God is perfect and you are not perfect. You will never be perfect on this earth, but God loves you in your imperfection.
Once I was in a church service.
The pastor, who is now in heaven, said after the sermon that we could come to the front. Anyone who needs healing can come forward on the left-hand side. The healing team will pray for them. If you want to hear a personal word from God, you can come forward on the right side.
I wanted to hear from God and I went to the right. A strange man asked me if I wanted to hear from God, and I answered yes.
Then he described a vision he saw for me.
He saw a hill. On the top was a tree with the sun rising behind it.
About nine months later, I landed with my wife at Frankfurt Airport at six o'clock on 25 December. An older man and his wife, who I didn't know, picked us up and drove us to his house in the Taunus Mountains. The hills were covered with fir trees and the sun was rising. This man's vision was true.
God loves very imperfect people like me and you. He uses very imperfect and often emotionally wounded people to proclaim his loving plans.
When Jesus began his ministry as an itinerant preacher, the first person to proselytise for him was a woman who was not highly regarded in the village.
Jesus was travelling from Judah to Galilee. He stopped at a well in Samaria and was thirsty.
There he spoke to a woman. At that time, it was very out of line for a rabbi to speak to a woman alone, but Jesus was never conventional.
After a short conversation, Jesus said:
He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”
The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;
for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” Jn 4:16–18 NASB95
Jesus loves disreputable and emotionally wounded people, people who are often despised in synagogues or churches.
Then the conversation continued.
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”
Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” Jn 4:25–26 NRSV
So the woman left her water pot, and went into the city and said to the men,
“Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”
They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. Jn 4:28–30 NASB95
Is your life a mess? No problem for Jesus.
Do you have to wait until your life is in order before you can proclaim the good news of Jesus? No! No! No!
Monday, October 28, 2024
God Uses Broken People
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