What scars do you have?

We all have scars, some inside some out. Scars serve as a reminder a lesson learned, a lesson to be shared.

I grew up in Church , had great head knowledge of God, and great heart knowledge of those who called themselves Christians. A lot of them that I seen go to the churches on Sundays are the same ones I hung out with on the weeknights in the local bars.

I said to myself this is not what a child of God should be someone who plays a part, but I to played the part as a child of God I did not know Him as my Lord and Savior.  I asked Christ into my heart a thousand times but I never meant it,

I led worship in our church, could quote scriptures ,I knew the Bible backwards and forwards but none of it meant anything to me.

I lived life on my terms.

Mother's Day 1984 I walked into church after binge dinking all night. I would not set foot in Church until almost ten years later. I only came back to church because it profited me , God still had work to do in my life. And for the next five years of my life I fought God every time harder than before, knowing what was right and wrong. I wasn't willing to submit to Him yet.

By the world's standards I had everything you could ask for I had a job as a general sales manager for a car lot making $15,000 plus a month , money was my god and I served her well,most people didn't like me, including me.

But October 22nd 1998 it all changed when asked in a meeting at church if I left here tonight and went into eternity where would I go? and I heard God say to me that I would go to hell. I stopped in my tracks and could go no further. That night I surrendered my life to God He took my anger , He took my pride, He took my greed, He took my smoking, He took my drinking, He took my vocabulary, He took me and buried me.. I offered Him a broken vessel, He gave me Grace.

The next day I walked in and quit my job I was looked at like I was crazy but I knew I could no longer do my job in good conscience, I no onger wrestled with the Lord but started walking with Him.

Change in me was easy to see , I told God when I walked away that either I was all in or all out. I was all out to long. Now I am all in.

This is just a glimpse of what God has done for me and in me and is still doing. I bear the scars of choices I made, ones that remind me daily of the Grace I have received.

I can't boast of anything except who Jesus Christ is and what He has done and is doing in me. If it were not for His grace I would be dead or in prison for the things I have done, I can think of 10 times these 2 things should have happened, but God spared me.

God has spared each of us for such a time as this to reach the unreachable to love the unlovable for we to were once one of them.

Brothers, if someone is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual should restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so you also won’t be tempted.  Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each person should examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in respect to someone else. For each person will have to carry his own load. Galatians 6:1-5

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world. For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.  May peace come to all those who follow this standard, and mercy to the Israel of God! From now on, let no one cause me trouble, because I bear on my body scars for the cause of Jesus.  Brothers, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Galatians 6:14-18

Living socially and Spiritually

Scripture is clear that those who are strong must defend the weak, it is never an option. Who are the weak, the widows, orphans, children, disabled, elderly, and those who are lost without Christ.

Who are the strong; those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

We can not sit by as we see injustice being done in the world, murder, theft, oppression, slavery,drunkenness, attacks on the family unit and marriage, homelessness, racism and poverty

Just as we can not sit idly by as thousands go to eternity without hearing of the saving grace and love God has offered through Jesus Christ His Son.

Sin, death and bondage strive when God's people are silent. The gospel message is the only hope the world has, and they need to hear it

While God is a God of love, He is a God of Justice and Righteousness, and He will send away those who reject His gift of grace and salvation.

Those who do are captives of sin, carried away bound in chains of slavery weak from not hearing the gospel message of freedom and salvation found only in Christ Jesus.

We are to live and love well, live by justice and truth, defend the weak and the poor, we are not only called to live spiritually but socially step outside the walls of our houses of worship go into the world see what God is doing and where He is at work and glorify God in all we do.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.  Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
Proverbs 24:10-11

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,  learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Isaiah 1:16-17