Traveling the Rock Road

During a conversation with a dear friend who is not a believer in God or Christ he asked a very good question. “John, often I’ve been asked why I’ve never believed in God in 70 years of life. Let me ask you something; what has kept you believing all these years?” I’m sure some of my Christian brothers and sisters would say that’s an easy one and fire back with scripture to defend the position of their belief. That’s all well and good but truthfully, I’ve seen a good share stop believing when some type of catastrophe invades their lives. I’ve also witnessed those who fall away (And I was there for a season), but return to trusting God. Then of course there are the steady ones that no matter what comes they proclaim, “I will trust my Lord and my God!” I paused for a moment before answering my friend because frankly I didn’t know exactly what to say. But when I opened my mouth three words came out, “Grace, Mercy, Forgiveness.” I then followed up with “And the love of a Father that never ends.” He seemed satisfied with my answer and we moved on to other subjects. But for days after I questioned why I had answered the way I did and what did it really mean, to me.

When I was boy Ma and I were in Maryland and had little money. She talked a kindly elderly woman into letting us use the apartment over her garage until mom could get a job. This dear saint was more than glad and watched me when Ma did find work. Down the street was a corner market that let us have food under the same conditions as the lady with the apartment. Mom didn’t make much money but she always gave the two something to pay down our indebtedness. The time came when we moved to Ohio and mom promised she would send money to both as soon as she could. Each said about the same thing, “You proved yourself trustworthy, your debt it paid in full.”

Ephesians 2:8  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” – Grace.

When I was 16 I got into some trouble so serious that I was locked up in the county jail for a weekend. The seriousness of the crime was so high, I knew I was going to be sent off to a juvenile detention center. That Sunday morning a police officer that was a friend to the family came, got me out of jail, took me to breakfast and had a long and hard talk with me. He then drove me home with a warning not to let this happen again.

Hebrew 4:16 “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” – Mercy.

This might be my favorite example. Cathy and I had gotten into a business venture so bad it wiped us out financially, left us in debt to many with the biggest being, everyone’s friend, the IRS! They went as far as freezing all our assets if we did not come up with the money we owed. After I paid that amount we were assessed with fines and levies that far exceeded the first amount. Not knowing what to do, I wrote a letter to them that went something like this. “You are right, I am guilty of not paying you and the only excuse I have is my own stupidity! I will make every effort to pay you and never make such a boneheaded mistake again. I only ask that you please set a payment plan we can work with it.” I never saw or talked to anyone after that point, but later I had vision of someone in the office there reading my letter, then passing it around to other saying, “Hey you gotta check this guy out, this is totally a first!” It was two weeks before that ominous envelope from the IRS arrived. With shaking hands we opened it. Inside was the bill for what we owed them–$0.00!!!

Micah 7:18 “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.”

Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” – Forgiveness.

As you can clearly see each works in conjunction with the others: Grace, Mercy, and Forgiveness hand in hand not because of what I’ve done, but because of the love the Heavenly Father has for me and you. That’s the kicker. Amen?!!

Well I totally went in a different direction than what I had planned to for Traveling the Rock Road.” But this has been heavy on my heart, and I believe it’s good for all who call themselves Believers to be able at any moment to state why they believe. For any Christians I have challenged to clearly define what keeps you believing, well.  Amen. For any who don’t believe but possibly I’ve given them reasons to at least take a look at the love of God that comes through Grace, Mercy, Forgiveness, then my message to you would be straight and simple.

AWESOME!!!!!

See ya next time.