Allow me to take you on a tour through the home of a young mother. As you walk in the front door you will immediately notice a dramatically over-sized, empty bottle of Bacardi Rum. It's a souvenir her husband brought home from Germany. It is their pride and joy. The evidence that they know how to have a good time.
Look into the living room and you'll notice the young mother sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette and watching her favorite soap opera. She enjoys the interesting plot. The love triangles, the shock of deception and cheating husbands and wives. She's being entertained by this tangled web of immorality.
Later you'll notice that she is trying hard to raise her little girl according to what she thinks is right. Her little girl just repeated the words she heard from the neighborhood boy, "Shut up!" Her daughter was being playful and saying it out of context but her mother rebuked her nonetheless. Her mother wanted so much for her little girl to be kind and friendly, not saying such rude things.
If you came to visit on another day, you'd see this mother and daughter dancing with the neighborhood kids to a fun song on the radio. The beat was funky and made you want to move and shake. It felt like pure happiness as it blasted through the speakers. The words? "You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel!" Those words pounding off the walls of her home like some tribal chant. Over and over again.
"How debased!" you might say. Yes, I know. But she didn't realize it.
You see, even though this woman made it a daily habit of watching MTV, BET, VH1, The Young and the Restless and maybe a little Jerry Springer for kicks...she still thought she was morally good. At least she was better than most.
Sure, she never killed anyone...but that's just it. She was the one who was dead. She didn't understand how bad it was. She didn't see.
Allow me to take you on another tour. In this home, you will find Bibles on the shelf and they are not collecting dust. They are read often and cherished. You will see a frame on the wall that says "Faith"-because this word means more to the mother in this home than anything. It's the reason she is no longer lost and utterly deceived into thinking that she actually knows where she is going in life and believing that she will end up someplace good.
Faith is a word that speaks the truth that there was nothing she could do to take away all the guilt of her sins which were many. Only God could take it away, and at a great cost. He willingly gave the life of his perfect and holy Son for the filthy sinner she was.
She still teaches her children that it's rude to say "Shut up!", but it's more than that. It's because of the love of a Savior who teaches us to love from a pure heart and a clear conscience. It's his love that teaches us to love others as we would want to be loved. And it's because he loved us first that he now urges us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Yesterday, you would have seen her five year old daughter happily sitting on her Grampa Kevin's lap. She listened to him read books and she giggled...a lot. Her mother sat nearby and she asked her little girl if she knew what her name meant. Her mother told her that Clara means clear and bright and Sofia means wisdom. Grampa Kevin playfully asked her to tell him something wise. Her reply? "Obey God". It was like a gift to her mother. Her mother knows that such words would not have been spoken had God not intervened in her life.
What need have I of alcohol, cigarettes, immorality on my TV and in my living room? None. That woman has died and she has been born again. Yes, you heard me right. I have been changed from the inside, out. I have a heart that is still in need of more and more change and I see it the more I get to know God through his word. And it's all by his mercy and grace and because I placed my faith in Christ alone on the most wonderful day of my life.
I love the song that says...
I shall forever lift my eyes to Calvary.
To view the cross where Jesus died for me.
How marvelous! The grace that caught my falling soul,
He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.
Oh man, that's what you call true love.
Just like he did for me, God offers you eternal life and a true love relationship with him.
Please click on my tab under the header "MEET GOD" to learn more about it.
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