Sunday, April 06, 2008

Creating

I was given the gift of a weekend to myself this weekend. Not easy to accomplish when you have a husband and 4 children. It is not only a weekend to myself, but a weekend to myself IN MY HOME. There is something very renewing to a woman to have time to herself (whether she be single or married with children). Due to circumstances out of our control my usual two weekends a year of down time has not happened for two years. I was overdue and worn out. The Lord cleared the weekend, strengthened my husband, and met me for a weekend of rest and renewal. Travis Cottrell has a song on his Alive Forever CD which the Lord gave me to contemplate for the weekend. It is entitled Search Me....here are the words:

Search me, know me, try me and see every worthless affection hidden in me.
All I'm asking for is that you would cleanse me Lord.
Create in me a heart that's clean,
conquer the power of secret shame.
Come wash away the guilty stain of all my sin.
Clothe me in robes of righteousness.
Cover my nakedness with praise.
All of my life before you now I humbly bring.

(If you have not heard this song then download it from itunes). I heard an interesting and thought provoking sermon this morning. The teaching was from Colossians 3:12-14 and was entitled "Life Together -- Forgiving One Another". Many good things were shared from this very familiar passage of scripture, but a couple of thoughts were worth more pondering. One is the use of the phrase "put-on". The phrase in the Greek refers to the immediate - not working towards putting it on, but as in it is raining, "put-on" on your raincoat or you will get wet. If you only put your coat on part way you will get wet. Another thought (always good teaching) is to look at what God's agenda is in the scripture. In this case the Lord gives it to us when He says, "put up with one another and forgiving one another..." The pastor used an illustration of sheep to get a very important point across. Sheep will do three things (always)...1. whine 2. wander (isn't there a scripture about one of those wandering sheep and the Lord seeking him...?!) and 3. wound.

Now we are talking about Christians when we reference the sheep - yep, we really do whine, wander and wound. The pastor ended the message with these thoughts: "Forgiveness is anchored in what Christ has done, it is acted out, and it is authentic in spirit." Someone asked me recently what I thought John Piper's response would be to Christians being stumbling blocks to other Christians? I think his answer from the book entitled Future Grace responds to that question. ..." All the wrongs that have been done against us by believers were avenged in the death of Christ." Beth Moore's take on the Godly result of wounding is this..."I know God did not author my abuse as He is light and that which was done to me was in darkness and God does not dwell there. So then the question always is why did God allow it? Maybe it was allowed because we need something from the healing process that would only be attained through His grace within that healing process." By the way...this applies to all wounding. Hers was sexual abuse, but the thought really speaks to every type of wounding.

Lots to think about...



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