This is huge topic in the Christian Church today. So many times we want to live for Jesus, but then have times where we fail. This morning I was awaken at 4:51 am. I noticed immediately that it was still dark out, as the light was definitely artificial that was coming through the venetian blinds in my room. Quietly, I started talking to my Heavenly Father, and noticed that my wife was still asleep. Getting up, I knew, I needed to spend time with Jesus. So I quietly got out of bed, and meandered my way through a messy hallway, with my feet running into clothing in a messy hallway, at different intervals. I finally made it to our dining room, and then kneeled down in front of the window, and began to pray. As I prayed, a flood of memories came back to me of my early twenties. Things were different then, and I often found myself lonely, over issues about appearance, and whether or not I was popular, but those thing faded into the background as a Man named Jesus met me! He showed me that He cared so much about me! He took the time to listen to me as I talked to Him. There were many walks, and incredible experiences and miracles that I had, so much so that I would later entitle the ground school I attended "The place of Miracles", but this is for another blog entry at another time. Thinking back fondly of those memories of physically getting out and going for a walk with Jesus, created a desire to once again, go out and walk with Him.
The Bible says that Enoch walked with God, and my pastor encouraged me that I needed to get out there and walk with Him to, and tell Him what was going on in my life. Again, this advice happened when I was 19 years old. I now found myself 29 years old, and things had changed. Somehow, someway walls had been built up between my Best Friend and I. There was the desire to spend time with Him that weighed heavily on me, but the other things just pulled me in the other direction. Finally as I knelt this morning in Prayer, an overwhelming desire came over me to get up off my knees and go and walk out in the cool morning. After all, Jesus got up early in the Morning and communed with His Father. Mark 1:35 says: “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”
Finally I could take no more, and got up. I got dressed and then headed out into the early just before dawn air. The sky was a dark blue, with patches of darker clouds that filled it. There were little cracks in the clouds, and the light glow of the moon could be seen through them. Before I continued my walk, I remembered that I had left my Bible out our van. I quickly walked over to it in the parking lot, opened the sliding door and grabbed the Bible out of the front seat. I couldn't see it clearly, but I could tell by the feel of what I was grabbing. Closing the door behind me, I began to apologize to Jesus for all my failures, especially in not coming to Him more often. As I walked over to the sidewalk with lamps still on in the early morning air, I opened my Bible. There little sanctuary that the light made, I was able to read the text. What I read, shocked, encouraged, and strengthened me at the same time. The passage was from Hebrews 6: 13-20.
“13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:3 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”I had a hard time coming to grips with what I had read. There was Jesus with arms outstretched, showing me that He wanted me to have strong consolation. When I came to Him, He forgave me of my sins and neglect. I had asked Him earlier, and He had again forgiven me and given me a new lease on life! 1 John 1:8-10 says: “ 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
When I came to Jesus, He not only forgave me my sin, but cleansed me of my sin. A once famous preacher put it this way: When I go to God and ask Him to forgive me, He justifies me. What happens if I make the same mistake. So I go to God and say to Him, in dispair: I did it again, I'm sorry, and He responds: “Did what again?” You see, when God forgives me of my sin, He does something incredible. Jesus says in Ezekiel 31:34:
“ 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
When God justifies me, it is as if I never sinned in the first place! I have a new lease on life! So, failure does happen in the Christian life, but we have a Savior who takes us back, and restores us, the past is forgotten, and we are truly free! Jesus has said in His Word: “36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
I may mess up a hundred thousand times in a day, but as soon as I go to Jesus and ask Him to forgive and cleanse me, He does! As I continued my walk, it was as if I had been transported back to the good old days when I was going to a ground school! My heart was light, and I walked with my Best Friend all the way back to the apartment and had a great conversation!
