Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

One of the problems with 'wolves in sheep's clothing' is that, 

When they are shown a mirror

All they see is a sheep.

Very few people are fully aware of the evil they do, they are mainly following their feelings and programming.  The first person they deceive is themselves.

When a Pharisee (arrogant, judgemental religious leader) approached Christ in humility, He reasoned with them and taught them the error of their ways.  Otherwise, he just confronted them as one would an attacking wolf ("you hypocrites, brood of vipers", etc.).

I used to try to help everyone, thinking I could reason with all people, no matter how manipulative or bitter they were.  This is not the example Christ showed us.

Now I think, help people if they come for it; but only help them as you judge best, not necessarily as they want.  Otherwise, leave 'fools in their own foolishness'; unless they are harming others, in which case prepare to confront them head on.  This may not seem 'nice', but this is what Christ did; this is therefore love.

East from the West

“As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our sins from us.”

Psalm 103:12

Great verse to meditate on. Imagine God sending your sin and guilt an infinite distance away from you.  Picture it in your mind and let the feelings of guilt disappear into infinite space.

Of course, make sure you are thinking about this as the Jews would have originally understood it.  Nobody would use this analogy nowadays - east and west meet round the other side of a spherical world!

It is a fantastic verse, one my favourite on the subject of forgiveness.  It also shows that God communicates with us according to the current understanding that we have.  They (2500 – 3000 years ago) of course believed the world was flat. No one would use this analogy now.

Faith & Earning Relationship with God

People want to know God and so look for the faith they need.  But faith is not a thing in itself.  Faith is objective, i.e. it has an object that it relates to, that its existence depends on.  Look for God and he will proof himself to you (Jn 14:21).  That is, he will then give you faith in him.  This faith is a supernatural gift from God that convinces you of his existence and of the sort of person he is.

But rather than look for God himself, people look for faith.  Thus, they avoid having to look directly at him, with all the fear of conviction of sin, exposure of guilt, fear of rejection that brings.  Looking for faith in itself, faith so that we can know God, means that if we find it then credit for our faith will belong to us.  It will be something we have earned, something we have achieved.

Our search for faith is yet another attempt at earning a relationship with God.  Instead of accepting his grace, in this case his free gift of faith.

“I don't need God to give me faith, I can find it for myself.” !!!

“I don't need God to reveal himself to me, I can find him for myself.”

There is a sadness to this, the unloved trying to win his or her father's approval.

There is also an evil to this, “I don't need God's grace and mercy, I am like God myself, I can do this without him.”  Idolatrous, arrogant, and, ... ironic, “I don't need you to love me, I can get this intimate, loving friendship with you by my own effort, without your help.”  It makes no sense!  “I'll so impress my dad that he won't be able to stop himself loving me”; Er! no, if you defeated such an unloving parent, you wouldn't get approval from them, all you would earn will be their grudging admittance of defeat.

If God gave in to our attempts at earning his favour, He wouldn't be a God worth getting to know in the first place.  He would be a pathetic friend that we had successfully manipulated.

We waste our time and effort trying to earn things from God; approval, love, hearing His voice, gifts of the spirit, a ministry, something to do with our lives.  But if He were a being that we could earn something from, then we wouldn't find what we wanted in Him anyway.

"Abraham my friend" - Isaiah 41:8

God doesn't seem particularly interested in me being his slave or servant.  He seems to be only interested in me being his friend.  And it seems that even if this means I do very little for him, he'd still rather have me as a friend, than someone who strives to do lots of things for him.

He refuses to allow me to earn his love or acceptance. Which is a good thing, because I think now that even if I did one day do something in his kingdom so amazing that I finally won his approval (!), I would just resent it anyway.  A Father should love his kids regardless.  Earning your father's love seems impossible anyway, but if just suppose you did manage it ("Wow, that's so amazing son, now I accept you and affirm you as my son"), you would just resent it, because if it's not free, if you had to earn it, then it's worthless.  You're not being loved for who you are, but for what you've achieved.

A love that has to be earnt, isn't worth a thing.

(So, why do I still resist receiving God's love before I feel I've earnt it?)