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Dear Ones,
As we approach the ending of this year's season of Lent look toward the approach Holy Week, here’s a thought for you.
Lepers may live in the same colony, but they share no vibrant community. Shame is that deep stain that comes with our brokenness. It whispers that we are contaminated and that we should avoid getting too close to others lest they discover how broken brokenness really is.
Shame seeks to isolate us, to cause us to wear masks, become self-protective and to feel as if we live life as perpetual hypocrites. Shame hates the light and in the shadows whispers that we will never change, encouraging despair.
But we have a greater truth; greater than the truth that we are broken; greater than the sum-total of all the iniquity of our sin…the sinfulness of our sin.
Jesus Christ has, by His own power and action in human history, delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into His own Kingdom as sons and daughters, not strangers, aliens or groveling bastard-children. He has given us new hearts and a new spirit, a new, unending life; a life that can never be taken from us and one which does not grow narrower, but wider and more fulfilling.
The voice of shame has to be silenced. We need to call it the liar it is and rely on what God has already done for us. Jesus has seen our shame and dealt with it head-on on the cross. He has embraced all of our shame, all of our wretchedness first-hand. He died as us, not just for us. There is nothing hidden from His gaze. He has seen it and has taken it all into Himself in His crucifixion to break its power to smear our lives, to stain them any longer. He has removed the tell-tale stench of what we fear the most and has washed us utterly clean. THAT is the truth. That is why the Holy Spirit works to continually renew our minds to see as God sees; to think as God thinks; to believe what God knows to be true: we have been given a new heart, a new spirit, a new spiritual DNA. That is why the Holy Spirit can dwell IN US now.
We are a family who understand that we need a Savior, will always need a Savior and that we HAVE a Savior who has chosen to come and to actually live His life within us.
When you hear that familiar rasping whisper of shame trying to reassert itself in how you view your own heart, mind, life, family, circumstances or whatever, don’t listen to it passively, speak the truth to the liar and remind your own soul what God has done, what He has made of you and what He is continuing to make of you…you, new creation, you!
We are a community who can share vibrant fellowship because we know each other in need and in grace. Pray for one another as all are battling to silence the liar that shame is.
Loving you all,
Mark+

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