More on God's Love

When Simon Peter saw the awesome power of Jesus displayed, his response was the same one that Adam's and Eve's were. He said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8)

Two things are on my mind; the first is this: Simon Peter was a Jewish man. This means that he was immersed in and surrounded by Godly living; he studied The Law, the government was run by religious rulers, the laws of the land were The Torah and rules made from it, and all the people lived according to those rules and laws.

I read of no evidence of Simon Peter being a horrible sinner. In fact, according to the accounts of him found in The Bible, he seemed to be an average Joe, someone who had a good peer group and fit in well with them.

Yet when presented with the power of Jesus to change things, which could only come from God Himself, Simon Peter was afraid because of his sin.

That leaves me concerned about the sinfulness of my own life lived here in America; a culture based in rebellion against authority, and caught up in "rights, privileges, and entitlements" as an "American Citizen" and the blurring of the line between them all. Americans are really good at self-serving behaviors, and not very good at "Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done." If Simon Peter, in an environment that fostered right behavior couldn't get it right, where does that leave me as a participating American? How much "sin" do I chalk up to simply "living the American Dream?"

Anyway, that aside, let's get to the main point:
Simon Peter was overwhelmed at his unrighteousness come face to face with Righteousness, and his response was horror and fear.

But notice Jesus response in verse 10, "Don't be afraid..."
Wow. Jesus, faced with our messy, polluted lives... and our horrified response to it says, "Don't be afraid." And then he goes on to make new plans for our lives; plans that include Him in them! "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." What a story for our lives!

Later, Jesus comes across a man with leprosy. The man fell face down and begged Jesus, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." (emphasis mine)
And Jesus responded simply, "I am willing."

I sometimes wonder how Jesus can be willing to take on and tackle the constant clean-out of sewage in my soul. "I am willing."
Lord, when are you not willing?
We see one place where Jesus gets really steamed, and that is at people who put up rules and barriers that prevent people from finding Him; the Religious Ones, the doctrine makers. Be careful of doctrine makers and doctrine quoters.

But the sinners who humbly acknowledge their sin; to us, he says, "Don't be afraid." and "I am willing."

What an awesome God of Love we serve.

Storms are Good!

What a rain storm we had last Saturday here in Northwestern Oregon; it was an absolute deluge! I've been through storms that brought rain this hard, but never for such an extended period of time. The ground was flooded, the streets turned into little raging rivers, and my basement turned into a great water feature as water flowed under the foundation and found it's way like miniature fountains through every crack in the wall it could find!
I love storms! I love weather whenever it acts up! After 30 minutes of hanging out of various windows and doors watching it, I couldn't take it anymore; pulling on boots and a raincoat, I grabbed an umbrella and headed out into that pounding rain.
There is a strip of dirt that is right hard up against the asphalt road in front of our house, and the soil is so poor here that all it grows are weeds. I've noticed that about poor soil; when it won't support benificial plants, it'll still grow weeds! My mother, who lives with us, is my weed pulling expert! She has tried several times with tool in hand to get these weeds out of this weak, hard soil, without success. The best she could do on this hard-baked soil was to leave a little scratch mark with her trowel and break the tops of the weeds off at the surface of the dirt, leaving the weed roots to grow longer, stronger and many branched deep beneath the surface of the soil.
But this day, with the water pouring across this hard ground for over 30 minutes, the dirt had softened, and I was able to quickly pluck the new weeds out with the same ease that you would remove a dead bouquet from a vase! The dandelion weed, whose roots were several years old, tried to hold out, but the soil was prepared for it's removal, so with a quick gathering of the leaves into a bundle, I applied some gentle pressure as I wiggled that old dandelion weed this way and that to allow the rain water to follow the root system down to deeper levels. I let that water soak in around those weed roots for another short minute, then grabbed the bundle, and with steady pressure, the entire root system released with a sucking sound and all of the tendrils came out of that rain-enriched soil as an unbroken mass!
Victory at last!
Just so is our lives; without God's Word, we are a "parched, dry land," only fit for producing weeds in our lives. But when God's Word rains down, the soil (our hearts) are softened and the first step can be taken to prepare us for a fruitful harvest, that of removing the weeds (sin) so the fruit-bearing seed can be planted.