The Ascension

Who may ascend the mountain of The Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.
Psalm 24:3-4

I used to read that passage and immediately come under conviction. If we're being honest here, I'm sure that some of you either used to, or still do read this passage and think to yourselves, "Well I don't trust in an idol...and I don't swear by a false god...but as far as having clean hands, or a pure heart...well, that's another story." I can honestly say that it was only recently that I truly understood the fact that if we have a relationship with Christ, and we have called Him Lord and Savior, the He has cleansed our hearts. He has purified our hearts.

You see, when we believe in Jesus Christ as the one true Messiah, then He comes in and He transforms us. He gives us a new heart. He gives us a new soul. He has done it, apart from us, because He knew that we would never be able to accomplish it without Him.

This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence in the day of judgement: in this world we are like Jesus.
1 John 4:17

God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we may become the righteousness of God in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus did everything for us already. Did you know that? There are a lot of people who really believe that they HAVE to do something for Christ. Listen, I'm not saying that we are not supposed to do good things. Just know that in doing these things, we are not working FOR Christ. We are working WITH Him. The bible calls us "co-laborers". We work alongside Christ, and accomplish many great things.

If there is one thing that I could get everyone to understand, it is this, righteousness isn't something that we can gain by working for it. You can't get more saved by Christ by working harder. You can however become incredibly frustrated and angry because life isn't working how you thought it was supposed to. We have become sin managers in the church. We think that as long as we can get this sin under control, we will be okay. Can I tell you a secret? If you are trying to do this on your own power, you will NEVER get that sin under control. It doesn't matter how much bible you read, how many hours you spend praying, how many dollars you give to the church, it will never go away. The only way to get rid of the sins that plague you is to have a shift in your thinking.

You will never live consistently in a way that is contradictory to the way that you believe. Let me reword it. What you believe about yourself, ultimately is the way you will live. If you believe that you are ALWAY victorious through Christ, or that you are MORE THAN a conquerer, than you will see victory in the areas of your life that you have never seen victory in. If however, you view yourself as just a lowly sinner saved by grace, then you will probably have a hard time being victorious in your walk.

One of my favorite worship bands is the United Pursuit Band. They have a song called The Climb. One part of the song says, "And I will climb this mountain with my hands wide open". I was listening to this song this afternoon in a time of prayer, and it hit me. We can ascend the mountain of God with our hands wide open, because God through Christ, has literally given us a position of victory. He has cleansed us. He has purified us. And whether we live in that way all depends on whether we will believe it. I absolutely do not for one second believe that God is in heaven angry with us. I don't think that He is waiting up there for us to screw up so He can pour out His wrath. I think He is in heaven waiting for us to embrace the love that He has already poured out on us.

I also don't think that we can disappoint God. The definition of the word disappointed is this: sad or displeased because someone or something has failed to fulfill one's hopes or expectations. I've heard many people say that they don't want to disappoint God. Well disappointed comes from a place of unfulfilled expectations. Our God is a big God. Our God is so big in fact, that He knows everything. He knows everything from infinity past, and He knows everything to infinity future. He knows everything you ever have done. He knows everything you are doing. And He knows everything that you will ever do. If He already knows EVERYTHING, then how is something unexpected going to show up on His radar? God can't be disappointed, because that would mean that He didn't know something was going to happen. If He didn't know something was going to happen, then He would cease to be God.

God loves you. He really, really loves you. He gave His only Son for you. He poured out all of His wrath on Jesus on the cross. In fact the Word says that it pleased God to crush Him. Why in the world would it please God to crush His son? Because now God could relate to you and I one on one. Now He doesn't have to crush US for the sins in our lives. Because Jesus drank the cup, and took on our sin, now, we can stand boldly in the day of judgement because we are like Christ in this world.

We may ascend the mountain of the Lord, because He Himself has cleansed our hands and purified our hearts. He has given us an open door to meet with Him. What Jesus did on the cross was a beautiful thing. Our Savior is a beautiful Savior, and He is love.