I originally wrote this several weeks ago, but didn't post it right away. I'm so glad I wrote it down when I did because I needed to read it again! For anyone who has ever felt the urge to write something you felt God was showing you, this is your reminder to do it. I guarantee that it will help your faith to grow because when you read it later on-you see that it really was God speaking to you. It is ALWAYS confirmed.
I hope I never stop learning, but over the last 3 or 4 years, God has stretched my fundamental beliefs and taught me that while he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, people always change. His laws are the same for all, but they are applied in different ways to different people. That is hard for a girl to accept when she's always believed in absolute Truth and the inspired Word of God. There is absolute Truth in the form of Jesus Christ, but grace is not such an absolutely definable thing. Absolute Truth exists in the phrase, "ALL have sinned and fallen short." Absolute Truth exists in the availability of grace to everyone. Absolute Truth exists in the fact that ALL sins are EQUAL! What a concept! We as christians tend to make our little white lies out to be nothing while our neighbor who is shacking up is GOIN' TO HELL! Ummm, hello! Lying is a sin. Gossip is a sin, Envy and jealousy are sins. Screwing around is...nothing more than the other things...sin. And (shock!) smoking and drinking are NOT! Are those things good for you? Of course not, but they are not mentioned as sin. Other than the admonition to keep your body as a temple to the Holy Spirit and to do ALL things in moderation-not to excess, smoking is not even mentioned in the Bible and drinking is mentioned as perfectly normal and acceptable.
I have a hard time grasping those things. On a moment to moment basis, I have to be reminded.
I have realized that while I am an optimist, I am very negative. How can this be? Well, while I am always sure that everything will work out, the situation is always bad, bad, bad in the present. Unfortunately, I tend to speak the present rather than the future. I am trying to become a more positive person. So for the next few months I am going to be working on not just seeing a positive outcome, but speaking it as well. I think the negativity began as a defense mechanism. If I talk myself down, I won't get my hopes up and be dissappointed. I have GOT to stop that. I need to find the good in every situation and every person.
I have things I want my children to learn and at this point, they will only learn from example. I have to stop grieving over the things I didn't teach them that I should have and just start setting a better example of it. I am learning on a daily basis to entrust them to the Lord and trust completely in Him to draw them to Him. He is a big God. I gave them to Him before they were born and He is completely able to hold onto them. Besides, even though I didn't do a perfect job of teaching them, they do KNOW the Truth. They may question and they may rebel, but they KNOW the Truth. God's word does not return to Him void. It always produces. I have to trust the Holy Spirit to do It's work in their hearts.
A life redeemed honors God!!
1 Tim 1: 15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst.
16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
Phil 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.
Kudos to Josh Wooten who gave the message in church yesterday based on the previous two scriptures. Today is a new beginning.
