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Easter Has Passed, but Redemption Is Forever!

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By Jean Mooney

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. (Ephesians 1:7-8a, NIV)

I remember so clearly a time in my life when I thought that nothing from my past would ever impact my future. I remember thinking that if I could forget my past and try to calculate or somehow plan my future, then things would be okay, or at least better than they had been from my childhood. If I could just land that perfect job, or have the right opportunity for school, have the perfect car, or meet the perfect girl, etc., then everything would be all right, and my past would be forgotten.

Well, I succeeded with at least one item on my list—I met the perfect girl. And to this day I would not change that for anything!

For a while, I thought everything was going great. I had control over my job, I was excelling in what I did, I met the perfect girl (Geneva), we were starting a life together, and I thought I was forgetting my past. (And most of my friends here at Elim know that I had a very dark past.) Now, everything seemed perfect . . . at least for a little while.

Geneva and I moved in together and started a life. But our pre-marriage “honeymoon” did not last long. Shortly after we moved in together, things got a little bumpy. We conceived a child.

At first, I was extremely excited. This was a new opportunity for me to start a new family and move on from my past. But then the conversation began. I had thought I was happy about the pregnancy, but it soon dawned on me how it would impact our lives. And I was scared. On the one hand, I had no idea of the ramifications of having another child; and on the other, I knew that she did not want to go through with the pregnancy.

We were both trying to save face. I did not want to lose her by pushing to have a child, and at the same time I did not want her to have to face her parents and tell them that she was pregnant out of wedlock. So, I chose to conform. I gave up the fight, and we had an abortion.

There are so many times we find ourselves in a position of not being able to explain where we are at in life or what we are feeling. This easily puts us in a place of compromise: What should I choose? What should I say? What decision should I make? Will I conform, or will I fight? And if we do choose to persevere and fight, how long will we last? How much fight do we have in us? What are our chances of survival? And what are we fighting for?

We so often tend to forget that this is not only “our” fight. We have the greatest Warrior of all time, right there with us. And the fight begins with our choices: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:10-11). Paul tells us not simply to be strong, but to “be strong in the Lord.” We don’t put on our OWN armor; Scripture tells us to put on GOD’S armor.

I don’t know about you, but I do not picture God as a very small guy! Yes, I am made in His likeness, but I personally think He is a lot bigger than me. So that makes for a LOT of armor. But God tells us that it’s okay for us to wear it. How empowering! Nothing is too big a fight for God, so if I just accept His will and choose to wear His armor, then nothing can be too big a fight for me.

I look back to 2003 and I do wish that I had never made the decision to conform. For a while I lived in regret and for the most part tried to forget. Then in 2007, after we were finally married, we did try to conceive, but then we had a miscarriage. I thought, Am I being punished? Maybe my sin had caught up to me! The fear and doubt started to take over: How big of a mistake did I make? Will I forever be punished by God for what I did?

But shortly after this, we had Talyana, which was one of the most joyous moments of my life. God’s grace was lavished on me.

I only recently looked for redemption and forgiveness for the choice that I had made in 2003. In our moments of weakness, He is made strong: “But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9a).

For me, there is no greater story of redemption. My weakness gave way to death. But I can still be redeemed and blessed, and His power can still be made perfect. I have a God who loves me even though I turned my back on Him. I gave up the fight, and Jesus picked it right back up for me and continued to fight for me. He wants to save even me.

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The “Unknown God” Revealed

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By Geneva Mooney

Sometime in 2003, I accepted Jesus into my life, but my heart was not following Him yet. I was broken and I still am. I first needed to invite Him into my journey of life, then I had to learn to walk with Him, as we all do. It was a journey through the desert, a journey to fight, a journey to trust, and a journey to love as He first loved us. This is a journey with Him by my side, no matter how dark or joyous.

Like many others, this journey is redemptive and continues to be. As I walk more closely with my Father, I’ve learned to love Him and desire to do what is right through His Word and Holy Spirit (“If you love me, you will obey me” [John 14:15, NIV]). But it has not always been that way, because I loved myself and my emotions more. We can be conformed to this world, the thinking of this world and the judgments of this world, and not even know it.

In 2003, I also made a decision out of fear—fear of being judged by my parents and judged by Christians. At the time I was conformed to this world, but now as I walk with my Creator I am continuing to be transformed by the renewing of my mind (“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” [Romans 12:2a]; “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ” [2 Corinthians 10:5]). Today, through repentance and obedience, my Father has made me whole again.

In that moment of fear and brokenness, 18 years ago, when Jean and I were not yet married but living together, I chose to have an abortion. My healing journey then began several years ago when I chose to be open and honest with my parents and ask for their forgiveness. I then had to go to my Heavenly Father and ask Him for forgiveness, as I had judged my parents and did not honor them at the time of my decision because in my childhood, I decided in my heart that they were unsafe and not worth honoring. I also needed to ask my Heavenly Father to forgive me for sacrificing my own child out of fear, judgment, and shame.

I then forgave Christians (my fellow brothers and sisters) and asked my Father to forgive me for harboring judgments against them for being unsafe and not loving me where I was at, a sinner. I had to dismantle the lies, judgments, and vows that were seared into my heart and mind. This journey of sin in my heart and mind has taken years to build and years to dismantle, because it was only several weeks ago that I realized I had judged Christians 18 years ago.

We can’t overcome anything until we know Jesus. And until we know Jesus, we will create “unknown gods” to fill His void. That unknown god for me at the time was fear, judgment, and shame. I have had many other unknown gods that have needed to be dismantled and destroyed with the help of my wonderful, loving Father, through His Word and the Holy Spirit. I know I will yet have other unknown gods that will need to be dismantled as He directs me and guides me, but I can sit on my Father’s lap and soak up His love for me, and I do not have to do anything to deserve it. I just need to climb on His lap in truth, trust, and love for Him and His life for me.

While most of our unknown gods are actually false gods or idols, Scripture tells us about one unknown god who revealed truth and love and beauty to those who sought him. In Acts 17, Paul noted that amid all their detestable idols and false gods, the Athenians had set up an altar with the inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. In verse 23, Paul told the Athenians, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” Then he began to teach them about Jesus and His Father! As the unknown god became known to these Athenians, they began to abandon and dismantle their idols and false gods.

Any idol or unknown god will always require a sacrifice. Our Father in Heaven only asks us to be living sacrifices (“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” [Romans 12:1]). I believe through the sin in our hearts we build altars to unknown gods that block our view of our Father’s loving lap. When we are willing to take our sins to Jesus‘s feet on the cross and lay them there, we can be forgiven. God becomes known, and unknown gods can be torn down.

What is taking the place of our Father? What lies are we believing, or vows or judgments are we harboring that keep us from loving well and from sitting on our Father’s lap and soaking up His perfect love for us? What unknown gods are blocking you from seeing and experiencing the love of our FATHER, the one true God, and His Son Jesus Christ?

If you’ve had an abortion, you are pregnant and scared, or if this topic upsets you, know that the emotions are real, and you don’t have to navigate this journey alone. Jesus is right there with you—and I would be delighted to walk along your side, as well.

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Being Thankful

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by Geneva Mooney

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:15-17, NIV)

Thankfulness begins in our heart. What our mind, mouth and actions speak our heart says first: A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Luke 6:45). When life goes well it can be easy to respond out of thankfulness and in agreement with others, but what happens when life does not go well? When there are challenging circumstances or disagreements that rise up within us, how do you respond? Do you respond with a thankful heart full of grace and love; a heart full of unforgiveness, judgment and condemnation; or a heart full of anxiety and fear? When faced with a wound or hurt do you easily forgive, or do you hold onto that hurt like a child’s security blanket that has been weathered to the point of disrepair? It is not what happens to us that matters, it is how we respond in our hearts, because our words and actions are an expression of our heart. The heart is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23), and the Lord sees the heart.

The Lord is clear in His word on how we are to respond: Love! Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). But what if it is hard to love others when we are faced with those challenges and conflicts? First, we have a mighty Father who wants to do this in us. He wants to be a part of our brokenness, for us to be willing to look deep into our hearts with Him for the unforgiveness and judgments we may have in our hearts from childhood to today. Why?

Because if we do not forgive, we are not forgiven. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:14-15). Forgiveness is not excusing the offense, forgetting, denying the hurt or anger, or trusting the offender. Forgiveness is remitting the punishment or canceling the debt – a work of God’s grace in our lives.

We should also bring past and present judgments to an end, because we are judged in the same way if we don’t. Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:1-2). Have you ever wondered why you might be just like your mother or father, in a negative way? Could it be judgment? Just in case you were not sure what judgment is, it’s a sinful reaction to hurt – condemning those who hurt us about what they have done and about who they are.

The good news? We have a big God who wants to partner with us and heal us from the inside out. He wants to heal our hearts so our mourning can turn into joy (Jeremiah 31:13), so we can embrace the life He has given us and be thankful for our lives even in the midst of pain. Our Father cannot violate free will, but He is there weeping with you, angry for you. His heart breaks over you. What was intended for evil He wants to use for good, but we must be willing to go into the deep places of our hearts, invite Him in and address those wounds.

We are all sinners in desperate need of a Savior who died on the Cross and was resurrected after three days for all humanity. Let’s take our unforgiveness, judgments and hurts to the Cross, reckoning them dead so that we can have new life. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood (Hebrews 12: 4). All suffering is meaningful when it is met with love and the resisting of sin.

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My Story Isn’t Over Yet

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By Dan Amos

A couple of weeks ago, I realized my children knew very little of my history before them. And when Fran and I told our stories of salvation at community group, she said we need to tell them to our sons. So, on Father’s Day, after one son gave thanks for the food, we dished up and headed outside to eat. I got to go first and got started eating before everyone else came out. I had a plan. I now had a captive audience and I declared executive privilege on Father’s Day. While they continued eating, I told my story.

It wasn’t the quick three minutes Pastor Steve suggested, because even the slower eaters were done before me. I started by telling about my parents. My mom was involved in an evangelical church when she was a teenager and accepted Jesus then. She then introduced her mother to Jesus, but I don’t know about how my grandfather became a Christian. I should have asked my grandma when she was telling me her story shortly before she died. 

My dad was raised in a Catholic family, but I didn’t get the impression it was meaningful. He lived with his dad, who I think owned a bar, and his aunt who raised him after his mother died when he was around 10. But I only knew him as a Christian growing up. By the time I was born, my parents were attending a Nazarene church in Southern California, where my dad was stationed. The only birth announcement I have is a clipping from the church bulletin that gives a couple of options for my name, neither of which ended up on the birth certificate.

I grew up knowing about Jesus and the need to submit my life to him. I can’t say when this happened, but I was probably seven or eight. I heard a lot about Hell and the reality of going there. I learned of God and creation, sin and redemption. This shaped the worldview through which I see things today. It also meant that I was and am aware of my sin and my constant failing, but when I confess my sin, God is forgiving, graceful, and merciful.

I have seen God work in my life through provision, assignments, and circumstances, but one of the most enduring and powerful ways was in providing me a partner for life in Fran. She is my constant support and gentle challenger to examine my choices and life.

I am thankful that I did not see prejudice from my parents. Until I was nine, we lived in Navy communities that were integrated, and my friends had a variety of skin colors. But even though we played together, I did not know their stories. I did not know their struggles or the racism that they had to deal with.

I am learning more about racism and my heart is broken over it. I want my world to change and it starts with listening to the real problem. We have had many discussions at work, and I hope they never stop. We are in a difficult time because passions are high, reactions vary, and criticism abounds. I pray that we conquer this sin and extend grace to each other through it all.

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The End Times and the Heart of the Believer

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By Jason Comerford

What do you think of when you imagine the end of the world? Many of us draw on pop culture images of cities burning or zombies. We may even consider biblical mentions of things such as earthquakes and wars. I could give you an impressive list of all the postapocalyptic, zombie-driven movies, video games, and novels that inundated the world while I was in high school and college in the early 2000s. Our culture’s been obsessed with Armageddon for a while now.

What would you think if I told you that the Bible’s end-times warnings are not primarily about those big, earth-shattering events?

As I write this, we’re amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses have shut down, religious services are being restricted, hospitals are both overwhelmed and laying off medical staff, and the world as we know it has gone utterly, terribly sideways. Unemployment claims are at staggering levels not seen for nearly 100 years, and the foundations are still being built for a kind of financial hardship that will likely be felt for a long, long time.

As bleak as all that sounds, those still aren’t the primary things the Bible warns about when it comes to the end times. In fact, on the topic of turmoil and war, Jesus simply says don’t worry about it.

Here’s what we’re really warned about, courtesy of Matthew 24:

10And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

We can drill down into the specifics a bit more in in 2 Timothy 3:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

The real danger of the end times is not war and disease. It’s a cold-hearted, loveless humanity. COVID is not the real danger here—we are.

If you’ve spent any time at all online in the last month and a half, you’ve surely noticed the rift forming in our world as we see (essentially) two camps rise up on how to respond to the coronavirus.

And let’s be honest—this is a momentous issue. We can’t pretend that there aren’t very significant consequences to how we handle it. Whether you’re mainly concerned about government overreach, or economic devastation, or implementing steps to practically limit the infection rate, everyone can agree that the stakes are high. But as real and as important as these issues are in this moment, we Christians have a responsibility to recognize, call attention to, and preserve something that few others seem to be noticing: the state of our hearts.

I offer my own heart for dissection here. I make a great, guilty specimen.

Over the last six weeks, my main emotion has been anger, followed closely by grief. I’ve felt betrayed by some and found myself wondering how I’ll ever manage to return the familial affection of the church I was so comfortable in a mere three months ago. I’ve condemned—and hated—the responses and behaviors of many of my closest friends. In private messages with like-minded people, I’ve called those others fools and lamented their inability to see things the way I do. Anger almost feels like too soft a word to use—violent fury might be closer to the truth.

All the while, Matthew 24 echoed in my mind: “The love of many will grow cold.”

And like a pick, that single verse began to chip away at my anger. Anger turned to fear as a I realized what “faction” I found myself in. It wasn’t those who wanted effective quarantine or those who worried about government overreach. I was finding myself in the company of the “many” whose love was growing cold.

And I would wager most of us find ourselves there now.

So, what do we do?

I would exhort us to embrace and commit to doing three things. These are not new concepts to us as Christians, but I suspect our behavior here in America is exposing our need for a newer and deeper embrace of our old beliefs.

  • We must forgive what now feels unforgiveable.

Many of us feel betrayed by our brothers and sisters in Christ. They’ve hurt us with words and actions, and they may not even recognize it. But how much has Christ forgiven us? Can’t we also forgive others?

  • We must love those who now feel unlovable.

When our friends choose sides that seem unthinkable to us, can we still pray for their blessing? Can we seek ways to serve them? If God calls us to love our enemies, can’t we also love those with whom we share the faith, our family in Christ?

  • We must endure what now feels unendurable.

Regardless of how you view our current situation, it’s not easy. I doubt any of us are enjoying being physically separated from friends and family. For those in our community who are in high-risk categories, the isolation may look unending. But if Christ suffered isolation and betrayal from friends and family—and even His Father—can’t we endure this season? 

None of this is new to the Christian experience. Our history is filled with lavish forgiveness, impossible grace and the noisy joy of men and women who died singing God’s praises. This is because our ancestors knew the God who loved His enemies. Now it’s our turn to learn, once again, to do the same.

This is our only option as believers. If we don’t choose the hard way of love and forgiveness and endurance, we will grow bitter and hardhearted. Our love will grow cold. We will lose our witness to the world as well as the sweetness of community in Christ.

Friends, there is hard work ahead of us. But if we forgive freely, love unconditionally, and endure this season patiently, trusting that our God’s designs are good even now,then like the Galatians, “At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

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The Heart of Sin

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By Kendrick & Janna Gilli

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.” Proverbs 14:34 (NIV)

 Pastor Steve was right when he said that Americans hate the word sin. We are fiercely independent and do not like being told what to do or what we are, and so when it comes to being called sinful, Americans bristle at it. Americans also like to believe that people are basically good—maybe a few bad mistakes in life, maybe a few bad apples in the bunch. This, of course, starts as a baby and a toddler, because they are so cute and angelic.

And we wonder why so many people feel hurt by Christians! We tell people that they are sinful from birth. Often the familiar response is, “What! My cute little angelic baby is sinful?” We tell people that only the Holy Spirit can help us realize our sin and work on it and we get, “I don’t need no stinkin’ help; you can’t tell me what to do!” We tell people that only Jesus can wash away our sin so that we can be with Him in heaven. The response is often, “What do you mean? What are talking about? I am a good person and those anger issues are because it is overcast here so much. It is not really my fault.”Job said it best: “I have concealed my sin as people do, by hiding my guilt in my heart” (Job 31:33).

People equate the idea of sin as gigantic and associated with the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. No, that baby is not Hitler. No, just because you get mad doesn’t mean that you are Stalin. Why can’t people realize that we don’t have to be Stalin to be sinful? People tell others all the time that they do not have to be perfect. If this is true, then they must recognize on some level that everybody has faults (i.e., sins).

 A favorite story in my family goes back to when I was a few months old and my sister was one year older. She liked to pick up a doll and hit me with it. What was in her heart that made her want to hit her baby brother? What about when my daughter would throw temper tantrums when she was two to four years old? Sin is in our hearts even as children, and we need help from our parents to recognize it and deal with it. Even the world agrees that parents need to teach their children right from wrong. However, the world also believes that once we have grown up, we magically stop doing things wrong. In fact, the “wrong things” as an adult are just considered “choices,” that we are just being whom we choose to be. Sin has become a bad word or politically incorrect.

It is also interesting how, as Americans, we persist in thinking we do not need any help. We love to help others but are too proud to ask for any help ourselves. What would you do if your car broke down in the middle of the intersection and four guys came to help you push it out of the way? Would you refuse? Of course not! Then why do we refuse help with correcting mistakes we make? Why are we not willing to accept help from God? He just wants to help us be better and when we do things wrong, He wants to forgive us. Yet, we believe that we can solve our problems ourselves or we are too proud to ask God to help us change.

 As a nation, we seem to have gone to the extreme with our pride and denial. In fact, Satan is doing a darn good job pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. So as Christians, how do we deal with this? The first part of this answer is recognizing the truth and asking God to convict us and to show us our sin; then, we must be willing to ask Him to change us from the inside out. The second part of this answer is LOVE. Being Christ to the world and living with love will open up doorways to conversations about sin and God’s solution for it. And finally, the last part of the answer is prayer; we need to be prayer warriors and to ask God for grace and opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers. We need to fight against the lies that Satan is spreading, lies that make us complacent and okay with our sin. An unseen war is raging all around us, and we need to put on our armor daily and pray that God opens our eyes to it.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:10–12)

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