Ctrl+Z: Whatever happened, happened

*image courtesy of thesaint at stock.xchng

I was thinking today about mistakes.  I hate mistakes, especially the ones you just can’t fix.  For example, I was in downtown Richmond this afternoon and unwittingly parked illegally.  It was a “No Parking Zone,” but only from 4-6pm.  I saw the sign, thought I was out of the tow zone, and even backed up one parking meter to get further away from that scowling white sign with its slashy circle of scorn.  Alas, I was apparently in the tow zone, and it was 4:15.

Of course.

Now, there’s no going back.  I have no defense.  There’s no wiggle room, there’s no making up for it, there’s no making it all go away.  Instead, sixty of my hard-earned dollars will be painting a bench somewhere downtown or helping to pay some civil servants salary, probably the one who wrote my ticket.

Thankfully, we have the universal reset button: Ctrl+Z.

Yes, the “undo” feature started as a handy ability on word processing that has now spread to nearly every program I encounter.  Accidentally delete a paragraph?  Undo!  Accidentally delete the pictures of your kid’s first birthday?  Ctrl+Z!  It’s truly an amazing function, and has become so ubiquitous that sometimes it’s hard to remember that it only works on computers.

I’ve often wished that life had an undo function.  I’ve wished that I could simply stroke a few keys and find myself five minutes in the past, or maybe a whole day, with the chance to do it all over again.  Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, I’d know how I failed the try before, and could do it again and again until I got things juuust right.

Until Google/Apple/Facebook/Skynet/Big Brother finds a way to implement an actual undo button for life, or we all find ourselves sucked into/uploaded into the cloud, we have to live with our analog mistakes.  Now, this is a biblical blog (biblog? no, sorry, that’s dumb), so you might think this is where I pull out the Jesus card like this…

Jesus is the Eternal Undo Button!

But, you’d be wrong.  And that’s ok, because you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and darn it people like you.

No, that’s not the point I’m going to make.  Ok, that’s half true.  Jesus does take away your guilty standing as a rebel against the King of the Universe, don’t get me wrong.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean a cosmic “undo” for all those who believe.  Sometimes, there are long-lasting effects of sin in your life that simply won’t go away.  (Note I used “won’t” not “can’t.”)

It goes like this…

When you put your faith and trust in Jesus, a few things could happen: God could remove all traces of a particular sin in your life, including guilty standing, temptation to repeat, and negative consequences. Or, God could remove the guilt of your sin but not the consequences of your sin.  You see, the guilt part is integral to salvation.  In fact, it’s what you’re believing when you put your trust in Jesus: that He can and will forgive you of your sins and restore your right standing before God if you will believe.

The other stuff, is not as sure.  I’m sure you know or have heard of someone who came to Jesus and immediately put down their drugs, promiscuity, Disney movies, and all other forms of evil in their lives without ever looking back.  They experienced no withdraw symptoms, never had a second thought, and could march right back into the bar/strip club/theme park without fear of relapse.  Praise God, He is still at work and does mighty things for the glory of His Name!

However, sometimes God chooses, for reasons we don’t know, to not deliver someone as radically and instantaneously.  I would argue that this is the norm.  God gives us the words of Paul to put off the old self and put on the new (Ephesians 4:22-23).  Therefore, we are urged to work together with God through the power of the Holy Spirit to strive towards obedience in this particular area.

Also, sometimes the consequences of our sin will not be removed.  God has built into the fabric of the universe a cause and effect system that goes beyond physics.  What we plant is what we will harvest (Galatians 6:7-9).  This is the biblical counter to “what goes around comes around” or karma.  The difference is that God can override this, and it doesn’t apply to our eternal state if we are in Christ.  What it does apply to is our life in the here and now.

Lead a promiscuous life and you might end up with a disease.  God can heal you of that, but it’s neither a guarantee nor the norm.  God may bless you with a wonderful marriage down the road with a pure and holy sex life, but you may not ever get certain images out of your head.  Murder someone, and God can and will forgive you for your sin.  That doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t go to jail.  Lie through all your B.C. years, and people might have a hard time believing you when get all truthful on them.

Just because we’re Christians doesn’t mean that we’re somehow exempt from the real world.  There are still consequences to our actions.  God may choose to supernaturally override the norm, but don’t count on it in every case.  We don’t have an “undo” button for life, and this is the only shot we get on this earth.  We will be judged for what we do here, and there will be no going back.

Whatever happened, happened.

Bible in 90, Day 65: The pouring out of the Holy Spirit

Joel 1 – Amos 9

image courtesy of jarekst at stock.xchng

Just another note about the reading plan: Over the next three days I will be heavily modifying the Bible in 90 Days reading plan.  I don’t like chopping books up if I don’t have to, I much prefer getting the entire story at once (which is very much in keeping with the theme of this reading plan anyway).  So, my reading plan will look like this

• Day 66 – Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk
• Day 67 – Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah
• Day 68 – Malachi, Matthew 1-4
• Day 69 – Back to the normal plan

If you do this, days 66 and 67 are right at about 53 minutes reading time, and day 68 drops to about 28 minutes! Stick with the original plan if you like, or you can follow my modification.

Back in 1987, there was a great commercial for Heinz ketchup.  A pre-Friends Matthew LeBlanc sets a bottle of ketchup on the ledge of an apartment building roof, and then goes down several flights of stairs to the street.  He orders a hot dog, and flips it around behind his back just in time to catch the thick Heinz ketchup which had finally started pouring.  The announcer reminds us that “the best things come to those who wait.”

Back in the 9th century B.C., Joel issued a prophecy from God that He would one day pour out His Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2).  This was not a promise that every single human being would receive the Holy Spirit, but rather that there would be no distinction as to age, sex, race, nationality, etc.  After Christ ascended to the Father, as the disciples were together in one place, the Spirit fell upon them in great power.  They began speaking in tongues about the mighty works of God.

Really, the best things come to those who wait on the Lord.

For several hundred years, the people waited for the fulfillment of this prophecy.  As always, God made good on His promise when He poured out His Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2.  God will also keep His promise that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32, cf. Romans 10:9-13).

Perhaps sometimes we take the presence of the Holy Spirit for granted as Christians.  We sometimes forget that He was not present with everyone of God’s people in Israel the way that He is today.  The pouring out of the Holy Spirit into everyone who believes is a unique feature of the New Covenant.  Those of us who are in Christ have the Holy Spirit residing within us.  This is why referring to a church building as the house of God is inaccurate.  The Temple is where the presence of God dwelt on earth in under the old covenant, but under the new covenant, God’s presence on earth is within us.  In a very real sense, we are the house of God (Ephesians 2:22; Colossians 1:19; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19).

Let’s never forget God’s faithfulness to His promises and prophecies.  Let’s never take for granted that the Holy Spirit of God dwells within each of us who name the name of Christ.  Let’s praise and thank God for His presence within our lives through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

originally at Words of Reason

Bible in 90, Day 16: Sampling the provisions

Joshua 1-14

*image courtesy of sveini at www.sxc.hu

Well we’re into some exciting stuff now aren’t we?!  Flooding rivers drying up, cities crumbling, battles, executions, there’s all kinds of stuff going on!  In the midst of it all is a story that has always intrigued me.  In Joshua 9, the Gibeonites hear about what God had done through Israel.  Instead of rallying together for war like the other nations did, they decided to try and make peace.  But they made peace through a deception.  The Gibeonites sent a delegation dressed and loaded as though they had traveled from a far land to make a treaty with Israel.  The extent of their deception is remarkable, including their clothes, gear, and even their food rations!

And Israel fell for it.