That ol' Expletive - March 26, 2010

Good Friday morning! What do you use for a handy expletive in stressful situations? Often we give ourselves a pass during the moment; as in the moment we smack our thumb with a hammer or slam a finger in a car door. However, as usual with the law, the Bible makes no exceptions. There is no statement giving us the okay for using the Lord's name when it really hurts. Regarding the catheter in the emergency room, I still claim that was a quick, urgent prayer of need. Ah, just one more example of my failure to keep the law in all points at all times.

Last night, we enjoyed a quick story about using "Burt" or "Rick" as an expletive. My thought was: you assume we don't use "Burt". Heh, heh, :-) Sometimes the old habits come up in our minds. We may not use the Lord's name in vain in our speech, but what happens in our minds? Right, Jesus told us that what happens in our minds is the same as performing the sin in action. So the temptation then comes to toss it all in and go ahead and say it... As Paul might say, "Of course not!"

We are also reminded that God knows the intentions in our hearts. Old habits and that adversarial whisper in our ear can cause certain old sins to come to mind. We don't have to dwell on them, and we can quickly ask for the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit to come into our minds. We want to avoid sin at all times, but we don't always do this. Praise the Lord that Jesus didn't just die for past sins! We cannot be saved by good works, or by avoiding the bad ones, but after salvation we don't want to disappoint our heavenly Father either. There it is! What is the answer to that thought about doing anything we want because we are saved? When you love the Lord, you don't want to disappoint Him.

Many organizations, especially religious ones, pick and choose those who are "good enough" to meet their standards. We have a wonderful freedom in that we already know that none of us are good enough to meet God's standards; not before we were saved and not in our own strength even after we are saved. In Christ alone are we deemed righteous!

The week of our celebration of Jesus' resurrection begins on Sunday. Lift your head up and praise God for the new life we have in Christ!

Bucky