Imposters

I wrote the following for our Eastern Regional Association’s June newsletter:

“Imposter Syndrome” is the feeling that if people really know you they’d realize you are a fraud, not really qualified, and it often leads to anxiety and striving to keep the mask in place. It’s a fairly common experience, and one that I’ve dealt with at times because of my unusual path into an accounting career. I have to remind myself, as the saying goes, that “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.” We may tend to think that if we just take a spiritual gift test we’ll know exactly what God wants us to do for the rest of our lives. But oftentimes our confidence in our own abilities makes us prideful and robs God of the glory He should be receiving. He delights in using those who know they are unqualified. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor. 1:27-28). It strikes me that God chose Saul of Tarsus, the man educated under Gamaliel and a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” to send him not to his fellow Jews, but as an apostle to the Gentiles. And God sent Peter, the uneducated fisherman, as an apostle to the Jews. God likes to take people out of their comfort zones so that they will rely on Him. As Paul wrote, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9b).

Another manifestation of Imposter Syndrome is the feeling that you don’t quite fit in and would be rejected if people knew you. As I wrote this, Rev. Glennon Balser was nearing the end of his days. If you knew Glennon, you know that he was a great hugger. That made me start thinking about all the hugs that will be shared when we all meet again in the Resurrection. But then it hit me that it’s far easier for me to imagine that than to imagine the embrace of my Savior when He comes. I’ve tended to picture the Judgment Day as an impersonal sorting— “Sheep… sheep… goat… All the sheep to My right, all the goats to My left…” Yet if you look at the life of Jesus, you get a different picture. He was known as a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matt. 11:19). He reached out to touch and heal the unclean (Matt. 8:3). He stopped to talk to a woman in the middle of a crowd and called her “daughter” (Matt. 9:22). And He told a parable of the prodigal son and said “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). We too can expect to be embraced when we come to our eternal home as children of God.

The fact is, we’re all imposters. None of us deserves the blessings of this life or the privilege of serving God, and none of us deserve eternal life in His kingdom. But that doesn’t matter because our Creator is the One who chose us, redeemed us, and adopted us into His family—not for anything that we have done but simply because He delights to show us His love. What a day that will be when we can run into the arms of our Father!

 

© 2023 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

In the Book

Last week in Sunday school we were talking about differing views of predestination (Arminianism vs. Reformed). There is certainly benefit to studying Scripture to try to figure out what it is saying about salvation. Sometimes though, I think we forget that God is not bound by space and time. This analogy isn’t perfect, but I picture God as the author of a grand book. He has chosen the characters and established their lives and their destinies. Each page, from beginning to end, is unchangeable. But for the characters, each choice they make is a normal outworking of their personality, desires, and priorities. Each choice matters because it leads to the next page of the story. This analogy is supported by Scriptures such as these:

“[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:4).

“In Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16b).

There are a couple unique features of God’s book. One is that He wrote Himself into the story in the form of Jesus Christ— “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14a). Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection were required to make the story come to the proper conclusion. That points to the second unique feature—at the end of the story the book isn’t just stuck on a shelf somewhere. Instead, God will transform His chosen people from two-dimensional characters into fully living members of His eternal family. (Everyone else will not be “lifted” off the page into new life.)

Like I said, the analogy isn’t perfect since it doesn’t address things such as prayer and worship being real interaction with God. However, I think most would agree that eternal life is going to have new dimensions we can’t currently imagine: How did Jesus appear to the disciples when they were hidden behind locked doors? Will we be able to just transport ourselves anywhere we want to go? How will we recognize and relate to the fellow believers we’ve known during this life? What good work will God have for each of us to do on the new earth? “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

With the author and book analogy, I have no qualms about saying that God chose me before I existed and apart from anything I could do to earn salvation. At the same time He enabled me to choose Him. He has used all the circumstances of my life—both good and bad—to make me who He wants me to be. Whether I understand all the details or not, I can trust that He will fulfill His perfect plan, and I can give Him the glory for all of it.

“The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels” (Rev. 3:5).

 

© 2023 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Chance or Chosen?

I was listening to a podcast that happened to include two Jews and a Christian. The Christian made the comment, “I’m a Christian because they got to me first. If I’d been born in some other culture, who knows what I would be.” Perhaps he was just trying to be avoid being antagonistic. But while there is a small grain of truth in what he said—we are each born into a specific time and place and are influenced by our culture—it seemed like he was Christian in name only. If he truly believed that Jesus is the only way to God and eternal life, I don’t think he would so quickly write off his faith as a cultural coincidence. If we believe that God chose us “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), then our faith is not simply a cultural artifact. Unfortunately, his perspective is all too common. We who have grown up in a relatively Christianized country may be inclined to adopt a cultural Christianity that has very little relation to faith in God and obedience to His will as revealed in the Bible.

Not long after hearing that podcast I was reading my Bible and found myself in Ezekiel 3, where the prophet is told by God:

“If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul” (18-19).

In other words, “If you know the truth and don’t warn people, you will suffer for their condemnation.” While we might wish to apply that just to prophets or pastors, every believer has an obligation to share the good news of faith in Jesus Christ with those we love (Matt. 28:18-20). Failure to do so won’t make us lose our salvation, but it will certainly bring us grief when friends die without knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Those who do know Jesus in this way will not glibly say, “The Christians got to me first.”

The author of Hebrews wrote, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (2:1). Jesus said that some who hear the truth will immediately reject it, others may initially seem to respond but later fall away, some let the truth get choked out by the stresses of life, but a few go on to bear great fruit (Luke 8:4-15). Then Jesus goes on to say that those who have received the light of truth will not hide that light from others (16). “Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away” (18).

There are those who call themselves Christians who have no clue what it means to live by faith in Christ alone or to desire to follow Him as Lord. What faith they think they have will be taken away, because it is a faith in themselves or in their cultural upbringing, not in God. The Apostle Paul wrote,

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them… So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:19-21).

Although we can’t save ourselves by our works, we can choose to reject God’s offer of salvation and live in denial of His authority over our lives. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10). Part of the good work that God has prepared for us is to bear witness to Him and to give a reason for the hope that we have (1 Pet. 3:15), not just attributing it to an accident of nature or nurture.

Let us give credit where credit is due and not neglect to give credit to the God who chose us.

“For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30).

© 2022 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Sealed

I keep thinking about a Christmas letter received from an acquaintance of the family. She’s an unmarried woman who joined the Mormon church many years ago. She reported in her letter that she’d been “sealed to her parents.” I didn’t know what that meant so I looked it up. According to Wikipedia: “The purpose of this ordinance is to seal familial relationships, making possible the existence of family relationships throughout eternity.” As a single woman, she would have been limited to a lower degree of the “celestial kingdom” without this ceremony. Wikipedia also states that the sealing is “valid only if both individuals have kept their religious commitments and followed LDS teachings.”

I am saddened by the deceptions perpetuated and accepted by so many people. At the same time, I am thankful that my eternal destiny is not dependent on my parents, a spouse, or any human ceremony. In fact, it’s not even dependent on my own ability to keep my religious commitments. Instead, Scripture says that our guarantee is from God Himself.

“And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22 ESV).

This sealing occurred at the moment of salvation, and is assured from now till eternity:

“In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14)

God’s seal upon us is not dependent on obedience, but is motivation for obeying Him:

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).

Eternal life is not dependent on who we’re related to on earth, but whether we’ve been adopted by God Himself:

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16).

Salvation is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Freedom from the guilt and power of sin is a gift (Romans 6:6-7). Sanctification is a gift (Ephesians 2:10). Eternal life with God is a gift (Romans 6:23). When we forget that, we often turn to manmade rituals to try to cleanse our consciences and assure ourselves that we’ll be okay. But if we’re honest, even our best efforts never feel good enough. There’s a lingering doubt that can only be relieved by trusting what God has said in Scripture.

One of my favorite Scriptures is 1 John 3:19-20: “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.” The whole letter of 1 John is full of reminders and assurances that we can indeed know that we are forgiven and that we belong to God. We can one day enjoy eternity in relationship with the One who created us, redeemed us, and adopted us into His family. What more do we need?

“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13).

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.

Worth It All

I keep a list of possible writing ideas, and I had noted a verse that I’d intended to comment on around Christmas. However, another verse came up recently and I don’t feel like waiting 10 months. Besides which, Christmas and Easter are intimately related and are relevant to every day.

In Luke 2:14 the angels announce, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased” (ESV). This about nine months after Gabriel told Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). Did you ever think about what it means to find favor with God or to be pleasing to Him? I remember vividly a conversation I had in college when I told someone I thought I had disappointed God. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a good answer for me, but I later learned that I can’t disappoint God when He knows me better than I know myself.

The Apostle Paul brought this to light in Romans 5:10, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life,” and Ephesians 2:1-10, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us… made us alive together with Christ.” Not only were we enemies of God, but we were sinful corpses. That certainly doesn’t present any great case for us to be “those with whom He is pleased,” particularly when that angelic announcement came years before Christ’s reconciling death on the cross. And yet—He came, He died, He rose again out of His great mercy and love for a bunch of deadbeats.

John Ortberg comments in Love Beyond Reason, “As Lewis Smedes put it, it may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I’m worth dying for. We may be ragged, but we must never confuse raggedness with worthlessness” (23). Our worth is not measured by what we do or fail to do, but by the fact that God has claimed us as His own. On those days when shame says, “You can’t do anything right,” we are still worth the cross of Christ. And on those days when pride says, “You scored big this time,” our worth to God hasn’t changed a bit.

Richard Foster, in his book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, shares the story of a man who meets with a spiritual advisor. Day after day he was told to meditate on Luke 1:26-38. After several frustrating days, “Though Jim could barely believe it, the angel’s word to Mary seemed to be a word for him as well: ‘You have found favor with God.’ Mary’s perplexed query was also Jim’s question: ‘How can this be?’ And yet it was so, and Jim wept in the arms of a God of grace and mercy” (145).

I’m sure I’m not the only one who needs frequent reminders of the immeasurable, unchangeable love of God for me. I can’t disappoint God, but I can sure disappoint myself, and my disappointment colors the way I see everything else. I imagine that at times I’m so busy rehearsing my failures that I don’t even hear God repeating, “I love you. I love you. I love you.” It’s one thing to remember that following God is worth it all, but He’s also reminding us “Child, you are worth it all.” God is never watching us and thinking, “Why did I give up My Son for these dumb people?!” No, He just keeps on giving grace and mercy, drawing us back into His loving arms, investing Himself in us for eternity. From our perspective that may seem like a pretty poor investment, but somehow He will make it all pay off in the end.

A college friend introduced me to an unpublished second verse to the chorus “More Precious Than Silver” from God’s perspective:

Child, you are more precious than silver,
Child, you are more costly than gold,
Child, you are more beautiful than diamonds,
And nothing I desire compares with you.

“Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows… Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!” (Luke 12:7, 24).

© 2016 Dawn Rutan. 

Divine Appointments

At this time of year as we think about the birth of Jesus, born to be the Messiah, a string of other biblical appointments came to mind. Zechariah was told by the angel that his unborn son John “will be great before the Lord... and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” (Luke 1:14-15 ESV). The prophet Jeremiah was told, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:4). The Apostle Paul also said he was “appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher” (2 Timothy 1:11).

I was listening to a sermon on the radio yesterday (I think it was Walk in the Word) that commented on Joseph being carefully selected to be Jesus’ earthly father. We don’t give a lot of thought to Joseph since he is mentioned in only a few verses. About all we know is that he was a just man who was obedient to God. He doesn’t even have a speaking part in the nativity, so he tends to get overlooked as a minor character.

There is a tendency to think that only the “great” men of the Bible received divine appointments. The fact is, every believer was chosen and appointed for a purpose: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). Some are appointed as a “prophet to the nations,” others as a minister to our neighbors, an evangelist to our coworkers, or a servant to our family (or all of the above). It makes no difference how public or private our roles may be, we are equally appointed by God and equally important to the ministry of reconciliation in which we are all participants (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).

At Christmas we can tend to feel like spectators, like the shepherds who were summoned to praise God when they saw the baby Jesus, though they had little idea what the angel meant that a Savior had been born. However, the rest of Scripture indicates that the birth of Jesus was as much for us as for those shepherds. The life of Jesus was for our sake as well as for the twelve men He called disciples. His death was for our benefit just as it was for the women standing at the foot of the cross. The gospel song says, “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind.” It could also say, “When He was in the womb, I was on His mind.” We are not afterthoughts or extras in the history of the world. We matter to God. He loves each of us and He’s called each one to love and serve Him.

Let us celebrate this Christmas with a fresh awareness that:

My hope is in the Lord,
Who came to earth for me,
He came to give me life
Through His nativity.
For me He died;
For me He lives,
And everlasting life and light
He freely gives.

(A new verse I added to the old hymn.)

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide... These things I command you, so that you will love one another” (John 15:16-17). “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word... so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me” (John 17:20,23).

© 2015 Dawn Rutan