It has been about two weeks since my last post. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I had a wonderful time with family boating on Lake Keystone in Mannford, Oklahoma. It was a wonderful start to a very busy summer that will include a heavy dose of sermon series, weddings (My brother and my own), and overall preparation for the beginning of a new life with my wife to be Dacia...
Week One: Dynasty
Isn't is a bit strange how God chose to save the world?
Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, in the first chapter, speaks about the foolishness that is preaching, he talks about the folly of the Cross of Jesus and how it is a stumbling block to the intellectual, military, and logical minds of the world. Paul in this portion of Holy Scripture comes the closest, I believe, to shedding even the smallest bit of light on the will and totality of God's eternal plan.
God is in the business of doing the complete opposite of human instinct, logic, and intuition.
He uses the foolish things to confound the wise, the weak things of this world to overcome the strong, He delights in death to reign in life.
Paul had to learn this conclusion the hard way as he prayed three times for God to remove 'a thorn in the flesh' as he called it, only to have God's reply to be that in weakness His strength is made perfect.
What does all this apply to Matthew chapter one? It answers the question on the lips of every single human and it reveals an error in the practical understanding of God' Word and eternal plan.
It delights God to use broken, weak, and incomplete people to bring about His perfect will on earth as it is in Heaven.
The people of the family of Christ were both Heroes and Villains of the faith simultaneously. Their lives resemble the most dramatic of soap operas... But shortcomings would not hinder them from coming boldly to the throne of grace.
I am aware that these two statements fly in the face of 20 years of Sunday School, and 50 years of pew dwelling. Abraham was 'The Father of the Faithful'! David was a 'man after God's own heart' and a perfect worshipper of God... These are the types of men and women that God calls, uses, and befriends. These are the men, the bloodlines, of whom God, birthed the Savior into this world. And all we are today are fragile children with limited faith, striving to be like our father Abraham, with less power, less faith.
The reality of the situation could not be more opposite. To this generation, God has sent His Holy Spirit to turn the world upside down. With us here, today, the power of the Holy Ghost grants us the power to lay hands on the sick and see them recover, to say to any mountain or obstacle, Be removed and be cast Into the sea. The book of Hebrews speaks of the heroes of the faith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their exploits... But then it continues to speak of nameless eternal followers of Christ, whose faith is greater than there names, who shut the mouths of lions, 'of whom the world was not worthy!
This my friend can be me and you... While our names are not written in Matthew chapter one, they can be written in the Lambs book of life.
Learn from Biblical characters, their triumphs and their defeats, their success and failure. They are an example but not your goal. God used them in spite of them and how much more will He use you in spite of you?
In the family of God we find men lacking faith, liars, cheaters, men who slept with their daughter in laws, that's just the beginning. We find, heathens and strangers, adulterers and murders, and prostitutes... We find bad fathers, bad mothers, disobedient sons and daughters... We even find a man with a thousand wives... This alone should make you feel better about you situation
God likes a dysfunctional family... And that is precisely why He is trying to adopt you.
