God of Second Chances

Mustard Seed Chronicles: Story Time with LU Grandma

There is not a person in all human history that does not need a second chance to correct a misspoken word or behavior done with poor judgment. Only Jesus lived a sinless life.

I praise God myself for all the second, third…6,000+ chances I have been given over my lifetime. In the New Testament, there are several verses that tell of the human condition and the solution thereof.

Romans 3:10-12 (NKJV): “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”

Romans 3:22-24 (NIV): “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

This truth is a very hard and depressing charge against all of us in the human race. However, there also is God’s promise! Read Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV): “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (emphasis is mine).

While the truth of our depravity can be hard to face, recognizing the truth of God’s promise can be the hardest for us to grasp.

As it was for me in my younger years. I knew about Jesus, was in church every time the doors were open, but was never shown these verses and did not have God’s standards as my own. I actually hate to remember this, but in high school I was on a date in Binghamton, New York, and we drove down a street by a church that had a big neon sign hanging on the side that said, “Jesus Saves” and I said “Green Stamps”! What blasphemy!

Not only was I guilty of the “normal” sins, like selfishness, greed, envy, gossip, rebellion and theft (stole a pack of gum at age 5). But I also, in college committed the sin of fornication and gave birth to a son out of wedlock! This is when I started to experience second chances. Because I was not married, and I refused to have an abortion, I gave my baby up for adoption…I thought. BUT GOD!

Second chance number 1: He was born disabled and would need a lifetime of medical care, so the social worker called me asking if I still wanted to sign him over as a ward of the court. All I had thought of was how I wanted that baby back from the moment he was born so I said, “NO! I want to keep him.” And was given that opportunity.

Second chance number 2: Because of that decision, the Lord gave me the second blessing. I met my husband, who, “just happened” to be a nurse and we were married 2 days before my son’s first birthday. My husband had accepted me as I was and my son as his.

But then, James 1:15 (ASV) it says, “Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death.” Before we wed, I went into my betrothed and got pregnant. Rather than confessing another sin to our parents, we decided this time we would have an abortion. “It was just a bunch of cells after all, not a real baby,” believing Satan’s lie! Now I was a murderer, too! Then after we were married and were in a desperate situation with our son’s health and my husband’s physical condition that left us without a lot of money to live on, we found ourselves pregnant again and decided another abortion was the only solution! Now I was a person with two murder charges to my account. What do you do with all of that?

Second chances number 3 and following! Finally, the Lord got hold of my heart one morning in my kitchen while listening to a cassette tape on “How to Get to Heaven.” I had memorized John 3:16-18 like a lot of folks, but that day it became real for ME!

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”

WOW! Jesus did that for ME! And this promise was also now true of me in Romans 8:1-2 (NLT): “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death” (emphasis is mine)

Hallelujah! Amen and Amen! AND, I will get to meet my two children that were in heaven from the day they were aborted, and they will not condemn me either! Talk about getting a second chance! The other thing God showed me in looking back was if I had said, “NO” to Christ that day, what my family would look like now. But because I said, YES!” to Him, my whole family, including my sons, their wives, my husband, and our 11 grandchildren either know Him personally or will when they get old enough because they live in godly homes.

Well, folks that is my very short list of my second chances. I pray You know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, not just as a historical man, but in a way to enjoy the daily second chances He gives daily, if not hourly.

Prayer

My beloved Father and Savior, how can I thank You enough for what You did, Jesus, on that cross so many years ago? You took the punishment for all my sin on yourself as the sinless sacrifice so that MY sin debt is paid in full and I get the chance to live a whole new eternal life daily because of it with many second chances within each and every day!

Because of Your great love, I pray this in Your name!

Amen.