i visit the jail often, often enough over the last years to see patterns among those incarcerated. Most who are incarcerated are not only physically imprisoned, but also mental and spiritual prisoners too, many times, if not most times, in a prison of their own making.
How did they become those people, twisted thinkers, irresponsible with habits of consistently choosing poorly, and not regretting those choices until after they are running and gunning again with the blue lights of law enforcement outside their door?
i know a man who wrote a book which many inmates read… they, the inmates think it was written just for them, and partly it was, but initially, while the man was pastoring a church, the book was also written for his congregation, whom he realized had the same stinking thinking going on as those incarcerated… it’s just that the ones in jail got caught, and the ones in the congregation were still operating in their twisted thinking, not, as of yet, apprehended, neither had it even entered their mind that they were being hindered in their relationship with the Lord by way of their own thinking.
How do we get there? i mean, think about it, no one wakes up one morning and thinks to themselves, “Today is the day i’m going to begin my criminal career.” At least i don’t think so. i doubt people make the decision, on the spur of the moment, to be a drug addict; i don’t believe anyone decides to make a career of sin while drinking a little coffee in the morning and reading the paper, or makes the life decision to not be responsible and accountable for their actions, ignoring who they wound, gleefully going on deflecting any challenges as to their distinct lack of honesty… it’s extremely remote that any of us wake up one day and decides that stuff.
i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation, coming to you semi-live from the late evening cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant. i’ve got the lawn chairs set up, coffee is on, God’s handy work of another glowing evening is visible at the horizon… just sitting here, waiting for you to come sit with me a while. We’ll talk and sing, like we might if we were sitting around the Crystal Sea, talking and laughing, reminiscing about the times in our lives about when the Lord did this, and when He said that. Peace my friends, be at peace, you don’t have to cry anymore… those days are done… and you don’t have to cry anymore. Because of Jesus, our wounds don’t need to dictate our actions any longer… being free, we are no longer slaves, and you are not a slave to the sad history of life. We don’t have to cry any more.
Drip by drip, the world and it’s ways influence our lives. Like water dripping on a stone, over time, if allowed to continue to drip, the stone eventually yields to the persistent dripping of water becoming reshaped into something other than what it would normally be. Drip, drip, drip, drip. It is so subtle sometimes we just don’t notice, but it is there. Like watching the tide go out or come in, it is so subtle we only notice when a sizeable difference is evident, only then do we think to ourselves, “Oh, look, the tide has changed.”
Drip by drip, criminal thinking is achieved with all its irresponsibility, unaccountability, and living in a dream where it’s a habit to blow past our actions, and then, neglecting honesty, many tend to hyper-spiritualize things so they, still don’t have to be accountable. Once we are far from shore, no longer tethered to the security of the dock, we wake up and wonder, “How did i get way over here?” Drip, drip, drip. The drip of the world seeps into our thinking and we slowly ebb away only to find ourselves at a very uncomfortable distance from God.
God has found us out, we are not all we thought we were, and we are all God knew we were. Isaiah 46:10 says that the Lord declares the end from the beginning, which means from the beginning He has declared the end. i heard someone say God controls history from the future. i think that is absolutely correct. Before the beginning He knew we would need a savior… before the beginning, the character of the cross was worked in the heart of the Father, so at the appointed time, Jesus, the Christ of God would come to us, get eye level with mankind, allow Himself to suffer and be crucified, and be raised from the dead to rescue the object of His affection.
The Lord was not ignorant that we would be subject to the persistent drip of the world, in all its unbelief, in all its self-declaration, and all it’s destructive and hurtful ways. For those who are no longer slaves, we have shelter from the constant drip on our heads from the world and all its God-excluding habits.
The Lord is far, far kinder and more merciful toward our weaknesses than most of us give Him credit for. Psalm 103:13-14 “As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust“. He understands our human frailty or susceptibility to worldly ideas completely and so pities us like a loving father toward his children. Now, that doesn’t mean we are suddenly off the hook for our actions and attitudes, absolutely not, and there is indeed a difference between the redeemed and those who are not. Romans 6:14-15, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!”
Being free in Christ doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want without the repercussions of our actions, but more we are free to do the right thing as often as we want. When we were slaves, we had no strength against sin, even when we wanted to resist. Paul mentions in Romans 6:12 that if sin rules in our mortal body, then we are subject to be made to obey it’s passions. Yet in all our messiness, God truly understands us, and because of the passion of Jesus, we who believe in Him are free to obey righteousness over sin.
When a child is first learning to eat, a good parent doesn’t stand over the toddler and scream, “You stupid child! I expected more out of you than that. You should be successfully using a knife, fork, and spoon by now, and not smearing food in your hair with your hands and spilling stuff everywhere!”. (Chuckle) No, the parent knows the child’s weakness, and so has no such delusions about their abilities. So, a good parent will simply pick the child up, clean them off, and try again, even though sometimes they may envision themselves just driving into the distance alone. The Lord never leaves us behind, perfectly understands our weaknesses, and wants to help us overcome.
He understands because He created us. You know, every inventor i’ve ever known has a pretty good idea of how their invention works, having been the very person who dreamed it up and put it together. In a more profound manner, the Lord has total knowledge of all the inner workings of every human being, and is not so offended He abandons us. In Psalm 139:13-15, David wrote, “You have formed my inward parts; you have covered me in my mother’s womb… My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth“.
2 Corinthians 2:11, “… so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”
We forgive others because the Lord forgives us. We forgive others so we are not chained to them in circumstances. Another reason is because we know to hold forgiveness over someone’s head can be a crushing weight… if that is you, deal with it and be done… God does not hold forgiveness over our head, saying, “If you’ll get this next part right, maybe i’ll forgive your sins” which would be back to a retributive theology which says, do good get good, do bad get bad… that is not love. God is faithful to forgive us our sins when we ask and He doesn’t hold our ability to perform over us as a condition of our forgiveness, that’s called holding someone hostage which is not the heart of God.
Leaven in dough is a creeping thing. It doesn’t happen all at once, and once it starts, it doesn’t stop until the whole lump is leavened.
Mark 8:15, “Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.””
The leaven of the Pharisees is the law, which says if you get it all right then you’ll be ok, but you won’t… within ourselves, how often are we making a list, checking it twice, always measuring if we’re naughty or nice. 1Cor15:56 says that the law is the strength of sin.
The leaven of Herod is being in the grip of getting more… more money, more recognition, more personal achievement, more prestige, more power, more authority… just… more. That would be like the drip of the world, at first, it may be just a little drip here, and a little drip there. One or two drips are one thing, but the continual drip into our lives from advertising, television, the news and media persuades us away from God. i marvel at the continual drip of the idea that we don’t need God which is constantly presented to us by science, our educational system, government, and the media. Hmmm… i wonder who’s driving their train?
As example, a well-loved international magazine which always has the most amazing photographs and has been in business for almost 100 years is constantly presenting evolution as the truth on the front page, but when you actually read the article it is filled with words like “maybe”, “possibly”, and “we believe it could be”, which are not words of certainty… the article is typically presenting possibilities, but the magazine editors constantly present evolution to us as the truth. Drip, drip, drip.
Matthew 13:33, “Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.“”
Obviously, that means with Jesus in your life, He works to perfect you, to make you more than you ever thought possible… for you to know that you are more than just a low down sinner. He works, pursues, calls, and loves you into surrender, from glory to glory.
Ovid, who’s poetry greatly influenced western art and literature said, ““Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”
Evidently, there’s two types of leaven, there’s the leaven of the world, and the leaven of the Lord. One wears you down to hell, and the other lifts you up to Heaven. Both are persistent, both endure to the end, both represent a pervasive influence that modifies and transforms… Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” We can’t have both types in the same lump of dough…so either we are leavened toward Heaven, or leavened toward hell, in the same way we can’t be a saint AND a sinner at the same time… is you is or is you ain’t. Now there’s something to get down into our heads.
The constant drip of the persuasion of the world inspires us toward wrong conclusions about ourselves and the world around us. The slow advancement of worldly corruption impinged upon us inspires young men and women to have serious self-centered and self-image problems… so much so that 70.4% of suicides which succeed are male, yet only 22.6% of women succeed. Women fail to take their own lives 77.4% of the time, men succeed 70.4% of the time. Be on guard my friends, the rotting stench of darkness looks to creep into our thinking, persuading our lives. Take Jesus as your shield.
True story: A mother had a nagging thing going on in the back of her head that something was going on with her son. He seemed successful at his job, made good money, his bosses seemed to have high hopes for his future promotions. But recently, he had stopped talking to her, stopped calling, and only yesterday had said he was taking a break from talking to anyone for a while. That afternoon, being worried as she was, she went to his house, went inside and called his name….no answer. She went upstairs to the bathroom, and there in a tub of cold water was her son with no breath in his body. Written on the mirror, it said, “I am sorry. I am just so tired of trying to be perfect.” His high pressure bosses at work were sad for a couple minutes, then they set about to hire someone else. The drip on our heads of the influence of the world invades our thinking and we desperately need protection.
i fully believe there is nothing wrong with someone telling their story about all the past badness in their lives, as long as they don’t linger, almost gloriously, on the darkness of it all… it is MORE important to tell the redemptive story of Jesus in their lives, how God delivered them and set their feet on solid ground. Jesus is the focus not the badness of our past. i believe it would be a brutal thing to only tell of sad things and not point out the goodness of God which drips like refreshing rain on us. Once we have seen the goodness of the Lord, the downward spiral of the world becomes more apparent.
The Lord is the absolute master of contrasts and comparisons, He constantly is revealing to us the contrast of Himself with the world. The leaven of the Lord pulls us up, the leaven of the world spirals us down; the leaven of the Lord says be free, the leaven of the world says you are a slave forever so don’t even try; the Lord says love endures forever, the leaven of the world convinces us love is only for a night; the Lord says Jesus is sufficient and in Him you are sufficient, the leaven of the world says you will never be good enough so sit down slave!; the love of God improves all it touches, the leaven of the world degrades us then throws us away like trash; the leaven of the world inspires us to loosen our belt of truth, the causation of the Lord inspires us to higher honesty and to own the truth; the steady drip of the world deteriorates all things to rotting and defilement, the steady drip of the Lord makes all things beautiful as a gift to lovers; the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that is life giving, the leaven of the self-inclusive world system is only death dealing.
The drip of the world wears us down like water dripping on a stone, wearing us down if it is allowed to continuously do its work. If people receive Christ, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and wearing the helmet of hope of salvation as the defense against the world’s persuasion, the wearing down drip of the world will be deterred. 1 Timothy 6:10-12, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
The leaven of the world sees transgressing and lying against the LORD as normal, necessary behavior, subtly persuading us to depart from our God, the Kingdom of Heaven says it is good for us to draw near to God and say I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all His works; the world teaches us how to dream up and speak from our heart words of dishonesty and deceit, and that doing injustice is a good idea in order to further our personal agenda, whereas the entire basic theme of 1John is to hold fast to truth, love, and obedience with an additional focus on what Godly hospitality is all about. The drip of the world upon us teaches us from an early age that secretly thinking you’re better than everyone else is good for your mental health, God is persistent to teach us to let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves, not looking to only our own interests, but also for the interests of others.
i need, not just want, but need You Jesus. i need, not just want, but neeeeed Your strength, mercy and love. Let righteousness draw near to my heart, and that i would have the passion and zeal to be bold and loop my arm under the arm of truth which has fallen in the street, helping truth to its feet, encouraging honesty and integrity to enter every heart, home, city, state, and nation. Because of You Jesus, peace, which we had not known before, now we know…drawing all things into right perspective. By your peace our crooked paths are made straight, righteousness overtakes us in the heat of the day, our souls rejoice and sing of your glorious light, we have brightness on our path. We no longer grope for the wall like the blind any longer, but now we have eyes to see, nor do we stumble at noonday or in the twilight. You Lord, make us alive and animated, even though we walk through desolate places, we are firm in our trust in You and are not moved from our station. We lift up your name and you draw all men unto Yourself, even those who growl like bears and moan sadly like doves for grief, and loneliness, by your blood and redemption, i am no longer that person. You do not know my wrongness of character any longer, and truly, the buck stops with you. Regardless of what men say, all things come to rest at the feet of Jesus, and Your decision is the final word. i need you Jesus, not just want, but neeeed you Jesus, i need your support for in the leaven of the world, i’m weak as water….You build me up, unlike the world which delights in tearing me down, you make me firm and steadfast in a world of mobile boundaries and fuzzy morals, i am permanent and quiet, moral and true, made to be of long continuance, faithful and loyal like You. i am inspired to speak, i no longer hold my peace therefore my tongue does not cleave to the roof of my mouth, neither does the spirit of fear cause all my bones to shake.
The constant drip of the rain of Heaven can rehydrate even the driest heart, the most distant dream, and the faintest hope. He is even able to dry up the most grievous tears, and the saddest soul.
Psalm 68:8, “The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.” Put on Christ who defends us from the subtle dripping upon our heads from the world. It is good to wear the armor of God! Think about it.
Every day, the world in all it’s self-inclusive, God excluding ways tries to seep into our thinking. There are many who have become persuaded, over time, to allow a little leaven of the world in their lives. They don’t seem to mind wearing the belt of truth a little loose, their breastplate of righteousness is tarnished from lack of attention, and readiness is not as important as it used to be. They look more like faded glory, than ready soldiers for the Lord. The Chinese water torture is a process in which water is slowly dripped onto a person’s forehead, allegedly driving the restrained victim insane. If we allow ourselves to be restrained by the world’s conduct and conscience, and the values of the world are constantly allowed to drip onto our heads, we will find ourselves increasingly indifferent to the very person, Jesus, who died from our sins that we would be free. The subtle influence of violent television, the subtle influence of an immoral society, the subtle and persistent influence of cultural unbelief, pointlessness, and hopelessness (which is despair), overtime, creates people who see no good reason to be honest, to love the truth, to exercise kindness, and courage.
But Jesus, yes Jesus came to not only set us free from those things, He also empowered us to not only resist, but to actually win against grief and despair that we don’t have to sit in a dark corner and cry anymore, we can win by sitting under God’s umbrella of protection. Romans 6:8-11, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
We, who are in Christ, are dead to the insidious, steady drip on our heads from the world, we live under the shelter of the Almighty. Psalm 143:9, “Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; In You I take shelter.” and Joel 3:16, “The heavens and earth will shake; But the LORD will be a shelter for His people…”
i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, right next door to Trinity Bakers, that’s right, Trinity Bakers where there’s always something good in the oven.
Psalm 91:1, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”
We do not have to sit under the invasive drip of this world which persuades exposed minds and hearts toward criminal thinking. The Lord has already won the battle, we are more than conqueror’s because Jesus is more than a conqueror, we don’t have to sit and cry anymore. Amen!