God is not afraid of sin

God Demonstrates His Love

http://noisetrade.com/harvestparker/god-demonstrates-his-love

click on link above to hear this amazing song

I love the new song above by Harvest Parker. The verse that captured the heart of this post was..

"Oh until you looked upon me, Your compassion was on me.

Oh until You looked upon me, Your mercy fell on me.

I was deep in sin, but your Love was deeper"

  



Before I begin, I just want to say.. This is yet another mind blowing concept that God revealed to my heart this morning.So get out your mind blown journal and get ready to record another mind blowing moment.

I just started studying the book of Ruth a couple of days ago. I was asking the Lord to lead me to a new story to study because I had been with Joseph for a long time and needed a change of scenery. I kind of feel like that's been what I have been asking the Lord to do with my life lately.. please give me a change of scenery. It has been a long 9 years of struggle and I'm ready for a change.. some hope.. for my story to not be one disappointment after another.

I believe the Lord heard the cry of my heart! We received wonderful news this week concerning my oldest daughter. She is starting a new chapter in her life and ready to receive healing for her heart! I am so grateful because I did not see this coming one year ago. What looked like another disappointing event has been crafted into a wonderful blessing. It is truly a gift from God.

This wonderful news came with the prompting to study the book of Ruth. As I began to study I was astonished by what I found. The main theme of the book is about how God works in the darkest moments  of our circumstances. It shows us He is always working out the bad for our good, even when we give up, even when we sin. The book begins with disappointment after disappointment and leaves us thinking there can not be any hope for a good ending.

The beginning starts off pretty bleak. The death of Naomi's husband forces a move to a foreign land and results in the death of her only two married sons. She has lost everything and proclaims that the Lord has dealt bitterly with her. A famine comes and forces her to return back to her homeland. She tells her daughter in laws to go back home.. she has nothing left to give. One goes back and Ruth chooses to stay. I wonder why Ruth made this choice? Who would stay with someone who's life seemed to be peppered with suffering. She wasn't a believer, or at least not at first. Naomi believed in God but had retired to a life of bitter suffering. She was falling into the trap.. being a victim of her circumstances.

 I wonder if she had blamed herself for the tragic events in her life. Some of her choices allowed her family to sin.. could this just be what she was required to pay back in return for her sin? Or, was God working in the darkest moments of their circumstances?

The story takes a wonderful turn towards hope. It shines through Ruth after returning to Naomi's homeland. She finds favor with Boaz, who redeems her. He sees Gods glory shinning through her humble heart. She finds favor with him because of the way she found refuge under the wings of God during her suffering. He notices the refined gold that God has forged with in her to become a woman of great dedication and strength. I could go on with the good found in this story, but for times sake we can visit this story another time.  It ends with great hope.. a husband for Ruth and a son in law for Naomi. It also produces a son who brings us one step closer to Jesus.

Now, what I wasn't expecting to see was how God used sin to bring about His glory. There was major sin that occurred in this story when Naomi's son's married foreign women. It lead them to experience more death and a famine.  This was considered a major sin in their time and could have been an explanation given by the Pharisee for Naomi's tragic life. 

I then began to think of Joseph's life...

The sinning of his brothers forced Joseph into a life of slavery.
 The sinning of Potiphers wife forced Joesph into a many years of prison.
 The sinning of a cup bearer and baker kept Joseph in prison two year longer to surely kill all hope.

Where was God in all of the moments?

He was grooming a redeemer and working out salvation!

God sent Joseph ahead by means of sin to save his family and a nation.

Think about what happened at the cross..

God sent Jesus to the Cross by the means of sin.

Pontius Pilate sending an innocent man to the cross..

The Jews killing the Messiah...

One of the darkest times in the bible.. 

God was using sin to bring about Salvation!

It blows my mind..and reminds me again that God uses what the enemy intendeds for evil for our good and His Glory.

So, let this be a light of hope to you if everything in your life seems to be one disappointment after another.  Remember what the Apostle Paul said..

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

Romans 15:4

God is always working.. He is always with us.. He is not afraid of your messy life .. He is not afraid of your sin. He is in the midst of your darkest circumstances working it out. Just keep hanging on to Hope because in His timing He will not disappoint you:)



Mindblowing! Gods ways are never our ways.







This is one of my favorite commercials! I love the thought of keeping a journal recording all the times your mind has been blown. 1. "Being born" 2. "My first hat!"... I laugh every time I watch this!

Yesterday I had one of those mind blowing moments where I could have pulled out my mind blown journal to record what I saw God do. I have been studying the story of Joseph for at least 2 years on and off. I have read the story many times and thought I had seen everything there was to see. And then, God blew my mind! He revealed to me His heart. It is so true.. His ways are NOT our ways!

Let me share with you what He shared with me ..

We all know the general story of Joseph. He is the favored son of Jacobs and has several brothers who do not like him. You really can't blame the brothers, they were reminded of their standing with their father every time Joseph entered the room with his special multicolored coat. Where the story get messy is when Joseph shares his God dreams with his family. He tells them that they will someday bow down to him. This revelation was the straw that broke the camels back. They plotted to kill him but ended selling him and sending him off to a life of slavery in Egypt never to be seen again by his father.

As I was reading this, I thought.. the brothers sinned because they didn't have their eyes on God. They were hurt because of the favoritism they saw their Dad give Joseph and took matters into their own hands instead of taking it to God. I believe if they fixed their eyes on God with their pain and allowed Him to heal them He would had given them all their own dreams. However, we do get to see how not fixing our eyes on Jesus will make the messy middle, messier.

Hold tight we are not to the mind blowing part of the story yet...

Fast forward 20 years.. Joseph has endured 13 years of slavery and prison. He had suffered greatly and grieved the loss of his family. I am sure his heart was broken because he knew he would never see his father or homeland again. However, He shows us how to suffer well through out his story. In every discouraging situation he found himself in, he accepted and turned and trusted God. After 13 years of suffering, he is brought out of prison and delivered into a high position of power.. all because people recognized that he carried the glory of God. God gave Joseph a plan that would keep a nation from famine. For 7 years He stored up grain.. God was preparing Joseph to help those who could not help themselves.

When the famine came, Josephs brothers showed up for help. When they first met, his brothers do not recognize him. They assumed he was dead after all those years. However, Joseph knew immediately who they were. I can only imagine the hurt that began to well up in his heart.

Here is the mind blowing part

I asked myself, how did Joseph keep himself from hating.. judging .. and then killing them?

If this were me.. I would have acted out of what I saw in my circumstances and passed judgment to have them killed. I would not of fixed my eyes on Jesus.. because I am sure Jesus would of agreed with me. They deserved death after all they had done.. or did they?

Because Joseph turned and trusted God with his pain he didn't make the messy middle, messier.

God revealed to Joseph that what his brothers intended for evil He used for good. God used the evil of slavery and prison to fashion a leader and savior for his family and a nation.

Instead of a death sentence, Josephs family received provision and protection?!... GOD DID NOT CONDEMN THEM FOR THE PAIN THEY CAUSED THEIR BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mind blowing!

Just think, if Joseph would of judged and sentenced his brothers on his own he would of messed up Gods plans for redemption and restoration.

Again.. I am reminded to fix my eyes on Jesus always.. His ways are never my ways..

Mind blowing part.. because of this revelation ..my understanding of His heart for me is taken to a much deeper level. I often judge myself and others before I go to Jesus, which keeps me from seeing His heart in the matter.. keeps me from His love. I am now more inclined to go to Him and trust because He wants relationship and restoration... not death.

Thank you, Jesus! You have won me again!



I found HOPE in the Messy Middle

I love the lyrics in the song above. My favorite line is "I'm sorry for running in circles, for placing my focus on the waves and not Your face."

I can so identify! Many times I have found myself exhausted from running in circles because my  focus was on the waves and not on Jesus' face. In the midst of messy circumstances we tend to want to focus on the circumstance and fix it ourselves. But, Jesus said turn and fix your eyes on me in the middle of you messy circumstance. His promise is to guide us through it and reward us with a new inner strength we didn't have before.

The messy middle.. it's where we all get tripped up.  Sometimes we just don't know what to do. It just feels awkward to turn to Jesus first, especially in the beginning of our journey. We are taught to be independent and self reliant, the "we can do it" kind of girls!





But the bible tells us something totally different.

I have been working on a speaking project with two of my good friends, Barb Cash and Lisa Dittman. Our topic is how to get through the "Messy Middle" of life's struggles. We have all had our fair share of them. The details of the struggles are all different but they all have two things in common. The temptation to focus on the circumstance and fix or trusting and turning it over to Jesus.

 This theme also seems to be through out the bible.

 I awoke this morning and heard a small whisper that said, "God had a messy middle". As I began to research this thought I found that indeed it was true.

God had to sacrifice His own Son for our sins. Jesus had to die on a cross, while His Father watched. This was the only way to rescue His people from the oppression of hell. That's a pretty messy middle! 

I think it is amazing that the Jesus never asks us to do what He was not willing to do Himself. As I read the story, I noticed that when the Messy Middle was approaching Jesus went to pray. He turned His focus to His Father. The disciple's turned their focus to the circumstances.
Jesus wept, and accepted that the cup was not going to be taken away. He was filled with a strength to get up and accept His Fathers Will. He bared the cross and carried it with the help of a friend. His cross was place inbetween two crimals .. one who focused on circumstances and died and one who focused on Jesus and went to paradise. Jesus  struggled during the sacrifice and cried out, "Father, why have You forsaken me?" Then He trusted and turned and gave us all the gift of grace we could never earn.

The results were much different for the ones who focused on their circumstances. The disciples grew weary and slept, they rebuked and argued, cut off ears and denied that they ever knew Him. One even took his own life.  Their focus on their  circumstances caused them to loose heart, belief and faith.. it caused them to sin.. make mistakes.

This is why Jesus wants us to focus on Him and not our circumstances. When we focus on our circumstance's we can make the Messy Middle even messier.

If you think about it the bible is full of Messy Middle's. Here's just a few examples of people who made the middle messier.

Abraham and Sarah- Promised to be parents of many nations and during the Messy Middle Shara tried to fix it and it created a big mess. Yet, the Lord still followed through on His promise. Sarah messed up and was still chosen to be the Mother many nations.

Joseph and his brothers- Joseph shared a dream that made his brothers jealous. Instead of focusing on God to get their own dreams the brothers focused on their circumstances and sinned.. sold their brother to slavery. Joseph kept his focus on God for 13 years while enslaved and in prison. God kept His promise to Joseph while he struggled and delivered him to save many people.. even his brothers who tried to kill him.

Job- kept his focus on God while he endured many heartbreaking circumstances. He lost everything and did nothing to deserve it. He was tempted by his friends to blame himself and fix it. He trusted and turned and God explained and gave back twice as much as he lost.

I could go on.. what I want to point out is HOPE.. there's always hope in the Messy Middle. They struggled through the messy middles and still were called Hero's of faith! That is hope we can all hold on to. We need to understand, we all get lost in the Messy Middle. We also need to learn to turn to Jesus, the One who never get lost in the Messy Middle:)