In Prague. In church today, one of the hymns sung was an oldie and a goodie, Blessed Assurance. The lyrics were written in 1873 by blind writer Fanny Crosby to the music written by Phoebe Knapp. I won’t recount all of the words but this phrase goes, ‘Echos of mercy, whispers of love’. How often have you struggled to put into words what you are hearing from God? We experience renewal and restoration when we confess our sins because He is faithful to forgive our sins. That sounds like echos of mercy and whispers of love to me. These thoughts permeated the message by Steve Henderson on Psalm 32 on the blessings of forgiveness. Nathan the prophet says to King David, after he has lusted, sinned, and committed murder, “You are the man”. These were big sins but there are no slight sins. There are also no secret sins, no white lies, coverups, and escape from discovery. God is everywhere – in the darkest places and in the light. The miracle of forgiveness restored David to relationship with God. How else could God have called this evil being, “A man after My own heart”? That is not a whisper of love but a SHOUT. Sin is a debt and you can read the first 11 of the 18 verses of this Psalm. The mercy to me that echos is that I don’t want to sin but I keep doing it. Any sin would have brought Jesus to the cross so let’s not compare accounts. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. Yet, Jesus said to another woman, “Go and sin no more”. How can that be? Did she never sin again? “He/She who is forgiven much loves much so I think God recommends we sin no more for our benefit and for the benefit of those who have to live with us and our ‘moments’ of sin. We are forgiven but be not deceived, on our final day (if we know it is our final day) we will not be looking for anything more than forgiveness. Forgiveness for the sins of commission and also the sins of omission. All of the ministry we thought we would get around to but the tv is easier. All of the people we wanted to share with but we were catching up and did not ask direct questions. All of the good stuff that might have made a difference in God’s Kingdom but we weren’t being brave in that moment. We don’t live as desperately as we might? We have echos of mercy. We are forgiven but can we love God enough to be a little braver tomorrow because the world is desperately looking to be forgiven? We know how it works. Tell a friend about the pearl of great price.
A beautiful cemetery in Prague. They are either in Heaven or hell.