I shall see the woman who had an abortion and who is haunted by guilt and remorse,
but did the best she could faced with the grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged
by debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman
addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for
unconditional love;  the sexually-abused teen molested by his father and  now selling his
body on the street, who,  as he falls asleep each night after his last 'trick', whispers the name
of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday School;  the deathbed convert who for decades
had his cake and ate it...broke every law of God and man, wallowed in lust and raped the earth.

"But, how?"  we ask.  Then the voice says,  "They have washed their robes and make them
white in the blood of the lamb."

There they are.  There we are --  the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times,
got defeated, soiled by life,  and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life's
tribulations, but through it all, clung to the faith.

My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace."