One of the things that life has taught me since I have once again turned my life over to Christ is one simple fact. God forgives, however the world does not, it forgets. This fact leads to many more trials and challenges than I care to acknowledge. So we will look at this thought over the next few pages.
For those of you that do not know me, I was raised in a Christian environment at an early age. I was saved and baptized by the age of 11. It was a wonderful day, which I still remember vividly. This day lead to trials of faith and challenges that proved to be too much for me at that time. I turned from the church and began to look through different denominations of Christianity other than the Baptist church that I had always known.
This led me eventually to the occult through not finding what I was seeking in all branches of Christianity. As I spiraled down darker roads, I found a road that fueled hatred and anger. I embraced Satan as my savior. He was the adversary of the one that I felt abandoned by. There was power in magic; knowledge in the unseen. I stared into the abyss and truly it gazed back upon me.
As my morals decayed and destroyed the good man that I had tried so hard to be for so long, I became something that I did not recognize. Through a coven that was started by my wife and myself, we allowed the darkness engulf us and swallow us whole. In that time of darkness we performed deeds that were punishable by law. We hurt others that were involved with the same dark deeds as we were. One of them, rightfully so, went to the police.
Prior to all of this, God was yet there. I heard the warnings, “If you do not turn back, then you will not like where this road goes.” I was warned not once or twice, but at least three times I was told to turn from this path. Yet my heart was hardened. I would not turn away. So me and my wife were arrested and given charges that would take the fight out of nearly anyone. Locked away with no way to get out, God began to wrestle me.
I was placed in a cell with someone that was raised in a Satanic household as a child. The damage that was done to him caused him to be pulled from his parents. This man had become a Christian in jail. It was one of the best things that could have happened to me. It put more weight on me to reflect at my life and how I was living. Through stories and testimony, my heart was broken enough to look at the word of God with an open mind again.
God did not tire. He broke me down with isolation, separation and reflection. He brought me to a point where I had to realize that the only way to get through this ordeal alive was with him and him alone. I gave my life back over to him. The whole time my wife was going through the same thing. Independently she found her way to Christ for the first time. We both were scared to tell the other that we had become a Christian because we did not want to lose the one that we loved.
Scared and nervous we eventually told one another that we had become a Christian and was overjoyed to find that the other had as well. This is an important part of the topic that I am discussing here. We had been forgiven of our sins, cloaked in the blood of Jesus. God took those that were fully ready to kill his followers and do anything we could to defeat the Church of hypocrisy and lies. He took us in and forgave us. He showed us grace and mercy. Our charges were reduced from Felony to Misdemeanors and we were given one year of probation. Certainly less than what we deserved in the eyes of the world, and much more than we deserved where the spirit is concerned.
God gave us a new beginning, a new start on life. He gave us another chance to know what love truly is and how good Grace is. He gave us a Church family that showed us how to support and love as Christ. He gave us councilors that were capable of helping us deal with all the wounds that we had dealt to ourselves and allowed the demons in hell to do to us.
God even blessed me with a job that was beyond my wildest dreams. I am more than a bit of a computer nerd, and he gave me a job working at Microsoft. With our past I never thought it would be possible, but there I was. He kept our sins hidden from the HR department and blessed me with a year of work there.
Things were looking great; I thought that I had finally made it all the way out of the darkness. I had a chance to interview for internal positions within Microsoft and was extended a job offer. The background check was going through and I even revealed the sins of my past to everyone involved to ensure that nothing would stop me from this dream. Even though HR said everything would be fine, the legal department had an issue with my past.
The world has not yet forgotten my past. And because of my past, they felt it was necessary to terminate my temporary contract as well. I cannot stress this enough. Anything is possible with God at your side, but that does not mean that the world will just open up and let you in wherever you happen to be. The world looks at me as a violent man and a safety risk. I have been turned down for six different jobs because of my past in the same number of weeks.
The world still remembers good and well the monster that I had become and will not take a chance to allow me another chance. This is how the world deals with mistakes. If you made one mistake you will make another. So it is best that they just stay away from you and your mistakes as they can. The world will ignore you and look away until they forget why they are looking away from you.
Once the world has forgotten your past, you will be damned by it. When we give ourselves to the Lord, we are no longer of the world, we are of God. With that we are no longer of the world. So the world does not understand how we can be transformed through God. The world still thinks as it has and as it will. John tells us this in his first letter to the Church in 1 John 4:4-6. The world cannot see the fact that we are clothed in the Blood of Christ that we have indeed been forgiven.
The world really does not care about that fact either. Why should they? They are not of God so they do not know Grace. My salvation resides in the Grace of God for no man is worthy of the salvation that is offered through Christ Jesus. Even now as I face these struggles I know that the Lord is at my side and as the Psalmist stated, “If God stands with us, Who can stand against us?”
The answer is plain with that one. No one can stand against us if God stands with us. As we all struggle to understand God’s plan. I am confident that he will lead us all to salvation and our home build upon stable ground. What this will look like, none of us will really know. We must not resist God in times like this. He knows what he is doing, as long as we are ready to move when God says move then he will do amazing things with us.
Our struggles revolve around our sin. We are imperfect people all lacking the grace of God. Our spirit is of God and through that spirit we are able to do many wonderful and miraculous things. God is preparing me for the next position in life that he will use me for. I know not what it is, but I would like to think I am ready now for the move. God opens doors that the world would keep shut from me.
The Lord is providing all of our needs for us. That is his promise to us. Be a good steward of what you are blessed with and know that just because the world does not forgive, you can be forgiven if you look to the Lord and accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. If God can forgive again and again men and women that set to destroy all good works that he has done, occultists and demon worshipers, what sin have you committed that he could not forgive? All is possible with the love of the Lord.
