Shit or Saints?

I have been following the blog of a close friend of mine from many years and have been very saddened through her recent very negative experience while attempting to join a local church. It appears that the church is far more interested in image management than in nurturing and loving people with humility. Of course, in the end it is always God Himself who receives the hit in yet another incident of profaning His reputation. But He knows that that is what we seem to do best and He talks about it and what He wants to do about it in Ezekiel 36.

As I read the comments associated with her recent blogs about this ongoing disaster, I was interested by her sister's comment (who long ago adopted a very openly hostile position toward anything at all to do with any church). In the direct quote from her sister, “KEEP OUT of church !!!!! Like I always told Bobby, 'To me your the bestist person in the world, but to other people your just shit' - goes to show I was right again!!!!”

These words have resonated in my mind overnight and I was surprised when I nearly read the same thing in my Bible this morning as I was absorbing Romans 8. There is was in verse 36. “It is written, 'For Your sake we are being put to death all day long, we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'” That sounds an awful lot like being considered “shit” to me. So it looks to me like, instead of being discouraged about this latest salvo of “shit” coming from a fan, my friend may actually be finding herself in very unexpected and excellent company – that of the greatest people who have walked the earth. It's just too bad that the “shit” has to so often be coming from the direction of people who claim to be God-followers. But then, that was just the same situation in Paul's case back then.

So take a look at a little of the context of this passage. What I began to see this morning was a glimpse into the very heart of God as indicated in verses 27-29. “He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:27-29 NAS95)

First I noticed the word “hearts”, and I have learned that in the Bible there is a significant difference between mind and heart most of the time as well as in our own experience. God, Who created us and understands absolutely every shiver of pain in our heart and every other feeling as well, is not unsympathetic or unfeeling or even ignoring us. He has provided His Spirit as an interpreter so that the deepest longings, cravings and desires that even we cannot grasp or articulate, can still be fully communicated directly and instantly (talk about instant messaging!) to the very heart of the One who can most effectively satisfy and protect us and love us completely. In fact, I believe that in the passage where it speaks of the “mind of the Spirit”, that this “mind” is actually the heart of God in reality, or at least has a direct hotline to His heart. And of course, we must not be put off by the term “saints” and think that we do not qualify for that position. Opposite to what the Dark Ages taught us, saints are any person whom God is shaping and drawing and changing to become more like His perfection of beauty.

Verse 28 which is often quoted and more often misunderstood, is a declaration of God's amazing ability to take any circumstances meant to damage and distort and hurt us, and turn them on their head by creating out of them another opportunity for us to grow and prosper and be blessed. And the more we trust His good intentions the more freedom we give Him to exercise this amazing feat in our lives.

I observed the phrase in 27, “according to the will of God”. I then saw what that will is in verse 29 – that we are “predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son”. When we come to realize that His Son is the most beautiful, most attractive, most amazing lover in all the universe, then we will no longer be so afraid of being conformed to reflect His character and personality like a mirror perfectly reflects the image of the one that it is pointed at.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword (or heartless people in large churches)? Just as it is written, 'FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED' (considered shit). But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39 NAS95)

While we are experiencing these things it does not come naturally to feel like we are overwhelmingly conquering. It feels much more like we are fast expiring under a dung-hill. But that is the difference between living in the reality as defined by our visible surroundings and imposed on us by the negative messages about our identity from sin-distorted minds, and choosing to believe the much more real reality of what God says is really going on and what He sees and believes about us. Paul did not shout these triumphant words because he was so smart or so religious or so surrounded by loving people who showered him with blessing and affirmations. He was slamming these words against the darkness of the clouds of pain and every scheme of Satan arranged to break him down and destroy his inner choice to cling to the unseen truth about God. Paul had learned that to declare the words of God is to experience the unleashed power embedded in those words.

So Linda, take heart, even while your heart is bleeding and shredded once again. Satan hates to see anyone even get close to discovering the real truth about God and he goes ballistic with every scheme he can dream up to reinforce his worn-out lies. But they are still just lies. You are not a piece of shit – no one is. You are a princess of the highest order and an heir to the throne of the whole universe. The enemy who lost his position at that very spot is so jealous of you that he will stop at nothing to prevent you from realizing your predestined destiny. But the greatest news is that he is wrong and he is not as strong as the One who is on our side. “What are we to say, then, in the light of all this? If God is on our side, who can there be against us?” (Romans 8:31 TCNT)