 |
| From one of the gates at Boldt Castle - looking out, over the Saint Lawrence.... |
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
Romans 8:19 (NIV)
Yesterday I described a metaphor, based on an outing taken by my family over the weekend. We were on the river. We docked next to a castle, on an island, originally built as a gift from a loving husband to his wife. When she died mid-construction, it broke the man's heart. It broke his will. He abandoned the castle on Heart Island. The unfinished castle suffered through seven decades of neglect, to the elements, to vandalism, deserted by love.
The metaphor?
My husband, daughter and I didn't pay the admission price to go onto the castle grounds to explore. We were on the outside, looking in. It made me consider my life before Jesus, before belief, before grace. It made me think about being on the outside of Christianity and looking in. We stood at the fence, at the gate, at the door, and on the other side? Jesus. Jesus, the ultimate love story.
But there is another metaphor -- from the inside looking out.
Jesus came in the fullness of time to redeem us for all time. This plan existed from the beginning with the Word of Truth. Our Truth came to earth. A seed - one person in one place. And it grew. And it spread. And it still spreads. At first, because of Roman roads, because of common language, because of the political and military structure of the time, because of the dissatisfaction in false gods. Because it was prophesied. Because our God is a mighty God, sovereign, faithful and just. And because our God is a loving God full of grace and wisdom.
The inside looking out. Imagine God's Kingdom in heaven. A mansion with many rooms, prepared and waiting. Waiting for us - yearning for us, the children of the King, to live, to laugh, to love. Waiting for us -- the inside looking out.
And how do we enter?
Our admission is admission. Our admission is belief. Our admission is prayer.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified,
and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Romans 10:9-10 (NIV)
It sounds so easy, but sometimes it is the hardest thing.
Belief that Jesus is Lord means WE aren't Lord.
It means that we need to give up control.
We need to give up anxiety and worry.
We need to turn fear away.
Jesus can help us.
Admission.
In order to turn fear away, we need to name it, confess it.
Then dismiss it.
Jesus can help us.
We need to set our hearts on His ways - ways of love, forgiveness, compassion, kindness.
Jesus can help us.
In these days of Ferguson and Isis, of Chattanoogas and Charlestons, in these days of entitlement and privilege, of racism and prejudice, of poverty and violence, of fear --- We need to see through His light, what CAN be so that it WILL be.
We need help.
Jesus can help us.
Linking with Three Word Wednesday, and TellHisStory
