OSTRICHES: [the Reconciliation]

This post is the third of a three-part documentation of the journey my overly-analytical mind took while hitting the replay button on the song below. Please give it a listen in its entirety before diving in; I've written out the lyrics for your convenience. Click here for part one and click here for part two.

—   —   —

My False by Matt Corby

You see, I don't know where I'm running to

It's become quite hard to see

There's a guilty weight on my conscience

Of all my wrongful deeds

It's time to reconcile
It's time to reconcile

Oh, if I walk into the darkness I'll be lost
But if I try to stay, the light will show my false

I will keep my head in the sand, dear

Let the grains block out the sun

With shame as my companion

It will stay close til I'm done

It's time to reconcile
It's time to reconcile

Oh, if I walk into the darkness I'll be lost
But if I try to stay, the light will show my false

—   —   —

[the Reconciliation]
I met a guy named Donovan who talked about this constant, unfulfilled, dissatisfied, restless longing that every human carries with them every moment of every day.
He said, "If someone offered me eternal life, I'd say No thanks—
unless something is gonna be radically different."

I agree.
Cause if I pay attention, I don't see people thriving.
It seems like the ache of this song is echoed in the hearts of everyone around me.

And maybe you've noticed, too.
Maybe, as hard as you try,
a purposeful, beautiful, joyful life just doesn't seem to be in the cards.


Honestly? No. Of course I don't want eternal life—— IF ETERNAL LIFE IS LIKE this.
This life is miserable, painful, difficult, and hopeless.

We've all felt it.
But why?

—Cause we, as human beings, have a voracious appetite for pleasure and acceptance which we can never quench. These constant desires prevent us from ever being satisfied by anything in this world.

But I'm telling you, there is something AMAZINGLY, RADICALLY DIFFERENT for you.

I t ' s   t h e   G o s p e l .

AND THIS IS WHY IT'S SO AMAZING:

God doesn't shrug his shoulders at all the stuff that's wrong with this world and me in it
and decide he can tolerate all the shortcomings.
It's not about acceptance; it's about reconciliation.
He doesn't accept me 'as I am.'
He doesn't leave me to remain in this current state;
HE RADICALLY TRANSFORMS ME WITH HIS LOVE.

"The Gospel is better than unconditional love.

  The Gospel says, ‘God accepts you just as Christ is.

God has ‘contraconditional’ love for you.’ 

CHRIST BEARS THE BURDEN YOU DESERVE  

Christ is fully pleasing to the Father

and gives you His own perfect goodness.  

Christ reigns in power,
making you the Father’s child and coming close to you 

to begin to change what is unacceptable to God about you. 

God never accepts me ‘as I am.’ 

He accepts me ‘as I am in Jesus Christ.’

THE CENTER OF GRAVITY IS DIFFERENT

The true Gospel does not allow God’s love

to be sucked into the vortex of the soul’s lust

for acceptability and worth in and of itself."

 
[C.J. Mahaney]

Your guilt, lostness, and shame aren't yours to bear.

[it's time to reconcile]

†

You will most likely find this to be at least a little bit offensive.

[but stick with me anyway]

I struggle with pride.

...That seems too nonchalant a statement. Let me try again:

Every single day, hundreds of thoughts that cross my mind are saturated in sinful pride. It was many years into my Christian faith before I actually labeled what I was doing as sin, and it was many years before I realized the extent of that sin in my life. Having repented and asked for forgiveness, I still struggle with pride daily. It's my vice— my own personal poison. I didn't choose it. It's a root that runs deep, but I know that by Christ's power I can overcome all temptation and sin in my heart, because I have been convicted about my sin by the Holy Spirit, and God has promised to conform me to Jesus' righteousness. 

There are a lot of people God placed in my life who could probably see with vastly more clarity than I just how deep in sin I was. But those people didn't inform me of how despicable my pride was. They didn't pass judgment on me; they recognized that this wasn't their job. Their job was to show me love, and that's exactly what happened. They heaped friendship and grace and encouragement into my life by the truck loads. My sanctification process took a long time to begin, and it's still not even close to completion, but you know what? That's been God's plan all along. It was only ever going to be accomplished in His perfect timing.

If those Christ-followers in my life had instead spent years trying to convince me of the sin in my life, making me feel dirty, worthless, and unholy— how effective do you think that would have been? If those people had spent our time together throwing scripture at me, outlining the flaws in my character and lifestyle— do you think I would have responded favorably? Even if I saw my pride for the despicable thing that it was, do you think their judgment would have spurred me toward actual, genuine repentance?

Highly unlikely.

"...do you not know that God's  K I N D N E S S  is meant to lead you to repentance?"

[Romans 2:4b]

— — —

Is everybody tracking with me? Are we all in agreement?

OKAY.

So, now I want you to go back and read that again— but any time the word 'pride' appears, I want you to read it as 'homosexuality' instead.

Seriously. Go back and read it again.

— — —

Did I lose any of you?

All of a sudden, there's an issue. Christians being homosexual? And not being immediately and openly rebuked? I can hear the objections being raised: "Christians have to hold one another accountable!" "We're called to lives of righteousness!" "We shouldn't allow our brothers and sisters in Christ to continue in sin!"

I fully agree.

Did you hear me?

I   f u l l y   a g r e e .

The church— NOT THE GOVERNMENT, BUT THE BODY OF CHRIST— must be accountable to one another, pushing each other towards righteousness and coming alongside one another in order to strive to follow Christ's commands.

Let's not make the mistake of thinking, however, that it's our job to change people.

That's the Holy Spirit's job.

Mankind has been historically unsuccessfully mandating morality. If there's one thing I've learned from studying the past, it is this: obedience in the hearts of men cannot be achieved through laws. When religious institutions or governments have tried, the people either openly oppose, disobey in secret, or adhere out of fear— never freely, genuinely, or willingly.

If you want our government to adopt God's law,

do you also want your salvation to come from how well you follow it? 

—because if we think we can moralize society through legal means,

we are removing Christ from Christianity.

Have we forgotten our first love? We, too, were lost in sin before Christ washed us clean. And yet every single believer— who has been born again and made new— still struggles with sin.

I am simultaneously disobedient and righteous.

At the same time a sinner and a saint.

Already and not yet.

This mystery cannot be fully understood by men, let alone accomplished through their efforts.

I'm pleading with you: never place morality above the scandalous grace which we have all found in Jesus Christ. It took me years of being a Christian to truly acknowledge my sin for what it is and begin actually desiring for it to be eradicated from my heart. This is a process of sanctification that all believers go through.

So why is it okay for you and me, but not okay for homosexuals?

We preach love and mercy and grace,

but where is its tangible manifestation?

Step back from this heated political debate for a moment and honestly ask yourself: Do I really believe that judgment and legalistic mandates of my religious beliefs will win anyone to Christ?

Isn't bringing people to the Kingdom our ultimate goal?

This world is broken.

My heart aches for the sinful condition of our culture.

It's riddled with pain, immorality, grief, violence, and hatred.

But let us never make the mistake of assuming that manmade institutions are the solution.

This world doesn't need moral laws;

THIS WORLD NEEDS JESUS.

The law brought death.

LIFE COMES THROUGH SACRIFICIAL LOVE.

I know it's hard to love people who don't seem to deserve it...

But, more often than not, those are the people who need it the most.

We've been recipients of completely undeserved forgiveness and grace.

We've had judgment entirely removed, though we did nothing to earn it.

We're daily given second, third, and four-hundred and ninety-eighth chances.

forgive as he forgave

comfort as he comforted

serve as he served

encourage as he encouraged

bless as he blessed

sacrifice as he sacrificed

withhold judgment as he withheld judgment

LOVE AS HE LOVED

"This is the practical, tangible working of the vision
that forces us to see, oppose, and cast out

not the people who oppose the gospel,

but the spiritual strongholds that possess them to do so.

You want to know how to bring people to Christ?

Identify the spiritual strongholds that stand between them and God,
and tear them down with pointed, intentional love.

Overwhelm the lies of the enemy in a person's life with such
a powerful, observable manifestation of God's love

 that they cannot help but see who they are
in God's eyes.

This is the love of the Father—
intentional love

 —and this is the only love that will beckon people to salvation."

[The Vision by Mattie Montgomery]

†

it's a bloody mess

"Well, today I found out that there are about 150 empty dorms on campus," my dad says.

I respond: "That seems like a lot... Do that many people just quit school?"

"It's a small percentage of 30,000."

"Wait," says my brother, "I actually thought the drop out rate was higher than that."

"It probably is, but not all of them live on campus."
"I know a kid who dropped out of college recently." I add, "Pretty sure he's in prison now... But hey, I guess there are a lot of different—"

My words catch in my throat.

The list of reasons people don't finish school doesn't need to be discussed tonight.

I drop my gaze from my brother
as the reminder of his friend's fatal car accident sears yet another hole in my heart.

There are so many now, it's amazing I still have a pulse;
That cardiac muscle of mine is beginning to resemble swiss cheese.

As my blood pressure drops, I try to scream.
It comes out hollow, weak and unconvincing, falling on deaf ears.

But I need them to understand.
I need them to realize that life can be cut short in the blink of an eye—
that their YOLO world view doesn't cut it—
that their lives are worth more than that—
worth more than they could ever know.

The blood of God has been spilt willingly on our account.
So what am I worth?
What are any of us worth?

"Worth, value, and beauty are not determined by some innate quality,
but by the length for which the owner would go to posses them.
And broken and ugly things like us are stamped excellent
with ink tapped in wells of divine veins—
a system of redemption that could only be described as perfect." 

[Propaganda]

It's better than perfume.

Jesus came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus liften up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me." When he said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him and let him go."

[John 11:38-44]

As I view God as the Author of the universe, I like to think he is the ultimate expert at literary devices. I have to admit that I'm a bit of a nerd; I geeked out when I got to this passage in John. The foreshadowing, the metaphors... It's all so exciting! Partially because it's great literature, and partially because its implications affect the lives of everyone who has ever lived.

Right now I wanna hop out of this specific event in order to look at the broader implications, because I believe that this story isn't just about Jesus raising a man from the dead—which is awe-inspiring and incredible on it's own. I believe it's also a pre-game show for Christ's own death and resurrection— GET READY, PEOPLE: IT'S GONNA BE BIG— in addition to a picture of what it looks like when He rescues us from our sinful state of spiritual death. 

I've got 5 bits of goodness. Ready?

"Lord, by this time there will be an odor,
for he has been dead four days."

You know, sometimes I think that God made decomposing things smell so revolting to us as a kind of metaphor in order that we might understand how despicable sin is in His eyes. Now, the only thing I remember learning about math throughout my high school education was this: if A=B and B=C, then A=C. In other words, if people are sinful and sin is death, then people are dead in their sin. Yet Jesus descended from eternal bliss into this sin-infested mire without blinking. He doesn't care about the hopeless, disgusting state of people when we're dead— no matter how revolting it is to him. The living people around him are like, are you sure you wanna go there? It's gross. Have you ever smelled something that's dead? Naaaaasssstyy.

BIT NUMBER ONE: Christ forges on into our filth anyway;

he cares about us that much.

__________________________________

"Did I not tell you that if you believed
you would see the glory of God?"

Not if you do well enough in school. Not if enough people say you're a nice person. Not if you're successful enough at work. Not if you're a good enough friend, neighbor, child, sibling, or parent. Not even if you're a good enough Christian. 

BIT NUMBER TWO: The prerequisite for seeing God's glory

is NOTHING MORE than believing.

__________________________________

"Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me."

Jesus is constantly chatting with the Father; I'm pretty convinced they have that whole telepathy thing going on... But I think the moments when Jesus decides to communicate with Him verbally are the sweetest, because we know that he's only doing it so that we can hear. 

R.A. Torrey said,

"The chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer."

Isn't that beautiful? I mean, it's not like God is unaware of your needs until you tell Him about them. "Oh, good heavens— I didn't see you down there!" But when we ask God for things— and get them— we know that they came from God and can thank Him for them and give Him the praise and honor He deserves. Check out Jesus' prayer. He's thanking God and bearing witness that the miracle he's about to perform came solely from Him. What a classy fella.

BIT NUMBER THREE: Every miracle is done so the people who see it will know

it came from God.

__________________________________

"Lazarus, come out."

What a boss! This one is short and sweet. 

BIT NUMBER FOUR: The nature of the universe, the laws of physics, life and death...

Jesus has authority over everything.

__________________________________

"Unbind him and let him go."

This, at first glance, seems like the least important bit of dialogue in the entire passage. Like, kay... Obviously we don't want Lazarus to be mummified now that he's up and at it. But hear me out for a second:

The strips of linen used to wrap corpses were soaked in oil, spices, and perfumes; this was a Jewish custom with no other purpose than to keep the body from stinking so much. The stench of death was disgusting to them... Sound familiar? Except, instead of trying to cover up the smell of death, Jesus reverses death. He makes perfume obsolete. Do you understand the implications of that? The first time I read it, I didn't.

In our sinful state, we do stuff to try to make us seem less filthy. We try to train ourselves to be kind, generous, and thoughtful. We toil after perfection and try to be "good people" in order to cover up the stench of our rotting, sinful souls. With half-hearted attempts, we wrap our crappiness up in failed imitations of good deeds, always tainted with selfishness and pride. Just like spraying perfume on a rotting corpse, we know we're fighting a losing battle.

But Christ says, "unbind him and let him go." He doesn't bring extra-strength deodorant to the table; he wipes the slate clean, starting over from scratch. Christ makes us new creations. We don't have to constantly cover up our shameful sin, because HE HAS SET US FREE.

BIT NUMBER FIVE: We no longer have to strive after our own righteousness, because

Christ's is sufficient.

[Hebrews 10:14]

For by a single offering, Christ has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

†

I NEED YOU TO HEAR THIS

Because I need to hear it every single day.

   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —

"Do you know Jesus?" the woman asked me.

"Yes, I do."

"Do you sin?"

"Yeah. Every day... Probably more than I realize."

"THEN YOU'RE A CHILD OF THE DEVIL AND YOU DON'T KNOW JESUS."

Well.

If you are anything like me—and I know I am—

then there are two things you should know about this woman.

The first thing
                is that she is affiliated with a man who calls himself Brother Jed.

"I don't know how the whorehouses in this town stay open—

all of you sorority girls are giving it away for free!"

His voice echoed through the courtyard in front of Maucker Union, met with mocking laughter and jeers, declaring that feminists, liberals, homosexuals, alcoholics, fornicators, and those who smoke weed and/or listen to rock and roll are destined for Hell.

I'll concede to three points:
        1. His message was a call to repentance.
        2. His words were full of hatred, judgment, bigotry, and condemnation.
        3. His delivery was classless, tactless, graceless, and, most importantly, Christ-less.

The second thing
                         is that she believes her own lie.

On Monday afternoon, this warped view of the gospel manifested itself in condemnations shouted at each passing college student:

"You are all going to hell!"

"You are living sinful, wicked lifestyles!"

"You have to stop sinning in order to be with God!"

And I'm standing there, like:

"That's not necessarily true..."

"That's a pretty bold generalization..."

"That's... wait—

—what?"

LISTEN UP:
        If you are someone who thinks you have to get your shenanigans together before God wants anything to do with you, you need to ask yourself two very important questions:


FIRST:
              WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
                                [that you could ever get your shenanigans together on your own]

SECOND:
              WHO DO YOU THINK GOD IS?
                                [that He couldn't handle your shenanigans at its worst]

I want you to think about something for a moment;

I want you to think about how wonderful it would be if there were not hateful, judgmental, hypocritical words being spoken every day by people who claim to follow Jesus Christ.

And I want you to think about precisely how you would feel if every church worldwide was calling out to you in a loud, resounding voice, saying,

"COME AS YOU ARE."

I mean, COME ON.

We are CHRISTIANS.

Followers of that man called JESUS.

AND THIS IS HOW HE DID CHURCH:

                Jesus was chilling in his house, hanging out with thugs and mafia members and prostitutes. And some really arrogant religious guys were like, "What the what? Why is he eating supper with all those sketchy people?" And Jesus was like, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

[Mark 2:15-17, almost entirely paraphrased. Except for that part where Jesus talks... that part is legit.]

Okay, listen...

Listen.
LISTEN.
LISTEN TO ME:
THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS!

AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE, 
BUT I KNOW YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS.

I KNOW YOU NEED TO HEAR IT BECAUSE ALL OF US NEED TO.

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO YOU ARE, WHERE YOU'VE BEEN, OR WHAT YOU'VE DONE—
THIS IS FOR YOU.

T H I S   I S   T H E   G O O D   N E W S :

*

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

and are justified by his grace as a gift,  through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

[Romans 3:23-24]

*

For the wages of sin is death,

but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[Romans 6:23]

*

God shows his love for us in that

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

[Romans 5:8]

*

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

[Ephesians 2:8]

*

If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works;

otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

[Romans 11:6]

*

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved.

[Romans 10:9]

*

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus

from the law of sin and death.

[Romans 8:1-2]

*

Chicken Sandwiches and Whitewashed Tombs.

I have seen exactly one episode of Glee in my life, and all I can remember is each person receiving a t-shirt with their major insecurity written on it in large, bold letters. T-shirts reading, "FOUR-EYES" or "GINGER" or "CAN'T DANCE", and then there was some sort of happy message about how we should all own our flaws because they make us beautiful.

Put on your stretchy thinking caps, everyone:
A fast food chain recently threw two groups of people into the spotlight— homosexuals and Christians— sparking a hateful, viral battle of opinions. And I gotta be honest, all I see are t-shirts donning either "GAY" or "CHICK-FIL-A".

Gadzooks, it's Glee in real life!
                      [Allow me, for a moment, to explain myself.]

Homosexuality is a lifestyle sin.
It forces gays to wear their sin like t-shirts for the world to see.
And, hey, this is also often true for prostitutes, thieves, and murderers.
Theirs is a brokenness that shows on the outside.
Like a t-shirt. Get it?

Here's where it all falls down:

In my interactions with people whose sin is evident to me, I work very hard to show love and kindness and grace. I strive to withhold judgement and look past imperfections.

Every once and a while, despite my efforts to act impartially, I catch myself harboring arrogance that makes me feel sick to my stomach; I realize that even if I don't act like it, I'm positively filled with pride.

When I read through the records of Jesus's life, it becomes very apparent to me that the sin for which he had the greatest distaste was pridefulness. Jesus ate dinner with sinners. He spent time with them and showed them real love. It was the Pharisees— those who thought they knew everything and followed all the rules— whom Jesus would not tollerate.

Does it strike anybody else as cruelly unfair that, because of the different natures of our sins, I'm allowed to hide mine while others must parade theirs around on display, open to public ridicule? I let people see the 'good' things that I do and coast by on the assumption that no one can see my sin because it's internal. Who do I think I am?

—1 Samuel 16:7—

"For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

My t-shirt is pearly white.
Which is great, except that it's covering up my rotting flesh.
So who do I think I am? In hindsight, I think I'm a moron.

— — — — —— — — — — — —

I saw a post on twitter a while back that said,

I LOVE GAY PEOPLE. Or as I sometimes like to call them, "people"

And I don't know if that makes you laugh or shocks you, causes you to smile or to promptly close this window...... But I think that's beautiful.

Every person who has ever lived

—apart from one—

has lived with sin that had the power to destroy their soul.

And the One who lived without sin?

He became sin for us
—all of us—
that we might be free from it.

FREE.

"Because Jesus was strong for me, I was free to be weak;
Because Jesus won for me, I was free to lose;
Because Jesus was Someone, I was free to be no one;
Because Jesus was extraordinary, I was free to be ordinary;
Because Jesus succeeded for me, I was free to fail."
(-Tullian Tchividjian)

And I love this freedom.
I love not being condemned for my sin.
I love that I am free from failure because of what Christ did for me.

If I'm so in raptures at this freedom, shouldn't I extend the same freedom to absolutely everyone I encounter?
Uh, YES.
This starts with openness regarding my own sin, and real love in spite of theirs.

I'm not owning my flaws because they make me beautiful;

I'm owning my flaws because they show that He truly is.

†

caaaaamp.

Love.