why we wait to ask...

sometimes we delay in asking for forgiveness.  we know we’ve done something wrong and we know we could take it to GOD and ask for forgiveness but for some reason we procrastinate.  we wait.  there’s a lot of reasons for that.  sometimes we think, “i don’t want to bother HIM again.”

but it doesn’t bother GOD.  HE’s big enough to listen to all of our requests, all day.  that’s the kind of GOD that HE is.  you’re not bothering GOD. 

sometimes we think, “what i’ll do is get my life all together, all worked out, perfect in at least this one area and then i’ll go to GOD and say, ‘GOD, i’ve got it worked out.  now i want to confess it.’” 

don’t wait!  it never works.  first of all you’re never going to be perfect.  you’re always going to have things you struggle with.  and secondly, one of the ways to grow in your life is to confess it to GOD, to realize HIS forgiveness and then grow based on that. 

realize that guilt in many ways is like garbage.  you have to take it out repeatedly.  in your house you have to take out the garbage repeatedly or the house starts stinking.  that’s how life works. 
i’d guess that for most of you in your house you have different sized containers for your trash, your garbage.  in your bathroom you probably have one of those tiny, little containers for garbage.  under your kitchen sink you probably have a medium sized container for garbage.  out in your back yard or in your garage you have one of those big huge industrial things to put everything in.  that’s where you take out the trash. 

when the trash starts to fill up in your kitchen, what do you do?  you don’t get a bigger garbage container to hold the trash in your kitchen and fill it up.  that one fills up and you bring in bigger container and fill it up.  you bring in the one from outside and put it in the middle of your kitchen and fill that one up.  you don’t do it that way.  when the trash fills up, you take out the trash. 

it’s the same way with our sins.  when we’ve realized that we’ve sinned what do we do?  you take out the trash.  you say to GOD, “i confess it.  i realize that YOU’ve forgiven me.” 

listen, it’s foolish to let the garbage pile up in your house and smell up everything.  and it’s just as foolish, even more foolish, to let guilt pile up in your life. 

just a thought from the front porch…

a second truth about how GOD forgives us…

there’s second truth about how GOD forgives us.  GOD forgives me, not only instantly but HE forgives me repeatedly. 

a quick survey.  how many of you reading this have committed the same sin more than once?  we all have these areas of perpetual failure in our lives where we keep struggling.  we’re caught in this cycle of defeat.  we keep stumbling.  GOD forgives repeatedly. 

the bible tells us in nehemiah 9.17 (Gwt), YOU are a forgiving GOD, one who is compassionate, merciful, patient, and always ready to forgive.

not just the first time you struggle with sin and commit a sin but always ready to forgive.  in fact, GOD is more eager to forgive you than you or i are to ask HIM for forgiveness.  that’s the kind of GOD that HE is. 

i used to think (and sometimes still think) that GOD gets tired of me coming back to HIM again and again with the same struggle.  “here i am again, LORD, to talk to you about the same thing i talked to you about before – ten minutes ago – confessing the same sin.”  i would think GOD would be up there in heaven, looking down at me saying, “couldn’t you at least get creative about your sin?  it’s the same thing again and again and again.”  the truth is i’m the one, i am the one tired of having to confess the same thing again and again.   GOD never tires of me coming to HIM, never tires of you coming to HIM to talk about the fact that you need HIS forgiveness, the fact that HE is a forgiving GOD and to ask for HIS forgiveness. 

JESUS loves to forgive you more than you or i could ever imagine.  when you ask the bible tells us in hebrew 7.25, that CHRIST is always living to intercede on our behalf.  HE’s always doing that. 

just a thought from the front porch…

what about sickness and sin?…

when i’m hurting spiritually, james says we are to pray.

james 5.16a (msg), make this your common practice: confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.

in JESUS’ day and in many places today it is taught that all sickness is a result of sin. if you are ill, then supposedly you had some hidden sin in your life.  if you confessed and still were sick then you still had some other hidden sin.  JESUS blew that idea out of the water in john 9 where HE said to the man who had been born blind that nobody sinned. 

i think this is a very unfair concept.  you think of babies being born with birth defects – obviously that baby hasn’t sinned.  we live in a fallen world and part of that problem is there are hurts and problems.

on the other hand, JESUS did teach that a lot of the sickness we bring on our lives we do bring upon ourselves.  if i don’t follow GOD’s principles, my body is going to find out about it.  if i don’t take care of my body, eat right, sleep right, exercise right, then all kinds of ailments will come upon me. 

if i don’t listen to GOD’s word where it says, don’t be anxious about anything, but pray about everything and i worry, fret, get anxious and i get an ulcer, then i’m to blame for it.  if i allow resentment to build up in my life... doctors say it’s not so much what you eat but what’s eating you that makes the difference ... resentment can take its toll in your life and it makes a big difference.  if i don't trust GOD and i allow these things to come into my life there will be sin. 

confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.

many years ago a pastor was invited to see a man who was paralyzed from the waist down and had not been in church for about nine months.  the pastor began to talk with him and he was a very bitter man, just filled with resentment.  a cow had kicked him in the back and paralyzed him.  he was bitter against members who hadn’t visited him, bitter against the insurance company for not paying off, bitter against the doctor for not figuring out how to make him walk, bitter against the cow, bitter against GOD.  he was very resentful. 

the pastor said, “GOD may want to heal you and restore you to full health, but HE will not heal you until first you get rid of that resentment in your life.”  the pastor said, he remembered the man bowing his head and he began to weep, almost uncontrollably, deep sobs, “GOD, i have been so bitter.  just flush all the anger and hate from me.”  he wept for about 10 minutes. 

the pastor then prayed with him and he left.  the next day the man came to church, in a wheelchair, the first time he'd been in church in nine months.  at the end of the service the pastor gave a “come forward” invitation to people who wanted to come and pray.  the man got up out of his wheelchair and walked down to the front and recommitted his life to the LORD. 

what happened?  there was a block in his life that was keeping GOD from doing what HE wanted to do in his life.  when he got his SPIRITual act together, the other fell into place.

just a thought from the front porch… 

more than simply avoiding evil…

a common mistake in looking at the future is putting off doing good.

james 4.17 (niv), anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

james here, is talking about the issue of procrastination.  “i’m intending to do it.”  have you ever met somebody who is always “aiming to do it”?  i always want to say, “when are you going to pull the trigger?”

procrastination is my sin

it only caused me sorrow

i know i ought to change my ways,

in fact i will – tomorrow.

we love to put off.  james says that’s a trap.  just because you know the right thing to do doesn’t mean you’re going to do it.

how do you define sin?  we think of evil activities: murder, commit adultery, cheat, lie, steal.  these are sins of commission but there’s another kind of sin – sins of omission.  to him who knows to do good and doesn’t do it.  i can do nothing and still sin because there are things i ought to be doing.

you can be a part of a legalistic church.  “i don’t drink, smoke, cuss or chew or run around with girls who do.”  you don’t do anything but you still forgot GOD in your life.

CHRISTianity is more than simply avoiding evil.  if all the CHRISTian life was, was a bunch of “don’ts” – don’t do this, don’t do that, then everybody who is dead would qualify as a CHRISTian, because they don’t do anything.

procrastination is a subtle trap – it’s the land of someday i’ll...”  “one of these days…”  and you never do because we presume about tomorrow.  “one of these days I’m going to get serious about GOD.  i’m going to get committed.”  don’t procrastinate.  GOD says you don’t have any guarantee of tomorrow, none at all.

just a thought from the front porch…  

be consistent…

we are looking here on the front porch at this matter of us playing GOD when we judge other people.  there are seven places in scripture where it says it is wrong to judge.  the scripture does say in some places that we are to judge certain things.  we’re to judge ourselves and we’re to judge certain matters.

but over in paul’s letter to the romans he tells us it is wrong to judge other people when i’m practicing the same sin.

romans 2.1-3 (msg), you didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract GOD from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? you, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same thing.  now we know that GOD’s judgment on those who do such things is based on truth.  so when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet you do the same things, do you think you will escape GOD’s judgment?

i don’t have any right to speak up, if i lack the personal integrity where i’m guilty too.

remember the woman caught in adultery?  what did JESUS say to the pharisees?  he who is without sin cast the first stone. and they all walked away.

that’s what GOD is saying here.  i don’t have any right to judge anyone else if I’m guilty of the same thing.  we need to be consistent.

just a thought from the front porch…

how to handle temptation…

so how do i handle temptation?  how do i say no when i want to say yes?  well, james, being the practical apostle that he is, give us the answer. 

first of all he says be realistic.  be realistic. 

face the fact:  you will be tempted.  even CHRISTians are tempted.  all of us are tempted.  it says in james 1.13 (niv), when tempted...  not if tempted but when tempted.  it’s just like trials, temptations are inevitable.

listen i don’t care how long you have been a CHRISTian, you are going to be tempted.  have you ever heard some pious person say, “i thank GOD that i have never been tempted in 42 years!”  folks, that is what you get when you cross a crocodile with an abolone, a crock of baloney.

everybody is tempted.  you’re tempted, i’m tempted.  everyday we’re tempted.  you never get too old for it.  you never overcome it by getting too spiritual.  everybody’s tempted and the more you grow toward the LORD, the more you are going to be tempted.  it’s a fact of life.  the reality is all of us are tempted.

there is a misconception that says, once you’re born again, you’ve got it all together.  you’ve arrived so you wear a mask and fake it and pretend like, how could anybody do something like that?  we all are tempted.

1 corinthians 10.13 (niv), no temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  that phrase, common to man  means we’re all in the same boat.  we all have the same temptations, the same problems and don’t be surprised, shocked and don’t try to hide it.

some of you are possibly caught in a compromising situation right now but it is liberating to know that other people feel the same way.  we all have the same struggles and problems.

listen it is not sin to be tempted.  it is a sin to give in to temptation.  hebrews 4.15 (niv), JESUS was tempted in all points as we are yet HE sinned not.  HE was perfect.  HE was tempted but HE never gave in. 

it’s a sin to give in to temptation.  there are a lot of CHRISTians who are intimidated by temptation.  they think, “how could i have such a thought?” 

listen, the devil put it in your mind; it’s not your fault.  you are human.  temptation proves you’re human, not that you’re evil.  it’s not a sin to be tempted; it’s a sin to give in to temptation.  the more committed you are the more you’re going to be tempted.

just a thought from the front porch…