Taking the club out of their hands

(new article Tuesday evening)

Paul writes in Romans 8:34, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

“Somebody going to come along and condemn you?” says Richard Jordan. “Hey, by the way, you condemn yourself better than they would do. When somebody says something about you and you get all proud and huffy, if you’d just sit down for a minute and realize that you can think about yourself a lot worse things than they’re saying about you.

“You can, and in fact, you do at times. That’s what makes you so aggravated when other people do it because you know it’s true.

“Winston Churchill said it: ‘There’s nothing more exhilarating than being shot at and missed.’ Maybe what they’re saying about you isn’t exactly true, but if they knew all the stuff you know about you, you’d be mute. So who is he that condemneth? Who really has the ability to condemn you?

“Romans 14:4 says, ‘Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.’

“Paul said in Romans 2 about some people trying to get around responsibility:  ‘Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.’

“So who is it really who’s going to condemn you? It doesn’t help to say, ‘Well, you did it, too,’ does it? Because that’s really not an excuse.

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“You look at all this stuff going on down in Ferguson, Missouri, and it’s who gets the best press. The kid or cop. Everybody’s just looking for a way to condemn the other guy and excuse themselves.

“Pointing your finger at someone else for doing something bad to excuse yourself is the height of absurdity. Either you’re guilty or you aren’t guilty; it doesn’t make any difference what anybody else did. And, by the way, you’re probably guilty.

“That’s why that verse 34 in Romans 8 is so important. Somebody comes along and wants to condemn you; it’s Christ who died . . . Two thousand years ago God knew everything I was going to do and He died for all of it; none of it caught Him by surprise.

“Someone called me the other day and said, ‘My husband’s an unbeliever and every now and then I’ll mess up and he’ll  get mad and look at me and say, ‘If those people at the church knew about you and knew how you acted here at home, they wouldn’t let you open the door!’

“She asked, ‘What should I do?!’ I said, ‘You need to look at him and say, ‘You know, sugar, you’re absolutely right.’

“You know what you just did? You took the club out of his hands. Because he is right but you can acknowledge the fact you made a mistake and did wrong.

“One of the most powerful things you’ll ever do in relationships with other people is you look at them and say, and I deal with this in marriage and inter-personal conflicts all of the time, ‘They’re 95 % wrong and I’m 5% wrong.’

“Let’s say that’s true. If you say to them, ‘You know, friend, I’ve been wrong and I’m sorry,’ you may only be confessing 5% of it in your mind, and they’re guilty of the rest, but that’s them and this is you and you know what, that is such a powerful thing in relationships.

“You say, ‘How can I do that?’ ‘Who is he that condemneth? It’s Christ that died.’ If He doesn’t condemn you, what matters if anybody else does? Can I say to you God is for you.

“In verse 26 Paul says, ‘Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’

“An infirmity is somewhere where you have a weakness. In my mind, the weakness in this verse is defined for you. ‘Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought.’

“The ultimate weakness you have in life, especially in your prayer life, is you really don’t know how you ought to pray.

“When it comes to taking what God says and applying it to the circumstances of your life, you often throw up your hands and say, ‘I’m not really sure,’ because there are more places where He doesn’t tell you what to do directly.

“He never says buy that car, marry that person. He’ll say, ‘Don’t marry that one,’ but He never says, ‘Marry that one.’ Isn’t that interesting? God expects you to make some of those choices. He expects you to work with Him. Take His word, let it work in you and make some choices and some decisions.

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 “I was raised in a religious system where every time you did anything you were happy about you figured it was your flesh because you couldn’t be happy. That’s flesh.

"I remember reading that verse in I Timothy 6 about how ‘God’s given us all things richly to enjoy,’ and I used to puzzle over that and think, ‘If He’s given us all things richly to enjoy, then why do I have to be miserable all of the time to be pleasing to Him?’

“Then it dawned on me one day that I didn’t have to be. I could have some joy that had nothing to do with it being attached to my flesh.

“The Spirit of God takes His Word and makes intercession. He’s for you. You’re not left abandoned. God’s for you.”