WHAT WILL JESUS WRITE IN THE DUST OF YOUR LIFE

Once again Rebekah gets straight to a woman's heart. We at WFN praise God for her insight that she shares with us!

What Will Jesus Write in the Dust of Your Life?
By Rebekah Montgomery

Struggling to cover her nakedness, the woman writhed in fear and shame before a large, curious crowd. The crowd did not worry her as much as their religious leaders did. Surrounding her in a self-righteous, angry circle, these men already gripped rocks to hurl at her.
Moments before she was in the arms of a man, though not her husband. Then the religious teachers burst in and seized her. What happened to her lover she did not know. All she knew for sure was that these religious teachers were howling for her blood. In all likelihood, she would be dead in minutes.

Frantically, she looked for a way out.
Surrounded. Trapped. No place to run. No place to hide. No way to deny their charge of adultery. She was guilty. Guilty. Everyone now knew her sin. Nothing she could do or say could change her past, cover it up, or wash her shame away. No hope. No escape. She would die for it.
In a way, she wished that the stones would start flying and it would all be over. If she was blessed, the first stones might hit her on the head and knock her senseless. Then she wouldn’t feel the rest of the rocks — just the blackness of death.

But after death, what would come next?

Soon — very soon — she would face God. Then what? She had no hope of mercy. No escape. No place to hide. Only endless punishment.

One of the woman’s accusers addressed the Rabbi from Galilee teaching the crowd: “This woman was caught in the very act of adultery,” he shouted. “Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons.

“What do you say should be her punishment?” There was a note of challenge in his voice as if he was trying to trap the Rabbi.

The Rabbi’s attention turned to the woman. He wasn’t looking at her body. Or even her sin. He was looking at her soul.
Her tears flowed as she waited for Him to pronounce judgment. If only there was forgiveness for her. She was sorry, so sorry. If only she had a chance to live her life again. She would live differently. If only. If only.

The Rabbi stooped, reaching toward the ground. She automatically flinched. Was He searching for a rock to begin her execution?
To her amazement, He smoothed the dirt at His feet and began writing in it, His fingerprints tracing words.

The woman and the mob watched in stunned silence. Something profound was happening but the woman did not know what it was.

Then the religious teachers crowded around to read what He was writing.
Jesus’ Letter to the Guilty

In a millennium past, Almighty God reached out of heaven, took a handful of dust, formed it, breathed life into it, and created a man. Now, Jesus, the one and only God-man, was doing the same; He was writing words of life in the dirt and creating a new woman.
What did He write? Some have suggested that He wrote the secret sins of her accusers.

Whatever words He wrote, it wasn’t words the self-religious wanted to read. It condemned their devout but dirty hearts. They fled from Him — guilty, condemned, but unforgiven.
But for the repentant sinner, He wrote words of life and spoke them aloud:

Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Getting Honest, Getting Forgiven
For the admitted sinner, whatever mistakes we have made, whatever sins we have committed, Jesus bends down and writes across our past: “Neither do I condemn you. I can take your dirt and form you into a new creation. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Paul put it this way: “You show that you are a letter from Christ … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:3-NIV)

When you stand before Jesus, what will He write in the dust that is your life?
The self-righteous get left in the dust — unforgiven. But the admitted sinner gets forgiven and renewed.
© Rebekah Montgomery 2008For reprint requests, contact Rebekah at her website,