God’s acceptance is not about performance

After I became a Christian, the local church I attended knew of my past. I’d been divorced. In their eyes, this was like a virus and most of them thought I should be disqualified from doing anything in the church, even that I should not be baptized.

Sometime later, my hubby and I attended a teachers’ banquet at the invitation of his cousin. Everyone talked to me like I was an equal. I’d only taught Sunday school and Bible studies, but I knew the joys and challenges of their craft. Conversation came easy. Then one of them asked me where I obtained my degree. At that time, I didn’t have a degree and the strangest thing happened; as soon as I told them, everyone stopped talking to me.

Both incidents describe the human condition. We have criteria or value systems to define others. If they don’t fit, they are disqualified. However, this is a hurtful bias. It should never happen in the church. Our acceptance of people should be like that of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul expressed this attitude when he wrote to Christians about their practice of relying on outsiders to settle their disputes. He reminded them . . .

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9–11)

We are all in the same boat. We have all sinned, regardless of our employment, history, or present circumstances. Even though faith changes our lives, Christians must never forget that our justification is not about those changes; it is because of what Jesus has done for us by the power of the Holy Spirit. As I often say to people, my acceptance of others is not based on their performance. If it becomes that, then I’ve forgotten who I am. I’ve also forgotten the foundation of my acceptance with God. It is about His grace, not my performance.

Tozer exalts the church today because it is the only institution that can claim a heavenly origin. Without the work of the Lord in our lives, we would not exist. However, those outside the church have their criteria or value systems and will point to the flaws. Because of our sinfulness, the church and individual believers battle and to the world, that appears to be a failure.

However, outsiders also realize that our faith has imitators, false teachers, and includes people who make a profession of faith but do not live it. Because of this, they wonder who or what is the true church. Christians might also wonder.

Some of the criticism and rejection people have toward the Christian church is valid. We do not measure up, yet our relationship with Christ is not based on our performance. If it were, no one could be saved. Instead, it is about faith, and faith expressed in various ways. One of them is our agreement in prayer . . .

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:19–20)

Despite the claim of some, large groups are not the criteria. As Tozer says, “The Church is found wherever the Holy Spirit has drawn together a few persons who trust Christ for their salvation, worship God in spirit and have no dealings with the world and the flesh.”

The Church is not like other organizations that depend on structure, goals, and people-power. The church as defined above is people gathered to pray and worship in total dependency upon the Lord. We know that we would not exist apart from His grace, and we know we cannot function without His power. Because of that, there ought never be any rejections for any people based on any human value system.

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Jesus, faith in You levels the field. The Bible speaks of not knowing people according to the flesh. You do not evaluate people based on their education, background, or behavior. Anyone who belongs to You is in Your Church and highly valued. May I have Your attitude, not forgetting Your criteria, not putting people into human or temporary categories, but considering each one part of Your Body and beloved by You, our loving Savior.

Created in whose image??

To me, creativity is one of the most interesting subjects. Since we are made in God’s image, we have a capacity for creativity, yet how does that work out in our lives? What are the possibilities?

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26–27)

With God is Creator, our creative endeavors can be linked to godliness, be a blessing to others, and even glorify God, particularly in our stewardship of our world. However, because of humanity’s fall into sin, our creativity can also be destructive and even mock our Maker. Sin is our limitation when it comes to creativity.

I’m made in the image of God but can barely fathom this in terms of ‘how am I like Him?’ Even more of a mystery is that the Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead — how am I like the Holy Spirit?

Tozer says the Holy Spirit brings new things into being. He is “forever giving out and setting in motion, forever making ‘all things new.’ Wherever He is at work, the effects will be creative rather than conservative, though we should know that He also conserves whatever He creates.”

This phrase about conserving what He creates grabs my attention. Tozer adds, “To create and not conserve would be to waste the creative act. But the whole psychology of the Spirit is toward the creation of new things rather than toward the cautious preservation of what has been created.”

As an artist and a writer, this describes much of how I think about what I’ve created. I don’t want to throw any of it in the trash (except what obviously belongs there 😊) and at the same time I’m always drawn to create new things. The urge to design and build is so strong that I’ve had to discipline myself to do the ‘necessities’ like making meals, eating, getting enough sleep, and building relationships. I could stay in my studio all day, without outside contact, and be quite happy.

If I think of the Holy Spirit in terms of His creativity, those biblical descriptions of what He does become fascinating. He puts energy into His work. Books are written on this, so I list only a few: convicting the world of sin, pointing us to Christ, giving us new life, living in believers, setting us free from the power of sin, giving us assurance and comfort, opening our eyes and teaching us about spiritual things, forming Christ in us, enabling obedience, producing spiritual fruit, and praying on our behalf.

The Spirit of God does these and more in the lives of every person who believes in Jesus Christ (millions) and even some of it in the hearts of those who do not believe (billions). He is busy! Not only that, each act of creativity is unique and suited to the situation involved. One small example: two of us read a Bible verse and He speaks to us according to our need (rhema) in two different ways, yet both applications are just right.

The creativity of the Holy Spirit brings life, hope, love, peace and a host of other blessings. To think that I have been made in His image blows me out of the water! I am humbled and magnified, feel small and yet feel vital and important. To be open to the work and power of the Holy Spirit just in my creative life gives me a sense of awe. He is here, ready to enable, ready to teach, ready to give me all that I need to do all that He wants me to do.

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Jesus, I am blessed to know that one day I will be like You. Today, I am also blessed to realize I’m also created like the Holy Spirit and one day, when sin is finally eradicated, I will be like Him also, for that is how You created me. This understanding is giving me goose bumps, and an increased desire to yield myself to all that You want for me and from me. Wow, what a God You are!

Burdens and prayer for revival

Last week I said that no one needs to teach children to do wrong; we must teach them to do right. One person responded by saying no one has any right to decide what is right or wrong, moral or immoral. This morning, I watched a news article where children were being introduced to a lifestyle the Lord condemns, taking place in a library and singing “the more we get together, the happier we will be.” What happens when we tell children that immoral is okay?

Yesterday we worshiped God, exalting righteousness and rejoicing in the One who has forgiven our sin and set us free from its penalty and power. Thinking about the contrast makes me thankful on one hand and extremely sad on the other. Jesus came to save us from our sinful selves, yet so many blaspheme His name and rejoice in their freedom to sin, not realizing that it has made them slaves.

Christians are accused of a holier-than-thou attitude and sometimes it is true. The reality is, sinfulness is a human condition. All fall short of the holy standard of God. We miss the mark. Our only hope is in the One who died for our sin, was buried, and rose again to give us His righteousness.

As for our children, I can see all around me the folly of not teaching them to trust in Jesus and walk with Him. Far too many of them seem to be on a slippery slope from cute little kids, to bratty little kids, to sinful adults who deny God and boast in their depravity.

What is the solution? Not for our sinfulness — God has provided that, but for the churning in my stomach and the ache in my heart? This morning, Tozer sends me to this passage. It begins with Solomon on his knees before God in praise. First he made a bronze platform, set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven, and said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart . . . .” (2 Chronicles 6:13–14)

Tozer tells me to beware of routine prayer and singing songs that are not much anyway and have lost any significance by meaningless repetition. He goads me to reverent thought, to consider the Body of Christ, to sense God’s Presence in stillness, solemnity, wonder, and holy fear. He says Christians need a restoration of penitence, humility and tears. He tells me to follow Solomon and kneel in breathless, wondering adoration in God’s presence.

The rest of the passage tells me what to do about the burdens in my heart. I need to pray like Solomon did:

“If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness. If your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their fathers. When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.” (2 Chronicles 6:22–27)

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Jesus, I’m going to pray like he did because we are all in a slippery slope world where one sin leads to another and soon Your people are oblivious to our calling, never mind those around us who curse You and call good evil and evil good. We need a revival and revival always begins with Your people. Forgive us. We need Your grace to walk worthy of the love You have shown us.