Can you watch that last post video and not weep? I can't watch it without feeling guilt about my sin. My sin put him through that. He did that for ME. Now that is love. That is more then love, it is Grace and Mercy.
I was listening to a sermon this morning and he was talking about God's grace, and about Noah. How God told Noah to build an Ark, and Noah lived in the middle of the dessert. The fact that Noah obeyed God is amazing. Can you imagine being Noah? Living in the dessert and people come and ask you what your doing and you say, "God told me to build and ark". People would probably think you are crazy right?
I haven't done anything as huge as building an ark, but I can sure tell you that obeying God has got me into some awkward conversations. For example, I have had people ask me why I home school, and when I say, " God told me to" they look at me like I'm nuts. Or when I talk about how my over eating is sin, people give me that same strange look. So imagine the looks Noah got building an ark in the middle of the dessert. But he obeyed God. This is the same God that we have today. God was sick and tired of people's sin and decided he wasn't going to put up with it anymore, he decided to let Noah in on his plan to flood the earth, and told Noah to save himself and his family by building an ark. Noah probably tried to save others, telling them about what God told him, and telling them to get IN the ark because God was going to destroy the earth, but I'm sure people thought Noah was a bit of a nutcase and they didn't listen. At one point, GOD shut the door of the ark. God shut it, not Noah. For some reason, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and God showed Noah Grace by letting him live. This is the same Grace that God extends to us today through Jesus Christ. God still doesn't like sin, but he gave us his son to cover our dirty sins and make us clean as snow. Today I feel like Noah. I am yelling out, "get in the ark! You are going to die!"
That was so not what this post was going to be about, I don't know where that came from! lol.
Back my original thought. The last few days, reading my bible, and dwelling on Jesus death, and watching a sermon last night about sin, I think to myself, have I REALLY made Jesus the Lord of my life?
Does my sin break my heart like it breaks his? The video we watched last night at bible study explained that sin is like a vine wrapped around an oak tree. If you take an ax to the root of the vine, it dies. But it is still wrapped around the tree. When Jesus died on the cross, he died to free us from sin's grasp. That means, sin has no hold on us anymore, we are dead to it, but we walk around still wrapped up in it, like the tree is wrapped in the vine, thinking we can't free ourselves of the sin, but we can! It's already dead! Just take it off! How simple that sounds, how wonderful that is, that Jesus died so I can be free from sins grip, yet I still live with it, why do I do that? I manage my sin, instead I need to unwrap it from me and leave it!
Every time I take a step in the right direction and follow the spirit instead of my flesh, I am unwrapping one more layer of that vine that is twisted around my body. When I take a step backward, I wind the vine back on. Sounds so ridiculous to me that I would keep myself wrapped up in sin when I don't have to. I have to follow the spirit!!! When I want to over eat, I need to PRAY, because Jesus shed his blood for me so I can live in the spirit. I can't do it, but Jesus can. Jesus did. When I accepted Jesus as my savior, his spirit came to dwell in me, I have God's power in me not to sin, why do I not use it? He died not only so I don't have to live in Hell for eternity, but so I don't have to live in hell here on earth! We don't have to be sinful humans! We don't have to live as gluttons, or selfish, or greedy, or loveless, or hooked on alcohol or drugs. We can be free from ALL of that because of his blood.
It's a GLORIOUS DAY. Easter and every other day is a glorious day because of what Jesus did. :)
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