Renee and I count it a joy in this temporal day as sojourners to have been blessed with two sons, double blessed with their wives, no words can explain this joy of witnessing them raise children to fear the God of my father.
This blog entry at www.PaulThompsonBlog.com is indeed a moment of mercy. David is my oldest son. His story is his story to tell and one I’m pleased to stand with as he raises this monument of God’s mercy for the glory of God.
The following was submitted to me by David yesterday to consider publishing here. Without hesitation, I shout hallelujah to the Most-High God, the maker of heaven and earth to encourage you to read and to even reflect upon the mercy of God in your own life.
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A Monument Of Mercy
*David Thompson, the author, is the son of Pastor Paul Thompson. The outline is based on the prayer entitled “Peril” from “The Valley of Vision”.
The gift of repentance is one I have enjoyed with great regularity in my current season of life.
These are not new confessions. They have all been confessed to my Father in heaven, my wife & family, friends, and before my Church in public.
“In a felt spiritual darkness”
On a summer Wednesday night at our local Church prayer meeting I found myself spiritually paralyzed. I was sitting in my chair and felt physically incapable of uttering a prayer.
And I knew why.
“I cannot act faith at all”
Earlier that day I had been preparing for a sermon of all things, as I was scheduled for pulpit supply in a sister Church. I could not get through a prayer before sitting down to study.
And I knew why. Unrepentant sin.
“I am as vile as the worst sinner”
Christ had already granted me relief from long-spanning sins such as sexual immorality and laziness. I was accepting my responsibilities as a new husband after a previous marriage that I steered off a cliff. (A parenthesis for the sake of my wife’s honor, her marriage to me after my divorce was within Biblical allowance for remarriage and is approved as such by our Elders).
I was accepting my responsibilities as a new father and had stopped skipping Church to sleep in and watch football. I had begun faithfully giving in our Church and become a diligent worker in my job.
These may seem like a low bar, but there were many fruits I could see in my life of God working in my life, of sanctification, and yet I could not pray to my Father in heaven.
I had a hidden lie (not before God of course) that spanned a decade, and the shame of the truth and my unrepentant spirit were suffocating.
At the age of 20 while in the United States Air Force, I was a coward when faced with deployment to Afghanistan. I fabricated a physical condition to get myself medically discharged and sold this lie to my fellow Airmen, all of my family, and my Church.
“Yet thou hast made me a monument of mercy”
That same summer night on a Wednesday we left Church, and when I got home, God gave me a moment free of cowardice that had been the previous 10 years. I confessed this charade to my wife. Then my family that same night. They, like their own heavenly Father, forgave me.
I also confessed to the United States Air Force. I have never received any further response from them regarding this felony crime I am guilty of.
It then began to come up with Church family, and I eventually began to speak of the sexual immorality, laziness, failure as a husband, and cowardly deceit that had stained my soul. A day will come when I recount this all to my children and stand as both a warning of the consequences of lawlessness and a monument of mercy.
1 John 1:7-9 says:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Today I can pray. I can sing boldly before the throne. Christ bears my sin and my shame. He has risen me up as a monument of His mercy.
“Help me to walk worthy of my heavenly pedigree”
Brother & Sister, if you have long hidden sins and the shame of their being brought to light seems too great a cost, bring your guilt to Jesus. Ask for his power to work in you to repent to all those you know you must. Your weary soul will only find rest in the embrace of Jesus.
