Monday, October 11, 2010

Reset!

Yesterday our pastor started a new series called "Reset." The scripture he used as a starting point is Matthew 4:12-17 with the key verse being verse 17:

"From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Repent basically means to return; to come back; to reset, if you will.

I have a lot of things I'd like to hit a "reset" button on. My blog about Kathleen Folden is one of them, considering the attention it's drawn. Ha. (I removed that blog post--see the comments section for explanation.) But there are plenty of other more serious things in my life that I wish I could go back and do over. Actions. Words. Thoughts. All things that ultimately would not please the Lord.

We are all sinners. Not one of us is perfect. Not one of us is without fault. To find out what went wrong we have to go all the way back to Genesis and the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, who lived in the most perfect, un-stressful place on earth, sinned. They disobeyed God. And because they disobeyed God, they were removed from the Garden and from God's presence. We, the children of Adam and Eve, are still under the curse their sin introduced into the world.

I asked God just the other day why that was so. Why must I be punished, as it were, because of Adam and Eve's sins? Why couldn't God start us all out in the perfect Garden and see what happens. I'm sure some would sin, like Adam and Eve, but maybe some wouldn't.

But I'm not God. I don't know all things. I don't see all things. I don't know the future. Suffice it to say I'm not qualified to ask God why he didn't do things differently.

That's where "repent" comes in. Because we have all sinned, we all need to repent. Pastor Joe put it into the most simple way, which I absolutely love:

God is calling us back to the original condition.

God, through His Son Jesus, can and will "reset" our lives if we'll just ask.

3 comments:

Michelle Shocklee said...

As the author of this blog, I took the liberty to "reset" a blog post I wrote about the controversial actions of Kathleen Folden, the Montana woman who was arrested in Loveland, CO for using a crowbar to destroy a piece of art. The piece in question was vulgar and dishonored our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. While I do not advocate unlawful actions, I am thankful the horrid piece has been destroyed.

The reason I've removed the post is because ArtInfo.com quoted me, which is fine, and identified me as "Christian Writer Michelle Shocklee of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series." While I have published stories in Chicken Soup books, I am in no way associated with the organization beyond being a contributor and I did not want to have any negative attention given to the wonderful people who publish Chicken Soup for the Soul books. The opinions in the deleted blog were mine and not those of anyone associated with the Chicken Soup for the Soul organization.

My prayers continue to be with Kathleen Folden, her family and for the artist.

~Michelle Shocklee

Anonymous said...

Whoops! I guess we won't be reading any crowbars-for-Christ posts for a while. Nothing encourages good sense more than a bracing brush with notoriety and bad PR.

Michelle Shocklee said...

For the record, dear brother, I still completely agree with what Kathleen Folden did. But because the writer over at ArtInfo.com made it sound like I WORKED for Chicken Soup for the Soul, I felt it best to take it down because I don't want anyone to say "those Chicken Soup for the Soul people believe...yada, yada, yada" when in fact I am only a contributing author for the their books. Had ArtInfo simply said "Christian writer Michelle Shocklee" that would have been fine, because I have no problem with what I'd posted about the incident in Loveland. But I have a responsibility to Chicken Soup for the Soul, so...there you have it.

Good sense still prevails on Life Along THE WAY.