"Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." (John 19:11 KJV)
"Power, O God, belongs to you; unfailing love, O LORD, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done." (Psalm 62:11-12 NLT)
Don't think for a moment I didn't suffer some consequences for the wrongful things that I did; because being forgive for sins, does not mean we do not suffer the consequences for what we have done, regardless of whether or not we knew what we were doing. There is always going to be something that will come of it, whatever it is, there is a ripple that has been made, which will eventually wash up on shore.
Besides, the forgiveness of sin is towards our eternal life, not necessarily about this life, which is quickly fading away! "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16 NLT) It is all about eternal life! Which, we do not have, without being washed in the blood of Christ!
As far as this thing, from yesterday's post, I was reminded about Peter's denial of Jesus, and how he had somewhat prepared himself to fight off any such thing; yet, he denied Him three times anyway, almost as if he didn't even think twice about doing so. As a matter of fact, he hadn't even realized the error of his ways, until the cock crowed; at which time, he looked towards Jesus! Just saying!
As to my flight, or my running away from God; it was just about ten years later, from the time I packed up my bag and left home, to the day that I got the call to go to that service, in September 1981, which is when I was saved and given New Life! For ten years I didn't really want anything much to do with God, especially any established religion. And, if I did try to reach out to God, it was a god that I made, to play along with the life I was living.
The closest I came to a church, was after my arrest in 1980. After I was bailed out of jail, my wife and I walked to a nearby church, in order to maybe get some things corrected in our lives. No sooner than we had entered the door and sat down, someone came over, sat beside us, and wanted me to fill out a card, listing down how much money I would be giving to the church. We left rather quickly!
All during that ten-year period, all of the crazy things that I had done, I did without even considering that there might be a consequence for my actions; almost as if I was bullet-proof to suffering any consequences for the crimes that I had committed. Even when I was arrested, I cared nothing about myself and the situation that I was in, only about those that I left behind on the outside of those walls!
As crazy as it might sound, but for the most part, being locked down somehow establishes structure and consistency. You would be surprised by the number of people that actually find peace behind bars! Isn't that what we felt in our sins? It wasn't until we became born again, that we realized peace was in Christ; but when you have unconfessed sin, you really don't experience real peace...
"If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But is we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts." (1 John 1:1-10 NLT)
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