A word given to: Steve Shultz Vancouver, WA sshultz@worldaccessnet.com

THE TRUTH ABOUT MESSING UP!

I was sitting at my computer when it came out of my mouth. That's often how I "hear" from the Lord. It just pops out of my mouth and THEN I realize it wasn't from me. It was about me though. Oh, and it was about you too.

I think perhaps if I had been Saul (of the Old Testament) who met up with the company of prophets, and I just started prophesying as he did, what I prophesied might have been the first thing out of my mouth.

Of course, I AM Saul. And so are you---in transition, of course.

There were two Saul's you know.

I'm talking about both of them. We are the Saul who at one time was "small in his own eyes"--but then we became haughty and disobedient when we saw how God was beginning to use us. Come on, you know what I'm talking about it.

The 'other' Saul started out that way, A "Pharisee of Pharisee's." ---a man of stature in his own eyes, until the Lord changed him into Paul, a man who became small in his own eyes. What was God trying to teach us about the two Saul's anyway?

When Jesus appeared, a change occurred. This is what John says:

John 1:17 "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." When the Law couldn't help, Grace came--but grace works with truth.

The first Saul broke the law and commandments God gave him--and said he didn't. He lost everything.

The second Saul BEGAN with the Law, having learned the lessons of the first Saul. ---he still became important in his own eyes. But he lost everything too--- --except it was now for the cause of Christ that he willingly lost it all. Including his life.

So what does TRUTH have to do with it?

A lot, actually. During his 3rd long missionary journey--after years and years of service for the Lord, Saul (now Paul) had something to say to the New Testament church. The man who had given up everything to follow Christ--the man who had "truthfully" become small in his own eyes said,

Rom 7:18-20 "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."

The voice of Paul's experience caused him to humble himself and before God and all the church he truthfully admitted, in so many words, "I've messed up a bunch! Having tried to walk blamelessly before God, Instead, I have continued to catch myself always falling short of the mark."

But back there a few years---the disciples-- prior to the Crucifixion-- hadn't figured this out yet. Here's what they told--or should we say, "bragged" about to Christ,

Matt 19:27 Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"

We're all working to become changed. That's why I was surprised when I sort of "learned" the truth as it came out of my mouth today . . .

. . . I was sitting at my computer when I heard myself say,

"Lord, I've messed up everything to follow you!."

And then I sensed I had just become a little more free. Truth does that, you know. It sets free.

And then I sensed the smile on the Lord's face widen--just a little bit.