November 8, 2009

• Letter 24 on assurance and fighting for joy (the Father's discipline)

  Continuing on with my series of letters on assurance and fighting for joy...

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  My dear friend in Christ,

  I've tried to write you a few times from this point in my journey to joy, but it's been difficult here...

  I've noticed as I've continued on this journey to joy, this journey to knowing God, the sky has become a little lighter because I am coming closer to God. Yes, we know His Holy Spirit is always with us and in us, but yet it's lighter now. You know I wrote of how wonderful He has become to me. It's not only lighter here but it's warmer because the Spirit's fire is also closer...

  I don't think I have to tell you where I'm going with this...

  Where it's lighter, our sin is exposed.

  John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
  21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.

  
  Where it's warmer, our dross is burned away.
  

  Isaiah 48:9 “For my name's sake I defer my anger,
  for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
  that I may not cut you off.
  10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
  I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
  11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
  for how should my name be profaned?
  My glory I will not give to another.

  The light and fire of God are meant for our good. It's part of our heavenly Father's discipline. Our Father wants to have continuing fellowship with us, but when we sin we break that fellowship. Remember we are still His when we sin, we are still His children, but our fellowship is broken. When our fellowship is broken, when we continue to embrace our sin, we cannot experience the fullness of joy He longs to give us. We can never claim to have fellowship with our Father or with one another if have unconfessed sin. Our Father is holy. Amos 3:3, KJV: Can two walk together, except they be agreed? How can we say we our God's children if we don't agree with Him about our sin? We can't. The Christian cannot continue in sin and be joyful. Sin makes us miserable. That's God's Holy Spirit drawing us back to Him. Remember: Holy Spirit: God is holy. His will for us is sanctification. The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth and part of that is to show us our sin and lead us to confession and repentance. He then works in us to put off sin, to mortify sin and to put on Christ and to live holy lives that are glorifying and pleasing to God. Without the Spirit, we'd remain in our sin. Without the Spirit coming to us in the first place, we could never have come to Christ. We were not seeking Him. Our minds were hostile to Him. We were dead and powerless in our sin. We would have remained in our sin, except for His lovingkindness to us. He drew us to Himself.

  O, my friend, is it not wonderful that our Father intends for us to have fellowship with Him and with one another so our joy might be full! Think of it. But then think of how long we wallow in that pig sty in our sin...How we are missing out on the joyous feast in our Father's house! Is that absurd? Yet how often are we blinded to our sin? His Holy Spirit must bring us into the light so we might see it. How can we confess our sin if we don't see it? Thanks be to God, His Son Jesus Christ is our Advocate, He is the propitiation for our sins. We not need fear confessing our sin. Our Father is ready to welcome us back with open arms and with fullness of joy. In fact, He's running to us...Please go and read I John 1:1-2:2. Actually read the whole book...there are reminders of who we are in Christ and how we should be living. We too easily forget...

  We don't have to fear when the Holy Spirit shows us our sin, it is for our own good. It is God's kindness to us that leads us to repentance. His intent is to draw us back to Him and welcome us home. He wants us to come to our senses. And we know His aim is to conform us into the image of Jesus Christ, His Son. So long as we have sin in our lives, are we looking like the spotless Lamb Jesus? Of course not.

  Though we are new creations in Christ, we constantly need that wrecking ball to come in so we might clean house, so to speak. The light shows us the little (or more than little) leaven that we've squirreled away in the house. He requires it all to be swept away. We who name the name of Christ are to depart from iniquity. We can't allow idols to remain in our midst like Achan. We are now married to Christ, we are called to put off all those gods with whom we are tempted to play the harlot. We are to make room for Christ, not for our sin.

  We need to be constantly reminded that we are a new creations, that we we are not our own but we are the Lord's. We are not to live to ourselves but to Him who died for us (II Corinthians 5). Or, as Peter said in I Peter 4, we are to live no longer for the lusts of men but for the will of God. We weren't purchased with the precious blood of Christ to bring shame to His Name but rather to bring glory to Him. The sinning Christian brings no glory to God. We are called to bear fruit worthy of repentance. We're to work out our salvation with fear and trembling so we might shine as lights in the world.

  12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
  
  14 Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain...Philippians 2:12-16.

  Peter tells us we are free in Christ, but we are to use our liberty not as cloaks for vice but to live as servants of God. The world sees plenty of hypocrites. They're looking for the genuine article. They're looking for changed lives, lives that mirror our words. Lives that testify to the power of God. Lives that look like our Savior.

  God's light has shown me how much I still lust. Even after having known our Lord for so long. This grieves me. O, for sufficient grace to never weary in mortifying sin so I might live to Christ. I am still striving to understand Paul's words in Galatians 2:20: no longer I live but Christ in me. I need Christ to live in me. I know He does, but so often I do not yield to Him. I am once again trusting my sanctification to Him. Once again I've been shown sanctification is a messy process.

  So I'm here in the basket of sovereign grace. Though I have truly been safe here, I've not felt safe. Like Aslan, the Lord is good but not safe. That kind of not safe...So that's a good kind of not safe. No sin can be left unexposed or hidden in the Lord's sight. As we come into the light, He exposes us. Like Aslan's roar, the wind of the Spirit can blow that chaff pretty hard. Yet the exposing, the purifying and sifting goes on under the sovereign eye of our Master and all out of love for us as His children. So this basket is being tossed pretty hard on the waves, it's gotten hotter and brighter here...It's not been comfortable but it's totally necessary. Our Lord will not allow us to be destroyed but only to be purified in that furnace. That's what that verse from Isaiah means about the not as silver...in other words, He's not going to burn us completely up but only what is impure in us. Think Peter. This sifting, this purifying is all with an intent to restoration. Not to shame us but to embrace us. Not to condemn us but to welcome us. There is no more shame or condemnation for those of us who are in Christ. We have been accepted in the Beloved, so we need not fear our Father's discipline. His intent is to conform and transform us into His image.

  This reminds us how we are to deal with one another in the Body of Christ, e.g.- see Paul's letters to the Corinthians. That person they'd disciplined had repented but then the other believers were not welcoming them back into fellowship and affirming their love to him (see II Cor. 2). See also Galatians 6:1: Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. James 5:19: My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

  I have no great experience to report to you right now. The discipline is not pleasant right but I am already seeing the sprouts of a plentiful harvest of righteousness and peace beginning to grow in my heart. The work God has begun He will complete...

  There is one thing I can rejoice in: I know my Father loves me. If I were not His, I would not be receiving His discipline. He only disciplines those He loves. The book of Hebrews encourages us at these times we are being disciplined...

  Hebrews 12:5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

  My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
  nor be weary when reproved by him.

  6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
  and chastises every son whom he receives.

  7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

  8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

  Being loved by my heavenly Father means I will receive His discipline. No, I'm not rejoicing in the discipline but I am rejoicing in His love for me. I know I need His discipline. I want to be like Christ. If it were not for His discipline, how could I? I know I want to know Him more. How can I know Him more if I continue to hold onto my sin? As we continue this journey to joy, to knowing Him, He will have us continue to cast off all that is not of Him.

  Can idolatry coexist with joy, with God?
  Can selfish ambition coexist with joy, with God?
  Can hatred coexist with joy, with God?
  Can pride coexist with joy, with God?
  Can anger coexist with joy, with God?
  Can rage coexist with joy, with God?
  Can jealousy coexist with joy, with God?
  Can selfishness coexist with joy, with God?
  Can filthy language coexist with joy, with God?
  Can covetousness coexist with joy, with God?
  Can unforgiveness coexist with joy, with God?
  Can bitterness coexist with joy, with God?

  I could go on and on, but you get the idea...Read through the sermon on the mount or Colossians 3. This journey to joy will not leave us unchanged. His light and fire and wind will come. But look where He is leading us:

  3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
  5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
  
  8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:3-9.

  (Don't you love that Peter wrote that...He knew all about God's discipline, did He not?)

  God is working our trials, our discipline, working all things for our joy...

  Let's continue to trust His good hand upon us during these times. It is easy to become discouraged. Yet we know that He disciplines us because He loves us. May He give us grace to rest in that basket of sovereign grace during those times He is disciplining us. God's will for us is holiness and in holiness we will find happiness and joy for that is His will for us.

  Squinting, sweating and wind blown, yet still a child saved by grace and kept by grace alone, being refined for His glory,

  Karen

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  Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Related:
  

  • "You shall be holy to Me..." Bible reading: Leviticus
  • My other letters on assurance and fighting for joy
  • My posts on dealing with past sins & guilt (I encourage you to read these if you're a Christian who is plagued with guilt and/or are fearful about confessing your sin to God)
  • The Often Unwanted but Necessary Gift: The Gift of the Broken Heart
    
  • Naphtali News/Bible Reading: Isaiah-Looking at My Vineyard
  • Questions to Examine Ourselves from Martyn Lloyd-Jones
  • John Wesley's Holy Club Examination Questions

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