Our Christmas Sermon (sorry it's late)

Even though this world is full of sadness God still remains good.

I used to wonder why God did bad things to people. He doesn't. He gave free reign to Satan when man fell.

God is the one who allowed us to survive and get through the abuse and sadness! Without Him we would not have survived. He got us through.

Anyway, during service, I swear the pastor was talking to me.

Our parstor said that we can give God a gift this Christmas. "But," he said, "what can we give God that He hasn't first gave us? What can we give Him that He doesn't already have?" He went on to say, "We can give him all of our money but he doesn't need money. He blessed us with it in the first place. We can give Him all the gold but He already has streets made of that stuff. We can even give him our lives but He gave us that to begin with first. So, what can we possibly give Him that he didn't first give us?"

He paused for effect...

He said, "We can give Him our pain, sin, and messed up and imperfect lives. That is ONE thing He did NOT give us and that is the ONE thing He wants more than anything! To away our pain and make us whole in Him."

He said that God has already forgiven us. He knows us through and through and He knows our pain. He knows about the abortion, the affair, the deep and bad thoughts we think that we don't ever speak of, He knows it all and He wants us to give it all to Him. He then said He knows about the abuse and the pain and anguish we have carried all of our lives. He knows of the shame and guilt. I started to cry and right then when he asked us to close our eyes and stand if we wanted to be saved or give our lives back to God if we are one of the ones who have stepped away. I stood. I felt so silly crying. But it was a happy and thankful and relieved cry if that makes sense. A joyful cry!