Blessed to share at a school chapel for little kids today. Lets me see just how difficult it is for me, an aging adult, to boil down the truths of the Bible to be accurate and yet capture the main point, the real emphasis, of our text.<\/p>\n
What do our little ones need to know, as they begin to grow in understanding and experience? Here\u2019s the secret I shared today: nobody\u2019s good<\/strong>. Nobody\u2019s good (Jesus excepted).<\/p>\n All of us to varying degrees and for various motives try to be good. We often tell our kids to be good. But then we do bad things. Sometimes our bad is inside \u2013 just bad thoughts. But even bad thoughts taint good deeds.<\/p>\n We try to hold up standards of other people like they are good, to be attained to. So we have Abraham, Moses, David. We look to Peter or Paul. Of course, each and every one of those saints just mentioned were well-documented sinners. Big sins, even\u2026 murder, lying, abandoning Jesus. So the very best people in the Bible were not good, not in all their actions. Not in themselves.<\/p>\n It is amazing that we continue to hope in ourselves. We shouldn\u2019t. Our hope can\u2019t be in ourselves. Our hope can\u2019t be in our goodness. The Bible even famously says that our best deeds are like filthy rags before God.<\/p>\n One of the most comforting ways to think about this to me is to look at the armor of Ephesians 6<\/strong>. Paul there writes that we are going to need to fend off the arrows of the adversary, of Satan. What are those arrows? I don\u2019t think it is out of line to consider that Satan is the accuser. His arrows are arrows of accusation. \u201cYou aren\u2019t good enough. You don\u2019t deserve to be in heaven. You are a failure, give up.\u201d<\/p>\n What protects us from those arrows?<\/p>\n First, try putting on the clothing of your good works. Filthy rags, right? Even if they aren\u2019t as filthy as the next person\u2019s, rags are no protection from arrows of accusation. Even our best works have threads of ill motive, have pieces of imperfection. It is in this sense that a little leaven flavors the whole lump.<\/p>\n What we need is armor. Armor from the accusations of the accuser, from the deceptions of the deceiver. Hmm. Good thing that\u2019s what we get!<\/p>\n Paul says in Ephesians 6:11-17<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong> to \u2018take up the armor of God.\u2019 That would be God\u2019s armor (not mine). Pick it up, put it on, believe it, this is your help, this is your defense, this is your protection.<\/p>\n What is our protection?<\/p>\n Do you see? In come the accusatory, deceptive darts of the devil. If we\u2019re trying for protection in our works, we\u2019re toast. If we rest in the protective armor of what Jesus has done, we stand.<\/p>\n This is what being a Christian is: that you hope in somebody just giving goodness to you. Not just someone, actually. Jesus. This is what God promises us. It is a covenant: a big, solemn, serious promise. He promises that he will forgive us of all our sins, every one we have ever done in the past, or do now, or will do in the future. He says he will remember them no more. And then he gives us, in Christ, beautiful clean washed clothes of his goodness.<\/p>\n So hold on to the secret: there\u2019s no one good. Except for Jesus. That\u2019s really good news, because his goodness will protect us as we trust in him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blessed to share at a school chapel for little kids today. Lets me see just how difficult it is for me, an aging adult, to boil down the truths of the Bible to be accurate and yet capture the main point, the real emphasis, of our text. What do our little ones need to know, … Continue reading A Secret for Life<\/span> \n