A Home Revisited..

This is one of the devotions that Aunt Charlotte has sent out recently..
Read it and think about the message.
:)

A HOME REVISITED
By Wayne Dixon from a true account

One day at work, I was taking care of a patient who was paralyzed. I asked, “I was curious about how you became paralyzed. Do you mind telling me?” He began to tell me his story. God reminded me of it this morning and since this morning it has weighed heavy on my mind. I haven't been able to get away from thoughts of it today...

He said, “Back when I was 10 years old, we moved away from a beautiful 2-story home with a basement. I was raised in that home and had many fond memories. My mind was full of those fun things I used to do. You know, like etching my name in the timbers downstairs and getting a whipping for it. Once in a while I'd go back to the house and walk through it, vivid memories flooding my mind.

I moved further away and was unable to go back. My job would take me by there at times but I had no time to stop. One day I was close to the house and I began to remember what it once looked like. Twenty years had passed since anyone had lived in it. I was curious about how the house looked. I detoured to see that once beautiful home.

As we arrived, my wife told me not to go in. Yet, I reassured her I would be okay. I walked inside the house and everything seemed okay. I made it up stairs to my old bedroom. The memories of my younger years came flooding back. The joy I had. I stepped into the center of the room and that was when the floor gave way. I fell through the first floor all the way down to the basement floor. Only my shoulders were hurting, when my wife rushed in and asked if I was okay. I told her, “I’m fine.” It wasn’t until I attempted to move did I realize my back was broken and I could not feel my legs. I wasn’t as fine as I thought. I was paralyzed and unable to walk, let alone get myself out of there. We called for help and they took me to the hospital. I’ve never walked again.”

Why do I tell this story? It’s the same in our spiritual life. If God moves us out of a situation and we revisit it, there is a potential for a fall...just as this man saw a glorious, beautiful 2-story home in his mind, but twenty years had brought decay that he couldn't see. Satan will put in our minds the wonderful state of the situation we were in. Once we enter into that state and fall, we might believe we are okay until we attempt to stand against Satan. Satan will desensitize us to what we once knew to be righteous, and we are suddenly unable to walk with God. That's what happened with Adam and Eve. They didn't even realize at first the shape they were in.

Unlike the gentleman who can never walk again, though, we can be like Peter who, though he fell, found the grace to get up and run back to Jesus. If you have fallen, you can walk with God again, but you must come out of the old lifestyle and walk in newness of life with God. One thing for certain is that we cannot revisit those old places God has brought away from. When you are tempted to go back there, don't! Turn and RUN! Run to the protecting arms of Jesus.