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Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt and lift you up at the proper time.
1 PETER 5:6
I recently participated in a Mud Run with three other friends. The Mud Run is a 3.5-mile course with over 30 obstacles, based on Marines training. Many of the obstacles were muddy pits! We participated to have fun together and to simply finish, not to race! What in the world was I thinking?!
The above photo from the Mud Run captivated me...a photo of a team member helping another member over a wall. This photo reminds me of three profound truths:
1. Christ saves us. Christ came to ultimately "get muddy" with us in our sin in order to lift us up with Him through His cross and resurrection.
2. Christ sustains us. We can depend on Christ to be our strong arm in our journey through many God-ordained obstacles in this world of sin.
3. Christ serves through us. Christ can literally be a strong arm to lift up others through our prayers for them.
CLOSING
Below is an article I first wrote in 2000, and continue to fine-tune. It is an fictitious depiction of truths of how Christ relates to us with a strong yet tender love...to lift us up with Him.
I pray the Spirit to lift you up through this Rest Stop. In His grip,
THE SEWAGE POND
by Gregg Gibbons
It's only a dream, but, oh such a vivid dream! I see Jesus in all of His
majesty standing on the side of a sewage pond peering at a man floating face down in the
pond.. It is a penetrating gaze.
Without any panic and hesitation, and without taking His eyes off of the man, Jesus steps into the pond. He slowly, yet surely, walks toward the man.
There is a holy hush among millions of
angels who are entranced on the threshold of heaven above to view this unfolding scene centered on their holy
Creator.
The stench from the pond is
sickening. The humidity is
oppressive. Floating sheens of oil and
scum wick to the robe clothing on Jesus.
A cloud of mosquitoes incessantly prey on His face and arms. Jesus feels the muck of the sludge on the
bottom of the pond, with each footstep releasing pungent sulfide gas bubbles from the sludge to boil up to the pond surface. Yet...He never
flinches. His gaze is perfectly fixed on
the man in the pond.
When Jesus reaches the
man, Jesus is waist-deep in the pond.
Jesus gently reaches around the man to turn him face up. He secures the man in a cradle-like hold,
with the back of the man's head resting on the inside of His left arm. With tears in His eyes and a simple smile, Jesus takes His right hand to tenderly wipe some of the
sludge off of the man's cheeks, and says under His breath, "Oh, how I love
you!" And I now recognize the man's
face...it's me! I can't fathom such undeserving love! My first reaction is to wake up from the dream because I don't think I can take anymore of this scene. However, deep down, I know that I must.
Although my eyes are closed to the reality and presence of Jesus,
Jesus eyes are fully open toward me. With His lips pressed together, His determined smile is fixed toward my closed eyes. And He repeats over and over, with a profoundly precious passion, "Oh, how I love you, oh, how I love you, oh, how I love
you." Tear drops from His eyes
gently patter onto my smudgy face and become my own tears running down my lifeless cheeks.
I realize now that the
sewage pond is a picture of me being immersed in, and identified with, my sins. So full, yet
so lifeless! However, Jesus majestically intersects the sewage pond where Purity meets filth...Hope
meets despair...Friend meets foe...Light meets darkness...Life meets death...Savior
meets sinner...and where justice and mercy meet grace. It is an awesome picture of the cross! Such amazing love!
Then with His strong,
yet gentle, arms, Jesus turns me so that my face is pressed into His chest, and
His left hand supports the back of my head while His right arm and hand embrace
and support the rest of my body. It is
just like the father's strong embrace of his anxious child. In this case, I am lifeless in the arms of
Jesus. Jesus then slowly but surely tightens
His embrace of me...a tender hug...with periodic gentle pats and rubs on my
head. He closes His eyes tightly and again repeats under His breath, "Oh, how I love you." He slightly twists His cheek
that is gently pressed against the crown of my head, in conjunction with a loving sigh, an expression of His tenderness. His weeping increases, and
His whole body trembles in concert with His tears of love for me.
As Jesus continues to
embrace me amidst the stillness and silence, He closes His eyes
for a minute, as if to savor His time with me, His love for me, and His
plans
for me. Then, with tears now streaming
down His face, He opens His eyes wide, and looks up to heaven. Such
beautiful eyes that glisten through His tears. He cries out in a
strongly passionate, yet
weakly strained, voice: "Father!"
Then, Jesus slowly but
surely begins to descend into the sewage pond, His eyes still fixed on heaven
above... His loving embrace of me still sure.
I now see the nail holes in His wrists that are embracing me as I
descend with Him, firmly in His grip.
His wet eyes
remain fixed on heaven above, and His arms remain clutched around me. I see a determined expression on His face in preparation of the utterance of the most victorious words ever spoken. Then Jesus says with all the
love in the world, "It is finished!
And then, with His eyes still upward toward heaven and with His embrace of me still sure, instead of
taking in a deep breath, He lets out a deep breath...His spirit...and becomes buried with me
in the sewage pond.
Immediately heaven
closes and it is dark for several hours.
But then heaven re-opens and a glorious light chases away the
darkness. The pond has turned blood
red! An awesome sight. The odors, oil, scum, sludge, diseases, mosquitoes...all
of my filth...gone...forever! There is a
climate of awe and peace for three days around the pond.
Then, another transformation occurs...the blood
red pond becomes a strikingly clear and sparkling pond! The glorious light reflects though a fresh cool
breeze caused by the praising wings of millions of angels from above! The pond begins to overflow without ceasing...a
picture of rivers of living waters...a picture of Christ's pure eternal life in
and through me!
The dream ends here,
but the truth never ends. Somehow I sense that as Jesus beheld me through the cross, and as He
continues to behold me in His resurrection and ascension, so now I, in His grace,
behold Him. And I find myself desiring to be a vessel for Jesus to come along side others in their sewage ponds.
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