Diligent.

Thomas Tarrants was diligent. He was so careful and persistent in his work and efforts that, in 1967, the FBI conducted a year long search for this Ku Klux Klan member. Tarrants evaded authorities until one June day when he tried planting several dozen sticks of dynamite under the home of a Jewish businessman in Mississippi. A firefight ensued, leaving Tom bleeding and dying in his own blood.

This looked like certain death, but Tarrants lived. He was convicted, locked up in the state penitentiary, and even spent three years in solitary confinement for an escape attempt. His anti-Semite passions did not die in prison. He fanned the embers of hatred and racism by reading through books like Mein Kampf and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Immersed in his own soiled hatred, Tarrants did not realize that God was being diligent in his pursuit of him—not to hunt him down and keep him locked up but to free him from his tormented soul. Through various circumstances and varied perusings of Greek philosophy, Thomas eventually picked up a Bible and met Jesus, the Jew.

The Washington Post, January 1993, shared his conversion:

"The light came on," said Tarrants, who spent eight years in prison for planting a bomb. "I found myself knowing I needed the grace of God and the forgiveness of my sins. For the first time, what Jesus did on the cross became really precious and personally important to me."

Tarrants, 46, now serves as co-pastor of an interracial Washington church—which he prefers not to identify because he still fears retaliation—and is a noted speaker against racism.

What creates such transformed living? Only the love and undying pursuit of a holy God. Do you know this transformational power? Do you know that it is available for you?

Give ear and come to me;
    listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
    my faithful love promised to David. // Isaiah 55:3

God’s diligence comes out in this word from Isaiah 55: covenant. 

The word covenant is speaking about a contract that is made in the blood of three different animals and two birds. God is invoking a solemn and ancient practice that assures those involved that the other party will uphold their end of the contract on penalty of death. It is sealed with the understood thought that all contract breakers will end up bleeding and dying just like the animals. God makes this commitment and promises that he will remain faithful to his promise. 

But then comes the clincher, he also makes the covenant and promise that if we are not faithful he will pay the price with his life (Genesis 15:9-12, 17-18). Every wrong has a payment and God is willing to make that payment, even for a criminal like Tarrants, even for a criminal like me. 

In Jesus, you have that diligent and personal commitment to our good. We have all sinned and fallen short. God the Just and Holy God will pay for this infraction of justice by placing his neck on the chopping block—or better put, his only begotten Son on the cross to bleed and die for us.

In this Lenten season, come and learn about Jesus, diligent in his pursuit to show faithful love to us all.  Blessings to you in Jesus.

Pastor Al