Nevertheless!

Isaiah 14/15

I have been silent, but not still... Yesterday was the climax of the Texico Conference Campmeeting, and my viola was out of its case more than in it, precluding a post.

And then, there were other reasons too... 

I’m the kind of guy that expends a great deal of energy on invisible conquest. In fact, most of the people I fight for don’t even know it. (Maybe never will). But that’s ok...  

Anyway, all day, and all this morning, verse 1 of chapter 14 kept tapping at my consciousness, waiting for quiet... And finally, I got it.

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“For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel...”

Even though they had stumbled and fallen. Even though He had picked them up and brushed the dirt off of them countless times before. Even though their mistakes were not always innocent ones... Still...

Still.

I cannot tell you what that means to me. Even though He’s picked me up out of the dirt ten thousand times, yet He has mercy. Yet He chooses me. Does that even make sense?

It reminds me of my favorite word. “Nevertheless.”

Actually, it’s the reason behind my favorite word. Because His unwavering commitment to my salvation (nevertheless) calls forth the best I can give in return... 

If His “faith” in me is strong enough to make Him pick me up again when I fall, risking His name over and over again by claiming me as His child, then I am worse than a fool not to honor Him with my trust in return. 

And so, am I a man committed. 

And though I admit that for the Christian in this world, pain and hardship, toil, sacrifice, grief and loss and suffering are very real, very often... (here comes that word--)  

Nevertheless!!!