Day 203: A God Who Forgets And A God Who Remembers
Read: Isaiah 49:14 - 16, Romans 8:1 - 11
There are two more days now until I and thirty eight Christian men venture forth into the Maryland Correctional Institute for Men at Jessup Maryland for the first time as a team to minister to forty two resident participants. I will not say 'inmates' here as I find that word to be rather cold and dehumanizing a word. It projects to me now as a way of separating these men from the rest of the world community. I used to think of it that way. As I reconsider this held up against the light of Romans 8:1,2 'For now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the Law of the Spirit life has set you Free from the law of sin and death.' This I find is my next transition to contemplate and meditate upon.
I ask each of you to prayerfully reconsider this too That prayerful transition between
feeling you have been 'thrown away', 'forgotten in the valleys of sin and death' and locked and blocked away from The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Is there something to this or is there not? I mean I know that there is no place God is not. But then I ask of you to consider what is doing the locking and blocking. Is it just the high security of the prison itself? The high walls, miles of barbed wire, all the locked doors that just slam shut behind you giving it a shuttering sense of permanence about it. Is it the one inescapable truth that as the doors slam shut with a loud thud that you have no key to use to back out and leave?
No, while all those are true in the physical sense, I go back to yesterdays devotional about forgiveness and I have to ask each of us this question that we may ponder it accordingly: "How about those sins that we each hold on to as being unforgivable and
unforgettable?" It is natural in my mind, probably yours as well, for us to steadfastly
hold onto the worst things we have ever done in our lives, the guilt, the shame then
translate that into "What if someone else knew?" "What if I get caught?" "What if I have already been caught and convicted in the courts of my own mind or the courts that hold sway over my freedom? My guilt! My shame! My jail cell! My mind! My God!
Being raised in a Jewish household, there was that commandment 'Honor you father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which God gives you.'
I would definitely get a failing grade because me and my dad ... well, suffice to say it did not go well at all. On his deathbed, while I tried to reconcile, with whatever small
amount of life he had in him, he turned his thumb down on me - condemning me on
that death bed. At this point I was sure I was condemned by God too, a God who is all
knowing, remembers everything and never forgets, on earth as it is in heaven amen!
I cannot help but want to prayerfully consider how this transitions behind prison bars.
Let Us Pray: Lord, how good is your memory today of all my actions from all of my yesterdays? Lord, how much do you remember of those moments when I have so completely and utterly failed in the eyes of my family, my friends, my neighbors? How
can I know that the prison bars of my own making - my guilt, my shame, humiliation can be safely broken and shattered and scattered to the four winds? I am locked up here Lord, and have been for longer than I care remember and would much sooner rather forget. You say there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus for the law of life and love is freedom from bondage to sin and death. Lord I do believe but I ask you now in all humility, body mind and spirit, to help me and guide me through my own unbelief and likewise theirs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOAdYF5sQQs
Listen To Our Hearts - Casting Crowns
www.youtube.com
Bonus track from the iTunes prebuy of Come to the Well. Casting Crowns, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Geoff Moore.
I pray that this encounter with these men be a successful one with God. I cannot relate to what went on between you and your dad, though I imagine that must have been tough as you mention, However I had my fair share too.. I did struggle some time with these thoughts until i really meditated on what Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery :
ReplyDelete“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” then followed by “Then neither do I condemn you,”
There is nothing that can separate us from Jesus (except ourselves), Jesus did not even cared about what she did before they met. What counted was what would be her life as from the moment she met Jesus. This is the beauty of Grace that we somehow find difficult to understand, may be because we cannot forgive like that !
I pray that you will bring that to these man, and when they meet Jesus, whatever has taken place in their life will not matter. Though their punishment might stand, (they have already been condemned), but their life in christ will change them.
Humbling yourself to Jesus and admitting your guilt and sin while hiding nothing ever from Him is all He wants from you and will make you right with God. I'm sorry about your dad but your real Father is a KING!
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