Falling Short

continued:
Post 166

“For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth the blessing from God:
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.” Hebrews 6:7-8

We understand that most all the earth gets rain from time to time, but not all soil produces good fruit, even though it received the rain.
The soil that does respond with good fruit receives the blessing from God.
But the soil that grows bad produce is rejected and burned in the end.
But this is not the end yet! Note the soil that produces briers, although it is now rejected, is only now “nigh unto cursing” This passage is clear to say; There is still time for you to use the rain of Salvation and begin to produce good fruit before the time of burning arrives!

The reason why Hebrews is so hard for most Christians to interpret is because they read it through the corrupt lens of "acceptable sin".
They cannot comprehend that the scripture actually means they must cast off by choice the bad seed, and therefore the bad crop, to sow good seed and therefore good crop.

Why?
Because experience tells them, it cannot be done.
Welcome to the labor part of entering into the rest.


"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." Hebrews 4:1

If ever there was a people who have proven that diligence plus time cannot produce good crop (results) from bad seed (effort), it is the Jews.
They have labored long and hard to find the promised rest, but have "seemed to come short."

The secret internal war which the large portion of today's Christians are battling and loosing, is caused by the same bad produce from the same bad seed.

So what is missing for success?
surely not works.
surely not endurance.
surely not grace.
This verse tells us the key element is fear.

Fear of what?
Fear of coming short?
Although this is a legitimate fear, which many have finally abandon, I see many earnest Christians quite concerned about coming short, yet they too seem to come short.
So by practical trial and error, the fear of coming short does not seem to be the key element here, though it may be an encouragement to continue the search.

* * *

Fear of God.

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments:..." Psalm 111:10
But why should they fear?
They have the promise of Abraham.
They have been given atonement through sacrifice.
They should be secure! There is no need for fear!

Have you ever watched a guy arrogant in his skill or ability?
He can do what he does in his sleep! He is that good.
Then invariably at the very time he showcases his ability for the purpose of impressing someone, that thing he has done a thousand times goes horribly wrong, and he makes a great wreak of it, bringing shame on himself!
Why? Was it a lack of skill or effort or practice? no.
It was over confidence. It was a lack of fear.

In this case, a lack of fear is the failure to use proper caution to insure success.
The fear of the LORD is a due moral reverence, a caution not to offend him, a proper caution to insure success.
"For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God." Deuteronomy 4:24

Now I have often heard the reaction that "this is no God I want to serve!"
Yet these are often the same people who have no problem feeling justified in their jealousy if their wife/husband started running around with other people.

and now we are back to perspective.
Try this on for perspective; "Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, (your enemies) and he shall bring them down before thy face:.." Deuteronomy 9:3
Suddenly we don't mind so much this consuming fire!
again, the reason is because of perspective.

We all like to cheer for our pet team, and hope they win the contest against their opponent. But if you moved to the other's community, it would be easy to change allegiances and hope success for those you used to wish failure.

Nothing has changed but your perspective... your allegiance.
In these verses God is just recommending you move to his town as it were.
Choose to fully engage with his drives, his plans, his successes.
Join his team.
He is still a consuming fire, but now its a good thing!

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom:..."
How?
The colon says an explanation is coming next;
"...a good understanding have all they that do his commandments:..."
Having a healthy fear of offending God, causes one to seriously learn the intentions behind his commandments for the purpose of understanding how best to obey his heart's desire and not just the letter of the rule.

The letter tells the Jews they are God's chosen people of promise.
But they have wrongly assumed this means they can act anyway they want without consequences as long as they fulfill the letter of the law.
Clearly that didn't work out so well for them... though they are still the people of promise!
If you know flowers makes your wife happy, does that mean you can sleep with her best friend, then bring her flowers to make it all better?
Clearly, that is corrupting the whole purpose of bringing flowers, and such a corruption cannot bring about the desired result of her happiness.

So do flowers make her happy or not?! I'm confused.

* * *

Today's Christian has the same false confidence in the blood of Christ, believing he can now do anything he pleases without consequence.
It was not true for the Jew then, and it is not true for the Christian now.

"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin,
But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Hebrews 10:26-27

Clearly, we see here that God's fiery indignation is not targeted at somebody specific he just doesn't not like, it is targeted at anyone who sins willfully... "Them" or us.
Why?
Because whoever sins willfully is the enemy of God, even if you call yourself a Christian.

“But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.” Hebrews 6:9

* * *

Frankly, Experiencing now that rest, I quickly forget how hard it was to find it.
It is honestly easy now so long as I am careful to maintain it. But careful is a very weak word for the consequence avoided! Diligent might be a better word. The deceitfulness of sin has a very powerful ability to lure us in willingly because it uses our own desires against us, much like the pixie on the end of a fishing line does not attack the fish, it beguiles the fish to willingly attach himself to the hook!

In my own labor to find that rest, I finally learned to comprehend what was nearly impossible to comprehend;

The labor needed to enter into his rest, is not the battle to overcome sin.

* * *

How long have you battled against the sin that often plagues you?
You long to be free of it but it has you in such a grip you are powerless?
The scripture calls these; besetting sins. (Hebrews 12:1)

beset 2139 euperistatos; ...well standing around, i.e. (a competitor) thwarting (a racer) in every direction (figuratively of sin in general).

You cannot win the battle against these sins by force of will.
But because we know of no other way, we continue to try.
and we continue to fail.
and we get no closer to that rest until we become so wearied we just quit trying.
But having strong unwavering confidence that the scriptures are true, we cling to the faith that somehow seems to fail us.
Sound familiar?
We have seen the Jews bang their heads on the ruins of their temple mount for 2000 years with the same frustration. How long will you beat your head against your own spiritual wailing wall crying out for real salvation that never seems to come?

"But what else can I do?" you ask.

The problem is, You have already be given the salvation you seek, you just keep rejecting it...just as the Jews.
Your problem is not exclusive to you. It is universal to all those across all time who seek God but are willfully ignorant of the one basic requirement for success.

Are you figuring out what that is yet?

The secret to finding that rest; is not the battle agaisnt sin,
It is a heart after God alone.

* * *

I hope that by following my trail of provocation, your labor might be reduced, and your arrival sooner.
But the trail is still yours to travel.
My hope is that this blog might be an encouragement that it can be done, and that indeed this is what God intended by salvation; To enter into his rest, here, today, in this life.

It is important that you are fully convinced that God does not play well with sin.
This is foundational to success.
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, (Jesus) and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” John 1:5-6

Recap:
Jesus, the Son of God.
Came to earth for the purpose of dying on our behalf.
And of all the magnitude of what he said and did while on this earth, THIS THEN IS THE MESSAGE WHICH WE HAVE HEARD OF HIM!
That’s it. here it is. The sum of it all; The message is:

GOD HAS NOTHING GOOD FOR THE HEART THAT WALKS IN DARKNESS!

* * *

I know you know this.
And I know you can clearly see the falling short in yourself.
I know you are frustrated with yourself because of this, and I know the effort to which you have diligently tried to succeed.

Yet still you automatically defend yourself by explaining you are not walking in darkness... and therefore your problems must be God's fault.

This thought is the spirit of Hell talking, in which you have long confided by familiarity.
and finally, we have come to the secret key, that is not secret at all;
Choosing your team by abandoning all others.

We have the clear representation of this truth in the marriage ceremony;
The simple words "I do." have significant power to change your world, but only so long as you cling to them in your heart.
A bad marriage is still a marriage while the head chooses by will to keep that vow though the heart has departed. but the marriage with the heart fully on board is a thing to behold!

I cannot emphasize strongly enough to begin a new labor to enter into his rest, by purging your life of daily and comfortable offenses to God.
Don't start with the besetting sins YOU want to be free of, but the comfortable sins; those sins you have convinced yourself are not sins, but are indeed offenses to God. Start with these.
Do not do this casually. This is foundational to what salvation is all about.
NOT because you need to be sinless in your own effort, that is impossible, just as it is impossible to always please your spouse,(I John 1:8,10) but because your heart cannot follow after darkness if you want to walk with God. (I John 1:7,2:3-4)
Choosing to purge your life of these sins, and replacing the space with godliness, will eventually bring your heart back around by making it familiar and intimate with righteousness, and learn to love the God of righteousness.
We have the example of this mystery in every young girl who by familiarity, falls madly in love with the criminal woman abuser. Her head may actually hate him for his conduct, but by familiarity her heart loves him.
The Heart does not comprehend the law, this is the job of the Will in obedience to the Mind. But that is another post all together.
We learn to love God with our heart, by familiarity of his intimacy which we choose by our will in subjection to our mind.

I John 3:5-10 *1 cannot be proven accomplished until that rest is found, but this passage makes clear that it must be proven accomplished to be the child of God.
Here is where the distinction can be found to identify just who is the child of God and who is the child of the devil;
"In this the children of God are made manifest,(revealed, made apparent) and the children of the devil:
Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." (3:10)
Yet the church is full of these impostors whose lack of righteousness reveals whose children they actually are, and there is good chance that includes you.
Are they the children of the Devil?
Harsh! But clearly; Yes.
Do I say this for the purpose of casting judgment? NO! but to hold a mirror to your face that you may get a clear image of what others see but are too polite to declare.
With this clear image you can then have the knowledge of where to begin the labor needed to fix the problem. *2

The entire book of I John must be completely ignored as long as it is believed that a Christian can walk in casual daily sin and be OK. Hebrews too... and II Peter, and... well, actually... the entire bible!
Yet that is exactly what most of today's Christian do while denying it!

we have been beguiled by the deceitfulness of sin!
"Go ahead, you won't die!"
But God declares otherwise.

* * *

Now at first this might sound and seem like legalism which we are all warned against.
And if you think the act of obedience makes God obligated to respond, then it is legalism. And if you think the achievement of a sin free life will get you to heaven, then for sure it is legalism.

But if your heart’s motive is to learn to love God, then the act of will is not legalism but a schoolmaster. Romans 2:14-22 in other words we can use the law as the schoolmaster it was intended to be in the first place, even after we obtained grace but fell short.
We use the law as instructing us in the ways of loving God.
“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” Galatians 3:24-25
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Romans 7:7

Yet here is where the legalism of Grace keeps us from understanding our path to rest.
We assume because we started our faith as Gentiles in Christ under grace, that we cannot have use of the law.
Yet we have abused the grace of Christ in our ignorance of the law, and therefore are rebels in our lawlessness. We then need the same thing the Jews needed to prepare the path of Jesus’ arrival; we need a schoolmaster until our faith is mature and grace is understood, and that rest is entered into.
This is precisely what Paul agonized over in this process of labor with his juvenile church;
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,” Galatians 4:19

This is the problem with our church today as well, but our doctrine now refuses us to mature in fear of legalism.
And of course with all things, the pendulum always swings until plumb is found, so we should be aware of the bondage of legalism we may gravitate to once there.
Following the law does not make us righteous, nor is it the end goal.

Today I need no law or command to tell me not to take God’s name in vain. I choose to avoid such offense because it is now in my heart to do so.
But prior to that, I had grown so accustom to my movies and friends using this offense, that I hardly noticed and it was not offensive to me.
Therefore in obedience to the law as my teacher, I re-organized my thinking to learn that God was offended with this use. *3
There are many other such examples of unbelief that we Christians fall into “under grace”, which grace does not cover.

Once again, for clarity;
Am I suggesting we willingly place ourselves under the law?
NO!
Only that we can use the law for a time, to teach us what we have corrupted.

We know we are corrupted if we claim to stand in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, (Galatians 5:1) yet show by our lives the works of the flesh. (Galatians 5:19-21)

Much to the surprise of many, Grace does not reign alone, but is embodied in righteousness.
“That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:21
The secret is to learn how to identify our righteousness vs. God’s righteousness.
Because the two are worlds apart!
“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:” Philippians 3:9
"What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore?
Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law..." Romans 9:31-32
So while beguiled Christians cry; “…all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;…” Isaiah 64:6 The words are true, but the understanding is corrupted.
This passage does not claim all righteousness is as rags... only OURS.
We must labor to learn how to differentiate our's from God’s, and then put on God’s.
“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:24

"What is the whole point?"
A heart that seeks after God.

* * * * * * *

*1 I John 3:5-10
"And ye know that he was manifest (apparent,revealed, made known) to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
Whosoever abideth (to stay, continue, dwell) in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is rightious.
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."

*2 Mirror:
"For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass (mirror): For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." James 1:23-24

*3 The Lord’s Name in Vain:
post 118: - The Flying Role - http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2010/11/flying-roll.html
*