Forty showed up for the Tuesday night meeting in Faith,
where I spoke on our freedom from sin. The shocking truth of the evening was
that freedom from sin has nothing to do with how much or how little we sin, but
rather with a declaration of God that we ARE free from sin--in spite of what we
do). Freedom from sin is based on the work of Christ, not upon our behavior.
Up and down we go on our roller coasters, making charts of
our behavior. On our good days, we think God is pleased with us. On our bad days,
we think He must be hiding His face. But no; His smile is constant; all
disturbances are on our side of the window pane.
It's not about us, but about His Son. Nothing makes Him
happier than His sons and daughters taking their eyes from themselves, and
placing them on Him in thanksgiving. (It is hard to be thankful when you're
cursing yourself.) The irony is that, once our affection is set on Christ, our
bodies will begin to respond to the revelation of grace. With the body of
Christ, the revelation of grace comes first, then exhortations to
behavior. We will never walk worthily of this calling if we imagine that the
calling depends on us walking worthily.
Here are some photos from Tuesday night. Anne took these;
this was before I gave her the finer points of camera motion--or lack of it:
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| (Click on photos to enlarge.) |
Next up: Some final photos and memories from North Carolina .
The Pennsylvania
meeting is Sunday, and we are expecting 21 for dinner on Saturday. Saturday, we
are entertaining 11 overnight guests. There are lots of people coming from out of town, and out of state. It looks like approximately 50 will be attending the meeting. Not much time to rest, that's for sure, but I
can't wait. Don't worry, I'll be taking lots of photos.
Grace and peace to you, and thanks for reading these
efforts.
Copyright 2013 by Martin Zender
