Come As You Are

God made the world and everything in it. He made heaven and earth. He does not live in temples built by human hands, nor is he served by human hands. He is a God who needs nothing (but desires a relationship with us). He gives breath to our lungs, life to our body and everything else. From one man God made the nations, that they may inhabit the whole earth. He marked out our appointed time in history and the boundaries of our lands so we would seek him, reach for him, and find him, though he is never far away from us.

We live and move and have our very being in him (because of his grace). We are his offspring. (Offspring of the one and only Holy God). As offspring we should not think that he is like silver and gold or stone - an image made by human design and skill. God once overlooked our ignorance but now he commands ALL people to repent. God has set a day he that he will judge the world by the man he has appointed, (Jesus Christ). He declared this promise when he raised Jesus from dead.

Friends, there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. There are consequences to our sin but you need to know deep in your heart that there is no sin that is too bad, and no choice that can’t be redeemed. There are not levels of sin, although in our humanness we would like to qualify sin into categories or hierarchy. It is hard to fathom that some of the atrocities we see and experience in this broken world are no different in the eyes of God than the sin in our own lives.

Yet there is a God who is waiting in great anticipation to welcome you

with open arms just as you are.

This notion that we have to clean up our life before we approach the throne is a lie from the devil. It is a trick he uses to try to convince us that we are not worthy of God’s grace until we clean up our act. God says, “come as you are and let me cleanse you by the blood of the Lamb. My son, the Lamb, who I sacrificed on the cross for your mess so you may have life eternal.”

Come as you are friend.

There is no broken or mistake that God can not redeem.

He brings beauty from ashes when we repent. Even the ashes you and I create when we rebel and fall short.

Much love,

Chrissy

Reference NIV Bible: Acts 17:24-31

Photo Credit: Mikail Duran, Unsplash

Spiritual Blindness

I am sure all of us can identify others around us that are full of pride.  Some call it hard headedness, or bull headed.  Others see it as independent.  We are generally quick to see it in others, but do we take the time to really examine it in our own life?  

Pride is a form of spiritual blindness brought about by our sinful nature.  If sin is deceitful (which the Bible says it is), if it blinds us to the truth (as the Bible says it does), then we will have areas in our life that are shadowed by spiritual blindness.  Spiritual blindness can skew our perception of ourselves.  Sin leading to spiritual blindness convinces us that we are more righteous than the person next to us.  Yet the Bible says sin is sin.  There are not degrees of sin.  We ALL fall short of the glory of God and his righteousness.  

Do you remember the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen? The emperor loved fine clothes.  His obsession with his clothes and looks took precedence over the needs of the people.  He was self absorbed, full of pride and lavished the affections of his heart on his appearance.  He proudly displayed his beautiful clothes to the people and expected affirmation and attention in return.  This obsession quickly turned to sin.

I am not saying that loving his clothes and appreciating how he looked was a sin.  I love clothes and shoes and all things beautiful, but when those things become the master of your heart, not only is a tapestry woven to create beautiful clothes, but a tapestry is woven in our hearts creating sin that brings death.

The emperor’s pride made him gullible to deception by others.  The two weavers saw an opportunity to prey on the emperor and exploit his pride.  They convinced the emperor and the people that fools would not be able to see the fine clothes that they made.  When the emperor and his people could not see the clothes they had a choice to make, tell the truth or choose to lie and be deceitful to save themselves from looking like a fool.  Like many of us when faced with the fear of looking foolish, they chose the later.

Do you see the snowball effect of Spiritual Blindness?

We all sin, therefore, we all have some sort of spiritual blindness in our life.  If we refuse to humble ourselves before God and ask him to reveal that blindness, the seed of sin becomes woven into a deeply distorted and delusional view of ourselves.  

The emperor was so spiritually blind to his pride and arrogance the weavers had him believing the delusion that he was clothed in the most majestic clothing ever seen and that he would be able to determine who among his people were fools if they could not see the splendid attire he was wearing.  The weavers pretended to dress the emperor and when he turned to look in the mirror all he saw was his nakedness. Pride prevented him from admitting he could not see the clothes the weavers had prepared for him to wear to the grand parade. He convinced himself he was mistaken then paraded through town naked and exposed.  He was humiliated when the town began to shout he was naked and in that moment his spiritual blindness was stripped away.  He was disgraced in front of all those he ruled.

“When pride comes then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”  

Proverbs 11:2

It is hard to humble ourselves before God and ask the Holy Spriit to reveal the areas of spiritual blindness in our life.  Once we fall on our face in repentance, we can no longer fool ourselves into thinking we are clothed in fine tapestry. We can not hide behind our self delusion. The areas the Holy Spirit reveals have to be faced head on with a posture of repentance. Sometime it leads to giving forgiveness and other times it leads to asking for forgiveness. I don’t want to fool you into thinking that healing from spiritual blindness is done and over with after we repent and ask God to reveal our blindspots and forgive us. It is a journey of self discovery and intentional awareness that leads us closer to the image of God and the cross. The process can be painful. I know this personally as I am walking through my own journey of healing and and self discovery.

Paul David Tripp, the author of New Morning Mercies says it best “Sin causes me to be all too convinced of my righteousness and too focused on your sin. Spiritual clear-sightedness always leads to personal grief and confession, not condemnation of your neighbor.” 

The book of Revelation gives us clear instruction about how to deal with the self-righteousness of sin.  It also give us the consequences of ignoring the spiritual blindness in our lives. .

“I know your works.  You are neither cold nor hot…because you are luke-warm, I will spit you out of my mouth.  For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.”  (Areas in your life that are causing spiritual blindness).  “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Rev. 3:14-19)

Friends, God loves us too much leave us stuck in spiritual blindness.

I don’t want you to miss the beauty and grace that pours forth from this passage…God has given you the choice to buy from him gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, white garments so you may be clothed and salve to anoint your eyes with sight that brings you closer to the cross and refines you more into the likeness of our savior.

He desires to heal those blindspots in our life and bring about sight that reveals truth and freedom.  I know healing can be so very painful.  I am struggling in my own healing journey right along side you.  I know sometimes it is just easier to pretend we are not naked but clothed in fine robes of silk and gold.  I also know the joy and freedom found when we humble ourselves before the Lord.  When we ask the Holy Spirit to anoint our eyes so that we may see.  When we wrestle in the messiness of self discovery and hurts from our present and our past.

God already knows the areas of spiritual blindness in your life.  Don’t let your pride keep you from the peace and grace found in the redemption of surrender at the foot of the cross.

Will you join me as I fall to my knees and ask God to reveal and heal those places in my life and yours that are cloaked in spiritual blindness?  

Much Love,

Chrissy