Oh, What a Savior!

What a rough few days it has been.  It’s bad enough to have to endure a relationship where the other person will not take part in it if: 1) you disagree with their point-of-view, 2) they don’t control the communication and 3) they intentionally lie or provide only partial truths.  This is an impossible relationship.  Then to find out your extended family has all bought into the lies as this person has gone to each one and continually provided just enough information to create a perception of how good they are and how bad you are.  All of it is crushing and feels very high-schoolish.  Discovering that people who have known you all their lives and should know you would never intentionally run someone down is disturbing.  Then to know they wouldn’t call you if they thought you had done something to clarify it is also disturbing, but that is our society today.  No one will personally confront another person.  Send a text or an email.  Then to discover that their minds are so twisted that they see any good work you try to do as a show only to demonstrate how good you are and in their eyes you are just bragging and boosting yourself up (this is what my efforts in Haiti were in the eyes of my own family).  I was told by a member of my own family that to stop quoting the Bible, to stop doing good things where anyone can see them, and to stop saying how faith has played such a large role in my own marriage (“you’re not the first one to find faith” I was told).  Did I say that this is crushing and disturbing on so many levels?

 

All of this because of a single person.  He has worked diligently to divide and create confusion.  His name is Satan.  He comes to lie, cheat, and steal.  I’ve discovered through my experiences that anytime you are having any relational difficulties, take a moment and step away from them and look at your actions and everyone elses.  Look specifically for lies, cheating, or stealing.  I have always found that one or all of those things will become evident and when they do they usually point to who if having a faith problem.  This can be incredibly hard to see however as man is good at hiding his intentions even if he doesn’t fully understand his intentions.  Usually, until a person is face-to-face with the pain in someone else’s life caused solely by them, they don’t have the ability to be compassionate and make a decision to stop lying, cheating, or stealing. 

Yet, there is a God in heaven and He has provided a Savior.  He has made a way where none existed.  He is still in the miracle business.  I know, I am a witness.  Today, He is to be praised.  He has allowed me to take breath today, so He obviously has a purpose for me.  He has allowed me to have a family, one I do not deserve.  He has allowed me to have the ability to serve Him in vocation and relationships.  He has given me friends who really care about me.  But most of all, He takes my sin and vaporizes it.  It ceases to exist.  And so I have the ability to step into His presence and speak to Him and Him to me.  Most definitely something I do not deserve. 

He charges me with His Spirit!  Oh, What a Savior!  This is one of my all time favorite songs and how I wish I could sing well and sing it.  HERE it is if you don't know it.