Tense words

God has forgiven us: past tense for future offense.

I first thought of this phrase a year ago at the end of last summer here at camp. I was trying to figure out why this truth is important.

So here's my thought process. Christ died for our sins. All of them. He forgives us at the point of our salvation (Colossians 2:13-14 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;). He blots out that which we have done and forgives us.  And yet we still are instructed to confess our sins for the purpose of obtaining forgiveness. (1 John 1:9 but if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness) The aforementioned passage is clearly speaking to saved people based on context.


So how do we combine confession with full assurance of our secured salvation?

It really all boils down to a relationship. Our Christian life is not just a quickie "fire insurance" experience. It is an ongoing daily relationship built on love and gratitude.  Unfortunately, though we have been saved and gloriously redeemed, we still sin. Most of us on a daily basis. Most of us more often then that, even!

The problem is a lot of us struggle with this. How can I be saved and still do bad things? Maybe I didn't really get saved that first time.

And then begins a cycle of doubt, "re-salvation", good feelings, doubt, "re-salvation", good feelings.....

But our salvation is not based on us. We are saved. God has saved us and forgiven us from our sins.  However, our relationship with God suffers when we sin. When we lie to our parents, we are still their child, and yet there are still consequences. They no longer trust us and the relationship has been damaged.

John 10:28-29 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father's hand. 

No man means no man... not even you can cause you to lose your salvation.

Because of Him,
Missa

♪♫ I don't need anything......... But You ♫♪

What do we need to have everything?  What will satisfy us?  When will we be perfect?  When have we achieved the dream life?

I've been thinking a lot about Colossians 2:10 "and ye are complete in Him[Christ], which is the head of all principality and power."

It's easy to fall into the trap as a Christian to become all consumed with "what's next". If only I had ..... that car, that job, that boyfriend/girlfriend, the latest electronic, or whatever it is you or I may want, then I could be content.  But the thing is, you will never be content if you are continuing to dwell on "what's next". There will always be something new, and until you rest in the contentment of knowing Christ.

Now that is a very good thought indeed, but, alas, although the above is definitely something taught in Scripture (see Exodus 20:17), that's not exactly what this passage means. Consider the context:

For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Colossians 2:1-10


I propose that completeness is God, is completeness in His wisdom and knowledge. Our insufficiency is never more manifest when compared to God's all-sufficiency.  We have direct access to Him through prayer. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." James 1:5

I was speaking with a friend at lunch, and he told me how he was learning that one must be aware of one's insufficiency, and at the same time be willing to minister.  It seems that one is either aware of their inefficiencies or ministering, not both. But that's not the point of the Christian life, to be forever bobbing on highs and lows spiritually. When we get saved, we must humbly admit that we are insufficient, and accept God's grace freely offered to us.  Now, as we live and thrive in this new life, we must continue to "...walk humbly with our God"  (Micah 6:8)

 Complete in Thee

(Aaron Wolfe)

Complete in Thee! No work of mine
May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine;
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And I am now complete in Thee.

Refrain:
Yea, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too, shall be!

Complete in Thee! No more shall sin,
Thy grace hath conquered, reign within;
Thy voice shall bid the tempter flee,
And I shall stand complete in Thee.

Complete in Thee—each want supplied,
And no good thing to me denied;
Since Thou my portion, Lord, wilt be,
I ask no more, complete in Thee.

Dear Savior, when before Thy bar
All tribes and tongues assembled are,
Among Thy chosen will I be,
At Thy right hand, complete in Thee.

Because of Him,
Missa

That I May Know Him

At the beginning of the summer, during one of our meetings, someone threw out the term “knowing God” and that just brought a huge slew of questions:

Why do I want to know God?

If we have all eternity with Him, does it really matter?

Does it matter if I don’t want to know Him? Other than being ungrateful, I mean.

I had been meditating on this off and on for six weeks, and hadn’t really come to a definite conclusion other than that I knew I wanted to know Him more, and I am completely insufficient in my knowledge.

But during this morning’s staff renewal message, I hit upon the answer, or at least the first part of the answer.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be learning more and more of the answer.

1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.

Philippians 3:8-10  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.

We should want to know Him because He loves us, because we are nothing without Him, because He is working in us by His power. Knowledge of God is the highest goal in a Christian’s life. It is a continuing unending goal. I wonder if even with all eternity it is even possible for us begin to comprehend the mind of God, and how He works all things together.

And consider 1 Timothy 4:8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.  Knowing God and allowing that knowledge to change us, gives us a glimpse of that life which is waiting for us in heaven. We can develop our body, but in all honesty, our body will die, and it is our soul which will continue on.  I know people who spend hours daily at the gym, building up  something that has a chronic condition of decay which all suffer from, and which cannot be reversed.  We shouldn’t neglect the temple of God, but can we  put at least as much effort into growing spiritually?

I’m not there yet. I have not attained, but God is working in me, both to will and to do His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13)

Because of Him,

Missa

Splinter Stories

Wow. I've been here at camp for 5 weeks now.  Sometimes it seems like we just got here.... and then it feels like I've been here forever.

God is good.  I am constantly amazed by His sustaining grace, His guiding grace, His humbling grace to me.  I don't deserve it, I haven't earned it. He loves me, and that is all I need. Now and forever.

I'd like to share with you a little story about His teaching grace.

The week before last was crazy, loud, insane, explosive, and crazy. Did I mention it was loud and crazy? The junior camp was humongous with over 120 kids. And my church was here, which meant I was willing to risk harm to my eardrums by braving the rabid mob.

But the kids were not a group. They were individuals. Each with a story, personality, and decisions to make of their own.

On Thursday evening, the preacher challenged the lot of them about complaining.  One of the girls in my prayer partner's cabin had been a magnet for splinters. She could walk down a concrete sidewalk surrounded with brick buildings and still get a splinter.

Well, in the middle of the sermon, kinda as a joke, kinda not, the preacher mentioned how instead of saying ouch and complaining if you got a splinter during the trek to the lake, to instead think 'Ok, God, what are you trying to teach me by this? Oh, and thank you for the splinter.' Well the little girl I told you about came out during the invitation along with another girl from the cabin. I counseled both of them about the decision and they both prayed for God to help them and they both ended their prayer with

"Oh, and thank you God for splinters."

The next day, while cleaning up something, I walked past those two and they ran up to me and told me that they thanked God for splinters that morning.

They got it. They truly understood and got the decision. And they convicted me.

How many times do I allow the minor irritants to bug me? Or do I ignore the teaching God has for me through them?  It could be anything: splinters, my siblings, my parents, a dirty bathroom, or my alarm clock. I'm still working through it, and I won't be perfect for a while, but...

Thank you God for splinters

And loud campers.

Because of Him,
Missa

London Bridge is Falling Down

I love music. I’m always singing (or humming if there’s anyone nearby) and during the middle of the day when I’m working and the middle of the night when I’m supposed to be sleeping I find myself longing to play my violin. God gave us the gift of music, and like pretty much everything else, it is to be used for His glory and praise.  Some people are not gifted musically, and that’s ok. In Psalms it says to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. I not a very good singer, so playing my instrument beautifully is something that brings overflowing joy to my life as a way to worship my God.

This week, I was temporarily deprived of that pleasure. Working here at camp, every evening before the service, the staff present a musical special. I haven’t been able to participate in it for the past few years due to my work schedule during the evenings working in the kitchen, but this year I get to accompany two songs!  I was so excited, so nervous, and just a bit stressed (I got the music two days before the first performance, which was only going to be for staff, but still…) I spent all of my break Saturday and Sunday practicing, which amounted to over six hours of practice. I was transposing a piece, learning to read Bass clef, and play in B Major (which is a REALLY bad key for strings). It was so hard, but I was able to play it beautifully after all that time. I’m finally tuning up to play with the counselors for the first time and….

SNAP!

My bridge collapsed. And as a result, my sound post (what makes the instrument actually make sound) fell over. My violin was suddenly unplayable, I’m in the middle of the desert, and I have no earthly idea how I was going to get this fixed.

But, as a result, I got to see how God provides, even before my need could be known.  A week before I left, some dear friends of mine gave me $100, to be used however I saw fit. I was planning on putting it on my scholarship account, since I was planning on using it for school anyway, but I held off and just stuck it in my violin case and forgot to turn it in.  Well, now I had an expensive repair that was paid for! But where to get it fixed? I looked into shipping it back to the guy I normally go to for repairs, but after calculating all the shipping… It was going to be pushing $200, plus a $50 repair, and plus about 2 weeks of time.  I really couldn’t afford that, but God is faithful. I was able to find a violin repair shop that was near where one of the resident staff had to make a stop on Tuesday.

I’m still waiting on it to be finished (apparently they needed to order parts…), but God has provided exceeding abundantly above that I could ask or think, or even before I could ask or think. 

Getting ready for this summer, this promise is going to be big for me. I will need strength I do not have, wisdom I do not understand, love I do not possess, and patience with those who are “unpatientable” (as well as protection from those who dislike those of us who make up words…). : )

It is because of Him that I can play a violin, and because of Him, I can serve Him with it this summer.

Because of Him,

Missa

On The Road Again

Tomorrow, I am leaving. I'm going to spend an entire summer serving God at a summer camp in California. This will be my third summer, and I cannot wait to get on the road again.

And so, as most good things do, my blogging must come to an end... well at least it must suffer a significant decline in how often I post.  I'm hoping to post an update every other week, but that might be wishful thinking.

Because of Him,
Missa

Blame Game

I can't help it. I was just made like this. I'm just being me! I'm not going to be something I'm not just to make people like me!

So, I've heard this a lot lately - I call it Disney Channel theology... It's an excuse for Christians to be lazy and not deal with sin in their life.  I've also heard a lot of "I was just raised that way". There is a grain a truth to that one, Proverbs does say to train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Here's the thing, though, God gave everyone different circumstances, but only one Truth.

Now, I'm not saying life's not hard... I'm saying there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation provide a way for you to escape that ye may be able to bear it.

Actually, I'm not saying that - God did in 1 Corinthians 10:13

We say all the time that God can forgive everyone everything they've ever done.  He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from all unrighteousness! AMEN!

And now that we're saved, our life does not dramatically change. I am not saying that you must be good to keep your salvation, but why must we all be victims and live our life using the past as a shield? Maybe you didn't grow up in a good home, maybe you didn't have the best parents, maybe you grew up in the perfect environment to make you into a wonderful example of God's grace!

No one can claim ignorance of truth based on their past if they are saved. If you can read this post, you have access to Truth. The Bible is available free on the internet. Google it.

Maybe it's not so much that we don't have access to Truth, as that we don't want to be humble and change our ways.  It's humbling to get saved, but let's be honest, it's easier to be humble in the privacy of your own heart with a God who you cannot physically see, then to radically change the way you are living in the full view of those who know you the best. The mocking. The questions. The persona you have built up and display whenever someone is looking must be crumbled down because you have admitted that you can't do it yourself. That kind of humility is really hard.

Least I seem to be poking only at those of you with "a past", in the negative sense of the word, let me just say, I have seen kids from excellent families go bad. I have seen kids with every excuse in the book faithfully choose His way. Anyone can blame someone else for their shortcomings. It takes guts to allow God's truth to penetrate your life.

And about just being yourself, go for it. You are a beautiful example of God's creativeness, He made you the way you are. Just remember: in Christ you are a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)


Because of Him,
Missa