Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Pictures of Egypt

The song by Sara Groves, Painting Pictures of Egypt has been in my head a lot.  I thought it was kind of starange sense I hadn't listened to it in quite a while. I just love the honesty of her songs though, so beautiful and makes it so easy to connect to them.
Sara Groves - Lyrics - Painting Pictures of Egypt
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/painting-pictures-of-egypt/id192672967?i=192673190&uo=4

Makeovers © 2010
I have also been ready Isaiah 52 this week. It has been one of those times when you open a scripture and you can just feel that God is going to do something crazy with you through it but you just don't have any idea yet. I am so excited to find out what he is leading me to though! After reading it the first thing I thought about was this song after having it pop in my head at random (or not so randomly ;) ) frequently throughout last week. The parallels between the song and the scripture are undeniable to me. Both speak of leaving the captivity of Egypt. Along with captivity in general.

As I sat more with my thoughts I have been thinking about sanctification and how it applies to this. I think about slowly breaking free one chain at a time. It seems that once I feel free God like to point out a new place that I comfortably sit in my slavery afraid to move forward. "Look Carliann, why are you holding onto that chain? Can't you see it is hurting you?"

I tend to respond with how much I enjoy its company, the reasons I don't want to leave it, and proof of some past hurt of why I shouldn't let it go. I tend to make excuses like in Sara Groves work about how things were better before. I find myself saying "at least I had this or that before, at least I felt secure about, at least I knew, etc." I find it hard to make the decision to make the rough choice and move forward.

I think it is interesting as well that in Isaiah 52 ends with a prophesy of the crucifixion. I think of how thankful I am to Jesus providing the ultimate example of taking the narrow and hardest road towards freedom for us. The imagery is so vivid in verse 14;
But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.

If He faced so much suffering for my freedom, how much is it for me to face some suffering for moving toward the freedom He is calling me to?

I know there is still a ton I have to learn from this passage still, but I thought I would share it with you. I would love to hear from you about how you might struggle with similar things. I hope this was encouraging to you.

2 comments:

  1. That's so true that Christ took the hardest and most narrow path, the right path, to secure our freedom forever. I thought of this when I read Matthew 26-28 yesterday. He could have snapped His fingers and saved Himself, but then our price would not have been paid. And he could've snapped His fingers and saved us too, but that wouldn't be just. Instead He suffered everything AS A HUMAN for us! Amen! I love how you are learning to slowly break the chains! That's a good reminder for me too! You're the best. Love ya!

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  2. Oh my word, I love this beautiful piece. Warm colors, scripture, texture, a well chosen word. Makeovers...that may be the gospel message in one word. :-) And your question...thank you for posing it...about the suffering Jesus faced for our freedom compared to some suffering in moving toward freedom...I'm gonna need to spend a lot more time with that one. Great post and beautiful piece. ((hugs)) Jenni

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