I am, as one might say, an omnivorous reader. There are many topics which excite me and draw my attention. (Though a good bit of theology usually takes the cake!)
Last month I finished a book my husband had recommended I read - "Gentle and Lowly" by Dane Ortlund. I'd like to give you a few of my thoughts on his marvelous work.
I believe you might tend to believe the same things I am tempted to as well...
That we have to earn a place in the Kingdom. That God's love sometimes feels more like a dry theological notion than a real, moving force. That the ways we struggle will separate us from Him even once we're saved - and that eventually He'll tire of listening to us ask for forgiveness. That perhaps the guilt we still carry with us long after repenting is a sign that He is angered by us still - that our relationship with Him is one He's bound to against His will.
These are surely legitimate feelings. I know I've experienced each of them. My best guess would say that you have too. Maybe these are some of the thoughts that are even currently racing through your head.
My friend, I feel for your pain - for I have known it too.
However, our thoughts and perceptions are far from reality.
The greatest point which Ortlund chooses to make (or perhaps, that which proved itself most visible to me) was this...
God's heart is not against the sinner, but against the sin.
When we come before Him, He does not recoil from us. He is not so disgusted by that which we have done that He cannot bring Himself to come close.
No, dear friend. The Father comes running with arms wide open (Luke 15:20). The stench of our sin does not repel Him. The overwhelming force of His love is ever greater!
He never grows weary of receiving us back - for what delights His heart most is cleansing us and welcoming us back into a sweet, healing relationship with Him.
The life we seek to lead, we live out of gratitude for what He has done for us - not from a place of compulsion. As Ortlund illustrates for us in this book - it would make no more sense for us to earn our salvation than for a small child to pay back their father for a birthday gift.
When sin corrupted the world, it hurt His heart to see His Creation tainted and dying. We are a part of His creation - dearly loved and deeply valued. We are not worthless in His eyes. We are not expendable - but rather God became flesh so that our redemption may be hand-delivered to us.
He continues to fight for us and fight with us through our sin, though it is an enemy which constantly overwhelms us and often seems to have control of us.
But darkness cannot maintain its grasp when Light is on His way. The devil cannot have the final say when the King remains with us into eternity. As our author has so aptly put it -
"...He will love you to the end. Not only is your future secure, on the basis of His death; your present is secure, proven in His heart. He will love you to the end because He cannot bear to do otherwise. No exit strategy. No prenup. He'll love to the end - 'to the end of their lives, to the end of their sins, to the end of their temptations, to the end of their fears.' "
Please, find a copy of this book for yourself. It will shake your world in the best of ways.
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