In the passing of my older brother, Eddie, in 2010 and now the passing of my Grandpa; I have come to a place where I am so thankful that God allowed them to get things right with the only one that matters; God himself. You see when people come to the end of their time here on earth we left behind here often reflect on the mistakes those individuals made while they were here. Yet if you profess to be a "Christian" you are completely contradicting the grace and mercy that saved you. We all have made mistakes according to Romans 3:23, we all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, but for some reason when we find God's mercy and grace we tend to hold others to standards that we ourselves can't measure up to. Why do we do this?
Was my Grandfather perfect? No, not at all and neither am I and neither are you. There was only one perfect man that walked this earth; Jesus, and it is because of this perfect man that we in our imperfection can be forgiven and molded towards perfection. We tend to judge others because the sin they struggle with is something that we'd never do. You judge them because they sin differently then then you do. That is still being judgmental. Luke 6:37 tells us, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." If you look up the word forgiveness it's pretty clear what it means and it's even clearer to see if you have actually forgiven someone. My favorite "Church-ism" I hear from "Christians" is, "Oh, I've forgiven him/her, I just don't want to be around them." That is not forgiveness it's a perverted imitation of it you've concocted just to appease your own conscious and help in the lie that you keep telling yourself. Forgiveness is not always easy, which is why to do it completely and correctly it must come with God's help. If you want the definition of true forgiveness look to God's word, Christ, and the Cross. That's where you will see true forgiveness. All I can say is thank God the forgiveness He offers is not the same forgiveness so many in the church offer; thank God indeed.
Lastly, I wanted to dedicated today's blog to my Grandfather. So I leave you with his biography from his upcoming Memorial Service.
Joshua “Josue” Rodriguez Ibarra was born on August 15th, 1939 in Colorado Springs, Colorado to Celia & David Ibarra. His family of eleven siblings included six brothers and four sisters. A Brother, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Preacher, Pastor, Evangelist, and Man after God’s own heart. Married for over half a century to Lucia Ibarra together they were blessed with three children and a total of twenty-one grandchildren & great-grand children. He devoted his life in servitude to the work of the Lord for over five decades; many lives have been eternally transformed through this vessel whom God chose to work through time and time again. A righteous man is not measured by how often he did not fall but more so if he got back up (Proverbs 24:16); Joshua always got back up and pressed on towards the mark. Never claiming perfection but humbly knowing that God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27); it truly was the hand of God upon this ministry that God entrusted to Rev., Pastor, Teacher, & Preacher Joshua “Josue” Ibarra. The Kingdom of God did lose one of the mightiest Generals in the army of the Lord, but Heaven gained a true prize in this man. There is no doubt amongst those who knew him that he entered the gates of Heaven and heard the words from the lips of Jesus, “Well done my good and faithful servant...well done.” Truly with this man it was not the way he started but it was the way he finished that he will forever be remembered for.
Joshua (Josue) Ibarra
August 15th, 1939 - October 16th, 2012
Take Care & God Bless,
-E
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