9-25-2015

Good Morning All!!

          Ephesians 1:7; “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”

    There was a homeless man who was sitting in a park trying to rest but his growling stomach wouldn’t let him.  He watched as a large group began to arrive at one of the shelters.  Each group or family that arrived brought a large cooler and a small one.  Soon there was food spread over three tables.  There was fried chicken and potato salad.  There were steaks and hamburgers coming hot off of the grill.  There was sweet corn and home grown tomatoes.  There were mashed potatoes; there were more other cold salads than he had ever seen.  Then there was the pie table.  There was apple, peach, strawberry, blueberry, rhubarb and sour cream raisin.  The man could barely believe what was in front of him; he had never seen that much food in one place in his life.  As he was looking, he heard a small voice behind him.  “Mister”, the little girl said, “we got plenty to share, come on.”

    The man found himself led by the girl to the picnic.  He would make his excuses and leave; he didn’t want to make a scene.  One of the women invited him to join in.  “I don’t have a plant ma’am.”  “We have plenty, here take this one.”  The homeless man didn’t know what to do.  Soon a man placed a steak on his plate.  The homeless man was really confused.  Soon most of the women were fussing around him and putting food on his plate.  The men were telling him to eat it or “the cooks would be offended” as they laughed.  Soon the man had so much food his plate began to spill.  He sat down and ate and ate.  He went back and ate some more.  He ate his fill and sat back to rest.  The little girl came up and told the homeless man, “we’ll be back next week if you want some more.”

    In many ways we are the homeless man.  Yet God invites us to his banquet.  Yet the most important part of any meal is the plate.  Without a plate it is hard to eat.  We can think of that plate as forgiveness.  We come before God a complete and total mess; we have no home and nothing to eat.  Yet through his mercy, God forgives us of our sins and then brings us to receive the innumerable blessings of his grace.  God forgives your sins so you can eat at his picnic and just like the homeless man; we don’t pay anything for the food that someone else has supplied.  With that plate, with that forgiveness, we share in the riches of the meal.  We are nourished and comforted and loved by God.  We get to come back all the time and we get a new plate every time and a whole new meal.  God’s riches of grace are lavished upon us every second of every day.

Gracious Father, we can never begin to understand the wonder of your grace.  We can never comprehend your love.  Keep me in your loving arms.  Give me your peace that I may know that victory is already mine through your amazing grace.  Defend me from all the devil throws and heal all who are hurting.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret