Thanksgiving and Praise.

“It is the duty of nations as well as men to own their dependence on the overruling power of God.  To confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow and yet with a short hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime Truth announced in the Holy Scripture, proven by history— that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His Divine Law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.  May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven.  We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity.  We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown, but we have forgotten God!  We have forgotten the gracious Hand that preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our own hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, and too proud to pray to the God who made us.

It is seen to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and greatly acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.  I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States and also those who are at sea, those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the Heavens.”

— Abraham Lincoln

1863

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Dear Jesus.

“Dear Jesus,

In thanksgiving for what You have done for me, I will make known to my Brothers and Sisters how kind You are toward sinners.  And that Your mercy prevails over all malice, that nothing can destroy it, that no matter how many times, or how shamefully we fail {or how criminally}, a sinner need not be driven to despair of Your pardon.

It is in vain that Your enemy and mine sets new traps for me every day!  He will make me lose everything else ...but I will never lose the confidence I have experienced in Your mercy.  Jesus, I’m going to go tell it on a mountain.”

— a raging alcoholic, as he was working his ‘fifth step’

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His Service.  Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.  The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Here is a trustworthy saying deserving of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners— of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive Eternal Life.  Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.  Amen.”— 1 Timothy 1:12-17.

— the Apostle Paul, in ruthless honesty

“Now testify...

It’s right outside our door

Now testify

Yes testify”

— Rage Against the Machine

How does your testimony read?  If it hasn’t yet been written in pen and ink, or 0s and 1s, how will it read to the One who examines the human heart on the Day we stand before Him?  A lover of mercy who showed mercy to others, a receiver of grace who gave it out generously, a sponge of Jesus’ limitless love who let herself be wrung out for the world, a consumer of His compassion who turned toward everyone, including him or herself, with tenderness?  How will we be read by the Lover of Our Souls?

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

The Human Experience.

Do you ever just feel disqualified from the Life Jesus offers?  As if Abba’s promises are for everybody... but you?  “Oh yeah ...those Christians, those Followers, those Disciples, but not me.  You don’t understand where I’ve been, what I’ve done, the things I’ve seen.”  It’s this feeling of ‘not being good enough for grace,’ too mean-hearted to receive mercy from the hands of the Spirit.

Well, welcome to the Human Experience.  “There is no one righteous” apart from Abba’s Son, “not even one” {Rom. 3:10}; Isaiah said, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to His own way,” 53:6.  Paul said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature”— Romans 7:18.  Notice he didn’t say, “in my soul” but “in my sinful nature,” in my ‘flesh.’  “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out,” v. 18b.

Part of the problem in Christendom today is— across the denominational board, at least from a shepherding perspective— we seem to be drifting ever-further away from the Message of God’s awe-inspiring grace to restore we who’ve been stained by sin and redeem those of us under the enemy’s oppression.  We’ve mastered the art of moralizing and sermonizing and missed the lessons on loving— our Savior, our selves, and the lives of those we were meant to love.  We’ve given people the Law of God when what they long for is the love of God.  In the midst of this transaction, we’ve forgotten how to care for each other.

So, rather than spewing self-righteous contempt, why don’t we try glorifying the Son of God, the great Healer of the hearts of men, the One “who came to seek and to save that which was lost” and to proclaim liberty to all who are bound.  How many of us have read this passage?

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God [The context is very clear, from v. 1 where adikos is translated ‘ungodly,’ ‘wicked’ here means ‘unbelievers’ {v. 6}.]?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers, will inherit the Kingdom of God.”  Then he say’s, “And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified [declared righteous in the in the eyes of Abba, acquitted of all your crimes] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God,” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 {NIV}.

Notice Paul’s conclusion.  “And that is what some of you were,” past tense, over and done, gone for good.  Your sin no longer defines you.  It’s an insidious scheme of the evil one to come to you in the midst of failure {big or small, doesn’t matter} and surround you with a cloud of condemnation and try to drive all thought of the Savior forever from your soul.  To whisper on the winds of the world, “You’ve blown it this time.  There’s no forgiveness for this.  You are a liar, a hypocrite, a loser… and there is not enough grace in all of Heaven to cover this one.”  And the sad thing is, most believers buy it.  They slink back into the shadows of shame and revel in their unworthiness, instead of lifting up their eyes to Heaven and proclaiming with the audacity of faith, “My past is redeemed and my future secure.”

God specializes in forgiving {and unlike us, forgetting}, in putting people’s sins completely out of sight— “as far as the east is from the west.”  There is a passage in the Psalms which speaks of God casting our sins behind His back {103:8-12}.  Jesus takes our missteps, mistakes, malfunctions and malfeasance and redeems them for His glory {Rom. 8:28}!  There is no soul so shattered, no life so lost, no heart so hopeless, that He cannot bring the deliverance you so desperately need— and so deeply desire.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously