A life in tatters
11/09/08 10:15 Filed in: Bible
Defrauded his brother (not once but twice), deceived his father, married twice (at the same time), had two mistresses, had twelve children to the four women, and on the run from his employer.
Having said that, his father tried to do him out of his rightful inheritance, his brother tried to kill him after the second fraud, his wives treated him as a piece of meat, his employer tried to diddle him of his wages, and his father-in-law gave him the wrong daughter (on purpose) at the wedding.
Sometimes we are a product of what others have done to us. And sometimes we have done things to others which have shaped them for the worse. We have been harmed, and we have caused harm.
Is there hope for the harmed and the harming? Where go you go when your life is in tatters?
The man described isn’t a modern day character, yet he could be. In fact he is from about 5000 years ago, and his name is Jacob. You’ll find him in the book of Genesis, and over the next number of weeks in New Life Fellowship we’re going to be studying Jacob. Or more particularly we’ll be looking at how God deals with such a mess of a man, and starts to untangle the mess.
And that’s encouraging for each of us because we need help to untangle the mess of our lives, and here is where hope is found. Hope is found in the God who untangles and rescues. Hope is found in the God who can forgive us for the harm we have done. Hope is found in the God who can take the harm we have suffered and turn it for good.
You see, God doesn’t ask us to tidy ourselves up before we come to him. He tells us to come just the way we are, and then he will start to do the tidying. God loves us as we are, but he loves us too much to leave us as we are.
That’s what we see with Jacob.
Perhaps you can identify with Jacob, either as hurt or hurter. Perhaps you identify with some aspect of his life, but not all. Perhaps you don’t identify with Jacob much at all, but you know that you need God as much as Jacob did, albeit for different reasons.
Whatever the case we’d like to invite you to come along and join us for this set of studies over the next 6 weeks or so. We start this Sunday at 10.15 in the Day Centre off Oliver Plunkett Road.
Having said that, his father tried to do him out of his rightful inheritance, his brother tried to kill him after the second fraud, his wives treated him as a piece of meat, his employer tried to diddle him of his wages, and his father-in-law gave him the wrong daughter (on purpose) at the wedding.
Sometimes we are a product of what others have done to us. And sometimes we have done things to others which have shaped them for the worse. We have been harmed, and we have caused harm.
Is there hope for the harmed and the harming? Where go you go when your life is in tatters?
The man described isn’t a modern day character, yet he could be. In fact he is from about 5000 years ago, and his name is Jacob. You’ll find him in the book of Genesis, and over the next number of weeks in New Life Fellowship we’re going to be studying Jacob. Or more particularly we’ll be looking at how God deals with such a mess of a man, and starts to untangle the mess.
And that’s encouraging for each of us because we need help to untangle the mess of our lives, and here is where hope is found. Hope is found in the God who untangles and rescues. Hope is found in the God who can forgive us for the harm we have done. Hope is found in the God who can take the harm we have suffered and turn it for good.
You see, God doesn’t ask us to tidy ourselves up before we come to him. He tells us to come just the way we are, and then he will start to do the tidying. God loves us as we are, but he loves us too much to leave us as we are.
That’s what we see with Jacob.
Perhaps you can identify with Jacob, either as hurt or hurter. Perhaps you identify with some aspect of his life, but not all. Perhaps you don’t identify with Jacob much at all, but you know that you need God as much as Jacob did, albeit for different reasons.
Whatever the case we’d like to invite you to come along and join us for this set of studies over the next 6 weeks or so. We start this Sunday at 10.15 in the Day Centre off Oliver Plunkett Road.