There is something about going to scripture and finding comfort in knowing that God uses people in spite of their faults and human frailties. This is not intended to diminsh my sin or failures but rather to encourage you and I that no matter what we have done (or will do) God can and will use us as long as we surrender to His will and authority.
In Exodus 2 Moses kills an Egyptian. After committing murder he fled from Egypt to Midian and was there forty years. In Exodus 3 Moses stands in the very presence of God. God calls him to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. God performed many miracles through Moses and not only freed the Israelites but led them into a land of abundance.
David, the man after God's own heart, committed adultery, orchestrated a murder due to his adultery and lost a child due to his actions (2 Samuel 12). He repented and God sought to give him another son, Solomon, who would later become king and be granted wisdom than all others. (I Kings 3 & 4).
Saul (who later became Paul) persecuted the early Christians--he even held coats while Stephen was stoned to death. Acts 7 (by the way Acts 7 is a great summary of Old Testament patriarchs Moses, Joseph, and Abraham as told by Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power.) After Saul's encounter with Christ on the way to Damascus he became Paul and began his missionary journey to spread the gospel. His letters can be found in Galatians, Corinthians, Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians and many others.
I didn't intend for this to be a history lesson on the bible however this only notes four men in scripture that had gotten off track at some point in their life and God still saw fit to use them. Moses knew from a young age God called him, David was anointed to be king as a teenager, Saul was a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; persecuting the church. (Philippians 3)
Each one of them faultered and was shown God's grace and forgiveness. What's amazing to me is that their lessons are still teaching you and I today. I certainly don't want all of my mistakes announced at the pulpit but I have learned that each one of us has a story--a Glory Story. Your Glory Story is your life experience of getting off track and God gently calling you back to Himself and using your life as evidence of His glory, grace and mercy that He extends even today.
It amazes me how patient God is with me. I am sure I give Him a chuckle in my silliness. I'm a slow learner. He usually sends messages in threes (sometimes 4) to get His message across. I tend to turn much more quickly when I get off track but....I still get off track on occassion.
Whether you are a Moses, David, Abraham or EVE (the mother of sin) God forgives it all. Praise God that He knows and forgives the sins that we will commit tomorrow. Repent immediately and get back on track.
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Philippians 3:10-16
Get back on track today and press on toward the goal!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN_DMuahD5o
