This has been an extremely long month.... and it was all leading up to this point. I have no words to express exactly what I am feeling right now...
All I can say is, please, watch the video... and let the reality of all that people have been saying sink in... it's all true, and today is truly the beginning of the end.
After watching this myself.. first I felt sickened by the "no denying the truth of it"... then I immediately felt saddness and compassion for those that will be realizing the truth for the first time today. I have "seen this coming" for awhile now, and even I found it painful to watch. My message today is for the people who are facing this with the raw edges of realizing they have been betrayed. You are not alone... and there is still hope... please, don't try to deal with this alone. Seek out others who have gone thru this as well... and know that we can rise up and become stronger as people in spite of this woman's actions against us.
I leave you with a scripture that helped me just yesterday... and now I say it to you.
1 Corinthians 7: 8-12 (The Message Translation)
8-9I know I distressed you greatly with my letter. Although I felt awful at the time, I don't feel at all bad now that I see how it turned out. The letter upset you, but only for a while. Now I'm glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss.
10Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.
11-13And now, isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You're more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you've come out of this with purity of heart. And that is what I was hoping for in the first place when I wrote the letter. My primary concern was not for the one who did the wrong or even the one wronged, but for you—that you would realize and act upon the deep, deep ties between us before God. That's what happened—and we felt just great.
10Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.
11-13And now, isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You're more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you've come out of this with purity of heart. And that is what I was hoping for in the first place when I wrote the letter. My primary concern was not for the one who did the wrong or even the one wronged, but for you—that you would realize and act upon the deep, deep ties between us before God. That's what happened—and we felt just great.
There is hope in all of this...
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