meat puzzles

i have a strong aversion to meat puzzles. i also have a strong aversion to NCIS because of the gross episode I saw (which was apparently the worst episode in the history of the show). Well, as I've been applying the sermon from this past Sunday, that specific episode keeps coming to mind. It first popped up in my ever-so-twisted mind as Jim was speaking Sunday morning.

My brain never stops. Sometimes its "i like grapes... m in the p..." other times its "God, why can't I find you? What are You doing?" other times its "arrgh, meat puzzles in the brain - go away darn meat puzzles!!!!" well, as much as this cracks me up, God (thankfully) gave me a new perspective on the meat puzzles and something else to think about when those thoughts of grossness come into my head. Jim mentioned that we're not a slave to sin anymore. That slowly that life is being drained out of us.

The first thing that popped in my head when he said "life being drained" was the dude in NCIS laying on the mortician's table while still alive but having his blood drained from him. SICK MORTICIAN DUDE!! AARGH! He was tied to the table - helpless and not at all in control of what was happening to him. He was even fighting what was happening to him. Yet, the life was being drained from him - quite literally. In the sick twisted way that it is, that gave me a picture of what God is doing/ has done in my life. Even at times when I fight it, He is draining the life of sin from me. And as much as having all your blood pumped from you - its a painful process. But unlike the poor helpless dude on the stark metal table, there's hope for me. I don't have a mortician working on me - I have a friend. a father. a care-taker. There's hope. Why? because He's not going to leave me lifeless on the table - He's changed my nature...

ok, now on to the rest of my thoughts... suddenly I'm not on the table anymore. I'm the peach tree in the field. I've been changed. And my caretaker is the same one who was the surgeon draining that poisonous blood from my soul. Why did he put me through that painful process? Because He knew if He didn't that I would eventually be killed from the inside out by that poison. And he's Someone who's not discouraged when my little "peach" of good fruit withers or doesn't grow properly. Why?? because He has changed who I am. He's (though painfully) drained my deathly blood and has pumped life into me. And even though I still sin, there is hope. because i've got new blood.

The fact that I'm not a slave to sin anymore gives me SO MUCH hope. Not with the thought that I'll no longer sin, but the thought that it doesn't control me. It doesn't manipulate who I am. And even when it manipulates my thoughts, it doesn't manipulate my new nature. And it NEVER will! Romans 6:11 comes to mind - recon yourselves to be dead to the world AND alive to God. He didn't leave me dead on the table. I now have a new life. and not the deadly life I had before - this is a life that is full of hope and joy!