I Cried Today !

Today I read a sermon article titled, "Breaking the Silence" from a magazine called, "Crossing the Road", a resource magazine published in 2009 by Methodist Church in New Zealand.

The article talks about one pastor named Mary Crockett in South Africa who works in Qwa Qwa where she is known as the HIV and AIDS pastor. She moves around 11 churches preaching her message every Sunday, talking openly about a subject that is still largely taboo. She talks about promiscuity among the young and hypocrisy among the married; about people who gossip, judge and reject those who are sick, rather than helping them. Most of all there is silence, and silence breeds fear, says Pastor Mary. "What can we do to stop this disease that kills in silence?" she asks. Mary shouts. Mary gets angry. Mary weeps! Mary is HIV positive, infected by her husband who set out to kill himself, his HIV positive daughter and Mary in a motor 'accident'.

When I read Mary's story, I thought of many millions of people in the world who are living and dying with HIV and AIDS right now, many of them being stigmatized and rejected by their very own people!. Those millions of AIDS orphans with no parents to love them, to feed them when they are hungry, to embrace them when they are cold, to wipe their tears away when they cry! To be sick with the world's deadliest disease is cruel enough, but to add on to their suffering these same people are marginalised, condemned, discriminated and rejected by their own people! Many HIV infected people are from the poorest of the poor, having no means of accessing ART or any other treatment, just suffering their pain in silence, guilt and hopeless resignation.

The horror and enormity of human suffering from HIV and AIDS was made so devastatingly clear for a moment, and it overwhelmed me, and I could almost see those emaciated children with their sunken eyes desperately looking out for any sign of hope...I felt so helpless and inadequate,I just sat down and cried,
"Father...."
"Father...."

I could not utter any more words....there was nothing else to say! My heart was crying out and long so much for a Man called "JESUS OF NAZARETH"!

"Lord, the world You love is sick!"

I know it would have broken His heart too!

"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!"
"Lord, if you had been here, my parents would not have died!"
"Lord, if you had been here, I would not have been rejected and shamed!

Did I hear the Master saying,

"Where is My church?"
"Where are my servants? What have they been doing to these 'least of my brothers'"?

Then I thought of all other 'rejects' of the society: prostitutes, drug addicts, drunkards, homosexuals....I imagined them coming together before JESUS, 'Friend of sinners and tax-collectors', and I 'saw' how He embraced them with so much overflowing love that all their sins were covered to be seen no more!

"Lord, why did You do that?"

"Because I love them as much as I loved you!"

"But LORD, these people are not ordinary sinners, they are REAL sinners!"

"My son, My love is UNCONDITIONAL!

Then the Lord smiled and stretch out His hands to me. With tears running down my cheeks, I ran to HIM and joined the group within His embrace.

The Presence of the Almighty God!

I find no greater joy than being in the presence of the Almighty God!

Being ushered in to the Holy of Holies by the precious blood of the Lamb of God, and being made to be part of the Royal Priesthood of the Holy God, what an awesome privilege and honour it is to be in that hallowed place, where the soul bowed down in joyful worship, and the spirit soars in freedom and blissful union with the Spirit of the LORD himself!

In that holy presence of the Almighty, there is purity, holiness, joy, liberty, love, acceptance, wholeness, security, peace, forgiveness, abundance, healing, freshness, warmth and tenderness! There is that joyful lightness of the heart, an unspeakable quality of fellowship where the soul sings and the mouth keeps silent; an anticipation and an assurance of even better things yet to come, a foretaste of heaven with endless wonders, a palpable taste of Love so sweet and full that the heart melts and the soul opens to its deepest depth to let the sanctifying light of the Holy Spirit in.

It is a place of light where nothing is hidden, a place of unmasking the heart, soul and spirit! It is a place where all pretensions end! It is a place of letting go of the guard and rest absolutely still and vulnerable in the loving arms of the LORD!

Oh, how I love this place! May I never ever leave it. It is the safest place in all the earth! A place of fellowship with my Lord, the presence of the Almighty God!