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Sermon:"God made us beautiful and deeply good" |
"We Are God’s Wonderful Creation" Psalm 139: 13-18 |
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This week I received several phone calls from church folk asking me to pray
for those of us whom they have seen in the streets. No one who called was at all judgmental. They were each
deeply concerned and wanted to see if I could help the person who was using drinking or drugging again.
Two people suggested that I go looking for folk. They wanted me to find them and try to make them change their minds.
I told these good folk that I was not “Sherlock Emrey” and that chasing after someone who is using doesn’t work. I would just look like an enemy or a narcotics agent trying to hunt them down. The only thing that works is prayer. God alone can chase them down and God alone can snatch them out of the crack house or bar they are hiding in. God never gives up on any of us, no matter how many times we fall or how destructive we are when we drink or drug. God is always with us, even in the crack house, bar, jail cell or the gutter. God always loves us because we are all God’s children. God never sees us as an addict, a drunk, a prostitute, a thief or even a murderer. God always sees us as beautiful and good. If you don’t believe me, just turn to Psalm 139: 13, where we hear in God’s word about God’s unconditional love for each one of us. The writer, who is struggling with depression calls out to God, “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” “Fearful,” does not mean that we have to be afraid of ourselves. “Fearful” is an old fashioned word for “awesome.” We are handmade by God. Each of us is a perfect creation. Even are imperfections, are beautiful to God. God made every one of the 100,000 or so hairs on our heads. God made 2,968.416,000,000 (2 trillion, 985 billion, 416 million,) cells in our bodies and God loves everyone one of them. God made each of us to be unique. Although there have been are billions of people since the creation of the world, scientists tell us that there are no two people exactly alike, just like there are no two fingerprints are exactly alike. Our fingerprints are formed by God when we are still inside our mothers, during the third to fourth month. Not even identical twins have identical fingerprints. God loves to make each one of us to be a unique person, uniquely beautiful, uniquely good. . (http://faculty.valenciacc.edu/tklenk/labs/printinfo.htm) Some of us were born into alcoholic or drug addicted families. We may have even been told that we would never amount to anything. We would end up just like one of our relatives, no good. But God tells us that our families did not create us. Our mothers and fathers contributed their egg and sperm, but God created us. God put those two little cells together and wow, made us. We read in Psalm 139: 14-16 Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.” Bill Murray was the son of the person Life magazine called “the most hated woman in America.” Madelyn Murray O'Hair was a professed atheist, who successfully challenged school prayer and founded the American Atheist Society. She called all religion, was "a crutch" and an "irrational reliance on superstitions and supernatural nonsense.” Yet, the very son in whose name school prayer was outlawed, became a Christian and a preacher. Bill Murray has spent his adult life affirming God’s love for everyone, including his mother. He recently wrote a book called, The Church is not for perfect People.” " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Murray Not only does God make us as unique people, who are not determined by what are parents do or don’t do, but God prepares a treasure hunt, called life, for each of us. The word of God tells us that “In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.” God has a map for each of our lives, a treasure map. God is constantly giving us clues on how to find the next treasure, be that a friend, a job, a home, a loved one, a family, health, happiness or whatever we need. God is such a wonderful map maker that when we get side tracked and go off into deep valleys or turn around and try to go back to the old stuff, God opens up a new road to lead us in a new direction to the treasure He has prepared for us. God not only has plan A, but plan B, C, D, E, and all the way to X. God not only lays out the plan for us, but even will even hound us down and lift us up out of whatever mess we are in and bring us to where we belong. One of the most famous poems about God compares God to a retriever. In fact God is called “The Hound of Heaven.” It was written by a drug addict named Frank Thompson. Frank was not a great writer, this is the only one of his poems that has survived. Frank spent most of his life running from God and everyone else. He just didn't seem to find where he belonged. He tried to become a Catholic priest, but was rejected by the seminary. He studied medicine, but failed his exams. He left his hometown and moved to London, where he worked as a shoe shine boy, match-seller and cab-caller. Through it all Frank felt God always near him, always pursuing him, no matter where he went. He begins his poem by saying, “I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him… At the end of the poem, Frank collapses into God’s arms and hears God say, "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest!” The Psalmist then confesses that he cannot understand God’s endless love for him, for us. “How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.” We cannot chase down those who are trying to destroy their lives. We cannot rescue them, but God can. God is the hound of heaven. God will go anywhere, do anything and even let His own son die for them and us. All we need to do is pray. Pray for our loved ones to stop running from God. Pray that like Frank, they will finally collapse into the arms of God and hear God whisper in their ear "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest!” Let us pray…. |
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The New Beginnings Christian Community
An American Baptist Church Worship Site: Clark School, 1000 Belmont Ave. Office: 1515 Stoney Creek Drive Charlottesville, VA 22902 (434) 872-0800 Contact Us |
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