Hate and Love

I. Hate. Sin.

I hate the sin of sexual immorality. I hate that we've convinced ourselves that it's "ok to do what feels good."
 I hate that this applies to people who profess to have faith in Jesus Christ, to keep his commandments, yet seem to feel that this is "outdated."

I hate that we hold tight to the scriptures like John 3: 16 - "For God so loved the world...," the ones that make us feel happy and fuzzy but the ones that convict us and make us squirm - "keep the marriage bed pure," (Hebrews 13:4) are discarded as old hat.

I hate that we've decided it's ok to live together before marriage comparing people, lives, eternal souls to cars. After all, you test drive something before you buy it, right?

 I hate that when the relationship ends all that is left of the two individuals is fragments because sin told us we should be afraid of commitment and should gratify ourselves before any others.

 I hate the lies that are spun everyday, blinding us to the reality of our sin like "Everyone does it." or "Love is being tolerant." The lies that convince us we're doing God's will by conforming to the world He warned us to be separated from.

I hate that believers in Christ has decided they can pick and choose what they want to believe about Christ's commands. Obviously God really didn't mean it when He said homosexuality is a sin. Get with the times God!

I hate that sin has entered the world. I hate that it's even exists for me to be on the verge of tears about late this Friday night.

I hate that I see sin entangling my friends lives like stepping into a spiderweb that you didn't see.

I hate that I turn around and see my sins staring at me, pointing the finger at me, remidning me of my own guilt.

But you know what? I love Jesus. I LOVE Jesus!

I love that even in my sin He looked at me with kindness.

I love that He tells me I'm forgiven.

I love his example of the woman caught in adultery where he tells her (and tells me also) "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more."  (John 8:11 Paraphrased)

I love that sin has lost.

I love that Jesus won the victory when he rose from the grave.

I love that I am no longer a slave to sin.

I AM FREE!

Romans 6:1-14

v 14 "For sin shall not be your master, because you are no under law, but under grace."

-Taylor

Hatching

When I was little, late elementary school, I got a butterfly habitat for my birthday. You ordered the caterpillars and they came in the mail. You got to watch them spin there cocoon and then you had to transfer them to a big box so that when the hatched they had enough room to fly as butterflies. I remember the day they began to hatch out of their cocoon. I sat at out kitchen table, head resting on my arms, as one by one they wiggled and wormed their way free into a new life they had never dreamed of during their little caterpillar days, they spread their beautiful wings and flew. Guess what? I'm feeling a lot like those butterflies right now. As my college days recently came to a close I was freaking out. My parents are cutting me off, I don't have a job or a place to live, my friends lives seems to be moving on without me and I'm left thinking I'm going to be stuck in caterpillar form forever, sitting in the dirt. I was trying to trust God but I felt as if I had failed God. An opportunity for mission work had come my way and after much prayer I had turned it down. I had lots of reasons for doing so but since then I have felt as if God was looking down on me saying "Well, I tried Taylor but you obviously are a lost cause." I felt like I was drowning. Drowning in school, drowning in life, drowning in disappointment. Then something changed. I was sitting in church on my last Wednesday night in college. One of my friends had just rocked my world. I was basically pouting on the front row of church. Whining to God about why things weren't going my way. Then a small phrase popped into my head, "I open at the close." Yes, if you're wondering where you've heard it before it's from Harry Potter as he walks willingly to his death. "Yeah," I thought, "this has no baring on my situation at all." but then, there it was again, "I OPEN at the close." well, maybe the close doesn't always mean death, maybe it means the closing of a chapter...what if I, me, Taylor, open at the close of this chapter? I feel like the light bulb lit up, the angels appeared and the "Hallelujah Chorus" was sung. I OPEN AT THE CLOSE! It's not the end! It's the beginning. That day I began pushing against my enclosure - everything I have thought I would do after college everything I've thought my life should be began to crack. You know in movies when the main character has an epiphany and they begin running, most of the time they have no idea where, and they just keeping running? Yeah, that's me, and I'm running. It's like God is pulling off the shell and laughing that I thought I could ever stay inside that cocoon forever. He's saying go! Be free, tell the world of me, spread those beautiful butterfly wings I made for you. So I will. I write this first off to free my mind, but also because I want to encourage you, whoever you are, to push against what ever is enclosing you. This is different for everyone so don't think it's a once size fits all cocoon. But here's the deal, everyone is enclosed in something at some point but not everyone allows God to free them from it. So whatever is enclosing you, push on the walls, and you may find God on the other side. -Taylor