SERMON QUOTE
“There are no heroes other than Jesus in here. We get the real story about how bad people can be, I find to be a good thing – a comforting thing – because I am deeply flawed. It is encouraging to see God work with Abraham after he does some spectacularly bad things.”
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT
One of the many benefits of reading through the Bible is that it underscores the fact that the Bible is not a collection of stories, it is God’s story. In that story, God uses many individuals. With the exception of Jesus, each individual is deeply flawed, even including the heroes of the faith. In fact, it is rather disappointing to read over and over again about the heroes of the faith making egregious mistakes. How could they do that? They are supposed to be the heroes of the faith!
But they are actually not supposed to be heroes. We have only one hero, and that is Jesus. All of the rest of those individuals are just those who have gone before us whom God chose to use in various, sometimes very powerful ways. They are just like you and me, deeply flawed and marred by sin.
Just as He used each individual mentioned in the Bible, God can use each one of us for His purposes in spite of our shortcomings. You don’t have to be of heroic stature to be used by God, He can use you as you are. How encouraging it is that God can use even us for the fulfillment of His Kingdom. What a blessing it is to have the larger perspective that God is continuing “His story” as history unfolds, and you and I are a part of it.
AUTHOR BIO
Mark Neerhof and his wife Betty have been members of Christ Church since 2006.
PRAYER
O God, King of all history, guide me today to receive Your forgiveness and live in the reality of the riches of the grace You have lavished upon me, a sinner, and be willing to freely give to others out of that inestimable abundance.