RtD wk4: Soul Guard

JAN 23 – JAN 29 2011 — RtD wk4: SOUL GUARD — ISSUE 190

A few days ago, I discovered  my car had been encased in a block of ice. (Either that or someone replaced my car windows with that bizarre frosted bathroom glass as an early April Fool's Joke). As I chiseled and chiseled and chiseled and chiseled and then rested, and then continued to chisel, I kept hoping there'd be some other car underneath. Perhaps an Aston Martin? Maybe an Integra? But, alas, it was just my car at the bottom. Maybe next time. But speaking of water in its various forms...

Pretend for a moment that you're swimming, then suddenly fatigue sets in. Logically you turn to head back to shore and suddenly realize how far you've drifted, not even realizing you'd let yourself get that far away. Then, inexplicably, a cramp sets in. The outcome seems dim, but right at that moment, a lifeguard spots you and comes to your aid. Would you secretly hope he would almost die so could save him in return? Would you turn him back, mid-rescue, because you didn't think you could repay him? Or would you be able to accept that he had done his job, one you're obviously grateful for and would want to show appreciation of? I mean, he's saving you, something you want desperately, so why would you tell him, "No, don't save me," unless you really didn't want to live?

At the ACR conference this past November, Chris Reed delivered a whale of a message (appropriate description given all this talk of water, right?)  regarding God's "job" as our savior. One way he described it was like this: "God refusing to save people is like a lifeguard looking at a drowning person and not doing anything about it. It's not going to happen. Saving people is what He does."

It's true. This idea that we can somehow slip too far into sin and disparity that God cannot save us, or will not save us, is basically just you putting a limit on God's power. It displays either a limited faith, or a complete disregard for what He's told us time and time again. God tells us, "I will never leave you or forsake you." (Deut. 31, Josh.1, & Hebr. 11) Christ Himself said, "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matt 28) Paul lays it out even more in-depth:

ROMANS 8:35-42 - NIV

God never leaves us. Our Savior, Jesus, never leaves us. Nothing on this earth can separate us from them. If there is a separation, a time when we're alone in the waters of life, it is when WE have left. It's when we've swum too far from shore and become susceptible to sin cramps. The good news is, we have something better than a lifeguard on duty at all times, we have a Soul guard - an Almighty God who watches over our physical and spiritual selves all at once.

God saves, it just what He does. We can't save Him. We can't return the favor.  We have to accept that God is beyond us and this is "what He do", so enjoy it. Embrace it. Stop feeling inadequate or like you've overdrawn from your "savings" account. (Zing!) There's no tab, no bill, just grace.

So if you're feeling lost, the only question is: What's keeping you from calling out to God for help?

Brett "The next time my car's encased in ice, I'm going to carve it into an Aston Martin myself" Hibbler

RtD wk2: Frankenstein

JAN 9 – JAN 15 2011 — RtD wk2: FRANKENSTEIN — ISSUE 188

For anyone who was at the super-amazing, mind-blowing, reality-reshaping prayer night (can you tell it was a good time?) you can skip down a paragraph; you've already heard the following jokes. For the rest, well you can read on and hope they're good, or just skip down too. You've been warned.

There are two things I learned about driving in a mild snow storm in 15˚ weather on Friday. Number one, freshly baked pizza is a far worse companion in that weather than a car-full of talkative people. Your windows fog up nearly instantaneously, and it's with a condensation that's too thick for your ten year-old defroster to compete with. Number two, if you're going to be driving to an all-night prayer night in a mild snow storm in 15˚ weather, volunteer to bring the food. I felt an overwhelming calm as I trudged along, knowing that even if I was buried in a snow drift for a month, I had enough food in my car to last me and probably even have some chips left over to give my rescuers when they finally dug me out. This is a really good thing because as foggy as my windows were, a ditch was a very real possibility that night.

I know it's winter, but I'd like to discuss a creature that usually only pops up in October, Frankenstein. Yes, I know Frankenstein is the doctor, not the creature we always call Frankenstein, but Frankenstein's Monster just sounds... lackluster. So when I say Frankenstein, I mean the creature. Cool?

I believe we're all familiar Frankenstein, he's that random gathering of parts and organs sewn together with the world's worst stitching job (that guy could harness lightening to give life and create a retractable roof, but he couldn't sew any better than that?), which, thanks to a perfectly timed lightening bolt, is brought to life.

GENESIS 2:7 - NIV

Reality is much different than Frankenstein's. As science has discovered, adding electricity to parts does nothing more than contort and manipulate them. But that's probably because life takes more than just "parts and electricity", it needs God's breath.

Spiritually speaking, there's no denying the ugly effects of sin. It tears us apart, our lives apart, even our souls apart. It turns us into nothing more than a random scattering of useless bones, organs, and formally useful appendages. And as we continue in life we feel like some sort of Frankenstein, a monster, a collection of ugly parts which, when sewn together, make nothing more than a lifeless representation of a Christian.

We may try to fix everything, to cover it up, to hide our blemishes and skin grafts, to find electricity to give us life once more. But man's methods can never do what only God can. Nothing we come up with can remove the terrifying affects of sin and restore us to a state of true living. But God can combine those scattered fragments, regenerate them, fuse them back together, and make something old anew. He can take man's failure, and make it His triumph. He is the life giver the first time, and so why not the second, third, fifth, and 200th as well? Does His breath have limits? Did He not use dirt the first time, something (seemingly) harder than just combining already sculpted parts? Did He not send His Son to conquer death once and for all?

We are never too separated, too far gone, too beat up, too broken, or too dead for God to sew us back together and infuse life in our bones.

ROMANS 5:17 - NIV

Take the abundant provisions of grace, that electricity, and reign in life once more! Stop being a walking representation of man's attempt at creation, and become the beautiful achievement God intended.

Brett "I can forgive the bad sewing job, but Frankenstein's neck-bolts were just plain tacky" Hibbler