FORGIVEN
My pastor for most of my life, Dr. Harold Sightler, used to tell of a woman bad to shout. (He would stop there and say, I mean "good" to shout.) When they mentioned Jesus in sermon or song, she would say, "Hallelujah, praise the Lord." The dead, dry church she attended didn’t like this. One day in the midst of one of her "praise fits" they ushered her to the vestibule and told her to stay there. Finding nothing else to occupy her time, she asked if she could see a child’s geography book someone had left behind. Soon, they began to hear her shouting out, "Praise Jesus!" Wondering what could make her shout in the geography book, the rushed to ask her. "Look here," she said, "It says here that the ocean is 7 miles deep at places. My Bible tells me that this is where the Lord has buried my sins. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, I’m forgiven!" Oh the joy to know that our sins are forgiven. I wonder if that church that put her out understood this. I wonder if you do. Really, I wonder if I do. Forgiven! Amen!