There's Room For You!

I copied this from another blog. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to share it with all of you. It was written by a friend of my sister's named, Lynette Carpenter. Lynette is a recently published author as well. She has generously allowed me to post her words of encouragement here for all of you, so please read this and let this minister to you. It inspired me. Good stuff!

Across America, Christians have a reputation. We are known as hypocrites. Uncaring, judgmental, unkind… Too many people have taken advantage of the gospel – using it to pad their own wallets and propel their own agenda (and themselves) forward – leaving the hurting, the lost, and the broken still hurting, still lost, still broken sitting in the parking lot of our churches – believing there is no room for them inside.

Too many people have told me, “I can’t tell you the things I’ve done!” Our past calls out to us at every turn, blinding us from anything but who we were and what we’ve done. There was that abortion… those drugs… that affair… Shame hangs heavily around our neck. It comes by the sins we have committed, the sins done to us by others… and sometimes it’s the shame we carry for another’s sin.

Shame and guilt… Two voices who persistently whisper lies, trapping, binding and ultimately crippling believers. We’ve accepted God’s love and forgiveness, but we refuse to lay aside the chains of guilt and shame! We tell ourselves it is the cross we must bear – after all, we deserve it! We resign ourselves to the harsh reality that God will forgive us, but sometimes the church won’t.

How many of us enter the sanctuary of our churches with those chains of shame and guilt tucked neatly beneath our well-pressed suit or silk scarf. We hope against hope that no one sees what lies beneath. We beg to God that no one hears the chains clanking as we walk by. In our desperation to keep from being found out, we sit quietly in our pew, unwilling (or unable) to reach out to those around us lest they see who we truly are. In all reality, we are so far removed from those around us we may as well be sitting in the parking lot as well, listening to the lies of the devil – “You’re too broken. You don’t belong here. If they knew half the things you’ve done…” That thought alone leaves us cold and afraid.

But here’s some good news from Matthew 21:

Jesus went straight to the Temple and threw out everyone who had set up shop, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of loan sharks and the stalls of dove merchants.

He angrily removed the merchants – the self-focused, self-serving people who were taking advantage of Who God is to make a buck. Jesus knocked over their tables, threw their stuff and ultimately, put them out of business. He DIDN’T want them there!

So who DID He want in the Temple?

After Jesus removed the merchants it says, “Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in.”

He was making room for us! The blind and the crippled! The lost and the broken! He didn’t want us sitting outside in the parking lot anymore! The Bible says, “They came to Jesus and He healed them.”

It’s time to get out of the parking lot! No longer should you be blinded by your past! No longer must you be crippled by the chains of guilt and shame!

Jesus has made room for you! No longer shall you stand on the outskirts wishing you were good enough. Because of Him, our guilt can be removed! Because of Him, our shame can be erased!

Let Him heal you of the past that blinds you and the chains that cripple your life! Then you can be as the children in this story who ran through the Temple shouting praises to Jesus!