{"id":1864,"date":"2018-02-14T09:33:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T16:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ndturner.com\/gracePlus\/?p=1864"},"modified":"2018-09-10T17:00:14","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T23:00:14","slug":"digging-ditches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ndturner.com\/gracePlus\/?p=1864","title":{"rendered":"Digging Ditches"},"content":{"rendered":"

The modern dating, hookup, easy divorce culture is a lot like digging ditches and filling them in.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t much question about the depth of those ditches, they are six feet deep.\u00a0 There is some question about the breadth.\u00a0 Each one certainly contains the body of the cast aside love interest.\u00a0 But we also throw a bunch of ourselves in as well.\u00a0 There is time and money, memories, gifts given and received, physical affection, shared conversations, that t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate language which develops between any two people.\u00a0 So expand that ditch accordingly.\u00a0 Then of course there are kids and marriage, which happen in that order as often as not.\u00a0 If you have kids, throw them in as well.\u00a0 They will be forever impacted for the worse.\u00a0 All those delicate partially formed emotions, habits, thoughts, abilities, and dreams cut short and stifled, in the whole.\u00a0 And though we don\u2019t like to admit it, no man is an island.\u00a0 What we do affects those around us.\u00a0 Common friendships now broken,\u00a0 friends of the children taken away, extended family bonds irretrievably awkward.\u00a0 Throw all of them in the hole.\u00a0 And in a real sense by rewriting laws to pretend that these things are not an issue, you are throwing all sense of justice or covenant or truth away as well.\u00a0 In lowering the standard for divorce in church structure you have destroyed marriage as an institution.\u00a0 What does it mean if it means nothing when you feelings change?\u00a0 The concept of covenant, promise, commitment have been replaced with your whims in the moment.\u00a0 All in the ever expanding hole.<\/p>\n

\"Cheap-The-Lamp-Post-Y21-About-Remodel-Creative-Home-Interior-Ideas-with-The-Lamp-Post\"<\/a>And that\u2019s the fundamental idea of digging ditches, you aren\u2019t digging a foundation for something greater, you are just wasting your time.\u00a0 You try to bury all those things in your past, and real part of you and then you start digging again.\u00a0 But nothing ever gets built.\u00a0 Your life bears no fruit, all you have is a mass grave a shrine to yourself..<\/p>\n

This is the sad state we are in without the Gospel.\u00a0 The Gospel changes everything and says bury yourself, and God will raise you up to new life.\u00a0 This is the picture of baptism.\u00a0 This is the order of creation, seeds go into the earth and every fruit trees, bushes of the field and herbs of the garden are brought forth. \u00a0 The first charge\/blessing to man is to be fruitful. Even sex is portrayed as planting seed.\u00a0 One my favorite images from Narnia is of the planting of the lamppost.\u00a0 The soil is so rich that even a bar of iron thrown in anger brings forth the fruit of a lamppost, guiding light.\u00a0 And that is a wise picture of the relationship between this earth and the heavenly realm.\u00a0 What we plant here will bear fruit in the new earth.\u00a0 What we sew is what we reap here on earth in a literal sense.\u00a0 But we will also reap in the new earth in a more literal sense.\u00a0 Some will be made rulers of great plantations others will barely get in as if through fire.\u00a0 There is some risk involved always, I think of the famished sailers deciding whether or not to risk their small piece of fish for a larger catch.\u00a0 But there are always choices between burying yourself and burying others.\u00a0 The building of the Church happens when we bury ourselves for the hope of future reaping. \u00a0 Stone by stone that great edifice rises from the earth.\u00a0 It calls to the broken world.<\/p>\n

For we are God\u2019s fellow workers. You are God\u2019s field, God\u2019s building.\u00a0 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw\u2014each one\u2019s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone\u2019s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. \u00a0 –I Corinthians 3<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The modern dating, hookup, easy divorce culture is a lot like digging ditches and filling them in.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t much question about the depth of those ditches, they are six feet deep.\u00a0 There is some question about the breadth.\u00a0 Each one certainly contains the body of the cast aside love interest.\u00a0 But we also throw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t