Nov 29, 2007

Sweet forgiveness









Leviticus is not one of those books I read often, but I've been listening to it on my iPod (I bought the whole Bible on CD once and transferred it to my iPod). I don't think I would have enjoyed being a priest if that had been my calling. One sin required an individual to submit an animal to a priest for slaughter. The process a priest was required to go through to sacrifice the animal properly appears to be a gruesome, exhausting and time-consuming one; at the end of it there was blood everywhere and the smell of burning flesh in the air. Just when the priest was finished with that long process, he would likely have turned around to find someone else standing in line with another animal to sacrifice. Each sacrifice of an animal represented one sin - only ONE sin! By the time the priest was done with my sacrifice for sin, I would have to have a few more sacrifices waiting for him!

But, Christ died for my sins! He died for ALL of them. I don't have wait in line to apply his sacrifice to my new sins. In his death, he forgave all my sin. "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!" And, because of his death for me, God also will show me favor throughout my life. "The Lord has promised good to me..."

These promises apply to Ian, too. Ian's sin is forgiven, and the Lord has promised to do good to him. With my finite mind, I can't comprehend how that could be so given his current condition, but I trust God to fulfill his promise somehow.

Ian had an eventful Thanksgiving with his cousins visiting. He's back into a routine this week of visiting therapists. It had been almost two weeks since we sat him up to practice "trunk control," but we got him up a couple nights ago. It took him a little while to remember what it was like, but it came back to him. He was sitting on his own. Larissa has been taking him out frequently to church meetings and other outings which he seems to enjoy. We continue to try various therapies to help him.

Thank you for faithfully praying.

Steve

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks again steve, for leading our hearts ever to christ, in spite of what you and ian and the family see and practically live through each and every day. as i stumble along with my weak faith, i am encouraged by you, a brother in suffering. i read piper this am (my favorite teacher) and his topic was "It is ALL the work of god". it was encouraging to read that our covenant with god is "dependent on my strength" which is ever so fickle. "...so the truth is that god keeps our side and his". so in my despair, i don't have only to rely on me....i so feel i don't have the faith looking at my feelings...but he is sovereign and will hold onto me. only god can do that.

Bernadine said...

I promise to continue praying until something happens. I know that God is still at work in Ian's life.

Anonymous said...

"but God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

"...when we been there ten thousand years... we no less days to sing God's praise, then when we first begun!"