When we admit that we are naked before God, we receive multiple inputs as to how we should react to the situation. Yesterday, we talked about the efforts we put forth on our own to hide our nakedness from God. We feel guilt and shame because we know we have failed. Satan, the enemy of our souls,  will pour overwhelming guilt and condemnation on us when we are outside God’s will. Often the condition of our spiritual lives is worse than before, because we believe that there is no solution.

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will lovingly convict and convince us of our disobedience with the purpose of reconciliation. 

15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. 18 So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. 19 I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference. 20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. (Revelation 3:15-20) 

Today we will begin to unpack this amazing scripture as we see Jesus desire to interact with those who belong to him. There is no hiding from Jesus. He knows all the things we do. He knows our thoughts and our actions. He also knows whether or not we are living for him or when we are playing religious games. His desire is that we either totally commit or totally walk away. Indifference, apathy, and religiosity make him sick. Wow! Jesus would rather we renounce him and walk away than try to hide our own nakedness. 

Why then does religion seem to be on a collision course with Jesus’ own words? More and more churches are teaching about the goodness of man, while neglecting teachings about sin and hell. Cheap grace and works based salvation are fast becoming normative philosophy among those who claim to believe in God and scripture. Why would anyone believe that there is a need to reconcile to God when the predominant understanding is that we are all OK?  

Tune in tomorrow and we will finish unpacking this scripture 

Ron Yost

Distrust and suspicion directed at God can lead to guilt and shame. When we believe that God is being unfair, or that he is purposely holding something back to which we feel entitled, we formulate a strategy to achieve the outcomes we desire.

1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” 2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” 4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” 6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man* and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees. 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” 13 Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” (Genesis 3:1-13)

As soon as we step outside of what we know God has set forth as the guidelines for our relationship to him, we try to hide from God. Our eyes are immediately opened to the fact that we just crossed a line of demarcation from which there is no return. Guilt and shame expose our sinfulness and spiritual nakedness. Because we are caught and cannot go back to our previous state, we begin to formulate excuses for our failure to uphold our promises to God, and we shift blame in whatever direction seems most appropriate. When God asked Adam “Who told you that you were naked?”, he already knew the answer. However, he gave Adam the opportunity to admit his sin and to seek forgiveness. Likewise with Eve. Both spurned their own culpability in the offense.

Just like Adam and Eve, we try to hide our sins and cover our own nakedness before God. Our efforts produce the same effect. God knows and sees who we really are and what we have done. He offers us the opportunity to repent and to seek his help, but we seek exoneration by our own hand on our own terms.

Ron Yost

All this week we have been investigating what it looks like to realize our unreached capacity or potential in Christ. As we get to know God better, our behaviors change. As we put on the new life Christ offers, we are transformed, able to reflect the image of the one who created us. We begin to see as we have never seen, live as we have never lived and enjoy the blessing of God as never before. 

This process of spiritual maturity is just that, a process. Just as a child grows in understanding, we are awakened to the possibilities and the realities of being engulfed by the love, grace, mercy, and provision of the One who wants to lavish his blessings on his children. 

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. (I Corinthians 13:11-12) 

One day we will stand before our Maker, Savior, Redeemer and Lord. We will have the capacity to know him the way he knows us. This life is the crucible where we have the privilege of working out a partial understanding of God. Thankfully, there is the real possibility of incrementally moving toward a better and more full knowledge so that we can reach the potential God has placed within us.  

It is time to proactively begin to move away from where you are now to the deeper end of the pool. We like safety and we like to be in control. However, reaching our capacity in Christ is based in our faith and trust in God’s promises. When you accept the promise maker, you accept the promises. When you accept the promises you live out the promise to its reward. Have you reached your godly predetermined potential, or are you wondering what it might be like to wade out a little deeper into God’s plan for you? 

Ron Yost

This week we have been discussing unrealized spiritual capacity and potential which occurs as we journey through life. Sometimes we miss out on what God could do in us and through us because we have allowed our communication with him to be hindered by small seemingly insignificant issues that we have allowed to cause spiritual dead spots in our walk and communication with God. 

We have the opportunity, as we discussed yesterday, to allow the newness of life that God has given us to overshadow the behaviors that were the definition of our former life choices. And here is where the rubber meets the road, we choose to surrender to God or not. We choose how we will react or not. We choose to be in a position to be overwhelmed by the trials and tribulations of life, or we choose to live out of the power given to us by the one who overcame death and lives so that we might experience his victory. We choose defeat or even sabotage ourselves by not allowing God to move us toward the potential he sees in all of us. 

12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. 16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.                                                                                                                                                                                    (Colossians 3:12-17)

God has chosen us to be his holy people, set apart unto himself. He gives us the inability to interact and to not lose our identities in the process. God’s forgiveness is the model for each of us to understand and try to implement into our lives. As the message of Christ fills our lives, we are enabled to live an empowered life, because that message offers fulfillment beyond our imagination. 

Ron Yost

Young people in the gym look to pictures in fitness and body building magazines dreaming of one day having the perfect physique. Young women look through fashion magazines dreaming of the possibility of one day walking down the runway with a storm of flashes picking up their every move. Every fireman, doctor, entrepreneur,  professional soldier, or successful  career oriented person at some time or another did a self-inventory and determined that they indeed had the potential or capacity to realize their dream.  

How do we as believers realize and act out our God-given spiritual capacity/potential ? 

1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. 5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. 7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.  (Colossians 3:1-11) 

We must choose Christ and then begin to live out the new life that he has provided for those of us who have been redeemed by his grace. We must adjust our thinking to include the greatness of what is beyond this temporary earthly realm. Our real life is not on the hamster wheel of this world, but hidden in Christ. As such, we need to begin to distance ourselves from the former ways in which we have conducted ourselves. We need to allow God to make the changes in our comportment and pursuits so that we can become more like Jesus. To really reach the potential that God has placed within us, Christ alone must be to absolute most important thing of significance in our existence. That, my friends is a process that takes a lifetime.  

To reap all the benefit, today would be a good day to start focusing your life on the one who made you and who will equip you to overcome every trial, storm, or catastrophe this life has to offer

 Ron Yost

When there are spiritual “dead spots” in our lives because we have allowed a little bit of this and a little bit of that to creep in and separate us from God, we are unable to reap all the benefits of God’s love. Our focus starts to shift and our attention is drawn toward thoughts other than growing to our full capacity in God’s plan for our lives.    

We become unsure of God. When we are unsure of God, we tend to be unsure of one another

19 We love each other because he loved us first. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters. (I John 4:19-21) 

We are not in a contest to prove ourselves to God or anyone else. The love we have for fellow believers is only possible because of the great love with which God loves us first. Apart from his love, we are unable to express or experience the fullness of love between two people. If we don’t love people, we have to question whether or not God’s love is within us. We don’t always have to agree on every bullet point or miniscule particle of thought. God’s family is made up of diverse individuals with divergent approaches to life. Sometimes this “family” can be downright dysfunctional. After all, each of us has enough baggage to add to the mess. 

Hate is a strong word that is too flippantly tossed around. It connotes total and complete disregard for the existence of a person. Hate removes any vestige of value, either physically or spiritually. God does not hate us, no matter our transgression. He loves us beyond our ability to comprehend. As we understand God’s love, let’s be conduits for that love to touch others who don’t know our great and mighty redeemer. 

Ron Yost

Our failure to cooperate with God causes us to lose contact with him. There are often direct and immediate consequences for sin. Where sin resides, the spirit is deadened, reception from God is silenced, and there in an underlying inability to relate to God.

9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.15 All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. (I John 4:9-18)

Once we begin to understand and appreciate the love of God shown through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, we can return that love and extend it to others. Even in the midst of our shortcomings, the love of God can flow from our lives so that people who have no concept of grace, mercy and love might be enabled to see that there is a God with whom they might start a relationship. As we put our trust in God’s love, we can live in the power Jesus provided through his resurrection. As we live like Jesus, we have no fear of punishment or judgment. We also have the freedom to explore the depths of God’s care for us and to grow even more spiritually mature as we journey toward reaching our full capacity in Christ.

Ron Yost

This week we have been talking about the subtlety of self-deception. Satan has been a master of suggestion and illusion since the creation of mankind, and is very adept at helping us move from pride, to doubting what God intends,  to disenchantment because we feel we are being cheated out of some great experience, and ultimately to disobedience to God’s will for our lives. 

1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” 2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” 4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” 6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. 8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man* and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees.9 Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” ( Genesis 3:1-11) 

Since the time of our most ancient progenitors, Adam and Eve, our eyes have been opened and we have felt shame for engaging in activities that we know are opposite of what our righteous, holy Heavenly Father has commanded. We are careful not to publicly, blatantly participate in outright displays of sinful behavior, but we entertain thoughts and make secret or masked plans that lead us to hide from God. 

Satan did not lie when he said, “your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” The same is true for us. When we have encountered the Holy Spirit, but still choose to taste the delicacies of sin, guilt is the immediate response. We must be careful to listen to the promptings of God’s spirit and hide his word in our hearts that we might not sin against him. After all, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Our amazing God provides everything we need to live for him, so why not become all he desires and experience true fulfillment. 

Ron Yost

Listen to the subtlety of Satan’s deceptive interaction. 

1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” 2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” 4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5) 

Satan didn’t initially accuse God of wrongdoing. He questioned whether or not Eve was sure she knew God’s prohibitions, but in doing so, cast doubt and aspersion toward God in her mind. Rather than singularly including the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in his question, the Deceiver includes “any of the trees in the garden.” Eve clarifies and repeats the specific prohibition from God. Immediately Satan uses the doubt he has planted to cause disenchantment. He assures Eve that God is cheating her from a marvelous experience. He intimates that she could be “like God,” if she will just go against his command. 

Subtle temptations are supremely dangerous. When we allow ourselves to be deceived, we tread on perilous ground. As we will see tomorrow, not everything Satan suggested to Eve was manipulative or incorrect. However, in the midst of the doubt and disenchantment, Eve, like each of us who are self-deceived over our ability to prevail, allows pride and self-centeredness to overcome what we know is the appropriate and right thing to do. 

Ron Yost

Many of us do not blatantly exercise in the world of sin after becoming believers. We have understood that we were in need of a savior and have received God’s grace. However, we do allow subtle self-deceptions to find a home in the way we conduct our lives. We begin to believe that we can handle the small issues and that we are not as bad as others. We experiment with choices to see if they are really as harmful as we are warned. We entertain thoughts that set us on a slippery slope away from God’s will for us and then we become able to justify and rationalize little sins as not so bad. 

When these “manageable” matters arise, we are self-deceived. This deception is the product of our old sinful nature and prompting by Satan and the powers of evil that would either damage us or cause us to be ineffective for the cause of Christ. Satan is very subtle as he entices people to move away from God. 

14 But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.15 So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve. (2 Corinthians 11:15-15) 

Were our adversary and enemy blatantly tempt us to sin in public or participate in dangerous behaviors with full disclosure, we would resist or walk away. However, pleasant, indirect, partially camouflaged enticements lure us into the trap he has set since the beginning of human existence. 

We must be very watchful and be sure to confess our sins daily as we rely on the Holy Spirit to help us live to glorify God. All of us sin. But God will give us grace when we seek him for  forgiveness. 

8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. (I John 1:8-10) 

Ron Yost