Here's How It Happened, Part Three

I broke down in tears. I knew that I did not deserve this amazing gift from God. While tears were streaming down my face, I opened up my Our Daily Bread devotional, and this is what it said.

He knows where the hurt is the deepest,
The tears of the night and the day,
And whispering softly, “I love you,”
He brushes the teardrops away. —Anon.

The God who washed away our sins will also wipe away our tears.

Here He was again, the Lord Of All Creation, comforting me. Even though He knows me inside and out, He still loves me. He still wants to bless me beyond my wildest dreams. I am humbled by His love. A love I do not deserve, but He lavishes it on me anyway.

Once my tears were dry, I realized that I needed to accept this gift graciously. I wanted to honor the Gift Giver. I was going to embrace this gift, not as one who deserved it, but as one humbled and honored to receive it.

God has revealed Himself to me in so many ways regarding this trip, more than I could begin to mention, but one way in particular stands out the most.

At the beginning of February, my mom and I went to a Shannon Ethridge conference. (If you ever get the opportunity to hear her speak, go. She is amazing. God is doing a mighty work through her.) On the way to the conference, I told my mom that I was finally ready to embrace this gift from God. I also told her that (selfishly) I was very much looking forward to a gondola ride through Venice. For some reason, of all the amazing things I would be doing and seeing on this journey, I was especially excited about the gondolas and Venice!

During her message, Shannon Ethridge shared about how God used "physical" signs to speak to her or to give her confirmation regarding something He was doing in her life. The signs could be mistletoe in a tree or letters painted on a road, but He often would point things out to her in the "physical" where He was trying to reach her in the "spiritual."

My mom and I had to sneak out of the conference a little early due to an itching situation she was experiencing with her arm. So while my mom went to the hotel kitchen to get some ice for her arm, I waited for her in the lobby. I found a table nearby to set my papers and purse on, so I could put on my coat and gloves. After setting my things down on the table, I looked up, and could not believe what I saw.



Only an hour earlier, I was in the car with my mom, telling her how much I was looking forward to that gondola ride, and now I'm staring at a painting of it. I looked around that hotel lobby at all of the other paintings. All of the other paintings were of flowers and old men, but the table I had stopped at was a gondola going through Venice.........It was extremely overwhelming, especially after hearing Shannon Ethridge share about God using "physical" signs to show her things in the "spiritual."

When my mom came back from the kitchen with her ice, I pointed at the painting.......She looked at it, and could not believe her eyes. God is truly amazing.

We left the hotel that night, but we had to return in the morning for the second part of the conference. I took my camera with me, and had my mom take my picture with the painting, or as I like to refer to it now, my painting. I couldn't wait to show (my)Shannon and the boys.

I wished so much that Shannon had been there with me at the moment that I first saw this painting. Shannon is my best friend. The hardest part of this trip for me will be seeing so many amazing things without him. When I go out to lunch with a girlfriend I always think, Shannon would love this meal. Or when I go to a movie without him, I think how much I wished he was seeing the movie with me.

Leaving on this trip, I would be missing our seventeenth wedding anniversary, not to mention our son Daniel's thirteenth birthday.

I prayed about this one evening........I told God that as excited as I am to go on this amazing adventure, it hurts so much to think of going without Shannon..........

Bible Study About The Woman Who Lived A Sinful Life

This week I studied about the "Woman Who Lived A Sinful Life" in my devotional. She is a woman just like me. She is a woman just like each and every one of us.

Her story is found in the book of Luke.

Just like all of the women that I have been studying, there is so much to learn from her encounter with the Lord.

I will share the part of her story that spoke so much to me. If you have something to share about her story, I would love for you to leave it in my comments section. I love to learn from the views of other people. God speaks to each and every one of us in a different way; we all have our own story of what God has done in our lives.

Luke 7:36-39
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.
When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume,
and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is--that she is a sinner."

Can you imagine the spectacle?......But she did not care. She had only one thing on her mind, and she was not going to let the judgmental, probing eyes of others stop her.

She dropped to his feet and wept. She knew that she was a sinner, a person unworthy of the forgiveness that only He could offer. But, she knew that He offered that forgiveness to her (yes, even her) anyway, and she wept at the reality of it. The reality of how dark her sin was against the light of His forgiveness simply overwhelmed her.

So many times in my own life, I have found myself there, sobbing at the feet of Jesus. Knowing that I am so unworthy of His love, but He loves me anyway. Even when others judge me, treat me harshly, or ignore me, He looks at me with love.

The thought that the Pharisee has about the woman, pointing out, "that she is a sinner," is so true of all of us today, at one time or another. We, as Christians, tend to put "degrees" on sin. We compare our sins to those of others. For example some people might say, "I may have cheated on my taxes a time or two, but I have never killed anyone!" That sort of "sin comparison" is very common among most of us, isn't it? It makes us somehow feel better about our own sins, if we focus on the "much worse" sins of others.

Jesus does not put "degrees" on our sins. He doesn't compare my sins to the sins of others. To Jesus, sin is sin. Period.

I love what Jesus says to the Pharisee, who must have been caught off guard that this Man knew what he was thinking.

Luke 7:40-47
Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said.
"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.
You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.
Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

I want to love much everyday of my life, because I have definitely been forgiven much.

When I am at sitting at the feet of Jesus sobbing and asking for forgiveness, the only place I can look is up!
When I look up, I see Jesus looking at me with nothing but love and forgiveness in His eyes for me.
He says the same words to this "sinful" woman today, that He said to that "sinful" woman so long ago.

Luke 7:48,50
Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Go in peace. Not go in guilt or regret, but go in peace.

1 Peter 5:7
"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

Philippians 4:7
"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Here is the scene of the "Sinful Woman" from the movie "Jesus of Nazareth."
As you watch it, put yourself in her place. Think about what you would say or do while sitting at the feet of Jesus.



"Your sins are forgiven; go in peace." Lord, thank You for those precious words.
They are the only light with the ability to shine through the darkness of my sins.