Tag: freedom

Categories
Christian Living

My Un-Righteous Life

I wish I could say I that I was a good person. But unfortunately this is not true. Now it is true that if I decide to compare myself to others, I find that if I choose the right people to compare myself to, I can make myself feel pretty good. I just have to make sure to pick comparison people who don’t make me feel bad.

But in reality, it doesn’t matter who I compare myself to… Because the only real standard is Jesus. And when I compare myself to Him, I always come up un-righteous.

But fortunately I don’t have to stay there.
God has made a change in me through Jesus, and He has brought me into His family. Now I’m one of the “called out ones.”

“The called out ones.” The word is plural. Believers, therefore, are placed in community with others for one reason: because God has called them out of their former ways of life. Everyone in the community is deeply sinful. Everyone is called by the same God. And everyone has been mercifully placed in community together. So why pretend we’re more than we are if everything is built on Jesus’ righteousness and not our own? Why the need to be fake? The gospel frees us to be authentic, to admit that our struggles and strengths have not been fully sanctified, and to allow others to apply the grace of God to areas of our lives that desperately need it. When community is honest and authentic, people begin to experience freedom from wearing a mask, because Jesus sets people free from the need to be hypocrites.
        We all possess the same amount of righteousness — none.
The only righteousness any of us have is the righteousness God freely gives to us in Christ.

And it is because of that righteousness that I get to be a part of His family. The community we find in His family is one that brings freedom. I now have freedom and liberation to be myself. I am no longer forced to find people to whom I have to compare just so I can feel good about myself. Knowing that I have a righteousness before God through Jesus brings me an amazing sense of satisfaction and joy.

You can have that same joy, liberation, and satisfaction.
Seek out His righteousness and His community.

(How has your relationship with God given you a sense of freedom?)

Categories
Relationships

Justice Is What You Deserve…Compassion What You Need

Not only is justice deserved, it is often called for.
But where would any of us be without mercy?

front steps of a courthouseHere is a good illustration of both justice and mercy:

One bitterly cold night in January in the 1930s, the Mayor of a large city turned up at a night court that served the poorest area of the city. The Mayor would occasionally come to the court, dismiss the judge for the evening, and take over the bench himself to hear the cases. On this night he did so again, taking off his coat and hat, taking his seat behind the bench, and beginning to hear the various court cases. Within a few minutes, an elderly woman in tattered clothing was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told the Mayor that her son-in-law had deserted her daughter, her daughter had then become sick, and her two grandchildren were now starving. But the store owner, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. “It’s a bad neighborhood, your Honor,” the man told the Mayor. “She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.”

The Mayor sighed. He turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions…ten dollars or ten days in jail.” But even as he pronounced sentence, the Mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his hat saying: “Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”

The following day the newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy others –petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and city policeman– each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.

The mayor, who was required to uphold justice, also showed amazing love and compassion.

This story was presented to me as true, but even if it is not, it is a great parable of what God has done for each and every person on this earth. God, the just Judge, must uphold His own law. But in His mercy and compassion, instead of condemning all of us who cannot pay the fine, He went ahead and paid the costly price to satisfy His own justice.

I am now that bewildered one who stands before the Judge knowing that I am guilty of breaking the laws He has made, but having the fine paid for me. I am standing before Him knowing it is right for me to receive punishment due to my selfish choices that led me to break His laws, but instead I receive mercy.

Justice is what I deserve, but what I received was compassion through the just Judge paying a fine He did not owe to allow me to experience ultimate freedom… freedom to live for Him.

Will I ?

Categories
Christian Living

Changing The Way We Run The Race

Starting in the early 1900’s athletic shoes began to undergo major design changes, and running shoes have continued to change to make a shoe that is as light as possible while providing the maximum amount of traction, support, and energy return. Shoes are important to running fast – just ask any little tyke who gets a new pair! “Look at my new shoes. They make me go fast. Watch me.” And away they go, across the front yard to show you the proof.

image of the feet of runners running in a race
But changing the way we run in a race also includes changing the way we think about running. As we get older, we realize that to run well, we must also think about running well. We make a conscious effort to stretch to increase our stride, we focus on leaning forward to gain momentum, we consider our breathing so that we can keep our leg muscles oxygenated, and we decide to run with purpose.

In a similar way, part of running the marathon of the Christian life well requires us to change our thought processes about the race. We must realize that the race is not about us, but about Him. It is His story and we are a part of it, and for a short time He places the baton in our hand as we run our part of the race.

I like what Gordon MacDonald tells us about this race in Building below the waterline: “Mastering [spiritual] growth does not depend primarily on measuring ourselves against the saints and heroes. While there is value in learning from their lives, they are among the cloud of witnesses…. They remain in the stands as we run our leg of the race. We cannot match ourselves against their performances. Rather, our eyes are to be upon the One who runs with us. Thanks be to God who is alongside of us when we run, who hoists us back up when we fall, who redefines direction when we are lost, who cheers us on when we grow fatigued, and who presents us to the Father when we finish our race.”

When we realize that we don’t have to “measure ourselves against the saints and heroes” but rather that we are just to put all our trust in Him and let Him run through us, we find a freedom. I want to run with purpose but I also desire to feel the freedom of contentment in Christ.

MacDonald again: “I asked God for a rebirth of spirit and mind. And I found a wonderful liberation. Liberation from feeling that I always had to be right and had to please [everyone]; liberation from always having to be more successful this year than last year; liberation from fearing that some people wouldn’t like me; a slow and certain liberation that said, Be content to be a pleasure to Christ, a lover to your spouse, a grandfather to your children’s children, a friend to those who want to share life with you, and a servant to your generation.”

The race isn’t a competition. Neither is it a quick 40-yard dash. It is a long marathon where we learn how to run with purpose in one direction for a long time. Let us not worry about competing with each other, but with serving Him well. Let us think in new ways about the race – realizing that serving our family, our friends, and our community with the love of Christ is the goal.

How do you keep your eyes on the goal and running the marathon race of the Christian life with purpose?

— brian rushing