Heart Tracks - No Greater Place

"As He was speaking, the teachers of religious law and Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the act of adultery. The put her in front of the crowd. 'Teacher,' they said to Jesus, 'this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?' " John 8:3-4 "There is no greater place to be thrown than at the feet of Jesus." Sheila Walsh

During her time as a host of the 700 Club, Sheila Walsh suffered a complete emotional breakdown. It was so severe that after it happened on the very set of the program, she went straight to a psychiatric hospital and checked herself in. So broken was she that on that first night, all she could do was lie on the floor crying out to the Lord. To that floor He came. On that floor He was. She later wrote in her journal, "Jesus, I never knew You lived so close to the floor."

The story of the woman caught in adultery is one that needs to be deeply comprehended by us all, especially we who are such sticklers to see justice done. By the law of Moses, this woman deserved nothing but death, and her death was what her accusers sought. Yet more than they wanted her death, the wanted to test the Lord Christ. They wanted to do away with the woman, but they also wished to do away with Christ. Whether mercy or death, they would use it against Him as a means to cripple His ministry. He did neither. He just turned His Light upon their own hearts and lives. She was guilty, and so were they. She deserved death, and so did they. They dropped their stones and they walked away. Jesus did not condemn her, but He did command her; "Go, and sin no more." He didn't bring her death, but the offer of life. She was thrown at the feet of Jesus, and she found, as Walsh says, there is no greater place to be. Yes, one day, at the end of it all, we will stand before Him...either in the hope of His resurrection Life...or completely bereft of it...lost. On that day, He stands as Judge. But before that day, He stands with His offer of mercy and forgiveness.

Life has a real way of bringing about circumstances that will throw us at the feet of Jesus. It will come about either as a result of our own actions, or those of another. I've experienced both. The path of my own sin, failure and rebellion brought about life circumstances that literally threw me at His feet. There was nowhere else to go. I was on the ground, "the floor." Like Walsh, I discovered that He lived there. I found His mercy, forgiveness...His Life.....I've also been thrown to His feet by the actions and choices of others. Both brokenhearted and broken. Visible hope and help gone. Nowhere and no place to go. Storm tossed and adrift.....and left at His feet. There too I found how close He lived to the floor. In the first instance, I found freedom from the penalty of my sin. In the second, I found relief, comfort, hope, and life in the midst of the sinful acts of others. No matter the manner of which I was thrown at His feet, I found in Him Life. On the ground or on the floor, I discovered and experienced how close He lived to it. He was there with me on it.

Walsh says that though He frees us from the penalty of our sin, it does not free us from the pain of life. Yet in that pain He will be found by us because He is already there with us....on the ground, the floor, even before we are. One way or another, life will throw you at His feet, and sin, your's or another's, will be the cause. Whether it is in deserving judgement for our sin, or in helplessness due to the sins of another, He offers mercy....hope....fullness of life. There is no greater place for us to be. What will we be at the end of it?

Blessings,
Pastor O