Ensign: Separation No More

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS                                        5 September 2014

All my blog posts this week have been about separation.

What comes to mind as I write today's message is the biggest separation of all, the one that we impose on ourselves. If you're expecting some high-winded psychological treatise from me, some feel-good message that "you're all right" or even that I'm all right (I know I'm not) then you probably do not want to keep reading. And I don't have the energy to point fingers at anybody because I know I will point three fingers back at me, point out the mote in your eye and neglect the beam in my own.

That analogy comes from Jesus' own mouth when He's giving what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Over in the seventh chapter of the gospel of Matthew, it's in the middle of the passage that begins with, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." This first verse is the one that political, social, and other liberals like to pounce on whenever people who are or claim to be God's children speak out about what they see as wrong, whether what one person's doing or what "society" seems to endorse.

"How dare you judge me," they say, or there's a post I've read saying "don't judge me because I sin differently than you". Here's the truth, we all sin. And what is sin, you may ask (even if you know)? It's more than something bad -- and you have to ask here who's defining "bad" -- you do although certainly I'd classify killing, adultery, and stealing as bad (and in some cases illegal, but I digress) but anything that you do that separates YOU, separates ME, from fellowship with God the Creator.

That's the whole point of Jesus on Earth and Jesus in heaven. If it's any help to those who find it hard to accept that they have anything to be forgiven for ... it's been hard for me too. Along with Augustine who asked God to make him pure, just not yet and Paul admitting that the good he would do he didn't do and the evil he wouldn't do he did (paraphrasing Romans 7:13-25), I am also someone who does good, but not all the good God's created me to do. I really do more of the bad. I sin.

And the cost of my sinning -- again, not necessarily that I kill people or cheat on my wife or steal left and right, it's anything that separates me from God, and not giving Him first place is one of those things -- is going to be that I die. Romans 6:23. But that does not end "For the wages of sin is death;" (keep reading) "but the gift of God eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." NOT eternal life in these bags of flesh and blood and bone that we're in now, but that's another story.

The life with God's the only life worth having. It's NOT an endless set of rules, it's NOT an eternal sermon or church service -- in fact, if we had to follow these or keep our attention in these we'd never do it. It's especially NOT something you feel like doing all the time. But take just one moment, just one instant, and ask with as strong or as weak a heart as you have, "Jesus, I am a sinner and I ask You to forgive me of my sins; I need You, please make me part of Your family."

Truth be known, there is really no agreed upon wording of accepting Jesus as Savior, but that isn't the point. That giant gulf between you here on Earth and God in heaven is bridged only by Jesus. "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6. Who else says or has said this? Who can? It's not bridged by how good you are -- and you have to ask here who's defining "good" -- but through Jesus Christ our Lord. You can come, but only by Him.

How about coming today?

David