Mercy Said NO

The grace of God has met me in places I didn't even know I was in. I was once in a place where I had no knowledge of holiness, no knowledge of who God TRULY was...I was doing me and living life on the edge. There's someone out there reading this who needs to know that God loves you unconditionally, that His grace makes a way out of no way...the question is: will you take that way? 

Isaiah 55:8-9

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.

    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so my ways are higher than your ways

    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Often times, we search for the easy way out...but most of the time, Gods ways are not the easy way out. Sometimes He takes us certain directions and routes to develop the fruit in us that will GLORIFY HIM and not our silly emotions that are fickle and constantly changing based on our circumstances. The path of righteousness is a narrow road, but a road that God has also made wide enough to keep my feet from slipping (Psalm 18:36)...Gosh, God is FAITHFUL!

There are so many words to describe who God is, but there is one particular experience in my life (that will be the focus of the blog) that honestly, makes me weep at the faithfulness of God. He is a FAITHFUL God, even when I am unfaithful. He is THE God who sees me...not just in my good, but in my bad, in my ugliness, in my darkness. He saw the depths of my heart and still chose to love me. He saw me lost, drunk, confused, stumbling in the darkness and He kept me.

One of my sisters in Christ who 

knew me in my ratchet stage of life.

My freshman year of college was quite the adventure, and lately there has been one particular experience that often times will bring me to tears at the faithfulness of God:

As a freshman in college, I longed to fit in with the crowd and live the "college life" so I began to drink with the group of friends that I had made at school. There were a couple close calls where  I had probably drank too much, but there was one night in particular that I should have died. That night, if it weren't for the GRACE of God, I would have ended up in hell...people don't like talking about hell these days, but I WILL not sugarcoat what God saved me from. He saved me from the life I deserved (death) and gave me the life I did not deserve (abundant, eternal life), and that my friends is called GRACE and MERCY. That night, I had too much to drink and that may have been the night (if I remember correctly...if at all...) I drank a drink a couple of male friends had mixed some Nyquil in...let me just say, I was sick...to my stomach. My friends had put me to bed and left me to go do their thing (I won't go into many details here), but at one point after they had left me, I had rolled over onto my back and was choking on my own vomit. It was the grace of God that my next door neighbors heard me choking through the walls and that my door was left UNLOCKED so they could get into my room and help me. It was the complete Grace of God that night that I did not die.

  God saw the plans He had for me, He knew where He was about to take me, He knew that the following year I would eventually dedicate my life to Him and repent of my MANY sins, He knew the good works He predestined me to do for His glory, He knew that one day I would be able to look back on this experience and be able to say that I have TASTED AND SEEN THAT THE LORD IS GOOD! (Psalm 34:8)

That night satan tried to snatch me, he tried to destroy me...but that SAME night...God's MERCY SAID NO. Gosh, God is faithful and I am so extremely humbled being able to reflect on this experience and thank God for snatching me from the hand of the enemy. I am thankful that God let me live when I deserved to die. I am thankful that He was so patient and long suffering that although my back was to Him, He was still covering me with His all-sufficient GRACE. If God did it for me, I am believing Him to do it for you...so if you don't know Christ and wonder if you've done too much wrong to ever get right, be encouraged that His grace is ready to meet you right where you are...in your sin, in your shame, in your suffering...just come! Come to the table of plenty...plenty of love, plenty of peace, plenty of joy, plenty of grace, plenty of mercy! 

Love,
Beth

The White Out Worship experience at my home church last April.

Isaiah 1:18
"Come now, let's settle this," says the LORD. 
"Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool."