All photos courtesy of Unsplash
I was speaking to a young lady who had found herself homeless and was living in a hostel. She opened up a little about her life and very articulately told me about her schooling and how she did well at school. Then she said looking down at the floor, ‘Something went wrong!’ she didn’t divulge what and I wasn’t going to ask!
'Something went wrong’, is an adage that we may well be able to apply to some aspect of our lives. Many people look back at something that went wrong, and they have moved on or corrected it and it no longer is evident in their lives, just a distant memory that may just pop up in their thinking from time to time. But for many people the incident or circumstances that impacted on them so badly have implications for the rest of their life.
In another sense we all have a ‘something that went wrong’ and this impairs a crucial relationship, our sin fractures the relationship we have with God, in fact it separates us and will do for all eternity, unless we address the issue.
In John chapter 4, we read about a woman who was an outcast from her community, she was afraid of the sharp, wagging tongues for those around who gossiped about her and her moral standards. She went to the well to draw water and carry her heavy burden at the most inconvenient part of the day when the sun was at its fiercest and would have sapped her strength. However, she deemed this better than enduring the condemnatory barbs of her judgemental community. She would rather bear the burden of her water pot in the heat than endure the heavy words of others. As a result of what had gone wrong, she was isolated and carried her guilt, separated from her community.
Yet to her shock she was not alone in John chapter 4, a man was at the well when she came to draw water. I imagine her almost afraid to lift up her eyes as she quietly went about her business of getting the water that was so essential to her.
You see the Lord Jesus never excuses sin, but He had travelled in the heat to speak with this woman who no one else had time for. He did speak to her, and He pointed out her sin and at no point sought to excuse it. He lovingly spoke to her, showing that although God hates sin, He loves sinners with a remarkable love.
We often show some level of love to those who are loveable. It is more difficult to show love to those that oppose us, think differently or are unpleasant to us. The Lord Jesus demonstrated the greatest love of all for us on a cross, where ‘He bore our sins in His own body’ He died for us, taking our place, taking our punishment.
The lady was amazed at the Lord Jesus. He had time for her, He spoke with her, He knew all about her. She was convinced that He was the Messiah, the One told of in the old scrolls, sent from God. She believed in Him, and everything changed. She went and found all those she was avoiding and told them too. She was transformed.
When we trust in what the Lord Jesus has done on the cross, we know the transformative power of the Gospel, The Bible states, ‘it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes’.
DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (31/08/23)
Written by STUART SCAMMELL
No comments
Post a Comment