A few months ago I was visiting my sis-in-law in Meridian. I noticed a very interesting book cover. It was a picture of a weathered shack with snow on the ground and falling lightly from the sky. The title of the book was 'THE SHACK'. The title itself caught my attention. What type of story can you tell about a shack ? I turned the book over and read the description of this work of fiction. It was both shocking and intriguing. I could not get it out of my mind, and since she was not completed reading it herself I was determined to find it my self and read the entire literary work.
Well just as God does, he made it possible for me to purchase my own copy at a sale price !! I wanted to share with my fellow bloggers what I took away with me when I finished this book and turned the last and final page. Reading this book made me think how much easier it would be for us humans to truly understand our relationship with the Lord if we would just step back from our own as parents. Step back and look at the pattern here on earth concerning the Father, Mother and Child. God has given us a 'visual' to better understand his relationship with him.
Two people come together, and form a living creation. This creation comes out in our image. It looks like us and because it is a part of us we love it immediately. We want to protect our child and provide it with all the things necessary on this earth to be safe and well taken care of. We do whatever we need to protect them from things that will hurt them and cause harm. We teach them what we think are life skills necessary to make it here on earth and be successful. We go forth everyday to make sure they have a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food on the table. We feel that we are responsible for their existence and it is our duty to do these things.
We teach them right from wrong and we pray that they listen to us and do not go down the wrong path. If they do, we are hurt to the core but we still love them and this is why it hurt so much because we love them. Even if they have done something that is considered terrible we will still stand by their side because we love him/her. We let them know we are there even when no one else is. We are the parents and nothing can change that. Nothing can separate that love. If they walk away from us and stray into dangerous waters and dark pathways, our hearts are torn and broken but we keep watching for them to come back.
Some of us have raised them up on the Word. We have taught them the scriptures, explain the scriptures and tried our very best to live them before our children. We question how they could have gotten off on the wrong path after we told them the truth. We showed them by example and helped them to get an understanding of the Truth yet, they have gotten off track. In just a second, thru one small opening the enemy has come in and grabbed a whole of them. BUT we as christian parents will not give up and leave them to go thru the fire alone. We will stand in the gap on their behalf by going before the Throne of Grace on their behalf, we will deny our flesh if necessary to bring them back and lead them in the right direction.
Our love is so strong we will make whatever sacrifice necessary to save them from their own self destruction. We constantly tell them that we love them to reassure them, as though just these words alone might make them turn around but they don't. We do not really have to tell them we love them over and over again , they know we love them but knowing that will not cause them to want to desire to come out of the pit they have allowed the enemy to put them in . Our children will go head first into unrighteousness with the full knowledge of our love just because they want the sensation of the flesh that comes with SIN. It takes a hard wind to come into their lives and turn them around from the path of destruction and we as parents have to watch and wait.
We have to remind ourselves of our relationship with God and who he is to be able to take them to him in faith that he will do it because of his love, grace and mercy for us. ' The Shack', brings this relationship into full view for me. It reminds us that God loves us no matter what. We are his children and the last thing he wants is for us to be lost. He has already made the ultimate sacrifice of his own Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for us to return unto him. Nothing can
separate us from the love he has for us. When we fall down or walk away from him I am sure it hurts him. He has given us his Word in the flesh and also documented by his apostles yet we still go forth down a path of unrighteousness no matter what it is, even if it is UNFORGIVENESS. Things happen in our lives and we will walk away from God instead of running to him or hiding in him for protection from the ill winds blowing in our lives. But thru all of this where is he ? He is still there. He is there as the Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost. He is there waiting to operate in our lives in whatever capacity we need him to bring us to a successful outcome.
He can be for us whatever we need to make it just as parents try to meet all the needs of their children. Why do we do this despite what they may do ? Because we love them and God stays with us because he loves us. He is our CREATOR and we are his created. He formed us in his image and from the moment we began to form in the womb he loved us. He wanted even then I believe to give all he has for us. He was probably so excited and looking forward to giving us the abundance of all the earth. Hoping for us to learn of his ways and take the path that would bring us prosperity. After all, he gave us the instructions all we have to do is read. He put it right there in our hands. Just do what he says what is so hard about that ?
As you find out in 'The Shack' it is easier said than done. We read the instructions but somewhere on this journey of life things get in the way and we forget to put the Word in our hearts and use it for all situations in our lives. We forget that all unrighteousness is sin and the end result is death. Circumstances in life caused by our wrong decisions or lack of wisdom can scar us for life from little children to adults and these scars can go deep. The wounds can be to the soul and they can change us into something difficult for man to recognize as 'children of God'. The world will label us as monsters because of our actions caused by some deep hurt either physical, emotional or psychological. This cut or wound gives the enemy just enough room to come in and fester within our very souls.
This unwelcome spirit will change our very physical appearance. It will cause us to have mental battles in our mind in which we lose every time . When we lose these battles we change the lives of everyone in our path. The killer in this story was not recognized as a child of God in the beginning. When you read about what he has done you think how awful it is, how bad he is and how sick he is. It is even scary to imagine someone like him in your head for fear that he might actually manifest as crazy as it seems. You think of how much your heart would break if it were your child kidnapped and murdered. You think of the punishment that is so rightfully gained by his actions. You think of the devil and his demons working in this man to make him do such a thing and you may even find yourself thinking he is pure evil ! I know i did.
This book reminds you that ALL unrighteousness is sin no matter what it is. Murder is no less unrighteous in the eyesight of God as is lying, deceit, lack of faith and unforgiveness. It is all unacceptable to Christ and shows lack of our ability to give our problems to him and stand on his Word. If we stood on it we would not be murders of men physically or with our tongues, we would not be liars, cheaters, or people of deceitful spirits. Despite all of this , we are still his children though we are off track. He stands and waits, watching and longing for us to come back.
'The Shack' reminds us that 'daddy loves us' no matter what and we can go back to him no matter the shape we are in and he will wrap his arms around us and accept our sincere repentance. He loves us. He will clean us up and rejoice that we have returned to him. He will be in our lives, who we need him to be. He can relate to us as a Father if that is what we need, He can be like a brother and rescuer if that is what we need, He can be our comforter in any situation if we need that.
However we need him to be he CAN. He will also be our disciplinarian because he chastises those whom he loves. He will allow us to go through the cycle of 'consequences of our actions' when we violate spiritual and earthly laws but even in that he stands waiting. He will show us ourselves so that we can clean up first before looking upon what we consider 'dirt' on someone else. 'The Shack' reminds us that God loves us from the uttermost to guttermost. It made me think of how important it is to forgive so that God will forgive us. It reminded me that he wants to redeem all of mankind not just some. He wants us to be truthful with him no matter what our emotions are. We need to bring them to his altar and talk to him.
He will come down and talk back to you. He will be the confident, the warmth and the safety we need. He will also be the healer that we need. God's desire in this work was not only to bring the father back into a relationship with him where he trusted him and was able to allow God to heal him , but he also wanted the Murderer to come back to him because only God knew what was really wrong inside of him. God could see it and he wanted to fix it but he wanted him to come back to him on his own. This book reminds me that we are given 'FREEWILL' God is not going to force himself into our lives. He allows us to choose and he will wait for us to choose him. His desire is not for us to be lost no matter what we have done but some of us will.
'The Shack' shows you that we make the decision of where we want to spend eternity. We decide if we will release toxins from our lives that block us from a true and full relationship with Christ and eternal life or will we continue on a path of self destruction that will end in our souls eternal damnation. Being Christ-like does include that every so hard trait of the spirit of forgiveness and operating in it. We can not fully get the break through we are looking for until we forgive. When we ask God for the desire of our heart we must ask with a pure heart if we want it to be granted.
The main character in 'The Shack' had to do the second hardest thing to going forth with his life without his daughter, he had to truly forgive this man and put him back in the hands of a living God to redeem even him. I thought back to one of the most difficult attacks by the enemy in my life, and remembered how hard it was for me to forgive. I remembered the hurt and the pain and the many nights I cried in complete devastation and disbelief of the betrayal. Just like the character in this book , I just could not see how I could forgive this person , because to forgive them allowed them to me, to walk away free without consequences for the hurt they did to me.
I had to remind myself first of all, how many times I disappointed God and hurt him by my actions that were less than loving. I had to remind my self that God will not forgive me if I can not give the same grace and mercy to someone else by forgiving them. I had to forgive the person /persons involved in order to let God heal me and for me to be pleasing in his sight. God has some things in store for me but could not get them to me because this toxic was in my way. It was blinding my spiritual vision, clogging up my spiritual ears and creating a wall over my heart that would prevent the Word of God from being planted within me and taking root.
Just like the main character, I had to ask God to help me do this thing. The Lord had to remind me of his Will so that I would do it his way. We can relate to God if we will just work on a relationship with him. We must leave the offender in the hands of God and let him deal with them. He can redeem even them. Once we do this, as the author shows us in 'The Shack' then God will begin to move in our lives and answer prayers. He will reveal things to us we may have never found , seen or heard just as he did when he took the main character to the burial ground of his daughter.
In order for God to move so mightily in his life he had to be made whole and that includes deliverance from unforgiveness. When he did this, God answered his prayer and gave him his daughter burial ground and the man who killed her. In God's time all things are revealed. 'The Shack ' is a wonderful reminder of God's love and his availability to us in our lives.
GO AND GET THIS BOOK. IT WILL DO A WORK WITHIN YOUR SOUL ! FORGIVE AND GO FORTH INTO WHAT GOD HAS FOR YOU. IT IS WONDERFUL BEYOND DESCRIPTION.
Dedicated to my Dad, Mr. Ulysses Kelly, who showed me how easy it is to forgive and how important. I love him for that gift among so many other things.
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