I know I have gone through many times where I wonder if God still loves me. Sometimes I feel as if God will reject me because of my sin. It was incredible to see how God used this little bird to teach me a lesson on the subject.
6.30 am ... there I was, wandering around the training base, snapping some shots with my camera. I hear a rustling to the left of me. I approach the sound, only to find a tiny bird flapping around in the grass. Not wasting a second, I picked up the defenseless creature and carried it back to base.
After my new feathered friend was introduced to all my fellow trainees, we set out to find food and shelter.
A day passed ...
To us this bird had become a permanent resident because, if you know anything about birds, a mother will reject her baby if it has been touched by humans. The scent of the human stays on the baby and the mother will no longer recognise it and banish it from the nest.
To our shock, that afternoon the mother faithfully came to find her chick and feed it.
This continued for the next three days. Every morning and every afternoon, the mother would come and feed her baby. On the third day, both parents came and fetched their little one.
Isn't that how we sometimes feel? That we reek of sin and that God will simply reject us?
No ... just like the parents of this little bird never gave up, remaining faithful to their young one no matter how many humans had touched it, just so God never gives up on us.
God will look past our sin ... all we have to do is run back to him.
As we've been going through a series entitled "Inside Out", everyone has been so challenged. Looking back, I can't pinpoint a moment that hasn't been challenging.
During one lecture, Marius (the lecturer) made the depiction of us being crucified with Christ. Jesus, you and your sin, all nailed to the cross ...
Powerful image!
It was later in the lecture that it suddenly dawned on me - the significance of the three people crucified that day at calvary and the events that took place.
I think a lot of us overlook the two thieves, but more specifically their reaction to Jesus and Jesus’s reaction to them.
On one side, we have the unrepentant thief; and on the other, the repentant thief.
Do you see it yet?
No?
Let me clarify a bit ... that's you on the cross next to Jesus, and your sinful unrepentant self on the opposite side. That's you crying out, "JESUS, I BELIEVE IN YOU. PLEASE SAVE ME!"
And by grace he turns to you and says, "Today, you will be with me in heaven."
Through Jesus we are dead to our sin and alive in Christ.
MDT has been challenging so far, learning to dig up things in our past that we have buried and give them to God.
After one very challenging lecture I felt God give me an image of him as a gardener which I want to share with you.
Before we are saved we are like dry, infertile soil - dead - and just below the surface lies all the junk we've buried, hoping it will never be found. Then when we find Jesus, our Gardener. He comes along and turns the soil, exposing all the junk we've buried. and like a good gardener, He removes all the junk and fills those gaps with fertilizer. The fertilizer is his Grace. As the fertilizer mixes with the infertile soil which has been polluted by junk, the soil slowly becomes fertile, ready for growth.
He then plants a seed in the now fertile soil, and through constant nourishment, the seed begins to grow ... and grow ... and grow, until one day it is a tree and bears fruit for everyone to see.
Psalm 1:3 - He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
