Have you ever considered hiding from God? Where would you hide? He is kind of hard to escape from, right? Well Adam and Eve sure tried to hide after the serpent was able to trick them into sin. Genesis 3:8 "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden."
Whenever I read this, I always think, they really thought they could hide from God. Then I wonder why God didn't just end it there. He could have destroyed both of them, He could have left them alone, He could have done whatever He wanted to with them. But instead, He first met their need, Genesis 3:21 states "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." We see his compassion and love here for Adam and Eve. Were there consequences to their sin? Of course there were major consequences. And for our sin, there are consequences as well, but God showed from the very beginning how much He loves us and only wants what is best for us.
The world we live in is not what God planned and we will face consequences for our sin, but we will not face the ultimate consequence of death and eternity in Hell if we belong to Him. 1 Peter 2:24 states "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the TREE, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; by His wounding you have been healed." So I ask again, can we hide from God? Well, maybe we can hide behind THE TREE, that is, hide in the cross of Christ. Behind the cross, we are blameless, holy and righteous before God. Thank You Jesus!!!!!!
If you haven't hid yourself behind the cross of Christ, what are you waiting for?
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Crazy Love
Crazy Love. What a perfect name for a book about Jesus!!!!!! I'm only on page 53, but I just couldn't wait to share =) I think this book is of perfect timing for me and our nation. We somehow have lost the AWESOMENESS of Who God really is, of how WORTHY He is of our love and our everything. Also that we are placed on this earth by Him and for Him. Francis Chan is the author of this book and I can really see his love for Christ through his writing.
Chan writes, "there is an epidemic of spiritual amnesia going around, and none of us is immune." Wow, isn't that the scary truth? Take one look at all the characteristics that people have given to God. All we have to do is take one look outside to be reminded of His creativity or one look at one of our children and be reminded of grace and love, but it is so easy to fall into our own little worlds and forget. Our God is so big and so much more than we can ever fathom, but I still want to try to fathom and be in AWE of the how He operates. He isn't just who I want Him to be and it isn't just whatever I want to believe about Him. God has a name, an identity, we don't change that.
Chan wrote about worry and stress and of course we all have these in our lives, but let me share with you a little about what he said. I have to quote him, it is just too good. I want you to really think deeply about this and how it relates to you as I did and am continuing to do, here goes "worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives." and "stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control." Just ponder that for a moment.
He goes on to say that these two behaviors basically say that it is okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in your life is somehow exceptional. Ouch!!! Compared to the big picture, ouch!!!!!!
One more thing of Chan's book I want to share is about how we live our lives no matter what the circumstances are. Here are just two scenarios, but the two pretty much cover it all. On one hand, your life is pretty good, so what do you do? Well you can show the world a person who enjoys the things of this life and blessings, but who is still totally obsessed with God. Or maybe life is tough. God has allowed hard things to enter your life so you can show the world that God is awesome no matter what and He is what brings peace and joy even when life is hard.
I hope this little sneak peak into this book makes you think about how big your crazy love is for our Jesus, our Savior, the one who was and is and is to come.
My favorite verse this week is Revelation 5:5 "......the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed." I'm so thankful to be on the winning team, I've always been a bit competitive.
Chan writes, "there is an epidemic of spiritual amnesia going around, and none of us is immune." Wow, isn't that the scary truth? Take one look at all the characteristics that people have given to God. All we have to do is take one look outside to be reminded of His creativity or one look at one of our children and be reminded of grace and love, but it is so easy to fall into our own little worlds and forget. Our God is so big and so much more than we can ever fathom, but I still want to try to fathom and be in AWE of the how He operates. He isn't just who I want Him to be and it isn't just whatever I want to believe about Him. God has a name, an identity, we don't change that.
Chan wrote about worry and stress and of course we all have these in our lives, but let me share with you a little about what he said. I have to quote him, it is just too good. I want you to really think deeply about this and how it relates to you as I did and am continuing to do, here goes "worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives." and "stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control." Just ponder that for a moment.
He goes on to say that these two behaviors basically say that it is okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in your life is somehow exceptional. Ouch!!! Compared to the big picture, ouch!!!!!!
One more thing of Chan's book I want to share is about how we live our lives no matter what the circumstances are. Here are just two scenarios, but the two pretty much cover it all. On one hand, your life is pretty good, so what do you do? Well you can show the world a person who enjoys the things of this life and blessings, but who is still totally obsessed with God. Or maybe life is tough. God has allowed hard things to enter your life so you can show the world that God is awesome no matter what and He is what brings peace and joy even when life is hard.
I hope this little sneak peak into this book makes you think about how big your crazy love is for our Jesus, our Savior, the one who was and is and is to come.
My favorite verse this week is Revelation 5:5 "......the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed." I'm so thankful to be on the winning team, I've always been a bit competitive.
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