09162020 – The Churches Biggest Downfall is “US”
You know OTHERS are WATCHING.
Others are LISTENING.
Others are OBSERVING.
They SEE, they HEAR, they WATCH…and they do not like “what it IS” they are SEEING.
The church IS hypocritical.
We SAY one thing.
We do ANOTHER.
We think NO ONE notices.
We think we are UN-OBSERVED.
We know all the RIGHT WORDS to use.
We are WRONG.
We TALK the TALK, but we fail to WALK the WALK. We are the man in the parable. WE ARE THE ONE’S – who fail to forgive. (In spite of the fact, that we ourselves have been forgiven.)
According to Jesus.
There is SOMETHING about MERCY and GRACE…
There is something about FORGIVENESS…
They have to be FREELY GIVEN or they are COMPLETELY and UTTERLY useless…
They have to be GIVEN without GETTING in return…no RESTRAINTS…They have to be given from the HEART…Forgiveness needs to be CONTINUAL…a CONSTANT, an OUT-POURING…And we choose NOT TO.
We make a CONSCIOUS DECISION to WITHHOLD grace, mercy, and forgiveness…from others…
…And THE WORLD watches…and takes notice…
We THINK, we BELIEVE, that we are WORTHY of grace, understanding, mercy and forgiveness. We have “IT” coming. We are somehow BETTER.
But, others are NOT. THEY are less deserving.
There is “a real EPITAPH” in an Atlanta cemetery that a woman had inscribed on the tomb of her “adulterous husband.”
It said, “Gone, but NOT FORGIVEN.”
It is our kind of epitaph. We think it is funny. It is cute. It is deserving. It is NOT!
When we DO NOT forgive, we have signed our own death warrant. We become LESS and LESS, rather than becoming more and more.
Even “IF” forgiveness were to be humanly IMpossible (which IT IS NOT,) with God ALL THINGS ARE possible.
See the hypocrisy?
I am sure somewhere along your journey you have heard the story of Corrie ten Boom, who had HEARD an unbelievable speech by a person in RECONSTRUCTED Germany, about “HOW” God had forgiven HIM.
He put out his hand to her after the speech was over and said, “Sister, God has forgiven ME.”
And I HAVE no doubt that God DID.
She recognized him as ONE OF THE GUARDS in the concentration camp where her sister had died.
She said, in effect, “I COULD NOT raise my hand to shake his, but in that awful moment I realized how much GOD’S mercy and grace had been EXTENDED to ME.
What I could not do by MY OWN STRENGTH, I did BY THE STRENGTH of God.”
My hand was lifted to shake HIS HAND.
I would have never done it.
I could have never done it.
I would have chosen to NEVER dO IT.
But God chose otherwise. He always DOES.
The church is called to remember how much God has given to us HIS mercy and grace.
We are forgiven the people. We just have not learned the lesson yet. A FORGIVEN PEOPLE must go out and FORGIVE OTHERS.
We are to be the ones to extend the hand of grace, love, mercy, compassion, blessing, charity, pardon, and absolution to others…
Who very much LIKE US – do not deserve it either!
THE real QUESTION IS: Does anyone EVER deserve God’s mercy and grace?
And I think the answer is NO, but he gives it anyway…
And so should we.
People are watching, hearing, seeing, and taking notes. DO NOT BE HYPOCRITICAL! Walk-the-walk.
Amen.