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
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Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously