Everybody makes mistakes...

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  -Jeremiah 29:11 


  From the moment we can talk, we want to be big kids. Throughout the course of this week, my eight-year-old brother has said over and over, "I wish I was a teenager." Of course, upon hearing this I would laugh and tell him to enjoy his youth while he could. But it's true. Little girls play in mommy's make up and wear her clothes. Little boys...well, little boys are characteristically little boys. Playing in dirt and digging up worms, playing video games and American football – it's no different that when they're grown. [insert rimshot- haha... 'cause boys are messy....yeah..] We play house and office because we want to be grown up. We don't want to stay kids forever.
  In the same way we should desire to grow in our relationship with God. We should want to be big kids in the faith.


Ephesians 4:13-15 All of us are to be as one in the faith and in knowing the Son of God. We are to be full-grown Christians standing as high and complete as Christ is Himself. Then we will not be as children any longer. Children are like boats thrown up and down on big waves. They are blown with the wind. False teaching is like the wind... We are to grow up and be more like Christ. He is the leader of the church.


  Big kids don't do certain things that little kids do, because they have matured and grown out of them. Big kids shouldn't scream and stomp in the middle of the grocery store or cry when they don't get their way because they're expected to have grown out of that sort of behavior. Likewise, when one matures in the faith, he naturally assumes that there are certain things he shouldn't do. He expects himself not to lie, cheat, steal or ever ever get angry, and when he does, he gets frustrated with himself because he expects himself to have grown out of this. 


But there is news: Progress ≠ Perfection.


  As we grow up in the faith, we still have bad days. We still get mad at people, lie to save our butts in a moment of desperation, and do other assorted things which, among the Christian community, it is agreed should probably not be done. And we get frustrated with ourselves because we feel we should have grown up out of that sort of behavior. Perhaps God's been working on a specific issue within us and we feel like we shouldn't act on the issue anymore because we've been such good Christians working on our sin. We feel like we've matured enough, and shouldn't act like children in the faith anymore. And then one day, someone does something that irritates us so much that we explode. We get angry, maybe we say some things that shouldn't be said or do some things that shouldn't be done.
  Afterwards, we're disappointed with ourselves and we feel like we haven't made any progress at all. We feel like we're still children in the faith and we're such terrible Christians and we'll never make any progress because we're unfixable.
  But the mere knowledge that we've done something wrong and are able to identify what it is speaks volumes. Whereas before we were in sin and perfectly comfortably with it, now when we sin, we feel bad. We feel as though we've done something wrong. This is a huge step in our walk. And messing up doesn't doom us to be failed Christians forever and ever, without hope of redemption or success in any aspect of life. 


⁹ If we tell Him our sins, He is faithful and we can depend on Him to forgive us of our sins. He will make our lives clean from all sin.


Clean from all sin. When we mess up, so long as we repent and ask for forgiveness, we can depend on Him to forgive us of our sins. The end.

Go now, you are forgiven.

  I was listening to a song a few minutes ago. It's called The General by Dispatch. And really, unless you have a taste for '60's protest music, I doubt you'll be into the song. I have odd tastes. But there was one line that really struck me in the song. 


 Go now, you are forgiven.


  The song is about a general and his men. They set up camp somewhere, about to go to battle. The general has a bad dream that night and it wakes him up, and he can't go back to bed because he doesn't understand what it means. That morning, all the men stood tall, ready to go to war and somewhat unafraid. They were prepared "chests in the air, with courage in their blood and a fire in their stare" and they awaited the general's orders. He came slowly out of his tent, no doubt weary, troubled and tired and said this:
  
 I have seen the others
and I have discovered
that this fight is not worth fighting
I have seen their mothers
and I will no other
to follow me where I'm going

So,take a shower, shine your shoes
you got no time to lose
You are young men you must be living
Take a shower, shine your shoes
you got no time to lose
You are young men you must be living
Go now you are forgiven

  The men were all confused because they'd been ordered into battle. But eventually one by one, they all left until he was alone to face what he felt no man should have to endure. Kindness.

  Earlier today, a friend and I were in the front office at school. My friend had too many tardies and wanted to know if she would end up in ideal for it. There were words exchanged, and as we were about to leave, the principal smiled and said "Go on and sin no more." As far as I know, he didn't really answer his question, but I think I didn't really need to hear his answer. I heard what I needed to hear from her conversation. Go on and sin no more.

[This passage is taken from The Message paraphrase of the Bible. It isn't a translation, but I like the storytelling of The Message. It's lovely.]

John 8

To Throw the Stone

 ^1-2 Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. ^3-6The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?" They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.

 ^6-8Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.

 ^9-10Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?"

 ¹¹"No one, Master."

   "Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin."

___________________________________________

  Jesus sat in the temple, teaching when the doors flew open and a crowd swept in, yelling and shouting all sorts of things – some directed at Jesus, some directed at the frail, weeping woman they were roughly leading in by the elbow.  The mass shoved through the crowd to the front of the room to talk to Jesus. A man came forward, the one who had the disheveled woman's arm, with an arrogant glint in his eye. Surely even this "son of God" knows she deserves death, he thought and laughed inwardly. 
  "I caught this woman," he said, his tone lofty, "in the very act of adultery. As you know, teacher, Moses said in the law given to him by God himself that any adulterer is to be stoned. You know this to be true." He addressed the crowd, "We all know this to be true!" The mass shouted in response. "Now, rabbi, even you wouldn't dare to defy the law given to you by God, who is above us all?" 
  Jesus considered this a moment, then smirked and chuckled a bit, as one would do to a child misbehaving trying to be sneaky with his latest scheme, and knelt down and began to write in the dirt that had loosened from the floor. The accuser began to get irritated. "Jesus!" he shouted. "What do you say to this woman's crime?" The mass began to yell again, and they shook the woman, who wept all the more.
  Finally, Jesus stood, silently, and addressed the arrogant man cooly. "Whoever it is among you," he said, his voice calm and full of authority, "who has yet to sin once, you throw the first stone. The rest of you then can follow." Then he simply bent down and began writing again.
  The accuser looked shocked and stared. The older men began to peel of, knowing that they were far from perfect. They'd no right to condemn her. Then the men of middle age left, and finally the younger, until the only one left was the accuser. He looked at the woman, then Jesus, then his eyes dropped to the writing on the ground, and he left. The woman sank to her knees as Jesus stood. 
  "Where did they go?" Jesus asked, his voice rich with tenderness. "Where are your accusers? Does anyone accuse you anymore?"
  "No, master. No one does." She didn't dare look up at him, but kept her eyes on what he'd written on the ground.
  "Neither do I," He said and bent down to help her up. He smiled at her a smile that radiated warmth from his very core. "Go on and sin no more."

____________________________________________________

  I believe that God would say to us now, "Go and sin no more. You are forgiven, you are beloved." If we learn to lean on Him and on His strength, if we learn to rely on his infinite and amazing knowledge, and if we learn to trust Him and His promises, we will never fall. If we seek Him- if our delight is found in Him and Him alone, we will have no desire for the sin we're going from. That used to sound so cheesy to me until about two days ago. But it makes so much sense now. God is all-consuming, and that means he consumes all. It means he occupies every inch and every corner of our hearts and our lives, and when we let go of our fears and our reservations, and just let Him do what only He can, we'll have a real and intense desire for Him and only Him. And that's where I want to be. I'm not there yet though. I'm a work in progress.