I write this today with both hands and both eyes and both feet intact.

If I took this verse in Matthew 18 literally none of that would be true.

“6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”

My eyes, my hands and my feet all cause me to stumble but only because my heart told them to. My heart, where all my thoughts are pondered and decisions made. It is desperately and decidedly wicked and selfish. My heart wants what it wants no matter what or who says differently. What can I do to be pure? What can I do To wash away sin and selfishness that is woven into my very fabric? My heart and soul are burlap, rough and coarse.

Jesus.

Jesus can and will take over our lives. He will cover us in his perfection so our Father God only sees his son when he looks at us, and as he is draped over us on the outside he begins to rebuild us on the inside. To restore and refine us. To turn our burlap souls into silk or satin or 600 count cotton.

God is the God of “and yet” or “even while”.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

While we were yet sinners Jesus willingly died for us. He died for me. He died for us. He died for you.

If you don’t know him yet, do you want to? If you do know him, can you think of someone who doesn’t know him that you can gently show his love to?

matthew18 #doesJesusloveme?