Redeemed

‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” Exodus 19:4-6
There is a song that has a line in it: If someone should ask who that I am, tell them I am Redeemed.
That is what I am feeling this morning, I am Redeemed. I think back to where I came from, I shouldn't be here today, but by the grace of God I am here. I think of the dysfunctional home I was raised in, I shouldn't be a Christian today.  I think of the multiple marriages I was in, and today I am a Deacon in the Church I attend. I shouldn't be there with the history that I have. I am not worthy. I cannot erase my history, any more than our nation can erase its history. We can tear down monuments that remind us of our history, but tomorrow my history will still be there. Perhaps I have added a better history in the life I lived yesterday, but even tomorrow, once it is passed, it cannot be retrieved.  I think about my history, raised in a very dysfunctional home, a father that was suppose to be a Christian and he beat his wife.  I think of the marriages I was in, married to a dysfunctional woman who had been sexually abused and all the baggage that came with it. The marriage didn't last. Then I married a Christian woman, that it seemed every 5 minutes in a sermon on Sunday morning, you'd hear that Amen from her lips. It didn't last. Then I married a woman for good sex, and it lasted a month together and we were separated and seeking divorce. Drugs and sex, and so it was with the next woman I married. Drugs and sex, meant to destroy not only them but me. It didn't last. In between were several girlfriends that I lived with outside of marriage and they didn't last. How does a person with a terrible history become a deacon. Or how does a man become a Pastor who's father married the daughter of the woman he was dating. Dysfunction all around us, meant to destroy us. Meant to tear us down, but in the midst of it, in the midst of our history is a God who works to redeem us from our sins. He tirelessly works to change our dysfunctional past into person that has a heart for lost souls. He forgives, and cleans us up. He changes that person that was unfaithful into a faithful person. He changes that alcoholic into a facilitator of a AA meeting. He changes that Drug addict into a Counselor for drug addicts. I am redeemed. All of this history is not mine alone.  Some of it is. We all, every last one of us live in a fallen world, with Satan roaming about, seeking whom he may devour and we end up redeemed, saved from a past, changed into a treasured possession. Changed into a kingdom of priest and a Holy Nation. Redeemed. Changed from a Dysfunctional past meant to destroy us, into a treasured possession of God. Changed into a man like Job that God would brag on.  Redeemed. Redeemed. If someone should ask who that I am tell them I am redeemed. It is not where I came from that matters, but where I am going. I plan to make heaven my home, how about you. I am redeemed. I cannot erase my history or where I have been. I can submit my life to a God that is able to take dysfunctional past and make me into a treasured possession.  Only God, a sovereign God can do that.  The enemy of our souls will take good and destroy it. But God takes bad, takes dysfunction, takes what is wrong and makes it all right. Only God is able to do make good and beautiful out of bad and ugly by redeeming us through his love. I think of the alcoholic that became a facilitator of AA meetings and a Deacon, I think of the drug addicts that became drug and abuse counselors. Love is more powerful than hate, and God's love is the most  powerful of all. Hate begets more hate and often creates a downward spiral. But love fixes the broken and the dysfunctional. I have a history that I cannot change, I don't even want to tell it all. Sometimes I share a glimpse and little pieces of it, but God knows it all and still loved me and redeemed me.  I never thought I a person that has been married and divorced 4  times,  could ever become a Deacon.  I thought it don't matter, I can live the best life possible and God will see my heart. I don't need a position, to live for God. When I was young I wanted to work for God, if only I could quit my little job and just work for God. Then I wouldn't have to be around all this sinfulness, I could just work for God. I see now God wanted me to work for him in everything I did, in the midst of a dysfunctional and sinful world. On a secular job, he wanted me to work for him, in everything I did. In the dysfunctional home I lived in, He still wanted me, just as I was. I didn't have to fix my life and come to him. I couldn't, I made a bigger mess.  I came to him and let him fix me. I am redeem. If someone should ask who that I am, I am a product of a dysfunctional world that God has redeemed. I am redeemed by the love of God. God bless, LVZ.