I am not big on all the reality T.V. shows, but there are a couple that have caught my attention. One is “The Biggest Loser” because it gives hope to the hopeless.
Many of the contestants before the show have just given up on life. They have tried every diet under the sun, yet they continue to fail to reach their goal. By routinely being discouraged and disappointed, they lose all hope that their lives will ever change.
The layers of guilt, shame, and embarrassment add to their emptiness as they know that they cannot change their lives themselves.
The personal trainers on the show, Bob and Jillian, rescue them from their hopelessness and push them to crazy depths for them to be transformed. As they see the results of their weight loss, they believe, many for the first time in their adult life, that they can be restored to a healthy self-image and weight.
“For him who confesses, shams are over and realities have begun; he has exteriorized his rottenness…he longer smears it over with hypocritical show of virtue – he lives at least on the basis of veracity (truth).”
William James
Confession is good the for soul…it takes a heavy burden off your shoulders by cleansing you and is the first step in dealing with life on life’s terms. The Bible tells us that those who conceal their sins will not prosper, but those who confess and forsake those sins will find mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)
This is the way many people believe that they will get to heaven. It sounds fair doesn’t it? As long as you aren’t an axe murderer, rapist, or child molester, you’re good. On the surface this looks good, but let’s dig deeper and ask:
How hard do you have to work?
What are the right things?
Who makes these types of decisions?
For instance, the Aztecs believed child sacrifice was a “right thing.” Will killing innocent children to appease God get them into heaven? They thought so.
Muslim countries that adhere to shia law believe women should wear burkas, not work nor drive. Westerners see this as oppressive and not the right thing to do. What’s one to do?
The Bible guides offers a clear answer to these questions. Warning: this answer is counter-intuitive. It cuts against our pride and the good old Protestant work ethic.
There is nothing we can do or offer God to get to heaven. It is all up to him. Consider, “he saved us, not be of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” (Titus 3:5) or “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
God is the one making the decisions through his mercy, not our works; through a gift of his grace, not through anything that we can offer. It’s all about him, his desires, and his will.
The Bible tells us that our even best works are “polluted garments.” (Isaiah 64:6) This is a very nice way of saying “menstrual garments”, as the original readers would have metaphorically understood. Think about that for a minute. When the light of God’s perfect glory shines upon our best efforts, they don’t reflect what we believe what they reflect. Rather it reflects every bit of its imperfection.
So, even if you work really hard and do all the “right things” as you define them, you remain in the same boat as those who don’t lift a finger and do bad things.
Discouraged? Feel that justice has been thrown out the window? Check out this post.
What are your thoughts? How have you explained this to others?
The leader of a Bible Study I attend told us that a friend of his who knows quite a few billionaires told him that many of those billionaires are the unhappiest people he knows.
There are a large number of people who believe money will bring happiness. They think that if they just had enough money, they would be happy. But an interesting thing happens along the way to earning enough money…many of them discover that they can never earn enough to keep up with their desires. As their income grows, so do their desires.
The Bible claims that those who love money will never be satisfied loving money. (Ecclessiastes 5:10) This is because money is unable to fill the “satisfaction” void. It was never designed for that purpose.
To be clear, the Bible is not anti-money for there are many examples of very wealthy, God loving people in the Bible. Abraham, Solomon, Job are three examples.
Kings had it. Princes were trained to get it. Others coveted it to the point that they would go to war to get a piece of it. Because of it, a king could make you or break you with a single word. Many of them lorded it over their subjects.
Today, generals, drill instructors, and the President of the United States have it. So do corporate executives, legislators with the keys to the purse strings, and your mom and dad … and if you are a mom or dad you have it.
Many of us know what it is like to have the power of making a final decision on something and can relate to the sign on Harry Truman’s desk “The buck stops here.”
So in one sense, we can understand how God has complete control over everything and everyone because in the small slice of our world, we have it. Yet on another level, we have no idea what it is like to have the sovereign power that he holds.
