Well, the skunk got its due at the end of my dad's rifle, but that won't bring back it's victims. I have never in my life seen such senseless carnage. If an animal kills in order to eat, that is one thing, but an animal that kills for the sheer pleasure of killing...
What does one do with the anger, frustration, tears, pain, and depression that follows a tragedy like this?
You know what is really sad? I'm learning more about how sinful I truly am. "When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7:21-24)
How is it possible to be joyful?
"O how happy are they who the Savior obey,
and have laid up their treasure above!
Tongue can never express the sweet comfort and peace
of a soul in its earliest love.
That sweet comfort was mine, when the favor divine
I first found in the blood of the Lamb;
when my heart first believed, what a joy I received,
what a heaven in Jesus's name!
'Twas a heaven below my Redeemer to know,
and the angels could do nothing more,
than to fall at his feet, and the story repeat,
and the lover of sinners adore.
Jesus all the day long was my joy and my song:
O that all his salvation might see!
"He hath loved me," I cried, "He hath suffered and died,
to redeem a poor rebel like me."
O the rapturous height of that holy delight
which I felt in the life giving blood!
By my Savior possessed, I was perfectly blest,
as if filled with the fullness of God.
Now my remnant of days would I speak of his praise
who hath died my poor soul to redeem.
Whether many or few, all my years are his due;
may they all be devoted to Him."
3 comments:
I'm glad the skunk got what was coming to it!
I know what you mean about the farmers life, and how we can feel so close to God in our morning devotions and then the rest of the day not live in a Christ like way.
I don't have the answer, but God does. I'll be praying for you.
I'm so glad you're feeling better, Emily! I think we are both alike inside much more than we realize! :) How sweet to realize the depth of God's love IN SPITE of all our sin! It's so hard to accept it sometimes - but so magnificent once we do! I'm sorry about the incidents surrounding the skunk's damage, though! It always ticks me off when animals do that. Senseless.
You didn't mention the very next verse in the Romans passage: "I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin" {7:25}. Then Romans chapter 8 talks about the help we have in Christ Jesus ^-^
I'm sure you know all this though =P But reminders shouldn't be tedious. Paul states in Romans 12:2 to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind". Renewing is a process that we're in, being refined. James writes about how everyone "stumbles" {see James 3:2}.
Your final quote is right- we find joy in what Jesus the Christ has done for us and is doing for us. As Paul told the Christians in Philippi: "...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ..." {Philippians 1:6}.
Keep up the beautiful and wonderful work! Godly ladies are not as common as they once were. I know better then say that they're "going extinct", as I'm 'precourting' one myself and have met a small handful in the past year. It is examples from people such as yourself that people need to see and learn from. Thank you for being all that you are in Christ Jesus.
Signed,
Thomas Luttrell (someone that has been to a several ECDs and a ball).
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