December16
God's Overwhelming Grace/The Acceptable Day of the Lord
Yes, judgement is coming, but we are still called of the Lord to preach the Acceptable Day of the Lord. Today is still the day of salvation.: that we are still living under an open heaven where there is in Jesus Christ favor, protection and provision.
I have to admit that way too often I see things through the negative even though you might eventtually hear me praising God and thanking Him in the midst of it. Yes I often get focused on the negative. Recently I went through a situation that has had an impact on me of the greatness of God's grace and mercy towards us as revealed in Jesus Christ.
I have told some of this story from another perspective so bear with me if you have heard some of these things before. Three years ago I felt led to go to a little local congregation association with the Assemblies of God. I knew from day one that it was where I was to be despite being aware that there were folks in that congregation that were on the Board of a congregation I was in back in the 1980s. I wasn't blind to the fact that the pastors in the district of that group of churches also maintain conversation with each and that I had some "history" with some of the pastors that few would understand unless they knew all the details. Yet, I knew it was to be "home" for this period of time. I knew from the second Sunday I attended that pastor had acquired some negative information about me. Suddenly I was not there in their eyes, so to speak. It was clear from other new people in services that he had been to visit them, knew where they lived and some things about their lives. Sunday after Sunday the other new folks were continued to be welcomed, etc. and it was as if I wasn't there. Over the next three years it became very clear it wasn't my imagination, as every effort to open conversation with the pastor failed, invitations to take him and the family to dinner were not responded to. The pastor's wife bypassed me time and time again as if I wasn't even seen, which perhaps God had indeed kept me covered!
Yet, I knew that God had a mighty plan for that congregation, and for three years I "spoke" that plan into that congregation in prayer and service after service as I sat in my pew. I attended one prayer meeting of the congregation and quickly found that it wasn't a good fit for me. So I left them to do the things they do, knowing so well that God was in charge and doing in and through them what He had planned. And I continued to speak that back to the Lord knowing His faithfulness and love for those who are callled by His Holy name.
I love that little congregation. I loved the three years of worshipping with them and watching the power of Holy Spirit increase little by little over the three years, watching the pastor open himself to yielding to the Holy Spirit's leading instead of conforming to the "order of service" of which they, by their profession/confession "don't have" since it isn't written in the bulletin! LOL!
All this time I knew that there was gossip being spread by the pastor about me, and people being warned, of what I was not sure. Effort to address this with the pastor after he preached a sermon about going to your brother if you know he has some resentment towards you or holds some aught against you so as to be reconciled. My effort to do that met with a hard wall of denial and that broke only enough for him to tell me he had been "warned about me". Effort to discuss that or work some reconciliation was frustrated. YET, my friends, God continued to pour out His Spirit upon that place. He was faithful to His Word. He wasn't judging them for their sin, for their gossip, for the three years they excluded me from personal fellowship with them. Instead because He is the Lord God who loved them and me so much He gave His Son to reconcile them to Himself, He continued to pour Himself out towards them even as their hearts began to turn towards Him and in answer to the very heart cry He had put in my heart for that group of His children.
One Sunday in September was my last day with that congregation. That Sunday Holy Spirit was welcomed in a way beyond anything previously in that little group of people. A new couple who know how to minister in the power of Holy Spirit had started attending and would be assisting in worship at the piano and in ministry. I knew even with their coming that they brought serious personal issues with them not so different from the issues still unresolved in that congregation. I left without having seen the gossip and half truths which were disseminated related to me addressed. I was never free to do anything in relationship to those issues because the pastor was the one who listened to the lies and half truths and the door remained shut there. YET, God was blessing!!
I taught a bible study in the local area for 9 months and then for several months in my home. During that time some of the ladies let me know they had heard things and I was given the freedom to tell them what the whole story was because it had not affected their relationship to me or kept us from having that precious koinonia that we who are one in Christ Jesus have the privilege of knowing. The ladies wanted the bible study to take place in the church fellowship hall, but their requests were denied because the pastor would not put his "covering" over my ministry. But folks, this is what I have learned. GOD IS A GOD OF GRACE............He is still calling His own people to Himself! Will that congregation be judged for how they treated me..........NO! God is pouring Himself out to that people and He is going to continue to pour Himself out to them as long as they welcome Him. And they will be given opportunity to receive the fullness of His grace and mercy to be healed and cleansed from their sins, to confess their unloving attitudes to Him, and be conformed to Himself. That is the greatness of His Grace. I love those dear saints and continue to pray blessings over them.
A similar situation happened in a previous congregation I was in, except that the pastor extended his "covering" over me and repeatedly prayed for me and blessed me anytime I went to the altar. There were other big issues in that congregation that weren't about me, personally. For two years I journeyed with them, wonderful lovable saints. Yet a day came when I saw that leadership was no longer welcoming Holy Spirit into the services and began to blame the devil for some things that were actually the Holy Spirit. These were not anything related to me personally, but when the Lord showed me these things,He made it clear it was time for me to depart which was confirmed over and over by His most precious Holy Spirit. The Lord continued to tarry with that congregation. And He still is. However, they made some really poor choices. The pastor made some poor choices, one of which was in his 70s not to "slow down" despite specific warning from one of the apostolic couples in the congregation that he must take his physical body into consideration. Today, sadly, that poor decision not to slow down led to a stroke that left him unable to talk. He has regained most of his other abilities except those related to talking and also some of the writing skills. Is God still blessing? Yes!! He is the God of Grace and Mercy.
Is that judgement? No, it is consequence of our choices. Judgement is coming. But this is still the Acceptable day of the Lord and may we be found preaching it loud and clear!! Does it mean we won't pay for our poor choices? Absolutely not! But it also means that we serve a God of Mercy. I don't get the full consequences of my pour choices or I would have been dead many many years ago! He is a God of Grace and Mercy! Mercy says I don't get "all" the consequences of what I deserve because Jesus bore my sins. Yes it is true,that if I continue to engage in a pattern of sin, it could lead to death. God's Grace is continually poured out to call us to Him in the midst of our poor choices, in the midst of other' people's poor choices that impact us.
I read an article about the recent issues in Australia and it said something about Satan coming to Australia. I would have laughed if the circumstances hadn't been so wicked. Satan has been alive and well on Planet Earth for thousands of years. And we are seeing his kingdom coming to the fore even as the scriptures have spoken. But this isn't yet judgement on mankind sins. It is the consequence of our poor choices, of our choice to serve the enemy rather than the Lord God and receive His blessings. Today, that cry of the Father is still there...COME TO ME! GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, that whosoever believeth in HIm. It is the reason Brother Andrew could go into the midst of Hamas leadership and be welcomed. He didn't go judging. He went full of grace and mercy, with an invitation to be loved!
There is a judgement coming...it is appointed unto men once to die and then the judgement. And there is the Day of the Lord that is coming that is judgement upon the earth and all that is in it the end of which will be the restoration of all things. So even in judgement the Lord God is a God of mercy and ultimately will give us a new heaven and a new earth. For now, the earth is filled with His Glory....it covers the earth and it there for us to rely upon in the midst of the bad decisions and consequences we make others decisions upon the earth.
So great is our message, that sometimes I wonder why we have kept so silent! The GOOD NEWS is so powerful. The King is come. He is Here. He is bigger than all our sins, which he himself personally bore on the cross. Everyone of my sins, has HIS name on it. The consequences of my sin, He BORE...past tense. So will I believe Him or continue to walk in the guilt and shame and power of my own sin and separation from Him. Yet, the door of relationship is still open....through the blood of the cross.............through the power of Jesus Name. What a message we have to everyone.
This message is for everyone, including those who have excluded me, those that rejected me! He is the God of Grace..........His mercy is new every morning. Without having gone through the things I have these past three years, I have to admit I would really never comprehend this kind of Grace that our God has towards us. That Grace is revealed in the work of the cross and the sacrifice of His Dear Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus! But it has always been. Even under the Law, Grace was poured out all throughout the story of the Old Testament. Abraham lied but God's Grace, His plan and purpose were greater than Abraham's sin. David sinned and yet God's Grace was greater and lead him on in the blessing of the Lord to the end of His days as David yielded to Him. Yes, there were consequences of David's sins....as there were with Moses' sin. But Grace prevailed...even under the Law! The blood of the Lamb that was shed before the foundation of the earth in the mind of God was forever present and continues to cover our sins and allow the Grace of God to be revealed in the midst of our failures and shortcomings.
May we be agents of such Grace Himself in all we do.
Meri Ford 516 Park Rd Winlock, WA 98596 360 520 4503 Blogs http://meriford.blogspot.com/ http://www.renewedhopesite.wordpress.com/ website: http://www.renewedhopesite.com
