This past week there has been a theme to my Bible readings and studies. Picture this with me....
Jesus approaches the woman at the well and is able to tell her life story. It's not pretty.
The woman in John who is caught in the act of adultery and dragged into the temple to be stoned. Adulterer!
The woman who pushes through a crowd, unclean because of constant bleeding. The law says she is to remain in solitude until seven days after her bleeding stops. Anyone she touches becomes unclean too. She reaches out and touches Jesus.
The woman with the alabaster jar. In Luke it says that she was a sinner. In all of the Gospels it is implied that the people eating with Jesus at the very least saw her as ignorant for wasting such an expensive item when it could have been used for other "greater" things.
These women...these stories...they have one thing in common.
Each woman, for a passing moment of time, set themselves up in front of the Savior of the World to walk in...Condemnation.
The woman at the well is living in sin, as is the adulterous woman in John. The woman that is bleeding blatantly breaks the law. Everyone in the room considered the woman with the alabaster jar ignorant and a sinner.
These women deserved condemnation from Jesus. They were law-breakers. Sinners.
The people around them were there, ready to throw rocks at them. Rocks that scream CONDEMNATION! Rocks that break people.
We, like these women, deserve condemnation. We sin.
Sometimes our sins are hidden or they might be more "acceptable" sins.
Sometimes our sins are blatant. Out in the open for everyone to see.
Sometimes we are surrounded by people holding rocks. Ready to scream CONDEMNATION at us. To break us.
Sometimes we feel like Jesus is standing with them. He deserves to be doesn't He? He is the only one with no sin who can throw the first stone.
So many times in our lives this is where we rest. Where we walk. This is where we find our identity.
But if you finish reading each of these stories you will notice that though He is worthy of throwing that stone He doesn't.
My fellow Child of Christ, you might be walking today in condemnation. Thinking that you know the heart of God and that is what you deserve. And you will be correct. You do deserve that....the women from scripture did....we all do.
But Romans 8:1 speaks of a different heart "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Jesus came to reconcile. To restore to favor. (Strong's Concordance) 2 Corinthians 5:18 says "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,"
Romans 5 tells us that God's heart for us was reconciliation even when we were His enemy! When we hated and despised Him, He planned for our rescue. He planned to draw us into Him. He planned to reconcile us to Himself!
So if you are walking today in condemnation, step out of it!! Walk in the reconciliation that is calling to you! Calling to you with the sweet voice of His Word.
Walk in Christ.
He, the only one worthy of throwing that stone, has dropped it.
Stop standing there waiting to be hit and broken.
You are restored and whole!!
Okay, so we head out Sunday evening and drive for 11 hours to Des Moines, Iowa!! I thought the drive would be pretty miserable, but it was incredible.
As we drove north the trees changed from the green leaves of Texas to gradually these beautiful shades of red, orange and brown. Also, eleven hours in the car is an fantastic opportunity to talk to any sweet daughters who happen to get stuck in there with you!
One thing we did notice is that our thermometer slowly started dropping!
So we leave Iowa Monday morning and head into the beautiful state of Minnesota. First thing I noticed driving over the state line is that I passed two state trooper cars not even five miles into the state!
And then there was the third!
Well I passed him, but I try really hard to obey the speed and traffic laws so I definitely was not speeding. So when I saw him pull out behind me I figured he was heading after someone else. But then those lights went on and there was no mistaking he wanted ME over!!
This is the first time in my adult life that I have ever been pulled over so to say I was FREAKING out would be an understatement! As I'm pulling over I'm telling Emaleigh to find my license and she gets it. Then I put my hands on my steering wheel like I remember learning in drivers ed and wait......
He walks up to the passenger side window and greets me and promptly lets me know that I am breaking Minnesota traffic law by having a small metal cross hanging from my rear-view mirror and I needed to remove it promptly!
At first I thought that maybe this was some kind of joke, but I quickly gathered he was not kidding and I took it down. It is a little cross about two inches high and says "God Is Near." Then he asked for my insurance which I had to dig through the gazillion things that were in my glove box and find! I was totally praying that it was in there because I couldn't remember if I had put it there or not!!
Luckily after about five minutes....five LONG minutes cuz remember I was totally still freaking out at being pulled over...he came back and gave me a written warning for a traffic equipment violation.
Truth be told he was very kind and only doing his job, though I think he must have super sonic vision to even have been able to see the thing as I was going 70 down the highway!!
Well, we navigated our way through Minnesota and finally crossed the line into Wisconsin! Finally arriving at our destination which was the home of a dear friend who even had a pot of spaghetti waiting for us and a pumpkin pie in the oven!
I won't lie and say that walking away from Texas was easy, but there is a peace that comes from knowing that you are in the Lord's will that overcomes the fear of the unknown.
Since being here we have been blessed by our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin in providing housing, guidance as to what to do when, and generally just loved on. We have been blessed by our brothers and sisters in Texas through encouraging texts and emails that always seem to come at just the right time!
And we have been blessed by a loving Father who has been faithful to us, not bringing us here and then forgetting about us. Faithful to provide us comfort when we are sad and homesick and fellowship when we are lonely. And faithful to renew in us each morning a desire and yearning that reminds us why we are here and why the only thing worth losing everything for is Him.
And we walk in it.
He's a good, good Father.
"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God."
1 John 3:1
Wow! It's been a while since I have blogged! Sorry about that :)
Just like everyone else, our lives have been a bit crazy. So....where to start??!!
Most likely I will not fit everything into this post so let's just jump in from the beginning!
Most of you are aware that our family gains so much joy from working with teens and young adults and most of you also know the incredible joy we get from working with some of the Native American tribes that are across the US.
This past summer before we headed out to Wyoming, we took a detour and were able to visit and be a small part of something incredible going on in Wisconsin on the LCO reservation there. We had not been on the road an hour after leaving before William told us that he firmly believed that this was where the Lord would eventually want us. How quickly he did not know.
So when we eventually got home our family began to really pray and seek the Lord's timing. It was difficult at first because we all were thinking something different, yet we knew that one way the Lord verifies His instruction is through others...so we continued to pray.
Eventually I started to get a bit wishy-washy. It was hard to live in such limbo and my fleshly self wanted to settle back into a routine and move on from it. But God was so faithful to keep a bit of unsettled-ness in my spirit that kept me seeking Him and His will.
The same held true for William.
So one day we came together and changed our prayer a bit. We began to confess our confusion and doubt and ask God to close doors and open doors. We told Him that we would walk into and away from whatever He asked us to.
I would say it was about two days later when He began to not just close doors for us, but He slammed them shut. Some of the closing doors were very painful for us to see closed. Some of them we are praying that eventually God will open again.
But for every door He shut, He opened one in Wisconsin. And then slowly (though it feels super fast!) He started to give us a glimpse into a beautiful tapestry that He has been weaving for years. The beauty and intricacy of His plan has been even more incredible that what we had imagined. And He very clearly and very graciously told us again...Go.
So we obeyed...we went.
William is still in Texas renting a room from friends while he is hoping to eventually work remote with his current job but also searching for a job in the area we are at. The Lord has been working mightily in this area this week so we continue to pray. We know that God does not want us separated for long so we know He will be here soon.
And then, with William having full confidence that we were in the Lord's will...one week and two days ago we loaded up what we could in our van and he sent my two youngest girls and myself to Wisconsin before him. We have been so blessed to walk into the arms of incredible friends and ministry partners. We walked straight into a church that we know and love. And my girls walked into arms of friends that they have been building relationships with for years.
One thing that is super neat is that we are in an area that we sooo appreciate geographically! After living in North Dakota for four years we knew that we enjoyed cold weather and snow. We love being outdoors and adore the beauty of God's creation.
There is so much more to the story that I want to share with you, but I think I'll wrap it up for today!
Just know that God has been so faithful to us and we are just in awe of the calling He has put in front of our family and the opportunity we have to share His love with others!
So in the next blog I'll tell you about getting pulled over less than 10 miles into Minnesota!!!
