Drawing In The Sand

The first Monday of every month is my turn to post something for our "living beauty-full moment". So I had been thinking and listening for just the right something to post for the first Monday of June.

One morning as I was driving my son to school I heard Casting Crowns song "Jesus Friend of Sinners" on K-Love radio and I was particularly struck by it's words. I have the CD that this song is on and had listened to it numerous times but for some reason this day, it hit me in a different way.

The next day I heard it again and this time with a commentary from Mark Hall of Casting Crowns talking about  why they wrote this song. The Holy Spirit nudged again. I came home and printed out the lyrics to the song and placed them on my desk as a reminder that I wanted to post THAT song on the first Monday of June.

When Brooke posted "The Problem with Grace and Mercy" last Wednesday I chuckled to myself and thought of how we were on the same page with this topic.  On Thursday, Jan made a mention of it on her past and it caused me to smile.

Friday brought the comment to a post from my dear friend, Eva, regarding Mark Hall's comments on this song. She wrote how Mark had spoken about the fact that we look at people through the eyes of the law but we want Jesus to look on us with the eyes of grace and mercy. When I first saw this comment I thought  to myself, "oh well, I better find another song for Monday", because it has already been discussed.

It wasn't long before the still voice of God, whispered to my spirit that the topic of mercy and grace has been coming up over the past week because it is important to HIM,  It was no accident that we all have been awakened to our sin in this area.

Yesterday, Monday, June 4th I posted the YouTube version of the song for our living beauty-full moment. ( if you haven't heard it take a moment to go there now and listen)

SO here we are again with the topic of grace and mercy before us. In our humanness we will judge with a cold and deceitful heart. It is only by the power of HIS Holy Spirit that we can respond from a place of deep compassion.

In John chapter 8 we are told the account of a woman who was caught in the act of adultery and brought before Jesus in  the Temple. The scholars of the Law and the Pharisees planted her in the center of attention to heighten her humiliation and shame ( as well as trying to trap Jesus) as they sought judgment on her.

Jesus responded by bending down and writing something in  the sand as the leaders continued to accuse and badger HIM to make a judgement against the woman. After a few minutes Jesus "straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." ". ( John 8:7 The Message)

Those are very powerful words! "The sinless one among you go first". It is no wonder that in moments all the crowd that had surrounded the woman ready to stone her to death had retreated.

What if we could hear those words ringing through our minds the next time we were ready to throw the stone of condemnation against another?

As the days grow warmer and we spend more time at the beach I hope that the feel of sand against our fingertips will cause this verse to penetrate our hearts.

My prayer is that this summer we will allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and transform us more and more into the likeness of Jesus and with compassion that we will stop and draw in the sand before we even think about picking up that first stone.

Humbly ,
ruthann