Saturday, October 10, 2015

Bad to the Bone: Hidden by my Skin

I sit here with a problem. It's the same one that you should have! I'm not good enough to go to heaven and you're not either! I always admired my church elders and teachers as a teenager because they were so pure. Guess what. They weren't nearly as pure as I thought and like me, they knew they weren't either!

People try to be good enough to prepare their way to salvation. No preparation is required because the "party" is "come as you are"! The clothes we wear throughout the week is what we're to wear to our new birth! What is it that we all wear? It's a suit of flesh. There are many colors of suits, different styles, they come in all sizes, and some are leathery while others are silken. Some come with wool as a lamb and others shiny and bare; almost synthetic they are so smooth! Our flesh is the suit we wear because other than that, we stand naked and afraid, for that matter, in front of God!

The suit we wear does not impress. That suit belongs to God anyway, but we cloth our idol in it.We oil it for a beach tan, we anoint it for silkiness and we perfume it for the aroma. Cosmetics are applied to cover the blemishes. The flesh has a hood of the most awesome hair. It's cut, curled or straightened, it's colored or bleached, and it is forced into the most enticing fashions.

We hang ornaments on our suit, pierce it's mufflers,  redden it's face cover, and apply lipstick to it's food opening. We teach it how to stand, to walk seductively and many fling it provocatively as they dance! Yes, this suit is what covers our idol. It's the best treated, well-groomed and stroked idol of them all. We are iconic! This suit of flesh is the covering for our "Self". Yes, within the skin is our other god, and the flesh is it's idol. It's how our god manifests itself to others.

Some bow down to this narcissistic god, but these gods also bow to themselves! This god is me; and it's you. All through life people struggle between serving two gods. Do we serve God or Self? Even as we serve God the flesh is still tantalized. Other idols throughout history were destroyed, but it was only the skins of wood, gold and stone which were toppled. Those idols were the corporate home of legions of Selfs.

I have trouble with that other god and so do you! There is no way that we can prepare it for the gift of salvation. Why? Because those who are the most evil are the most loving when they are redeemed. Redemption is the putting on of a new suit of clothes. Because we are born again, we get that new suit for free! That suit of flesh is replaced with an imperishable one. It looks the same as the flesh, but it doesn't need window dressing. These old suits are transformed as we craw through the short birth canal between the womb of the world and the entrance to God's kingdom!

My problem right now, and yours as well, is that we all know that we're not good enough to be rewarded! We compare ourselves to others and think "Look what I've done for others!" or "See how well that I understand scripture!" In spite of how hard we try, we're still not good enough! Oh, we may get better, but most often "better" only means more covert. We appear to be saints, but our hearts are tainted. Yes, I believe, as do you, but as did Lot's wife, we look back! It's not the city in destruction we wish to see, but the memories of pleasure we all relive; if our hearts are not guarded by the Holy Spirit who's job it is to comfort!

I know that I come up short; so short that maybe I will only sit in a backseat on that pilgrim's bus. My prayer is that the Lord will even allow me on that bus, but his fare is not high. It's meekness and love of him for the shedding of his own blood!

That's what we believe and hope for, but we still weigh how evil we are and say "I don't deserve this trip to God's Utopia. Others are more worthy!" That's true, but our passports don't have a place to write-in "highly" in the "worthy" blank. It's stamped by the Master "Free". That's God's grace! That's why I'm miserable in my deserving, but joyful in my hope. I know how bad I am and Jesus does too, but he can clean my suit and prepare me for that special bus. All that I have to do is position myself on one knee, look up at the heavens and say "Lord, dress me in your clothes!"

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