Monday, June 20, 2011

Forgiven For Little or Much?

"Moses said to the people, 'Remember this day which is the day that you came out of Egypt, out of the place you were slaves, because the LORD acted with power to bring you out of there.'" Exodus 13:3

I remember the day the Lord saved me. I remember the joy of being rescued from the world, from the curse of being a slave to sin and the darkness of it all to feeling my heart come alive with the Spirit of God. I was more thankful to the Lord for that than I had ever been for anything in my life. I had gone from utter darkness to pure Light.  It was a radical transformation because I was acutely aware that I had been saved from so much. My heart was on fire.

Jesus said about the woman who kissed His feet, washed them with her tears and anointed them with oil, “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." Luke 7:42

It is not that this woman was forgiven for more than others were, it is that she recognized how much she was forgiven.  We are all forgiven for sins. Not all transformations may seem as outwardly obvious as mine or the woman's, but we were all saved from the same spiritual blindness, the same emptiness of heart, the same hell. We were all sinful and we all needed a Savior. And for all of us the Lord acted with His power to bring us out of Egypt--out of the world, out of our sins and their eventual consequences of being separated from God for eternity.  

The more we recognize the depths from which we have been saved and the far-reaching love, grace, mercy and power of Jesus Christ that saved us, the more grateful we will be and the more we will love our Savior. And that gratefulness gives us, like the woman, a desire to be a blessing to the Lord, not to repay Him, because that gift can never be repaid, but to honor Him and join with Him in giving ourselves to the building up of the Kingdom of God.

After a while, though, we can forget the life we were rescued from and begin to take this new one for granted. The level of thankfulness we once had can be forgotten. We get caught up in the daily grind of our lives and forget that we were saved for a purpose: to bring glory to the Lord. Our service wanes, we set aside our spiritual gifts and we live lives that look much like they did before that day of salvation.

But if we purpose in our hearts to remember our day of salvation and all that we’ve been saved from we will be filled with love and we will desire a more intimate relationship with Christ.  We will be filled with thanksgiving, and the gratefulness we allow to penetrate our hearts will spur us on to good works.

Remember that we were taken out of the devil’s grasp by the power of God and by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Remember how many sins we were forgiven for and how many we were saved from committing had we lived in our sins another day.

We have only a short time here on this earth.  We can waste it, or we can remember and be thankful, loving the Lord more each day, and allowing Him to do great things through us.

All for Him,
Dorci

Monday, June 6, 2011

Bathtime

I love our dog, Jake. He is the most laid back, unassuming, trouble-free dog on the planet. But you’d argue with me about that if you had to give him a bath. Because he’s a Lhasa Apso/Shih Tzu mix his hair grows very long, and because he’s a boy it gets very dirty.

When I decide enough is enough, I get a towel, set out the shampoo, clear away the shower curtain, and adjust the bath water until it isn’t too hot or too cold. I go to find him--usually doing his best impression of a shag rug-- scoop him up, give him a kiss while making my way to the tub, and gently set him in.

I’ve done everything I can to make him as comfortable as possible and yet, the minute the tepid water touches him you’d think I was killing him. His crying and whining can be heard through the closed bathroom door into the hall. I do my best to get the job done quickly but thoroughly. I give him another kiss and tell him he’s okay. He tries a number of times to make his escape, but we get through it.

As soon as he’s cleaned and rinsed and not one minute more, I turn off the water, set him on the towel I’ve laid out on the floor and dry him before I open the door and he goes flying through the house in utter joy and relief. He rubs his body all over the carpet and runs to each of us as if to say, “Look at me! I’m clean!” His hair is silky soft and he looks like a brand new dog. He loves to be clean but he hates the process.

Aren’t we the same way?

We want to be cleaned—to be made into the image of the Son of the Living God—but sometimes we whine and cry during our spiritual baths.

2 Corinthians 4:16 says, “For this cause we do not faint; but though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”

Daily we face opportunities for spiritual cleansing and growth.  God knows the ways each of us needs to be cleaned up--an attitude adjustment here, the purging of a sin there. And every day God brings certain circumstances into our lives that allow for our particular need of cleansing. Maybe it’s a trial to instill more trust and faith; perhaps it’s another person who gives us opportunity to learn patience and love.

He readies the tools, scoops us up, gives us a kiss, tells us it will be alright, and gives us our bath. And sometimes we can find ourselves crying our way through it, thinking we are being harmed, when all along our souls are being perfected and made more holy than they were the day before. We are being sanctified for His work that we may be useful in His hands. 

I'm not saying baths are always fun. Sometimes they're downright painful. But we can hold onto the Lord, knowing that He’s with us the entire time, being as gentle as possible and He doesn’t allow it to go on one second longer than is needed.  And as we hold onto Him, He whispers in our ear truths and wisdom that we can only know in those times of intimacy.
 
In the end we will be complete, our souls readied for eternity in the House of God.

Jake would make it a lot easier on himself if he would learn to relax and trust me. He only adds stress to the situation when he allows himself to become anxious and fearful.

Like Jake, we’re going through the bath one way or the other. We can choose to go through it filled with anxiety or we can relax and trust the Lord and His unending wisdom and love.

And Jake knows that in the end he gets a cookie.