2021 Daily Devotion - Day 324

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In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Phillip Yancey tells the story of Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway grew up in a very devout evangelical family, and yet, there he never experienced the grace of Christ. He lived a libertine life that most of us would call "dissolute"… there was no father, no parent waiting for him and he sank into the mire of a graceless depression. A short story he wrote perhaps reveals the grace that he hoped for. It is the story of a Spanish father who decided to reconcile with his son who had run away to Madrid. The father, in a moment of remorse, takes out this ad in El Libro, a newspaper. "Paco, meet me at Hotel Montana, Noon, Tuesday… All is forgiven… Papa." When the father arrived at the square in hopes of meeting his son, he found eight hundred Pacos waiting to be reunited with their father. Was Paco such a popular name? Or is a father's forgiveness the salve for every soul?

Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all long to be at one with the Heavenly Father. It has been said we have a “hole in our soul” and it is never filled until it is filled with the One who created us. Sin does separate us from the Heavenly Father. In His great love for you and me, He became a man in Jesus, died on a cross and was raised again so the sin which separates us can be cancelled and forgiven.

Luke 24:47 ESV
And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Pray with me:
Heavenly Father, we need to be renewed and healed. You came in Jesus to accomplish this mission. Because of Jesus, help us to hear the announcement, “All is forgiven.” In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
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