Just Between You, Me, & God 7/2/2012

We have a new member in our family. Buster is a 1 and a half year old Golden Retriever that weighs 67 pounds. He is house trained, which is a blessing in itself, but he still struggles with some manner opportunities. Buster is not our only pet, we have a cat named Molly who is rather antisocial, and a paranoid Chihuahua, Red, that is rather possessive of my wife and thinks he’s a giant among dogs. Now Buster, still somewhat a puppy, doesn’t know how big he is and he just wants to crawl up in your lap like the little dog, or thinks that Red is a toy that should want to play with him all of the time. There has been baring and gnashing of teeth with some vicious attacks that has sent the big dog scurrying. On the other hand, Buster and Molly have become best of friends with contest to see who can lick who the most. Buster has a definite tongue advantage. If he does overdo it a little, all it takes is one carefully placed, extended claw, to make Buster stop and reconsider his options. Buster does like to chew things and we have made adjustments in the placing of things where he can’t reach them. He, well they all require a certain amount of forgiveness. Sometimes I’m afraid he’ll think his name is “Buster Stop”. I often wonder if that is what God thinks about us when, like Paul, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do---this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 7:15-20. Fortunately God doesn’t know me as “Dean Stop”, but because of Jesus Christ death on the cross for me and my acceptance of that, God knows me as “Dean Forgiven”. Take your guilt and give to Jesus who has already paid for your forgiveness and feel the freedom and love that comes in a relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ. Pastor Dean

Pastor Dean Hanssen is the Ministries & Outreach Pastor for LHF.