FORSAKEN BUT NOT LEFT BEHIND

(By: Harold Bayley)

I was blessed to grow up in a home with both of my parents being Christian. As a result, I came to know Christ at an early age, but Jesus was not really the Lord of my life. I was living life as I saw fit. 

When I turned 21, I married a woman who was not a believer. In less than one year she had entered into an adulterous relationship and divorced me. I was devastated. I had entered marriage with the idea that it was forever and that even if things got bad, you stuck it out and worked through it. 

It was during this time that I got out my Old King James Version which I received in the third grade Sunday School, but had never read. It had a concordance in the back, so I looked up the references to adultery. I read such things as: 

"And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." (Lev 20:10) 

"But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul." (Prov 6:32) 

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: Neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor 6:9-10) 

I began to see how holy God was, and how just he was in his judgments, because I knew my wife and her lover deserved hell because of the intense pain they had caused me by violating God's commands. I did not wish hell on either of them and would gladly have taken my wife back at any time, forgiving her for what she had done; but she would not come back. 

Then I also came across Hebrews 13:4-5 (NIV) which says, "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Then it says, in verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." Then it says, in verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever."

After my wife left me and forsook me, and when I had realized that God would never leave me nor forsake me and that Jesus would never change, I decided to put my total trust in Him because I knew his word was true. From that time to until now, I have allowed Jesus to be Lord and have desired to become more like him. He has kept his promise never to leave me.

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Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity.
(Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)