Loop Holes

Loop Holes 

by Margot Cioccio 

Normally writing comes easy for me. I've had weeks to write this reflection. I struggled to focus my thoughts. Lord what are you saying - even that is not flowing. 

I run through a mental check list. Is there sin in my life? Is there some instruction I’ve neglected to follow? Is the Lord perhaps speaking in an unfamiliar way? Is there demonic interference? Am I just tired or stressed? Am I resisting God in someway?

I read this quote while trying to sort out my thoughts about what to write. It’s by Bill Gaultiere a Psychologist who mentors Pastors.  

“What do you think about as you go about your day? Every moment of every day you and I have the freedom to think about whatever we want. Our minds may fill with worries, gossip, or sports scores. Our thoughts may cultivate anger, lust, compulsive working, people-pleasing, or depression. Or we can “Be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:1) in God’s Word, letting it diagnose us (Hebrews 4:12), wash us (Ephesians 5:26), and give us life (Genesis 1, Matthew 4:4).

So I stop and let the Word diagnose why I am struggling…I allow the Holy Spirit to lead me…Oh I see it now - I’ve been looking for loop holes in the Word to accommodate the push of the crazy world we live in. 

It’s amazing how quickly the God of peace comes to my rescue. 

I thought about how the Word washes us. Sometimes we don’t even know we’ve gotten dirty or exposed to germs of worldly influences. We don’t realize the lies we have, little by little, been conditioned into accepting and believing. 

I wash my hands with soap and water numerous times a day. Sometimes to clean off substances I can see or feel but often I wash them to remove germs and organisms that can’t be seen with the naked eye. I must do the same with God’s Word. 

Water is an interesting element. We can swim and play in it, wash in it, drink of it, but we can also drown in it. Think about rain water, not enough creates drought which is bad and too much is a flood which is also bad. Over time running water can cut through rock and create vast canyons. It causes crops to grow.  Water can take various forms. It can be liquid, or sold or it can be a vapor.  Water can be cool or hot or lukewarm.  Is water good or is it bad? 

I realize that in much the same way I am not really equipped to make such judgement calls in the lives of others. I can’t see the big picture. I rarely have all the facts and often unknowingly, I filter things through my own cultural prejudice. 

I think back to the garden. Before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of good and evil they didn’t have to concern them selves with being or doing good or bad. They could simply enjoy the garden God had created and enjoy his presence. 

Oh such simplicity… black is black and white is white but when we eat from the tree of good and evil life become such a muddled mess of grey issues that we can’t begin to untangle. I’d like to be able to say to unbelieving new age friends sure …all paths lead to God or yeah God is love and what the Word calls sin is negotiable. I’d like to find the loopholes. In the end I have to decide do I really believe the Word to be true and if I do then I have to accept that I can’t change it because it is inconvenient or at odds with the world around me. 

Rich Mullins writes in the song Creed. “ I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am. I did not make it, no it is making me. It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man” 

The Word of God challenges me and changes me if I will let it. It can wash me. It renews my mind. It aligns me to God’s truths so that I can recognize and stand against the lies of the enemy. 

While I don’t generally expect unbelievers to live by my standards and convictions. I have to be willing to take a stand and say I respect your right to believe and live as you choose. I have chosen to follow Jesus and as such to I live by faith led by the Holy Spirit to love Him with all my heart, mind, soul and strength and to honor him by showing mercy and kindness to others. I can’t bend the Word so that you can feel better about your sinful choices any more than I can bend it to accommodate my own sinful choices. Like it or not God has a standard. We will reap the natural consequences of our choices if we do not accept what Jesus did on our behalf. 

Photo from Unsplash by Nathan Dumlao 

How do we show a hurting world the Love of Jesus? It's not by diluting the word or removing God’s standards. It is by admitting that we too are incapable of fully living up to them. The thief on the cross next to Jesus found the narrow way. He never had time to amend his ways, or to be baptized. He didn’t go to the altar and say a sinners prayer. The only thing he did was believe. He says “we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” He says, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”  And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:39-43 (NASB)

If I am to love my neighbor as I love myself. I must extend to them the same grace that Jesus has extended to me. I have sinned and fallen short in so many ways. My best efforts are like filthy rags. The Word is the mirror in which I see my sin and realize my need for a savior. We are washed by the blood of Jesus not by our own efforts or religious righteousness.

 So these are his commands: that we continually place our trust in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we keep loving one another, just as he has commanded us.  For all who obey his commands find their lives joined in union with him, and he lives and flourishes in them. We know and have proof that he constantly lives and flourishes in us, by the Spirit that he has given us. 1 John 3:23