Where's the Sting?

#13

Ephesians 1:13-14 "It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first instalment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life."

It's been awhile since I sat down and wrote, so you would think I would have lots to say or write about, but it's been a real struggle for the thoughts to flow. I did however come across the song that I have attached to this posting (Matt Maher - Christ is Risen).

This song starts with the line:

"Let no one caught in sin remain

Inside the lie of inward shame
But fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to Him who showed great love"

I've lived in that shame and sometimes I still live in it as well but I want to run to Him now who showed great love and bled for me.

This song took me in a roundabout way to Hosea 13:14  "Who is afraid of you, Death? Who cares about your threats, Tomb? In the end I'm abolishing regret, banishing sorrow."

The enemy wants me to live in my shame, to believe the lie that my sin defines me. That I am a failure, a screw up, a bad example, unsuccessful, unfaithful, unreliable and doomed to always be. But these are lies and hollow threats. The truth is that Christ is risen from the grave and I can rise out of the grave with Him, out of my inward shame.

Straight up, I am a sinner, just as the apostle Paul said "I am the chief sinner".   My enemy likes to call me an adulterer, a liar, a failure, lustful, a covenant breaker, a thief, a dead-beat dad, an abuser, because I have done all these things - But tonight I say "Oh death where is your sting? Or hell, where is your victory?, My God is not dead He is alive, trampling over death!"

Hosea means Salvation and also happens to be the name of my youngest son.  Two years ago when my wife Lorilee was pregnant, God told her to name our son Hosea even while I was off having an affair and wanting nothing to do with her. I have to be clear here, I did the same thing to my first wife and this has been a pattern for me, one that I am very ashamed of. So an easy lie for me to listen to is that I am an adulterer, and that I bail when my wife is pregnant. But God is good and God has a bigger plan then that for me.

My God is so great, he brought me to this song tonight and to the book of Hosea so that it would come in loud and clear for me. "Kevin, don't believe the lies, don't live in the shame anymore, don't live in remorse and regret. I love you and have called you, everything that I have planned for you will come to being."

"Lord forgive me for listening to lies and not to you. Forgive me for living in shame, regret and remorse. Help me to live in the freedom and abundant life that you promise for me. You loved me in my sin and you love me now. Thank you for what you have done in my life and what you will continue to do."