I want to study with you a subject that I first presented in public in 1979.  Maybe I could tell you how this happened and how I began to preach and teach about this subject.  It is a subject from the New Testament—it is in Colossians 1, it is in Ephesians 2, it is in 2Corinthians 5—we will look in those places in a little bit.

In 1979 my family and I had just moved to Keene, Texas where I was going to be working for the next several years at Southwestern Adventist College.  We had moved there from Washington State, so, for the first time in several years, we were within driving distance from where my brother lived.  My brother was pastoring for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Pennsylvania.  During the Christmas season that year, while the college was dismissed, we drove about 20-24 hours up to Pennsylvania.

While we were in Pennsylvania, we went down to Gettysburg, one of the most famous of the Civil War battles.  We visited the cemetery in Gettysburg and took the tour.  I do not think that I have been there since 1979, but at that time when you took the tour to different places, you could still see where the bullets had hit the walls on some of the buildings in the town.  We went to different places and studied the different battlefields at Gettysburg; we went to the cemetery, a huge cemetery where thousands of soldiers are buried.  It was at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery for our serviceman where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address, one of the most famous speeches of all time. 

As I was going on the tour, looking at all of these bullet holes and bullet marks in the walls, looking at these battlefields, I was thinking about all of the awful suffering that occurred.  The Battle of Gettysburg lasted a number of days, and in those times they would fight mainly in the daytime, because at night they did not have the things we have today, and they could not see.  We were told how at night time, sometimes a father or a brother would be missing, somebody in their family who was also a soldier, so they would take a lantern—you would see different lanterns at night, searching over the battlefields to find where is my brother, where is my son, is he dead or is he alive and can still be saved.  They took the ones who were lying in the field but were not yet dead to churches that had been converted into hospitals.  They did emergency surgeries to try to save them.  There were places where they were doing these emergency surgeries, and there was so much blood in some of these places that they drilled holes in the floor so that the blood could drain down through the floor. 

When I was there I bought a number of books on the Civil War and studied them, and when you start to study them your mind cannot take in the suffering, the human suffering that occurred.  You ask yourself the question, Why?  Why does all of this awful, awful suffering have to be? 

I have a book here, and I do not usually read from secular books when I am in the pulpit, but this is an interesting book from which I might just read a few sentences.  This book is entitled Abraham Lincoln in His Own Words.  I have read a large portion of this book, and it becomes very interesting when you read some of these most famous speeches that Abraham Lincoln gave both before and after he was president.  Here is a speech that he gave in Cincinnati, Ohio in September 17, 1859.  Do you know what they entitled this speech?  They entitled this speech “Slavery is Wrong.”  Abraham Lincoln spent quite a bit of his life fighting slavery.   I will read you two or three sentences: “Labor is the great source from which nearly all, if not all, human comforts and necessities are drawn.  There is a difference in opinion about the elements of labor in a society.  Some men assume that there is a necessary connection between capital and labor and that connection draws within it the whole of the labor of the community.  They assume that nobody works unless capital excites them to work.  They begin to consider which way is best.  They say there are but two ways; one is to hire men and to allure them to labor by their consent.  The other is to buy men and drive them to it, and that is slavery.”

This was a long speech, many, many pages.  And there are many speeches here.  There was a controversy during Abraham Lincoln’s lifetime, by the way, as to whether Kansas was going to be a free state or a slave state.  He gets into that a great deal in some of his speeches—about the situation in Missouri and Kansas, and you have all heard about the Missouri Compromise and all those things.

Ellen White had quite a bit to say about this subject also.  Let me read you just a few sentences from the pen of Ellen White.  This is Testimonies, vol. 1, 254, and this is about the Civil War, and was written during the time of the Civil War.  Now Ellen White comes right to the point.  Historians today are confused as to the causes of the Civil War, but Ellen White makes it very clear what the cause of the Civil War was, and all of this awful suffering.  Notice this: “The North have had no just idea of the strength of the accursed system of slavery.  It is this and this alone which lies at the foundation of the war.”  So what was the cause of the Civil War?  It was slavery.  She goes on and talks about this for several pages—she says that the confederacy could have been put down early if the government had taken prompt and thorough measures. 

Here is what she says the people in the European countries were thinking—Germany, France, England, and others.  “Our government was very proud and independent.  The people of this nation have exalted themselves to heaven and have looked down upon monarchial governments and triumphed in their boasted liberties while the institution of slavery that was a thousand times worse than the tyranny exercised by monarchial governments was suffered to exist and cherished.  In this land of light a system is cherished which allows one portion of the human family to enslave another portion, degrading millions of human beings to the level of the brute creation.  The equal of this sin is not to be found in the heathen lands.” 

I did not read you the whole context, but she was talking about England and other European nations, and while they were viewing this, they were watching to see whether it was time to attack the United States. 

“God is punishing this nation for the high crime of slavery.”  Page 264.  Both the North and South got punished.  After we went to Gettysburg, my wife, son, and daughter, on another day went to the museum at New Market, Virginia, which is also a Civil War Museum.  We learned there that in the Civil War we lost a much higher percentage of our young men to war casualties than in either World War I or World War II—a much higher percentage.  The Civil War was by far the most devastating war that the United States has ever been in, even at the present day.

She continues: “He has the destiny of the nation in His hands.”  Ibid.  And then this very interesting account of the Battle at Manassas, Virginia.   Ellen White saw this battle in vision and here is how she describes it: “The Northern army was moving on with triumph, not doubting that they would be victorious.  Many were reckless and marched forward boastingly as though victory were already theirs.  As they neared the battlefield many were almost fainting through weariness and want of refreshment.  They did not expect so fierce an encounter.  They rushed into battle and fought bravely, desperately.  The dead and dying were on every side.  Both the North and the South suffered severely.  The Northern men were rushing on although their destruction was very great.  Just then an angel descended and waved his hand backward.  Instantly there was confusion in the ranks.  It appeared to the Northern men that their troops were retreating when it was not so in reality, and a precipitate retreat commenced.  This seemed wonderful to me.  Then it was explained that God had this nation in His own hand and would not suffer victories to be gained faster then He ordained, and would permit no more losses to the Northern men than in His wisdom He saw fit to punish them for their sins.”

So both the North and the South, in that Civil War, were punished for their sins.  She goes on talking about the future—the two world wars that were yet in the future were predicted by her pen on page 268.  After she talks about the Civil War she predicts two world wars and after that would come the end of all things.  It is a very interesting prophecy you can read in Testimonies, vol. 1, 268.

Let me read a couple other statements on the Civil War in this chapter on rebellion.  She says, “The people of this nation have forsaken and forgotten God.  . . . The time had come for our true sentiments in relation to slavery and the Rebellion to be made known. . . . God gives him [that is the slave owner] no title to human souls and he has no right to hold them as his property. . . . God has made man a free moral agent, whether white or black.  The institution of slavery does away with this and permits man to exercise over his fellowman a power which God has never granted him, and which belongs alone to God.  The slave master has dared assume the responsibility of God over his slave and accordingly he will be accountable for his sins, ignorance, and vice of the slave.”  Ibid., 355, 356, 358.

By the way, it is not in here, but in the book Early Writings, she says that slave owners in the Day of Judgment will suffer greater wrath from God than did the papists in the middle ages.  That  is a very, very striking statement.  She says that the colored race is God’s property.   “Satan was the first great leader in rebellion.  God is punishing the North that they have so long suffered the accursed sin of slavery to exist, for in the sight of heaven it is a sin of the darkest dye.  God is not with the South, and He will punish them dreadfully in the end.  Satan is the instigator of all rebellion.”

Then she also says something else that is very interesting for Seventh-day Adventists.  Did you know that Ellen White taught that if a person believed in slavery they should not be allowed to be a baptized member and to have fellowship in the Seventh-day Adventist Church?  When writing to a person, who is in favor of slavery, she said, “Notwithstanding all the light given you have given publicity to your sentiments.  Unless you undo what you have done it will be the duty of God’s people to publicly withdraw their sympathy and fellowship from you. [In other words, disfellowship him.]  In order to save the impression which must go out in regard to us as a people, we must let it be known that we have no such ones in our fellowship, that we will not walk with them in church capacity.”  Ellen White is very strong—we must not allow anyone to fellowship with us who is pro-slavery.

You may say, Pastor John, that is all over with.  No friends, it is not all over with.  It is going to happen again.  “There are men in the church and in the world who have educated themselves to practice fraud, and for this they will be brought into judgment.  Men have chosen to stand, not under the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel, but under the Rebel flag to do the works of a rebellious prince.  They may have sold their souls for money.  They may have taken their Lord’s money to purchase wheat and facilities whereby poor men live, that they may extort from the Lord’s creatures the highest prices. . . . In India, China, Russia, and the cities of America, thousands of men and women are dying of starvation.  The moneyed men, because they have the power, control the market.  They purchase at low rates all they can obtain and then sell at greatly increased prices.  This means starvation to the poorer classes and will result in a civil war. [This was written in 1899, so we are going to have another civil war.]  There will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.”  Manuscript Releases, vol. 5, 305,306.

In other places she makes the statement that slavery is going to be reintroduced.  Of course, when there is slavery that shows that people are alienated from each other and some people want to have absolute control over other people.  As I studied this, this alienation—I realized, this can happen on a national level; it is something that can happen in a church; it is something that can happen in an institution; and it is something that can happen in a family, and people become alienated. 

This is what happened to God when the devil rebelled.  He caused a large part of the angels to become alienated against God.  Then he deceived the human race and caused them to become alienated against God.  This alienation against God became so great, the hatred against God became so great, you can read in the first part of the book The Desire of Ages how the angels were looking for God to come down and destroy this world because the alienation was so great. 

I want you to think about if you were God, how would you solve a problem like this?  She says, “Sin had become a science and vice was consecrated as a part of religion.  Rebellion had struck its roots deep into the heart and the hostility of man was most violent against heaven.  It was demonstrated before the universe that apart from God humanity could not be uplifted.  A new element of life and power must be imparted by Him who made the world.  With intense interest the unfallen worlds had watched to see Jehovah arise and sweep away the inhabitants of the earth, and if God should do this, Satan was ready to carry out his plan for securing to himself the allegiance of heavenly beings.  He had declared that the principles of God’s government make forgiveness impossible.  Had the world been destroyed, he would have claimed that his accusations were proved true.  He was ready to cast blame upon God and to spread his rebellion to the worlds above.”  Ibid., 37.

Alienation is one of the most terrible things that can happen.  I have certain relatives, not my immediate family, where some individuals are alienated from other individuals and don’t talk to each other at all.  They will not even allow themselves to be called on the telephone by members of their own family.  That is alienation. 

God was faced with this problem with one-third of the angels of heaven and a whole world.  What would you do?  Sometimes we are faced with a situation like that, what do we do?  The devil tempts us to try to use his methods—crush it!  Force it to stop!  Many times parents try to do that with little children—force it to stop.

Notice what Ellen White writes about this.  “Though corruption and defiance might be seen in every part of the alien Province, a way for its recovery was provided.  At the very crisis, when Satan seemed about to triumph, the Son of God came with the message of divine grace.  Through every age, through every hour the love of God had been exercised toward the fallen race.  Notwithstanding the perversity of men the signals of mercy had been continually exhibited, and when the fullness of the time had come the deity was glorified by pouring upon the world a flood of healing grace that was never to be obstructed or withdrawn until the plan of salvation should be fulfilled.”

Jesus came to reconcile a world to Himself that was alienated from Him.  This is an important subject to study, because sometimes we, today, not on a worldwide scale like God had to do, but on a more personal level, on a closer level with family or friends or relatives have to deal with this situation of alienation.  What do you do?  Let us look at what God did.  “And, Through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross. [Through Himself]  Whether of the things upon the earth whether of the things in the heavens.  And you, who formerly were alienated and at enmity in your minds by your wicked works, but now reconciled in the body of His flesh, through death, that He might present you holy and without blame [in other words, perfect] irreproachable before Himself.”  Colossians 1:20.

It is wonderful, if you have been alienated, to be reconciled again.  But I want you to notice something.  Reconciliation is expensive.  Did you notice that?  It cost something.  What did it cost?  Oh, it cost the death of Jesus upon the cross, that is what it cost.  It was a wonderful thing. 

It would have changed, drastically altered, and been a terrible event for the whole world if the United States had been split apart in the 1850s.  There was the fiercest attempt to split this country apart.  People were alienated from each other and they hated each other because some of them wanted to own slaves and others said, That is morally wrong. 

That is the reason, by the way, that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated—because he had defeated the slaveholders.  That is why he was assassinated.  So it was a wonderful thing that finally the country of the United States could be reconciled again so that when you came to the southern border of Kansas you would not be coming to the border of a different country.  Kansas is right on the line.  If you went down to Texas, on to Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and Alabama, it would have been a different country.  This country would have been split up.  This nation would have been crippled, and it would have changed the whole future history of the world.  So it was good that the country could be reconciled, but it was expensive.  It cost us a higher percentage of human lives in this country than any other war.  More than the Revolutionary War, more than the first World War, more than the second World War, more than any military conflict before or since.  It caused greater devastation to our country than any other conflict we have been in.

I know, I have read the reports, I know there were German submarines that were 10 miles off of Miami during World War II, and I know there was a shelling on the West Coast by the Japanese once during World War II; and I know something about the battles that the Japanese and the United States soldiers fought in the Alaskan Territories during World War II.  I know some of those things.  But I tell you, that was nothing compared to what we suffered in the Civil War.

What the problem with the Civil War was, there was this alienation.  And alienation is awful.  It leads to hatred, people will not speak to each other and they hate one another.  It gets to the place eventually where they are willing to kill each other to get their own way, and large sections of territories, especially in Georgia, where General Sherman went through were destroyed.  He told the soldiers to just burn everything.  He went through a big wide swath and they burned everything.  People living there had to flee because everything was going to be burned up—fields, houses, buildings and everything. 

It was wonderful that the nation would be reconciled again, but the reconciliation was the most expensive operation that this nation has ever endured, before or since.

It is wonderful to be reconciled to God.  That is what this text is talking about: “That He might reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross.”  It is wonderful to be reconciled to God again, but the reconciliation is expensive. 

I want to point out something else about this.  There is going to be another Civil War in this country.  That is prophecy.  Slavery is going to be reintroduced into this country—that is prophecy.  Remember, the Civil War is the time when this country suffered more than it has ever suffered before or since.

The reconciliation was expensive, but here is the question I have for you, If the terrible suffering that this country went through during the Civil War, if that does not reconcile you to the idea that we are not going to enslave each other any more, if that does not reconcile you to that idea, then what?  If that amount of suffering does not reconcile you, you are stuck.  You will never be reconciled.

Look at the text: “We are reconciled [how?] He made peace through the blood of His cross.”  That is expensive.  The Majesty of heaven died on the cross so that I could take away my alienation against the divine government; my alienation against the divine Law; my alienation against submission to the sovereignty of Christ.  When I see what Jesus did for me on the cross, what He was willing to do to win me back to Himself, I am overwhelmed.  Notice, it is expensive, and it is so expensive that if that does not reconcile me back to Him, then there is nothing more He can do. 

If what this country suffered during the Civil War does not convince you that we should not enslave each other anymore, there is nothing more that will convince you.  If what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary does not bring us to repentance, reconciliation, and submission to God there is nothing else that will bring us to that point.  We are lost.

Paul deals with this subject quite a bit in his writings.  “Wherefore you remember that formerly you, the nations in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by those called the Circumcision in the flesh made with hands; because you were in that time without Christ, being alienated [there you have it—there is the alienation] from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now, in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were afar off have come near by the blood of Christ.  For this is our peace, He who made the both one, and the middle wall [the fence of the middle wall, or the partition] He broke down destroying the enmity in His flesh.  The law of Commandments contained in decrees; He destroyed in order that He might make of the two one new man in Himself, making peace. [So you have two that are alienated and Christ was going to bring the two who were alienated together so that they would be reconciled and they would become one, He is talking specifically about the Jews and the Gentiles in context here, but he is talking about all human alienation.] and might reconcile both in one body to God through His cross, putting to death the enmity in Himself and coming He preached the good news of peace to you who were afar away and peace to those who were near, because through Him we both have the approach in one spirit to the Father.  Therefore then, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens of the saints, and of the household of God.  Be built up upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom also you are built up onto a habitation of God in the Spirit.”  Ephesians 2:11–22.

Paul talks over and over again about the hostility, the enmity, the division, and he says Jesus is going to take these two hostile elements and He is going to reconcile them.

Friends, I have said this to many people, and it is true.  It is a crude way of saying it, but it helps to get the point across: If you go to heaven and if I go to heaven, the time will never come when I will see you coming down the street and decide to cross the street so that I do not have to talk to you.  That will not happen.  Yet, are there not Christians that way in this world?  There are lots of them, all over the world.  The whole family claim to be Christians and some of them will not even talk to the rest of them, because they are alienated.  

This happens in institutions, it happens in churches, it happens in families.  This person, that person over there is a heretic, so do not have anything to do with them.  Did you know that God is going to take to heaven a lot of people that other people have called heretics down in this world?  What if you go to heaven and you find somebody up there that you thought all your life was a heretic?  Maybe he was mistaken on some points of doctrine—what are you going to do? 

In 1979, when I visited Gettysburg and I started trying to think through in my mind the terrible, terrible alienation that brought such hatred.   Since then, I realize more than ever before, this alienation, this hatred is not just something that is out there in the world.  It is also among God’s professed people.  Friends, we have some praying to do.  If there is alienation between me and somebody else so that we cannot even talk together, we cannot speak to each other, you know what?  If Jesus comes, at least one of us is not going.  Just read the Scriptures. 

The alienation, the two, are to be brought together in one body.  Now, they may not think the same on everything.  Some people think that we can never have unity in the Christian church unless everybody thinks just like I do.  That is the way people think—because I am right and so other people have to be right too. 

The Bible says, “So that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  And all things of God, He has reconciled us to Himself, through Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation; as that, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not accounting to them their transgressions; and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  On behalf of Christ, therefore, being ambassadors as of God, we earnestly entreat you, we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  2 Corinthians 5:17–20.

I did a lot of thinking after I visited Gettysburg, about this problem of alienation that develops into hatred until we are eventually willing to kill each other.  Sometime we need to make the message in the Bible very personal, right for us.  I need to ask myself the question, Am I completely reconciled to God?  If I am reconciled to God, and if you are reconciled to God, do you know what will happen?  You and I will be reconciled to each other.  Do you believe that? 

Just so that there will be no chance that we might misunderstand, let us look at what the Apostle John said about this:  “We love, because He first loved us.  If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: [if I say, I love God, but I hate somebody else—my brother—it says that person is a liar] for the one not loving his brother whom he has seen, he is not able to love God whom he has not seen.  And this is the commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God also loves his brother.”  1 John 4:19–21.

You see, if I am reconciled to God, and if you are reconciled to God, you and I will be reconciled to each other.  And if you and I are alienated, like we see all over the Christian world today, even in Adventism, and even in Historic Adventism, if there is alienation, what does that show?  One or more persons are not yet reconciled to God.  They still have their guns out.  In the Civil War it was guns, cannons, and bayonets and all that kind of stuff.   You are not yet reconciled, while the guns are out! 

The Bible says that some people have a tongue that is like the piercing of a sword.  Have you read that text?  You are not yet reconciled if your tongue is still piercing like a sword.  You still have the weapons out.  Friend, I want to tell you the truth—there are people in this world who will not speak to me, so I have to ask myself the question: Lord, am I fully reconciled to You, or what is the reason they will not speak to me?  If the reason they will not speak to me is because they are not reconciled to You, then I do not have to answer for that in the Day of Judgment. 

But we need to be very careful.  Do not always assume that because somebody will not speak to you, that it is their fault.  You have to pray and say, Lord, am I fully reconciled to You?  Is there anything that You want me to do in regards to this brother or this sister?   

Reconciliation is a wonderful thing, but it is expensive.  It was expensive in the Civil War, it was expensive for the Godhead, but the Godhead decided that it was worth all of the suffering of the cross to get reconciliation again.  But remember this, the price that has been paid for your reconciliation is so expensive that if that does not do it, nothing will do it!  You will never be reconciled; if what Jesus has done for you and for me does not reconcile us and draw us to Himself, then there is nothing.  You see, God will not force us.  He will only draw you by His love, and He has already poured out His love as much as He can pour it out.  There is no more!  If that does not do it, we are lost. 

Why does reconciliation have to be so expensive?  I have asked myself that question over and over again.  I used to ask the Lord in my devotions, Lord, why?  The cross is so awful; the suffering is so bad, why?  Why do people have to die before somebody can be reconciled?  Why could we not get it figured out without that?  I cannot answer all of those things.  That is like asking why did the Civil War have to be fought?  Why did thousands and thousands of the best people we had in the country have to be slaughtered?  We cannot answer those things.  We do not know why. 

I cannot explain why Jesus had to die on the cross.  All I know is that was the price that had to be paid so that I could be reconciled—and I have decided that I do not want that price to have been paid out for me in vain.  How about you?  I go to the Lord and I say, Lord, I want to be reconciled to Your government, to Your law; I want all enmity, alienation to be at an end.  And you know Friends, when all of God’s professed people are reconciled to the Lord; we are going to find ourselves reconciled to each other, because we are going to see in each other, somebody else, for whom an infinite price has been paid.  We are not going to look at each other as enemies, even if some of us are heretics.

It is perfectly fine to go to a heretic and try to show him from the Bible that you believe that he is mistaken on some point of doctrine.  That is perfectly fine.  But, if you cannot convince him, you should not hate him.  You should not say, Well, I will never speak to that person again.

This is a subject that we can talk about in public, but it is a subject that you have to go to the Lord in your own private devotions to actually experience.  You have to ask the Lord, Am I totally reconciled to You?  Or is there some bitterness, some alienation, and some enmity still left?  Have I not yet experienced the cross enough?

I cannot explain why reconciliation is so expensive, why death has to occur in order for reconciliation to occur.  I cannot explain all of that.  I just know that is the way it is.  That is the way it was in the Civil War.  That is the way it was in the government of God.  Jesus came to this world to die to reconcile you and to reconcile me. 

Friends, the terrible alienation that we see among the Historic Adventist people and in the Adventists in general, and in Christendom in general is proof—it is the strongest proof that you can have, that some people are not yet reconciled to God.  The cross has not yet worked it out in their life.  

Are you going to pray about this?  Are you going to go to the Lord and say, Lord, I want to be perfectly reconciled to the divine government?  When Jesus comes back to this world He is not coming to take a bunch of rebels back.  He is coming to take some people who have been completely, totally reconciled to Him.  And because they are reconciled to Him, they are reconciled to each other. 

Do you want that experience?  It is expensive.  The more I study the cross of Christ the more I realize I do not understand it.   Why does it take death to bring reconciliation out of alienation?  I cannot explain all of that; I just know it is so.  Do you want to be reconciled to the divine government?  Do you want to be reconciled to the Father’s house?  Do you want to be reconciled to the divine Law?  And most of all, do you want to be reconciled to the divine heart—do you want to be drawn close so that, as Paul says in Ephesians 1, you are accepted in the beloved.  Do you want that experience?  I want it. 

As I have thought about this subject, it has seemed to me that the most heinous crime that I could commit, that since the awful price to reconcile me has already been paid, the price has already been paid if I steel myself and I say, I am going to hold on (because that is what a lot of people are doing) I am going to hold on to my alienation anyway, I am going to hold on to my enmity anyway, and I am not going to speak to that person anyway.  If I hold on to that kind of spirit, then I am hopeless.  I am in a hopeless situation, because there will never be another cross.  There will never be some additional sacrifice—the supreme sacrifice has already been made, and if that does not reconcile me, then there is nothing more for God to do.   But I want to be reconciled to His cross.  I want to come into harmony with the divine government, with all the subjects of the divine government.  Do you want to have that experience in your life?  If you do, kneel down and pray and ask the Lord to work this miracle out in your life.