GET TOGETHER – Redeeming Our Regrets
Eph 5:15,16 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Back in 2002 the Lord answered a prayer that I was praying from 1Ch 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested .” (NKJV) I had prayed for the Lord to increase my territory in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He answered that when one of my old friends Tommy Combs asked me to preach on his television station in Jasper, Alabama in our former home county Walker County.
The Holy Spirit gave me a name for that program several years ago. The name of the program is Redeeming the Time. I felt like the Lord gave me that name to show me that the program was a way for God to redeem the time that I had lived as a sinner in Walker County until 1990 when I got saved. The Lord has since opened doors for that program to be on the internet and in several cities and towns in Northwest, Alabama.
I thank God that by the Blood of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit that God can redeem every part of our lives. Let me give you an example of one way that God did that recently. I pray that it will help you to allow the Holy Spirit to work in redemptive ways in your life everyday now, and until we go home to be with the Lord.
Most weeks I get the blessing of going to Life house in Winfield, Alabama. Life house is a discipleship ministry for those who are trying to get free from addiction and other destructive behaviors. It is a part of New Life Fellowship in Winfield. And Pastors Jerry, and Hope Norris have poured their lives into this ministry.
From time to time some of the residents there will be from my old home county. When they are I try to connect with them in some way. There will be some that I may have known some of their relatives. There may be others that I am familiar with where they went to high school and some of the traditions associated with where they went to high school.
Last week one of the residents shared with me that he was from one of the high schools that was a friendly rival to where I went to high school. When he told me that I did with him what I usually do with some of the other former students from that same school. I started humming the tune to their fight song. The next things that the Holy Spirit had me to do was to play a song that I had been listening to on YouTube. You may or may not be familiar with that song. It is an older song What A Day That Will Be.
As we listened to the song, we began to sing the song together. Then the young man shared that his daddy was a preacher. He shared that his sister used to sing that song in church. It was really a powerful time and for me it was evidence of how God can use every bit of our lives past, present, and future to share the love of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 2Co 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” As I said earlier through the Blood of Jesus Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit God can redeem our regrets. We all have had some. We all would have liked to have changed some things in our lives. However, we can’t go back in the past and change them. But praise God that Jesus Christ redeems it all. He took our regrets with our sinful pasts to the cross at Calvary.
Praise God that we can now walk in the victory that He has provided for us. The Prophet Isaiah wrote to Israel, and it is a good word for all of us who once lived in rebellion against God. Isa 43:18,19 “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.
Please pray for the young man that I mentioned and for all the residents at Lifehouse. Pray also for the Lord to use you in ways that remind you that you don’t have to regret your past. That in Jesus Christ you know that you have been forgiven and He has redeemed your past. This is one of my favorite passages about how God works in a redemptive way to bring redemption to our past.
Joe 2:25,26 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.
There is coming a day when not only will our natural minds not remember any of our regrets. It will also be a time when the forces of evil cannot remind us of them either. Until that day know that if you are in Christ Jesus your past has been forgiven. Know that He can redeem every bit of it. And as His forgiven and redeemed children of God may He use you to sing songs of redemption with others. May He also use you to help others to walk in victory over any regrets that they may have from a sinful past. And may these words about that day abound in your spirit forever and ever.
Re 21:5,6 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful. “And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.”
Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus, we thank You that You redeem it all. We thank you for forgiving us of our sinful pasts. Today fill us with the Holy Spirit in such a way that the people that you put in our lives will experience Your forgiveness, and Your healing from any past regrets, or anything else that was a result of either their sin. Or the sin of someone else.
In Jesus Name
Amen
Love you all
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston
PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.
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