Forgiveness

Changing the Strings

/ pastorpete51 / 5 Comments

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. Hebrews 12:11 NLT

I love playing guitar, and one of my favorite things is to sit alone and play worship music after putting on a set of new strings. But on the other hand, my least favorite thing is changing those blasted strings! One by one, the old strings must be unwound, then, after carefully pulling out each peg, new ones can be put in their place. Then, slowly and gently, each one has to be stretched till its sound equals the pitch pipe’s note. Finally, when everything sounds great, you play a few chords and -voila! = it is immediately out of tune! Yep, those new strings aren’t ready for prime time, till they’ve been played and retuned, over and over. Restringing my guitar today, reminded of the verse from Hebrews about discipline, and how God has been doing some needed restringing in my life this week.

I had used my busyness as an excuse and failed to keep my promise to visit someone. Though I probably visited a hundred people that week, I failed to listen to the Spirit’s prompting to make time in my schedule. “I will get there next week.” I thought. But sadly, my friend didn’t have another week, because yesterday he passed away. As I prayed in the room with friends and family, the daughter’s words of the previous night rang in my ears, “Pastor Pete, you didn’t come!” Yes, I am sorry, and yes, she forgave me and best of all, yes, he had prayed with her to receive Christ the previous week when I wasn’t there. The hands of God are turning the tuning pegs of my life today and unwinding old habits and stretching my heart, till it sounds more like Heaven’s melody and less like the world around me.

How wonderful God’s mercy, that restores and helps us even in our failures. For me that blessing came when I heard our friend tell us of her final conversation with her dad. Though he could no longer communicate his eyes looked around till he saw his daughter. Then, she held his hand saying, “It’s okay daddy. The sun is shining and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It’s a good day to go to Heaven.” Then, just moments later, he slipped into the arms of Jesus, and those words will forever remind me that, God is never too busy.

Every Detail His Design

/ pastorpete51 / 7 Comments

The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits; all the curtains shall be the same size. Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another. Exodus 26:2-3

Though I love Nancy more than the day, fifty-two years ago when we said, “I do!” sometimes she makes me crazy! Sitting down to dinner, I get told there is a right way and wrong way to set the knife and fork by my plate, and that the napkins can only point in one direction. But when I read the book of Exodus, I find that in many ways God’s attention to details is a lot like hers. In today’s verse I wondered about the thoughts running through the mind of Moses while God dictated to him His instructions for building the tabernacle. Did he ever question why all of this was important. After all, when God had met him at the burning bush, He spoke of delivering the Israelites from Egypt to, “…bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…” Exodus 3:8

But what About that Promised Land?!

Somewhere between the purple curtains and the goatskin outer covering, Moses might have wanted to ask, “Hold the presses God! Where is the milk and honey that You mentioned at the beginning?” But Moses had been through too much to question the God who went from sending frogs into the Egyptians bread dough to parting the Red Sea. Every step of the way, through every detail of their struggles, and fears, God had been working out His plan. And, in the middle of all the details, issues, bumps and bruises of your life God is still working out the details. He delights in watching over sparrows and lost lambs. The same God of Niagara Falls is the one who fills the brook with crawdads. He directs everything in His creation, and this same God of tabernacle curtains, and plagues also cares for us. He has generously given us both daily bread and the life of His only Son to forgive our sins. And right now, God invites us to a place of wondrous purple curtains, angels and lampstands, and best of all, a place at His table. There we will discover that through each major stumble and tiny heartache, every frustration and forgiveness that He has been working for our good through every detail according to His loving and mysterious design!

Photo by Mason McCall on Pexels.com

The Cross is Enough

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

Who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Romans 4:25 ESV

When Jesus rose from the dead, things were confusing, and the world seemed to turn upside down, but everybody knew one thing for sure – The tomb was empty! When the men guarding the tomb saw an angel, they passed out cold! Later, that morning when the women came, they saw that the was stone rolled away and they ran as fast as they could to tell the disciples! By the time Peter and John arrived, all they could find was the empty burial cloths. Can you imagine what kind of questions filled their minds? Finally, the answer came as Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb, Jesus came close to talk with her, and He wants to talk with you and me today.

Just as all of these people found something far better than what they were looking for: God wants you to find that same something today. He knew that we needed hard evidence because the grip of past failures in our lives could only be broken by a victory stronger than any failure or sin. That something is our resurrected Lord! His life is proof positive that God forgives our guilt, and His resurrection tells us that the cross was enough to wash away our sins. No matter who we are, there is good news, because all the selfish choices of our past have been washed away by the blood of Jesus. God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, not just for us to celebrate on Easter, but so that every day, when we face our failures, we can remember that the cross was enough. The empty tomb is proof positive God has forgiven and set us free to serve Him forever!