10-3-2015

Good Morning All!!

      Joshua 6:25; “But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.”

    She would probably not be the first choice to be a heroine in a story, especially a story about the Israelites conquering the Promised Land.  She was a she, a woman at a time when woman were seldom named or considered.  She was not an Israelite; she was a citizen of Jericho an enemy of the Israelites.  She was a prostitute; she didn’t even have an honorable job.  She wasn’t even a person of honor in that she sold her city out to the enemy; even when the traitor helps us we tend to look somewhat askew at them.  She isn’t a likely or a logical candidate for a major role of the story about the fall of Jericho, but she is and it gets even better.

    After she helped the Israelites conquer Jericho, Joshua let her and her father’s household live in the land of Israel.  Yet it goes even farther; she ends up being the great-great-grandmother to King David which means she is in the lineage to Jesus!  That is not bad for a deceptive, traitorous prostitute. 

    Why do we bring this up?  Rahab was far more pathetic than you or me.  You probably cannot get much farther from God than she was; yet God saved her; even elevated her to a place of honor.  She didn’t earn this honor; she certainly did not deserve it but she received it.  She received salvation from God simply because God chose her for salvation.

    What is amazing is that God does the same thing for us.  He chooses us for salvation.  You might be a prostitute or a drug user or dealer.  You might be a cheating spouse or a thieving employee. You may think that you have no redeeming qualities.  You may think the life you have lived is beyond any chance but you are wrong.  God’s love depends on God not on you.  God’s love is his very nature.  His desire is for you to be redeemed, reclaimed and revived.  No matter how ugly your past may be; it is the past.  God tells you, “neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

    Sin is what separates us from God and leaves us without hope.  By forgiving the past we have hope for the future.  By avoiding sin we avoid the pain of the sin and we avoid the source of our separation.  God tells us that he wants us and he demonstrates it by showing us who he has claimed in past.  He has claimed some very dubious people to be his own.  He claims you because he loves you and he wants to prosper you.

Father of all mercy, we often feel lost and without hope.  We often feel that we are beyond redemption. Yet you keep calling to us with your love and hope.  You speak tour hearts with words of hope; you speak to our souls with words of peace.  Keep us in your loving arms.  Protect us as we go on our journey of life.  Lead us to being your words of comfort to the lost and hurting.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret