A Message from the Bishop - January 2023B

Dear Friends,

Wednesday of this week marked the Feast of the Conversion of Paul the Apostle, a day in which we give thanks for the breakthrough of our sovereign God into a rebellious and defiant life, an event so important that it is recounted three times in the Book of Acts.

In Acts Chapter 9 we read that Paul (also known by his Jewish name, Saul) was traveling to Damascus to arrest Christians when Jesus confronted him in dazzling light, knocking him to the ground, blinding him, and speaking to him in an audible voice.

Paul’s conversion was unexpected—it was both sudden and unlikely. One moment he was plotting the death of Christians, and the next he was face down in Syrian road dust at the feet of Jesus.

Last week, our Diocese again partnered with Anglicans for Life to offer the Summit for Life and the Youth Summit, presenting teaching and testimonies of God’s transforming love and healing power, and joining in the March for Life in Washington.

I was reminded again of the story of Abby Johnson, who was the Executive Director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas and named Planned Parenthood’s national employee of the year. She herself had had two abortions and she was a staunch defender of abortion rights. Abby is not medically trained, but one day the clinic’s nurse was away and Abby was needed to hold the sonogram wand to guide the doctor who was performing an abortion. Her experience of watching the baby being aborted was so disturbing that she was undone. Within a week, she walked out of her clinic, past the faithful Christians who day after day had been praying for her, and she went to the Coalition for Life office. In tears, she walked in and to their utter surprise, said, “I want out.”

Abby’s book telling the story of her exit from Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry is wonderfully entitled, Unplanned, and she has gone on to a national leadership role in the pro-life movement.

Conversions are so often unexpected, because everybody is just one step from the Kingdom of God.

I don’t know about you, but when I’ve been insufferable and God is just about to move me to repentance, I don’t look like I’m about to repent. I look—and am—just as angry or obnoxious as ever. But then, God in his mercy breaks through and, in a moment, moves me to turn back toward him and toward the one I’ve hurt.

So ponder this question: who are you tempted to write off? Who have you concluded isn’t going to be interested in the things of God? Who have you decided would not want to hear about what Jesus has done in your life and so you don’t need to talk to them about your faith? Who do you think is so far from God, so hardened against Christ that you don’t even think to pray for their conversion?

Who are you tempted to write off?

A family member? A friend? Someone at work? How about those you see on the news? — maybe a politician who drives you crazy, someone who seems to stand for just about everything you think is wrong.

Ask the Lord to show you whom you personally might commit to pray for. Ask the Lord to give you his heart for that person. And pray. Pray as the Lord leads, praying for the Lord’s love and transforming power to move upon that one.

God is constantly showing us people who need Christ, who need to turn to the truth and find God’s love and redemption. But when God shows us such people, he reveals it not so we can judge them but so we can intercede for them.

Because everybody is just one step from the Kingdom of God.

Gracious God, forgive us when we have underestimated your power to break through and change a life. Forgive our false judgments which have excused our silence. We ask that you would save and transform those whom you bring to our minds. Help us to share with humility what you have done for us through the Cross of Christ. And send your Holy Spirit to us that we might pray with boldness and faith, and that we might persevere in prayer, so that many will come to know the greatness and the goodness of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

 Faithfully yours in Christ,

 The Rt. Rev. John A. M. Guernsey