This morning in Evangelism Jennifer Barrick spoke in our class...a few years ago the Barrick family was hit head-on by a drunk driver going 80 miles per hour. Miraculously, all four of them survived. Jen was in a coma for a few weeks, and when she woke up she, although having suffered massive brain damage & motor skills, she remembered every Bible verse & praise song & woke up speaking of God's goodness...her Mom talked about how after that night their lives have drastically changed- and physical social acceptability is so invaluable compared to how they're able to glorify God & share the gospel with so many now.
TAKE THAT, SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY!
Here's their website:
http://hopeoutloud.com/index.html
Also, in a conversation Caroline & I had last night she told me about how a friend of hers wrote to her about feeling gawky & awkward frequently. Her reply- JESUS WAS AWKWARD. what?!?
-He hung naked in front of huge crowds on a holiday weekend.
Really.
And we are concerned for how we're viewed by people.
Not that it isn't important to measure our actions-
in Acts 5:14 it describes Peter & other believers --
"the people held them in high esteem."
So, in news of social acceptableness, I didn't do so awesomely today, since i gathered colossal amounts of leaves from gutters & drew ridiculous caricatures of people on Microsoft paint.
Point of this post, though: to UPSET the STATUS QUO FOR JESUS' NAME.
& Now for reformed-ness, some valley of vision
(future hubby, we can read this together on a picnic! ;)
THE PRECIOUS BLOOD:
Blessed Lord Jesus,
Before thy cross I kneel and see
the heinousness of my sin,
my inequity that caused thee to be
"made a curse",
the evil that excites the severity
of divine wrath.
Show me the enormity of my guilt by
the crown of thorns,
the pierced hands and feet,
the bruised body,
the dying cries.
Thy blood is the blood of incarnate God,
its worth infinite, its value beyond all thought.
Infinite must be the evil and guilt
that demands such a price.
Sin is my malady, my monster, my foe, my viper,
born in my birth,
alive in my life,
strong in my character,
dominating my faculties,
following me as a shadow,
intermingling with my every thought,
my chain that holds me captive in the
empire of my soul.
Sinner that I am, why should the sun give me light,
the air supply breath,
the earth bear my tread,
its fruits nourish me,
its creatures subserve my ends?
Yet thy compassions yearn over me,
thy heart hastens to my rescue,
thy love endured my curse,
thy mercy bore my deserved stripes.
Let me walk humbly in the lowest depths
of humiliation,
bathed in thy blood,
tender of conscience,
triumphing gloriously as an heir of salvation.
(The Valley of Vision pg. 74-75, unknown author)
1 comment:
Emma, here are my full thoughts on our precious, vulnerable, awkward savior!
"On feeling socially awkward and gawky but Jesus was the most socially awkard and gawky man alive. He was actually splayed naked in front of His people during a holiday weekend. He died awkward, gawky, and naked. He said the wrong things and the wrong time to the wrong people because that's what His father told him to do. So as I pray for you, the perfect intercessor can hear my prayer because He too was socially awkward and gawky.
On being vulnerable. Not to cheat on Christmas, but to focus on the incarnation. What was Jesus if not vulnerable. Homeless, suceptible to flus and viruses. He was "helpless babe." He was so vulnerable that he let idiotic people kill him. As I pray for your feeling vulnerable, I pray this will drive you to the inventor of vulnerability, the one who suffered as you have, who has felt as you have, but who loves like you cannot."
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