Thursday, April 2, 2015

No Condemnation

April 2, 2015

For the past few weeks I've felt that my relationship with God has flatlined. No highs, no lows, just flat. Tonight, Linda and I attended the One in Christ Maundy Thursday service at the Reg Lenna theater. For the second year in a row, the local pastor's prayer group, dubbed "CPR'" for Chautauqua Prayer Revival," has organized this event, to which perhaps 600 people from more than a dozen area churches come together to praise and worship The Lord. The music was powerful, the preaching even more so, but for most of the evening as we sang, and people lifted hearts and hands to the Lord, it felt as if I were only going through the motions. Flatlined. As others sang, I prayed, "Lord, what's wrong with me?"

Then pastor LeCroft Clarke began to preach, and boy, did he pour on the power! I am so grateful tonight for this brother in Christ! In a masterful presentation of the Gospel, at one point he read from Romans 8, where Paul said, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," and later, "Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." Suddenly, it became clear to me. There is only one who condemns; the enemy of our souls, the Accuser of the brethren, the devil himself. Why would I want to listen to, and believe this father of lies? I'd been in the middle of spiritual warfare, and didn't even realize it. As soon as the Word of God shed light on my condition, and I took my stand upon the promises of God, the condemnation evaporated.

It's really quite simple. Every day, I must choose who I will believe, who I will follow. Every day, I must decide whether I believe in the grace of God, or will accept the condemnation of the devil. I got to thinking about that word, "condemnation." It's root is damnation. With the prefix added, it basically means that if I accept it, I am agreeing with the pronouncement of damnation upon my life. Again, why would I want to do that? I must admit, there is always enough failure, enough sin, enough ugliness and dirt in me to justify that judgment. My mind often settles upon the failure, and my feelings then follow, but the Bible tells me to set my mind upon things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, and to think about that which is good, honorable, praiseworthy, and pure. Grace says, "Through the death of Jesus upon the Cross, I am forgiven, and by his blood, I am washed clean." I can choose to believe that, or not. Tonight, I choose to believe in the grace of God, and in doing so, to reject the condemnation the devil has been throwing my way. I think I'll just throw it back at him. It belongs to him, after all.

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