Choosing the Right Clothes

Tootling around online this morning while drinking coffee and trying to wake up, I noticed that certain cretins out in the anonymous world of www. were #momshaming Tori Spelling for the way her kids look.  Girl had posted an Instagram pic of them on their first day of school - - a rite literally thousands of other moms did over the past few weeks.  These are beautiful children, wearing school clothes, and yet the buzzards of www. began to pick Tori apart.....

We are pretty much obsessed with clothes and physical appearance, aren't we?  While admitting we can certainly go overboard with that, clothes do say a lot about a person.  I've heard it said that, in the job world, you ought to dress for the next position you desire.  So, for example, if you are a mid-level manager, you should dress like a manager, in anticipation of that promotion coming to pass.  

Let's take a look at the role clothing plays in the life of God's children.  Our text for today is Genesis 3:21. 

The LORD God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

Nakedness, even from the beginning, symbolized incompleteness.  

Who first clothed mankind in the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve did (Genesis 3:7), when they fashioned (pardon the pun) fig leaves together in a misguided attempt to hide their nakedness.  The first "successful" clothing of mankind, however, was done by God Himself, when He killed an animal, skinned it and made clothes for Adam and Eve to wear.   This is the first animal killing seen in Scripture, and blood was shed for the express purpose of atoning for (covering) man's nakedness, symbolic of his newly sinful, fallen state of being.  The animal's sacrifice was vicarious, a big theological word meaning "substitutionary".  Thus, the first animal slain was a sacrifice, was the launching point for the Old Testament sacrificial system and prefigured that once-for-all sacrifice which would take place millennia in the future, the everlasting, all-justifying, totally-redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Now, let's skip forward through the centuries to look more deeply at how God clothes His own.

Paul uses the analogy of clothes often to describe the Christian life, or what I call "the resplendent walk".  He uses this analogy briefly in 2 Cor. 5, but I want to also show you other places he talks about "being dressed right". Before we do that, though, look at what Isaiah said in 61:10 ---

I greatly rejoice in the LORD, I exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a groom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (HCSB)

This is an interesting verse.  Some theologians want to distinguish between these two "spiritual garments" - - - the garment of salvation being one, the robe of righteousness being another.  It is an interesting distinction.  The theological point made is that God gives us salvation through Jesus Christ, and this is symbolized by the salvation garment.  But, the robe of righteousness is an additional piece that He dresses us in.
Now, to Paul:

26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Galatians 3:26-27 (NET)

Paul emphasizes here, as he does elsewhere, that salvation comes by faith, not by good works.  By accepting Christ, through faith, we become sons of God.  This act has "clothed us with Christ". Beyond that transformational decision, we are also commanded by Paul to adorn ourselves with the characteristics of Jesus, to imitate Him in our daily lives.  This does not secure our salvation; it is a manifestation of what has already been done in our hearts.  In this way, we "reflect" Christ. 

14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires.  

Romans 13:14 (NET)

12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,

Colossians 3:12 (NET)

So, our righteousness comes from God the Father, through Christ the Son.  That is indisputable. However, we are responsible for making spiritually healthy choices as we live the Christian life.  This is how we "clothe ourselves".  It is a conscious act on our part, analogous to "taking up one's cross daily and following Jesus" (Matt. 16:24).  Now, look at the following passage:

6 Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we live by faith, not by sight. 8 Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So then whether we are alive or away, we make it our ambition to please him.10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.

2 Cor. 5:6-10 (NET)

Notice the phrase "make it our ambition to please Him". This is the conscious act of "putting on Christ" daily.  Paul goes on to say that we will have to give an account of all that the Lord Jesus has blessed us with in this life, in this body.  Our salvation is secure.  Our eternal destiny is fixed.  "There is therefore now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).  But, and I've blogged about this in previous posts - - - I'll try to find which one and post it under "Sources:" - - - all of us Believers will be given rewards at this "judgment" seat...or not.  Some of us may stand there nearly naked, clothed only in our salvation garment!  About 3 years ago, in our study of 1 Corinthians, we examined 1 Cor. 3:12-13 and saw that our actions after salvation will be tested by fire, and that some of them will be "burned up" like wood or hay or kindling.  Not cool!

Well, I want to be dressed right on that great judgment day, clad not only in my salvation garment, but also adorned with the beautiful jewelry of Christ-likeness.  I'm dressing for the next position I desire!

Good morning, Father.  Thank you for securing my salvation and clothing me in salvation.  I also realize that my righteousness comes from Your Holy Spirit living within me, bestowed on me through Your mercy.  In light of that truth, and because of how grateful I am for it, I choose to imitate my Savior.  Well, at least I try to most of the time, because I want to please You.  I confess I'm nowhere near 100% in that effort.  Help me be more like Him as I look more like Him.  In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Sources:

Resplendent Daughter blog: Honor's Day
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=967525413435341031#editor/target=post;postID=1129579313904961451;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=44;src=postname

Matthew Harmon's post at jesus.org:
http://www.jesus.org/following-jesus/discipleship/what-does-it-mean-to-be-clothed-in-christ.html

Battling for Joy

Many mornings, in my personal devotions, I go to John Piper's Solid Joys app on my iPad.  He is one of my favorite theologians, though we don't see totally eye-to-eye on the theological concept of election.  I highly recommend this resource to you for your mobile device.  His daily offerings there are what I'd call a highly nutritional snack for your day, whenever you pop in.  Recently, I read one of his posts on the topic of joy; it sort of flipped me on my head.

I realized I had a bit of a misconception about joy.
What I knew to be true (and still know):

1.  Joy is NOT the same as happiness.  The former is based on the foundational promises of God.  The latter is situational.  Both are wonderful, but the former is indispensable.

2.  Joy is the inheritance of every believer in Jesus Christ as Savior.  It is one of God's precious gifts to His children.

So far, so good, right?

Here's where my misconception came in, though.

I always believed that if I experienced an absence of joy in my life that this indicated some spiritual deficit on my part.  In other words, if joy was not "automatic" in my life, it was my fault.

Have any of the rest of you believers ever believed that?  I'd love to hear your comments on this blog page, with your thoughts....

That misinterpretation, though sincere, is a trick of Satan's to lessen our effectiveness.  He loves to beat us to a bloody pulp with this lie.

Now, wait - - - sometimes, there IS abiding sin in a Christian's heart, and in that case such sin needs to be attacked, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Exposed, confessed, repented of, turned from, walked away from, left behind.  Repeat, repeat, repeat (in some cases, for habitual sin).  This is a description of the Christian "going to war" over sin in his/her own life.  Pulling it up like a nasty weed.  Tossing it out.  You get the picture. 

But, there are also times when there is no known sin, and in fact, this scenario can occur when a Christian is in the heat of a battle, joy just seems to have fled the scene.  After all, for example, the spiritual weeding I described above is not what I call "fun" or a joyful experience.  It's more like plucking out a stray hair, repeatedly.  Ugh!  James, the half-brother of Jesus, knew about this, and wrote of it in James 1:2-3.  He opened his book with this truth; he must have felt it was critically important!

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

James 1:2 (ESV)

Going deeper, what I learned from John Piper on this topic is this:  as Christians, despite the fact that joy is our inheritance from our Savior, it is not enough to regard it as joy (as James said).  We must at times FIGHT LIKE HECK for it.

What?

Yes.

Dr. Piper calls it "fighting like a justified sinner".1  What does that mean?
Well, in all honesty, I've not read his book.   (You may want to investigate his book, referenced in the Sources section of this post. I plan to.)  But, I predict he means that we are to fight for joy as one who knows it already belongs to him/her and that we are sure to win the battle to receive it again.
IF joy is our promised inheritance, not only in eternity, but also in the "here and now" (yes!) ...
IF God always keeps His promises (yes!) ...
THEN (yes!), we can fight for joy with confidence that God will restore it in His perfect timing.

Sometimes, as we walk through prolonged battles in our resplendent walk, it takes time.  As we walk faithfully, and fight fiercely, we must simultaneously wait on God patiently.

Allright, so Christian People!  Let's gird ourselves with the Ephesians 6 armor, meditate on God's promises, and plunge into the fight for our joy today.  Are you ready?  Set?  GO!

8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:8-9 (NIV)

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Isaiah 61:10 (NIV)

17Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

18yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NIV)

This is the day that Lord Jehovah has made; come, we will leap for joy and rejoice in him!

Psalm 118:24 (Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

Sources:

1     Piper, John. When I Don't Desire GOD: How to Fight for Joy. Crossway Books, 2013.

A Most Faithful Prep and Unorthodox Proposal

It is a common human ritual: getting ready each morning.  We arise from our beds, contemplate our day's activities, and then groom ourselves accordingly.  If you don't plan to leave the house, you may put on your jogging shorts, sweat pants or yoga pants.  You may not spend a lot of time styling your hair.  You will dress for comfort, rather than for appearances, right?

In Ruth 3, we see this taking place in Ruth's preparations to go make an unusual proposal to Boaz.  Grab your bible and read this chapter if you can, before proceeding.

Naomi, realizing in those days that marriages were arranged, was well within her rights to "engineer" this next step, based on her perceptions of how Boaz had treated Ruth in the preceding days.  Naomi was also trusting in the promises of God, given in His Law, as to how kinsmen should "redeem" widows from their extended family.  Boaz, Naomi's near kinsman, was both wealthy and influential.  Furthermore, we saw in the last post that he was kind, took a personal interest in Ruth, and was exceedingly generous, none of which he was required by the Law to be.  Boaz had gone beyond the Law to show grace.

Now then...the next step was a huge step of faith for Ruth.  I'm sure these Jewish customs were quite strange to her.  Still, she trusted Naomi's judgment and did exactly as she was told to do in order for the relationship with her kinsman-redeemer, Boaz, to progress.

The first step was to make herself ready.  Unlike many of us today, the Jewish people of Ruth's day did not bathe every day.  But, given the importance of this move, it was necessary for Ruth to present herself at her best.  Therefore, she not only bathed; she went a step further to anoint herself with oil.  This was a common custom in that day, to use pure oils to soothe and enhance the skin.  People of wealth used very expensive oil.  It is likely Ruth used a more common, less expensive oil for this purpose.  Still, she used the best she had available.  Finally, she changed her clothes.  Some have speculated she had been to this point wearing the clothes of a mourning widow and that at this time she put on more festive clothes.

Wiersbe1 tells us that clothes, in scripture, carry a special significance.  In particular, salvation is represented as a change of clothes (in Luke 15:22 and Isaiah 61:10).  Similarly, living for Christ after the initial salvation decision involves taking off the "grave clothes" of the dead life and putting on the "grace clothes" of the new life in Christ (Colossians 3 and John 11:44).

The threshing floor referred to in this chapter was a large, flat expanse on the top of a hill which got "good wind".  The heads of grain were placed on the surface, after which they were beaten by servants or trodden on by oxen, so as to separate the good grain from the chaff.  Once this was done, large threshing forks were used to toss the grain and chaff into the air.  The breezes would carry the chaff away, while the grain fell to the ground to be gathered later.  The breezes were best in the latter part of the day, which is why the men did this work in the late afternoon and evening.

The threshing floor event was a festive one, taking place at the end of the harvest. God intended the people enjoy and rejoice over their harvest, as evidenced by Deuteronomy 16:15 (NIV):

For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

The landowner, in this case Boaz, would often be present on the threshing floor to oversee the process, as it was "high-stakes".  This important threshing determined the amount and quality of the grain collected and stored for nourishment in the coming months.   After a full day of hard work, those involved would have a big meal, a party of sorts, and then "camp out" there under the stars until morning.

In what seems to our culture to be a most bizarre marriage proposal/request, Ruth comes incognito into the camp, notes where Boaz makes his bed, sneaks over there after he is asleep, uncovers his feet/legs, lies down and spreads his coverings over her, prefiguring the covering of salvation Jesus Christ spreads over His own.

6So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had instructed her to do. 7When Boaz had finished his meal and was feeling satisfied, he lay down to sleep at the far end of the grain heap. Then Ruth crept up quietly, uncovered his legs, and lay down beside him. 8In the middle of the night he was startled and turned over. Now he saw a woman lying beside him! 9He said, “Who are you?” She replied, “I am Ruth, your servant. Marry your servant, for you are a guardian of the family interests.” 10He said, “May you be rewarded by the Lord, my dear! This act of devotion is greater than what you did before. For you have not sought to marry one of the young men, whether rich or poor. 11Now, my dear, don’t worry! I intend to do for you everything you propose, for everyone in the village knows that you are a worthy woman. 12Now yes, it is true that I am a guardian, but there is another guardian who is a closer relative than I am. 13Remain here tonight. Then in the morning, if he agrees to marry you, fine, let him do so. But if he does not want to do so, I promise, as surely as the Lord lives, to marry you. Sleep here until morning.” 14So she slept beside him until morning. She woke up while it was still dark. Boaz thought, “No one must know that a woman visited the threshing floor.”15Then he said, “Hold out the shawl you are wearing and grip it tightly.” As she held it tightly, he measured out about sixty pounds of barley into the shawl and put it on her shoulders. Then he went into town, 16and she returned to her mother-in-law.  

Ruth 3:6-16 (NET)

Why was it important for Ruth to make these moves, which must have seemed to her to be at the very least risky but which were, in reality, acts of faith?  Her obedience demonstrated her trust, not only in her mother-in-law, but more importantly, in her God.  These acts were important so that Boaz would know clearly where he stood with her.  By his own admission, he did not appear to be on the surface the most reasonable match.  Despite her widowhood and her pagan background, she must have still been a highly-desirable woman, because Boaz stated in verse 10 that she could have sought a younger, wealthy man.

Ruth obediently followed the Jewish Law because she wanted the best for herself and for her family line.  By only one path could she be fully restored to all she had lost.  Only a near kinsman could redeem both the lands her father-in-law had mortgaged when he left Bethlehem over 10 years earlier AND could at the same time redeem Ruth's widowhood and childlessness.  She could have sought to marry another Jewish man; however, had she done so, she would have been acting in disobedience, outside the place where God could richly bless her.

Again, Ruth prefigures those who choose Jesus Christ as Savior.
We, the Believers, the Beloved, the Church, the Bride of Christ, in order to become His must obediently follow God's way of salvation.
1.  We are to throw off our filthy garments, leaving our past behind and renouncing our sin as we come to Christ.  We must then allow the oil of the Holy Spirit to anoint us, drawing us to our Bridegroom.  That is mere preparation for salvation, however.
2.  It is the act of the Kinsman-Redeemer which achieves our salvation.  Had Boaz refused to redeem Ruth, all of her preparations would have been meaningless.   To spread one's mantle over another person meant to claim that person for yourself, particularly in marriage.  The word translated "skirt" in verse 9, when Ruth asked Boaz to "spread your skirt over your handmaiden" (KJV), also means "wing".  Ruth had previously put herself under the "wing" of Jehovah God, and now she would be under the wings of her earthly kinsman-redeemer as well.

Jesus Christ echoed this kinsman-redeemer language as He began His descent from the Mt. of Olives into Jerusalem on the Day of Lambs (Palm Sunday), when He gazed with grief over the beloved, holy city and cried,

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would have none of it!"

Matthew 23:37 (NET)

His invitation to lost people everywhere is still the same today.  He longs to, even through His Holy Spirit diligently seeks to, save those who are separated from God.  So many reply "no", as did the Jews of Jesus' day, as do so many people of all races and cultures today.  If you do not know Jesus, if you have not accepted His finished sacrifice for you, will you accept Him as your Bridegroom, your Lord and Savior today?

Sources:

1 Wiersbe, Warren W. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: the complete Old Testament in one volume.  David C. Cook, 2007, pp. 486-487

2    http://calvaryoxnard.org/studies/ot/Ruth/Ruth%2003.htm