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Our Sinful Appearance

B

belovedwolfofgod

Guest
I like to reflect on occasion...

My reflection comes from meditation on the Rosary... sorrowful mysteries... Jesus Christ became sin for us as is written in Romans. "He who was without sin was made sin for our sake." What does that mean for us? Sometimes, in our pride, we go about thinking that we are beautiful creatures, or at the very least we are unaware of how we actually look. In the world of matter, we can look in a mirror and see our appearance. It is much harder to look at ourselves spiritually. But there is a way we can see what our actual appearance is. Meditation on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. Jesus was scourged. He was crowned with thorns. The Bible says he was beaten beyond recognition, though none of his bones were broken. Imagine yourself, scourged from head to toe, dripping with blood, flesh hanging from you, lacerations all over marring and scarring your body. Then imagine yourself with the crown of thorns and a cloak of purple fabric. We have crowned ourselves as kings of our own lives. We wear the royal fabric, and we even have a crown. The crown of thorns, however, was a mockery to the king then. And it is a mockery now. Jesus wore the crown so we no longer have to. But we mock him by making ourselves unjust kings. We cannot even save ourselves, yet we desire to rule our own lives. We try to take that power, but where are we gaining it from? When a person challenges his ruler for rule and is found illegitamate, he is declared a rebel. We take the crown upon our heads and wear the royal garb. We are rebels. We pretend to be kings of our domains, and yet we are horribly lacerated and disfigured with a ridiculous crown of undoing on our heads! This is what we look like in our sins.

But God offers healing. He did not come to condemn the world, but to redeem it. Though we are rebels, he offers us a common meal with him. He asks that we remove our crowns so that our intellect may be unhindered. He asks that we take off the royal garb so that he may see our wounds and heal them. We surrender the symbols of our rebellion to the real king, and he does not throw us in prison. He forgives the offense and then heals our wounds. Be humble and surrender your crown, surrender your garb. He gives us a real crown. He gives us a robes of pure white. And above all, we are made whole.

So remember always what you look like and be not prideful, but humble.
 
Just to add...

James McConkey wrote: "Faith is dependence upon God. And this God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans and hopes bring us to that place of self-help-lessness and defeat. And only then do we find that we have learned the lesson of faith; to find our tiny craft of life rushing onward to a blessed victory of life and power and service undreamt of in the days of our fleshly strength and self-reliance."
 
So true...

And thats just what Im trying to tell everyone. We are broken people. Some of us just dont recognize that yet. Takes real trials before we ever look at ourselves, or rather, stop looking at ourselves and seeing only what we want to see.
 
Good News!

Romans 5
1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son [this is a fact, it's been done], much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

11And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

AMEN!
 
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