Devotional Thought of the Day

¹⁹  For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰  So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 2 Corinthians 5:19-20 (NLT)

³²  And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” John 12:32 (NLT)

. ²¹  I will pardon my people’s crimes, which I have not yet pardoned; and I, the LORD, will make my home in Jerusalem with my people.” Joel 3:21 (NLT)

There is a lady who’s name, face and voice have been plastered all over the internet lately. 

She has been compared to Nazi doctors;  she has been termed a devil, she has been called evil, her sin has been paraded all over the world.   

And she is welcome to come to my church.  She is welcome to come and know she is safe.  Her sin will not be the only focus of the sermon and the message. People will welcome her, we might even rejoice that she has come!  We want her to come to Concordia, and hear a message of hope, a message of love, a message of mercy, that all of us desperately need to hear.  Not just her, not just that one sin either a mercy that covers every sin, for He died to forgive every sin.

Some may hear this in disbelief.  You don’t mean the doctor from Planned Parenthood.  The one who was involved in the selling of body parts?  You surely wouldn’t welcome her into your church?   Don’t you realize how guilty she is?

Yes, I do, Christ didn’t come to save the good people.  He came to save sinners, people broken by guilt and shame, He came to save her.  He came to save you and I.  he came to save every one of us that has chosen evil over good at some time in our lives. Jesus came so we could be granted repentance and trust in Him, and given hope. This lady needs to know that God is still willing to reach out to her!  He not only wants, He desires to bring her back to Him!  Jesus died to make her reconciliation to the Father possible, as He has for every sinner.

You and I included.  

For this is what the church does, it reveals hope to the sinner.  It is i the church’s mission.  We exist to give sinners hope. We exist to bring them into the Father’s presence.  We exist to see everyone be cleansed of all sin and welcomed into the family of God.

And if God can do that for me, he can surely do it for her. For she is not a worse sinner than I am. Or for that matter Paul the Apostle who said,

¹²  I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, ¹³  even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. ¹⁴  Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus. ¹⁵  This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. ¹⁶  But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. ¹⁷  All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:12-17 (NLT)

That is how powerful the mercy of God is. He desires that she would know His love and mercy.  And fellow sinner, we need to be so in awe of God’s love for her, that we don’t get in her way, that we don’t block her way to the Father. 

He can work with her, she needs to know that, as does every other sinner we know.  That Jesus has done this for us, we who are of all sinners the foremost,  should give them hope.

I pray she comes into one of our churches this weekend, along with every other person who needs hope.  And I pray she find it.

For that is God’s desire… and it should be ours

Lord have mercy on us all!