It's been awhile....who reads this stuff anyway? Well here it is, the Long Beach Rescue Mission is a freaking amazing place with some dedicated staff members.
Just to start off our Lifegroup has been volunteering at the RM for about 4-5 months now, we've made some friends and along the way have seen the growth in some and the challenge in others. It's a daily battle no different from you and me. I had the privilege of sharing a few thoughts on "independence", real independence. Don't confuse independence with self worth or confidence. First......
Romans 7:14-25 Paul says.." We know that the law is spiritual:but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do good but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do, no, the evil I do not want to do...this I keep doing. Now if I do what I don't want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is the sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law: but I see another law at work in the members of my own body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
The Bible shares 3 lessons in Paul dealing with his sinful nature....
- Knowledge is not enough. We usually know enough, we just don't do it. For example, we all know not to drive drunk, but how many people still do it? We know the consequences of speeding but we do it anyway. We knew that the Lakers were going to win the championship and what happened? <----sorry bad example... Anyway, we know enough, we just chose not to do, whatever "it" is. Bible studies are great, and its great to know what eschatology and exegetical mean, but if we can't even reach out to our neighbors.........is it that we don't know enough?
- Self determination is not enough. I don't want to imply that our own determination is not good, because it is, but if that is the only thing we have in this is a daily battle, what happens when everything starts caving in around us, things go sideways and we begin to feel the weight. There are times when we're in those "valleys", when I don't care who you think you are, we just need help getting up. Those that avoid this help, are frantic and usually find either something to numb them out or their hearts are hardened just a little bit more. They don't want to feel their own need. Self determination, by itself, out the window.
- Becoming a Christian is not enough! The word "Christian" has such a negative connotation in this society and its not by accident. Just because some say they are Christians doesn't mean they've officially removed every trace of sin from there lives and every decision will be easy and life will get better because now God is on their side!....whatever! If I look back on my life, I think "Christians" kept me further from God than anything else. I'm sure even today I'm not the best example, but we are all poor imitations of the truth in Jesus Christ. It's not enough to say it, our lives must reflect His glory, not ours.
This is who we are, this is how we were created, we are wired to need not only each other but our creator. At times christian maturity comes through suffering and rarely through blessings. In your pain don't immediately pray for deliverance, but seek God first. Don't waste the pain, by numbing it away.Romans 5:2-8 Paul says..."And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only so but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
"Hope" is the expectation of the future that sustains us in the present. Sustains us in the present. Sustains us through trial. God is carrying us through. But still the world echoes another message. We're constantly under attack with a message of dissatisfaction. Things sell around us everyday with the promise of making us better than we are. The "self help" industry is a huge money making industry. We all buy in and getting nothing in return. But when life is great everything is fine. But for many of us, we're still in that valley....reaching for the big empty. Reaching for ourselves and finding there nothing left anymore. Where is our independence, then? Because we know in our hearts its more than knowing, more than wanting and more than just a "religion", its in the dependency of Jesus Christ. Listen to your life. Life is more than just the sum of its events.....its not about us.
Ecclesiastes 6:7 "All man's efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.
Ecclesiastes 2:10 " I denied myself nothing my eyes desired: I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun."
The Long Beach Rescue Mission is definetly a great place to stretch ourselves into new territory by not being in complete control and letting God do what he does best by using everyday normal people and empowering them to understand when they can't, He can.
