Okay, now that I spent over an hour putting a post together and just wiped it out with one click- on purpose because it stunk- I guess I’ll start over. One day I’m going to post about what it’s like to write in a blog- ‘cause it’s just sooooo exciting! Teehee. Anyway, let’s try this. Last Sunday our pastor was speaking from the book of John, and the version of Bible I use has a little blurb at the beginning of each book, many of which I haven’t read for decades, so when the sermon was done I read the blurb for John and this is what it said:
(The youth are) intensely interested in what’s coming next and how it will affect us. Projections about flat TV’s, computer- regulated traffic, air travel to anywhere in the world in forty-five minutes, pocket computers… all seem like science fiction, yet reputable scientists are predicting them.
-The Way, TLB, Tyndale 1972
Well, that gave me the chuckle of the day. Obviously it’d been a while since I read that because I didn’t remember it at all! Imagine that, flat screen tv’s! Ipods. Tablets. E-readers. Internet. Wifi. Small cell phones, with cameras and data plans. Texting. GPS. A hundred years ago, no one could imagine all these advances especially since telephones were just starting out. Now almost nothing is held back from us and technology is taking us to places we could never before imagine- for our benefit or detriment (yet to be determined).
Hard to picture? Not so much for me. I actually think it’s more difficult to imagine being ‘where’ God wants me to be in this life. My imagination can ‘see’ what new technological advances are coming far quicker than what God has planned for my future. One thing is for certain- when I started this journey with Him back in ’83, I could have never imagined this life I live today and the awesomeness of our God (as I am finally convinced of today).
The years of loneliness, pressure, torment, rebellion, dry places, living hell on earth, fear, bondage, pain, only bits of scattered joy, sorrow, addiction, tears, cold heart, resentment, grief, stress, confusion, hopelessness, sickness, bitterness - looking back truly more bad than good, and yet, now?… all but a distant memory. How? I really don’t understand the details of it all myself, but it seems like God took the mess called ‘my life’ and transformed it into something wonderful.
Yes, I’d have to admit most of the mess was my own fault because I kept shoving God out of my life- never fully trusting Him or His plans for me, and yet, in His mercy, He took me back each time and helped me see more of the truth. And all that mess which used to be has become a learning experience which He used to point me- finally- in the right direction. The Lord, in His loving kindness, continues to work in my life changing me a step at a time, freeing me from things I didn’t even know held me in bondage, healing me from the inside out- in other words redeeming me from this sinful world. I could have never imagined being here this free- ever!!! Best of all, I’m no more special than anyone else (Acts 10:34 ) so what He’s done for me He wants to do for everyone.
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2Cor. 3:17 ,18
Because the creature (man) itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Rom. 8:21
(Jesus said) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, Lk. 4:18
The lives we desire to live can only be found one place: in, with and through the Lord Jesus Christ- as children of our Father and through the power of the Spirit. That is where a full, joyful and peaceful life is found. Jesus Christ came to redeem us from sin, death, and even from ourselves! So when the yuck of the world comes whipping at you- as it will keep doing until His return, it just hits that wall of peace surrounding you and splats to the ground; and you and Jesus keep walking through together- one day at a time.
For I know that my Redeemer lives…
Job 19:25