I think Dr. Tripp has focused on a core issue this week. David’s heart cry in Psalm 51 is well documented. His sin is “ever before him”. He is looking for mercy and grace in a time of real need. The issue we discuss this week is two fold.
Issue # 1 is forgiveness.
Issue # 2 is deliverance.
I understand these issues very well. It seems I’ve spent my life asking God for forgiveness. It really doesn’t matter what the issue is or was, I ask God for forgiveness for the same thing over and over again. In many ways I act before God as if I am offering bulls and goats regularly. I find myself too often in Romans 7 when I should be in Romans 8. At times, my life seems eerily like the book of Judges. Forgiveness has been a step I’ve taken to relieve myself of guilt rather than a first step in correcting the problem. Getting rid of the guilt (real or false) was the goal, not deliverance.
Today, I confess that I can see this clearly. My actions before God for many years have been more like the actions of an old testament character rather than a new testament son. I have asked for forgiveness with an old testament mindset, a “law follower”. Paul speaks to this exact issue in Romans.
Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
If I don’t deal with both issues, forgiveness AND deliverance, then I will be defeated. I don’t want to live that way. I want to be “more than a conqueror” as Paul states further down the road in Romans 8.
In order to experience deliverance, I will have to do more than simply ask forgiveness. I need to take positive steps and move towards freedom. This is most likely going to involve things I’ve never done before. One author put it this way: “If you want to go places you’ve never been before, you will most likely have to do things you’ve never done before.”
I’ve been home with no one from work to bother me for the last several days. I have been watching documentaries on some of my favorite historical figures, FDR, Harry Truman and Lewis and Clark. The illustration I want to close with concerns Lewis and Clark. There was a point the in the journey where Meriwether Lewis was standing in Montana at the end of the known map. The very next step he took would be in uncharted waters. The rest of the journey was unknown. Yet he undertook it with great courage and skill. It was a long time before he reached his goal, but he did reach his goal!
I’m there with Meriwether Lewis. I’m at the edge of my known map. I’m moving into unknown waters. I’m looking for the Northwest Passage of my heart.
Lord: As we move into 2010, let us move there with complete confidence that even though we may not see the road ahead, you do. And you’ve told us we can move forward with the assurance you are with us and will not leave us.
Well, I just hit a tab and lost everything I had written! Maybe I'll get the hang of technology one day before I move on to a place where I won't need it anymore!
ReplyDeleteIt is 6:00 a.m. and after lying in bed with sleep alluding me for the past few hours, I decided to get up and read this week's lesson for the 5th time. I am wondering, "Is this what we have been wanting to hear from Dr. Tripp all along?" His thoughts on deliverance have been pondered in my heart all week...what exactly is deliverance?
Three years ago today was the worst day of my life...Brooks hanged himself and left me forever with a void in my heart that only a mother would understand. The cliche that TIME HEALS is a misnomer - only GOD can heal. There are two reasons that I receive so much comfort in reading Brooks' journals: One is that it shows me how deeply he searched for God in his mental illness and the other is that I am able to see how sick he really was.
I said all of that to say that I was reading his 12/31/06 entry (2 days before his suicide) and he was writing about...DELIVERANCE!! I'd like to share some of his thoughts on this topic. "We are brought out of slavery to be brought to the promised land. God DELIVERS us in order to bless us with something greater. God brings us into a LIFE OF FULLNESS." So now I am thinking, if deliverance is a life of fullness, what exactly does that mean? And Brooks goes on to say, "The exodus from Egypt was not jut DELIVERANCE, it was a blessing of NEW LIFE...God is a God of new beginnings. God makes all things new...When God DELIVERS us, He expects us to DEVELOP (Heb. 4:2). The Lord expects us to grow up spiritually...Promises have to be possessed (Heb. 6:12) God's promises are not always decrees, but opportunities to be possessed...Possess the land little by little (Dt. 7:22) Enemies must be defeated along the way. The key to victory is to REFUSE TO QUIT.
So "deliverance" has taken on a deeper meaning for me this week and with God's grace, I WILL continue to seek His promises until I experience my FINAL DELIVERANCE!
(By the way, this is Freida commenting - I think I have to select "anonymous" to post?????)