Praise
the Lord for the stunning, sizzling, simmering summer that makes its way into
an awesome and brilliant Autumn season. Jesus is beautiful and all
glorious in all seasons. He blessed us with some fantastic days that we
spent with Jessica, Tom, and Lindy in Philadelphia. We also spent a few
days with Sunita, Andy, Gabe, Addie, and Asha in Washington, DC, along
with our daughter Laureen. We celebrated Asha's September 1 birthday
on the 3rd of September. Her birthday is celebrated along with
her parents' 9th wedding anniversary. It was all blessing. Lindy,
Jessica and Tom's daughter turned 1 on the 8th of July and Asha turned 1 on the
first of September. They both have a few teeth and both have started
walking.
Janice,
our oldest daughter, took Micah (10 years) and Simeon (9 years) into the
White Mountains of New Hampshire for Mountain Hiking for the Labor day
weekend. They spent two days backpacking and hiking up in the White
Mountains, during which time they logged 12 miles. They took on their adventure
with great determination and joy. Praise the Lord for the wonders of His
love. Whenever we are in Washington we trek to Union Station and to the
Capitol Building, and at times to the Mall, from Andy and Sunita's
house. One day we all drove down to Great Falls, Virginia. The
Falls are gigantic and gorgeous. A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
The
Lord blessed us with a wonderful summer. The schools in New York State
will be opening today for staff and tomorrow for students. Alice will be
back to School today. The Students will be back at school for another
year tomorrow. Praise the Lord for new seasons, new beginnings.
John
Powell wrote a powerful book called "Why Am I Afraid to Tell You
Who I Am?". In it, he writes about how we are afraid
to tell people who we are because if they see "the real me," it might
not be good enough. We would be exposed as defective, broken, dirty,
disgusting, or inadequate. So it's better and safer to put on fig leaves
and hide.
In
the wonderful and powerful narrative of the Creation story recorded in the Book
Of Genesis,Adam and Eve realized they were naked, so they sewed fig
leaves together and made coverings for themselves." Our children
Jessie and Tom have a pig tree by their house. We picked some ripe fog s
few days ago while we were thetre . The fif leaves are big. Fig leaves
represent anything we do to cover our nakedness and shame. I have fig leaves.
You have fig leaves. We have fig leaves called status, awards, degrees,
intellectualism, clothing, style, and morality. Blaming others is a huge fig
leaf. That's exactly what Adam and Eve did : they passed the buck. Even
religion can become nothing more than a big fig leaf. Fig leaves are anything
we use to hide behind to prove we're not defective, broken, or sinful. They
come in different shapes and sizes, but they all have this one thing in common:
they're a self-made, self-covering project to cover our shame and nakedness.
It is written in Genesis 3:8, "Then the man and
his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the
cool of the day." The words "sound of the LORD" and
"walking" are often used symbolically to refer to the Biblical
revelation and the Gospel Truth. Our God is present. God comes
looking for the lost man and the lost woman. What is their
response? They keep running. "They hid from the LORD God among the
trees of the garden."
Once
again, the Bible says we are lost because we ran away and hid. If it
was up to us to seek and find God, we'd all be hopelessly and eternally
lost. The Bible even puts it this way, "There is no one righteous,
not even one … no one who seeks God. All have turned away" (Romans 3:10-12). The philosopher
Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, "You cannot have the truth in such a way
that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you." Our
relationship with God is the same. That is, God catches us. It
is Grace, Sheer Grace, Prevenient Grace, Seeking Grace. .
God
chases down fugitives. He is the Hound of Heaven. That's what we see in
Genesis, and that's what we see when Jesus pursues a crooked runt named
Zaccheus. "While we were yet in our sin Christ died for us."
WOW!
Our
Lord God, the mighty and merciful, pursues fugitives. After all, God
calls all of us to account for our lives. There is judgment in the
question, "You've lived 16, 26, 46, or 66 years of your life—and where are
you? What have you done with your life?" Is it time for a
wake-up call? This question exposes our hiding, our running, and our fig
leaves. God didn't ask the question for his benefit. He already
knew exactly where Adam was. Adam needed the question to wake him up and
shake him. Perhaps God is asking the question because we all need a wake
up call. This simple question is also the question of someone who loves
us. The Bible is a story of lost and found. God is the seeker and
we are the lost fugitives. Throughout the Old Testament, God keeps saying to
his people, "Return to me. Come back to me. What happened to the
intimacy we once had? You moved away."
All
throughout the Old Testament, God provided a way for us to come back, to cover
our nakedness and shame, to lure us out of hiding. As we read
through the Old Testament, we see how serious our sin is. It is
deadly to our relationship with God. It creates a debt that we could
never pay.
All
throughout the Bible, God is giving us clues, mapping out a path for us to
return to him. God keeps saying: A new day is coming. There is a new way
for you to come to me, a new way to heal your brokenness, a new way to cover
your shame, a new way to live, a new way to love others, a new way for the
entire earth. Then Jesus comes and he says, "That new day has come.
I am the new way that was promised."
During Labor
day week, the invitation of Jesus comes, "Come to me, all you
who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28-30). Just come, Jesus
said. Let us come to Jesus and live.
In Him,
Brown
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