Grace For The Journey

  For many of us who live in the cooler Midwest and northern climates, this is the time of year for snowflakes – lots of them!  So far this winter we have had no heavy snowfalls … but I am sure that will change before spring comes!  I thought this would be a good time to talk about snowflakes and saints, because they have a great deal in common.

Here are a few facts about snowflakes.

• The shapes of snowflakes are delicate and intricate.
• Snowflakes are not always symmetrical.
• Snowflakes have six sides, with almost an infinite number of possible variations.
• Snowflakes are formed from moisture droplets held within clouds when the air temperature drops to 32 degrees or lower.
• Air currents, air temperature, and the moisture content of clouds influence the size and shape of snowflakes.
• AND no two snowflakes are alike.

Which brings me to the connection between snowflakes and saints: NO TWO SAINTS ARE ALIKE.

• You are a one-of-a-kind creation, fashioned by the hand of the Almighty.

Created in the image of God, you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13).  Nobody has the same set of fingerprints as you . . . nobody has the same foot prints as you . . . nobody has the same look or voice as you . . . nobody has the same genetic code (DNA) as you.

• You are a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, held firmly in the hands of the Master.

You have a history that nobody else has – a history that God wrote before you were born!  Yes, all the days ordained for you were written in God’s book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16).

• You are a unique image-bearer of God, with a never-before-lived past and a singular present.

You were made by God for God; because He has not made anyone else just like you, He has a special and specific purpose and plan for your life.

Now, if you are waiting for me to suggest just what your specific calling is in this life, you will be forever waiting!  I sometimes talk with folks who hope I will tell them whether God has called them to be “a butcher, a baker, or a candle-stick maker” (to borrow from an old rhyme).  But I simply cannot do that.  Am I in the place of God?  But what I can do is to share the general and universal call given to everyone who has ever been born and that is . . . You were created . . .

TO KNOW AND SERVE GOD!

You are uniquely qualified to serve God right where you currently are.  Whatever field you are in . . . whatever job you have . . . that is the place where you are to be serving God.  Your unique passion, interests, gifts, talents, and abilities will enable you to serve God right where you are, right now, today, in a way nobody else in the world can do.

What are you called to do?

God simply wants you to prayerfully do all you can,

With all He has given you to do it with,

To know Him and then praise and bring glory to His name

Through what you do, say, and are.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12:14-18, “Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.  Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?  If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact god has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”

Different body parts are designed by God to play different roles.  But they are all vital to the functioning of the body.  So too, the saints in the body of Christ have different roles to play that are vital to the functioning of the body of Christ – the church.  Regardless of where this finds you today – whether in a season of plenty or want, health or sickness – God is calling you to do your part in expanding the cause of His kingdom.

Will you answer the call?  If not you . . . who?  If not now . . . when?

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry 

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”