Let Us love & sing & wonder (Jars of Clay)
Let us wonder grace and justice
Join and point to mercy's store
When through grace in Christ our trust is
Justice smiles and asks no more
& Justice is truly what we deserve. Upon examining (& not skimming over any details) our hearts, we find alot of scary hidden slime there. 'Course, that's why it's hidden.
"The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?"
The Story -Mine
& as a white, part-of-arich-family American, my experiences have been pretty clean- leastways, I never woke up to a gunshot, had an intensely loved one die.....nevertheless, I lie every two seconds, & this year hid a million lies from my family &...I'd have liked to think...from God. er, no-- He knew every time I lusted after impure things, & every time I carried through with those thoughts, indulging my selfish heart & recklessly breaking my own heart & hurting people & dishonoring God's name.
"O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil,
that you may be saved.
How long shall your wicked thoughts
lodge within you?" (Jeremiah 4)
He knew. & He didn't want me to continue on in ignorant darkness & false passion. That's where the crazy story comes in.
Somehow I got to White Sulphur Springs this summer (wells, it was completely God who got me there)
Being around so many godly people, reading so much Word, etc. made me realize that you cannot serve two things-
you can't worship fake love & yet still expect experience the legit. love of Christ.
*BAM*
so when I got home, alot of things CHANGED. a secret relationship ended, & the painful process of striking-and-healing started:
"And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them." (Isa. 19)
'Course, making the truth about my sin COMPLETELY known to those who needed to know it took awhile-
it's only been a couple weeks since I confessed everythin' to mum & dad-
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” –James 5:16.
God Blesses godly sorrow that leads to repentance. & As Martin Luther, in the 1st of the 95 Theses, wrote,
Since then, it's also the realization that many people see this salvation as foolishness-
1 Cor. 2:14,
"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."
I meet many people like this daily. But God DOES NOT take pleasure in the death of the wicked-
(Ezekiel 18:23)
"Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?"
Exactly.
This was alot of rambling, & mayhaps only Cate will read this.
But Jesus is God, & there is no other.
He's changed my life in unexplainable ways, so if you don't understand, that's not unsurprising.
"The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising Jesus from the dead." -Acts 17
-em & em
2 comments:
BUT THEN BEAUTY FOR ASHES, a gate made from a single pearl, a white stone & a new name & an upwelling joy that makes the world drop its jaw & grit its teeth &, eventually, bow its knee in awe.
It's not that "the world needs Christians like you, emma"
because the world doesn't. the world needs striking & healing from the WORD.
But it's that the Church is made up of living Christ-followers, & you are part of the Church, and that brings so much REJOICING to the Bridegroom! And to me.
What a story you have of the glory of a life transformed! Like the parable of the Prodigal Father (the father that recklessly spent everything on his no-good children), you have tasted both the elder-brother lostness & younger-brother repentance, and now yours is the solid, continued security of sonship.
Dude.
this calls for some BACON!
More?
please blog more! You're like a vitamin!
Post a Comment