"Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?' " Genesis 3:9
I came across a story told by a once homeless man. He had always lived on the fringes, paycheck to paycheck, focused on partying and maintaining a good steady high. Then, his mother passed and he discovered that she had left him $70,000. He had never had any real amount of money before and immediately, he and two women began to spend all of it on parties and drugs. He stopped going to work and so lost his job. Everything went into his drug focused lifestyle till everything was gone, the women, his home, everything....except for a few boxes. In one of them was a Bible his mother had given him, inscribed with a loving message from her. Not long after, the box the Bible was in was stolen. He was broken hearted but resigned to its loss.
Several years later, he and another homeless man were hired to do some daywork 100 miles away from the streets they were living on. As they were bagging trash at the site they were working at, he saw a pile of items to be thrown away. He began to sort through it for anything of value and spotted a dust covered book. He lifted it from the pile. He opened it....to the letter of love written to him from his mother all those years before. It was his long lost Bible. He fell on his knees in brokenness and tears. As he ended the story he said, "I knew right then that if God was going to chase me that hard, I knew I had to quit running from Him." Right there, in the midst of all the rubble, he gave Himself to the God who had relentlessly pursued him, surely in part due to his mother's prayers for her son.
Several years later, he and another homeless man were hired to do some daywork 100 miles away from the streets they were living on. As they were bagging trash at the site they were working at, he saw a pile of items to be thrown away. He began to sort through it for anything of value and spotted a dust covered book. He lifted it from the pile. He opened it....to the letter of love written to him from his mother all those years before. It was his long lost Bible. He fell on his knees in brokenness and tears. As he ended the story he said, "I knew right then that if God was going to chase me that hard, I knew I had to quit running from Him." Right there, in the midst of all the rubble, he gave Himself to the God who had relentlessly pursued him, surely in part due to his mother's prayers for her son.
I was moved deeply by this story, partly because it is much like my own. Just as Genesis 3:9 has always stirred my heart. I am so thankful for the pursuing grace of Almighty God. I am so thankful for a God who never ceased coming after me even as I showed no interest in Him. I am so thankful for a Savior, Jesus Christ, who pursued me into my own deep darkness, took hold of me, and led me out. I am so thankful that He never ceased calling my name, asking me where I was, and causing me to see exactly where I was, and where I was going without Him.
Where might He be calling your name today? Where are you that He seeks to lay hold of you and take you from the wrong way and place you in the center of His? Without Him we will wander and be lost, and even with Him, we tend to stray and drift away. The results for us are always disastrous. Yet He pursues. He comes looking, searching, loving. Where might He be doing so in your life right now?
A homeless, drug addicted man, fleeing His presence all of His life, was pursued through miraculous works until he could run no further. Such is the Savior. Aren't you tired of running, drifting, dying? He's calling you, drawing you. What will you do?
Blessings,
Pastor O
Blessings,
Pastor O
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