“There will always be someone willing to hurt you, put you down, gossip about you, belittle your accomplishments and judge your soul. It is a fact that we all must face. However, if you realize that God is a best friend that stands beside you when others cast stones, you will never be afraid, never feel worthless and never feel alone.” ― Shannon L. Alder
“Here’s the paradox. We can fully embrace God’s love only when we recognize how completely unworthy of it we are.” ― Ann Tatlock
Forward Thinkers, I’m often asked, why do I spend so much of my time marching in peace walks when black people are still going to keep killing each other? Why would I go beyond the call of duty to help people who will never show any sign of appreciation? And why would I constantly pour myself into other people’s problems and issues?
Some even say, “Deckard, you are crazy. I’d never be doing all that stuff for ‘them kind of people’”. And “Don’t you realize there’s no money in that?”
Forward Thinkers, my response is “I can’t repay God for saving me and considering me worth saving if I forget I, too, was ‘one of them people’”. If it was not for God’s hand of grace, my life story could have turned out a whole lot different than this. Forward Thinkers, I’m grateful that God turned what the devil planned for my demise into my good.
Before I go any further, I wonder if there are any Forward Thinkers out there thankful that God thought you were worth saving.
Luke 19:10 New International Version (NIV)
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
The bible is very clear, Jesus came to seek and save the lost. The modern day church has somehow abandoned his 1st love and got side tracked seeking fame, fortune, power, and self glorification. If we are Christians, we should be Christ-like and if Christ came to seek and save the lost, we should be seeking and saving the lost also.
I remember the story of the Good Samaritan, where the church leaders were too busy or too uncaring to assist the man in trouble on the side of the road. Forward Thinkers, I wonder how many church leaders today would also be found guilty of this same selfish act.
Let’s define seek: To go in search of
Maybe I’m wrong but, I believe the church has a spiritual responsibility to go and search for the lost and the last time I checked, the lost didn’t hang out in the comfort of the church. If the church is too busy to go seeking the lost, maybe the church needs to redefine who he really is.
The church should consider a name change from church to “the social gathering” place of people who like to quote the bible without doing what the bible says.
John 3:17 New International Version (NIV)
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Condemn: To pronounce guilty
Forward Thinkers, it’s time we stop condemning those who sin differently from us. The bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God so we have no right to condemn others to hell or declare someone else unworthy of God’s love. We must spend less time finger pointing and more time pointing people to Jesus. The old saints of God used to boldly declare Jesus is the way but today, we just get in the way with our judgmental attitudes.
This generation needs the love of God not the judgment of a lot of messed up people hiding behind the four walls of the church pretending to be something they are not. The truth is we all have had to overcome something or we’re in the process of overcoming something and there is no time for us to be tripping up on each other.
The Story of Rahab like you’ve never seen it before Joshua 2:1-24
The story of Rahab is a story worth sharing because, it tells the story of how God saw a person in a low place but still declared her worth saving. Rahab was a prostitute and ran a house of prostitution along the wall of Jericho.
I Leviticus 21:14 reads;
A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people,
Forward Thinkers, hold on to Leviticus 21:14; we’ll get back to it but let’s turn back to the story of Rahab. Joshua sends spies to explore the Promise Land and the King of Jericho finds out and sends soldiers to kill the spies. Rahab hides the spies of God in her house and helps them escape from danger. The spies make her a promise that when they come back and conquer Jericho they will spare her life and the life of her family. God declared Rahab worth saving. Yes, Forward Thinkers, God thought Rahab was worth saving in spite of her current situation and I’m declaring today in spite of your current situation, God loves you and considers you worth saving.
- Worth saving because what she was doing was not what she was destined to be doing.
- Worth saving because she would save others (the spies and her family).
- Worth saving because God could be glorified through her comeback story.
Forward Thinkers, remember I mentioned to you to hold on to Leviticus 21:14 because, Rahab will marry Salmon and they will have a son named Boaz and Boaz will marry Ruth (the great-grandmother of King David) and Rahab is mentioned in the family line of Jesus Christ. God declared Rahab was worth saving.
- Worth saving because God’s love wins over the law because love never fails.
- Worth saving because there is something great inside of her (Boaz).
Forward Thinkers, when you read the entire story in Joshua chapter 2 you will notice Rahab is told to hang a red rope from her window and that would connect her to God’s protection and the Promise Land. Today Jesus extends out his hand of protection and if we connect to Jesus we will have all the promises of God because, God’s love declared we are worth saving.
Pastor E. A. Deckard is the Senior Pastor/Founder of the Green House International Church now located, in both Houston, Texas, and the Woodlands, Texas. To contact Pastor Deckard for speaking engagements contact him at pr.ghic@gmail.com, follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Periscope @ Pastor E A Deckard or the church website www.ghic.net