The Return

I have blogged before about falling from grace; it occurs to me that I should post something about the possibility of returning to grace.
Is it possible to return from a backslidden condition? One would certainly think that a loving God who created us, and has done so much to make it possible for us to be saved would understand the human condition and be understanding of human frailties that result in mistakes. He is, after all, a loving and forgiving God. If we stop to consider the parable of the lost sheep, how the shepherd left the ninety and nine to go search for the one that was lost. Wasn’t that one lost sheep part of the flock before that shepherd went to look for it? Didn’t Jesus say that the shepherd rejoices more for the one sheep that was lost than for the ninety-nine that weren’t? At first glance, that may not seem to make sense, but if you stop and think about it, the shepherd would have been so relieved that he found that sheep before some predator did. That is not to suggest that he would have willingly sacrificed the ninety-nine in order to save the one; quite frankly, it wouldn’t make sense to put even one of the ninety-nine at risk to try to find the one. The one may have already been killed before the shepherd even noticed it was gone. One sheep, off by itself, doesn’t stand much of a chance. Sheep don’t have much in the way of defense mechanisms; pretty much all they’ve got is staying with the flock. One off by itself is easy pickings for a wolf or lion. The Bible tells us that Satan is like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. He is looking for people who are not part of, or have become separated from, God’s flock. God is, of course, looking for those people, too, but He allows us freedom of choice. So, even when one has separated oneself from God, one still has a choice, whether to let God lead them back to the flock, or to stay off on their own where they become simply prey.
Is there a limit to how far God will allow us to go and still return? Jesus talked about things that one can do and still be forgiven, but he also said that there is one act that can never be forgiven. He even said that you can talk bad about Him, and it can be forgiven you. That’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? It seems to me, though, that most people that walk away from the truth end up getting caught up in their own wants and desires and end up not ever even attempting to return, anyway. These people are so involved with things that, in the long run, don’t really matter anyway. At the time, these things seem absolutely urgent, but from the perspective of eternity, really don’t matter. Quite frankly, if you take your eyes off of the prize, it is possible to become so distracted that you never look back at the ultimate gift again.

Scarcely Saved

The Bible says that if the righteous scarcely be saved, than where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Now, of course, the question is, why are the righteous scarcely saved? In Isaiah we are told that our righteousness is as filthy rags. The very best that we can do is nowhere near good enough for God. Fortunately, He has made a way. What people don’t seem to understand is that His sacrifice, by which we have obtained mercy and grace, is not a blank check to go and do whatever we want. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. Run that you may obtain the prize, but keep in mind that not everyone who runs in a race wins a prize. Even in marathons, where they have lots of people sign up to run, and they award a medal to everyone who crosses the finish line gets a medal, they generally don’t order enough medals for everyone who pays the fee to run the marathon. Some people end up not showing up, and some people drop out during the race. Why would you enter a race and not finish? I’m sure that there are many reasons, but it really comes down to the basic idea that sometime during the race, something else became more important; something else took precedence. Maybe one just becomes discouraged; the medal at the end doesn’t seem worth the pain in the side and the burning lungs along the way. That’s at least somewhat legitimate, but keep in mind that in the race that we are running the prize that we are striving for is not a trifle. We are not striving for a few dollars worth of metal fashioned into a fancy design as a symbol of accomplishment (and by saying that, I don’t mean to downgrade the accomplishment of completing a marathon. That is an accomplishment, and I have a lot of respect for those people that have done that, but it’s kind of like getting an A+ on an important test in high school compared to graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harvard medical school). We are striving for an eternal reward, a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Jesus told us to strive. I think sometimes we get confused as to what exactly that means. To strive means to work hard at something, to really put your back into it, to struggle with it. So often we treat salvation as something that we can simply say a few words to obtain, and live how we want to. So many people make a profession of faith, and then go right back to the way we were living, just like a sow that was washed goes back to her wallowing in the mire.
You've probably seen the T-shirt with a picture of guy wearing jeans with the knees completely worn out, and a caption that says, "Pray Hard." So often, we send God a cursory prayer simply saying I want... And sometimes that's all the prayer we need right at the moment; after all, the Spirit intercedes for us, when we can’t find the words, right? Don’t use that as an excuse, though, prayer should be an expression of gratitude, of praise, and, yes, occasionally, of request. If you don't ask, you won't receive. Of course, if you don't thank God for what He's given you already, or if you don’t praise God (show an appreciation just for who He is), He's going to be considerably less inclined to give you more. Sometimes, though, prayer needs to have more intensity than we really want to commit to it. I think about Jesus praying in the garden, and it says that his sweat was as great drops of blood. There has been some discussion as to just exactly what that means, but the bottom line is, it means He was praying really hard. In some ways, it seems a little strange, He knew ahead of time what was going to happen; His impending crucifixion was not a surprise. Yet, here He was praying in the garden with a kind of intensity that most of us never reach. I have to believe that He prayed the way He did as an example to us. I don't mean that every time you pray, you should pray until sweat just rolls off of you, but that there should be an intensity to your prayers, and if you ever get into a situation that is as serious as the one He was in, then, yes, pray as hard as He did.