Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Feb/87

Contributor - Freda Witteveen

Title - Women

Topic - Women

Readers, we are now well into the month of February. Short weeks ago, we entered the new year with noble intentions and resolutions of improving our lives in both the physical and spiritual realms. It is during the February blahs that many of these good intentions begin to slip; this is when we begin to lose our motivation.

Perhaps you decided that this year, as a Christian, you would devote more time to Bible study and meditation. Has that time dwindled down to just a few minutes each day? Do you find yourself skipping your personal 'quiet time' with your Lord when your schedule gets a bit hectic? Yes, we find it difficult to be a Christian; we continually follow in the ways of the world, in unchristian patterns of living.

Over and over we show to ourselves and to others that we choose to go our own way, instead of God's way. This is our nature. This too, is basically a definition of sin. Going our own way can take many forms of life-styles, from total evil and depravity to a rather sophisticated, 'good' life. Either way people are doing their own thing, not God's thing. And the eventual outcome is the same. The end is death, our ultimate separation from God.

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, shows us that the end is not death, but new life with Christ promised to us and freely available to all. We read of this promise in Ephesians 2: 1 -10.

Because God is just and perfect the sins which we continue to do are painful to him; he grieves because with sin lost to him. However, he is also a God of perfect love and he has provided a way to pay for our sins. This way gives to us the immeasurable gift of eternal life. What we deserve is death and everlasting separation from God's love. instead God has sent to us His only and beloved Son, Christ Jesus, to pay the penalty which we owe. on the cross of Calvary, God's perfect love and His perfect justice come together. "For God so love the world . . ." (John 3:16)

We are saved by grace. When we really believe this and have received Christ in our hearts, profoundly aware of all he has done for us, then to God we are perfect people, whose sins, past, present, and future, are gone. GONE ... removed from us.

This is incredibly difficult for us to understand because the world in which we live is still filled with sin. The difference is that now we should have in our hearts a driving desire to do what is God's will. More and more we will do that because we have the power of Christ to embolden us.

Sometimes I think this is very difficult for women to do, for society has so many expectations for women and we have been taught so many roles, none of which include being a Christian woman as a priority. We have learned to act and think as wives, mothers, working persons, and such first. When we have time left over from doing all those routine things (and that isn't much) then we try to do 'Christian' things, looking for worthwhile and admirable causes.

Are you sure? Sure of your life in Christ? Are you sure of his gift of eternal life? Read in I John 5:13, "I write this to you . . . that you may know you have eternal life."

Consider again the comforting, assuring words of John, in verse 8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God."

Finally readers, don't give in to the February 'blahs': get back on that diet, go and do that exercise, get into the Bible study and meditation habit. God needs and wants us as healthy Christians, sound in mind and in body.

The Oyster

There once was an oyster

whose story I tell, Who found that sand had pot under his shell; Just-one little grain,

but it gave him such pain, For oysters have feelings although they're so plain.

For, did he berate the working of Fate

Which had led to such a deplorable state?

Did he curse out the Government,

call for an election? Or cry that the sea

should have given protection?

No, as he lay on the shelf, he said to himself, If I cannot remove it,

I'll try to improve it."

So the years rolled by

as the years always do.

And he came to his ultimate destiny

- stew;

And this small grain of sand

which had bothered him so,

Was a beautiful pearl, all richly aglow.

Now this tale has a moral for isn't it grand

What an oyster can do

with a morsel of sand;

What couldn't we do if we'd only begin

With all of the things

that get under our skin.

Anon.

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