Compelled by love (Heidi Baker), Always Enough (Heidi and Rolland Baker), Chasing The Dragon (Jackie Pullinger), Moving In The Prophetic (Greg Haslam), Story Lines (Mike Pilavachi and Andy Croft), More Than Conquerors (Simon Guillebaud), and The Holy Bible.
Anyway. I was writing this post because I had read something in Story Lines which I found absolutely incredible. I always used to think that God was a bit harsh and a bit angry in the old testament and couldn't understand Him...As a bit of background to the bible if you've never read it, God created the world and made People (Adam and Eve). The world and everything in it was perfect, just as God intended. God's presence was with Adam and Eve and He loved them. God gave humans freewill and they ended up turning their backs on God. Each generation after that continued turning their backs on God and became 'unclean' and rebelled, but because God loved them He wanted to still be with them so He created these laws for them to be purified so that His presence could still be with them. The people didn't follow these laws and they ended up making idols and worshipping "Gods" made of wood and Gold. They even sacrificed their children to please theses man-made "Gods". This is an amazing example from the book I've been reading. Now imagine this:
Your best friend gets married. She loves him with all that she has but she comes home one day and finds him having sex with another woman. How totally heart-broken she would be. Instead of walking away, your friend chooses to forgive her husband and continues with the marriage, still loving him as much as she did before. She comes home a week later and this time he's sleeping with somebody else! The months go by and he sleeps with anyone and everyone, he does it publicly and without feeling any sense of shame. One day she comes home and finds to her utter horror that he has murdered their children to please another woman. Your friend is beyond devastated; she is totally shattered and absolutely broken. She comes to you for advice. What do you say? If we were God's counsellor and this moment we would've said "God, you've given it your best shot. She'll never change; she's had way too many lovers. It's not just that she has broken your heart, she's completely humiliated you! You've done everything you can to save the marriage. Now for your sake, walk away- no one would blame you!" An issue some have with the God in the old testament is why he got so angry; our honest question, having read this, is why didn't he get more angry?
Wow. I just think that is incredible. I mean I wouldn't blame God if he gave up on us, in fact I'd probably even advise it! Instead, he sent his only son, Jesus, down to earth. To live as a man and then die and pay the punishment we deserve. We deserve total separation from God, we deserve to die, to pay the price for what we did. I used to think that because I had never murdered anyone it meant that I was a good person. Actually, we've all done something wrong. If you say you haven't you just lied. The thing is The Holy, Perfect, Incredible God can't be with us if we aren't completely pure. But he loved us, his creation, so much that he sent his son to die a horrific death that we deserve. The best news is that it's free! We can now be in his presence 24/7 because Jesus made a way, he pulled the plug out so that God's presence can flow again! God planned it from the beginning because he knew we couldn't do it! All we have to do is accept it. Believe it. It's free for anyone, from the murderer to the queen! If I gave you some cake for free, it's still free but it's up to you to take it, and if you do take it, if you then do something wrong, I'm not going to take the cake away from you! When you accept God's grace and love- it's for life. We don't and can't do anything to deserve his love but it doesn't matter because its free! It grace! Gods Riches At Christ's Expense! God loves us when we're good and he loves us when we're not! All we do is accept this amazing gift of Grace. Sounds incredible right? It's true! We will never be able to understand everything about God because we, in our human mindsets could never do what he did for us. Jesus said "Greater loves has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends". Jesus has that amazing love because he willingly gave up his own life for us. Guess what.. There's more. Not only did he die for us to cancel our debts forever, he rose again! He CONQUERED death! He slapped death in the face and rose above it! If we simply accept what Jesus has done for us then our sins are wiped away forever! I bet there's one thing you've done that you would cringe if anyone found out, well God wiped it off the slate. It's gone, forgotten because he cancelled it out and payed the price. All we do is choose to accept it.. or turn away. We have the choice because God gave us free will.
What do you choose?
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