Inside
Out Christian Living!
1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Thy
compassion blot out my
transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my
iniquity, and cleanse me from my
sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is
ever before me.
4 Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, and
done what is evil in Thy sight, so that Thou art justified when Thou does
speak, and blameless when Thou dost judge.
5 Behold, I was brought
forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part Thou wilt make me know
wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean; wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the
bones which Thou hast broken rejoice.
9 Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out
all my iniquities.
When Samuel
arrived at Jesse’s house in
But the Lord said to
Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because
I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1Sam. 16:7).
Surely,
David knew that God did not choose him because of his outward appearance, but
because he was “a man after [God’s] own heart”
(1Sam.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were great at externals, but Jesus
called them “frauds.”
“You are like painted
tombs on manicured grave plots, with clipped grass and bright flowers, but all
of this external ornamentation merely conceals putrid decaying maggot eaten
flesh, lifeless bones and untouchable filth.
People look at you and think you’re so righteous, but on the inside
you’re lawless frauds” (Mt.
Outer
expressions of genuine “Christ likeness” must necessarily be the product of
inner transformation. The believer’s at
Galatia were great at being Christ like when Paul was around, but in his
absence they reverted back to who they were in their hearts. His desire for these believers and us was “that Christ be formed within you” (Gal.
Striving to
act Christ like apart from inner
transformation will always meet with temporary success and ultimate
failure. Externalism may promote
Pharisaical self-righteousness and the applause of the crowd, but it does not
satisfy God.
Jesus
warned His disciples “…unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven” (Mt.
The
legalist can produce public performances that mimic Christ likeness, but Jesus
wants more than this. He wants acts of
righteousness that are the natural expression or outflow of a heart that has
been transformed by the Spirit. This is
what Paul refers to as the formation of Christ within us (Gal.
Pastor John Ortberg reflects:
Conforming to boundary
markers too often substitutes for authentic transformation.
The church I grew up in
had its boundary markers. A prideful or resentful pastor could have kept his
job, but if ever the pastor was caught smoking a cigarette, he would've been
fired. Not because anyone in the church actually thought smoking a worse sin
than pride or resentment, but because smoking defined who was in our subculture
and who wasn't—it was a boundary marker.
As I was growing up,
having a "quiet time" became a boundary marker, a measure of
spiritual growth. If someone had asked me about my spiritual life, I would
immediately think, Have I been having
regular and lengthy quiet time? My initial thought was not, Am I growing more loving toward God and toward
people?
Boundary markers change
from culture to culture, but the dynamic remains the same. If people do not experience authentic transformation, then their faith
will deteriorate into a search for the boundary markers that masquerade as
evidence of a changed life.
Citation: John Ortberg, "True (and False)
Transformation," Leadership (Summer 2002), p. 102
Yes, we
should act like Jesus, but if that action is to be sustainable it must be an
expression of His indwelling life and not a paste on caricature which is a
response to Church Law. What you paste
on in Church this Sunday will be sure to fall off by Monday or get knocked off
by Tuesday.
The primary
issue is not about how we act,
but about who we are,
yet we major on actions to the exclusion of being. We get ecstatic about gold dust and other
stigmata as though spiritual experiences were the ultimate goal of our
Christian life.
In an article written
for Men of Integrity, Ken Canfield,
tells of an event that occurred during a family vacation. Sarah, his 6-year-old daughter got a little
ornery and pushed her sister, Hannah.
"Did you push your
sister?" I asked.
"No," she
denied. Since this was becoming a growing pattern for Sarah, I decided to take
a walk with her to get to the bottom of things.
"Sarah," I
told her, "I'm really disappointed with your behavior. What do you need to
do about it?"
I expected Sarah to
tell me she needed to stop lying or apologize to her sister, but instead, with
tears in her eyes, she said, "I need to ask Jesus to come into my
heart."
There I was, zeroing on behavior modification,
and my 6-year-old daughter was dealing with the bigger issues of needing
forgiveness, cleansing, and internal spiritual change. I was focused on
morality, she on the spirituality that makes morality possible and sincere.
Citation: Ken Canfield, "The Heart of a Father," Men of Integrity
(July 2001)
We know that we should love others and that love is patient and kind, so we try to love by acting patiently and kindly, but our
best efforts end in failure. Acting
patient and kind doesn’t produce love, patience and
kindness are the product of genuine love.
Dogs bark, but barking doesn’t make you a dog.
It is love
itself—not loving behavior, or even the wish or intent to love—that has the
power to “always protect, always trust, always hope, put up with anything, and
never quit” (1Cor 13:7-8). Merely trying
to act lovingly will lead to despair and defeat. You may be able to bark, but you need to be a
dog to enjoy chasing cars, running rabbits, and sniffing other dogs.
Patience
and kindness are not burdens to be borne, but joyful expressions of a heart
that has itself been transformed by God’s love.
Soren
Kierkegaard wrote:
There are, in the end, only two ways open to us:
to honestly and honorably make an admission of how far we are from the
Christianity of the New Testament, or to perform skillful tricks to conceal the
true situation.
Citation: Soren Kierkegaard, "What
Madness," in Provocations: The
Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard (Plough, 1999), p. 180
The cry of the Psalmist is impassioned by the knowledge
that what he has done goes beyond an action
and is a matter of who he is in his heart.
His sin was not a small stain on an otherwise blemishless
life.
External
actions are forged in our inner most being, in the hidden part of us or our
inner man.
God can
never teach us wisdom until we give Him access to the innermost part of our
being; the place where the “putrid decaying maggot
eaten flesh, lifeless bones and untouchable filth” are hidden from public view.
God seeks
open access to those parts of our lives that we have chosen to keep deeply
hidden within our inner world. The kind
of hiding implied here emphasizes the willful “holding back” of one’s true self from God or others. By hiding we may protect ourselves from the
vulnerability of being found out, but we also protect ourselves from the
Spirit-driven process of having our heart cleansed and transformed into the
very image of Christ.
The relief
and deliverance the Psalmist desires begins with transparency…
Listen to
David’s plea.
It’s embarrassing to have a friend who is eating
dinner at your house ask for another plate because the one you’ve given him has
food from the last meal on it.
This is
exactly what Jesus accused the Pharisees of.
“…you clean the outside of
the cup and the bowl, but inside they are filthy. You sightless Pharisee, first clean the
inside of the cup and of the bowl, so that the outside of it may become clean
also” (Mt.
What a
revelation! External actions are the
result of internal transformation, not just willful self-discipline.
Apart from
an inner work of the Spirit, a work that transforms our heart, we are destined
to do what we are, again and
again.
Mrs. Broussard ate some
boiled crawfish Monday night. Because it
was raining she wrapped the hulls in a paper bag, put the bag on a tray and put
the tray and the bag in the cabinet under her kitchen sink. By morning she was unaware of the terrible
odor being produced by the garbage under her sink. Her friend came over for a visit and made
mention of the odor, so Mrs. Broussard got out her air freshener and gave the
house a good showering. On Wednesday,
Mrs. Broussard’s daughter came by for a visit and immediately knew what the
problem was. “Mom, where’s the crawfish
hulls?” Mrs. Broussard gasped and went
to the cabinet where she had placed the hulls that Monday night. It took some scrubbing and deodorizing, but
once she got to the root of the problem the odor was overcome.
Some of us need to go with the Holy Spirit into
the place in our heart where the filth is.
We need to do a complete cleansing.
Spraying religious potpourri doesn’t work.
Jesus’ word
to us this morning is “clean the inside of the cup so
that the outside may become clean also.”
PRAYER
I need you God! Don’t just expunge the record, but wash me and cleanse me and purify me! Do a work in my innermost being, in the
hidden part of me. Cleanse the inside of
my cup! Wash me thoroughly from my
iniquity and cleanse me from my sinfulness.
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow!
Change my heart, oh
God, make it ever new.
Change my heart, oh
God, make me more like You!