Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:12-13God reminded me that sin has a double-edged stupidity. First is my rejection of Him. In God I have found a fountain of living waters, a never-ending supply of everything that is good and necessary, a wellspring of grace that knows no end. In Jesus I have found eternally persistent faithfulness, a true lover of my soul, deliverance from death into life, power to live as the new creation He's made me. Yet when I sin I turn my back on Him, on all that. And let's be honest: I do it on purpose. I'm not ignorant of the blessings I have in Christ - but at the moment of my sin, I willingly choose to leave all those blessings for a moment of indulging the flesh.
The second side of sin's ridiculousness is that I didn't stop at rebellion. Oh no, I thought, I can do better than that...I can come up with a much better god. I don't need that so-called fountain of life. And so I piece together a jar. Picking up broken pieces of clay from the ground, I tape it together with scotch tape and chewing gum. This is my new cup; this is all that God had denied me. I'll drink from this cup and finally be satisfied. (Thankfully, I'm very adept at ignoring the warnings from friends telling me drinking from cracked clay vessels is a good way to get spiritual cancer.) And I triumphantly lift it to my mouth, anticipating a rush of satisfaction and relief only to find a mouthful of sludge. Really bad sludge.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:24-25
2 comments:
Yes, Jared the great gospel message is that we are worms. Incabable of doing even what we want to do. For me my frailty is spending money. God tells me to be a steward and I spend it foolishly. Thank the Lord for His abundent mercy, but more importantly thanks be to Him for His discipline and rebuke.
Mm, very challenging peice Jared. I have many sinful ways that I rebell against God and make for myself other gods. It is, like you said, stupid.
I think I'm going to repost this on my blog along with a passage I recently read in Jeremiah (I don't think you'll mind).
Anyways, God Bless, and congratulations on the most recent addition to your family!
-Allen
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