Act Three Con't...The Greatest Dignity of All

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September 17

The phone rang and the voice on the other end was total elation.  "I just got Harrison up from his nap. As I picked him up out of the crib, he nuzzled his head against my neck and said, "Mama!"  Oh, my!  This is such an incredible feeling to be loved like this." Her voice beamed across the phone hearing her son call her "mama" for the first time.
Love, love, love...ya got to have love, love, love!
Eldredge continues in chapter three of Epic to say, "God creates us in his image, with powers like unto his own-the ability to reason, to create, to share intimacy, to know joy.  He gives us laughter and wonder and imagination.  And above all else, he endows us with that one quality for which he is most known.  He enables us to love. You could not live or love or laugh or cry had God not given you a heart. And with that heart comes something that just staggers me. God gives us the freedom to reject him.  He gives each of us a will of our own. Why?  Is he out of his mind?  The answer is as simple and staggering as this: if you want a world where love is real, you must allow each person the freedom to choose...
'Trust me in this one thing,' God says to us.  'I have given the entire earth to you, for your joy. Explore it, awaken it; take care of it for me.  And I have given you one another, for love and romance and friendship.  You shall be my intimate allies.  But on this one matter, you must trust me.  Trust that my heart for you is good, that I am withholding this for a reason. Do not eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil...or you will die.'"

What are we not entrusting to God right now?  Our world is a mess and evil seems to win again and again, but God still is on his throne and has a plan..  If we love Him we can look to him and say "Abba, Daddy" allowing him to lift us out of our cribs of despair, trusting in His loving arms, His words of wisdom and believing HE will direct our paths.

The garden was the place of paradise.  The place created out of love for us and the place in which the ugliness of evil lurked.  You know the story.  "By the sixth chapter of Genesis, our downward spiral had reached the point where God himself couldn't bare it any longer." Eldredge shares.

The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.   Genesis 6:5-6

The news of our world events has us all shaking our heads.  This obviously is not what God would have wanted for our lives and certainly life in Israel is not what it will one day be.  We fall short of loving one another and loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength.  Like any great movie or book the story of mankind needs a rescue performed!  To be continued....

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