John 8:9
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Just before this, these very same men that left one by one weren't about to relent until they had the woman's life. It wasn't that they cared so much about stoning her, more that they wanted to trap Jesus in His own words that they might ruin Him. So first of all, what made these determined men to abandon their campaign? What robbed harsh judgmental hearts of completing the task at hand? Exposure to the light of the world. Jesus is the light of the world and when we interact with Him, He has a way of completely exposing our flaws. These men were ready to stone the woman on account of her sin, but they never seemed to consider their own sin. Thus, when Jesus bent down and was writing whatever He wrote in the sand, the men seeing their own individual sin turned away and left, which is so sad to me. Why did these men not fall at the feet of Jesus? Jesus was offering forgiveness to the woman, but the men were to proud to fall at the feet of the one man who could take away their sin. They could have had themselves restored that very day, but instead their pride took them over and they were left to wallow in their own shame. Today is the day to ask The Lord for forgiveness of whatever sin you are harboring, not tomorrow. He is both willing and able to forgive the man who is broken by his sin.
in the end, it is us and Jesus. No man will stand with us at the judgment seat and give his opinion, good or bad, of our life. The Lord looks at each person individually and assesses them. He won't care if we had a giant house or not. He won't care if we were married or not. He won't care how much we donated to the poor or even how many missions trips we went on. All He will look upon is the heart. Our heart; the only thing that is completely ours. He will give that a good look and with His perfect balance of grace and justice determine our fate. He will see every good deed we did for our own selfish gain and every good deed we did to glorify His name. Nothing will fool Him. He can't be fooled. I pray that I myself will continue to be broken over my sin so that I may run to Him in true repentance each and every day. The joy and comfort He gives to those who are truly repentant is unlike another feeling. It is better than going surfing on the best day. Better than driving down the highway with the windows down and music playing. It is complete release from selfish thought and complete focus on Him. I am so glad I am promised an eternity with Him.
Application: ask for brokenness and then forgiveness in my daily prayers.
