For though I caused you sorrow by my letter,
I do not regret it;
though I did regret it— for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while—
I now rejoice,
not that you were made sorrowful,
but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance;
for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God,
so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
For the sorrow that is according to the will of God
produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation,
but the sorrow of the world produces death.
For behold what earnestness this very thing,
this godly sorrow,
has produced in you:
what vindication of yourselves,
what indignation,
what fear,
what longing,
what zeal,
what avenging of wrong!
In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.
So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender
nor for the sake of the one offended,
but that your earnestness on our behalf
might be made known to you in the sight of God.
That is why He told the disciples, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised . . . ” Luke 2:49
The promise was the Holy Spirit.
Let’s track this Holy Spirit from the beginning: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis1:1-2
You can’t go any farther back than that, the first page of the Bible. But there’s lots more.
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18-20
The HolySpirit appeared visibly at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. Luke 3:22
It was prophesied that Jesus, Himself, would baptize people with the HolySpirit. Luke 3:16
The old man, Simeon, recognized Jesus, by the power of the HolySpirit, when Jesus was a week-old infant. Luke 2:25-26
Jesus taught that the heavenly Father would delight to give His HolySpirit to His followers, even more than our own fathers would give us food. Luke 11:13
Jesus said His followers should never worry about what to say in His defense, because the HolySpirit would give them the words to say. Luke 12:12
Jesus taught that one of the purposes of the HolySpirit is to keep teaching us, because of so many things we must learn that we cannot grasp all at once. John 14:26
Jesus said He could not send His HolySpirit unless He went away. John 16:5-7
Jesus said, “Father, into Thy hand I commend my spirit,” when He died. Luke 23:46
Jesus promised power to be good witnesses after receiving the HolySpirit. Acts 1:8
Having the HolySpirit is how we get godly love. Romans 5:5
Righteousness, peace, and joy come from the HolySpirit. Romans 14:17
Our bodies are to be a temple of the HolySpirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19
Purity and patience come from the HolySpirit. 2 Corinthians 6:6
The HolySpirit seals us. Ephesians 1:13
The Old Testament was written by inspiration of the HolySpirit. 2 Peter 1:21
Jesus did an amazing thing after He returned to the Father. He sent His own spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be IN the disciples and IN us!
Without Him, we have no power over sin, the flesh, or the devil. Without Him, we are doomed to fail. We need Him every hour of every day and our Father wants us to have the Holy Spirit.
“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the HolySpirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:13
“Christ died for our sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18
Jesus’ death is God’s way of saying, “Even though you have failed me many times, even though you’ve sinned, even though you’ve made mistakes, I still love you! I still want you!”
Sometimes we might think, “I have failed so many times, I don’t see how God could work in my life. I keep sinning the same ol’ sin and my sin seems so great, I feel like I’m disqualified even from the dishonor roll.”
You need to understand grace.
Grace is the power of God working in you, through you, with you, and for you. “Faithful is He who has called you, and He will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24 He did it for Abraham, Moses, David, the disciples—and He died to do it for you.
The wonderful truth is that God uses imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will.
He uses flawed people to accomplish His flawless will.
If you’re willing to let Jesus have His way in your life, God will use you to be a blessing to others, just like he used all the others on the dishonor roll.
You need to understand that God never tires of forgiving us.
Even if I have to ask God for forgiveness 5 times a day for the rest of my life, if I am sincere about it, He will forgive me.
How do I know that?
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
To fully grasp the meaning of this verse, we must realize the wisdom of God in placing His Son close to Greece, where the language has an extra verb tense we call “aorist”. The aorist tense means “keep on keeping on”.
So the above verse, in aorist tense, really says: If we keep on confessing our sins, He keeps on being faithful and just, and will keep on forgiving us our sins and keep on cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
I need that.
Notice, also, the word “all”.
God is willing to forgive ALL our sin.
Why?
He loves us. Even though we sin, God wants to use us if we repent.
Once we realize we have sinned, we need to confess and ask God to forgive our sins. We can’t just say, “God loves failures, so I’ll just keep sinning and let God clean up after me.”
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:1-4
We have to give our failures to God. We have to say “Lord, I sinned! I blew it! And I confess and repent from the bottom of my heart.”
“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13
Have you noticed the two words, “confess” and “repent”? They are both vitally important, and most folks think they are the same, but they are not, therefore an explanation is in order.
Repentance: This is turning around, turning your back on your sin, hating it enough to change or to want to change. It is the giant, “OH NO!” that accompanies our realizing the consequences of what we have done.
Confession: God does not forgive excuses; He forgives sin. If you tell Him all about how it was the other guy’s fault or how you couldn’t help it because of your headache, you are not confessing your sin.
Listen to the prayer of David after He committed his great sins:
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:1-17
How does God respond to people who have sinned? How does He respond to our failures?”
Mark gives us a clue, on the morning of the Resurrection:
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'” Mark 16:5-7
In other words, even though the disciples sinned, even though they had lost faith, even though they had abandoned Him, Jesus wanted to be with them!
Allegory of Hope: Oil on Canvas, Francesco Guardi, 1747
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
. . .
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It only takes a spark
To get a fire going
And soon all those around
Can warm up in its glowing
So goes a lovely old song from the 60’s, (called to our attention by Debby) when everyone thought of turning to Jesus Christ for help with the draft, drugs, disappointments, discouragement, disillusionment, and all other general “dissed” problems during the VietNam era.
A few were serious about the “Jesus Movement”. A few were appalled that so many who claimed Christ were not wearing shoes. Oh NO! How uncouth! Surely there is a place in the Bible that requires wearing shoes! Oh, you mean it speaks more of taking them off?! Oh NO!
Some were serious, though, seriously messed up, seriously failing, seriously in need of something beyond shoes, something beyond rules, something beyond platitudes, something beyond this life, something beyond their own understanding, something beyond their own strength or ability.
Not much has changed.
Many refuse to turn to Jesus Christ because they fear appearing weak.
They are weak. All people are weak.
But they want to be among those who project an image of strength, of not being needy. It’s a strained, do-by-self image that almost everyone can see through, but they keep it up for the few they’ve duped.
Although He is the most beautiful, priceless, glorious discovery anyone can discover, they refuse to lay self down, to lose face.
To their loss.
How ironic to fear loss and in the process to lose the most valuable thing, like a monkey with his hand in a monkey trap, unable to run from poachers because there is something that glitters in that empty coconut . . .
__________
Let me tell you about a one-spark fire. (And while we’re at it, you might like to read James 3:1-12)
My husband can build a one-spark fire. He’s an expert. He built one before we left for a four-day trip, so when we arrived back home, it took just one spark to get that fire going . . . and he hopes to build another tonight, and he probably will, to transfer our fire from the romantic fireplace to the more efficient stove.
This is how he does it:
Clear out lots of the ash so air can circulate under the grill work in the fireplace.
Loosely crumble newspaper over that.
Add “rich pine”, a sort of hyper-torch type wood found at the base of dead pine trees.
Add several pieces of small limbs.
Add some smaller, round logs.
Loosely crumble just a page or two of newspaper for over all that.
This combo, done as only he truly can do it (I know the process, but he owns it) will ignite with only one match. Guaranteed.
Now, think of yourself.
You are supposed to be a one-spark set of fuel for the spark of the Holy Spirit to ignite you and cause you to shine and warm others for God. What is missing from your stack? Has your past stolen parts of you? I know how that can be.
BUT — All “Do-By-Self’ers” BEWARE! — Spontaneous Generation was disproven, centuries ago.
There are only two types of people on earth, although the differences are not always apparent.
Some people are servants to good and some are slaves to evil.
Servants of the good things in life fight for what is right; while slaves to the bad things may appear to fight for the good, but it is for bad motives.
Servants of the good take tender care of their children; slaves of evil may appear to care, but only decorate, display, and discourage their children for selfish reasons, if they don’t attack them outright or neglect them.
Servants of goodness are gentle in their dealings with all people; slaves of the wrong may make a show of good mannerisms, but have harsh thoughts they reveal later. This often reveals as gossip.
It may seem as if the servants of the good are perfect and faultless, but really, although their flaws may not be visible, they know them well, and beat them down as much as they can, always striving for a better way, next time. Slaves of evil do not realize they are thoroughly bad, think they are doing folks a favor by their presence, maybe even consciously hide their badness, thinking it is not bad but just unwelcome.
In fact, one big difference between good and bad is where the battleground is in each life.
Some battle self, try actually to be good; others battle appearances, trying to look good.
And when we grow really, really old, whatever is on the inside begins leaking out. When the days come, when weakness no longer has strength to hide what is inside, in the nursing homes, all will be revealed.
We once knew a man so strong, he could lift a FULL 50-gallon hot water tank and carry it out of our house. What must it have weighed?
He also lifted one corner of our barn when we needed to put a new pole under the roof.
On each occasion, we had only asked him if we could borrow a dolly or a housejack.
He shrugged.
He did not have those tools. Wonder why not?
He had strenth. He was accustomed to lifting motors from cars and rebuilding them, so his muscles were trained for heavy work.
What kind of heavy character-work would it take to develop that type of strength in character?
How do we achieve strength in character? Where does it come from?
As does physical strength, strength of character develops from use. Each undertaking begins with small steps toward small goals. Our friend could not lift a barn when he was 18, but he worked at developing that strength because he wanted to lift heavy things.
In the same way, the heavy points of character become easier to carry out when we have worked hard to develop the strength.
Think about it. What are you good at? I know a man who excels at arriving late. Likely it began with hitting the snooze button when he was a teen. I know a lady who organizes huge catering events, regularly. Likely that began with learning to cook as a teen. Be it good or bad, your most prevalent strengths, abilities, or skills began with a single step.
And your future most-prevalent-strength can come from a single step you take today.
Your new strength could be in forging forward, no matter the pain. Or you could specialize in giving up at the first twinge.
Your new strength could be in creating. Or it could be in destroying.
There is one strength that I wish we all could develop: the ability to give and accept help. So many refuse to give; so many refuse to accept.
There is One Giver of a bottomless well of all-conquering help, Who ever lives to help us. I am learning to accept His help, His strength, more each day, and to extend it to others–baby steps that could lead to a real strength, someday.
Will you join me?
The weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 1 Corintians 1:25
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