Roger, the wolf and the grace of God

Isn't Roger Carswell just lovely? He spoke at Word Alive on Colossians 3:1-17, which is all about putting off the old life, and putting on the new. Everything has changed now Christ is risen from the dead, now that we know about it. Everything. Chapter 3 is the application of Chapters 1 and 2, which are exulatation and warning. We are to seek the things above, where our Savior, Brother and King sit, where we one day will worship Him for eternity. It struck me as we sung the last song on saturday morning (we will meet Him in the air) that i just can not wait to be with Jesus. Finally, my sin dulled heart will love and worship Him totally, and my sin dulled mind will appreciate Him fully. Its going to be good times y'know, and life here has got to be in preperation for life there. So seek the things above, and thats not easy (about which more later possibly), but it is neccesary.

Anyway, this isn't a write up of my notes from Word Alive, Bish and Ceryn will do that far more ably than me. Whilst talking Roger shared a similie that is so striking, so accurate it bears repeating on its own, and hopefully repeating in my head for many years to come. When eskimoes want to trap a wolf, what they do it this. They get a knife, and cover it in blood, and bury the handle in the ground with only the blade exposed. The wolf, driven by his lust and greed for the blood on the knife starts to lick it clean. And heres the rub. As he licks the knife his tongue is cut to ribbons, destroyed, and sheds more blood. The wolf, driven only by an unstoppable passion for blood doesn't notice this and keeps on going for the knife. Blood continues to pour from the wolves tongue and be licked back up again off the knife. Then, finally, the wolf dies. It's passion for blood, its hunger and greed has destroyed it. As our sin will destroy us if we don't clothe ourselves with the obediance of Jesus. We won't notice, it'll be too late as our hearts are hardened and our minds dulled. We must be ruthless. We must stand with Jesus and His obedience. It's our only hope.

So how to finish this one. To tell you that i was so shaken by this metaphor that mortal sin is now not an issue in my body. If only! By sunday evening i'd lost sight of all i'd learnt that week, all i'd been taught at church that morning. I was the wolf. And i went to bed and woke up feeling like an idiot. I am an idiot. But God is bigger, and grace is stronger. I'd started praying about my financial situation for Relay next year this morning, bought into relief by the fact that i had exactly £0 in my account by the end of Word Alive. When i went to the bank to pay some stuff in this morning, i checked, and, following my prayer, and due to the grace of Gid, this number had risen considerably. Now i'm aware of the mechanics of this, that my parents paid some money in earlier on, and the Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC just doesn't do the name justice) had finaly remebered that they were supposed to be extending my overdraft. But i know the reason that it happened today. And i am thankful for it. For the providence and grace of God, and for His obediance and righteousness imputed to me, which gives me hope. Don't hear me wrong, i'm not saying for a second that grace=money, or that my sin is irrelevant, because i don't think either of those things. I'm just blown away again by the power of God's grace and provision to a wretched man like me.