Every sinner has a future and every saint has a past. Let that perk for a bit in your mind.

          Two questions on a questionnaire sent out to clergy, who have served for a long time, that jumped out to me. “What is the thing that distresses you every time you encounter it?” And, “What is the thing that bothers you the most about Christians in church?” There were many other questions, as well, but these two rested heavy on me.

          Early one morning, about 5 o’clock, I was sitting at my aunt’s kitchen table in Indianapolis drinking a cup of coffee and reading my Bible. This aunt was always in church. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and Thursday morning Lady’s Bible Study. She taught Sunday School and sang in the choir, although rumor had it that in choir, they asked her to sing really, really quietly. I had come the day before bringing my mother, who was going to be there for a prolonged visit. Mom drove around her town some, but she no longer made the long trips. I would take her to Indy, drop her off and come back whenever she was ready to head home. On this morning I was waiting for Mom to wake up so I could say goodbye and head back to Ohio. I was working on that pot of coffee when my aunt walked in.

          “Oh, child!” You know aunts. Their nieces and nephews never grow up. “It must be wonderful to be a preacher! Such a serene and peaceful life. Just you and God and not a care in the world!”

          I actually didn’t know what to say to that. Sure, at 5 AM over coffee it was pretty serene and peaceful, until your clueless aunt wandered in. She was serious. I wondered then just how many Christians out there think that being in the ministry is all joy and smiles.

          To those people who have that notion in their minds, the two questions on the questionnaire would have seemed foolish. But for those of us in the pastoral ministry, the questions were thought provoking. So, let me ask you my version of these two questions and then we will get back to the original sentence.

          First, have you ever wondered what it is that distresses your pastor? Do you assume it is the death of a church member? For me, I will miss that person, but I am not distressed. As a Christian, they have gone on to heaven. Doris Mattern’s graveside was this week. It was cold. The breeze was straight out of the north. It was really cold. I was asked before hand to keep it at around ten minutes and for once I was inclined to agree with that request. We were all cold. But Doris was walking the streets of glory. In heaven, she wasn’t with a small group of people huddled against the elements. She was immersed in the glorious light and warmth of the Savior and having a wonderful reunion time. No, the death of a Christian does not bother me at all. The regular church goer might come up with many things that would distress the pastor. Usually, it would be something that would also distress that particular church member. However, over the years I find that less and less distresses me. Since I have been at the Yoke, I have learned to put even more things off of the distressing list. But there is one thing.

          You are talking to someone about their need for Jesus and, with downcast eyes, they utter the most distressing words I can hear; “But you don’t know what I have done. Jesus could never love me.” If you aren’t hearing that, you are not talking to lost people about Jesus, which is a subject for another blog.

          And they believe that with all their hearts. They believe that what they have done is so awful that even Jesus won’t touch them. It is distressing because it is a lie from Satan that is so very hard to defeat. These people cannot see a future with Jesus.

          Second, have you ever wondered what it is about church folk that bothers your pastor the most? Again, you might consider something that bothers you. People coming in late, people always sitting in the same pew, folks with vision or hearing problems sitting towards the back of the sanctuary. But those things don’t really bother me. To me, so long as they are in time for the message, they are not late. To me, if they are in the same pew every week, I know quickly who is in church. To me, if they have vision or hearing problems and sit toward the back, I just have to assume that if they really wanted to see or hear better, they would move up. No, those things are just people being people. But there is one thing.

          Many Christians will turn their noses up at someone who has committed a sin of any kind. Now, at the Yoke, I have seen less of that than anywhere else, but it is still out there. Some Christians forget where they have been and they forget that the Lord was required to be crucified for their sin as well.

          Which brings us to the original sentence; “Every sinner has a future and every saint has a past.”

          No sin is so great, so vile, so disgusting that it cannot be forgiven by the Lord. Isn’t that amazing? Only the sin of unbelief will send the soul to an everlasting punishment. You might remember hearing of a case in Cleveland several years ago of a man who, over a period of some years, had kidnapped three teenage girls and kept them captive in his house. They were chained to radiators and he repeatedly beat them and raped them and abused them in all manner of ways. After he was caught and the girls freed and their stories began to emerge, radio talk and news shows were alive with the story. At one point a caller called in and said to the host of the show that, if the perpetrator confessed his sin to the Lord and asked for forgiveness, he would be forgiven and would be a brand-new Christian. Which was true! Salvation is for all who believe! But then, the talk show host, who claimed to be a Christian, said that if Jesus would really do that, he (the host) wanted no part of that Jesus. Imagine, calling yourself a Christian and still having that attitude. Of course, that is the extreme. But here is one for you, How would you react to the following woman coming to church?

          It was at least thirty years ago. A local hospital called me and said they had a woman in their psyche ward that needed to talk to someone but was refusing to talk to the psychiatrist. She wanted a minister. They didn’t tell me what the need was, just she needed to talk to someone. I went up and was shown to her room. She sat on her bed rocking back and forth, moaning softly. I told her who I was and asked her if she wanted to talk. Her story came out while she rocked. She had been pregnant and had her baby. She and her husband were overjoyed. But, when they took the baby home the child had become colicky. It cried and cried and cried and one day the young mother snapped and killed the child. That had been some time before, but she was convinced that the baby had gone to heaven and she would go to hell and thus she would never be able to tell the little one how sorry she was. To be truthful, I was appalled. I wanted nothing to do with this woman. I didn’t even want to breathe the same atmosphere. However, it was like I slipped into automatic. I told her how there was no sin to big for Jesus. He could, and would, forgive her and save her soul if she would just ask. We prayed and she accepted Christ. I had mixed feelings leaving there that day. She had been forgiven, YAY! But I was feeling like she shouldn’t have been forgiven.

          I got over that, but a few weeks later she and her husband walked into church. What she had done was well known. People visibly recoiled at seeing her there. And then, one of our ladies got up and went to them and brought them back to her pew and that was that.

          In that situation, how would you react? I had to come around to it. But Christ died for all sin and in His eyes, there are no good or bad sins. We all need Jesus.

          Every sinner has a future and every saint has a past.