Friday, April 22, 2011

Good Friday

At our worst and our best
(repost from Firstimportance.org)

Imagine your worst moment of guilt and shame, the memory that, when you let it, haunts you and threatens to hound you to the grave. In light of that sin, we sometimes cannot imagine how God could possibly forgive. Yet it was for that moment that Christ died for you. At your worst, God gave you his best. While you were still a sinner — of the worst kind — Christ died for you (Rom. 5:8). The Passover teaches us that no debt of sin is too great to be forgiven because the precious sacrifice of Jesus pays it all.

Now imagine your best day. You’re on your winning streak, behaving well, keeping up with your spiritual disciplines, forgiving those who wrong you, helping those in need and leading non-Christians to Jesus. In light of such stellar Christian performance, we sometimes assume forgiveness, telling ourselves, ‘Of course God forgives me; I’m on his team.’ But the Passover teaches us that we don’t — and never could — deserve God’s forgiveness. Our debt of sin to him is so great that we couldn’t possibly pay God back, not with a thousand years of perfect performance (as if that were possible). On your best day, when you can most easily see yourself as God’s friend, your sin still makes you his enemy and requires Christ’s death so that you might truly become his friend despite yourself. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

— Mike Wilkerson
Redemption: Freed by Jesus from the Idols We Worship and the Wounds We Carry
(Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2011), 75

Thursday, April 21, 2011

rambling while I'm sleepy...

Have you ever been unable to sleep no matter the fact that you have been exhausted since the moment you woke the day before? What better to do then get on the computer and mindlessly hit the "next blog" button over and over and over....

Even better is to look at all the exciting things people post and realize that it is okay that things aren't exciting enough to post about.

This season is very odd... I have so much in my head it is hard to even think straight, but I am grateful. I am grateful that in all the noise that is mulling around that I am still in GREAT hands. With spring coming so late (has it really shown up yet?) I am reminded that sometimes to enjoy the sunshine... I mean to REALLY appreciate it, sometimes you have to come through a long stretch of storms (or in our case months and months or rain!).

I am working to truly appreciate the small things the Lord puts in front of me to remind me of all HE has brought me through and all HE is stirring in me now. It helps me trust in so many areas where I have no control (as if I have control in any area) that HE will provide, HE has a plan, HE first loved, HE is still present, HE always has been, HE understands, HE is teaching, HE is providing and HE alone is enough.

After months of silence, that is my rambling.