music :: worship :: life
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?
—Romans 6:1-2
I used to look at sin as acts of ugliness—vices—evil deeds. But sin is much more subtle than that. Sin is an obstacle to God’s grace—a roadblock on the path of righteousness.
Sin blocks us from connecting with God, from reaching his purpose for us, from receiving his promises, from fulfilling his plans to prosper us. Sins are the potholes on the highway to heaven.
The closer we get to God, and the further we travel in our spiritual journey, the faster we go. And the faster we go, the more damage a pothole does to our wheel alignment. Many of us came to Christ limping along with wheels pointed every which way from so much rough mileage on the world’s highways, and it has taken a long time to get back in proper alignment.
The more potholes (sin) we fall into, the more damage we do to our alignment, and the harder it is for us to steer, and to stay on the King’s Highway. If we leave the highway and venture onto those side roads and detours, we have to drive slow, and we do even more damage to our drive train. God may have to do extensive repairs to get us back in realignment.
All this metaphorical stuff is to illustrate the point: The closer we get to God, the more sin matters. When we are living worldly lives, we were surrounded by sin, and it saturated our hearts and minds. We didn’t notice it much; it was so much a part of the environment. But as we draw near to God, we become more and more sanctified. And as the more blatant sin is cleared from our lives, the more subtle sin becomes more obvious. The closer we get to God, the more his purity fills us. And his purity makes all our impurities stand out in sharp contrast.
As we draw nearer to God, the more his light fills our lives, and the more the darkness in our own hearts becomes visible. Layer after layer his light penetrates, and layer after layer the shadows are revealed and flooded with his light. This goes on for a lifetime, but it will never reach all the shadows in the deepest parts of ourselves. He is ever in the process of perfecting us, and he is never finished in this life. On the last day, the Bible teaches us, when we stand before him, all that is left to perfect us will be completed. We will be changed in an instant.
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
—1 Corinthians 15:51-52
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
—Philippians 3:20-21
But for now, watch out for those potholes!
Come Judgment Day, it will not be your friends you stand before. It will not be your spouse; it will not be your boss. It will not be your clients, your neighbors, or your family. It will not be your church.
Nothing and no one in this world will be your judge.
Who are you living for?
When you are facing the impossible, you can count on the God of the impossible.
—Amy Carmichael
God doesn’t read your press clippings.
—Daniel Southern
A simple rule of thumb:
If you can’t worship while you’re doing it, you shouldn’t be doing it.
This was one of those messages that showed up unbidden during my class on worship. The topic was “worshipping all the time.” It seems like a good maxim for those times when we are looking for clear direction in unclear situations.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
—1 Corinthians 10:31
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
—Colossians 3:17
If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
—1 Peter 4:11
The soul learns which activities bring God’s presence nearer. It remains in His presence by practicing those activities.
—Brother Lawrence
I have learned by painful experience that if I do not humble myself, God has many others who will “volunteer” to do it for me.
—Bill Gothard
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