Here’s a bit of a longer read about parallels and revelations in the Bible and my walk with Christ. I hope you enjoy!
I struggle with knowing how to share Christ with people who are so blatantly living in sin and running away from God. I love people and tend to be right at home wherever I am or whomever I am with. I easily adapt to people’s different ways of life, whether they are filled with Christ or not. People are often surprised by how chill I am, whether they know of my faith before or after we become friends. They have an expectation of judgment or condemnation or anything but chill. I have always had strong morals, thank you mom and dad! I remain in them, but don’t project my beliefs and values on others. We all have different backgrounds, and I wasn’t born in their bodies. I wasn’t raised in their shoes with the different experiences and environments and examples influencing my mind and actions. I don’t doubt that if I had lived the life they were born into, I would have ended up living a similar lifestyle. Addictions are solutions to problems; they are an outward sign of a deeper issue. I see that they are human and have a need for the one thing that brings fulfillment and life, and that is Jesus. I have never known how to act on that and bring them to know Jesus. It is easier to just let them continue what they are doing. I love them for who they are as sons and daughters of the King, but love is an action, and I often fail at putting it into action. I don’t love them in the right way or with the right mindset, and because of that, it is not effective.
Being away from life at home has brought me some clarity in that area. Throughout the Bible, there are parallels that I have begun to see. I struggle to tie every story I read into the big picture and all that God is doing throughout the Bible, but I’ve finally been putting some of the puzzle pieces together. I’ve been learning about animal sacrifice in the Old Testament. Blood is the ‘life’ of an animal. When an animal is sacrificed, its blood is poured out in exchange for the person’s sins, cleansing that person’s life by covering it. This made it so the Israelites wouldn’t have to be separated from God and they could once again enter into His presence as pure. The Israelites constantly sacrifice animals to purify themselves throughout their lives individually and as a nation, so their sins don’t pile up as they are uprooted and cleaned away. God is pure and good and righteous, and the enormity of His purity would kill the sinful nature within a human. It is why the Israelites killed entire towns, leaving no survivors. Those people couldn’t go on living in the presence of God’s goodness. It is like light and darkness: When there is light, darkness cannot exist. Darkness is the word we use to describe the lack of light. When there is good in its purest form, evil cannot exist. Evil is the lack of goodness. Their evil could not exist in the presence of pure good.
And so it was with Jesus when we put Him to death and poured out His blood on the altar of the cross. The purity and goodness of His blood wiped away the separation of our sinful nature from God’s pure nature. It veiled us with white robes of righteousness and purity. And now, we are able to remain in the presence of God and are blessed with His Holy Spirit living in our midst. By His grace and love and death, we are made pure and have been given eternal life.
Of course, we falter and stain the robes of righteousness that cloak us. We stain them scarlet with sin, but His sacrifice on the cross cleanses them. I’ve noticed that scarlet is used throughout the Bible (Joshua 2:18,21; Isaiah 1:18), especially a scarlet thread, which points to Jesus and His coming. I love the symbolism of scarlet. It’s such a bold color that seems impossible to remove, and it reminds me of the book, The Scarlet Letter. It’s about a woman who wears a scarlet letter to remind the town of the sin she committed years ago. All who see her fail to look beyond the letter and her past to actually see her and who she is. This ties into who Jesus spent His time with here on earth – the broken, the cast out, the worst in society’s eyes, the prostitutes, etc. I also love that the word has ‘scar’ in it because that ties into Jesus and the wounds that humanity caused Him, that ultimately He took in order to take away our scars and our scarlet/sinful lives to cover them with white robes of righteousness.
In Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11, God commands the Israelites not to use two types of material/thread to make any garment. What a strange law! What does that have to do with remaining in right relationship with God? I have also noticed the expression, “robes of righteousness,” being used multiple times throughout the Bible. I had an ‘aha’ moment relating the expression to the law. There is a purity and wholeness in one type of clothing, and the robes that God clothed us with through His sacrifice make us pure and whole. Matthew 9:16-17 says, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” The clothing God puts on us to make us whole is made up of one material, and that is righteousness. Just as He calls us to be one body in Christ, He calls us to be one with Him and His heart. He calls us to wholeness and purity, not tainted by sin. He calls us to not have our toes dipped in dirty water or another way of living while the rest of our bodies are dipped in holy water. He wants us to be made of one material. He calls for all of our being to follow Him; not just pieces of us or certain parts of our lives. He calls us to be all in. Two kinds of material or thread react differently to the world’s elements and cannot act as one unit. We are called to be one body in Christ, not two bodies in one. He wants our eyes, all of our eyes, to be fixed on Him – the eyes of our flesh, the eyes of our spirit, the eyes of our hearts, and the eyes of our minds. If even one pair is focused elsewhere, we can easily be led astray or lead others astray by confusing them.
This gave me a new understanding of how to share Christ with people who are living in sin without condemning them. Being a bystander in some areas is not okay. It’s okay to be adaptable and comfortable. It’s okay to fit in to any situation, but in acceptance and love of others, I still need to stand up as a Christian and “be strong and courageous” ~ Joshua 1:9, for me and for them. He doesn’t call us to be lukewarm or only give certain parts of our lives to Him. We are called to be pillars of Christ, not hidden from sight, but shining with His light. I have been a pillar, shining when I choose and with those I trust. His light definitely shines out of me, but I am also good at hiding it. I am learning more and more how I can go about letting it shine always regardless of where I am or who I am with. It ties into being made of one thread that connects to Christ. He is the vine and we are the branches. Our words need to match our actions, which need to match our hearts.
Condemning people or pointing out their sins will only lead them to rebel and listen to what you have to say with a grain of salt. I send mixed signals when I act 100% cool with people doing whatever they want even when it involves sin and I don’t agree with it. That sends a message to people that I don’t disagree; that is when I am hiding the light of Christ. God calls us to love the sinner and hate the sin. I don’t care so much about what people do, as much as I care about who they are and what they are worth. They are priceless to Christ, and therefore they are worth everything. Addictions like alcohol, drugs, sex, etc. are a solution for people; they aren’t the problem. Seek to dig deeper and find the problem, the root of their addiction. Love the sinner; hate the sin. Look past what they present to the world. When they do wrong against you, tell them they are worth more. Remind people of who they are and where they are meant to get their affirmation. God loves us, not in spite of our sins, but because of our sins. You love your brothers and sisters who are living in sin by reminding them of who they are as children of the King, perhaps leading them to a better life, a life they are called to, and a life in which they can be who they truly are. Just as God is with us no matter what we do, be there for them no matter what they do. Be there for them when they fail and choose to go the wrong way. Be there for them when they succeed and go the right way. Your response should be the same; it should be one of love. Love your neighbor as you love yourself – for who they are. “God has a beautiful way of bringing good vibrations out of broken chords.” ~Chuck Swindoll. In loving them, they might start to know who they are. As they dive into that, they will lose their addictions. The addiction cannot have a hold when there is no problem to fix. A solution is no longer needed.
Throughout all of this and throughout life, you are called first and foremost to renew your mind with His Word, meditating on it day and night (Joshua 1, Psalm 1). Remain in His Word, so that you will not be sucked into the sin of this world, so that sin cannot overtake you. In Revelation 22:14, it says, “blessed are those who wash their robes.” During His time on earth, Jesus constantly withdrew to pray and spend time with God. He set an example for us to follow, so that when we spend time with sinners, we would remain in Him. Circumcise your hearts so that you may keep the robe that He has clothed you with clean and new. I once read a story about a prostitute. She had almost given up on God because whatever church she went into would turn her away because of her lack of clothing. She told Him it was His last chance and gave one last church a try. This church did not turn her away because the pastor alone refused to do so. She would come and go, and eventually, after months, there was a change. She started dressing in actual clothes and wearing a smile. A while later, she met with the pastor and shared her story. She said that he had clothed her with his eyes. Let us clothe others with our eyes. Let us clothe one another with robes of righteousness and look past what our earthly eyes may see.
Bisous,
Meagan
