“Brothers and sisters,
if someone is caught in sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that
person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each
other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians
6:1-2
To continue
with the theme of the recent articles, I wanted to discuss what’s next. We have
walked the journey to the Cross and accepted Christ and have been baptized for
our rebirth. Now what?
To start I
want to reflect for a moment over Galatians 6 for a moment. Each of us have
been caught up in a sin that we cannot seem to break free from. Paul talks
about his affliction of the flesh and Peter tells us about the things that he
wishes he would do he does not, but the things he desires not to do is what he
ends up doing instead.
Galatians
gives us some instruction on how to help our family with this cycle, but I
think of a bigger thing with this verse. I mean this verse can go down to
someone that has a habit of telling white lies to allowing his thoughts dwell
on sinful desires a bit too much. Many times we are able to forgive the person
that is having this issue and able to take up the advice in Galatians 6 and
gently restore the person.
What if the
sin they were caught up in was something “more” than lust driven thoughts? What
if it were as extreme as Rape? What if it was Murder? What about Armed Robbery?
Can you or I gently restore that person? Well Jesus calls to us to do the same
thing in these cases as well. Sin is sin, it’s black and white. There are no
varied degrees of sin, you have sinned or you have not sinned.
But we have
a hard time not putting these sins on a scale. Cannibalism certainly seems a
lot worse to the human mind and to me than telling your friend that you were at
the mall instead of at your house when they called and you didn’t feel like
talking. But lying is sin. Cannibalism would certainly be a sin, and well sin
is sin.
This mindset
that there are sins larger than others is a hard thing to get beyond. There are
so many emotions that weigh into the process. As human beings the more fear
that something puts into our hearts makes whatever it is worse than something
that we don’t really fear. Stealing a bottle of water is a lot less scary than a
home invasion.
It’s only
human, but for us to start looking at what is next for us, we have to start
realizing that sin is sin, and grace is grace. If we are saved by grace for the
totality of our sin, why cannot someone else be reconciled by the same God that
gave you forgiveness? If he sees all sin as sin, and has informed us of this
fact, how can we not accept that?
If you have committed
the least of these then you have committed the greater as well. All of us have
committed rape, murder, and idolatry in God’s eyes based on this one passage.
Is that taking the passage out of context a bit? Perhaps, but I don’t think I
am taking it too far out of context there.
Jesus was
proving a point with similar things. He was proving that we cannot be saved by
the Law that only Grace could save us. We all fell short of the Law, and that’s
why he came and died for us. We have already accepted that forgiveness and
grace from him. We met him at the cross and were baptized in his blood that
washed us clean.
What’s next?
Allowing ourselves to forgive ourselves and begin our walk with Christ. Before
we can love others as we love ourselves, we have to actually love ourselves.
For some people that will be harder than others. Some of us love ourselves a
little too much and that just means we have to love others a lot more in the
process.
This was
something that was particularly hard for me to do. Forgive myself for all the
people that I had hurt and all that I had done against Christ and his people.
All the lives that I had touched in a harmful way and being a tempter, making
people question everything that they thought they knew to draw them into
darkness.
As a
Satanist it was my goal to build up a base of followers that was able to tear
down the grip that God has on the souls of the world. Christianity is the
number one religion in the world, and I wanted to tear it all down. During my
time as a Satanist, many people that I had worked with had committed suicide or
spent time in mental hospitals.
The fact
that I blasphemed God’s name daily and God said it is forgotten, I love you
anyway. That kind of love is amazing. God loves us to the point that no matter
how far you have drifted from Christ he will open his arms and welcome you
home. That love is what drove me back into his arms and drove me to make life
changes to ensure that I did not find myself back in that dark place again.
But how can
someone that now has morals forgive himself for that kind of harm. I cannot
help but feel that I am responsible for the suicides of people that I was
teaching. How do you get past that? How do you forgive yourself for that? One
day at a time, embracing God’s love and his mercy. It is through his grace and
his love that I have been resurrected.
The man that
I once was is long dead, but the memories are still there. My body and soul is
marred with scars, scars are wounds that have healed but have left a mark.
Khalil Gibran says this about scars, “Out of suffering have emerged the
strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” Thomas
would only believe that Christ had returned from the dead after he saw the
scars on the wrists of Christ.
Remember
that it is not the scars that are important; it is the fact that those wounds
are healed. God is a God that heals our wounds. But not every wound heals to
the point that there is no scar. Through these scars you have your story and
testimony. An abusive relationship leaves scars on both people. We walk around
with perfect masks hiding the numerous scars that we have on our hearts and
souls.
If we focus
too much on that and not the fact that they are forgiven, and work daily to
allow ourselves to be transformed by the Holy Spirit and forgive ourselves,
then what point do those scars have? They will just be a friendly reminder of
the times that you have failed. The
greatest way we can use these reminders is going back to Galatians 6. Remember
your scars and use them to help someone else with their restoration.
The deeper
the scar the longer it hurts and the more tender it is. You remember the pain
caused by that scar and you now have strength by coming through the other side
of that wound. You survived and have power in your scars if you choose to use
it. Allow these wounds to heal and become scars then use these scars to help
others with similar wounds.
Helping
others heal and showing love to others is fulfillment of Jesus’s new
commandments to us. What’s next? Many of us have a lot of healing that we have
to work through. Others of us have stories to tell of God’s grace and mercy.
Others of us just need to love on people to make sure they know that Christ is
not point at you with a hot poker to burn you for every wrong that you have
done.
What you do
with your scars is up to you. If you just want to use them as reminders of
things not to do again if great. If you want to use them to help others, that
is great. What Jack didn’t realize in Fight Club was that he already had scars.
So what can you do with your scars?
“There is something
beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over,
the wound is closed and healed, done with.” Harry Crews
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