A GRACE
PERIOD
With Missionary Carol Hall,
I was thinking about
THANKFULNESS, and I thought about the times that I sinned, messed up...
but God protected me and gave me grace and time to repent... BEFORE
ANYBODY ELSE FOUND OUT! When I think of different people
who have sinned and GOT CAUGHT and their lives are in a mess........WOW!!!
I have done some wrong
things in my own life, but God gave me space to clean up my life, and did not
make it publicly known!!
I suffered within my own heart a lot because I hurt the Lord, and it was
agony..... But at least nobody else was hurt.
Maybe I
repented in time. I feel that every Christian that backslides or
sins impulsively, or even short term....has a GRACE PERIOD and if they repent and turn from that sin
within that grace period, they are protected from public shame or humiliation,
and their families are protected as well.
God is a God of
mercy... However, If God knows that his child WILL
GO DEEPER AND DEEPER, then God just might expose them IMMEDIATELY, to protect them from
further sins.
Well, these are just
thoughts... I was thinking if a pastor who’s sin was recently made public. I
know he must have been in such terrible agony to be sinning over and over again
for some years. I know he loved the Lord; If he had truly repented,
and turned away from his sin... his family and church-family would have been
spared the terrible shame.
However, he seemed like
he could not stop it......so finally...judgment came. NOT from God...but from the
world itself... Quick repentance is very very
important. Wow...I just never want to sin....but yet, we always
do... In small ways....but to God, sin is sin...We must be sensitive to Him
every day!! We never never never want
to grieve the dear precious Holy Spirit.
So in this Thanksgiving
month, I can THANK GOD for his abundant MERCY & GRACE and PATIENCE and HIS
BLOOD that washes even the STAINS AWAY... I surely don't deserve it.
Carol
Hall,
