Weekly Devotional: Gems From Pastor Jim 7/27/2020

by Jim Hughes

Ezek. 18:21-22 But if the wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my laws and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. All their past sins will be forgotten, and they will live because of the righteous things they have done.

Wicked people do what wicked people do; they blatantly sin against God. Nothing they do should ever surprise us. But, wicked people are not necessarily stuck in their wickedness. People can, and do, change. When wicked people get tired of their wickedness and turn to the Lord, they change their ways. When they do change, they shall live and not die in their sins. It is an amazing thing when the Lord redeems the wicked.

No matter how bad of a life a person may live, when Jesus takes residence in the heart, an amazing thing happens in heaven. God wipes from His memory bank all their past sins. He has the mysterious ability to remember their sins no more. He looks upon the righteousness of Christ in the soul and looks no further. It seems like God would be like us. When we are forgiven and let Christ take over our lives, we still remember what we have done. We may be able to bury our wicked deeds deep within our memory bank, but they are still there and come back to haunt us throughout our lives. Satan refuses to let us forget how bad we were and he tries to convince us we are still as bad as we were. But, God declares us to be different. We become new creations in Christ; the old self passes away and we become new in Christ.

In Christ we live. We live differently and we are deemed to be righteous in Christ. We live honorably before God and man. What we do pleases God. Only in Christ can our wickedness be done away with. Only in Christ can God consider us to be righteous. Yes, the wicked can be miraculously changed. It is possible for our standing with God to change. It is possible for us to live eternally in God’s presence. Don’t ever let Satan try to convince you otherwise. It is impossible for us to do it, but with Christ all things are possible. Believe God, trust Christ with your soul, and you will be forever set free from the sins that bind and destroy you.

About the Author:

Spending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.

C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chapter on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one's self from such failures.

I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn't broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.