Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Getting deeper...

This Sunday our pastor preached about hope in Christ and how it relates not only to those who have never heard the gospel but to us who have already experienced that Hope.

I have to be honest when I say that we have been hearing a lot about the Gospel of Christ the last few weeks, and that day I found myself daydreaming a bit, feeling like the message just wasn't for me. After all, I already have experienced hope in Christ, the truth of the Gospel, right? Then as I focused my thoughts again on Pastor Rick, he said something that the Spirit used to get my attention. He dared to say that there might be things in our lives that we are holding back from the Gospel, from hope in Christ. Places in our lives that we don't let His truth illuminate...because we're either focusing on how "great" we are in other areas of our Christian walk, or just because we don't want to or aren't ready to deal with the yucky stuff.

Well, that's not what I wanted to hear, either. Sigh. So the last few days I have been thinking & just praying that the Lord would reveal to me some areas of my life that I have either intentionally or unintentionally been holding back from Him--to allow His Hope to rescue me from my messes. Seriously, don't pray this unless you really mean it. I'm learning the hard way...but, oh Lord, do this work in me, though it may be hard. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me...a broken and contrite heart You will not despise..."

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength."

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