2006-06-16
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As you already know, the Holy Spirit is leading me to write about the Lord's Prayer [MT 6: 9-13]. We have been looking at the index sentences used in olden times to teach uneducated people how to say this prayer. The first five of them are: "Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name" [worship]; "Thy Kingdom come..." [allegiance]; "Thy will be done..." [submission]; "Give us this day our daily bread..." [petition]; "Forgive us our [debts, sins, trespasses]..." [confession]. There is more to be written about the fifth sentence, before we go on to the next one.
It is coincidental that Peter and I are taking a class in spiritual discipleship from our Senior Pastor, Dean Nadasdy. He intended to take one week to talk about prayer, and due to his recognition of the nature and importance of this subject (not to mention the class' desire to go in greater dept on it), one week stretched to five wonderful ones. One of the points of discussion that came up was about the various translations of the Lord's Prayer, in particular the fifth index sentence. As you can see above, different English translations use the word "debts" [a Presbyterian custom], "sins," or "transgressions." I must agree with Dr. Eugene Bunkowske, a fellow student in that class, that "sins" is the most accurately descriptive word for this. The NIV uses "trespasses," probably the least descriptive of Christ's original meaning, because it is too limited in scope. The KJV uses "debts." While I do use the NIV frequently, it had escaped my notice that the statement in (13) found in the KJV, "For Thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen," is missing. It is the way people end this prayer with worship, making it like a bookend. As with PS 23: 1-6, The Lord is My Shepherd, I personally choose to use the KJV for it's beautiful language and the spiritual completeness of the translation. This is not the case with everything in the Bible, so I'm not saying I always use the KJV or any one version. There are no rules about this, and I'm just stating my own opinion with which you are welcome to disagree.
The confession of the fifth index statement is an acknowledgement of what we owe to God. For any good to be done, the sinner must do that first, showing God he recognizes he has done wrong. Look at 1 JN 3: 6-10, "So everyone who lives in union with Christ does not continue to sin; but whoever continues to sin has never seen Him or known Him. Let no one deceive you, my children! Whoever does what is right is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. Whoever continues to sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for this very reason, to destroy what the devil has done. Whoever is a child of God does not continue to sin, for God's very nature is in him; and because God is his Father, he cannot continue to sin. Here is the clear difference between God's children and the devil's children: anyone who does not do what is right or does not love his brother is not God's child." There's a lot of meat in this passage, so read it over again, meditating on each point made.
Most of us don't sin habitually, but intermittently. But, we must make no mistake about it: we are all sinners. It matters to God whether or not we are trying to work hard at exposing subtle sins in our lives (the hard ones to recognize) and expunge them. The latter is an often painful, but very necessary process. God's patience is long and compassionate for those in this category. He is willing to help us too, with aid in the discovery process by allowing us to experience circumstances which expose the sin, and with assistance in comforting us when we experience the pain of discovery. This is done with hope through His word and what He says to us in our prayers. Note 1 JN 2: 1-2, "I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have Someone Who pleads with the Father on our behalf-Jesus Christ, the righteous One. And Christ Himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone." By the way, that difficult word, "propitiation," can be defined as "the means by which our sins are forgiven," or "the means by which the Father is satisfied" in this context. Putting a capital "P" on it is a clear reference to Jesus Christ, as we can see in RO 3: 24-25 and referred to in HE 8: 12 and 10: 10. In Greek there is a tense called "aorist," which implies a single act of done at a point in time. In the Greek translation of the word "sin" in 1 JN 2: 1, this verb is in the aorist tense. We gain insight into the compassion and love our God has for us when we read 1 JN 1: 9 in the context of sinning once and confessing. "But if we confess our sins to God, He will keep His promise and do what is right: He will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing." This is followed with 1 JN 1: 10, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make a liar out of God, and His word is not in us." How much clearer can our need to acknowledge we have sinned be? Moreover, what Paul said in RO 7: 25a is the truth. After a series of comments about the conflict of the body and the spirit, he exclaims, "Thanks be to God, Who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!" This is said in reference to being given a way out of our one-time sin, then stopping the behavior, and confessing it to God-forgiveness.
PRAYER: O Lord, we bow before Your mighty throne as sinners always in need of forgiveness. We must acknowledge our sins as we discover them, expunge them from our lives refusing to repeat them, and confess them to You. While this is emotionally painful and often embarrassing, it must be done. You are always there to help us in the discovery process, by our circumstances revealing pockets of unbelief in our lives, You stand by to offer us comfort in our pain and healing of our spirits over time. We know that only You have the power, compassion, and patience to work with us through this process. Sometimes You work through others who choose to forgive us when we have offended them. We must understand that their forgiveness begins with You, for You are the source of all that is good in this world. PS 16: 2, "I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord. Every good thing I have comes from You.'" You have given us comfort in MT 5: 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: their's is the Kingdom of heaven." Our most important petition today must be that You will help us to keep our faith healthy, our willingness to be obedient to You strong, and our ability to stretch enough to see Your perspective intact. We must always know that our sanctification involves hard work on Your part to perfect us. Our dedication to cooperate with You is essential. The Psalmist understood this in PS 37: 23-24 when he said, "The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand." We gain comforting perspective when You inspired Paul to write, in 1 COR 10: 13, "Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps His promise, and He will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, He will give you strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out." Dearest Abba, we worship, thank, and praise You for all that You are and all that You do for us. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
There is still more to write about the fifth index sentence, which will be in next week's devotion. This time, we will focus on forgiveness, something I wish more people could extend. God has modeled it for us many times in the Scriptures, even in the OT. Before we leave the subject of confession, I must in all honesty relate a short story about it from my own past life. I was stubborn, something Jewish people are sometimes noted for - even in the Scriptures [see RO 11: 25]. As an 7 year old, I wanted to show my schoolyard friends just how "independent" I could be. I decided that I would no longer wear shoes. My mother saw me leave the house with them on, the big corrective Oxford types that embarrassed me hugely. My parents decided that I had to be stopped from walking duck-toed. Halfway to school, I found a convenient hedge, ditched the shoes, and showed up day after day in my stocking feet. On the way home, I would don the shoes, thinking no one would know or care. But my teacher did, and she called my mother. I was called on the carpet and initially refused to admit my wrongdoing. Yes, I lied with all aplomb. Had I been Pinocchio, my nose would have been a mile long! No adults involved were a bit fooled, and I was roundly punished anyway. When I finally tearfully confessed to what I had done, I was given sweet forgiveness and recognition of how stupid my behavior had been. And yes, the corrective shoes went on to stay again for the rest of that year and the next. Sadly, I still walk toes-out, but the lesson about the blessings of honesty hopefully has stuck. Right now, I have to look at things this way: I'm grateful to God I can walk at all! He blesses us and forgives us when we discover and stop sins. Dear Ones, our God is merciful and wise beyond anything a human can be.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn