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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Satan Can't Get Me

John 10:28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
30I and my Father are one.


Do you ever have those days where you don't "feel" saved? You woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and everything seems to be going wrong. Your socks don't match, your hair is a frizzy mess, you spill Dr. Pepper all down the front of your shirt, and you barely make it to work because some crazy person on a cell phone cut you off. And on days like that, the last thing you want to do is the "Christian" thing.
To be honest, you want to cuss and cry and whine. And you want to make somebody else's day just as bad as the day your having. Because after all, misery loves company!
But being saved isn't about how you feel, thank the Lord. It isn't about our doing every little thing right. It isn't about being perfect (although that's what we all should strive toward.)
Being saved is about being held in our Father's hand. And no matter what we do, no matter how far we fall, God's hand is a place that no one can touch us. Once we are held in God's grasp, no one can remove us from that grasp. We are held there in love.
I don't know about you, but that's an amazing thought to me. I look back over my life and see all the many times that I've failed Him. But in the midst of those failures, He has held me. He has picked me up and dusted me off and said, "I forgive you. Now go and sin no more."
I'm amazed at my Father's love. I feel cherished knowing that I'm in His hands. How about you?

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Monday, April 20, 2009

Unlikely Heroes Are God's Likely Candidates

Yesterday morning I got to go into my Uncle Joel's Sunday School class. Normally I'm teaching, but I didn't have any students yesterday, so I got a break. And although I believe that those I normally teach should have been in Sunday School, I think that God had a hand in my being in my uncle's class yesterday. Because I got my toes stomped a bit. Or a lot actually.
He talked about Gideon in Judges chapter 6. Now we all know Gideon, he was the guy who God used to defeat the Midianites with an army of 300 men who were armed only with broken pitchers, trumpets and lamps. But before Gideon became the man God used, he was the man who begged God to prove Himself.
See, Gideon was pretty much a chicken. When we are first see Gideon, he is threshing wheat in a winepress, trying to hide it from the Midianites who had the Israelites held captive. The Midianites were most likely trying to starve the Israelites out. They didn't want those Israelites getting strong enough to defeat them. So Gideon had evidently grew a small amount of wheat and hidden it from the Midianites and he was threshing it where no one would find him. Basically he was just trying to lay low. Just trying to get by.
But God had a different plan for Gideon. He wanted to use him to defeat the Midianites. And no one was more surprised about God's plan than Gideon himself. He was like, "Me? You can't mean me? I'm the least of the least. I come from a poor family. And I'm the least important one in that family."
But God continued to tell Gideon that He planned to use Him. But Gideon still resisted. He kept asking God for signs. He put out his fleece and had God prove himself, not once but twice, and that was after he talked to the angel of the Lord FACE TO FACE.
It's easy to sit here and think, how could Gideon have been so doubtful. It's easy to get a holier than thou complex and say, "Well, if I had been Gideon, I would have rushed right out and done what God commanded, no questions asked."
But how many of us really would have. How many of us have things that we know God wants us to do, but we sit in our comfort zones saying, "Are you sure God? I mean, I'll go if that's what you really want, but do you mind giving me a sign or a million? Because I want to make sure this is YOU talking God." And while we're sitting there begging for a sign, the work God has for us is not being done.
I've definitely been challenged to trust God more and question less. I pray that each of you will be challenged today as well!