My blessing today...
Posted: October 18th, 2007, 5:01 am
...the Mercy of God. Having known God for more than 26 years now, I have had occasion to experience the availability of God’s Mercy more times than I can recall. My vagueness of memory on that is probably a good thing, because my most urgent needs for mercy always coincide with departures from the ways of living God has given us, and those are always painful memories.
The Bible says sin pays a wage, which is death. Obviously, I don’t disagree with that, but I have discovered that there is always a price that I will pay for sin, and it’s always higher than I want it to be. The eternal consequences sin has have been paid for by Jesus’ sacrifice; that sacrifice opened the door of fellowship between man and His Creator, there is no disputing that, and that door cannot be closed by man.
But there are always earthly consequences to our actions. To paraphrase a line from O Brother Where Art Thou, being baptized and confessing your sins may set you right with God, but some authorities are a little more hard-nosed about things.
It’s true.
Highway Patrolmen tend to be zealous about issuing tickets for exceeding the speed limit. Losing your temper is always gonna cost you at least an apology, and coming up with the humility to ask another person to forgive you isn’t always an easy thing to do either. Spouses are often a bit hard-nosed about things like spending money without consulting them, failing to call if you’re going to be late, and looking too long in the direction of the opposite sex. Churches are usually understandably upset when the preacher is caught with his hand in the till, or with his britches down in the wrong bedroom.
There are a lot of things that God is not the only one who will have to forgive you for, and forgiveness often means you need to make restitution for what you did, whether that means serving a prison sentence, working a second job to pay a debt, or humbling yourself before an offended brother or sister.
Sometimes, there is no way to make restitution for what you’ve done, no way to pay the debt you’ve incurred with another person. Even your own death won’t give life back to a person you’ve killed. A reputation ruined by gossip or scandal cannot ever be entirely regained; there will always be some who’d rather believe the gossip, and others who just won’t forgive the scandal.
Right now, there is a scandal brewing in the media over a high-profile minister and his wife allegedly misusing donations to their ministry. The damage to their ministry may be massive. Apparently, there are legal ramifications over political donations that may cost the ministry its tax exempt status, and may land that man in jail.
The damage to the credibility of the Body of Christ in our society will be massive, regardless of what happens to the people involved. We’ll have to endure more rounds of gleeful scorn from the media. We’ll get blasted by blanket condemnations of all churches and Christians by those who claim that this is but one more proof that the tenets of life presented in the Bible are outmoded and archaic, and not even the leaders of the church really live by them.
But the truth is that all these things are side issues. We may go to prison, lose our credibility, be stripped of all we own, watch a betrayed spouse leave our lives forever, be defrocked and put out of the ministry, have every person in the world turn their back on us, even give up our lives in the face of the sins we commit, and rightly so.
But God forgives.
God offers His unconditional love and acceptance based on the sacrifice of His Son, not on our actions. When we do wrong, even intentionally, God is still reaching out to us, waiting for the chance to forgive us and bring us back to His heart. The Bible says that God is not willing that anyone should be lost and separated form Him, but rather that everyone should accept His forgiveness and live with Him forever.
Some people end up hurting themselves with sin so badly that they never find their way back to Him. The Bible talks about two kinds of sorrow over sin; a godly sorrow that lead to repentance and a worldly sorrow that leads not to repentance to but to death. Judas Iscariot is an example of the last; he felt bad about betraying Jesus, but instead of asking forgiveness, he took his own life to end his pain. Sin maims, hurts, breaks and destroys. Sin kills. That’s why God warns us about it so many times. If there wasn’t any effect and God’s Forgiveness took all that away, He wouldn’t have to warn us about it at all.
Like most everyone else, I carry scars from my past sins, both pre- and post-conversion. They are reminders that sin is a serious matter, not something to play with. But I have God’s promise that He will work all things in my life for good. “All things” includes all the hurts and problems I have created through sin. That’s God’s Mercy, and I thank Him for it.
The Bible says sin pays a wage, which is death. Obviously, I don’t disagree with that, but I have discovered that there is always a price that I will pay for sin, and it’s always higher than I want it to be. The eternal consequences sin has have been paid for by Jesus’ sacrifice; that sacrifice opened the door of fellowship between man and His Creator, there is no disputing that, and that door cannot be closed by man.
But there are always earthly consequences to our actions. To paraphrase a line from O Brother Where Art Thou, being baptized and confessing your sins may set you right with God, but some authorities are a little more hard-nosed about things.
It’s true.
Highway Patrolmen tend to be zealous about issuing tickets for exceeding the speed limit. Losing your temper is always gonna cost you at least an apology, and coming up with the humility to ask another person to forgive you isn’t always an easy thing to do either. Spouses are often a bit hard-nosed about things like spending money without consulting them, failing to call if you’re going to be late, and looking too long in the direction of the opposite sex. Churches are usually understandably upset when the preacher is caught with his hand in the till, or with his britches down in the wrong bedroom.
There are a lot of things that God is not the only one who will have to forgive you for, and forgiveness often means you need to make restitution for what you did, whether that means serving a prison sentence, working a second job to pay a debt, or humbling yourself before an offended brother or sister.
Sometimes, there is no way to make restitution for what you’ve done, no way to pay the debt you’ve incurred with another person. Even your own death won’t give life back to a person you’ve killed. A reputation ruined by gossip or scandal cannot ever be entirely regained; there will always be some who’d rather believe the gossip, and others who just won’t forgive the scandal.
Right now, there is a scandal brewing in the media over a high-profile minister and his wife allegedly misusing donations to their ministry. The damage to their ministry may be massive. Apparently, there are legal ramifications over political donations that may cost the ministry its tax exempt status, and may land that man in jail.
The damage to the credibility of the Body of Christ in our society will be massive, regardless of what happens to the people involved. We’ll have to endure more rounds of gleeful scorn from the media. We’ll get blasted by blanket condemnations of all churches and Christians by those who claim that this is but one more proof that the tenets of life presented in the Bible are outmoded and archaic, and not even the leaders of the church really live by them.
But the truth is that all these things are side issues. We may go to prison, lose our credibility, be stripped of all we own, watch a betrayed spouse leave our lives forever, be defrocked and put out of the ministry, have every person in the world turn their back on us, even give up our lives in the face of the sins we commit, and rightly so.
But God forgives.
God offers His unconditional love and acceptance based on the sacrifice of His Son, not on our actions. When we do wrong, even intentionally, God is still reaching out to us, waiting for the chance to forgive us and bring us back to His heart. The Bible says that God is not willing that anyone should be lost and separated form Him, but rather that everyone should accept His forgiveness and live with Him forever.
Some people end up hurting themselves with sin so badly that they never find their way back to Him. The Bible talks about two kinds of sorrow over sin; a godly sorrow that lead to repentance and a worldly sorrow that leads not to repentance to but to death. Judas Iscariot is an example of the last; he felt bad about betraying Jesus, but instead of asking forgiveness, he took his own life to end his pain. Sin maims, hurts, breaks and destroys. Sin kills. That’s why God warns us about it so many times. If there wasn’t any effect and God’s Forgiveness took all that away, He wouldn’t have to warn us about it at all.
Like most everyone else, I carry scars from my past sins, both pre- and post-conversion. They are reminders that sin is a serious matter, not something to play with. But I have God’s promise that He will work all things in my life for good. “All things” includes all the hurts and problems I have created through sin. That’s God’s Mercy, and I thank Him for it.