Kenneth R Walls

Excerpt from the book “Falling off the Mountain”

“Mercy and grace two words poetically intertwined in the hymns we sing in church, words we have heard so many times spoken with flair by men of God from the pulpit. I was one of those men who with ease dropped those two buzzwords; along with many other familiar phrases we call Christian-eze, into message after message. I had ultimately taken them for granted until I needed them. In the past several years I have discovered what grace and mercy are all about. It is when you have done the one thing you believe is the worst sin to be committed by a man or woman of God, and yet God looks down with gentleness and says, ‘I love you and I forgive, just come back home.’ There is no greater experience.”

The grace and mercy in the forgiveness of the Lord is far beyond what you and I can fathom. I didn't truly understand neither the depth nor how far reaching this grace would go in bringing a lost soul back until I found myself in a deep pool tossed about in the waves of a sinful wake I had created.

In the summer of 2000, while I was the pastor of the church of my dreams, the church hit a spiral in attendance and I tried desperately to fight the fires that ignited from pockets of division through out the congregation. My eyes looked on what I could do to remedy the situation; my strengths and so-called gifts. Discouragement came as the needs of the people became insurmountable. Like Peter I could only see the waves licking up at me. I took my eyes off Jesus and began to sink. I became distant and with drew from my family turning my attention on someone else who became an ear I could confide in. What began innocent soon grew to an emotional attachment, and soon into a full affair.

What were the results the choice? I lost my ministry, my family, and trust! But, I am so thankful the story didn’t end with loss. Though we were unable to return to our previous marriages the Lord, in His amazing mercy restored Kim and I to Himself. Following our repentance to the Lord and others, including our former spouses, Jesus restored the relationship with our children, friends and restored us into ministry.

Kim and I have been married now for over eleven years, and have seen the blessing of the Lord on our lives beyond what we could have ever imagined. When the Lord restores He fully restores.

Ephesians 3:14-19 (NIV) “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”