Every time that I become judgmental of another (which is often) it is because I’ve forgotten that divine mercy rescued me and am choosing to trust in my own merit.

~ Jeremy McCoy

 

If you follow my blog you know well the season I have been in… the season of judgment as I study the judgments of God on those who profess His name yet dishonored it in Ezekiel and those who refuse His name no matter how often He cries out to them in Revelation… It has been a heavy hearted season.

How thankful I am that God does not keep me there long… I believe I would drown in the sorrow of it all and sink under the burden of only seeing the sin we so often choose over obedience to the law of God.

My God always brings me up out of this season as He lovingly reminds me of His sovereignty.

I read Jeremy’s quote on Facebook and this was my response:

God has to often remind me how far and how long I strayed and how many times He reached out to me to pull me in by His grace before I realized how tightly His anchor could hold me…

After I had this moment I watched a recorded speaking engagement of Ravi Zacharias and during the question answer time he was asked how he came to know Christ in such a non-Christian culture… He shared how he had no Christian friends, was surrounded by either Muslim teaching or Hindu teaching, he personally lived as an atheist… but his grandmother was a believer and his parents “nominal” Christians.

He shared how he could not remember one sermon… because he attended just long enough to please his parents and then he was out the door.

He shared how he had no concern for his studies and he shared how in India the pressure to succeed in school was very strong and you were shamed if you did not perform well. He shared how through his apathy to his studies had led to grades that would bring shame on his father and family and his father told him as much… and he shared how this led to an attempted suicide.

He shared how he was laying in the bed and a Bible was brought to his room and he shared how It was the presence of God seeking him and he shared how he remembered a song from his childhood that was sung at his grandmother’s funeral when he was nine years old, “Abide With Me”… he remembered the melody and a few lines. Then he remembered the word of Christ, the Word of God, “Because I live… you also shall live“.

He said that at that moment he said, Jesus if You are who You say You are then save me and I will spend the rest of my life seeking Your truth…  

He shared how his parents came to know Christ and when his mother died he asked for the verse “Because I live you also shall live” (John 14:19) to be put on her headstone. Then he shared how as a grown married man he and his wife were in India and they decided to go find his grandmother’s headstone… when they found it they read there below his grandmother’s name and date of birth and death the verse “Because I live you also shall live” (John 14:19).

His conclusion to the questioner on how he came to know Christ was that God tracked him like a hound of heaven…

It was through the Word of God and a through a life of total failure that the two met and the Word of God triumphed over me and I met Christ

~ Ravi Zacharias

The Word of God triumphs always… He is sovereign. I can find no greater peace than the assurance of the sovereignty of my God. It is the sovereignty of God that knows our hearts. He knows our hearts just as He knew the heart of Peter…

Jesus knew Peter to the core. He knew Peter would fall, but He prayed for him that he would not remain fallen. Jesus loved Peter—even at his point of deepest weakness.

~ Chuck Swindoll

(Luke 22:31-34)

It is here where mercy triumphs over judgment. It is here where my soul can find rest when my fears of a watching a loved one falling severely into sin can so grip me. It is here where I can in love tell someone that what they are doing is sin against God and sin against heaven. It is here that I can show them kindness without watering down the truth. It is here that I can let go and let God.

 

 

It is here in the sovereignty of my God, that Hound of Heaven, that One whose Word always triumphs… here where grace and mercy and judgment meet… it is here alone that I can find peace. Here alone that I can lay aside judgment and leave it to the only One who has all the needed evidence to judge.

It is here alone that I can make the hard decisions in obedience to the Word trusting in the Word.

It is here where I can let the Peter’s in my life deny their Christ… without the sheer fear of their coming consequences overtaking me with sorrow…

Remembering how strongly those cords of love drew me into His embrace…

Remembering how that Hound of Heaven tracked me down as well…

Remembering how only God’s divine mercy can rescue any soul…

Remembering that my Sovereign Savior said:

 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice,

and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 

When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them,

and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 

A stranger they simply will not follow,

but will flee from him,

because they do not know the voice of strangers.

John 10:3-5

and

This is the will of Him who sent Me,

that of all that He has given Me

I lose nothing,

but raise it up on the last day.

John 6:39

So I proclaim.

I prepare the soil.

I plant.

I pray…

I feed the Word to all who will hear it or read it.

I will shove it down your throats as often as I see an opportunity.

I will not water down the truth of the judgment of God on sin, but at the same time I will not withhold His mercy, kindness, love, and grace in my own weak and sad attempt to force repentance.

Repentance and Salvation and Obedience can only come as a response to the conviction and call of the Holy Spirit of God. The power of salvation is in the gospel not me… I am to abide in Him and as I abide in Him and His Word abides in me… I pray and I trust that when He says “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7), He means it.

 

 

So I am thankful for that Hound of Heaven and I am thankful that God takes me through those seasons of judgment and I am thankful that He pulls me through them by reminding me of His sovereignty…