Fantastic Friday #379- Earthy

Earthy

¹⁷ For I am about to fall,
    and my pain is ever with me.
¹⁸ I confess my iniquity;
    I am troubled by my sin.
¹⁹ Many have become my enemies without cause;
    those who hate me without reason are numerous.
²⁰ Those who repay my good with evil
    lodge accusations against me,
    though I seek only to do what is good.

²¹ Lord, do not forsake me;
    do not be far from me, my God.
²² Come quickly to help me,
    my Lord and my Savior. Psalm 38:17-22

¹⁹ For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.1 Peter 2:19

I heard a famous DJ refer to the Bible as Earthy this week.(@air1brant)  When he began to explain what he meant, it made a lot of sense.  The Bible is full of a lot of good stories and and great endings. However, with that good is a lot of bad that really isn't talked about that much.  That bad includes death, disease, murder, and a lot of pain and sins that we don't highlight that much. "Very Earthy stuff if you think about it" I believe was his quote.  The things that are highlighted a lot of times when we go to church are the really cool stories and great endings, so much of the time our attention is easily captured and all of the main points are simple to remember.  So, you are probably very confused right now by these thoughts I am making, but let's put this into perspective. There is something about this Earthy stuff that could really help us in our daily walk with Christ.  We know that God uses suffering and sin to reveal Himself to people every day.  Once we are Christians, I imagine some of us tend to focus only on where we are heading next.  This probably occurs because life happens and we don't spend as much time in the Word as we should, or maybe we are reading too many feel-good books about being a better follower of Christ, leading a better mission-filled life, or being a better sharer of the Gospel.  However, if we do spend time in the Word, I assume we might look at only the highlights of the feel good stories to remind us of who we are and who God is in our life.  Now, there is nothing wrong with that because we are spending time in God's Word, but I am of the belief that we need to also pay attention to the struggles and sin found in the Bible and look at today's world.  The reason for looking at sin and the struggles of life is because the work that God has overcome for us already through Christ's death and resurrection has already put those things in their place.  If we look at those sins and struggles closely, the good stories mean a lot more, and your story will mean even more than you thought.  Very earthy, huh?

Have a great weekend.