saint – The Jesus Chick

Saint Patrick’s Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Patrick is a cultural and religion celebration held annually on March 17 to honor the Patron Saint of Ireland. It’s become more so a day to celebrate Irish Culture than the religious aspect of it. Which is good I think, being that I don’t really put much stock in honoring saints. Not to belittle what St. Patrick did, being credited to have been instrumental in establishing the Christian faith in Ireland in the 5^th Century, but in the eyes of God saint hood is not exclusive to one religion. For the record, I’m Saint Shari. I really don’t anticipate any statues being erected in my honor, and it is not the honor of men that I seek. But studying God’s ideology of saints differs considerably from the worlds view.

Apostle Paul said in Romans 1:7 ~ To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

A saint is a child of God. Not a perfect child of God, not an overachieving child of God, not anyone necessarily of notable character. Many saints don’t deserve a statue. (I am one). The Catholic church has sainted many folks throughout the years and claim Peter was the first Pope, which I don’t believe for many reasons, but top of my list for not believing it is, in knowing the character of Peter, he would have had nothing to do with a religion that focus’ on the mother of Christ rather than the Savior and believes salvation can be bought. But this blog is not about my differences with the Catholic Church, it’s about the prerequisites for being a Saint and the reward!

King David spoke much of the saints of God especially in the Psalms:

But I would call Psalm 149 a Psalm of the Saints

Each verse brings great hope to the child of God for

149:1

All Saints! The Congregation, not just a select few.

¹Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.

All Creation! Not just a few

²Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

All People! Who are saved

³Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.

⁴For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

All Saints have honor!

⁵Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.

⁶Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand;

⁷To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;

⁸To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;

⁹To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.

What a joy to know! As a believer in Christ Jesus, believing that He was the final sacrifice for mankind on the cross of Calvary, that He proved his Deity by His power over death, His resurrection and His ascension to Heaven where He makes intercession for us, allowing us access to a Holy God, even as unholy as we are, and because of all His work, we have honor.

There will be no statues of us in Heaven, I don’t know that they’ll be any statues in Heaven. I just know that Jesus is in Heaven and it is He Who I will give praise, honor and glory. And so will the saints who have been honored on earth, and those who haven’t even been recognized.

Feeling unappreciated today? Don’t. There is One Who appreciates you more than you can possibly know.

Funny thing about life… sometimes it’s not funny at all. There are days when I’m trying to sort the laundry of life and make sure that my thoughts are segregated like the laundry piles (lights, darks, heavily soiled, and the “good clothes). Perhaps that’s a little too metaphorical. So let’s do some laundry together and perhaps you and I both will get some things about life figured out.

The Lights and Darks

I have two sides… do you? There’s the church side of Shari. The light side. I love that side! It’s the side that gets to talk to Jesus, study His word, help His people, and do my Father’s business… it’s the side I honestly long for. And then there’s the dark side. It’s the side of me that fights with the light side for domination. I would love to bury it in a hole in the backyard. It’s distracting at best, it’s often times judgmental and desires only the best in life, no matter the cost. I try to keep them separated, but they occasionally collide and the colors run. I’m trying to do my Father’s business and something shiny pops into to my head or onto the side of a web page…I’m trying to help someone and then that judgmental notion wonders if I should even bother, they won’t appreciate it…I sit down to study God’s word and then something more entertaining comes to mind… I start talking to Jesus, and it ends up being a “Dear God I’m stupid” conversation when I know God has something to tell me but He can’t get a word in edge wise for my rantings and “please forgive me’s.”

The Good clothes vs. the Heavily soiled

I don’t even let them touch! My husband David works at a job where he may sit in a truck all day on a computer, or he may step out of the truck and get doused with oil and various chemicals that make for some interesting stain removal, usually impossible stain removal. There is no way that I would allow those grimy duds to lie next to my Sunday Go To Meetin’ clothes. Sometimes…I do people the same way. Grimy beer drinkin’, cussin’ swarpin’ people that blaspheme God. What about the tribe of liberals that scream for everyone’s rights but believe that I have none as a child of God? They make me nauseous. How on earth can I witness to them, they shut me down before I walk in the door.

Did they? Or did my divisive thinking separate me from them before God could work His magic through the Holy Spirit?

I spend a lot of wasted time going over my laundry lists. The light and the dark sides, God knows both. Good vs. Evil, God loves both. All four require treatment.

The light side is in need of exhortation. Hebrews 3:13 reminds us to “exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” We need the fellowship of other saints to encourage us to keep the dark side at bay because we’re still sinners saved by grace. I love that the writer said “while it is called To day;” meaning… don’t put it off until tomorrow, because by that time somebody might have already fallen back into sin. We all can you know. The problem with the lights and darks is not that they’re there, but that they go untreated. We don’t encourage each other enough and we don’t confess to one another enough. James 5:16 says “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” The proper way to treat the dark side is to bring it into the light. Not that the two should mingle, but that the dark is made known and then it loses its hold. But we’re afraid to tell our friends about our struggles with the dark side, so it bleeds into the light side until that side is dull and dingy. We need a good friend that is not judgmental, but righteous through the blood of Christ, another sinner saved by grace that know they too have a dark side. Do you have that friend? Are you that friend?

The good clothes vs. the heavily soiled require basically the same treatment. Non-judgmental Christians encouraging non-Christians. The difference would be in the stain removal. While a Christian’s stains are already removed by the blood of Christ, they simply need some freshening up; the unsaved person has sins that are in desperate need of removal but require pre-treatment. Before I can help an unsaved person become clean, I need to spend some time preparing my heart in prayer and preparing they’re heart for the Holy Spirit to do some work before I arrive.

My attitude can only reflect Christ if my heart does. They’ll only see Jesus if I act like Him.

I hope my laundry metaphor helped you today, it helped me to remember that I’m still a sinner, lest I look down my nose at a sinner.

Tag: saint

The Truth About Saints

Life’s Laundry: What to do when the color’s run