Victory!

When I wrote my post in March with the Sin Challenge, I asked you all to let me know after a while how it worked out for you.  And now a friend has done so.

Actually, it was a few weeks ago that she called and wanted to meet for lunch and talk.  To talk about writing.  Turns out, my friend had suddenly felt a calling from God to write a novel.  Well, no . . . suddenly isn't correct.  She'd apparently been feeling this call for quite some time but had resisted out of fear.  Fear of failure, fear of rejection . . . all that, you know.  And this is where the Sin Challenge came in. 

"My sin of insecurity has long ruled my life and permeated every decision," she said.  Can insecurity be a sin?  Oh, yes, it can be.  If God has made a certain path for your life very clear to you, and you refuse to walk that way for fear of what may come on that path, is that not the sin of rebellion?  If you prefer to make your own safe, little plans for yourself -- be your own god -- is that not idolatry?  If you think that God would point you down a road that is not in your best interests, or that he will not walk down with you, is that not unbelief and lack of faith?  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1)

"My sin challenge was to make war on that fear and break free from those chains," my friend told me.  To look that behavior in the eye and say, No -- this is over.  You do not rule over me.  I have another King, and he has defeated you.  To refuse to wallow in that sin any longer.  And by golly, it worked!  She said once she made the decision that she was going to write this novel God had laid on her heart, and that was all there was to it . . . the fear left.  And the words have been flowing onto the page ever since.  She doesn't know what will come of this novel.  Of course, publication would be awesome!  But she's certain she's supposed to write it, whatever comes of it.  And peace and enthusiasm have permeated her life since she chose to obey.

Yes!  This is what I wanted to hear -- stories of victory!  We need to hear them.  What has convicted me so deeply for the last couple years is how few stories of victory I have in my life . . . and that this was probably because I took on so few battles, particularly battles of any significance.  "We do not fight for victory; we fight from victory," Pastor Jeff said last month.  Amen!  Let's prove it to ourselves and the world.

Want to be re-inspired to try this challenge?  Re-read the posts I wrote before:  here.  And you don't have to meet me for lunch to tell me your victory stories . . . share it as a comment here on the blog.  Or send me an email or FB message.  I know we all want to hear from you.

Confessions of a Wallower

Soooo, back to that there Sin Challenge. (Nope, I haven't let go of it yet, folks.)

A friend wrote me back on my last challenge post to tell me she was participating. She talked about how she always strives to do this and is always increasingly aware of her sinfulness. Made me smile because this friend has always struck me as such a godly woman. I've said before: the most godly people in my life are the ones most aware of their own sinfulness.

Something in her response triggered a small alarm in me. She sounded a bit like she might be a fellow wallower. Probably not -- but it made me think that I should probably address that here.

I tend to wallow. You know, look at all the mud and gunk in my life, hate it with a passion, and then lay myself right down in it and roll around luxuriously. A "confession session" with God turns into a laundry list of all my failings and expressions of gratitude for his forgiveness . . . Hallelujah, thank you Jesus . . . and then moving on to requests. Almost as if I glory in my miserable state because it gives me more opportunity to experience his grace. ("Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!" Romans 6)

It's one thing to say: Lord, I know I fail you in so many ways. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me and help me do better. Blah-bl-blah-blaaah. Safety and comfort in vagueness.

It's quite another to say: This thing -- THIS sin -- it's done. This yelling at my children -- by your grace, it's over. It is no longer acceptable to me to continue to behave this way and then come back asking for forgiveness over and over. Thank you for the forgiveness -- now give me the freedom and the victory. Confession must include repentence -- a turning away -- or it's nothing but a self-gratifying wallow. (Read that whole Romans 6 chapter, friends.)

Have you noticed in Luke 4, when Jesus starts his ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth, he quotes Isaiah to indicate the tasks he has come to accomplish. There's no direct reference to forgiveness of sins there (although we know he did that). But from day one, he says the Lord has sent him "to proclaim freedom for the prisoners."

Freedom. Victory over sin. For sin shall no longer be your master. That's God's goal. Why do we settle for less?

Is He Lord, or Isn't He?

So, I issued a challenge to my believing friends -- and myself -- last week. I only had two people respond, but I realize many of you may have taken it up and simply didn't say anything to me about it, which is fine. However, I fear that your thoughts may have been more along the lines of one friend who wrote me.

"This is a huge challenge," she said, "one that will probably send many running for cover behind walls of denial." True. And this is why I present it to you -- and to me. Because the very fact that we find this so difficult and avoid it so deftly should set off screeching alarms in our spirits. Please consider prayerfully with me some of the scripture God has brought to my attention (more like plastered in my face) lately:

1 John 1:6: If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and the truth is not in us.

1 John 2:3-6: We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands . . . This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to be in him must walk as Jesus did."

1 John 3:6: No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has seen him or known him.

1 John 3:10: This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

1 John 4:8: Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Romans 8:9: You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

John 15:13-14: Greater love has no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.

John 14:23-24: Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching . . . Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

Those last two are written by Jesus himself, folks. Scripture gives us very obvious and clear indications for the person who is born again, a child of God: they live in the light (nothing is hidden in their lives), they obey Jesus' teaching (they do not continue sinning) and they love their brothers (see the Good Samaritan story regarding who is our neighbor and brother).

Friends, Jesus' first words to the world when he started preaching were, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." Repent. That's a command regarding our sin -- confess it, reject it, walk away. And yet, we have trouble choosing one sin in our lives to walk away from? We who claim to have Christ as our Lord? We who claim to have new life, who claim to love God? We refuse to give up our sin? Yes, folks, this should trouble us greatly.

Examining our lives for transgressions . . . asking God to search our hearts and point out any wicked way in us . . . confessing those sins to God, ourselves, and our fellow believers . . . walking away from those sins victoriously . . . these behaviors should be second nature to us! These are the behaviors that should DEFINE and MARK a child of God. If they do not define and mark our lives, if we are so reluctant to attempt it even once -- well, frankly, that should make us wonder if we really are who we claim we are. Is Jesus our Lord, or isn't he?

Someone I read recently mentioned all the Barna surveys and so forth which show how little difference there is between how self-proclaimed born-again Christians live and how the rest of the world lives. I loved his remark: the message here is not that being born again doesn't change our lives; the message is that there are a lot of people who believe they are born again who are NOT.

As I said, I'm preaching to myself also, people. And so I'll start the confession ball rolling. An anonymous commenter (I'd love to know who you are!) on my last post recommended a link regarding scriptural teaching on money. I immediately found myself reluctant to read it, and realized that was because I don't want to be proven wrong. That's pride -- that's refusing to acknowledge and live by truth when it is revealed to me -- that's SIN, my friends. And I hereby confess it. I will now be checking out that website and examining its claims and examining my heart. I'm ready for God to strike down my precious beliefs if they are not correct.

Only by the grace of God.

The Sin Challenge

I'm feeling led to try something scary and different here -- something interactive. You all know I've been meditating a lot on sin and our slavery/freedom from it. I truly believe that we have become much too complacent about the presence of sin in our lives, about how it disrupts our relationship with God and others, how it hurts our ministries, and how it keeps us from the abundant life Christ came to give us. Would my believing friends be willing to try an "experiment" with me? Not to test God, but to test ourselves.

Step one: pick a sin in your life. Just one. Don't say you can't think of one (1 John 1:8). Ask God to show you the one he's ready to get rid of in your life (Psalm 139:23). Again, just focus on one.

Step two: confess it to yourself and to God. Out loud. Some of my strongest sinful entanglements were only overcome when I vocally articulated exactly what it was I was doing in no uncertain terms -- only then did I realize the shame of it and feel appropriately sorrowful. And I think you do have to feel the sorrow for your sin to move on. (Take a moment here, by the way, to thank God for forgiving you -- 1 John 1:9 -- and for loving you and dying for you long before you ever got this cleaned up -- Romans 5:8. God is more merciful to us than we are to ourselves, often.)

Step three: find a compassionate Christian friend and confess the sin to them (James 5:16). Yep, you'll hate this step. But again, I've found in my own life that I don't get serious about eradicating sin if it's still hidden away in the closet, so to speak (1 John 1:6-7). Ask them to serve as an accountability partner to you for step four.

Step four: Repent. Meaning, turn completely away from that thing and walk in a different direction (Romans 6:1-2). Shut the door, throw out the supplies, fill the hole with something of God (Romans 6:19). Make a decision in your life that you are done with that sin, and that is simply that. And then trust that God is going to empower you to do it (Romans 6:6-7).

Will you try this with me? And will you do two more things? Hit the "share" button at the top of this blog and share this post with other believing friends -- not because I want the exposure, but because I want to give this "experiment" wider scope. And then, will you tell me what God does in your life, and your friends' lives, as a result? You don't have to give your name. I just want to hear the stories -- and I want to be able to share them. I think the Church is hungry for stories of real people walking in the light and living a victorious Christian life. I know I am.