Justin Caster

May 21, 2008

Satisfaction…

I was just in the kitchen, trying to figure out what to eat. Was I hungry…no. Just bored. Unsatisfied with the day. I ended up eating a Strawberry Mochi from Trader Joes thinking I had a sweet tooth I was trying to get rid of. That wasn’t it. So I poured a bowl of cereal and put dried blue berries in it. After my first bite, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. It wasn’t going to satisfy my craving, but I ate it anyway. Mindlessly taking bite after bite hoping that an over stuffed stomach would make me feel complete enough to fall asleep without feeling my day was somewhat pointless.

Was it altogether pointless? Depends on how you look at it. I did accomplish the things that needed to be done, so in that sense I wasn’t lazy. I planned out what needs to be done tomorrow, and will be ready for it in the morning. But I’m still hungry. The bowl of cereal is gone, but the hunger hasn’t decreased or increased…its just stagnantly present. So I sat down to figure out what it is. And sure enough, the answer is clear. I am not physically hungry…its my spirit. I woke up this morning, and instead of spending a few precious moments with God preparing for the day, I checked my emails. I had a quick thought pass through my mind “If you check these emails right now, your gunna keep yourself busy until the most important task of the day becomes the last thing you do instead of the first.” The thought passed through…and then passed on. I checked my emails which jump-started one event after another, and sure enough, I am in my room 15 hours later and I have yet to feed my soul.

Its crazy how often God’s children start their day without telling their Heavenly Father “Goodmorning, thank You for another day. What do You have for me today? What do You want to teach me? Where do You want me to go? Who do You want me to encourage? How can I serve You? How can I better love You? Love others?”

He has a plan for me…a plan every day. His perfect will: a blue print of choices and decisions, actions and reactions that embody His righteousness, wisdom and discernment. He specifically mapped out a life flourishing with His purposes, filled with His love, complete in His righteousness just for me…Justin Ray Caster. Before He created this universe, He thought of me. He mapped out a perfect life for me...day by day, moment by moment. He did the same for you. How are we supposed to know where to go if we don’t ask Him for the directions?

I have a choice. Every minute, every second, I have a choice. Do I follow His map for me, or do I go my own way? How often, like today, I choose to blindly drive without His direction. Just going through the motions of humanity without even acknowledging the fact that my Savior has a purpose for me that day, that moment. My God has a task, a series of accomplishments He wants to walk me through. A sequence of victories He wants me to experience. Unfortunately He never forces me to follow His map. And the more I wander off His path, the more detours He has to re-route to get me back on the right path. But thankfully He loves and cares for me enough to make those detours.

Heavenly Father, forgive me for my flippant attitude of neglecting to start my day in Your presence. I need Your guidance, and want to be sure I am headed in the right direction from the moment I wake up. I will soon fall asleep, but tomorrow is a new day. You have my tomorrow mapped out for me. I pray I take each moment captive and immerse myself into Your perfect will. Then and only then will I be satisfied.

Until tomorrow…

You know those times when you aren't really thinking about anything specific...your mind is full of things that don't really matter, and then God touches your heart...like a feather tickling the soul. You feel His presence so strongly and it’s overwhelming. You want to cry or laugh or just sit and smile while the tears well up. You are speechless... You are reminded of how sinful you are, of how much you deserve death and destruction, of how many times you ignore His presence, of all the times you hurt Him, of how you take His blessings for granted... but then He reminds you of how much He loves you. Because His love is unfathomable, you are only able to imagine the cross and see what He did to demonstrate that love and even though we are incapable of loving in that same way, we feel it... we know how it feels to be loved so unconditionally. You think its not fair for God... we can't ever love Him in the same way, and yet, He knows that. You are reminded of the countless blessings He has given you... the salvation, the assurance of the time when you will live with Him forever in His presence, the short life you live on the earth He created for you, the family He gave you, the friends He put in your life, the spouse He created for you, the desires and passions He inspired you to seek... I am overwhelmed... humbled by His glory, mercy, grace, righteousness and love... unconditional love. He is my Master, my Creator, my Father, my Friend, my Lord, my God, my Savior... my ALL. I love Him with all the love I am capable of bestowing. I am forever His bondservant and commit my life to live out the work that He began in me until my work here on earth is finished. I am here for His purpose. You feel weak, incapable, unworthy, but He is strong, all-powerful, and worthy of everything good, pure, righteous, and true. 

I am humbled...

How can we be free from the bondage of Sin?

Sin sucks. My human nature never ceases to disgust me. Who I am without Christ is so terrible…so wicked…so pointless. It’s a bummer being born into a world cursed with sin. It sucks to have a nature that is completely self-seeking…selfish beyond compare…thirsty to satisfy its every lust. It would be so easy to have a pity party on how unfair it seems to be born with the curse of sin…but I had everything to do with it. No, I wasn’t in the Garden of Eden and I didn’t take a bite of the forbidden fruit. But I’ve had my own share of “forbidden fruits” in my own “garden of Eden” and you better believe I have taken “a bite”…more than once. I am so unworthy and humbled and in awe of the Cross. To have a God, (a God…THE GOD…the Creator of this universe…worthy of…EVERYTHING) who would send His Son to pay the penalty for my sin (my worthless self who deserves nothing but death) and to give me the free gift of salvation by just believing in Him…proclaiming His Son as the Savior, and surrendering to His truth…His love…His grace…His mercy…what? Can there be any greater love? Does it make any sense? Not according to my wisdom, but that is why He is who He is. He is God.

So now that I am saved, praise God, I continue on in life as a Christian…and still I am plagued with my sin nature. This alter ego that is constantly in some kind of tug of war with my soul. My flesh fights and fights to stay alive and prevail. In the past, while still a Christian, saved by Jesus, there were certain times when my flesh seemed to be winning. Why is that? How is that possible? The Bible states that becoming a Christian is putting the “old self” to death and being resurrected into the “new self”. That is why it’s called being “born again”. It’s a new life. But it didn’t always feel that way. That is where the grace and mercy of God comes into play. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve and mercy is not getting what you do deserve. For example, lets say I’m driving on the freeway and call another driver a “frickin idiot” for driving stupidly. Or say I lie to my parents when they ask if I was on the phone with my “girlfriend” while they went out…(I did that a lot in Jr. High). Or say I meditate on an impure thought, or watch a movie with tons of foul language and inappropriate material, or take God’s name in vain, or gossip about someone, or commit murder, or rape, or commit adultery, practice homosexuality, take drugs, get drunk…it doesn’t matter what I do that is wrong because God’s word says, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10. So basically, you sin once, your guilty of all sin. So, anyway, say I sin. We know that the penalty of sin is death…Romans 6:23…God’s mercy is revealed by Him excusing me from the death sentence because Jesus already paid the price by dying on the cross. His grace, on the other hand, would be Him giving me a cookie : ) Or more realistically, Him showering me with His love…countless blessings that I don’t deserve. So He demonstrates His grace and mercy constantly. But is that it? Will sin always continue to eat away at me? Is there no freedom from it? Romans 6 discusses this in detail.

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (v. 1). In other words, since we know that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, should we rely on his grace and mercy and continue in the sinful acts of our “old self”?
“Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (v. 2). The whole purpose for Jesus coming down to die on the cross and resurrecting from the grave was for us to be able to put to death our sinful nature and to live a new life in Christ. That is what being a Christian is. Its being “born again” into a new life in Christ. If we go on living our lives in sin, where is the evidence of the “new life”? Have we really died to the flesh and accepted Christ into our lives or do we just believe it’s the truth and hope that’s enough?

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” (vs. 3-7). Did you catch that last part? “FOR HE WHO HAS DIED HAS BEEN FREED FROM SIN!” Wow. We can really be free from our sin if we give ourselves a funeral through the blood of Christ. That means putting to death our lust…putting to death lies…putting to death impure thoughts…putting to death gossip…putting to death homosexuality…putting to death adultery…masturbation…drugs…alcohol…disrespect. It’s a death of who we are naturally…the curse of sin we were born into. And then being born again into the new life in Christ. Putting on His righteousness…His purity…His love…His joy…His peace…His obedience…His everything! That is the evidence of a Christian. It’s a death and a re-birth.

“Now if we died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do no let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.” (vs. 8-12). There is hope for us sinners. We have a Redeemer. He came. He died. He rose again. He is Christ Jesus. We are not bound to this world. We have a way to break free from the bondage of sin. This is truth. Its true for EVERYONE. For the liar, the hater, the adulterer, the drunkard, the homosexual, the fornicator, the gossiper, the prideful…EVERYONE. We cannot continue living life by allowing our sin nature to justify our disobedience. I am guilty of this. What a slap in our Savior’s face. For Him to die for me, and give me the means to have a new life in Him, and then for me to accept His salvation, and yet continue on living my old life using the excuse that I am cursed with sin…how ignorant, prideful, selfish, and weak I am…we are.

“But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:17-18

It sounds so easy doesn’t it? The tough part is, sin doesn’t just go away. Even after we accept Christ as our Savior and give our “old self” a funeral and adopt the “new life” in Christ, sin will continue to tempt…to try and take control. Satan will continue to make you despair…try to destroy your testimony…set stumbling blocks in your path. It isn’t easy. And unfortunately, putting to death our “old self” and adopting “the new” is a process rather than a quick exchange. That is the Christian journey. The ongoing transformation from the old to then new. As I grow closer to God, He slowly reveals to me my impurities, and I must give each sinful part of me a funeral. I have a choice every time. But He will be faithful to complete the work He began in me if I surrender to Him. I cannot put to death my sinful nature on my own. One of my devotionals written by Chris Tiegreen helps explain how. How do I do it? Not by straining for it, not by reading about it, and not by frantically immersing myself in church life. It’s just by asking. Asking often and trusting deeply. I must be convinced in God’s promises and think about them often. I must give Jesus free reign in my heart. The power of His resurrection is available to me when the power of my self is exhausted. Live in His power. Or better yet, let His power live in you. The end result is our final death…when we go home to be with Christ. Sin will no longer exist. I whole-heartedly agree with Paul, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21. May we all continue to die to our flesh and be transformed in the likeness of our Savior until our time here on earth is done and or Our Savior returns to take us home.

Praise God. I hope this blog blesses everyone who reads it. May it challenge and encourage you to die to your flesh…to put to death the old self and live in the new. I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have any. God bless you.