There have been a few words or phrases that have really caught my attention over the past few weeks. I wrote them down when I heard them in sermons or read them in scripture.
"An exposed heart." My friend Nick said it in a sermon about James a few weeks ago. That concept is both beautiful and painful. You know what's easier? Not sharing your heart. Not being honest about what you think or how you feel or what you want. It's easier because then you don't get hurt. When your heart is exposed, you can connect with people better, but it also leaves you open for people to judge you, make fun of you, act as if your thoughts and feelings are invalid, or just reject you. If someone doesn't know you well and they don't like you, it's easier to blow that off. But if someone knows you really well and you've been vulnerable with them, it hurts more because they know who you are and they don't like it. Or at least that's how it feels. I appreciate people with exposed hearts. It's what I look for in other people. But I'm aware of the pain that goes with it.
"Unstained by the world." This was in James as well, in the specific translation that my pastor, Brad, was using today. At the end of 1:27 the NLT version reads, "refusing to let the world corrupt you," and whatever version he had said "unstained by the world." Let me tell you - living in the world is like wearing a white t-shirt and holding a toddler who's eating spaghetti, as you are walking through a field of mud trying not to fall down. I think we DO get stained by the world, and then we have Jesus to make us clean again. But the key is going to the laundry mat to get that done! If you're leaving the stains on, continuing to do the same things over and over again without repenting, that's when the deeper stains and corruptions come in. Yes, you can still be washed by his blood. But it is harder. It takes longer. Addictions become hard to break, hearts take longer to heal, and the consequences are rougher.
"Sin that entangles you." This was also brought up today in the sermon about James. When I think about the word "entangle" I think of thorny weeds that have a hold on my leg, and when I move it cuts me and I can't get out. Probably because it happened to me in real life. I was 5 and I was in the woods where I wasn't supposed to be during recess. I snuck back there with some friends, but when we heard the whistle blow to go back inside, some weeds were somehow wrapped around my leg and I had a dress on. It cut my leg, so the teacher knew I had been in the woods. Kind of like how you think you can keep getting away with sin and nobody will notice until it starts to mark up your life, or you get caught, and the evidence can't be hidden. It entangles you, and it hurts. It's usually messy and complicated. And it holds you back from being free in Jesus. So how do you stay away from sin that entangles you? Always be fighting it, always be fleeing from it, never back down on your boundaries, never think that it's ok to do something wrong once as if it only counts the 100th time.
"You surround them with your shield of love." This is from Psalms 5:12. "You" being God. "Them" being the godly which is said earlier in the verse. I love how God is so often described as a shield, a refuge, a stronghold, a shelter, and a fortress. I know God protects people from danger, from bad circumstances, from satan, from fears, from sin, and more. And even during the times when those things get to us, we are NEVER separated from God's love and obviously from God himself, who lives in us! I've heard the saying that all things that happen to us pass through His hand first. It's true because He knows what's going to happen to us, and if He didn't want something to happen, He could stop it. We can always find peace and stability in God. He is always on our side.
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