Ephesians 4:17-21

God is so amazing! And the bible? I'm beginning to think of it as the original telephone - a direct link to God. Yesterday I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the entire CRHP process - the readings, the preparations, the meetings. But more than that, being a mother, a homeschooling parent, a wife, a daughter, the meal planner. The garden is kicking out tomatoes in record numbers and they need to be canned. So much to do! When will I do all this? How can I possibly do it well?

But God stepped in and said, "When will you remember to give all your worries to me? Silly girl! Here, read this: Romans 4:17-21, and remember why you are doing this."

(I didn't actually hear that, but I remembered to give my worries to God and when I opened my bible, this is the verse that it opened to. The title "Renewal in Christ" caught my eye and was a perfect answer.)

"So I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance, because of their hardness of heart, they have become callous and have handed themselves over to licentiousness for the practice of every kind of impurity to excess." Ephesians 17-19

My first thought was, "Wow! That's a long sentence!" Second thought, "What does 'licentiousness' mean?" Thanks to dictionary.com, the definition is:

–adjective
1.sexually unrestrained; lascivious; libertine; lewd.
2.unrestrained by law or general morality; lawless; immoral.
3.going beyond customary or proper bounds or limits; disregarding rules.

Don't you just love technology?

That first sentence was a description of who I used to be - someone who didn't follow God's law. A soul lost to the things of this world. The language is harsh, but very accurate: "darkened in understanding", "alienated", "hardness of heart". It was the reminder I needed as to why I'm doing this. It was a little kick in the pants from God saying, "You are not the person you used to be. You are my daughter, whom I love. Keep going. Keep reading. Come to me."

"That is not how you learned Christ, assuming that you heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away your old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth."Ephesians 20-21

Yes! Put on my new self. Like a shirt or a robe, I can clothe myself in my faith in Jesus. Like a garment, my faith can be stained with sin or soiled with corruption. My choices are the grass stains and coffee spills on my white, renewed spirit. And just like a garment, I must keep it clean and pressed so that others may look at me and say, "She is a Christian". But mostly, I want to meet Jesus in a clean robe with the stains freshly washed away through Reconciliation, the wrinkles pressed flat through bible readings, and a clean mountain-fresh scent from doing as he said, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood and you will have everlasting life."

So thank you, God! Thank you for the bible that keeps me going. Thank you for inspiring these words so that your children may know you. Thank you for speaking to me this morning and sharing your love for me. You are a kind and loving father and I feel so loved! I hope my actions today please you, that my words are your words, that I show love for those I meet today the way you love them.