Hello Fellars and Ladies,
We need to put more weight and value on the nature of God and who God is. We need to stop struggling with trying to be our own savior! Healing really does begin when we confess our sins to the LORD and to others - when we stop trying to save ourselves by our performance! This has been on my mind a great deal this last month - do we allow ourselves to be broken, on our face, before the throne of God. Do we then go as he commands us (James 5:13-16) and confess our sins to others to allow for healing? We need to stop relying on ourselves, and rely on him and all he is! Amen? Listen to what Mike has to say, the singer of Tenth Avenue North, one of my absolute favorite bands... May it be an encouragement and enlightenment...
Here's the 1st passage of meditation following this video:
James 5:13-16
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Prayer, praise, prayer, praise, that is what we are commanded to do... And here we are clearly told to confess our sins to one another, so that we may be healed. It's amazing how quickly that actually can freak us out - we can confess our sins to God, but then when it comes to confessing to a person we FREAK OUT. It's as if we perceive God as a fantasy, but for some reason people are more real. I believe, as this video discusses, that this is exactly why it is commanded of us to confess to one another! At that point we realize how we really need a savior, at that point we really can't wiggle our way out by being our own savior. It's crazy and true to really think about and begin to understand, that the healing discussed here in James 5 really does mean more of a freedom - a freedom from ever needing to try to save ourselves by what we do (by our performance), but rather relying on God and him as our savior in all ways. The gospel reveals to us completely that we are so far from God (that we are "a bum"), but also that when others may see the things we confess, that we have already confessed before the throne of God, and in that very moment we fully believe the gospel with our mouths and with our HEARTS! God knows all - but "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) May we listen to the word of God, which gives us freedom, and put it into better practice in accountability confessing our sins with others. Here is the song "Healing Begins" by Tenth Avenue North ~ may it hit you like a brick between the eyes! - - -
Here's the 2nd passage of meditation following the song, do read it, and allow it to let you meditate:
Psalm 139
O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in - behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
HOW TRULY IS THAT OUR PRAYER?
Do we realize the significance to who God really is? Do we realize that he knows our every thought? That he is there through our every waking action? The story Mike told in the beginning of the first video is so similar, I believe, for all of us. We have no problem confessing our sins to the LORD, because our mind obtains him as almost a fantasy - something that we may say we believe but there's really no feeling of guilt before him. If we truly do fall before his throne, realize we are bums, and that we need a savior, then healing comes. It just does. It always does. God knows everything about us, and we need to understand the gospel every day better and better, not just with our mouths but with our hearts...and our hearts really get involved when we are broken, which comes through true confession. That is the healing, the freedom. That is how the shame disappears and so many other things - when we realize WHO God is, and we realize how important confession to him and others really is! May we, who earnestly seek him, realize this more and more every day.
Go. Serve.
Eph 3:19
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