How do the arms of God reach out to us and hold us when we cry, when there be so many of us crying? Reach out to the one next to you and hold them and give them comfort. That is how God does it! How does God bless us and fulfill our needs when so many of us have needs? Look past yourself and serve another. That is how God does it! How does God forgive the hurt that we have caused another. Look to all those that have hurt you and forgive with the love of Christ. That is how God does it! How does God answer our prayers? We are not the answer to our own prayers but our brothers and sisters about us and we part of the answer to theirs. That is how God does it!
Jesus did not say, when I return and say I do not know you because you did not pray or because you did not fast or because you did not sit in the front of the church. No, He said I did not know you because when I was sick you visited not, when I was hungry you fed not, and when I was without clothing you dressed Me not. And when did the one not do these things? When it was not done to those about you on the earth. You pray for world peace and buy guns and bombs. You say we are a nation that trusts in God, but you build armies that will live in the sky. You say Christ, Christ, Christ but you take the food from the poor and use it to house the prophets in your jails. You pay those that agree with your madness and bind the pen of those that tell you the truth. Great are your church buildings and filled with spiritless priests and sheep. Yes you pray for the riches that you believe are to be yours when they were with you all the time. And you fasted in hope to hurry the reward that was in your hand.
It was said one to another that to deny Christ is a sin without pardon, but Peter was pardoned three times before Jesus died for our sins. It was said one to another that taking ones own life has to be a sin without pardon. These things are not ours to say; we forgive the one that takes the life of a child that has not yet felt the sun on its face, but not the one that can no longer run the race. Christ forgave them all as he died. There is a sin that lives without pardon. It is the one that you hold to yourself. A sin that is so great in your eyes that it blinds you from God’s mercy. When a sin becomes your God because it is greater to you than God’s love, it becomes a sin without pardon. The blood of Jesus will still wash it away, but one must admit that it is not bigger than God’s love.
How is it that one can be so great, in their eyes, as to sin a sin that Jesus’ blood can not cover. The blood of our Lord is a spirit like that of a great flood that covers the earth and washes away everything. But we climb to the high places in our lives to escape the forgiveness. We make our sins greater than the forgiveness. And then there are those of us that justify ourselves by the sins of others. We give value to sin and count it to see if ours is less. We climb on the sins of others and claim ourselves to be pure because our sin is different than that of another. We place ourselves above the forgiveness and reason that another needs forgiveness and not us. We call ourselves forgiving them and in that way increase our worth in our own eyes. The blood of Jesus covers all sin. Sin does not cover sin!
Our Lord was in the tomb for three days and three nights. Early on a Sunday morning, He appeared before the throne of God to be accepted for the life of the earth. In that He fulfilled the offering of the waving of the first sheaf. From that moment on the death that was on the earth became life to those seeking. But seeking what? Seeking God’s purpose in their lives. Seeking mercy more than sacrifice and knowledge of God more than offerings. When Jesus returned from the offering of the first sheaf He said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” That is how the arms of God reach out to us.