"You sit on a throne of lies..."

As of late you can hear a variety of quotes being said in our home from scripture to favorite Christmas movies.  This quote from Elf strikes my heart every time, and not in the way of laughter, because I know I've been sitting on a throne of lies.  I've been seeking a greater understanding on the difference of salvation by works (which isn't possible though some believe it to be) and salvation by faith (the only Way of eternal glory), and in that journey I've become the Judge on the Throne of Lies.

Galatians 2:19-21 (MSG)
^19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

The Lord stretched me this year to get out of my comfort zone and boy did I!  He pursued the depths of my heart and I pursued Him.  He revealed to me my unrighteousness and replaced nuggets of head knowledge for heart knowledge, and somewhere along the journey the father of lies used it against me.  I turned from trying to discover the areas of my life that needed to change to trying to change the lives of others... and not in a good way. 

Galatians 1:10 (NASB)
¹⁰ For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

Truth:  We are to obey the Word of God - all of it!

Lie:      If in that quest we begin to seek the approval of the church and follow law, we have lost the meaning of God's grace and sanctification in Christ.

Truth:  There is a difference in head knowledge and heart knowledge.

Lie:      It's your responsibility to discover which knowledge someone else has.

Truth:  We are to build up our brethren in the Word, in prayer and in life.

Lie:      It's your responsibility to determine the areas of their life that require change.

Truth:  We are called to be the church.  To attend, to worship together, to pray together, to serve others, to work, to fight for the Truth, to share the gospel.

Lie:      It's your responsibility to decipher what someone else should be doing and not doing within the church.

So, here I sit as the Judge on the Throne of Lies. It started with Paul.  I LOVE Paul.  He perverted the Truth and then proclaimed it.  He was persecuted and became victorious.  He spoke God's promise and was not afraid of repercussion.  He abandoned everything for Christ!  I want to be Paul.  We're all supposed to be Paul!  I'm such a failure.  This has been my state of mind for sometime... failure.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not just working and serving.  I'm seeking and loving Father for who He is and doing what He calls but I'm also comparing myself to others and consistently feeling like I'm falling short.

Last night I went hunting.  In the quiet stillness I began to converse with God as I often do.  I was looking at the brown grass, leaves, barren trees.  I was freezing and uncomfortable.  I could be doing so many other things at that moment.  Things for Him.  Instead I'm in a field, in total silence, unproductive.  Just then a cardinal perched himself in a cedar across the field.  I was in awe of the vibrantly colored red bird against the gloomy green cedar.  God put that beauty right there, right then, for me.  He said to me, "I love you, Heather.  I love you because you are Heather, not Paul.  I have a plan for you and it is only My right to know it and only your right to discover it.  I want to show you things and grow in you and if you are trying to live up to someone else's life, anyone's life, then you are falling short of who I am calling you to be.  I made you my child.  I made you a wife.  I made you a mother.  Trust me.  Live for My plan FOR YOU."

Galatians 5:25-26 (NLT)
²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in following law that I forget that God speaks to us individually.  I criticize others for their love of sports, music, dance, hunting, anything other than complete, total abandonment of everything but Christ.  I think part of this is jealousy, how I would LOVE to be a great speaker, dancer, writer!  And then it hits me...  If God gave us gifts, aren't we use them?  To glorify Him with them?  To enjoy this life just as He designed it for us?  Just because something isn't ministry oriented on the surface, doesn't mean it's not of God!  I can't play football at all but that doesn't mean that God doesn't speak to someone else through the game - hello, Tim Tebow!  http://www.youthministry.com/articles/culture/would-jesus-have-tebowed

I'm not saying a fleshly life is acceptable in the eyes of our Lord.  I'm not condoning a life of worldly pleasures.

Galatians 5:16-23 (CEV)
¹⁶If you are guided by the Spirit, you won't obey your selfish desires. ¹⁷The Spirit and your desires are enemies of each other. They are always fighting each other and keeping you from doing what you feel you should. ¹⁸But if you obey the Spirit, the Law of Moses has no control over you.
¹⁹People's desires make them give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds. ²⁰They worship idols, practice witchcraft, hate others, and are hard to get along with. People become jealous, angry, and selfish. They not only argue and cause trouble, but they are ²¹envious. They get drunk, carry on at wild parties, and do other evil things as well. I told you before, and I am telling you again: No one who does these things will share in the blessings of God's kingdom.
²²God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, ²³gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways.

Let's not distort the Truth embedded here.  There is pleasure in life that is not selfish that comes from the Spirit and we should not feel guilty about that.  Moreover, we cannot judge others pleasures according to what God speaks to our heart!  God spoke to me more in the wilderness during three hours last night than He has in the last month of Sunday morning worship.  That doesn't mean that the Pastor isn't doing his job, it means that God needed to speak to me in a time and place that He designed - His terms, not mine!

I will no longer feel like a failure because I don't live up to the pedestal I've put Paul on.  I'll serve in the church and I'll serve my family  I'll be a foreign missionary for Christ and one inside my home. I'll deny myself and live for Him.  I'll sacrifice for Him emotionally, physically, financially AND I'll enjoy the pleasures in life that He gave me because that's why He gave them to me, for me.

The time has come for us to examine ourselves, not each other.  To share the gospel by allowing God's light to shine through our lives in everything we do, not just abiding by law.  To serve one another without strings attached or judgment for those that aren't doing what we are called to do.  To live a life led by the Spirit. 

In the quest to seek His righteousness in your life, have you started seeking approval of man?  Perhaps you are sitting as the Judge on the Throne of Lies, seeking to uncover what you believe are the sins of your brethren? 

Galatians 6:9-16 (MSG)
^9-10So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
^11-13Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ's suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don't keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!
^14-16For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can't you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!