During an extended period of grieving, I allowed work, and other distractions, to keep me away from this blog. More than two years later, with grief reduced to only an occasional heart-searing pain of regret and remorse, work came to an end as well, although distractions never end.
Still, I still found myself unable (or unwilling?) to take up my blogging "pen" until this week when I received an anonymous comment on an older post about Babylon. As I reread the Babylon post, some words I had written about man's imagination being evil caught my attention.
Clearly, all that man can imagine is not evil.
After all, imagination (our "mind's eye" as it is sometimes called) allows us to "see" ourselves in the place of Peter as he wept bitterly upon realizing that he had three times denied any association with Jesus whom he had claimed to love. ["...Lord you know all things, you know that I love you..." John 21:17; "And Peter wept bitterly" Luke 22:62]
This same imagination begs an answer from us individually to the question: Am I capable of denying Jesus as Peter did?
The answer is always: yes. We humans whom God came to save are absolutely capable of denying Jesus, of denying God, for they are One and the same. ["...he who has seen me has seen the Father..." John 14:9; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God." John 1:1]
We are completely capable of turning away from the Hand that has reached out, not to harm us, but to save us. ["For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11]
This same imagination can put us in the place of the prodigal son as he returned home laden with the weight of his former rebellion against his Father, only to find the Father rejoicing in his son's return, rather than finding himself being accused and punished as he knew he deserved. ["For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry." Luke 15:24]
We have not actually laid our eyes upon Jesus in any physical sense, but by virtue of our imagination, we do "see" Him as we read the Word of God, we imagine all that Jesus said and did actually happened just as the Word of God said it did, and eventually, by the will of God, we come to believe it to be true. What we call faith is a gift that comes from God, but is created by God within us with the aid of our imagination, as God so designed. In this case, imagination is used, as our Creator God intended, for good.
But...
If something, a distraction, for example, causes us to turn away from the Word of God for any significant period of time, we are also capable of using imagination in ways that are evil, as our memory of God's Truth falters within us, our faith slides downward, and our imagination rises up and begins to doubt God's Word, to believe that which is not in alignment with God's Word, and to create ways of asserting itself against God Himself.
Sin is listening to our own imagination, when it tells us something that is contrary to God's Word, and believing it.
And sin is always subtle, not wanting to reveal itself to us, for the goal of sin is to defeat us, imprison us, destroy us...and to do so eternally, not just in the here and now.
Ironically, our only weapon against this enemy of ours is the Word of God, the very thing from which we allow ourselves to be distanced because of work, for example, and other distractions, such as:
...dysfunctional family members and their dramas,
...financial worries;
...unbelieving co-workers or friends,
...unbelieving spouses,
...our own wicked hearts.
Without the last item being true, none of the former items could affect our faith. After all, we allowed these distractions to pull us away from the Word of God. The fault lies in us alone. Always has, always will, for we are drawn away because of our own lusts, as God's Word rightly declares:
"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished brings forth death." James 1:14-15
Lusts might include:
...our need to be needed by dysfunctional family members, spending time on their problems rather than with God;
...being moved by a fear of not having enough money versus trusting that the Lord will meet one's every need;
...escaping unpleasant realities by jumping into the distraction of worldly things (becoming "of" the world, rather than being "in" it just long enough to testify of God's love to mankind) rather than escaping to the loving arms of the Lord Himself, our shelter, our help in time of need, our Savior;
...driven by loneliness to the wrong place and the wrong person, believing the world's version of "love" rather than God's declaration of its true meaning, and, for the sake of the "better" version of love that the world offers, overriding, with various rationalizations, all that the Word says about what love between a man and a woman should look like, and about not being united with an unbeliever (then blaming God when the relationship ends, tragically for all concerned).
If we allow ourselves to be pulled away from the Word of God, even pulled away by intellectualizing the Word versus letting the Word cut through to the marrow of our very being in order to remove the evil in our hearts, then our imaginations are free to "create" thoughts in opposition to God's TRUTH; thoughts that MUST be taken captive by the Word of God or will take us captive instead. ["...take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5]. Thus, our imaginations can be used for evil, leading us to our own destruction.
I am thankful to "anonymous" for drawing my attention back to an old post, drawing me back to this blog, and through a decidedly pre-ordained circumstance, helping me once more to "see" sin...
...in me.
Still, I still found myself unable (or unwilling?) to take up my blogging "pen" until this week when I received an anonymous comment on an older post about Babylon. As I reread the Babylon post, some words I had written about man's imagination being evil caught my attention.
Clearly, all that man can imagine is not evil.
After all, imagination (our "mind's eye" as it is sometimes called) allows us to "see" ourselves in the place of Peter as he wept bitterly upon realizing that he had three times denied any association with Jesus whom he had claimed to love. ["...Lord you know all things, you know that I love you..." John 21:17; "And Peter wept bitterly" Luke 22:62]
This same imagination begs an answer from us individually to the question: Am I capable of denying Jesus as Peter did?
The answer is always: yes. We humans whom God came to save are absolutely capable of denying Jesus, of denying God, for they are One and the same. ["...he who has seen me has seen the Father..." John 14:9; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God." John 1:1]
We are completely capable of turning away from the Hand that has reached out, not to harm us, but to save us. ["For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11]
This same imagination can put us in the place of the prodigal son as he returned home laden with the weight of his former rebellion against his Father, only to find the Father rejoicing in his son's return, rather than finding himself being accused and punished as he knew he deserved. ["For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry." Luke 15:24]
We have not actually laid our eyes upon Jesus in any physical sense, but by virtue of our imagination, we do "see" Him as we read the Word of God, we imagine all that Jesus said and did actually happened just as the Word of God said it did, and eventually, by the will of God, we come to believe it to be true. What we call faith is a gift that comes from God, but is created by God within us with the aid of our imagination, as God so designed. In this case, imagination is used, as our Creator God intended, for good.
But...
If something, a distraction, for example, causes us to turn away from the Word of God for any significant period of time, we are also capable of using imagination in ways that are evil, as our memory of God's Truth falters within us, our faith slides downward, and our imagination rises up and begins to doubt God's Word, to believe that which is not in alignment with God's Word, and to create ways of asserting itself against God Himself.
Sin is listening to our own imagination, when it tells us something that is contrary to God's Word, and believing it.
And sin is always subtle, not wanting to reveal itself to us, for the goal of sin is to defeat us, imprison us, destroy us...and to do so eternally, not just in the here and now.
Ironically, our only weapon against this enemy of ours is the Word of God, the very thing from which we allow ourselves to be distanced because of work, for example, and other distractions, such as:
...dysfunctional family members and their dramas,
...financial worries;
...unbelieving co-workers or friends,
...unbelieving spouses,
...our own wicked hearts.
Without the last item being true, none of the former items could affect our faith. After all, we allowed these distractions to pull us away from the Word of God. The fault lies in us alone. Always has, always will, for we are drawn away because of our own lusts, as God's Word rightly declares:
"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished brings forth death." James 1:14-15
Lusts might include:
...our need to be needed by dysfunctional family members, spending time on their problems rather than with God;
...being moved by a fear of not having enough money versus trusting that the Lord will meet one's every need;
...escaping unpleasant realities by jumping into the distraction of worldly things (becoming "of" the world, rather than being "in" it just long enough to testify of God's love to mankind) rather than escaping to the loving arms of the Lord Himself, our shelter, our help in time of need, our Savior;
...driven by loneliness to the wrong place and the wrong person, believing the world's version of "love" rather than God's declaration of its true meaning, and, for the sake of the "better" version of love that the world offers, overriding, with various rationalizations, all that the Word says about what love between a man and a woman should look like, and about not being united with an unbeliever (then blaming God when the relationship ends, tragically for all concerned).
If we allow ourselves to be pulled away from the Word of God, even pulled away by intellectualizing the Word versus letting the Word cut through to the marrow of our very being in order to remove the evil in our hearts, then our imaginations are free to "create" thoughts in opposition to God's TRUTH; thoughts that MUST be taken captive by the Word of God or will take us captive instead. ["...take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5]. Thus, our imaginations can be used for evil, leading us to our own destruction.
I am thankful to "anonymous" for drawing my attention back to an old post, drawing me back to this blog, and through a decidedly pre-ordained circumstance, helping me once more to "see" sin...
...in me.
3 comments:
To my fellow believer....
So glad to see you are back and blogging. Have had your blog as my homepage all this time, hoping for it to be restarted. Sorry for my delay in replying to your post.
You have always been in my thoughts and prays. I somehow knew of your struggles, not specifically, but knew they were there just the same. I have learned so much from you and hope to encourage you, your faith and let you know that others are praying for you.
I can totally relate to your comments on dysfunctional family members. How many times they drain you both physically and mentally. Unfortunately, that is of no concern to the family member with all the problems. Recently, had to inform a family member that I dearly love that person, as a parent would love their offspring, but in order to salvage the relationship, I have been forced to place boundaries on it. This person was told that a relationship with myself, and other family members was no longer a necessity, but a privilege. As I read the words I type, my parental side says, "how cruel and heartless you are." But, in order to protect my mental sanity, my heart says, "it is the only option I have left."
I know how we are not to fear or be anxious about anything as is said in Philippians 4: 6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” But the human side of me is concern for this individual. All I can do now is to pray and place my hope in the Word of God, and that He would place a person into this family member's life...one that would reach him through God's word. Unfortunately, all that we have done as a family has not accomplished that.
The reception received by me from this individual was typical, cruel and heartless. All I know is to now leave this relationship in God's hands, pray for the individual daily, and hope in God a path to God will be revealed to this person.
Having said all of that, I agree very much so how the "world" and distractions of worldly things can cause sin in our lives and block our relationship with God.
When you said, "Sin is listening to our own imagination, when it tells us something that is contrary to God's Word, and believing it," it reminded me of a quote from the movie, "God's Not Dead." For those who haven't seen it, there is a young, very affluent man, whose career is moving upward. He has little time for God or those who believe in Him. His mother is in a nursing home and has some form of Dementia, and in this scene he is visiting with her. In some moment of clarity, she speaks, " Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he doesn't want them turning to God. Their sin is like a jail cell, except it is all nice and comfy and there doesn't seem to be any reason to leave. The door's wide open. Till one day, time runs out, and the cell door slams shut, and suddenly it's too late." When I heard that, I thought - - how true. The Devil does make things comfy and appealing. Worldly things occupy so much of our time, that before we know it, we have neglected God and His Word.
Everyone sins, regardless of the fallout and consequences. I mentioned something similar to this to my prodigal child, "God allows us all to make choices. However, the consequences of our choices, we are not permitted to chose."
I will close on a lifting note. I came across or heard of a song and the lyrics spoke to me. I hope it gives you hope and helps to strengthen your faith. Much love, G.W.
Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun
By: Thomas Ken
Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Your daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise
To pay your morning sacrifice.
All praise to you, who safe have kept
And have refreshed me while I slept,
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
I may of endless light partake.
Lord, I my vows to you renew.
Disperse my sins as morning dew;
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with yourself my spirit fill.
Praise God the Father who's the source;
Praise God the Son who is the course;
Praise God the Spirit who's the flow;
Praise God, our portion here below!
Direct, control, suggest this day
All I design or do or say
That all my powers with all their might
In your sole glory may unite.
Praise god, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, O heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Hi GW:
I can't believe you kept this as your home screen all these years! That is faith that perseveres...more than I had I am afraid. But I am so glad you did and that you took time out to write such valuable comments as well. I understand what you are describing, and I agree with you that "tough love" is tough...although I have found it, recently, to be tougher on the one so willing to give anything in order to "save" someone who desperately needs saving, usually from themselves, than it is on the one who is the recipient of such tough love. I am currently reviewing a couple of different Christian books about "burden-bearers" and if I find anything useful I will pass it on to you, for I recognize in you a fellow burden-bearer, compassionately carrying burdens. And you have done that which is important for burden-bearers to do: released the burden to the Lord in the proper season...it is His now. And you are free to pick up another, different burden, for we are commanded to "share one another's burdens", the key thing being to share the burden, and in the proper season, to fully release it to the Lord. A former pastor of mine once told me that I could give all my time and energy to one person whose heart had not yet been prepared by the Lord and therefore it was impossible to see fruit for it was not the Lord's timing but my own, or I could release that heart back to the Lord and help carry the burden of someone whose heart the Lord HAD already prepared. The choice was easy...years of carrying one unfruitful burden, or the ability to bear many fruitful burdens over the same period of time. Jesus commanded us to do that as well, to know when to brush the dust off of our feet and turn away from those who will not hear in order to find those who were eager to hear and thus grow the kingdom. But there is nothing more difficult than when the one you must turn away from is a loved one, especially a child. I thank the Lord for the courage He gave you to do what needed to be done for your child's sake. We are not abandoning them as they like to accuse us of doing, we are placing them in excellent hands and it is not possible for the Lord to betray our trust in HIM! "Watch and see what the Lord will do!" With your tenacity of faith, I know you will see it happen! I love the lyrics you provided, I play that song on my piano here at home, but the words are not included in my book. I only ever recalled the chorus, but not the many body of the song. Thank you for that! And above all, thank you for the prayers.
I just began a new website as well called The Sitting Gardener (doesn't sound Christian perhaps, but it is), but it is under a bit of construction still and am not sure you can reach it publicly yet. I will link it to Mindful of the Lord when it is completed. I would love for you to check it out when you can and add your always valuable insights as your time allows. So happy to connect with you once more. Love to you and M.
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