Harlot & Pharisee Meet Jesus

 I read a book once... called the Bible. I saw where there was a woman who was caught in the very act of being a sinner...I read where there were Pharisees of the day just doing what they were used to doing....what they were commanded to do...before they had truly met JESUS personally....but that day....HE opened all of their eyes....sinner woman...and white washed saint.....Jesus got eye level with the sinner and wrote something.... and so powerful was the moment.....then He said to all of them....sinner woman...and Pharisee...."Let him who is without sin...Cast the first stone"....Their reaction? ....They dropped their stones to the ground at the realization that for all their keeping of the LAW....for all their trying...sin remained in their lives ....The woman? She received the message of forgiveness along with a mandate from the only one who was without sin...Who DID cast the first stone...so that all mankind could be free from all condemnation of sin...and yet with the mandate....which was the same as when he first spoke it to the woman....."Go, and sin no more!" For all the years I, like this woman, have lived as a forgiven sinner, there have been many who have fallen short of the glory of God and have worn the cloak of the Pharisee well...but truly inside was the scarlet robe of the harlot written in their fleshly hearts. I am a Christian not because there is any good thing in my flesh, but only because my sins have been washed away supernaturally by the blood of the Perfect Son of God....who said ..."Follow Me.... The trouble with us forgiven sinners? We often follow the desire in our fleshly hearts rather than the example to love as Jesus does. I am realizing the more I literally take an honest look in my own heart...I still see a stone...JESUS...THE ROCK of AGES...cleft for me....He still daily covers a multitude of sins by HIS LOVE. Bob Carlisle wrote a song a few years ago that said, "We fall down, we get up...and the saints become the sinners; who fall down...and get up." License to sin? NO!....but truth....that on our best day as forgiven sinners, saints, Christ-followers...or Christians...who try everything humanly to "do right"....we fall short. BUT Jesus never fails! I look to him who is the Author and Finisher of my faith. Change my focus to HIM...he shines His truth on my sin....I choose to repent; get up out of the dirt and Follow Him...doing the best I can not to sin that sin anymore..and try to make reconciliation and restitution to others when I realize I have sinned against them...Trusting NOT in my own ability to save myself....but in HIS FINISHED work on Calvary for me. I read a book once.....I met a man once...Jesus!

Gone to us...but not to God!

How can it be that she is gone? Gone to us...but not to God. She is holding his nail scarred hand just beyond the veil as she whispers, "I have run the race and I have obtained the prize and even though you cannot see me...I am here..with the Great Cloud of Witnesses who have gone on before...and we being dead to this world are ALIVE EVERMORE...through the great work of Jesus and the shedding of his blood. WE shall be reunited again! Where we will never more be separated...and OH, what a glad reunion day that shall be! "Fight the Good Fight...for with my eyes I have beheld the Great Hope...JESUS!..."Run, Children!...Run to Jesus! Run with this HOPE...Share it with others...and HOLD ON! Press ON!.....and don't ever you quit!

The Last Visit with My Sister-n-Law "GENE"

There's a chill in the air as death hovers, waiting it's last order from the mouth of God. A dear saint and sister-in-law lays just at the door. Between uneven breathes; with widened eyes she wakes from a brief rest...and smiles. Her concern was more for those of us who sat around her bedside. As our minds searched familiar scenes of happy times together; the... pain....and realization lay just beyond the veil. The steady tick of life's clock winding down to the final stroke of HIS appointed time. I watched for death to come...then...but not yet. I looked at the faces of those she has loved who have gathered with their last moments of personal blessings...a touch, a glance, a smile, a memory shared. A shared glance between lovers espoused for 42 yrs...an I love you etched in time..."I'm going home tomorrow!"...she says. (I think)...To Heaven?...Oh yes, Hospice has been called. The last of Earth's hope setting the stage...and Jesus...Conqueror of Death, Hell and the Grave awaits!... "I am almost there..." ...she said to me. I thought..."Yes, you are....to Heaven!"... Jordan's River is before you and you have dipped your toes in its chilly banks. You have stood there with outstretched arm as you are holding the hands of those you so greatly love...and a tearing away has begun. I see it clearly. Held between Earth and Eternity. From the love here, to the Lover and Purchaser of your soul.......Oh, we weep.....for now. It is meant to be. Sorrow for a Season...But one day...the Great Exchange.....because JOY comes for all of us....in the morning! I'll see you Tomorrow...(Genie Beanie)