Thursday, February 12, 2009

Marriage and forgiveness

Last night, I again was overwhelmed at living right in the middle of God's grace and love.

2 Corinthians 5 says:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It's an amazing opportunity to be able to walk this out in my marriage everyday. My paraphrase of this passage is this:

See yourself through God's eyes. Recieve forgiveness, get right with Him. He did everything for you, He gave it all so that you could sit right in His lap! How amazing it is that Christ forgave ALL your sins! After you have been made right with God by repentance and redemption, you now have been given the opportunity to SHOW the very gospel, the very HEART of God to others! God's unconditional love knows no bounds. It knew no bounds for you, and it knows no bounds for others. If anyone has hurt you, forgive them, for they have been forgiven by God. Show them with your actions and with yielding your heart that you love them as Christ loves them. Then, they will know and see Christ's unconditional, unfailing love in the flesh!

Hee hee, I'm not a bible inturrpreter....but this is how this scripture has played out in my life in the last 5 months.

It's amazing to see the face of someone who caused you so much pain, to be able to recieve God's love and forgiveness through me! God's character is walked out in our very marriage everyday. It's so bittersweet.
It's so beautiful. It's nothing at all that we've done (other than messing up)

God is truly redeeming the most awful thing into something beautiful. My God....is SO WORTHY. There's no one like him.....
He can take puke and make it a crown. He can take crap, and make it smell as fragrant as roses. Who do you know that can do THAT???

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Powerful message carebear!! Forgive as we are forgiven makes for a light burden and an easy yolk. Much love and continued prayers for you and yours. Nel

armacleod said...

From your last few posts I am reminded how selfish and not God centric the mind and body tend to get when not focusing continuously on him. Thanks for the encouragement that we can be forgiven and that we need to renew ourselves.

Laurie said...

Well said :)

You are such an encouragement.