"Inside Out"

"He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall he not know?" (Psalms 94:10)
If I offended anyone, it was not my intention, it was only to wake you up; only if you truly are a believer, but have reservations in your heart about God's ability to see and hear you. Just so you know, the message went very well, and my best parts were the ones that were unscripted. Those were the moments when I let the Holy Spirit take over, and I could actually hear gasping in the audience. Not sure if they were gasping at my composure or my message, because there were moments when I was getting quite emotional. At one point, I needed to cover my face and quietly say, "God, please help me!" I could feel a ton of emotion building up inside of me; so much so, that I could actually feel the message forming within my heart, and it had to come out! When I finished, most of the church stood up and clapped; not quite sure if that meant they like it, or that they were happy it was over. I did go about ten or so minutes over, so I am sure they were relieved. The only thing that I regret is that no one came forward; because if I would have been in their place, I know that I would have been one of the first. Maybe that's it; maybe I should have put my own self down on the floor, begging for God's forgiveness; maybe then it might have given permission to those holding back. It was more than just an alter call, it was about Redemption; the kind of Redemption where you can actually trust God with every single part of your life, even the parts that don't make sense, the parts that might have been terribly ugly, and the parts where you feel you made your biggest mistakes. There were two major things I took away from those unscripted moments; the first was trying to impart a little taste of Ruth's love for her mother-in-law. I gave the example of when Abraham first truly believed God was going to give him a son through Sarah; God did that by giving Abraham the vision of his descendants being held in captivity. Once his heart broke for those children, those children became a reality in his heart; they were no longer a distant dream or a hope, they were now part of him and what he cared for. The other; well, let's just say, it is still sinking in. I started out the message by saying how wrong it was for Elimelech to leave God's house for the land of the ungodly, and how we all have made such similar mistakes. But I finished by saying, "Our mistakes, are God's opportunities!" Sure, there are consequences for the mistakes that we make, but God takes our stupid mistakes and turns them into His wonderful plans. We cannot plan our lives better than God can; we cannot recover our loses better than God replaces them; and we surely cannot know what is best for ourselves, better than God knows what is best for our eternity...
"But Jesus replied, "Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. As it is written in the Scriptures, 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.) "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh."" (John 6:43-51) NLT