Monday, August 20, 2018

Fully Restored

I'm in the middle of trying to wipe and restore a phone. It's so much fun...

But, it reminds me of how we misunderstand forgiveness. In talking with people over the years it seems many see forgiveness from God as simply wiping the slate clean. The problem is, it's so much more.

Imagine I gave you a brand new phone. But not just any phone. It was personally set up by me. I put hundreds of dollars of the best apps possible on it. I went and put your pictures and videos on the phone. I downloaded (legally) all your favorite songs and movies onto the phone.

Then it gets a virus.

Your phone needs to be wiped. So you wipe the phone. It's back to factory settings.

Yes, the virus is gone, but that's not true forgiveness. The phone needs to be restored.

After the virus I restore your phone back to all it's former glory. It has all the apps, videos, pictures, songs, everything back on it that it once had. That's proper restoration.

When we are forgiven by Christ we are not set back to zero. We are not factory restored. We are put back to where God views us, as His child, His spirit living within us, all the perks that come with being His favorite. We are restored back to where we were before sin entered.

If we understood that better, we'd probably live differently, even after we've been forgiven. This is why we need to know Jesus and love God so much more every day. It helps us realize just what we have been restored to, and how we can grow even more in our relationship with Christ.

Christ isn't just offering forgiveness, He wants to restore you.

Now to do the same to this phone...

T

Monday, August 06, 2018

Silence...

You know what drives me crazy (and in turn drives my family crazy)? When I ask a question and there's no response. Why don't you answer?

My wife and I have had discussions about this and now I'm starting to do this with my daughter. And usually they think I'm being annoying because I think they aren't listening to me. Usually, that's not it. I don't know if they heard me. So if I ask something and there's no answer or a blank look (or sometimes they don't even look my way) my gut response is to think they didn't hear me and ask again louder (and sometimes more annoyingly).

Do we think that of God too? When we ask and don't hear an answer do we think He can't hear us? Except we know He can, so is He choosing not to hear us?

Except God chooses to be silent. And sometimes that can make us (me) even more aggravated. But that doesn't mean He's wrong. Sometimes He needs us to wait or even ask again.

Maybe God's silent for a reason. If only we knew what it was at the time...

T