A Holy Restraining Order

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. ~ Revelation 12:11 

Blood is a powerful thing. It is the vehicle of life. Blood carries nutrients and oxygen to every cell of our bodies, distributing life through its flow. When the blood stops, life stops. Only blood can hold back death.

When God created man, He covered him with His glory and filled man's veins with physical lifeblood. Adam and Eve dwelt in a Garden that was filled with life. There was no death, no sin, no corruption. Their disobedience to God changed all that and opened the door to death. God's glory left them and they stood naked and spiritually dead. They tried to cover their sin with leaves, but only God knew how to properly hold back death. He sacrificed animals and covered Adam and Eve with the skins. That was the first time blood was shed on man's behalf. God did it with His own hands.

When Cain slew his brother Abel, God said that the voice of Abel's blood cried out. Blood has a voice. It speaks out against death.

When the plague of death to all firstborns was pronounced upon Egypt, God instructed Moses to sacrifice a lamb and place the blood on the door posts of his house. The blood held back the spirit of death and caused it to pass over without entering. Every home in Egypt that had lamb's blood over the door was spared from death.

When God established the Law through Moses for the nation of Israel, he instructed them to sacrifice animals so that the blood would hold back the effects of sin, namely death. Animal blood was not powerful enough to eradicate sin, but it covered for a time.

Through all of this, God was preparing the way for a better sacrifice. When the time was right, God sent His own Son into the world for the purpose of shedding His own blood, so that death could be defeated. Jesus was born to bleed for us, born to die for us. He understood all of this full well and went willingly to the slaughter. He shed His blood as a sacrificial lamb. When we accept that sacrifice it is as though we are placing His blood on the doorposts of our own life, so that death may not enter. We are restored to spiritual life with our Heavenly Father. We are given everlasting life in His courts. Our physical bodies are quickened and have the potential for supernatural health, if we truly have faith in the power of the blood.

When Jesus shed His blood at Calvary, pouring it out onto God's Mercy Seat, we were given a holy restraining order against sin, death, sickness, satan and all demonic oppression.

There is no physical blood on our doors that keeps death and destruction from entering our lives. Because we don't have blood that we can see, we often forget to enforce the restraining order. But, if there is blood in our faith, we have the power to stand against the enemy and forbid him to pass.

As I prepare to celebrate my precious Lord's resurrection tomorrow, I am grateful for and mindful of His shed blood. That blood still covers the Mercy Seat. The restraining order still stands in effect. It is up to us to enforce it. It is according to the measure of our faith.

Lord, I believe in the power of your shed blood. Please, help my unbelief.

***

Notes on the drawing: "Passover" by Carol Ann Welch, ink & colored pencil on paper, 11"x14", copyright 2002.

A Parable of Three Slaves

     There were three men bound in chains, slaves to an evil taskmaster. One day, a free man approached them. He took pity on the slaves, so he gave all that he had to purchase the slaves from the taskmaster. He took the keys and went to release the men from their chains. He told them that he offered them complete freedom, with no obligations or cost to them.
     The free man offered the key to the first slave, who carefully considered it. The taskmaster had deceived him into believing that he was not really a slave. He was used to the life he had and did not see the true nature of his captivity. He was suspicious of the key and suspected that it would lead him to a worse fate.  He rejected the key.
     The free man was heart broken, but moved on to the second slave and offered him the key. This man recognized his situation and received the key gratefully. Once his chains were removed, he thanked the free man then set out on his own path, excited about his freedom. The free man tried to warn him of the dangers of becoming enslaved again, but the second man took no heed and went his way.
     The third man received the key humbly and wept at the free man's feet, thanking him with all his heart. The newly freed man kissed his deliverer's hands and offered him his life in service. 
     "Would you become a slave again so quickly?" the deliverer asked him.
     "There are many more who are still enslaved as I was," he replied. "I would gladly pledge my life to helping you set them free."
     The man with the key smiled and said, "Follow me."

***

Last week, during a Bible Study on Ephesians, there was a discussion of free will. In the midst of that discussion, the Lord gave me this parable. For anyone who might not see the symbolism, here's the message:

The three men were all slaves to sin. The first man rejected the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and remained a slave to his sin. The second man received Jesus as his savior, and was set free from the bondage of sin. However, he chose to follow his own path and live life his own way. Most likely this man would fall back into sin. The third man received salvation, but also made Jesus the Lord of his life, pledging a commitment to follow His leading.

Yes, this is a very simple picture; but I believe the gospel is just that simple. I have given a lot of thought to this over the past week. The most wonderful revelation that I have received is this:

God is not a control freak.

Do you know how liberating that is? God is not trying to control me or manipulate me. He has given me the absolute freedom to do whatever I please. How much greater does that make my decision to follow Him? That excites me! The Sovereign Most High God, Creator of the Universe, who has the power to completely control everything in existence, chose to give me free will.

Now, you may be thinking that God controls everything... the tides, the orbits of the planets, sunrise and sunset. But let me ask you this... do you have a programmer sitting at your computer controlling every action that it makes? No, because the programmer designed a system that will operate independently of his control. When God created the heavens and earth, He designed systems to govern natural processes (for a glimpse of this wonder, I suggest reading Job 38, a personal favorite of mine). Those systems are so perfect that they have been running without error for thousands of years. Can God control them? Yes. Absolutely. At Joshua's word, God stopped the movement of the sun and moon in the valley of Aijalon (Joshua 10).

God chose to give us free will. He honors that free will without exception. To me, that means that He has bestowed a great honor on me. He loves me enough to let me choose. That is a very difficult concept for most people. We tend towards control, often thinking that it is safer for us to control our situations and the people in our lives. I submit to you that control is a false sense of security. It is fear-based and perpetuated by the devil, who is the ultimate control freak. I won't spell it out for you here, but if you study it out in scripture, you'll see it.

One of the hardest things about being a parent is to allow your children the room to make their own decisions and learn from their own mistakes. Do we set boundaries? Yes. Children need them. Are there consequences for bad decisions? Yes, that's how children learn. God is the Master Parent. His Word is our boundary. Consequences are programmed into the system. He loves us enough to let us choose. He leads, He prompts, He guides, He woos and He sends others to point us towards Him. But, never, not once, does He get into a power struggle with us. And when we mess up, He corrects us; but He never condemns us. Not if we are in Christ.

This has been an amazing revelation for me. I intend to study this out further, especially in Jesus' actions towards others. I believe it will prove itself. In the meantime, I recognize that to be more Christ-like, I must lean less on control and more on faith in God. The more faith I have in Him, the easier it is for me to give Him control of my life. God does not demand of me that He have control of my life. I give it to Him freely, as a gift. I know I can trust Him with it, because He has my best interest at heart.

Letting Go

I started this painting in the 90's. (Eek! It's about time I finished it.) I had everything painted except the ripples in the water and the flowers. I don't know why, but I just set it aside. I pulled it out of storage last summer and have had it sitting in my kitchen - looking at it. The Lord began to talk to me about it and so, I had to finish. I worked on it once in February and today and that's all it took. But, it took a lot of work on me to get here.

The painting was inspired by a story I once heard about a Native American tradition of dealing with the past. I heard the story on a TV show (Northern Exposure, I think), so I wouldn't count on it being historically accurate. The story goes that when a person needed to let go of the past, she would write letters to her ancestors or gather items that had past significance and take them to the river. She would release them into the river, trusting the water to deliver them to the spirits of her ancestors. Since rivers carry things away and never return, this was a way of releasing those hindrances and hurts from the past.

On my 30th birthday, I went camping alone. I had gathered some things. I wrote a few letters. I sent some stuff down the river. I burned a few things in the campfire too. I prayed... a lot. I let go of a lot. Later, I decided to paint the story. I think I stopped painting because I didn't fully understand the depth of letting go. God still needed to deal with me, teach me and bring me to where I am today.

When I finished the painting today, I said, "it is what it is." I realized that I could have fussed with it more and try to make parts of it better. But, it was time to let go and move on. Do you see the figures in the water, reaching for the flowers? They were in my original plan for the painting and that was all I really needed to paint to be finished. I debated about whether to include them, since they seem rather pagan. But, to me they represent acceptance and peace. The past is resolved. It is what it is.

For the past several months, God has been dealing with me about letting go of some things. Mistakes, hurts, disappointments, expectations, plans that never came to pass, people's opinions of me and so on. Two phrases have returned to my thoughts again and again:

Whatever happened, happened.

Don't look back.

The first is a quote from my much-missed TV show Lost. It basically means the same as "it is what it is." Certain things happen in life that can't be changed no matter how hard we try. History (despite what the revisionists think), situations, experiences, words spoken by us or to us - they can't be changed. People's opinions of us cannot be changed by us, only by the person with the opinion. I have spent way too much of my life on would've-could've-should've, what if..., and yeah but.... These are all ways of obsessing about something which we cannot control. I have replayed things in my head over and over. Has any of that effort ever changed the past? No. never. The past is what it is. Whatever happened, happened. A big part of letting go is learning to accept that concept and get to the place where we can honestly say, "OK, I can't change it and I'm not going to waste my time with trying."

I was talking to Rick about all of this awhile back and he said, "don't look back." When he said it, I immediately heard that line from CCR's song Run Through the Jungle - "Don't look back." I have heard that in my head so many times in the past several months! Just as replaying the past is obsessing, looking back is grieving over what is no more or what might have been. Another dead end street. We can spend our lives looking back, but it won't bring back the good things or change the bad. Looking back did not work out well for Lot's wife - she turned into a pillar of salt. That may not happen to us, but looking back will feed the grief and keep it alive. Feeding things just makes them get bigger. Stop feeding it, it dies. Don't look back.

We have to stop grieving and obsessing over what we cannot control. That's really what it's all about. We lack the control to change the past. We never had that kind of control and we never will. However, we can change our present and our future. We keep our eyes focused ahead. Of course we can't control other people - past, present or future. We have to learn to accept that and let go of those things others do that rub us the wrong way. Fear often tries to grip us and keep us looking back. We are afraid of being hurt, betrayed, rejected, ridiculed, invalidated, cheated or denied all over again. But, when we truly enter into the love of God and allow Him to heal all those wounded places, we learn that being wounded does not have to be so tragic. We learn to run to the Healer, cast all the cares on Him, receive His restoration and move forward. It's a process that may take some time; but it's worth the effort. It is God's will for us. Paul said it this way:

...but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 3:8-14

The past is what it is.

Whatever happened, happened.

Don't look back.

Let go.

Press forward.

***
Notes on the painting: "Letting Go" by Carol Ann Welch, oil on canvas, 16"x20", Copyright 2011.