanted to face the fact that there was someone bigger than myself. I was just fine, thank you.
And if you had asked me how I felt about my wayward ways I probably would have said, "I'm fine!"
I was blind.
The funny thing about being blind is that you think you know what your talking about. But you can't really see, so how could I know?
Jesus is the ONLY one who can give sight to the blind. (spiritually speaking) and the day He took my blinders off I saw things as they really were. At first, I felt the strangest feeling. Godly sorrow. I was sorrowful for all of the things I had done to others, my selfishness, and my vain conceit, however, after I realized that He came here to take my sin away, and that is what that John 3:16 verse was talking about all alone, I realized the magnitude of that reality. As it pertained to me. I had done so much wrong, so many people I had hurt with my selfish ways, but I realized THAT was WHY He came to die. SO He could take that junk from me, and I could live FREE.
Thankfulness like I had never experienced washed over me. I never knew what it felt like before that moment to have real, authentic, God given JOY. What once felt like a cage to me, now felt like a great open space to run.  That is real freedom.
Free to live in His joy, knowing He took all my junk away from me.
I never could have experienced this joy until I recognized the magnitude of my junk. You see God saw my heart. Even if my actions were kinda OK, my heart was black. I was constantly feeding the things of the flesh, anger, bitterness, resentment, the right to hold a grudge, lust, greed, discontentment. Not a pretty list. But as long I believed the lie that I was pretty good, and that if I did enough good stuff, and that if God really was for real, I'd probably make it to heaven....I'd never be able to accept His grace.
It's His grace, His gift of life that gives us freedom.
As long as we think we are "not that bad off" we will always miss the mark of joy and freedom. And if you miss freedom by an inch, you might as well have missed it by a century.
A little sin, is like a little death. A little sin, is like a little rape. There is no part of sin that is little. And when we focus on the fact that Jesus's shadow of Him on the cross completely covers our sin shadow, this is where our freedom lies. Freedom, and thankfulness. For now we are free, and now we are eternally thankful for His ability to rescue. What we once tripped over, we now hold high.
And that my friends is why you then desire to fallow His example and live a Godly life, the rules however you will find, are not rules, but rather a recipe for even more joy, for you will find, the more you give, the more you receive. This my friends, is the abundant life. This my friends, is real freedom.
I hope these words cast light on a somewhat distorted topic, and I pray that you will be encouraged by them. Don't focus so much on all the wrong you have done, but after confessing your deep deep need, recognize you can never plumb the depths of His grace. If you go deep, He'll go deeper. You can never out do God.
Ever.
Enjoy that glorious truth. This glorious freedom.