Frozen

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)