12-14-2024

Good Morning All,

       Isaiah 45:3; “I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.”

    A few years ago, I was watching a movie called “Sea Biscuit.”  It was about a racehorse as a huge underdog in a race.  I don’t remember a lot of the movie but for some reason a line from that movie has always stuck with me.  “You don’t throw away a whole life just because it is a little banged up.”

    That line is one of those lines that we should always remember.  As we go through life, we all get a “little banged up.”  Sin and the devil and the world do a great job of banging us up.  We all live with a few nicks and a few scars.  Some of it is things which we have done in our life, those sins which we committed against someone, and we never confessed them, never really repented them; we just sort of held on to them and kept them in our heart, in our conscience, on our back weighing us down.

     Maybe that nick was caused by what someone did to you.  We have a little scar tissue as we nurse and hold onto the hurt.  We might not remember exactly what happened, or when or where; but we remember it was him and that he hurt me, and I won’t forget it.  It doesn’t really matter which way causes the nicks and the scars.  The cruel comment that really hurt; the rejection; the forgotten promise; the broken relationships; there are a lot of things which give us nicks and dings and scars.  Most of us are a little banged up. The devil loves this world and this kind of life.  He can toy with us and use us for amusement with each little nick and each little ding.  The pain we feel is nothing which he cares about as long as he is amused.  Once he has beaten you up enough, he will throw you away and find a new one.

      Yet God never throws you away.  He sent Jesus into this world of nicks and scars to be nicked and scarred.  By his wounding we are healed.  The world doesn’t understand this.  It is hidden in secret places; it is a treasure of darkness.  It is that treasure that is hidden from sinful man, yet God reveals to us as his children.  That treasure is that God doesn’t throw you away even if you are a little banged up.  He picks us up, cleans us off and loves us with the love of the Father which we cannot even measure.  Then he lets us in on this secret treasure.  When the time is right, you will be restored to the pristine condition which God created us to live.  We will live with no nicks and no scars.  Together we will share with him the life in glory with all the believers who have gone before us in faith. God’s treasure for us is eternal life.  It is hidden from those who reject it.  By this great gift, God shows us his love for us.  There are no nicks which will cause him to reject us.  There are no scars which will drive him from us.  He keeps coming and coming to us with the love that only the Father will have.  

Gracious Father, we come to you with our nicks and our scars, and you heal us and make us whole.  You open the treasures to us giving us the promise of eternal life.  Keep us in your arms and guard us from the devil and all his ways.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret