Speak Life

So, you have a knack for disappointing people? Do not lose heart. God’s arm is still not short that it cannot save. Do not allow the self righteous and the theologically misinformed to kill the faith upon which your very eternal life depends. So you have lied, cheated, fornicated, smoked crack and come back, etc. There are those in Christendom who are more interested in your confession of failure than in the ability of our mighty God to save the truly repentant. I sometimes conclude that forgiveness is less likely in the church than in the world and this should not be the case. “When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17). Such condemnation of the saints by the saints (leadership in particular) is the very reason Christianity has lost its ability to effectively evangelize the way Jesus himself did in the first five chapters of John’s Gospel. The English word “gospel” is a derivative of the Old English “godspel” (good tidings), which is merely a rendering of the Greek word “evangelion” (good news). So go ahead Reverend Righteous and Suzy So Saved. Continue to cast that first stone, the one that never leaves your readied hand. Point your quick and sinless finger to ridicule and belittle with shame those whom God has called and predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son. You have not read the eighth chapter of Romans and apparently you walk by sight and not by faith (very scriptural of you). You seem to trust in man’s nine volts of power rather than the infinitely continual supernatural power of Jehova God. You are like the Sadducees whom Jesus scolded by saying, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). You sit in judgment of those who fall (fail) as if God is powerless and as if God has not chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, nor chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong (Paraphrase 1 Corinthians 1:27). “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:19). Brethren, let us step out of the way and lead the lost sheep to the care of The Good Shepherd. Are we not to be ministers of grace? Why then are we so often progenitors of condemnation in the hearts of those who I am convinced will finish well despite us? Therefore I say, whatever you say; speak life!