Grace Awakening

There are those in our Christian circles that know only of condemnation.

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Just north of Harbor Springs, Michigan there is a crossroad that was once thought to be the crossroad where three townships met.  It is called Maple Tree Corners and the maple tree there is called the Witness Tree. It is a place where Cetas Road runs into Palmer Road - a cross road.  While that particular cross road does not truly mark the place where the three townships meet it does mark the corner of one of the fields my grandfather used to farm and pasture his cows.  While the cross road may not be of much significance to many it matters to me because there is a heritage that is represented there.

However, the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing " So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. 

Jim Elliot  (More)

Strength is gone.  Hope seems to have vanished.  All that is left is a deep and abiding darkness that settles coldly across the aching heart and constricts what life is left to ebb from the wounded heart.  Often times, the wounds are self inflicted, caused by some sinful act or proud thought.  In the agony of distress the wounded, battered soul will cry out to the only One who can help.  How is it that we can only look to God in the darkest moments of our lives?  Still, there is something to learn from the crushing darkness – a truth that is just as precious in the light.  In spite of all our failings and wanderings God is faithful.  God will never abandon those promises that He made to us.  We see this truth ever so clearly in the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah.  So great was the agony of his soul that he described it as being pierced through with arrows, having his teeth broken by gravel, and being thrown to the dust of the ground.  He states, “My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness.  So I say, ‘My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the LORD’.”  (Lam 3:17 - 18, NAS).