Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sanctification?

Sunday morning, it's the start of a new week, it actually feels new. Last week was rough, a lot of stressing and worrying about the future. The growth I have experienced in the last couple of weeks has been incredible. I think this is called sanctification.

Sanctification: The (usually gradual or uncompleted) process by which a Christian believer is made holy through the action of the Holy Spirit.

The process of sanctification is a difficult but necessary one. I've used this analogy (or simile, I don't know, don't judge) before but it seems appropriate to me: conviction (which leads to sanctification) is like muscle soreness, it's painful and uncomfortable but you know it's making you stronger in the long run. That said, too much muscle soreness leads to muscle injury which actually makes you weaker in the long run, conviction coupled with guilt is like muscle injury. Okay this analogy is terrible but just go with me. Conviction, like muscle soreness, is good, guilt, like muscle injury, is bad. Conviction leads to sanctification which ultimately brings us closer to God. Guilt, or being ashamed, leads to self-evaluation (good) and resistance to God's grace (bad), which ultimately pulls us further from God. One more analogy here, bear with me:

It's like building a brick wall. On one side of the brick wall is you with all your failures and sins. On the other side of the wall is sanctification leading to closeness with God. Now imagine that every time you start to cross over the wall toward God you're being sanctified and getting closer to him, but every time you sin you're slipping back toward the side of the wall where your failure and sins live. Now imagine that if every time you sin you also feel ashamed, that shame is like putting down one more brick along that wall. The more you struggle with feeling ashamed because of your failure and sin, the harder it becomes to cross over the wall and the larger the barrier between you and God. Eventually if you get too wrapped up in the shame, you will build a brick wall that is very difficult to overcome and may give up and completely succumb to your sin.

Ashamed: unwilling or restrained because of fear of shame, ridicule, or disapproval.

Being ashamed pulls us from God by forcing us to resist His grace. If we accept His grace then we know He loves us unconditionally therefore will not "ridicule" or "disapprove" of us. Although God will disapprove of our actions because of our sin nature, He loves us just as much as He would if we never did anything wrong. He does not hold things against us, in fact the bible says that He "cancels the record of debt that stood against us". I'll just write down these verses.

Colossians 2:11-14 - "In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."

This idea of God's forgiveness is not to say that we should all be happy and satisfied in the midst of our own sin. In fact, it is to say just the opposite. Knowing God loves us no matter what we do, should make us want to do His will that much more. I'm gonna give another analogy here, bear with me. Imagine you have two bosses, one is very stern and hard on you. He does not tolerate wrongdoing or poor quality work. He punishes you if you fail because he expects the best from you. You have great respect for this boss because he "sticks to his guns", however you are somewhat scared of him. Now imagine your other boss is very forgiving. He gives you second and third and fourth chances to get it right. His philosophy is that punishment will lower the morale of his employees so he doesn't correct you if you're wrong. He's the boss you go running to if you have a problem that you're too afraid to tell the other boss about. You love working for this boss because he is caring and forgiving, but you don't really respect him and you certainly don't fear him. Part of you would want to work for the boss who is just nice and forgiving all the time, however, the other part of you knows that the stern boss will make you a better employee.

Merge those two bosses and you have God. He is loving and caring and forgiving. He is all of these things more than anyone who has ever lived. He is also stern, unwavering and expects the best from you. He made you in His image, this means He knows your capability to become a great employee (follower of Christ). Now, with God we know we should respect him and try our best to be as much like him as we can, but at the same time if we have a problem we can run to Him knowing He has already forgiven us. Hopefully that analogy was half-way comprehendible, but Paul was much better at explaining things than me, so I'll let him explain what I mean here.

Romans 5:18-6:4 "Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the tresspass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

Sanctification is a balance of recognizing God's grace when we feel conviction and in light of that realizing that we are made in His image and he expects the best from us. God's grace and forgiveness are not grounds for making excuses or avoiding conviction they are qualities of a loving and caring God who requires the most of us and expects us to give him our best.





Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Spiritual Follower

This thought really hit me yesterday as I was thinking about the future and realizing how stressed out about it I've been:

 "Have I ever really given God control of my life?"

The answer to that question seemed premature without also asking myself:

"Do I, of have I ever, really trusted God?"

After quick deliberation, my mind answered both questions with a resounding "no". This response brought about two distinct and significant observations in my mind. First, I thought, "This goes against everything that Christianity is all about; the whole ideology of the Christian faith hinges on trusting God and giving Him control. I might be in big trouble." Secondly, I thought, "Christianity is more than ideology, I know God is real, and I know He loves me. Christianity is about learning, growing, maturing, and following Christ and His example." So what about the whole trusting God problem, how do I resolve this?
To find an answer, I had to go back to what it was that made me stress about the future in the first place: failure. As a senior in college, my life is on the brink of a major transition from the world of academia to the world where I have to actually apply what I've learned. This transition is happening faster than I planned. I have been trying to graduate with a degree in exercise science in hopes that I could go on to physical therapy school for graduate school. If my plan works out, this will delay my transition from academia to application for another three years. Sounds pretty great, right? After taking all of the necessary classes and exams to apply to PT school, I sent off applications to five different universities. My grades were pretty good, my test scores were very competitive and I was graduating from a very well-respected undergraduate program. I had it in the bag. 
Two months after sending off my applications, here I am, still not accepted into graduate school. I did all of the work, I made the grades, I passed the exams, I sent in the applications but still nothing. Fail.
The amazing thing about unconditional love is that it gives you the freedom to fail. This is where I realized I wasn't fully trusting God or giving Him control of my life. I know God loves me unconditionally, I have no doubt in my mind about that; the problem is that I think I am better at planning out my life than He is. I don't want to let go of control of my life, I have never really let go of control of my life. It's easy to act like I've given God control of my life when things are going my way and I'm succeeding in what I think I need to succeed in. What I mean is, I can say that I happy with how God is running my life if I'm conveniently fitting Him into my life plan, as opposed to fitting my life into His plan. 
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
I'm learning more and more the truth and meaning of these verses. It's pretty much impossible not to hold onto God when everything you thought you had grasped so tightly kinda slips through your fingers. This is sanctification. I'm learning to trust God with my life, I'm learning just now that when I am weak, then I am strong. Losing control of my life is the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to me. I was humbled. Through humility I learned that I haven't completely trusted God or given Him control of my life. Realizing that I am capable of completely trusting God and giving Him complete control over my life is the proudest moment of my life. When I am weak, then I am strong. 
About the title of the post: this train of thought naturally led me to think about what it means to be a "spiritual leader". I thought, "if I don't trust God completely how can I become any kind of "spiritual leader?" Through this, I realized how being a "spiritual leader" has so little to do with leading and so much to do with following. Allowing myself to fully submit to God and fully trust Him and His plan is the most important aspect of "spiritual leadership". Leading spiritually, is not about pulling someone along behind you as you lead them to Christ. It's about pushing someone toward Christ as you follow Him. It's amazing to finally realize that being a spiritual follower is the only way to lead spiritually. 
1 Peter 5:2-3
"Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers - not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock."

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Why not?

Well here goes. 

I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea how I'm supposed to start a blog post. I'm not an experienced blogger so I don't know the appropriate opening line to a blog post. Fortunately for me, not too many people will actually read this, so if you are, you should feel honored...or just really bored. That said, I feel like I should start my blogging with a disclaimer. 

Disclaimer: I am not an authority on anything. I do noT write, with Correct Grammar'. This is mostly for me to get my thoughts out clearly and for those of you who are interested in what I might have to say, nothing more. This isn't a self-deprecating- I'm not important enough for you to listen to me- kind of disclaimer, if I'm writing a blog I must think highly enough of myself to express my thoughts publicly. I named the blog "Enjoy Responsibly" because I don't want anyone to take this too seriously or think I'm trying to accomplish anything more than getting some thoughts out and maybe getting some feedback every now and then. Okay now that I'm done explaining how unimportant this blog is, start reading, it'll change your life!

I'll just start out by saying hello. My name is Jacob and I am a college student at Georgia College and State University majoring in exercise science. I will graduate in May, 2010 and plan to continue with graduate school for physical therapy shortly after that...I plan to. I am a Christian, which I know can mean one of a thousand things. The best way I can think to break it down more is to say I believe the bible is God's word and is the ultimate authority. I base all of my "religious" beliefs and traditions on what I know of the bible. I will probably talk about God a lot because he occupies my mind a lot, not because I know more about him than you. 

That's enough for now, next time I'll write something worth reading.