Some thoughts on the Gift

[dolfan]

I got into my car after we closed the store tonight and a commercial was on for some sort of conference. Speaker clips were playing and one speaker said passionately, "God does not reject messy people." Reflexively, I reached forth and squelched it. Before I knew what had happened, it occurred to me that her saying that was off-putting to me. I really stopped and thought, "Why?!"

So, I prayed aloud, "God is that really what you're telling people? Is that really the message you're communicating to people? What IS 'messy' anyway? What does that mean?" And, it then occurred to me -- and it is no surprise to anyone I don't suppose -- that God does, indeed, "reject" so-called "messy people." How so?

Because, He who has begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Phil. 1:6. God has given us many "be" commands. Be perfect, be holy, be complete, be loving, be generous, be hospitable, and so on. Whatever else I may "be", if I am those things that God is doing and working and willing in me to be (as in Ephesians 2:10), to do those good works that He has ordained before that I do, I am not "messy". I may not be perfect, but I am being perfected. I may not be everything I am yet to become, but I am being transformed. (That's the "royal I", meaning all of us -- .)

In short, God's very purpose in purchasing me with the blood of His Son is to make me something I wasn't, to conform me to the image of His Son. No later than I am made a new creature in Christ I am already changed from being "messy" to being "molded". A mess just gets worse. If God is Lord of me, I am not being "worse" by being molded into the image of Christ by Him.

So, a lot of scriptures come to mind, of course, but the song "Just As I Am" started playing in my mind on the way home as I prayed and pondered this stuff. Many people sing simply, "Just as I am, without oe plea..." and never finish even the first stanza. We may arrive before Him just as we are, mess and all, but when we are redeemed, we are reborn and reclaimed and the total Dolfan makeover is on. Read the hymn writer's repeated acknowledgement that she was not content to stand before God and plea "Hey, this is me, just take me as I am." No, her whole statement was, "take me from this moment as I am and make me something else altogether."

Here are the lyrics, which just absolutely resound here:

Just as I am - without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - though toss'd about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am - of that free love
The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

I'm as grateful as anyone that God doesn't reject me for being "messy", but God doesn't accept me as a mess or leave me that way. He accepts me in His Son, and changes me to the core of my being so that I can be conformed to the image of Christ, and be a sort of firstfruits. James 1:18.
I don't want to be who I was. I desperately do not want that at all.

[Shellie]

[Martha]

Dolfan, I always enjoy your posts. This one is especially meaningful to me today. Please keep writing and posting here.

[beckrl]

I missed the point where you define 'messy'. If you are defining it as our flesh then I can understand that God is fransforming us from being lead by our flesh unto a christian that is now driving and lead by his Spirit within us. As we now walk by the Spirit and that Spirit leads us unto that perfection.

Now if that messy is defined by our bad characteristics I'm not sure how that would apply. Is God looking for someone clean and have everything in order or is that the work of the Spirit of God that clean's us of all unrighteousness.

If not I understand you to use that word 'messy' in the figurative sence, is that right?

[dolfan]

I didn't define it, really. That's the question I was asking, too, when I heard the clip. What does that even mean? "Messy", "imperfect", "no perfect people allowed" --- all these are buzz words or catch phrases that get used to make a point about God's acceptance. I'm fairly sure that He proceeds to make us something that is not only the opposite of messy, but is on a whole other way where "messy" isn't even on the spectrum. Now, we ain't there, yet. But, in Christ, we're assured of our arrival. We're also assured that "there" is quite removed from where we were and in my own case removed from where I am. Somewhere in the clip and in the popular, common phrasings of that idea, lies a subtlety -- whether or not intended -- that I personally don't accept, and it is this: God is really okay with you being a mess, and you can just come, come, come and bask in Him and your mess will either improve or God will just make you more content with yourself in it; life is really about mess management and God will give you abundance of life so that you can get a new perspective on the mess and maybe one day you'll even escape it. Escape into what is not always clear, either. So, now we've shifted what is unknown (is this a 'known unknown'?) from "messy" to "escape", but what else have we done? See, that's not the Gospel message. Do you think?

[beckrl]

So in the figurative sence, okay. It's like hearing a sunday message one tries to take literally,[ bad habits of house keeping, etc] but meant in an figurtaive sence. [having no direction, order in life]

Just come as you are messy and everything else and let the water of life clean you.