Running the Race

I hereby dedicate this post to an All-American runner who placed 21st at the NAIA National Cross-Country competition in Vancouver over the weekend. Hip hip hooray for Maggie!

This, of course, came at a price: running long distances daily for years in all kinds of weather (mostly 90's and humid, since she lives in southeastern Tennessee), enduring a myriad of injuries and illnesses, learning good form, buying expensive gear, eating healthy (and expensive) food and lots of it, attending all the training sessions and races (no matter how she was feeling), running even on Christmas vacation in Wisconsin when it was frigid and icy. This is the price of winning.

Now hear what the apostle Paul says: For while bodily training is some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. . . . For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. . . . Practice these things, devote yourself to them. (1 Timothy 4:8, 10, 15a) I encourage you to read all of 1 Timothy 4:6-16 to see what exactly we are to put into practice.

I am certainly good, and I suspect you are too, at putting sin into practice. I actually have no problem doing that. What can I learn from my sin habits that will help me in my holiness practice? Repetition. Giving up other things. Doing it over and over and over (I have this part down).

So first, I give up the sin. As Kelly Minter says in The Fitting Room, I ought to "relinquish the old, starve the flesh, cease from certain practices." Then, by the power of the Holy Spirit and keeping my eye on the cross, I put on the new practices. And I do them over and over and over. I let the fruit of the Spirit grow in me, I spend time meditating on the Scriptures, I memorize, I pray, and I ask faithful friends to keep me on track.

And speaking of track, Maggie didn't get to Nationals by sitting around eating donuts, although a certain frozen yogurt shop saw quite a bit of her. She did what she didn't always want to do, she fought against her nature, she obeyed her coach, she tried to beat her teammates and a certain now-graduated runner from Shorter College.

Paul again: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13) Our salvation is sure; we must work to live as those who are saved, but not without leaning heavily into God who does His glorious work in us.

Congratulations, Maggie!!

Stunning Apparel

Several months ago, news outlets covered the account of the forgiveness a mother gave to the man who had killed her only son. This forgiveness actually led to a friendship between the two individuals. Why was this reported on the news? I suspect because this type of forgiveness is stunning, standing out from the normal response of a mother who has lost a child in this way.

In Colossians 3:13, we are told to bear with one another and to forgive as the Lord has forgiven us. The forgiveness of someone who has deeply wronged us is not something that can be conjured up in our own strength. As we acknowledge our own sins and sinfulness, we see ourselves as Isaiah did when he saw a vision of our holy God and said "Woe is me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips." (Isaiah 6:5) Once we realize our own need for forgiveness, we don't have to fear that we are giving in or losing control when we forgive those who have wronged us. We can place the wrongs against us in the hands of our God, who has forgiven us in Christ and who is fully capable of handling any situation in His sovereign wisdom.

The Lord truly does see and hear our troubles and grief, and He is at work in each painful situation, just as He was in the life of Joseph. Joseph was able to say to his brothers, who had tried to destroy his life, "What you meant for evil, God meant for good." Joseph had put on the virtue of forgiveness, allowing the mercy of God to flow through him, and this "outfit" was in stunning contrast to the reaction that his brothers fearfully expected from him.

You can entrust your entire life to your faithful Creator, and put on the virtue of forgiveness. Instead of placing the wrongs against you back in the hands of those who have hurt you, you can place them in the hands of our all-seeing, all-knowing, and faithful God. You may not end up being close to the person who has hurt you, but you can know the sweetness of release from bitterness toward the person.

Carving, just in time for Thanksgiving

Michelangelo is famous for saying about his stunning ability to carve, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

When we desire to "put on" the virtues laid out for us in Colossians 3, we must begin with "carving" out the things in our lives that are not virtues. Verses 5 through 9 remind us, in case we have forgotten: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. . . . anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, [lying]. Ouch! Ready to start carving?

Not until you remember one more thing. Back up to Colossians 2:11: In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. Do you remember that when Abraham and his family were circumcised, it signified his belonging to God? He and all his household belonged to the Creator God, who had great things planned for them. And by the circumcision of Christ, the shedding of His blood not yours, you too belong to this Creator God. And your heart has been circumcised by Him, so that your belonging has made you different. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you (Ezekiel 36:26).

You have the power to put to death those things that choke out the virtues that show you belong to God. So carve away with the help of God's Spirit that lives within you. "Set your minds on things above" (Col. 3:2), on Him, who alone enables you to do it.

Swans and cygnets

Oh wow. What an amazing picture. How well those little children follow their mommy. Or daddy. Not sure which.

What a great picture of what following Christ might look like, if we actually did it. As we look at Colossians 3:12-17, we see a snapshot of that very thing. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. . . . And above all these put on love. Can we do this? On our own, no.

That is why Paul reminds us just before he lists the virtues that we are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. It is in our identity as belonging to God Himself that we are righteous and holy. It is the holiness that Christ bought for us at the cross.

Remember the clothing lessons? Remember the fig leaves. Remember that trying to cover our own shame didn't work out so well. It is in "putting on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24) that we can obey at all. Alone, we just don't have it in us.

I invite you, no challenge you, to spend some time in Colossians 1 and 2, seeing God's amazing declarations about who you are in Him, and what He has done to accomplish your wardrobe in righteousness. Marvel at His goodness and kindness and mercy. And then live like what you are.

As you can see, I love posting random pictures that have nothing to do with anything. This one is called "Great Sand Dunes", but it looks more like "Mountain on a Large Ranch" to me. Tim? Help me out here.

So, in the midst of talking about how God clothes us from Genesis to Revelation (I'm not kidding: it begins in Genesis 3:21 and ends with Revelation 19:7-8!), we see God in 2 Corinthians unclothing us just a tiny bit.

Chapter 3, verses 15 and 16 say this: Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Do you remember the veil in the temple being torn in two when Christ died? We know that showed that God was not separating Himself from us any longer, that the sin that had kept us from God had been dealt with, that God's wrath against us had been fully poured out on Christ.

Just so with the veil over our hearts. When we turn to Christ for salvation, He removes the veil and shows Himself more clearly to us. We get to understand Scripture in a way we never were able before. The Holy Spirit illumines our reading and our meditating. Surely you have found that to be true.

But here's the best part: And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (verse 18). The more, then, that we look at Christ in His Word, illumined by the Spirit, the more like Him we become! If that isn't motivation to stay in the Word regularly, nothing will be. From one degree of glory to another. Hallelujah.

The colors of His clothing

Hasn't it been a spectacular fall? The color has just gone on and on. Think with wonder of how God clothes the trees for us every year; it's a rather complicated scientific process, to be sure, but one that He orchestrated for our pleasure and His glory. And glorious it is!

And then think with wonder, even greater, of the garments with which He has clothed us: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me . . . to grant to those who mourn in Zion--to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:1, 3)

How can this be said of us? Because the Anointed One, Jesus Christ, has done it. God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13, 14)

If we think the fall colors are amazing, consider the beauty of those who have been freed from the wrath of God, freed from the penalty of sin. Consider also the One who freed us, that One who is called Faithful and True atop a white horse, with His robe dipped in blood. He is called The Word of God, and He came to rescue us. Consider the beauty of His robe, showing us the deed done, the wrath of God against us satisfied.

Now those, white and red, are colors worth exclaiming over.