Forgiveness & Acceptance 2

Forgiveness and Acceptance Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

After reading George Morrison’s sermon, Acceptance in the Beloved, and being uncomfortably convicted in my stance that you can forgive someone and then avoid them for the rest of your life, I did some soul searching and some Google searching. I’m particularly a fan of John Piper, his books have had a profound impact on my life. Don’t Waste Your Life, Desiring God, and When I Don’t Desire God all really hit me where I live, stripped away the church facade and showed me what I ought to be doing. In my pursuit of holiness, those books were new pairs of running shoes just at the time my old ones were wearing out.

John Piper has a three sermon series on forgiveness. Part one, As We Forgive Our Debtors, helps identify what forgiveness is, and is not. The Lord’s Prayer says, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ” (Matthew 6:14-15 MKJV) Forgiveness, or lack of it, reveals how much we trust Christ. If we trust Him, we can emulate His way of life.

Thomas Watson asked, “When do we forgive others?” and answered the question, “When we strive against all thoughts of revenge; when we will not do our enemies mischief, but wish well to them, grieve at their calamities, pray for them, seek reconciliation with them, and show ourselves ready on all occasions to relieve them.” (Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity, p. 581) John Piper breaks it down:

Here is forgiveness: when you feel that someone is your enemy or when you simply feel that you or someone you care about has been wronged forgiveness means,

1. resisting revenge,
2. not returning evil for evil,
3. wishing them well,
4. grieving at their calamities,
5. praying for their welfare,
6. seeking reconciliation so far as it depends on you,
7. and coming to their aid in distress.

All these point to a forgiving heart. And the heart is all important Jesus said in Matthew 18:35—”unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

That number 6 worries me… and then Piper goes on to describe what forgiveness is not. (Oh, joyful hope!) He says that forgiveness is not the absence of anger at sin, and it’s not the absence of serious consequences of sin. He refers back to Thomas Watson again:

Question: Is God angry with his pardoned ones?

Answer: Though a child of God, after pardon, may incur his fatherly displeasure, yet his judicial wrath is removed. Though he may lay on the rod, yet he has taken away the curse. Correction may befall the saints, but not destruction. (Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity, p. 556)

Piper cites several examples, including David, who bore serious consequences for his sins re: Bathsheba, in Numbers, where the Lord forgives the people for their disbelief but refuses to let them enter the promised land, and references Psalm 99:8 - “O Lord our God, Thou didst answer them; Thou wast a forgiving God to them, and yet an avenger of their evil deeds.”

He also clarifies that forgiveness of a repentant person does not look the same as forgiveness of an unrepentant person.

In fact I am not sure that in the Bible the term forgiveness is ever applied to an unrepentant person. Jesus said in Luke 17:3-4 “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” So there’s a sense in which full forgiveness is only possible in response to repentance.

But even when a person does not repent (cf. Matt. 18:17) we are commanded to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us and do good to those who hate us (Luke 6:27).

The difference is that when a person who wronged us does not repent with contrition and confession and conversion (turning from sin to righteousness), he cuts off the full work of forgiveness. We can still lay down our ill will; we can hand over our anger to God; we can seek to do him good; but we cannot carry through reconciliation or intimacy.

David forgave Absalom, and was later nagged into permitting him back into the palace. Absalom returned the favor by immediately beginning to plot against David. (2 Samuel 15) He was never truly repentant. David did well to forgive him, but it was a huge mistake to let him back in.

Thomas Watson said something very jolting:

“We are not bound to trust an enemy; but we are bound to forgive him.” (Body of Divinity, p. 581)

You can actually look someone in the face and say: I forgive you, but I don’t trust you. That is what the woman whose husband abused her children had to say.

But O how crucial is the heart here. What would make that an unforgiving thing to say is if you were thinking this: What’s more, I don’t care about ever trusting you again; and I won’t accept any of your efforts to try to establish trust again; in fact, I hope nobody ever trusts you again, and I don’t care if your life is totally ruined. That is not a forgiving spirit. And our souls would be in danger.

Sometimes it seems like all of Christianity comes down to motive. Salvation - did you mean it when you prayed for salvation or were you succumbing to pressure at the final campfire at youth camp? Service - are you doing it for your glory or for God’s? Worship - are you totally focused on adoring the Lord or are you irritated that the usher asked you to slide in so the latecomer can sit in your precious end seat of the pew? And now forgiveness - have you given up on the desire to punish the transgressor yourself, by denying them reconciliation? IF they were truly repentant and wanted to reconcile - which again does not necessarily imply an ongoing relationship but certainly could - would you be able to do it?

Forgiveness & Acceptance

Forgiveness and Acceptance Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

George Morrison’s sermon for today is entitled Acceptance in the Beloved.
To the praise of the glory of his grace through which he hath made us accepted in the beloved— Ephesians 1:6

Forgiveness Does Not Necessarily Imply Acceptance
It ought to be noted carefully by all who ponder the interior life that acceptance is something different from forgiveness. One might be forgiven and not accepted. If a man wrought me some deadly injury, by the grace of heaven I might forgive that man; yet I might warn him that he must keep his distance and never cross the threshold of my home. So conceivably might God forgive the guilty sinners of mankind and yet forbid them entrance to His dwelling-place. At the pleading of the woman of Tekoah, David forgave Absalom. Yet for two years that forgiven child never looked upon his father’s face (2 Samuel 14:28). The palace gates were barred for him; he had no access to the royal chambers; he was forgiven, but he was not accepted. Acceptance is reconstituted fellowship. It is liberty of access to the palace. It is an authoritative welcoming to the home and heart of God. And though always this implies forgiveness, the two are not identical whether in the affairs of earth or heaven.

I have had problems with forgiveness for years, rationalizing that yes, I’m required to forgive, but not required to let that person back into my life. Does the woman who has been raped have to forgive the criminal? Yes. Does she have to visit him in jail? Uh…. NO. Duh. The bible says David forgave Absalom. Not, “said he forgave him,” i.e. lied, but that he actually forgave him. Yet he still locked him out of his life after forgiveness. That system works for me. Very convenient. And it might even be true. Right now especially this is a great deal more than a concept to me - after you forgive someone, as a Christian, what further obligation do you have toward them? And I’m going to be studying it and thinking about it a lot; enough so that I have created a new category for it. More tomorrow, but I close with this uncomfortable passage from George Morrison’s sermon:

Acceptance Is Another Miracle of Grace
It ought again to be noted that acceptance does not necessarily follow on forgiveness. It is not an inevitable consequence; it is an added miracle of grace. When the prodigal took his homeward way he had a deep conviction that he would be forgiven. But he had no assurance that he would be accepted and so have the run of the old home. Forgiven, he would have been well content to be as the lowest of the hired servants and lodge with the other servants in the shed. The father forgave him when he ran to meet him. There was fatherly forgiveness in the kiss. But what amazed the prodigal and broke his heart was the welcome which followed on forgiveness. The ring on his finger, the robe upon his back, the filial liberty in the old home, these were the acceptance of the prodigal. He might have been forgiven without these. These were not of the essence of his pardon. These were the signs and tokens of a love that could never do enough for the forgiven. That is why the apostle tells us here that the amazing experience of acceptance is “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” Acceptance is not a necessary corollary. It is not an implication of remission. It is an implication that we are in the hands of One who in His love can never do enough. He might pardon us and make us hired servants; but love can never be content with that. It crowns forgiveness in the welcome home.

Absolute Surrender

I seldom use some of E-Sword’s features, including the Topics section that can hold entire books like Andrew Murray’s Absolute Surrender, Spurgeon’s All of Grace, Finney’s Lectures to Professing Christians, and many, many more. But today I did begin reading Absolute Surrender and it is fabulous. Although the Bible must be the main source of all our Christian education, and can easily stand alone as the only source, God has also given us the writings of other Christians. This is one of His many gifts to us; open it up and use it! Especially when so much of it is free, as are these books and others in E-Sword. First, get E-Sword, then start downloading all the nifty Extras including entire books.

We are blessed/cursed to live in a time when so much is so convenient. The first time that I found out, from an African missionary who visited my church, that they pray for us in our abundance, I was shocked. Don’t we pray for them in their poverty? Why should we need prayer, when we have it all? When he saw the perplexed look on my face, he explained that they have less, and therefore are distracted by less, whereas American Christians are beseiged at every turn by… everything. Some neutral item like an inoffensive TV show is still taking time away from God. Now and then, such things are fine, but our daily routines typically fit in a lot more TV time than God-time. It’s rather like we live on a diet of Snickers and Big Macs, and occasionally have a good meal of grilled steak and salad. Actually, that illustrates my actual diet almost as well as my spiritual diet. So while the Bible is of course the steak, these other resources are at least as beneficial as salad, and E-Sword can be the source of both. And if we don’t surrender these pale, superficial pleasures, and stop eating the junk food, how will we have room in our lives for “the good stuff?” Even though I generally hate email forwards, the story of The Pearls is a good illustration of letting go of something in faith and recieving something much better.

I think you should read Absolute Surrender through E-Sword, where it’s free and immediately available. But if you have problems reading on the computer screen for extended periods, by all means get the paper version.

Murray says, “A life of absolute surrender has its difficulties. I do not deny that. Yes, it has something far more than difficulties: it is a life that with men is absolutely impossible. But by the grace of God, by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it is a life to which we are destined, and a life that is possible for us, praise God! Let us believe that God will maintain it. George Muller [said what] he believed to be the secret of his happiness, and of all the blessing which God had given him… there were two reasons. The one was that he had been enabled by grace to maintain a good conscience before God day by day; the other was, that he was a lover of God’s Word. Ah, yes, a good conscience is complete obedience to God day by day, and fellowship with God every day in His Word, and prayer - that is a life of absolute surrender… Such a life has two sides - on the one side, absolute surrender to work what God wants you to do; on the other side, to let God work what He wants to do. Give up yourselves absolutely to the will of God. You know something of that will; not enough, far from all. But say absolutely to the Lord God: “By Thy grace I desire to do Thy will in everything, every moment of every day.” Say: “Lord God, not a word upon my tongue but for Thy glory, not a movement of my temper but for Thy glory, not an affection of love or hate in my heart but for Thy glory, and according to Thy blessed will.” … Let us bow before God in humility, and in that humility confess before Him the state of the whole Church. No words can tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth. I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes feel about it. just think of the Christians around you. I do not speak of nominal Christians, or of professing Christians, but I speak of hundreds and thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are not living a life in the power of God or to His glory. So little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of the truth that a Christian is a man utterly surrendered to God’s will! … How much Christian work is being done in the spirit of the flesh and in the power of self! How much work, day by day, in which human energy - our will and our thoughts about the work - is continually manifested, and in which there is but little of waiting upon God, and upon the power of the Holy Ghost! Let us make confession. But as we confess the state of the Church and the feebleness and sinfulness of work for God among us, let us come back to ourselves. Who is there who truly longs to be delivered from the power of the self-life, who truly acknowledges that it is the power of self and the flesh, and who is willing to cast all at the feet of Christ? There is deliverance… Come and cast this self-life and flesh-life at the feet of Jesus. Then trust Him. Do not worry yourselves with trying to understand all about it, but come in the living faith that Christ will come into you with the power of His death and the power of His life; and then the Holy Spirit will bring the whole Christ - Christ crucified and risen and living in glory - into your heart.”

“But call to memory the former days, in which (after you were illuminated) you endured a great fight of afflictions, indeed being exposed both by reproaches and afflictions, and while you became companions of those who lived so. For you both sympathized with my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, so that after you have done the will of God you might receive the promise. For “yet a little while, and He who shall come will come and will not delay.” Now, “the Just shall live by faith. But if he draws back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those withdrawing to destruction, but of those who believe to the preserving of the soul. ” (Hebrews 10:32-39 MKJV)

Surrendering to the living God may result in the short term pain of giving up our illusions of control, but if we don’t draw back, if we throw ourselves wholeheartedly into a life of service to him - and the hard part of that life, here on earth, will last maybe 70 or 80 years if we’re “lucky” - will be followed by centuries, millenia, eternity of joy in Him. Not the empty “good works” service I’ve been engaging in for years, but the absolute surrender which is followed by His works performed through me. Oh yeah, it’s worth it. And I don’t even need the strength to actually give it up, just the strength to say, “By Thy grace I desire to do Thy will in everything, every moment of every day.” God is so good.

Hurricane Katrina Video

Jarred, one of the youth at my church, has assembled some great video footage of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, and set it to “God is God” by Steven Curtis Chapman. The footage includes scenes taken during the repair of the 17th St. Canal levee break, and where the London Avenue canal levee broke, as well as other scenes of Katrina’s destruction. It reminds us of God’s power, and of His mercy.

Hurricane Katrina has caused a lot of devastation in the New Orleans area, but one thing that it has accomplished is creating a lot of ministry opportunities. The God who knew you in the womb and knows the number of hairs on your head is not surprised by hurricanes and natural disasters, rushing around heaven trying to do damage control. As Christians, we have a unique opportunity to be His hands and feet, and to tell people about the amazing God we serve - and Katrina provided that opportunity. How can we not be grateful and praise God for it?

The video is here, available for download in various formats. Try to get a larger file, it’s worth it in terms of quality, but we didn’t want to leave anyone out so we also put together some lower quality video for the dialup folks. I thought this was really positive and inspirational - in spite of the massive damage to Jarred’s home, he’s kept up a great attitude, as have the other members of our church, many of whom lost everything.

Although you’re certainly free to download this and spread it around, we’d really appreciate your just sharing the link with people, so we can have some idea of how many people are watching.

Go here to view the video or to link to it: http://www.pursuingholiness.com/?page_id=80

Christians are Called to Comfort

What is comfort? A big screen TV, a plush Barcalounger, your favorite movie and a large bowl of popcorn? The macaroni and cheese your mom used to make, or a gooey chocolate cake? My personal favorite, 400 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets on a Select Comfort bed with a dual control electric blanket?

Definitions of “comfort” on the Web:
1. a state of being relaxed and feeling no pain
2. a feeling of freedom from worry or disappointment
3. ease: a freedom from financial difficulty that promotes a comfortable state
4. give moral or emotional strength to
5. lessen pain or discomfort; alleviate
6. consolation: the act of consoling; giving relief in affliction

Of the top six definitions, three have to do with physical comfort that we rest in, and three have to do with receiving, or delivering comfort, including emotional and physical comfort.

As Christians, we should view comfort not as a circumstance or a condition, but as a gift, or an act. In 2 Corinthians, it says “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, He comforting us in all our trouble, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in every trouble, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ. And if we are troubled, it is for your consolation and salvation, being worked out in the endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer; if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is certain, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also of the consolation.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

What did Paul know about comfort? Well, of the first three definitions provided above, not too much, that is, not much after the road to Damascus. He knew quite a bit before then, he was a man of stature in the community and I’m sure lived a comfortable life, even if he wasn’t a slave to it. But of definitions four through six, Paul was a bona fide expert.

Comfort, in the passage above, is defined this way:
G3870
παρακαλέω
parakaleō
par-ak-al-eh’-o
From G3844 and G2564; to call near, that is, invite, invoke (by imploration, hortation or consolation): - beseech, call for, (be of good) comfort, desire, (give) exhort (-ation), intreat, pray.

G3874
παράκλησις
paraklēsis
par-ak’-lay-sis
From G3870; imploration, hortation, solace: - comfort, consolation, exhortation, intreaty.

Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.Matthew 5:4

Our troubles are an invitation to draw near to God. His comfort calls us near; troubles help us hear the call and give us the motivation to answer it. We can always pray for thorns to be removed, as Paul did, but we MUST rejoice when He chooses for the thorns to stay, because it is for our benefit - to draw us closer to him. We must allow the thorns to have the intended effect - to draw us nearer to God, which ultimately glorifies Him and shows His power.

Brent Detwiler of Sovereign Grace Ministries delivered the sermon yesterday, and one of the many things he said that really stuck with me is that pain is a magnet for God’s love.

“For this reason, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in troubles, in persecutions, in distresses on behalf of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10) In our weakness and affliction, we become stronger in our faith, because we see once again that we are pressed but not crushed, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down yet not destroyed. We are better equipped to minister to other people after these times of great suffering that we endured and came out not just okay but praising His name. Our chief purpose is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The sufferings of Christians who are comforted by God, glorify Him.

As Brent said, when trouble came, Paul said, “I delight” not “I renounce” or “I bind” or “I rebuke.” I can only pray that I will do the same, and continue to look for the day when “God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there will be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying out, nor will there be any more pain; for the first things passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Life After Death

One of the greatest things about being a Christian is the ever-present conviction that life is eternal. And not just some vague idea of what the afterlife will be, but specifics - there will be worship, work, play, family and feasts - many of the things we enjoy already, but without any sin. Randy Alcorn’s book “Heaven” gave me a fabulous perspective on what it will be like, and I recommend it to everyone. I like it so much I’ve given away 8 copies as gifts this year. But in the meantime, here we are. Bogged down in the muck and mire, fighting for righteousness and pursuing holiness in our lives. The prayer of the father who asked for healing for his son, “Lord I believe! Help my unbelief!” is much like mine. “Lord I love you! Help me love you more!”

I attended the funeral of a young man yesterday - a young man who had struggled with drugs for a long time, and last spring found new peace and life in Jesus Christ. He soaked in the Word, life-giving and life-changing. He prayed, he read books, he spent time with more mature believers. He was being transformed. And then… the moment of choice came. One of many moments. On other occasions he managed to say no to the chance to take drugs. This time he didn’t. And so this young man, husband and father, was buried yesterday. What battles he must have fought! He loved his family. Their grief is real and hurtful to see, even though they grieve as ones who still have hope. What struck me about this is that here is a young man who was getting his life back together; clean of drugs after rehab, seeking spiritual help that would allow him to maintain it, and really, how is he different from any other Christian? But the daily battles of a million and one sins out there in the world that one and all are guilty of to some degree. Sin is death. Spiritual death and oftentimes physical death. His battle was more dramatically staged, but the difference is in degree, not in kind. And as the Pastor Keith Collins said at the funeral, he may have lost this final battle, but the war had long since been won. As Christians, we want to celebrate a victorious life because that best glorifies God. He is entitled to our service and love. But our service and love, our goodness, isn’t the ticket in. Hebrews 12:4 says “You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” We’re called to resist sin, but nowhere does it say that the fight against sin is what gets us to heaven.

Today a church member’s wife died suddenly. She was in decent enough health. She slipped while doing the dishes, hit her head and died. She was not a church member. I don’t know her, and I have no knowledge of her spiritual state. I’m praying for her family. I guess what strikes me about both these events, along with the thousand or so who died in Katrina, is the apparent untimeliness about them. And yet it’s all in God’s time. We just can’t see the calendar, so we’re the ones taken by surprise. Life is eternal, for everybody. How you spend that eternity is decided by grace, through faith. Don’t focus so intently on the perhaps 80 years you spend here, when there are literally thousands more years in your lifespan.

Be Ready: A checklist to keep during troubled times..

Where is God Amidst Katrina’s Destruction?

Hooray, I have internet again! At least for the moment - service in New Orleans and the surrounding areas is still very spotty. This week’s sermon impacted me a great deal. We’re all struggling with the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita - and now that Wilma is on the horizon, this is even more timely. (You can listen to the whole sermon here; this post only addresses the first 17 minutes of a sermon that was one hour and 8 minutes long - and worth every second! )

With Katrina, it’s been an emotional battle, a battle against our desires to have things our way. We’ve all had our faith and our understanding of God’s purpose and power adjusted with the hurricane itself, the long evacuation, returning to see the destruction and the continuing destruction as local businesses fold and outside businesses take over. None of these events are strange or unrelated to our walk with God.

1 Peter 4:12-13 reminds us that we are beloved. When Peter wrote this, the church was in chaos, people were being killed in the arenas, crucified, their property was being taken, their lives were being destroyed. Remember that major, serious problems are normal but we are called to rejoice in all things. God has always used evil to a greater purpose; to move his people to a better place. Because of indwelling sin, people will not move forward unless we have to - we get comfortable and want to stay!

• He sold Joseph sold into slavery and put in prison, and sent a famine to drive Jacob and his family to Egypt to reunite with Joseph. They were saved from starvation, but more importantly it was in Egypt that the Jews developed into a nation.
• The slaughter of the children in Egypt was the reason Moses’ mother put him in the basket in the Nile, which led to him being raised in Pharoah’s household.
• He rose up Goliath in order to bring David to prominence.
• Jesus had to be crucified in order to be resurrected.

All of these connected events served the greater purpose. We have opportunities to serve the Lord now, and the results of that service may ripple down through the ages. A hundred years from now what will people say about how God’s church reacted to Katrina? [One real problem today is many Christian's reaction to tragedy. They ask why God didn't prevent it. The view that God is playing catch-up ball, constantly on the defense against evil, is faulty. Does the God who knew you before you were made, knows every hair on your head and every word you will speak, who knows where every sparrow falls, not know where Hurricane Wilma will hit? Was He surprised that Katrina destroyed so much of the Gulf Coast? Did he wake up from a nap and say, "Oh dear, it's too late to turn the hurricane now, it will have to hit New Orleans and Biloxi and I'll just help them clean up as best they can." You need to face the facts: God wanted this to happen. This was deliberate. And He did it for your benefit. You need to be grateful. Go read Job.]

We often forget when we read the stories of the great men and women of the old testament that what made these men and women mighty was God. James said in James 5:17 “Elijah was a man just like us.”

1 Kings 17-18
Elijah had a huge victory - the rain was stopped for three years then started on his request, he raised the widow’s son, all the prophets of Baal were defeated and killed. God was glorified.

When Elijah experienced the storm in his life (Jezebel) he was overwhelmed. He panicked and ran, in spite of the clear evidence of God’s power and work in his life. When he arrived at Mt. Horeb, in 1 Kings 19:9, God asked “What are you doing here, Elijah?” God showed his power, reminded him that He had been with Elijah the whole time, and asked again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (Why did you run from this woman?) And in 1 Kings 19:15, God told him to get back to work.

We can question God, as Job did, but at the end of the day, we have to bow to his greater wisdom, knowledge and power. If we get bogged down in what we have lost, we will completely miss the greater lessons involved here. This is NOT our home. Our home is eternal, and this world is not eternal. None of these things were ours to begin with. We are stewards of God’s property - we’re not the owners, we’re the servants. We have ample evidence of His love for us. Now, more than ever, we have to remember that running from the problem (our attitudes, feelings, emotions, thoughts about Katrina and Rita’s destruction) is running away from the presence of God - because God is fully in the midst of those problems, loving us, knowing the number of hairs on our heads, waiting to offer us comfort and joy.

Sovereignty in Adversity

Lately it seems my whole life spins around Katrina’s aftermath. My business is effectively closed until further notice, and life is just generally in upheaval on every level. Small things - going to Burger King, where you can no longer have it your way, because all they are selling is combo meals, with either dressed or plain burgers, and be prepared to wait. But most restaurants have not yet reopened, so you can take it their way or take the highway. Large things - my church was under 12 or so feet of water so we’ll be meeting somewhere else for, say, the next couple of years, while we go through the rebuilding process.

My gratitude for ordinary things is way, way, up. Hearing the voice of a friend (hey, the phone works!), going to church (on Saturday, since another church is graciously allowing us the use of their building) and hearing the Word, seeing my church family. I am so grateful for these things, that most things, even the (probably temporary) loss of my business, seem very small. I’ve been thinking about the worst times of my life, and this is not in that category, and then thinking about the aftermath. The best (worst) example - I married young and impulsively, and quickly got pregnant. Things went from bad to worse and when I was 4 months pregnant, unemployed, broke, hungry, and facing eviction I dug my dusty old bible out of a box. I flipped it open to a random page and found Romans 8:28. I was comforted. It was a personal message from God. I felt that no matter how much I had messed up since my salvation 3 years before, that God would fix it and it would all be okay somehow. An hour later, my husband came home, packed a bag and left. I found out later that he committed suicide. Hurt, angry, I questioned God - didn’t you just tell me that things were going to be okay? And now he’s gone - what is that supposed to mean and how can this be fixed now?! I didn’t understand.

That was one of the worst times in my life, but God took me from that place to now, where I am happily married to the greatest guy in the world, who adopted my daughter, and provides for us both. The chain of events leading up to now is a series of miracles, people lost and found, cured cancer, trust, betrayal, and restoration. God changed me profoundly on that journey, and I would not give up one minute of it or change a single thing.

This weeks sermon was “Shaking, Pruning, and Refining” (listen here) and it has given me a lot to think about and look forward to. We will look back on Katrina’s aftermath and see God’s handiwork - amazing, awesome and inspirational - and know that it worked together for our good.