Lessons to learn about the sin in my dark heart from looking in on the darkness of a egomaniac.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
Jer 17:9
LESSON 1:
Making the world fit in with my plans and dreams will cause others great pain.
This has played out in so many ways over the last few days. There is a lie in our world, that you should do what makes you happy. Other more subtle versions are "be your "best self", "be true to yourself and who you want to be."
The man in the Kremlin is being true to himself, but it is not good for the countless many. The truth is that when we serve ourselves in any fashion, and prioritise our needs above others, it always causes hurt, damage and carnage. Look at the ugliness of egotism, selfishness and the results it brings, see it in your own heart as I see it in mine, then look at the beauty of the servant KING CHRIST...
PHIL 2:3-4
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
LESSON 2: "ME TIME" IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD TIME.
When the bible says "It is not good for man to be alone" (GEN 2:18) I believe that statement to be way bigger than finding a marriage partner, idolising marriage or family, and bigger than any human only relationships.
It is a comment made by the LORD who is community (Father, Son and Spirit working together in perfection for awesome GOOD). You cannot live in any dimension of God's world fully or successfully without being in a right relationship with him, and under him, things are designed (ordained) that way.
A statement is only as credible as the one who makes it - When THE LORD, our creator says we need community and complimentary DNA's formed in his plan, we do. When a community is living under him there is another dimension - HIS SPIRIT LIVING IN US. In HIS eternal redemption we see this played out in Church, Christian and Missional communities across the world, where we come together and he balances the team and smiles on us with his presence, to make more than the sum of the parts. There is an out of this world experience when we fit in with GOD's dimension to fit in with each other.
He knows us before we are formed (Jeremiah 1:5. Psalm 139:15, Eph 1:4) . He brings complementary DNA together for his glory. This blows my mind, because I see the mysterious beauty of it working in every christian family team that is kind enough to let me to join. I need others to balance me and make up for my inbuilt habitual stupidness. When the vertical reigns and God is acknowledged, worshiped and listened to, the horizontal is fruitful.
It was apparently in covid isolation that Putin dreamt up this "perfect plan" of "special military operation". Stuck in our own thoughts we can be very off the mark, thinking we are the only existence that matters on the planet. The bible uses the word SIN. It means "missing the mark", and the biggest misjudgement we make about life is that it is all about us. What did they teach us in Sunday school ... the big letter in the middle of sIn is "I". When "I" want this, and "I" think this we regress into infantile "stroppiness", and nothing makes us properly happy or satisfied. The consequences of such thinking are catastrophic. Either we persist and cause greater pain or we are humbled by our self made mess. Our self made dreams turn out to be nightmares.
Christ redeems our isolation / selfishness and grants us the greatest grace by bringing us into new community with all its diversity. This is good for us, good for the planet and will last fruitfully forever into eternity.
I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb
Sometimes isolation cannot be avoided - that too can be ordained. Paul in Philippians is a model of what fruitfulness looks like in isolation. He is full of prayer, full of others and what God is doing in them, he is full of Christ (not himself) and therefore full of Joy. True Joy is not based on circumstances or getting my own way but IN CHRIST.
It was A W TOZER who talked a lot about believers needing community like coals in the fire. Take a coal out of the fire and it soon looses it's white hotness. Satan loves to dampen us down for God's purposes, by taking us out of community. We need to watch ourselves on our own. David didn't (2 Sam 11:1-2 ), Putin has increasingly carved out space to be on his own, whether in his rock bunker or obscene palace, The great thing about God's plan is that failure does not need to be final, and redemption can see us in amidst God's people again. Even the coldest of coal can ignite when it is put back in the fire.
Jesus is the only one we trust to be on his own.
Luke 4:1-13
(Alone, faithful in temptation "it is written".
Luke 22:39-46
(Alone in prayer, faithful to be obedient in full knowledge of the cross)
Matt 27:46
Isaiah 53:11 Obedient faithful loneliness
- the only one who could purchase our salvation through his servant humility
LESSON 3: Truth matters and lies destroy.
Throughout the last few days promises have been made and actions have done the opposite. We have time and time again returned to what has said to see if it is true, or bears out in reality.
"DID GOD REALLY SAY ...?"
When we look back to GEN 3 and the first verse (which sows what grows thereafter) , we are reminded that destruction came into (the source stream of) humanity on the back of a lie. A near truth is not truth, Our world is fallen because truth was twisted and believed. Slight nuances can have devastating and catastrophic effect. Truth matters because conversely on absolute truth brings life in Christ. (John 14:6, John 8:31-32)) When truth is not truth, and we want to believe it for the benefit of our own judgment- it is SIN. Read God's truth, meditate on it in a world full of untruths, half truths and non truths. Don't be like the politician who says "what I will say is this..." as a cover up for lies. Let your "yes" be "yes" and your "no" be "no", (Matt 5:17) knowing that truth builds up and lies destroy.
Ephesians 4:29
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up,
as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
WHO CAN SORT OUR HEARTS?
THE TRUE MAN AND KING
Christ Jesus
1) HE takes my selfish dreams and grafts me by grace into his eternally fruitful plans.
2) He takes my small mindedness and under him I live for something and someone incomparably "more.
3) He takes my life , corrupt heart, veneer identity, and pattern of self destruction, and in it's place fills my true identity with Himself, giving me a new heart, making my life eternally fruitful,
GREATER LOVE HAS NO MAN THAN THIS
ALL THE GLORY BE TO THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE ULTIMATE KING.
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
ACTS 4:12
Jesus said...
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life"
JOHN 14:6
