We're Only Humans Baby...

So, what if the bible just had the bare necessities in it? Like focusing on the basics i.e the greatness of the prophets after they met God and all the holy of the holiest characters.

I’m so glad the bible was written in a way that brings me peace and gives me hope… hope that no one is beyond redemption and we really are just humans; we fall, we fail, we disappoint, we choose our will over God’s will, we disobey, we doubt, we fear… even those who were recorded as mighty men of God. But through it all, we see how realistic God's love and grace is.

Abraham lied, he claimed Sarah was his sister to gain favor with the king and he doubted God’s promise and gave himself a son from another source before the birth of Isaac, but he was still called a friend of God in the end. David lusted after another man’s wife, killed her husband when he wasn’t successful in covering up his actions and married the young widow… and he was known to be a man after Gods heart.

Jacob deceived his father, betrayed his brother, but was still blessed by God and was given a new name, Israel. Moses had anger issues and some; he let his emotions control him, but God still used him greatly. Samson? … Oh Samson, we all know his story, but even in the end, God showed up for him and gave him victory. Jonah ran from God, tried escaping from his assignment(like many of us do today). Rahab was a prostitute. The Eli the prophet's sons were said to be scoundrels and rapist. Samuels’s sons took bribes and perverted justice. Peter denied Jesus, not once, not twice but three times. Saul(Paul) was a terror to Christians.

Thank God that He didn’t choose to hide the flaws and past lives of the mighty prophets or those of their children in His guide book. I’m thankful He didn’t omit the part of Rahab being a prostitute, or the mistakes of David, the man who captured His heart, or Solomon who let foreign women turn his heart away from God, or the cowardice and instability of Peter, whom He chose to be the foundation of the church.

They were all written to tell us that despite our human flaws, God loves and blesses us and gives us opportunities to be used for His great plans if we repent. Our mistakes shouldn’t stop us from being the great people He set us aside to be, shouldn’t prevent us from living our purpose… we are humans, and His grace is sufficient to cover our flaws and make us worthy of him.(doesn't mean we deliberately choose to take this grace for granted)

Basically, holding on to your past mistakes and eating your heart out over it isn’t the answer. We have a loving God who forgives and loves to forget the mistakes of the past we choose to dwell on in bitterness. King Solomon says “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again…” proverbs 24:16

Don’t remain down when you fall, pick yourself up knowing there’s a hand of grace stretched out and ready to help you get back on track. All you have to do is look at the great men and women of the bible to know that you never drift so far off from the throne of grace that you can’t be used for greater things than your fall. And when you rise, choose to focus on the future and not the past. As Paul puts it “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead…”Philippians 3:3 From someone with the 'Saul' history, this is a big and sensible statement.

We're only humans and can only 'survive' salvation because we have a good God, who thankfully isn't human(or we'd all be in big soup)

We’ve got ex-mobsters, ex-prostitutes and ex-cultist etc carrying out kingdom agendas today. Isn’t Grace such a beautiful thing?

"Some people think they've wandered far away from God, but really they're just sitting on the porch with their bag. You're closer than you think" Justin Cox