Don’t Hold Back

Today’s readings contain a distinct message repeated in three different ways. Essentially the message is: “Don’t hold back.”

The Book of Esther is a dramatic story about a nobody from nowhere raised by a simple, godly man named Mordecai. In an extraordinary act, King Xerxes’ chooses Esther to be his queen.   She withholds her identity as a Jew in deference to her uncle Mordecai’s wishes.  With a history of persecution as long as the Jews’, no doubt Mordecai gives his advice to protect her.  In a short span of time, Esther receives extraordinary influence over Persia.  Yet this privilege does not come without cost.  It comes with the high price of responsibility.  She is responsible to her people and to her God. Within five years of her promotion, Esther’s people, the Jews, receive a death sentence.  It is an unfair, unjust ruling that threatens genocide.  And the sentence applies to Esther as well.  Maybe her title will save her, maybe not.  While she may be able to continue hiding her identity for awhile, then again she might be found out.  Her uncle Mordecai challenges her, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

He’s telling her, “Don’t hold back, Esther!”

In Isaiah 12 we read about the Lord’s day of Salvation.

And you will say in that day, “I thank you, God. You were angry but your anger wasn’t forever. You withdrew your anger and moved in and comforted me. “Yes, indeed—God is my salvation.
I trust, I won’t be afraid. God—yes God!—is my strength and song, best of all, my salvation!”Joyfully you’ll pull up buckets of water from the wells of salvation. And as you do it, you’ll say, “Give thanks to God. Call out his name. Ask him anything! Shout to the nations, tell them what he’s done, spread the news of his great reputation!“Sing praise-songs to God. He’s done it all! Let the whole earth know what he’s done! Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion! The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel.”

Because of God’s great salvation, the people rejoice. Sing out! Shout out! Let the world know how great God is! Let your life be an out-loud life of gratitude.  Let go of your fears of what people will think. Make God famous in the world as He rightly deserves! In other words, “Don’t hold back!”

Lastly, in Hebrews 9 we see how God has changed the rules for how to access Him.  We see how much greater Jesus’ sacrifice is then the relentless cycle of animal sacrifices prescribed under the Old Testament. Instead of  earthly sin covering us and a temporary stay of judgment that the blood of animals provided, Jesus provides a heavenly and eternal cleansing that establishes a permanent amnesty for those who come to him. No more shadows and types, the real thing has come! Jesus did this through his sacrifice on the cross. He then entered into heaven to offer his blood to God as payment for sin. Since that time, it’s been a new day with God! There’s a new relationship with Him that’s available.  There’s nothing separating us from him anymore.  It’s possible because of the total sufficiency of what Jesus has done. Nothing can be added to it. Nothing more is needed. He gives us an access to God never before imagined.    In Christ, you’re forgiven and free to worship and love God with all your life. “Don’t hold back!”

Inside-Out Spirituality

Inside-Out Spirituality.  That’s what we hear in today’s reading from Hebrews 8. The writer, quoting a promise God made through the prophet Jeremiah, says: “Heads up! The days are coming when I’ll set up a new plan for dealing with Israel and Judah. I’ll throw out the old plan I set up with their ancestors when I led them by the hand out of Egypt. They didn’t keep their part of the bargain, so I looked away and let it go. This new plan I’m making with Israel isn’t going to be written on paper, isn’t going to be chiseled in stone; this time I’m writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts. I’ll be their God, they’ll be my people. They won’t go to school to learn about me, or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons. They’ll all get to know me firsthand, the little and the big, the small and the great. They’ll get to know me by being kindly forgiven, with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean,” (Hebrews 8:10-12 Msg).

God realized that the real problem we humans all have is within us. Basically, we aren’t very godly.  It’s not that God didn’t know this to begin with — he knows everything. It’s not that he was surprised to discover this information because nothing sneaks up on him.  Maybe he just wanted us to realize it ourselves.

Although many of us basically want to do what is good and right, we can’t seem to do it with consistency. Why is being regularly godly so difficult? God knew that godliness was not something that we could pull off from the outside-in on our own.  It couldn’t happen via behavior or effort because our behavior seldom follows our intentions and our efforts tend to the extremes of either half-heartedness or a proud attempt at self-sufficient justification.  So God said something to the effect of: “Enough is enough! No more outside-in spirituality. No more effort. No more working hard to be like me. Instead, I will change everything. I will make spirituality an inside-out deal.  Instead of you working to be like me, I will change you internally so that you can begin to think and respond as I do.”

God’s new deal promise is a promise of Inside-Out Spirituality. He promises that when we place our trust in Jesus as our sufficiency and as our savior, God establishes godliness in the center of our being. It’s not a promise that exists external to our lives, but it’s an internal reality in which we get to live at peace with God as he shapes and molds us to be like him.  He does the work of change; we do the living. He provides the godliness; we cooperate as he teaches us. And because we live in a state of forgiveness with God, we need not be afraid of him when we have been less than godly.  We simply apologize to him and ask him to continue his work of making us to be what he wants of us.

Today, may I encourage you to drop the outside-in efforts and simply receive the good news of grace? God is for you and if you will allow him, he will write on your life the story of his own godliness.  Simply ask and receive from Him. Learn to listen and respond to Jesus and the spiritual life will become an inside out reality.