5-24-2016

Good Morning All!! 

            Proverbs 8:30; “then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,”

      Yesterday, I was a carpenter, sort of.  My wife and I use raised garden boxes to grow our garden.  We grow tomatoes and peppers and a few cucumbers.  We decided to add another box this year.  Now, I am not the greatest carpenter in the world.  You would think I would be considering my grandfather, my father and my son are carpenters.  Yet from an early age, my job was to hold the tape measure; not use it, just hold it.  I understand the theory but for some reason my hands don’t do the practice.  Yet we commenced to building.

    Now my wife is a wonderful person but her carpentry skills are less than mine; add in the fact that we bought our lumber from one of the big box home centers and most of our boards looked like Bob Hope’s nose; the task was going to be daunting.  Fortunately we finished the task with all fingers and toes intact and we were still speaking to each other.  I am not much of a carpenter but most people don’t expect me to be.  Our verse speaks of Jesus as being a master workman as well.

    We don’t always think of Jesus as a workman or as a craftsman and yet he is.  Jesus is the creative power of God during the creation.  God created with his word.  “God said...” and creation occurred.  The Apostle John calls Jesus “The Word” and tells us that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  And here we see Jesus at work again, this time doing the redemptive work of paying for our sins so that we may once again be one of God’s children.  The task of creation was completed perfectly as God found it to be “very good.”  The task of redemption is just as great because it is the beginning of the restoration of creation to its renewed state of holiness.

    It is in this work that God finds great delight.  It is in the work of Jesus, both creative and redemptive that God finds “very good.”  It is this work that God the Father takes his delight in because it gives him joy that once again we are his children that we are no longer enemies with God.  We can again call upon His Name with joy and peace.  We can live with the certainty of eternal life with Him and we can live knowing that God takes delight in this.

    We can find comfort in this because we have a God that takes delight in us.  We are not his playthings or toys but rather we are his beloved children.  We are those whom he seeks to bless with his great gifts and with his love and mercy poured out upon us.  We know we can always turn to him at any time because of his great love for us.  God delights in your salvation; shouldn’t you?

Gracious Father, you find delight in me even though I am not worthy but because of Jesus you declare me holy. Lead me to live in the delight of your will and move me by your Spirit to bring about your grace and peace to this broken world.  In the precious Name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret