Don't Leave Out the Messy - still brewing

Let's live here for another post. I've been thinking a lot about it.

Today, I was reading in Joshua 2 about Rahab (I'm using IF:Equip - a great resource for studying the Word on your own and reflecting on it in an online community). The obvious take away is that God uses anyone who is willing - anyone. But in all this talk about the messiness of moving forward in our faith, I couldn't help but think about the spies that Rahab was helping. They spent the night in a brothel. I'm just going to let that sink in for a minute. Let's play this out in current day circumstances:

God has very clearly called your church to go to a certain city and win it for Him but none of you have ever even been. So, you send some of your most upright church dudes. You know that this city hates Christians and will not hesitate to kill these guys. So, also, they're brave. They go and when they return they tell you this story about how they wound up in a brothel hanging out with a prostitute. And she saved them. And she's a Believer, too.

Wait, what? How'd you end up in a brothel to begin with? Are you sure she's a Believer? I mean, she IS living a life of sin. And seriously, how'd you end up in a brothel?

What if you were the guys? We don't know how they ended up in a prostitutes house. We don't know why - but that is messy faith, right? I mean, she saved them. And then she was adopted into the Israelite people - and then she was included in the lineage of Jesus Christ. I don't know. I cannot understand it all. In this world of do's and don'ts, it's sometimes hard to know what is messy faith and what is straight sin.

In having a conversation about this with my very wise, sees things in black and white husband, we talked about going to a bar or any other place that might be typically questioned by those who shy away from messy, and he made a great point, "Of course Jesus would have gone to the (insert any place viewed as shady). But he wouldn't have gotten drunk or cussed or sinned or participated in any sort of lewd behavior at all. He wouldn't have done anything that displeased God."

And that's where it gets tricky. That's why an honest, intimate relationship with God is VITAL to quality, honest, and pure relationships with those around us. Sometimes he says, "Go spend the night at that brothel," and other times he says, "Do not go to that movie/that bar/that concert." Messy, messy, mess.

Again I say, I cannot understand it all, but I love exploring faith with Him and with you! I am learning to relish the messy because doing so presses me harder into the King of bringing Peace to the Mess. Let's all get a little dirt on our boots and see what happens!