Tag: Imperfection

My Friend Matthew

On By sashakatzIn FemmeFuel by Sasha KatzLeave a comment

Matthew is a friend that pulls me close.  He helps me see the grand imperfection in God’s beloved followers throughout time.  Matthew pulls me into the deep irony and connection taking place between unlikely pairs impacting the course of history.  Judah and Tamar.  Salmon and Rahab.  Ruth and Boaz.  Bathsheba and Uriah, and then David.  Joseph and Mary.  All of this intended imperfection points us to our perfect Savior Jesus.

What I am learning as a person:  I am learning that God uses our humanness to work out His godliness.    As we see the time and care He has taken to call us and know us, we fall deeper in love with Him.  His friendship brings out the miracles in us.

Verse:  Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.  Psalm 32:1-2.

Deep Thought: Think about the reason we know that a man or woman can be after God’s own heart.  There once was a woman named Ruth who had an idea to travel to an unknown land.  She had the thought to cling to a God who she understood to be connected to a people and a place.  In this new place, she found herself in need of a way to make ends meet, so she started working.  While she was faithfully working, she didn’t expect to cross paths with Boaz.  After some time and a chance to fall in love, she had the idea to propose to him in the darkness of early morning light.  And, as the story is often told, she eventually becomes the great, great grandmother of King David, a man after God’s own heart.  Every single day, God gives us thoughts and ideas.  Every single day, we have the chance to intentionally move with Him, cling to Him, exercise faithfulness, fall in love and become a man or woman after God’s own heart.    

Quote: Embrace the mysterious, invisible work of Christ even when it seems like nothing is happening.  You are an image bearer and you have a job to do –  whether you see the results or whether you don’t.  A Million Little Ways By Emily P. Freeman

Book(s)/Blog(s)/People that Shape Me: The Book of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, is shaping me again, after many years.  It is the truth told after 400 years of biblical silence.  Most likely by Matthew, a disciple of Jesus.  He wrote to the Jewish people with the intention for them to catch that Jesus was in fact Messiah.  He writes to me refreshing my belief in healing. Matthew reminds me that my life can be marked by His ability to do miracles in and around me.  And, he softens my soul as I remember how very imperfect I will need to be for Him to shine brightly in my life.

My Prayer to You: My prayers to you and for you are unending.  I ache for us to have more of Him.  I desire nothing more than for us to be used in our imperfection to bless others and to glorify Him.  He does not fight nor shout; He does not raise His voice. He does not crush the weak, or quench the smallest hope. But His name is the hope of all the world.

The Vows of Friendship

On By sashakatzIn FemmeFuel by Sasha KatzLeave a comment

By Sasha Katz

I don’t know what your sins are. I don’t know what you regret or what mistakes you have made. I don’t know who you have pretended to be. I don’t know what mirrors you have avoided in your life. I don’t know what truths you’ve trampled for your own self-interest. Only you do.

It is the condition of your own heart that enables you to know what lines you’ve crossed. It’s your knowledge and understanding of what is good and evil that allows you to acknowledge your transgressions. Truth is not easily found if the heart is clouded by grey. The truth of your own sin is not evident without a certain amount of light revealing the motivations of the pulsing flesh inside you.  The weight of your mistakes, transgressions and sin doesn’t fully come down until the light beams in.

The magnificent thing about God’s light is that when He reveals sin, His light doesn’t magnify the transgression. He amplifies Himself. The sight of Him calls you to turn away from the sin. It’s His kindness and love that leads us to repentance. I think that’s why we can believe that, once repentant, He separates our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. It’s by no works of our own, but Himself.

I know that you know what your sins are. Your regrets and mistakes. What you have pretended to be. The self reflection you have avoided. The self interest you have promoted. I know that you know because I also know the depths of my own heart spattered with transgressions and mistakes. The upside of our reciprocal imperfection is that it can become a baseline for our friendship.

The invitation, first of God, and then to one another, is the true gift of friendship – – where the acknowledgement of our baseline of imperfection – – grows us to be real and genuine. Where you can with Christ, in confidence, lay down your life for your friends. That is the place where what I know about me and you what know about you collide in holy way. It’s the type of friendship that supersedes what I have done and helps me be who I was made to be. That is vow of real friendship. That is God’s invitation and I pray that you and I, dressed in all of our imperfections, take it.

Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. Psalm 32:1-2

. . . God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance . . . Romans 2:4

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8.

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13

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Thanks to Walking on Sunshine for her Sunday Scripture that was my inspiration today.