Fields United Methodist Church

Thoughts Along the Way

Pastor Tom Joyce

July 26, 2021

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Luke 15:7

The amazing thing about God’s grace, it does not live in the past but celebrates the present and opens up a future of new life. We are part of a world that looks back at the lives of people and if they stray away from what is considered “the correct path,” they are cast out with their past never forgotten.  Not so with God, it is the God who created us, who sent “his only Son that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16) You may think your past, or maybe even your present, is keeping you from God’s grace, but that is furthest from the truth. It is Jesus the Christ, God’s only Son, who is seeking you out because you are profoundly important and infinitely loved.  There is nobody who has fallen too far that Jesus cannot pick up; no past that is so horrible that will turn Jesus away from seeking out those who turn back to God. God’s grace does not care about your past and wants you to know your past does not have to be your present or your future.  John Newton was a slave-ship captain in the 1700’s but when Jesus found him, he turned back to the loving embrace of God, sought forgiveness and received forgiveness. Newton went on to document his transformation experience in the words he penned for the hymn, “Amazing Grace;” “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” (“Amazing Grace, #378UMH) There is hope in the amazing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is hope for you. The world may reject you, and maybe even cast you aside but Jesus will never let you go and will go to any length, even death on a cross, to forgive, redeem, and set you free from a past of sin and wondering aimlessly through life without direction.  Lean on the “everlasting arms” of the One who calls you by name and loves you far more than you will ever know.