Select Page

Pastor Steve started a new sermon series this week – Unlovable: What God Loves About Us. Interesting……except I left service thinking, “What was that?”; “Not his best sermon”; “There was nothing in it for me.” Now before anyone thinks I am talking about Pastor, I already shared all this with him in his office 🙂 This blog will not come as a surprise to him. Actually, I refrained from writing it until I could talk to him face to face.

We learned on Sunday that we:

  • are obsessed about our pasts
  • our pasts prepare us for our future
  • God is looking for our hearts
  • God’s foreknowledge doesn’t determine our future

Pastor played a recording Sunday & I sat there wondering, “What is this?”. I cannot believe that I did not recognize that it was Keith Green. I love Keith Green. How did I forget this one?

I went home at the close of service. I had heard Pastor’s message & that is all it was – his message.

Until Tuesday night, when sitting in church with Lisa, Krisy & Jocelyn, I was setting up for women’s Bible Study……

…..and suddenly enters ***Clara**** (name changed to protect the innocent)…..

I opened the door thinking it was a new lady coming to Bible Study & quickly realized my mistake. She entered the foyer & announced,

“I need help”.

“I need money.”

I told her that I could take her name & phone number & have someone call her in the morning. At which she began to settle in & I realized, she was not leaving any time soon. For twenty minutes, she told me her “story” – of children in custody of the state, of a husband who was a drug addict & drunk, of homelessness, of getting a room to sleep in that was full of bed bugs, fleas & cockroaches. She shared of being caught in a system that offered no hope of change. While she shared, I prayed, “Lord, please do not let the girls come out!”

At one point in the conversation, she asked me where my purse was. I thought, “I am going to get robbed tonight”. But she went back into her rambling about her life. At another point, she nodded at my ring & said, “Those are nice rings you got there. Must have cost your honey a pretty penny. How about you get him down here to bring me some?” And I thought, “I am surely going to get robbed. Lord, please keep the girls out of sight!”.

She finally gave me her name & phone number. She stood & began to move to the door & with relief, I thought, she is going to leave. And then she said, “Thank you for listening. Can I give you a hug?”

Gulp.

As I moved towards her to hug her, I prayed, “Lord, You know how Your Word says You are a shield about me? Now would be a good time to be THAT shield. Please do not let any of those bugs she made mention of jump from her to me!”

We hugged.

She slipped out into the night & was gone.

I returned to the fellowship hall, knees shaking.

I awoke that night around 3AM & wondered, “Where is Clara? Is she sleeping out on the streets tonight?” She had asked me if I knew what it was like to be out on the streets. As I lay there in my comfortable & warm & clean & BUGLESS bed, I was thankful that I could not relate. But neither was I able to fall back asleep. I got up & went to the family room to read & pray. And that was when it began to hit me.

The words came back from the Keith Green recording that I had heard on Sunday:

“You weren’t one of those creepy people who used to come to the door, were you?”

I prayed, “Lord, please show me what it is I need to learn.”

As the time continued to pass & the sun came up, Pastor’s message became a living Word to me. Our human words will remain just that, words, until God by His Spirit comes & breathes His life into them.

“So is my word, that goes out from me mouth: It will not return to me to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire & achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11 NIV).

Today I am grateful that Clara showed up at the door. God has unique ways of working in our lives; of separating goats & sheep.

Funny to me, too, if I were asked today what my favorite sermon is that I have heard Pastor speak, it would definitely be the one I heard on Sunday. It will always be remembered. It is now a living Word.