Words have never been my greatest strength. I don't get jazzed up about writing out stuff that happens to me on a daily basis. My mouth and words are hidden inside the depiction of the film I take. By now you can probably label me as "the guy with the picture blogs".. and I am ok with that. They say pictures are worth a thousand words, and at this rate I would say I am doing pretty well.
Here on the Race you experience a lot. You see poverty, feel brokenness, and witness the glory of God sweetly convicting the masses… Including me!
This morning I was
studying "the fall" into sin. We have Adam, the tree, Gods command, Eve, the apple, the fall. In a nutshell we see the first sin of the world and Satan at his best. It's a common story told to millions of kids each night as they crawl into bed. I heard a sermon from back home that described it this way:
"Ok kids, before you go to bed let me tell you about when the manifestation of all evil and wickedness possessed a serpent and tempted two grown naked adults into disobeying God and caused all the evil and wickedness we know as reality today… And then we will go to sleep."
Photo Credit: Jeremy Cearbaugh (Lifehouse Skit)
Now as I made it through chapter 2, I was so pumped at the new deeper meaningful material I had never seen before. I made it past the commandment from God, and into the creation of Eve.. And then I read the verse that got my wheels turning. Verse 25 reads:
"Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."
I first want to apologize to all those who think I am about to talk about nakedness, because sorry I am not. The words that hit me were "no shame". The idea that Adam and Eve had nothing to hide. Since sin had not been created at this time, they did not have the perversion of nakedness. It was pure, natural, and beautiful.
The idea stuck, and God kept working these words through my mind as I pondered on the idea of "Shame". We all have had it, have it, or are in the process of creating it, but I want to stop you and craft this new thought- that we have nothing to be ashamed of.
For a long time I selfishly struggled with the shame of my testimony. I didn't have a drug overdose that led me to Christ, that epic event that revealed His grace, or the power to bring people to the pearly gates through a five minute testimony. But through the passage above I realized that there was no need for that shame. In this “so called” shame I found His arms open saying, "You are right, I didn't give you those experiences because I had a different avenue of love for you… Because you were made for something greater… But know that I rescued you the exact same way I rescued them. I have broken you down, and built you back up all on my own.”
The enemy is crafty, slick, and can make something so Godly, wicked in a moment. We serve a God that has made us in His image. We serve a Creator that does not make mistakes. His timing is so perfect and turns our once shames into powerful tools for his kingdom. Our God pursues us more then we will ever know. His Will is not a hidden treasure we have to find, yet His will is made possible through belief in Him.
I am a Christ follower, a sinner, and a redemption story made spotless daily by my Father.
