A friend wrote recently, and quoted those words from Amazing Grace. (John Newton) In comparison, I would like to believe that I never measured anything close to him by a fouled up life. However, in our tendency to grade sin as bad, worse, or even so categorically as beyond the imagination, we would like to believe our sin is nothing as compared with the worse, or as those unimaginable. You and I know that sin is sin, and therefore it violates the perfection of our wonderful Lord.
Years ago I was starting a church. To make ends meet, I took a job in a Dairy, bottling milk. It was there that I acquired a greater understanding of “bacteria”. It also helped me to understand the rapidity with which it could multiply and how the “old nature” that remains in man, even after salvation, can exert itself and spoil ones walk with the Lord and loss of a testimony.
What has been most gracious of our Lord is that in spite of exposures and weaknesses, “the dangers, toils and snares,” He has never thrown me into the garbage bin. Each experience or obstacle has brought the realization that He was good to His promises in the Word.
I have been reminded of Psalm 30…v2 “O Lord, my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me….v5 “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.”
Someone said that all of this leads to contrasts…
Anger/ Favor
Weeping/ Joy
Lifetime / Moment
Night / Morning
Endureth / Cometh
THINK ON THESE THINGS!
ETCetera 