~ Dwelling on Luke:19 ~

For school, I sometimes get to study the Bible. Honestly, I'd fallen a little behind in this subject because of all the other subjects I have to work on. Math, Literature, History...you get the picture. But today, I made my Bible reading a priority above other things, and I can't believe that anything else could've come before it now. My eyes have been opened again: Life is too short for this. My entire day, my every day, my entire life should be devoted to studying one subject:

God and His word.

Everything else seems so bleak now. Wisdom unlike any other resides in the Bible. I've heard Bible stories, oh lots of them! Hundreds of times repeated to me from Sunday School teachers, Parents and Grandparents, in children's books and in movies. But, there is something different about reading them straight from the Bible. Their truth feels stronger. When I read about Zaccheaus, I no longer think of "a wee little man," but someone like me, who was interested in this Jesus person, but he couldn't see for the crowd, so he improvised. And then, Jesus talked to him!! 'He's speaking to me' I can hear him say. What an insane feeling Zaccheaus must've had when Jesus spoke directly to him; a dirty tax collector who ripped people off! How unworthy and undeserving he must've felt. I know he felt this way, because in Luke 19:8 it says:

"And Zaccheaus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold."

He was so changed, that he gave everything back. Fourfold. And then, in verses 9-10:

"And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Verse 10 is definitely up there with my favorites. To seek and save the lost...

So lost... Even after being found, the memories of being lost don't leave us. I been thinking a lot about memories lately. How they cause feelings.

Did you know, that it is impossible to remember something without having a feeling attached to it.

It makes you either happy, sad, angry, or maybe you can't even name the feeling it gave you, but every memory has an atmosphere around it. I think in heaven, we won't forget our time on earth, but it won't make us sad, or angry, or upset because of how sinful we were, but it will make us extremely happy because that was the time period, the atmosphere, in which we heard about the saving love of our God.

If we forget something, what is it really?

Worthless? Take physical pain, for instance. We feel it, it's over. The memory of how it was keeps us from doing it again, but it isn't present with us. If we don't remember it though, then it's like it never happened. It can't hurt us, but it can't keep us from doing it again either. Now imagine a world where we cannot sin, we cannot get hurt, there are no tears, and no sadness. Then, we could have the freedom to forget, and it leaves only the good times, and the redeeming parts of what was.

How wonderful is that?!

I know it's deep, and I'm laughing because it probably makes no sense, but it's what I think.

Bottom line:
Jesus saved me, and now I'm free to be free.

~ Kendall