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| A lifetime of sin like a speck of sand? |
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White Sands National Monument, in New Mexico, is unlike anyplace else in the world. "Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and created the world's largest gypsum dune field (U.S. Park Service)." Our family visited this place on a cross-country drive three and a half years ago. The temperature was 20 degrees (F), and while playing in the sand with our winter coats on, we had the extremely odd feeling of playing in dry snow! It was remarkable, none of us will ever forget it!
Yesterday the thought occurred to me that when our eternal Father looks at us, he sees the TOTALITY of sin in our lives as we would a SINGLE SPECK of black sand in all 275 square miles of White Sands National Monument!! Think about this. Let it sink in. If we are in Christ, having accepted the perfect, eternal, and free sacrifice for our sins, the Father sees us as eternally his children (Romans 8:15-17), as white as snow (Psalm 51:7)!!!
I have decided to stop focusing on that one speck, and instead to see myself just as God sees me. Like looking at 275 miles of pure white sand!!!
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| To add a comment to "A lifetime of sin like a speck of sand?" |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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Hmmm, his "isness", interesting way of putting it. Hehe, then our minds are "boggled" together, Alice. 
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| August 01, 2007 |
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Mike,
Great point on how God sees us eternally. I agree as well. Kinda of hard to grasp, but if he is all powerful and has foreknowledge, then we have to accept that he isn't bound to the constraints of time. I talked about this a little in a post called: Biblical Division...
Cheers and God Bless |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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| The hardest thing for me to do in this life was to forgive myself. I accepted God's forgiveness, but couldn't let go of it myself...It took time and help from the Father to finally let it go...When I think of how He sees me as clean, because of the blood of Jesus, it does boggle the mind. |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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Now here's a thought for you, Deb. If God sees the total of our sins as a speck of sand and we see our sin as something insurmountable that we COULD NOT forgive ourselves for, then exactly how small do we see ourselves being? We are taking God's amazing creation, ourselves, and turning it into something that is less significant than the miniscule actions that God can barely see. We so often see ourselves as nothing next to our sin issues (which ties into all of the conversations about what is sin, what isn't sin, and how bad are they) because grading them and cataloguing them gives us specific guidelines that we feel are needed for God to accept us.
All the while He is looking directly into our eyes hoping we will see Him......... |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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| Great comment Deb, you bring up an interesting topic unto itself -- forgiving ourselves. Oh the blogs we could write about that!! I think most Christians who love the Lord would agree that they are their own greatest critics and judges! I know that's me. Thanks Deb! ~mike |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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| Wow Andy, thanks so much for that insight...fabulous! |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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This post and all the comments are amazing.
Alice, the way you explained God's "isness" has changed my perspective on Him. I mean, I always knew that He knew everything, but the way you put it made me think about it a whole new way.
Deb, I also struggle with forgiving myself. Well, I forgive myself, but I don't "forget" about my sin. Then, something will cause me to think about it and feel guilty and remorseful over it - even years later. I hate that. I know that God has forgiven me and that's He's forgotten about it. Why can't I? Who am I to hold onto it, when Jesus gave His life to get rid of it for me! |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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| Kristie, wonderful response, thank you! Alice's point was great, wasn't it? Here is something I wrote on the topic of God's timelessness, or "isness", back in March. I think it's particularly relevant given where this discussion is going. ~mike |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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| Mike, every blog you write blesses my heart so much. This one reminds me of a while back after i just got saved. I kept beatin myself up over something, and found that when I went to church I felt ashamed to worship God cause I felt so bad about myself. One of my friends told me that I shouldn't let guilt hinder my worship because I'm supposed to be worshiping God for how good HE is, not how good or bad I am. Thank God for Jesus! God bless. |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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Amen BillyRay, I love the counsel your friend gave you!! Thx for the compliment too, it's really a blessing to know God blesses folks through these. I'm eagerly waiting for your next blog. Can you top Walmart?  |
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| August 01, 2007 |
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| That is so beautiful. |
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| August 02, 2007 |
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| Thank you Diane, the glory is God's, all his. |
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| August 02, 2007 |
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Mike, What a wonderful post! and thoughts from all who commented. Of course, my favorite saying comes to mind again.....at our end, He sees us through the blood! If we could all just really 'get' the magnificence of the blood atonement we wouldn't have to deal with all of the afterthought about our sins. They are gone, zap! into the sea of forgetfulness. We know where the guilt is coming from, it's not from Jesus. We need to stop the enemy from creeping into our thought processes. The battle is, afterall, in the mind. You know, we even have sound instruction for that:
Phil. 4:8:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.....AMEN!
Blessings brother,
Linda <><
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| August 02, 2007 |
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| that sounds like you're challengin me Mike. Never challenge a redneck. No, actually I've been really really busy the past few weeks because I'm getting my insurance liscense to sell life insurance and I've been studying like crazy. |
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| August 02, 2007 |
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What? Selling insurance more important than the blog? Dude, we feel so betrayed. lol!
Lord, please bless my brother's new career endeavor, please bless his family through him, and continue to provide for all his needs. All praise to you Lord. Amen! |
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| August 02, 2007 |
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| Thanks Mike! |
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| August 02, 2007 |
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| Good one Mike! And great pic! |
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| August 03, 2007 |
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| Thanks Sue! Yes, isn't that picture amazing? And I'm sure it hasn't been "photoshopped" one bit. That place is incredible! Bizarre in fact. It was such a weird feeling playing around on those dunes. We even saw some people sledding on them!!! |
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| August 05, 2007 |
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An interesting sidenote on "He sees us through the blood": Companies and Agencies specializing in sensitive information know that if you need to print something, you print it on red paper because copymachines have a very difficult time reading (and by extension "re-stating") the information printed on the red paper. Illustratively, the sins we committed were recorded, but when we came to Him by faith, His blood dyed the record red, and now they are unable to be reproduced or "re-stated" to the Father. They can be recalled no more. :) |
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| August 07, 2007 |
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Why would we think God cannot limit Himself? What a precious expression of love.
2:6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, 2:7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; 2:8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient `even' unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Someday we may all be surprised to learn how many times "God has come down" in one form or another.
For us to be like minded, we cling not to OUR free(?) will, but empty ourselves (poor in spirit), that His will be done in us. Can we DO this? Nope, but "blessed is the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness sake..." He will give us the desires of our heart. |
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| August 07, 2007 |
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Charlie, interesting thought. I don't know where it says on here that God cannot limit himself, but I do remember reading it somewhere recently. Heck, maybe I even wrote it. I haven't researched this, but it seems to me that for God to limit himself would be like changing who he is, and that he cannot do (Mal 3:6).
Ahh, I see we did trade comments about that concept in this blog here.
~mike |
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| December 04, 2008 |
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| Great analogy and thank you for sending me to this link! It really can be easy to focus on the negative and in doing so we lose sight of the whole picture and all the other things God sees. |
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| December 04, 2008 |
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| You're welcome Angie. I just love this illustration too. Why focus on the speck of dirt, when you have all that wonderful white sand??? |
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