The Only Blemish

It has always been interesting to me about how we Christians express things. No wonder people who do not know the Lord question our beliefs. A case in point was today when a believing co-worker of mine shared with me that the only blemish a particular family had was the divorce between one of his siblings and their spouse. Now I don't know about you - but the term blemish has some very negative connotations to me.

While divorce is certainly not God's best for a family does God see it as a blemish on His family? When I think of a blemish it is something that detracts from the beauty of an object. Does the divorce between two people who love the Lord detract from the beauty of the family of God? Or can it demonstrate to the world that we too struggle with the issues of life? I believe it is the later.

Throughout scripture God allowed us to share in the lives of many of His saints who certainly could be seen as blemishes on the family of God. From the very beginning of time man has fallen short of God's best. Abraham lied about his wife Sarah being his sister in order to avoid the wrath of the Egyptian king. David lusted after another man's wife, slept with her and then killed the husband to cover his tracks. On and on the stories go. Why? Wouldn't you think that if God saw all of these activities as blemishes that He would not have exposed them to the readers of His word?

God allows this I believe in order for us to be able to compare what is perfect - God in His purity - and that which is not. Yet how does He see us? He sees us through the shed blood of His perfect Son, Jesus Christ. He sees us not as we are in our flesh but as we are though the Spirit of God. Because of our acceptance of the free gift of Salvation by Grace we no longer bear the blemishes of our sin. We wear the scars of our King.

Turn and Live

Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord GOD; so turn, and live. Ezekiel 18:31-32.

Why would we choose to die? Why indeed. I ask that question of myself periodically when I go back through the passages of time and see where I chose disobedience against the Will of God.
When I came across the verses in Ezekiel last week in my reading it struck me about God's heart. Note the last sentence where the inspired writer says that God has no pleasure in the death of any one. Any one. Not just the just but the unjust. Not just those that walk in the way but those that find themselves off the path. He loves them all. He takes no pleasure in their death.

So why then do we die spiritually? We die because we do not "Turn and live". We continue to follow the broad way that leads to destruction rather than making a turn and following the way that leads to God. In that we die.

What does it take to turn and live? For me it has meant coming to the place where I realized fully that the path I was on was leading me to not only physical death but more importantly to spiritual death. Yes, I was saved; but, I was dying spiritually in that I could not hear the voice of my Father. I heard only the voice of the one who would steal me away from the heart of God. Bit by bit my flame of passion for the things of God eroded away until I could no longer feel His presence.

Because of God's great love for me, He used the everyday situations of life and my family to show me how great was my need of Him. I could no longer walk in the "strength" of my own decisions. I had to come to the end of myself and realize that it was in my weakness that His strength could sustain me. The road became more and more lonely and dark until finally I was able to say enough.

In the past two months I have begun to see that the blessing of turning comes in knowing that I am walking toward the Light. I am walking closer to the Lover of my Soul. I am hearing the sweet sound of the Holy Spirit once again. New people have come into my life and have brought me great joy. And some of my friends from days gone by have returned. It is like a breath of clean air.

God loves us all the same. He sees our great need. He provided a means of salvation through the shed blood of His precious Son. All He asks of us is that we accept the free gift of grace and bow our knee to the Lordship of Christ. Turn and live - may you find your way back!

Quiet Waters

This past weekend my two sisters, Connie and Judy, my niece, Alyson and my dear Mom spent a girls weekend together with me at our cabin. At one point my sisters and I went for a walk down by the creek that runs through the property. I remembered how it rushed through the woods in the early spring when the winter snows had melted and the rains have fallen. Now though after a long and dry summer and fall, the creek has all but gone dry. It quietly flows across the rocks with hardly a sound. The leaves fall into the water and drift through the bends and curves of the stream unable to stop their journey except if snagged by a limb or washed to dry ground.

I was thinking about this a lot as I looked at this picture. Like the spring, when my faith was new, I was like the rushing stream. Always loudly announcing my presence and rushing to the next bend in the flow. But as the years went by, like the dryness of summer, my faith grew dry and my voice quiet. What is the cause of that? When my faith was new it was when I was plugged into the Source. There was no contention for who was the center of my life. My beliefs and my behaviors were in response to living connected to the source of life. Unfortunately, I started to be less and less relient on God and more and more on myself or others to feed the stream of my faith. Over time the stream of faith became quieter and drier.

One thing that I noticed though in this stream is that the water is still continuously flowing. There is no break in it. The stream is still living and providing nourishment to those along the way that draw from it. That gave me hope. Just as the stream will be replenished when the next rain comes or the winter snow melts I too can be replenished by the refreshing rain that comes from the Father.

Where does that rain come from? He sends them through the blessings of my life. The Word of God - His love letter to me. I found a renewed passion for the Word. As each day begins I find myself drawn to linger longer and longer in His Word. The stream grows stronger. My family and friends. They encourage me and enable me to see the light through the darkness. The counsel of wise men and women - who share with me God's Word and guide me in the path that my life may take. The stream begins to flow and overwhelm its banks. It spills over into the lives and hearts of those that I come in contact with. I rejoice in the journey. Each bend in the path of the water confronts me with yet another way to trust and obey my Father. I pray that I will become more and more conformed to the image of the giver of Life.

God has been the stream in my desert. He has seen me through the driest, saddest part of my life. The flowers in the desert bloom as the life giving water awakens life within me.

Roots of Shame

Interestingly, I have been thinking a lot lately about trees. Perhaps it is because it is a season of the year that I love. When the trees become "stars". Their bright foliage like bright lights that show off the grandeur of God's creation. For a brief time, they in their death - show off the brightness of life. Yes, I love trees. I love the ways that their roots can go deep into the earth to find the precious waters that bring growth and fruit. I love the shade that they provide and the coolness they bring in the heat of the summer. I love the way that they sway gently in the wind, their suppleness apparent by the fact that it take great and mighty gusts to topple them.

While I have been thinking of trees, I also have been thinking about shame. The roots of shame go deep. They wind their way through the years of memories, condemnation, judgement and pain. And they seek out the source of strength that comes from the brackish waters of satan's vile deceptions. The trees that bloom from the roots of shame are not beautiful. They do not contain the beautiful leaves or the shade that cools our face. They seek to hide us from the "sonlight" and to keep the gentle breeze of the Spirit from lifting us up out of the pit.

As long as Satan can continue to keep the roots of our shame fed - the tree will continue to grow - until it crowds out any of the beauty of growth that only God can give. This has been the lot of my life these past many years. But no longer. I am committed to starving out the roots of the tree of shame. I have been justified by Christ. I have been redeemed from the penalty of death by His grace. I no longer am bound by the sins that have kept me in shame for far too long.

The beauty of the tree - the beauty of the Tree of Life. All of these things are awakening in me a new reality that God desires for me, all of us that have come into His heavenly kingdom that we must not give in to the shame that sin causes. We must repent of our sin, turn from it and leave it at the cross. To take it up is to reject what Christ has done for us.

Praise you, Jesus. Praise you for being the Life Giver. May the roots of my life go deep to the sweet water of Your word that I may grow in the "Sonlight".