Well, as of today, I am unemployed, my contract with Bethany College ended as the month ended, so I started thinking about what God has taught me this year... it is hard for me to really pin point exactly how I have grown and matured. I think I have just been stretched in many ways this year. Many of the ways were ways that I had not expected to be stretched in. I think I grew and better learned where my passions, strengths and weaknesses are. Just like our muscles need to be stretched and broken to grow stronger, there were times this year where I was broken and at the time it felt awful, but looking back I can see that I am stronger now, and am more of a man of God than I would be otherwise.
But, I think one thing that was reinforced to me and that if I could share one thing with the students at Bethany it was the following, that even when I messed up or just didn't do as good of a job as I thought I should have done that my value in Christ had not depleted. This is something I had to come back to several times this year, when I felt like a failure, lonely, rejected, or like I had just not accomplished something to the quality that I had hoped. The next couple blogs that I will be doing are based on what Christ taught me this year... I spoke in chapel and I think I would like to share what I said on my blog the next couple times.
I have been thinking about the truths that God has spoken into and about our lives a lot lately. I think we should praise God for these truths that are found in the Bible! I want to talk about one of these truths that has really been on my heart a lot the last while.
I find it amazing how God confirms things in our lives, a passage that has been going through my mind since I started thinking about speaking in chapel was the story of the Prodigal son. Then the Sunday before I spoke I went to a church in Saskatoon (West Portal) and saw our drama ministry team (Players) do a really neat depiction of the parable and then Bethany College's President, Rick Schellenberg, mentioned the same parable on the Monday before I spoke. It seems like God has really been trying to speak to me through this lately. Rick speaks often using this parable, it never loses its power.
When I was asked to speak in chapel back in January I started to think about what to say, and God kept saying the same thing to me. It seems so elementary on so many levels. I am sure many of you have heard the basics of what I am going to say on several occasions. But, I feel like it is something that we all need to be reminded of.
For background on the story of the prodigal son read Luke 15:11-32. The son requests his half of his fathers inheritance and turns his back on his family. After the son had squandered all of his money and was left desolate he came back to his father, to beg to become one of his father's servants. The father ran to his son and raised him to a place of honour, back to where he was before he turned his back on his father! Just think about how the father took the son back as if nothing happened and raised him back to where he was before he left. This is what God does with us. Keep that in mind as I share.
I want to key in on a few verses, 20 and 31.
20So he got up and went to his father.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
These verses show that God pursues us- there is no one in this world like God; He will accept us and run to us, no matter what we have done!
God Kisses you with the kiss of love- How do we let God do this? I think in my own life when I think of letting God kiss me I tend to feel dirty and won't let Him. I can imagine this is quite similar to how the son must have felt. The son had been working with pigs, they wouldn't even let him eat the pigs slop, I am sure they wouldn't have let him wash up either. God Loves us no matter what, through our filthiness and all!
God Gives to you- We don’t earn it. He just gives to us because we are His children. His love sets us free.
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