PERSISTING IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

Porch praying the other day, I started thinking about listening and how I’m not very good at it.  You see, I like to talk.  You do too.  I know that because you’re who I talk to!  I always have something to say.  After moving me around the room several times for talking, my seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. Watson, told me I was like poison ivy, no matter where she moved me my talking just spread.  Hurtful, but true.

What happens when we talk?  I don’t know about you, but when I talk I can’t listen.  To be honest, rarely when I’m listening am I listening because I’m thinking about the next thing I’m going to talk about.  Sorry.  Talking is good, it’s how we communicate with each other.  But here’s the thing, the majority of the time, talking centers on me.  I have so much to say.  It’s all very good stuff.  I’m so important that people really need to hear what I have to say.  I can talk on top of you, over you, around you, and any which way to Sunday.  As I’m sure you know.   Even in my prayers I tell God I’m going to be silent so that I can hear His Voice.  The next thing I know I’m talking, again.

I struggle in a group of talkers.  Have you ever been in a talker group?   In talker groups the talking starts slowly, building to a dull roar and eventually becomes a shouting match so that  talkers can be heard over other talkers.  Everyone is talking at once, no one is listening, we’re working on formulating our responses – what we’re going to say next.  Interruptions.  Talkovers.  Frenzy.  Chaos.  Fun, right?

You see, my lips move at the speed of life.  Yep.  My life, like yours, is like Superman – faster than a speeding bullet.  I have so much to say because I have so much to do.  It takes words to orchestrate this life!    What’s in my head comes out my lips – most of which just should not.  They say “God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason.”  This implies that we should talk less than we hear.  I don’t know who the “they” is, but, as a talker, I disagree.  God gave us two ears because there are so many words that come out of the one mouth, it takes two ears to hear them all!  Right?  Wrong.  Look what I found:

For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.  (KJV)

Just as being busy gives you nightmares, being a fool makes you a blabbermouth.  (NLT)

Overwork makes for restless sleep.  Overtalk shows you up as a fool.  (MSG)

Ecclesiastes 5:3

Being too busy keeps us awake at night and talking way too much.  Oh my.

The Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes are full of the be quiets.  Why?  Why does the Bible tell us to be quiet, don’t talk?  Because, God speaks.  You know God speaks, right?  If we don’t shut up, we cannot hear Him.  Not listening to my Savior implies I know more than He does and that I don’t really need Him.  Do I think so highly of myself?  Ouch.

Don’t speak impulsively – don’t be in a hurry to give voice to your words before God.  For God is in heaven, and you are on earth; so let your words be few.  Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

There’s a time to just shut up and there’s a time to talk.  Knowing when to talk and when to hold our tongues is a sign of maturity.  How mature are we?  Another ouch.

The wise are glad to be instructed, but babbling fools fall flat on their faces.  Proverbs 10:8

In addition to not hearing God speak, as if that weren’t enough, another reason it’s important to stop talking?  People will not listen if we talk all the time.  If I yammer on all the time, they’ll soon tune me out.  I would.

Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions.  Proverbs 18:2

Great.  How does this silent thing work?  How do I shut up, zip my lip, just stop talking?  I must first quiet my heart before I can stop the flow from my lips.

Be silent, and know that I am God!  Psalms 46:10

Enough said.

In gratitude and thanks giving, I honor you, Veteran.  You, the one whose sacrifice brought about my freedom.  You for me.  Your sacrifice of time, family, money, health, desires, sometimes all.

Sacrifice.  Service.  Humility.  The surrender of something for the sake of something more important.  Justice.  Safety.  Freedom.  Life.  You for me.  I am in awe.

Please, don’t let that sacrifice be in vain.  Turn to Jesus.

In gratitude and thanks giving, I honor you, My Lord.  You, the one whose sacrifice brought about my eternal freedom.  You for me.  Your sacrifice of reputation, time, family, money, desires, self, all.

Sacrifice.  Atonement.  Offering.  The Lamb.  Death.  The surrender of something for the sake of something more important.  Forgiveness of Sins.  Life Eternal.  Righteousness.  Justice.  You for me.  I Stand in Awe of You, the Holy Lamb of God.

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  Matthew 20:28

Please don’t let that sacrifice be in vain.  Turn to Jesus.

We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins.  And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.  Romans 3:22

Thank you to those who sacrificed, to those who are sacrificing, to those who will sacrifice for all of our freedoms, most importantly, the freedom to Choose Jesus, to Worship God the Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Our Redeemer, Our Deliverer.  I Stand in Awe of You.

Thank you Jesus for  your sacrifice, for paying the ransom.  You for me.  I Stand in Awe of You.

Freedom is never free.  It is costly.  Don’t let it be in vain.

I’m trying to figure this sin thing out.  I’ve been thinking about it a lot.  Not the sins of the world, but my sins.  My very own sins.  You know me, I start at the beginning and work my way up to understanding – sometimes, hopefully.

We have to talk about sin, no matter how uncomfortable it is, whether we can admit it or not, we are all sinners.  Not just some of us, not just those over there, not just those who do X, but every last one of us.  You may be thinking you’re not so bad, you are a good person, you do most things right, you feed the hungry, give to the poor, don’t cheat on your taxes, don’t steal post-its from your employer — that’s nice, but you’re a sinner.  Just like me.

What is sin? Listing individual sins does not define what sin is.  Making a list of my own sins, which we have neither enough paper nor time to do so, still does not define sin.   That simply defines the acts of my sin and the consequences of my sin, but not what sin is.  Sin is my separation from God due to my lack of obedience to him.  That’s it.

There’s not a measuring stick for sin.  One is not bigger than another.  One does not outweigh another.  One sin is not worse than another.  Sure, the consequences of different sins are different.  They may or may not be physical consequences of sin – incarceration, pain, injury, even death, etc.  There may be emotional consequences of sin – fear, hated, selfishness, anxiety, addiction, living with hurting another, etc.  But one thing is for certain, there will always be spiritual consequences of sin because sin is ultimately separation from God.   God is holy.  Sin is unholy.   Because sin is unholy it separates us from God.  Separation is separation – forever, for eternity.

Listen!  The Lord is not too weak to save you, and he is not becoming deaf.  He can hear you when you call.  But there is a problem – your sins have cut you off from God.  Because of your sin, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.  Your hands are the hands of murderers, and your fingers are filthy with sin.  Your mouth is full of lies, and your lips are tainted with corruption.  Isaiah 59:1-3

Wow!  That sin list continues through verse 14.  Isaiah is warning those folks – he just called them out.  Who’s them?  Israel, of course.  Those sinners.  They committed murder.  They lied.  They plotted evil plans.  They cheat.  They cause misery.  They.  They.  They.  But wait, I’ve committed murder in my heart.  I’ve killed someone’s reputation.  I’ve made plans and did things that were far from Godly.  I have cheated.  I have caused misery to others.  I have lied.  I have stolen.  The list goes on and on.  I’m just like Israel.  I’m one of those.  I’m a sinner.  Oh…

The beauty of Isaiah 59 is that it is a warning, a pretty stern warning, but a warning nonetheless.  Let those who have eyes to see…

“The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “to buy back those in Israel who have turned from their sin.  And this is my covenant to them,” says the Lord.  “My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you.  They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children’s children forever.  I, the Lord, have spoken!”  Isaiah 59:20-21

Praise God! Isaiah’s stern warning is just that, a warning, and not the final outcome.  Our Redeemer has come.  He came to redeem “those in Israel who have turned from their sin.”  I’m one of those – one of them – one of the bought ones!  You are too!!  Isn’t it awesome that he gives us the way out?

If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth.  But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.  If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.   1 John 1:9-10

Turn from our sin.  Sounds so simple, doesn’t it?  Just stop it, right?  Not so.  But in identifying our sin, admitting our sin, confessing our sin, and taking steps to turn from our sin, we have His covenant, that he will never leave us, he will forgive us, and he will wipe our sins away.

Look!  Here I stand at the door and knock.  If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.  I will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.  Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the spirit and understand what the spirit is saying to the churches.  Revelations 3:20-22

Let all who have ears hear…

Can you see that?  There are seven stars, dim, I know, but if you look very closely you might be able to see what I see in the mornings.  A question mark!  It is the strangest thing.  Do you remember as a kid laying in the grass and watching the clouds, seeing the shapes they’d make?  A funny face, an animal, you know.  Well I do that with the stars.  I don’t lay in the grass at 5:00 a.m. in the morning, but, as I’ve said in the past, I do take note of the stars.

For the past couple of months, those seven stars (I’m sure there are more I just can’t see), have lined up into a question mark.  I first saw them lined up over top of the barn.  Hmmm?  As Shenandoah and I continue to walk west on the road, those stars are now a question mark over the front field.  Stars are funny like that.  I’m a person who thinks everything means something, and so I started thinking about that question mark, and how it seems to be everywhere.  What does that mean?

Life is all about questions, isn’t it?  Asking questions is how we gather information.  How we get the full story.  How we learn.   How we know.  Asking questions is the only class I’m way above average in.  The first six words journalism majors are taught are Who? What? Where? When? Why?  How?  Let’s check this out for a minute:

Who?  It’s so odd.  This morning while looking at the question mark, I heard a barred owl calling in the woods.  Their call sounds like “who calls for you”  to the rhythm of “coo coo ca-choo.”  But, I usually only hear the “who” part.  Who?  Who?  I’m looking at that question mark and I hear Who?  Who?  Hmmm.  Jesus has asked us the same question, you know:

Then he asked them, “Who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answered,  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my father in heaven has revealed this to you.”  Matthew 16:15-16

How do we answer the who?  Who do we say He is?  Do we say Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God?

What?  What was Jesus’ mission?  What was Jesus’ purpose?

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”   He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down.  Everyone in the synagogue stared at him intently.  Then he said, “This Scripture has come true today before your very eyes!”

Luke 4:18-21

Have we answered the what?  Have we heard the Good News?  We are the poor, you know.  The poor in spirit.  We are the captives, the downtrodden and the oppressed, you know.  Captivated, downtrodden and oppressed to and by our sin.  But wait!  The Good News in the synagogue is the same Good news we’ve heard today — the time of the Lord’s favor has come!

Where?  Where is God?  Where does He live?  Where do I find Him?  Is He really there?

I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit – not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength – that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in.  Ephesians 3:17

Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith.  Don’t drift along taking everything for granted.  Give yourselves regular checkups.  You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you.  Test it out.  2 Corinthians 13:5

Do you know the answer to the where?  Is God living in you?  Do you see how easy He makes it for us?  He will live in us, if we only ask.  Experiencing the life of the His Spirit within us as a  guide, teacher, intervenor, will change our life.  If our lives aren’t changed, Paul says we have failed the test.

When?  When did God come?  When does God appear?

And that’s the way it was before Christ came.  We were slaves to the spiritual powers of this world.  But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.  God sent him to buy freedom for us, who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.  Galatians 4:3-7

Do you see the when?  In the fullness of time.  In the nick of time.  In His time.  We forget that God has a plan and His timing is always perfect.  In our impatience, fear, anxiety, we want God at our beck and call.  We demand.  God always answers.  God shows up.  His plan has no many moving parts, that sometimes something must happen before something else happens.  Trust His timing.  After all, He is God.

Why?  Why did Jesus come? Why does He pursue me?  Why me, Lord?  Why trust Jesus?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.  John 3:16-17

So many why’s.  The answer to all of them is Love.  He has loved us with an everlasting love.  A love with such outrageous dimension.  A love we can’t fathom, can’t comprehend.  No greater love exists beyond Him.

How?  How did God show His love for us?  How did God redeem us?  How were we saved?

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment.  For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life.  Romans 5:8

How…death on a cross….love, written in red.

So, now that you have the whole story, the full story.  Now that it has been fully investigated and all the questions have answers, you have decisions to make.  How will you answer the questions?

Did you see that moon?  Wow!  I have a thing about the moon.  I mean I love the sun, it’s a magnificent creation, our daylight and our dayheat.  But, there’s just something about the fall moon.  The other morning, I was sitting on my front porch mooning.  Not the kind of mooning you’re thinking about.  The kind of mooning in the pitch blackness of early morning, very early morning.  The blackness made by turning off all the outside lights.  It is unbelievable what you can see when you turn out the lights!  Another day…Follow me to the front porch, in the silence of the early morning, in the darkness, to a chair.

This morning I sit and gaze at the moon.  All moons are beautiful but this one’s special.  This round, yellow-white, humongous moon was placed carefully in the sky, on the Fourth Day!  With the naked eye you can see outlines and details on this moon.  Spectacular!  So, in the darkness, I moonbathe.  Ever been moonbathing?  It’s similar to sunbathing, only better.  The moon is at about 2:00 over the mountain.  From where I’m sitting, it’s behind a big old maple tree.  You know when the sun is out and there’s a tree, you try to hide your eyes with a branch so you can see?  You know what I mean, right?  Well, it’s the exact opposite with the moon.  Instead of hiding from the moon behind the branches, I find myself searching for the moon around the branches.  The light shines in the darkness – heard that before?  I close my eyes and I sit.  I feel the fall breeze, listen to the tinkling leaves trying to hold on for just one more day.  I feel the moon on my face and I bathe in its glory and in the One who created it.

I think about how well I can see the moon in the darkness, and how incredibly bright it seems to be.  So bright that it casts shadows.  Then I think, would I realize how bright the moon was if it wasn’t so dark.  When the sun’s out, it is always bright, there is no darkness.  Do we even notice?  Not much.  I don’t always see the sun, because it’s always there.  Does that make sense?   I don’t recognize how bright the light, until I’ve seen the darkness.  I would not be able to glory in the moon and the One who created it, if it were always light.

Life’s like that too, you know.  We must sometimes travel in the dark to recognize the light.  There are many different kinds of darkness.  Physical darkness – illness.  Spiritual darkness – sin.  Emotional darkness – anxiety.  Relationship darkness – separation, abuse.  Financial darkness – there’s just not enough.  We’ve all got dark.  But there’s an incredible hope, a Light.

Because of God’s tender mercy, the light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.  Luke 1:78-79

Do you see what that says?  When we are overcome with darkness, when the night is pitch black,  when the dark hole is so deep, God will break upon us.  He will visit, descend, show up, make Himself known, appear, through the Light of Heaven, Jesus His only Son.

Psalm 112:4 puts it another way:

When darkness overtakes the godly, light will come bursting in.  The Lord is generous, compassionate and righteous.

When we are in our darkest moments because we’ve made an ever-loving mess of things, or due to circumstances completely beyond our control, when darkness has overtaken us – our spirits, our thoughts, our actions, our wallets, our relationships, our whatevers, the Light, not a light, but the Light will come in.  It doesn’t say that Light may show up, that it will be subtle, it says BURSTING in.  Jesus always shows up.  Not just a tiny speck of light in the darkness, but a full moon, so bright you can find your way.

Here’s the thing, the Light comes, not because of who we are or what we do, but because of who He is.  Remember what it said?  He is merciful.  He is peace-filled.  He is generous.  He is compassionate.  He is righteous.  He is Light.   The Light does shine in the darkness and the darkness has not extinguished it.  It just can’t.  What incredible Light for our darkness.  The Light that gives Light to everyone.   To all who receive Him.  To all who call upon Him.

Sometimes we just don’t know how dark it has been until we see the Light.

Livi gave me this plant.  It sits on my desk and as I click away at these keys, I sometimes look over and think of the sweetness of the gesture.  Today, I looked over at the deadness.  Dead lifeless leaves.  Some even crisp.  I touch them and they fall to a thousand tiny pieces of plant dust.  You see, I’m not a very good plant person.  Oh, I like them.  I think they’re pretty.  Plants give off oxygen and I’m partial to that.  I’m just not a good tender.

So, I reach out to this plant and start pulling off the dead leaves.  As I pick and pluck I notice that the more dead leaves I remove, the more new sprouts I see.  The plant is actually transforming before my eyes.  What looked dead only minutes earlier now looks healthy, alive, new.  Now that the dead leaves are out of the away, I notice what could be a small part of the problem.  It’s bone dry, Sahara-like.   The soil surrounding the roots is rock hard and pulling away from the sides of the pot.   I told you I wasn’t a good tender.

What makes things dry?  Lack of moisture.  Lack of liquid.  Lack of water.  I pick this poor baby up and walk her to the kitchen for a drink.  I turn on the spigot trying to make up for all the times I didn’t water her.  You know what happened, the water spilled over, the plate underneath the plant was wet, but the plant was still dry.  After a bit, the plant started slowly drawing up the water.  The plant sighed and you could almost see it smile.  I apologized and told it I would do better.  I told you I wasn’t a good tender.

This poor plant is not so much different than me.   Left untended my poor heart does the same thing. There are occasions when my heart is so hard, it’s mostly dead, brittle.  Yours too?  When the cracking and splitting start, it’s because I wasn’t a good tender.  The lack of water not only causes problems with the soil, it causes me to die.  Maybe not like keel over, but die nevertheless.  Remember, I’m not a good tender.  When I fail to strip away the dead things, the things that make my heart hard – hurt, anger, frustration, envy, deceit, meanness, busyness, just a plain ole bad attitude, you name it, my heart hangs on to the deadness.  The more I hang on to the deadness, the less likely I’ll have new growth.  New growth can’t grow from something so hard.

The King of My Heart knew me before I was born.  He certainly knew I would have tending trouble and therefore, have some heart trouble.  I was born a sinner, still am one.  He’s just the opposite of me, He’s all about the heart.   He gave us a way to get rid of the dead things in our hearts so that the new sprouts could grow.  He gave us a way to keep our leaves from becoming dry, brittle, dead, hard, fallen.  He gave us The Way for new life, for fresh sprouts, for new beginnings.

“If you are thirsty, come to me!  If you believe in me, come and drink!”  John 7:37

God’s love for me survives, even when I fail to take in what will sustain me – Living Water.  Regardless of my lack of heart tending, my dryness, my pulling away, when I sip, draw in the water of life, God gives me newness of life.  The dry leaves that keep me from thriving are stripped away and underneath there are new sprouts.

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him.  I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God’s law, but I trust Christ to save me.  For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.  As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.   I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!  Philippians 3:8-11

This scripture was referenced in a book I was reading recently.  Seen it a million times.  Today it stopped me in my tracks.  You know me.  I have this running dialogue in my head.  Some of you do too.  Maybe one of the reasons it stopped me in my tracks is because the author asked if this passage described me (you) and if that’s how other folks would describe me.  Wham!  Right upside the head.  I fall to my knees.

Piece-by-piece.  Bit-by-bit.

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him. 

Wow, complete surrender.  Surrender of thoughts.  Surrender of lifestyle.  Surrender of things, even good, but ungodly.  Is that true for me?  In the verses before, Paul laid out his life, a mini-autobiography.  You see, Paul was quite the man before he met Jesus on that road.  He was living the good life.  He was the ultimate Jew – from the tribe of Benjamin.  His tribe, along with the tribe of Judah (who came from there?) were the only tribes that returned to Israel following the exile.  One of the “it” tribes.  Paul was a Pharisee, a learned man, highly esteemed, highly revered.  He knew the law inside and out, moreover, he lived the law – to the strictest letter – to a T.  Paul was the real deal.  So, when Paul’s life did an about face, complete surrender, and he made the claims that “everything else is worthless,” he’s saying that his knowledge, his power, his position, his life, were nothing compared to knowing Christ – priceless.  Remember that commercial?  What’s in your heart?

What does complete surrender look like to me, to you?  Am I willing to chuck everything I have so that “I may have Christ and become one with him.”?  That’s a toughy isn’t it?  Let’s go around back – what am I willing to chuck?  Am I willing to toss out anything that keeps me from becoming “one with him.”?  You see, we do get to pick and choose what we will and will not take to the dump.  He gives us free will.  Here’s the thing though, until we lay it all down, not just the things we’d like to get rid of, we will not be “one with him.”  Some things in our lives and our hearts are easy to toss on the heap, some things not so easy.  What’s in your heart?  What do we need to take to the curb?

I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God’s law, but I trust Christ to save me.  For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.

Paul’s transformation revealed to him that he simply couldn’t be good enough.  He couldn’t count on himself, by following all the rules, towing the line, doing the right things at the right time.  No matter what Paul did, or what we do, we simply cannot be good enough to inherit the kingdom.  There is not one thing we can do – Christ has already done it.  God used His only Son to make us right with Him.  Believing on the Son, faith in the Son, is the only way.  Even rule followers cannot enter the kingdom without faith, not even Paul, not even us.

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.  John 1:12

As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.   I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!

Paul trusted Christ, he had faith in Christ, and as a result he was reborn.  Paul experienced the resurrection power of knowing Christ and his life was transformed.  The things Paul previously thought were important were no longer important.  I feel certain that before his transformation, Paul used the same absolutes we use.  I will forever be a Pharisee.  I will always follow the law.  I will never follow this Jesus.   But, Paul surrendered and look what happened – just as Christ was raised form the dead by the glorious power of God the Father, he was living a new life, a life that will be resurrected from the dead to live for all eternity.

Remember, Paul thought he had it all before.  After meeting Jesus, he knew he had it all.  So, what are we hanging on to that is worthless compared to Christ?  What do we need to discard, take to the dump, get rid of, throw out?

Guess where that’s from.  Yep.  A laundromat.  I was walking down Maple Avenue one day on my prayer walk.  On the opposite side of the street from the Federal Building is a laundromat.  I don’t know what it’s called other than “The Laundromat.”  Anyway.  I was bebopping along and I happened to glance over at the laundromat.  This is what I saw right through the front window, plain as day.  SOAP.  BLEACH.  SOFTENERS.  I immediately thought of myself.  How clean am I, not how clean I am.   Not physically clean like, do I have dirt on my face, or is there a stain on my dress.  Clean as in my heart – cleanliness is next to godliness, right?

Is that in the Bible?  Nope.  So, where’d it come from?  It is alleged to have come from a sermon by John Wesley in 1778.  To be exact,  “Slovenliness is no part of religion.  Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness.”  Break it down, Beth.  Slovenliness means untidy or unclean in appearance or habits.  At first glance, it could sound like Mr. Wesley was being a little pharissical (is that a word?).  Remember the Pharisees who thought the act of outer cleanliness (following all the rules) led to God.  But Wesley wasn’t talking about our physical cleanliness, he was talking about cleanliness of the heart.

What Wesley was really getting at was the kind of cleanliness that actually is next to Godliness.  A clean heart.  Wait, I have a clean heart, don’t I?  I’m nice, sometimes.  I do good things, sometimes.  I’m not such a bad person, sometimes.  Does my heart need to be cleaned?  Yep.  It’s pretty scroungy.  But you’re not alone, we all need to be cleansed from the dirt and filth that is in our hearts.  What’s that dirt and filth called?   Sin.  We all got it, we all need to get rid of it.  We were born with the need for cleansing.  All our hearts need cleansed.  Why our hearts?  Because that’s where it all starts.  Look what Jesus says to Peter:

“Don’t you understand?” Jesus asked him.  “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes out of the body.  But evil words come from an evil heart and defile the person who says them.  For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all other sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander.  These are what defile you.  Eating with unwashed hands could never defile you and make you unacceptable to God.”  Matthew 15:16-20

Here, Jesus is teaching about inner purity, purity of the heart, cleanliness of the heart, not washing your hands before eating lunch.  If our words, our actions, our deeds, come from the heart.  Guess where sin comes — from our heart.

It looks to me like I could use a good scrubbing, how about you?  How does it happen?  How do we get clean?  We go to the laundromat.  The Laundromat of Christ Jesus.  You see, He’s the only way to a clean heart.  He shed His blood so that we could be pure, clean, decontaminated, dissolved of sin.  His blood in exchange for our sin.  His blood pardons our sins.  His blood shed for me.  His crimson blood shed to clean my wretched heart.

If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth.  But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.  1 John 1:8-9

Not only does Jesus’ blood cleanse us from all sin, once and for all, the cleansing blood is also transformative.  It causes a lasting change.

Ahhh…do you feel cleaner already?  Then how about a little bleach?  What does bleach do?  It’s a disinfectant, a deodorizer, and it strips or removes color or stains – it changes, it transforms

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:  though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as white as wool.

Isaiah 1:18

There are no permanent stains with Jesus.  He can remove even the toughest stain, the red like crimson stain.  After the stain of our sins is removed, real transformation can take place.  His life’s blood is a balm to our hearts that softens, smooths, calms, quiets, tenderizes and gets rid of the rough edges.

Soap.  Bleach.  Softeners.  All this can happen because of the blood of Christ Jesus.  I say can because Jesus doesn’t go where uninvited.  He will not cleanse your heart because it looks dirty.  He will only do so if you ask Him.  So, here’s the question:  Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?  Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?  In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb?  Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?  Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Every now and then.  Have you ever thought of what that means?  We use that phrase a lot.  We use that phrase to mean occasionally, sometimes, not always, once in a while, every so often, every now and again.  It’s a funny phrase, if you think about it.  They call it an idiom.  What’s that you say?  My pea sized brain understands an idiom to be, basically, a group of words we put together that just don’t make sense.  A group of words that mean one thing but we use them to mean another.  Kind of like raining cats and dogs, bought the farm, see the light, eye of the storm.

Now, clearly, I’m not a grammar expert – did I hear someone say duh – but, I do like figuring out what words mean and how to use them.  This started when Livi was in Middle School.  She would use words that she clearly did not know the meanings, else she wouldn’t have used them.  I told her repeatedly – don’t use words if you don’ know what they mean.  It could get you in trouble.  One day, the tables were turned, and she called me out.  I had used a word that I thought I knew what it meant but, obviously, I was wrong.  Did you know the word “hookup” doesn’t mean to meet or connect?!   Sorry, rabbit hole.

Anyway, back to the phrase – every now and then.  When the words are used collectively they mean infrequently.  But let’s look at each individual word in the phrase, separately.  What does every mean?  It means all, or whole, or complete.  What does now mean?  It means today, instantly, right now, in this moment.  What does then mean?  Soon afterward, next in order of time, later.  Now is now – then is then.  Now is not then and then is not now.  Different periods of time.  Just get to the point, Beth.  Okay, here it is:

Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus.  Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “You are Simon, the son of John—but you will be called Cephas.”   John 1:42

Simon – before.  Cephas – after.  Simon – now.  Cephas — then.  He was Simon – he will be called Cephas.  What’s Cephas?  Cephas in Aramaic means “the rock.”  Cephas is Peter in Greek which means “the rock.”

Jesus saw Peter in the now – Simon, and he saw him in the then – The Rock.  Jesus saw Peter for what he could be, not what he currently was.  The new name reflects a new person, a new character, a new persona, a new life, a new birth, a new heart.  Jesus saw him in the now – what he was on that day – just Simon.  But, Jesus also saw Peter in the then – what his role would be in building the Church for all eternity.

In Mark 1, Jesus sees Simon out in a boat fishing.  He calls from shore:

“Come be my disciples and I will show you how to fish for people!”  And they left their nets at once and went with him.  Mark 1:16

Simon the fisherman – now.  Cephas the disciple – then.

You know, we are all called, like Peter was called – every now and then.  Jesus doesn’t occasionally call us.  He always calls us.  He calls us now – who we are at this moment because He sees the then – who we will be in Him.

In the now, Simon was obnoxious, harsh, impetuous, a reactor, a fisherman.  In the then, Peter was the leader of the disciples, he was bold and faithful, the encourager of persecuted Christians, a fisher of men.

We too can see God every now and then.  We can see Him in the now – today.  We can see Him in the then – transformed and changed for all eternity.