Today is Monday, January 10th, 2005; Karen's Korner #456
A friend gave me a wonderful little book for Christmas titled "Outrageous Love" by Sheila Walsh.
I'd like to share a brief portion of it with you. She tells about a familar story from the Bible:
Jesus is sitting in the temple courtyard. Suddenly a group of Scribes and Pharisees burst onto the scene dragging with them a woman caught in the sin of adultery.
They give Jesus two choices, but it was a trap. Would He uphold Jewish law? Would He uphold Roman law? Jewish law said she should be stoned, but Roman law said Jews were not allowed to carry out their own executions. The woman had become a pawn, a guilty one, but still a pawn.
"But Jesus bent over and started writing on the ground with His finger. When they continued to ask Jesus their question, He raised up and said, 'Anyone here who has never sinned can throw the first stone at her." ~ John 8:6,7
One by one the group walked away. Next He squeezed the woman's hands and told her to go and sin no more!
Walsh writes, "There it is! There is the great gift that Christ brought all the way from the very courts of heaven to streets in Jerusalem, Capernaum or Chicago.
"I forgive you everything. Live differently!
"The outrageous message was not, 'I forgive so go and live any way you want.' Neither was it, 'Because of how you have lived there is no fogiveness.' The glorious message, God's great surprise, was that everything about us is known and can be forgiven through Christ's sacrifice ~ and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can live differently."
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