Soul Sister Time

            Psalm 51:13 says: Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you . What an outrageous thought—a person who just pled guilty to first degree murder, along with other noncriminal offenses such as deception, lust and adultery suddenly becomes qualified to teach others about sin!   What more crazy, unpredictable, insane direction could Psalm 51 take us now?   Seriously, shouldn’t David’s days of teaching sinners be the last thing he thought about after God confronted him with his sin?   How did coming face to face with the reality of his sin bring him to the conclusion that he would be the person to teach other sinners about God’s ways?             I heard JI Packer once explain that it’s not so much that people fall from faith, rather, it’s just that some people have not been deeply converted in the context of reality.   He also said that we need to help people into real repentance as much as real faith.   Most people do not make a

              God gave us a great gift in the book of Psalms.  Every person who has ever lived can relate to the expressions of anguish and confusion found in this collection.  Each Psalm is formed by words that illustrate the reality of a soul in search of God.  Psalm 51 is no exception.  It was written by David after he confronted his own deep, dark sin previously hidden from himself and everyone around him.                David was living his life as King of a World Power with little thought of his sin.  He had recently married a beautiful widow who was pregnant with their first child.  His heart was full of pleasures and comfort.  He was living the good life that God has promised him.  It wasn’t easy to get to this place.  On his journey to becoming a king, he had been ostracized from his country and had lived with a target on his back, a wanted man, miraculously protected by God.  He had been a mighty warrior, the first Hebrew to conquer the high and mighty city of Jerusalem

              One of Jesus’ mysterious parables is found in Matthew 13:33.  It’s a parable contained in just one verse.  It says: He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”               Yeast or leaven always represents sin or corruption.  How is the Kingdom of God like sin penetrating the huge amount of dough?  Yeast itself is not sin.  Yeast causes bread to rise and double in size.  Everyone knows that.  Yet, God led the people of Israel to consider their sin by applying it to a physical representation—yeast.  He could have chosen something else; but God knows us, and He teaches spiritual lessons through realities that transcend time.  Just like the ancients, we are still eating bread that contains yeast to this very day.  It was through the yeast used to make bread that God pointed out the fact that we tend to distance ourselves from facing—W

              If I really believed that, I might not get so fixated on myself.  It is a daily struggle to become convinced of the goodness of God.  That was the original temptation.  Adam and Eve doubted God’s goodness.                It has become easier for me to realize that God is in control of the world He created—in that He has a plan that could not be overcome by evil, and He promises that there will be a day when He rids the heaven and earth that He created of all evil.  I believe in that truth more and more as I see the ways He has rid some of the evil in me.  I know He is wise and mysterious.                I don’t doubt that God loves me.  Have you met me?  Even though I fail to obey all I know that God asks of me, I receive daily encouragement.  He knows me.  He knows that I want to obey.  He gives all the help I will open myself up to in order to obey.  It would be hard to convince me that God does not love me as His dearly beloved child.  I almost have that one dow