I’m not sure what led me to the book of Matthew but I’m drawn there. I shared a few posts, then turned to Easter and some other subjects for awhile. But I find myself again holding the words from the tax collector Jesus called friend and made His disciple.

I’m excited to pick up the familiar and asked the Lord to speak again. I suspect, as He often does, He will show me something in a way I hadn’t noticed before. I expect His Word will touch my heart in a way I didn’t expect because that’s how the Living Word does. As Priscilla Shirer says, it’s not that it takes on a “newness” but it certainly has a “nowness”.

And this is exactly what happened when I started this book—so here’s the first day from several weeks ago—

I usually breeze past genealogies in the Bible. Except this time I didn’t. (Matt 1)

I stopped in adoration of the God, who could have chosen a more flawless lineage, but instead, chose to use and call out by name those with a very checkered past in the birth of His Son.

Matthew 1:1-16 lists names, including Tamar: who sold herself as a prostitute to her father-in-law Judah to bring forth Perez and Zerah (Genesis 38), Rahab the prostitute, and “ her who had been the wife of Uriah” (who David had murdered).

Our human hearts might consider these too dirty, too far gone. But God seems to go out of His way to highlight the fact that He uses broken, messed up people all the time.

We are wrong if we think He does not.

The enemy will lie to us and tell us our past sins make us dirty and disqualified, but God’s Word tells us (over and over) it can be just the opposite because of Jesus.

And, we need to daily tell ourselves the same.

When the evil one reminds us of sin we’ve asked the Lord to forgive, we need to speak out loud the truth.

Truth like-

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:11-12)

and

“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Heb 8:12)

Oh friend, let’s walk in the truth! Let’s take hold of our freedom! What a Savior! What a merciful and gracious God!

How great a debt He has paid!

May we freely serve Him who “brings beauty from ashes” (Isa 61:3) and “redeems the years the locust ate” (Joel 2:25)!

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