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| The New River Gorge Bridge |
Where I grew up, the great New River Gorge Bridge spans across the top of two mountains over the New River, located some 867 feet above.
It is over three-thousand feet long and once was boasted as the world's longest arch bridge.
Each year, thousands of people from across the country and around the world flock to 'The Bridge' on the third Saturday in October to celebrate, 'Bridge Day.'
Not long ago, I was privileged to minister with some believers on a mission team from the great state of North Carolina through connections with a pastor in the area on Bridge Day.
It was a wonderful, blessed time when I needed to 'get back into the groove' of ministry.
But I digress.
The one thing you will not find there is a massive amount of locals; the people who drive across the Bridge everyday are less impressed than others.
For those of us who can remember watching it being built, this rings even more true.
In all actuality, in many ways, we have grown accustom to the engineering feat of which so many stand in awe.
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| Near Eisenhower Tunnel/Loveland Pass, Colorado |
The locals, however, have grown up with this beauty of God's creation before their eyes; in a sense, they see the beauty but have lost the 'awe factor' of amazement.
Sadly, the exact thing happens when it comes to God's grace.
We are so use to having God's grace and expecting His forgiveness, we no longer stand in awe of what He can do, does do, nor the daily miracle He performs in the individual Christian's life.
In reading the Gospels, most of the time we are no longer amazed at God's over-arching mercy or grace.
Though we see faith appearing where it is least expected and faltering where it should be thriving - as Christians, we are not as impressed as we once were.
And that is really, really sad.
It is as if the individual Christian has become so accustom to God's grace that we expect to be forgiven as a birthright rather than receiving forgiveness after repentance of sin.
If this is true, we are truly in a sad state and in need of grace more than ever before.
Have you ever wondered why the ministry of presence and prayer is so important to some people in the faith?
The reason is because, for some, they don't have money, they weren't born with pedigree and they don't have an overpowering education.
The one thing that they do have is faith and time.
Faith allows them hope and time allows them to be able to see the fulfillment of their hope.
For example, if you know aged Christians, when speaking with them you will soon find that they will recall difficult times in their life with nostalgia.
In fact, I once read where 60% of the Britons who survived the Blitz on London perpetrated by the Nazi Luftwaffe, stated that the period was the happiest time of their lives.
This was a time of living below ground in tunnels and eating things you and I cannot even imagine, simply to survive another day; all the while praying and hoping pure evil would one day be defeated in yet another European War.
To me, that's amazing; until I realize that those who recall the Great Depression in the United States still speak of it has a hard, yet joyous time of struggle, survival and victory.It seems that when we encounter difficult times in our lives, God, somehow through those times, gives us strength and builds our character.
Yet, our character would never be built through His strength in those times had we not had the faith or the moral foundation He has provided to us.
It is in these times when we are stretched to the breaking point, but He does not allow us to break.
Think of the great giants of the faith in Scripture; who do we remember the most?
It is those who were stretched, didn't break, but continued on despite the odds or setbacks.
You see, our deepest strength only comes through times of testing and trial.
And true Faith means trusting in advance what can only be understood in reverse.
Like millions of others, I have been hurt by other Christians and by the very people whom I was called to serve within the local church.
There are hundreds of different ways a person can be hurt by churches and Christians, but today, it is becoming epidemic.
Sadly, there are millions of survivors of Church pain from false Christians, fake friends and pseudo-spiritual people.It is these who abuse grace and falsify faith as good men and women are hurt within the walls where they should be the safest.
Yet, if we had not been through such trials in our lives, we would not own the deep strength those who injured us will never know.
If we had not endured those times, we could not know the victory in seeing our faith vindicated while others remain spiritually blind.
And if it had not been for those times, we could never fully understand in reverse what we believed in advance.
One thing that I am thankful for in having cancer, recovering and then being hurt by Christians I loved and a Church I served: I was able to relearn the awesomeness of forgiveness, mercy and grace.
That was an unintentional gift those who hurt me never intended to give and a wonder they have yet to understand.
Through God's grace I have come to learn that they actually helped me by hurting me.
I can only describe it in the words of the Master, in a story He once told centuries ago.
In the story of the Prodigal Son, the father scans and searches the horizon waiting for the the son who left.
When the father sees him coming, he celebrates - not the faithful son who remained behind - but rather, he celebrates the return of the son who shamed him.
God does the same for every child that comes home to Him.
That is the scandal of grace.
You see, grace and mercy has never been about God's willingness to forgive us and give it; this has never, and I mean never, been in question.
Instead, history is a story of humans who resist God's offer of grace to our lives.
We fail to understand the powerful words of the Apostle Paul: "Where sin increased, grace increased all the more."
Today in Christianity, there are some who protest fallen soldiers' funerals, others who believe homosexuals cannot ever be redeemed; certainly there are some who believe races should not mix and still others who are harsh fundamentalists majoring on the minor issues of the faith.
And much of these things help us very little at all in our walk with the Lord.
With such a wide spectrum, and resistance to grace still rampant, the question still needs to be asked, "Can God forgive any sin?"
The absolute answer is 'yes.'
For, you see, the Kingdom of God is built on the back of murderers, adulterers and even those who have denied Him.
But the problem is not with God and it never has been; friend, the problem is with us.
Forgiveness is our gift from God, but it is also our greatest problem; we have a hard time believing God's well of grace never runs dry.
To be perfectly blunt, the grace God has restored my soul with is the same grace He awaits to give to the men who hurt me within the church; yet, this gives us another problem we have with grace.
A man can indeed sin and he can repent.
Yet, repentance is harder after a man willingly sins, believing prior to the sin all he will have to do is ask forgiveness and he will receive it.
The man is right, that is all he would have to do; but the problem is that once we commit the sin, we may not want to come back to God in repentance.
You see, when a Christian plans to sin, whether that sin is betraying another Christian or committing adultery or stealing a grape from a grocery market, in that act of sin - we change.
Since the Garden of Eden, in every act of rebellion, we change; sin corrupts us further and we become estranged and out of fellowship with God.
Over the years, I have witnessed to so many people I could not begin to count them all.
Yet, one common theme among many is the fact that they are nice people and they don't want to hurt my feelings because they can sense my compassion and sincerity.
Often, instead of outright rejecting Christ with their words, when asked if they want to accept Him for salvation, they will say, "Maybe later."
When we knowingly and purposefully sin against God in an act of open rebellion, we may continue to resist and reject His grace and forgiveness so much that the phrase, 'maybe later' will apply to our relationship with Him.
Don't ever allow yourself to remain in that prideful, rebellious, 'maybe later' place spiritually.
Do something about it and become reacquainted with the wonder of God's grace in your life.
Until next time, win one for the good guys.
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