I always see God at work in His creation. And He is often
pointing out His presence in the midst of His creation. Many times He will
speak to me through simple means and tangible ways. I went to bed last night
with a sore throat and a headache. It’s been a year and a half since I was sick
last. But I woke up this morning to the sound of the trash truck outside and I
could relate to what lay waiting in our cans. Yuk! I got out of bed and
stumbled to the coffee pot and then stepped out the back door to see how cold
it was. Forty five with a slight breeze was quite the chill on this early
Saturday morning. “Frozen” was what it felt like. Yet even in this state of
numbness and lack of alertness God is able to speak to His children.
As I stopped in my tracks to see my breath it made me think
of our sin lives as Christians. Someone asked me in a men’s group meeting recently
about salvation and sinning. The topic was on the Roman Road to Salvation. My
intent was to make sure every one of those guys knew the basics of salvation.
But there was a lot of discussion about sinning after that. There was an emphasis
on the guilt and the shame felt by those who sinned after they became saved and
even more so for “repeat offenders.” I can shout it out that I’m saved! I can
say with humility that I am a sinner. But there are also times when I sulk
because I am a repeat offender. Too often we find ourselves as Christians
caught up past the conviction stage of sin. The Holy Spirit prods us when we
sin. But we’re fooling ourselves to believe that God is sitting there writing
lines next to a list of our sins like a grade school student drawing hash marks
while learning to count.
We are saved by GRACE and not by works. And just as good
works don’t get us into heaven, bad works don’t get us out. The Bible is clear
on this. So back to my frozen position this morning. Our daily walk through
life as a Christian could be looked at something like this. When we become
saved (Romans 10:9-10), God draws a proverbial line in the sand at our feet and
we start walking from that line. The goal is to get from that line to the line
of when we die. Aside from the obvious blows from a Christian struggling with backsliding,
committing a sin doesn’t necessarily move us back to the salvation line as if
it might make us “un-saved.” What happens is, as we live and do good things for
God, we are seen in the image of His Son Jesus Christ. And when we do good
deeds we send up “building materials” that the Word says will be tried by fire
and they will last for eternity. But when we sin it is as if we freeze and stop
walking. Nothing good is being sent up before us but nothing is making us any
less saved either. More good works – more good building materials. Sin –
frozen. But we only have our lives as a portioned time to live for God. So we
have to ask ourselves, “Do I want to live life frozen in sin till I die and
have nothing good to show for my life or do I want to live life in the image of
Christ and PERFORMING for Him?”
Every day holds new challenges for us. And sin is right
around every corner. We should go in the strength of Christ to do His work and
know that the work of the cross took care of our sin once and for all. We have
nothing to fear and we don’t have to sulk thinking that God is drawing hash
marks on a “sin list.” I love the lyrics by Donnie McClurkin, “We fall down but
we get up.” And that is just what we should do. So ask yourself – are your
frozen? Thaw to the warm glory of the cross of Christ and get moving! Hut 2, 3,
4!
“…as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed
our transgressions from us.”
Psalm 103:12 (NIV)
