Today was the grand opening of our new building in Benton. What a great day it was. Everything went very well. We have been in the building for several weeks now working out the kinks and today’s service was evidence that many of them are worked out.
Thanks to everyone who helped so much!
Many times in my life I have felt unloved. Often this feeling would stem from wondering if I was loved. Do my parents REALLY love me? Would my friends care about me if they new the real me? Is it possible that my spouse can love me despite all of my flaws? Can God REALLY TRULY love someone so steeped in sin, such a wretch as myself?
Many of our fears about God’s wrath and much of our drive to “not offend” him come out of this nagging question in our minds about the love of God for us. Do you know that God loves you? Do you feel that right now he is absolutly head over heels, madly, wildly in love with you? Do you realize that there is nothing you can do to ever make him love you more or less than he does at this very moment? Or, are you driven by your fear and guilt to serve him as an unloved slave rather than an adoring child?
If I were to hasten a guess I would say most of us struggle to feel loved by God. We have been conditioned to believe he is an ever present eye glaring at us from heaven, tracking our every move, looking for a reason to smite us and send us to Hell. But that is not the God we a read about in the Bible, nor is that image of God that Christ gave us when he became flesh and walked among us. Yes, God is watching, but he is watching because he is a love sick, adoring parent who can’t break his gaze from the object of his affection. God loves you. Even you. In all your sin and mess, He loves you. In all your ugliness and beauty, He loves you. In all your struggle and triumph, He loves you. Truly, deeply, passionately, HE LOVES YOU.
The great scholar Eugene Peterson points out that we have classically mistranslated Psalm 40:6 as
“you have given me open ears”
Instead of the literal,
“Ears you have dug for me”
The first translation is not so much wrong, as it misses the point of the metaphor out of fear that people won’t get it. But really isn’t that a beauftiful image. We are unhearing of the voice of God because we have heads with no ears, or our ears are filled with the garbage of this world. So along comes God and in his great wisdom he pulls out the pickaxe and DIGS US NEW EARS so that we may hear his voice again! The context of the verse is descriptions of the people makeing sacrifices and offerings, longing to expierince the God they had read about in scripture. But nothing they could do would allow them to hear his voice without ears.
I pray that God will dig me new ears to hear his voice today. Dig out the garbage of this world, or church tradition, of politcal correctness, of sinfullnes, and slothfulness, of personal promotion, and let me hear you anew.
Hello World. Welcome to the new blog of the Central Church of Christ in Benton, KY. It is written by Wade Gillespie and Brian Brophy. It is called Love Lives Here because that describes Christ’s church. Love lives here within and among us. And we are passionate about sharing that love with others.
..so let the blog begin…
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Daily Wisdom
love Lives Here 