New carpet

Currently, I am sitting at my dining room table writing. Singing with my son. Maybe I should be organizing my basement. Cleaning out my garage. Bringing order to my pots and pans. See, we have new carpet in our basement, so we should be all shifted back, right?

Nope, life has carried on with fervor and so, the six of us remain clumped together upstairs. Friends, it is a delicate balance of losing my mind to the mess and reminding myself that we are all home and I have them with me. (YES, that was a stupid sentence.)

Carpet

I’ll be honest. I hate carpet. We spill on carpet. Trip and fall with drinks. Let something sit on the carpet. Muddy paws. Whatever. I just hate carpet. I’d almost prefer cement, painted. Seriously. Carpet went in and it is really nice and blah, blah, blah. Only a matter of time, ticking time bomb and BAM. The spill will occur. The (even as I type, we just had a spill) accident will occur. I mean seriously.

Reminds me of righteousness. On my own, I have none. You may think I’m a fantastic individual. (boy, do I have you fooled.) Just like freshly cleaned carpet. Underneath, the carpet pad is DISGUSTING. I’ll tell you when we ripped up the old carpet, the padding? barf.

I cannot sustain my own righteousness. Just starts with this morning.

²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us; we [as Christ’s representatives] plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. ²¹ He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness]. 2 Corinthians 5

Amplified Bible (AMP)Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.

So, Paul pleads with us to be reconciled to God. God put all the sin on Christ. This is the work of Christ and trusting in Him. This is the battle I have each morning to remember that this is not only TRUE but what I fix my eyes upon. This is a gracious lovingkindness. Our job? Come to him.

The Accuser

¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom (dominion, reign) of our God, and the authority of His Christ have come; for the [e]accuser of our [believing] brothers and sisters have been thrown down [at last], he who accuses them and keeps bringing charges [of sinful behavior] against them before our God day and night. ¹¹ And they overcame and conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, for they did not love their life and renounce their faith even when faced with death. Revelation 12

Look at the voice in heaven and what has come:

• salvation
• power
• kingdom, dominion, reign of our God
• authority of His Christ

Have you been accused? Have you remembered and recalled your past? My friend, your accuser lies. Jesus has brought you freedom. Your accuser keeps you in chains. Jesus has brought his blood and you overcome. YOU conquer.

Love him. Love him more than your life. He is worth it. Trust Christ. He will always be enough. He knows your carpet. He knows the padding underneath. He died, he rose again and appeared to so many. The stories are true. Believe and live.