How Quickly We Forget
How Quickly We Forget
I was watching my twin 4 year old girls play the other day. Well, actually, I ran into the room they were playing in because i heard "Shreeks of Terror" coming from Amber's mouth. "HELP!!!!!!!! HELP ME!!!!!!!!!" I ran to the door and as I entered the room, I saw her sister, Emma, pulling a plastic alligator off of her finger. Amber breathed a sigh of relief, hugged Emme and thanked her for "rescuing" her from the alligator. She had told Emma that the alligator was sniffing her and then wanted to eat her.
I laughed hysterically and commented to Amber and Emma about thier wonderful immagination but I also had to talk to them about "Playing Help!!" I told them to not sound so convincing but to make it more play-ish unless they were in big trouble. I guess I should have taken them to see "Chicken Little" for thier first movie experience.
That same night, as I was working out on the treadmill, I was watching CNN News and they were recounting a story from a few years ago where a lawyer walked out of the court house and some crazy weirdo just pulled a pistol out of his pocket and started shooting at him in broad daylight. It was all captured on video and this lawyer was only able to duck behind a small tree to protect himself. The lawyer survived but he had been shot 4 times, once in the neck.
He shared with the interviewer how he felt like his life had been spared and he felt that "fate" had "rescued" him and his life has never been the same. He has changed in many ways and cleaned up his life.
OK, here is where the devotional part of this story begins. My kids, at an early age, understand the relief of what it means to be rescued. Although they go back and play the same game again, they understand that thier is incredible relief in being pulled from "danger." This man, who had been shot at, also realized what "rescue" was and changed his life because of it.
Do you ever get angry at God? More specifically, do you feel like God isn't moving fast enough or that God has not given you clear enough direction sometimes? Do you throw a fit when a certain situation turns sour for no reason and you holler at God for making your life miserable? Have you ever blamed God for anything. i am guilty of all charges here. I was thinking of my own life and how much I just complain and bicker and fight and lose faith.
Have we forgotten what we have been rescued from? Are we that absent minded that the smallest things now get the best of us and we throw a fit at God because life isn't working for us? We should be fully thankful that through Christ's death that we have been rescued from the most disgusting, horrible, vile, nasty place ever. Yet, in our everyday actions and attitudes, does that thankfulness show?
Most of us get moved around Easter time by the tragic death of Christ and then we feel unworthy of His resurrection. The grusomeness of the whole thing, but lets say for a minute that Christ died of old age. He lived a full life and then, through old age, died in His sleep for the sins of the world. Does that lessen the fact that He died for our sins and rescued us from eternal seperation from His love. NO!!!! Not at all. But most of us get wrapped up in the way that it happened and only focus on His death, forgetting what He died for.
Yet, by the way we belly ache and complain about some uncomfortable part of life, we dismiss from our lives the power of what He died for. We forget that our sins (stupid actions) have now been forgiven and no longer chain us to place called "Hell." How awesome is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, we would rather suggest that God is bad for all of the bad things in this world, when It was He who allowed the Greatest thing ever in our lives to happen, a pardon from our own stupidity and a access into a perfect, most holy place where we would never have had the chance to go.
My suggestions for us, as Christians, is to remember what Christ died for in our lives. He rescued us from eternal punishment. He rescued us with grace, mercy and love. He rescued us from ourselves. Don't just dwell on how painful the Cross must have been. Dwell on the pain that we continue to cause in His life because of the blame and anger we cast towards God when things don't go our way. Look at things from a different perspective because when we live a "rescued" life, we fully understand that we have been given a second chance and to make the most out of it, thanking Him daily for the pain God had to go through inorder to save a whole bunch of unworthy people.
Colossians 1:13
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves
I was watching my twin 4 year old girls play the other day. Well, actually, I ran into the room they were playing in because i heard "Shreeks of Terror" coming from Amber's mouth. "HELP!!!!!!!! HELP ME!!!!!!!!!" I ran to the door and as I entered the room, I saw her sister, Emma, pulling a plastic alligator off of her finger. Amber breathed a sigh of relief, hugged Emme and thanked her for "rescuing" her from the alligator. She had told Emma that the alligator was sniffing her and then wanted to eat her.
I laughed hysterically and commented to Amber and Emma about thier wonderful immagination but I also had to talk to them about "Playing Help!!" I told them to not sound so convincing but to make it more play-ish unless they were in big trouble. I guess I should have taken them to see "Chicken Little" for thier first movie experience.
That same night, as I was working out on the treadmill, I was watching CNN News and they were recounting a story from a few years ago where a lawyer walked out of the court house and some crazy weirdo just pulled a pistol out of his pocket and started shooting at him in broad daylight. It was all captured on video and this lawyer was only able to duck behind a small tree to protect himself. The lawyer survived but he had been shot 4 times, once in the neck.
He shared with the interviewer how he felt like his life had been spared and he felt that "fate" had "rescued" him and his life has never been the same. He has changed in many ways and cleaned up his life.
OK, here is where the devotional part of this story begins. My kids, at an early age, understand the relief of what it means to be rescued. Although they go back and play the same game again, they understand that thier is incredible relief in being pulled from "danger." This man, who had been shot at, also realized what "rescue" was and changed his life because of it.
Do you ever get angry at God? More specifically, do you feel like God isn't moving fast enough or that God has not given you clear enough direction sometimes? Do you throw a fit when a certain situation turns sour for no reason and you holler at God for making your life miserable? Have you ever blamed God for anything. i am guilty of all charges here. I was thinking of my own life and how much I just complain and bicker and fight and lose faith.
Have we forgotten what we have been rescued from? Are we that absent minded that the smallest things now get the best of us and we throw a fit at God because life isn't working for us? We should be fully thankful that through Christ's death that we have been rescued from the most disgusting, horrible, vile, nasty place ever. Yet, in our everyday actions and attitudes, does that thankfulness show?
Most of us get moved around Easter time by the tragic death of Christ and then we feel unworthy of His resurrection. The grusomeness of the whole thing, but lets say for a minute that Christ died of old age. He lived a full life and then, through old age, died in His sleep for the sins of the world. Does that lessen the fact that He died for our sins and rescued us from eternal seperation from His love. NO!!!! Not at all. But most of us get wrapped up in the way that it happened and only focus on His death, forgetting what He died for.
Yet, by the way we belly ache and complain about some uncomfortable part of life, we dismiss from our lives the power of what He died for. We forget that our sins (stupid actions) have now been forgiven and no longer chain us to place called "Hell." How awesome is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, we would rather suggest that God is bad for all of the bad things in this world, when It was He who allowed the Greatest thing ever in our lives to happen, a pardon from our own stupidity and a access into a perfect, most holy place where we would never have had the chance to go.
My suggestions for us, as Christians, is to remember what Christ died for in our lives. He rescued us from eternal punishment. He rescued us with grace, mercy and love. He rescued us from ourselves. Don't just dwell on how painful the Cross must have been. Dwell on the pain that we continue to cause in His life because of the blame and anger we cast towards God when things don't go our way. Look at things from a different perspective because when we live a "rescued" life, we fully understand that we have been given a second chance and to make the most out of it, thanking Him daily for the pain God had to go through inorder to save a whole bunch of unworthy people.
Colossians 1:13
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves