As the Christmas/New Year season is passing us by and I home for the holidays, I have been catching up on some much needed reading. I must admit sitting back and reading a good book and not worrying about exams or essays is quite refreshing. Although, I do feel like a bum at times, I think my mother would also have to agree with me. But, hey being a bum every once in a while ain't so bad...right?
For Christmas I received a couple of books and one seemed to grab my attention, the book is entitled Unashamed written by one of my all time favorite writers, Francine Rivers. Unashamed is about Rahab, a lady in the Bible who was a prostitute, but had faith in God. God used Rahab to protect the Israelite spies and in return for their safety the God would protect Rahab and her family once the battle of Jericho began, they simply ordered Rahab to tie a scarlet cord in her window as a sign of their protection. God commanded His people to march around the city of Jericho one time each day for six days and on the seventh day to march around the walls of the city seven times. The assembly of people did all that God had told them to do and the walls of Jericho collapsed, no lives were spared, only those of Rahab and her family. Rahab then lived with the Israelites. She married an Israelite and together they bore a son. This right here is what I find so awesome;
Rahab and Salmon had a son, Boaz.
Boaz was the father of Obed;
Obed was the father of Jesse;
Jesse was the father of King David.
And from the line of King David of the tribe of Judah
came the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Does that not blow your mind? The Lord did not see Rahab for all that she had been, but all she could be for the Kingdom of God. God took the lowest of the low, a prostitute, and not only freed her from sin, but created her in the lineage of His only Son, who was born and lived a sinless life and died to save the world. I read this and as my thoughts try to grasp the incredible amazing God we serve, the word that comes to my mind is redemption. A perfect picture of redemption we see in this story. All of this intrigued me so that I researched the meaning of redemption in the dictionary and this is what I found;
–noun
1.an act of redeeming or the state of being redeemed.
3.Theology . deliverance from sin; salvation.
5.repurchase, as of something sold.
6.paying off, as of a mortgage, bond, or note.
7.recovery by payment, as of something pledged.
8.conversion of paper money into specie.
God is a God of redemption, He delivers those He loves from the hand of the enemy. No matter the sin, how great or small, God will cleanse our hearts from all sin if we allow Him to make us His own. We are nothing but sinful, helpless creatures who have mocked and spit on the name of Jesus through our sin. Yet, in His unfailing love He doesn't let us go, but rather reaches out His hand to rescue us and give us an abundant and everlasting life with Him.
"To women who think a past of mistakes ruins any chance of a joy-filled future. Turn to Jesus and experience the wonders He has waiting for you." -Francine Rivers