If you remember last March there was a man charged with murder in the Atlanta courthouse shootings. He held a woman hostage for a time and all the while she read him passages from the "Purpose Driven Life" by Pastor Rick Warren. She was able to witness to this man and was able to get him to turn himself in. She was lauded as a hero.
Now the rest of the story.
She was a Meth addict. You can read the story here.
Now, many are wondering how can this be. A Christian meth addict.
Let me tell you a story of a friend I had in California. Her name was Kathy. She was a prostitute for a while. She came to Christ because one of her johns broke down after she serviced him, and cried that what he did was so wrong. He explained how he was married and a Christian. He the preceded to witness to her and tell her of the love of Jesus... She accepted Christ and left that life and went on to lead women's Bible studies and teach of God's great love.
Rahab was a prostitute. She lived in a land inhabited by a people who hated the God of the Jews. In this story she lies to save the two spys sent my Joshua.
On one hand she did wrong, as she lied, yet the Bible tells us God took notice of her great faith. She is also a relative in the genealogy of Jesus.
God uses broken vessels. No matter what some self righteous Bible thumping fundamentalist church may say. God Uses us as broken as we are. He chose us, He died for us, He gave His life for us, to give His life to us, so He could live His life through us.
We are the body of Jesus... His body broken for us. We are placed in His broken body... And become part of it. Together we make it whole.
Don't hide in shame over your brokenness like Adam and Eve did. No one should live in shame. The worst kind of religion is a shame based faith. Embrace that broken part of you. Tenderly give it as a sacrifice to Jesus. He will understand. Confess to one another these weaknesses so to encourage and build each other up.
Realize that if you are struggling you are making progress. If Jesus did not live in you, you would not even care about this struggle. The fact you do is a sign of Christ working in you. So don't dispair.
Be Blessed,
iggy
Sunday, October 09, 2005
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2 comments:
Well said.
We all fit into the catagory of "broken vessels." Some of us do appear to be more broken than others.
I agree, if we are struggling to live as we should we are heading in the right direction; God is reshaping our lives to form a much better vessel.
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