UN-SWATTED

"Jesus went out and found the most screwed-up, messed up individuals He could find and He used them to turn the world upside down". (Perry Noble from 'No Perfect People Allowed')

Ordinary people have issues. Ordinary people have problems. Ordinary people mess up. Ordinary people don't always get it right. Ordinary people have said things they shouldn't have said. Ordinary people have done things they shouldn't have done. Ordinary people have gone places they had no business being. Some ordinary people don't say as many things as they shouldn't say, or do as many things as they shouldn't do, or go to as many of the places they shouldn't go as they used to. Some ordinary people still do. Regularly. Sounds like real life to me.

Know what else? Some ordinary people have admitted they are sinners and are lost without Christ and still mess up (can you imagine that?). Regularly. Some ordinary people live extraordinarily well-dressed, uptight, do-right, act-right, talk-right lives and have completely rejected the love of God that Christ came and lived and died and rose again to demonstrate. And all of these people have one thing in common: They are ORDINARY PEOPLE and God still LOVES and USES everyday ORDINARY PEOPLE (who don't get everything right) to turn the world upside down. Think God hates you? Think again. He came here for you...

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew's house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus' followers. "What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?" Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: 'I'm after mercy, not religion.' I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders." Matthew 9:11-13, The Message

So be encouraged this week as you go about your ordinary life and make ordinary mistakes (because you will make mistakes - and those who think they don't might just be the biggest mistake makers of all). GOD LOVES YOU. He is not sitting on His throne with a cosmic flyswatter in His right hand looking for the opportunity to smack you down. Yes! God LOVES righteousness, and He sent Jesus so that ORDINARY PEOPLE like you and me (and all the rest of the really messed up, screwed up people on this planet) would have the opportunity to BECOME RIGHTEOUS through Jesus Christ His Son. 'Cause no matter how righteous we FEEL we are, no matter how good we THINK we are, it ain't gonna get the job done. There's only one way for ordinary people like you and me to live the everlasting, righteous life that God wants for ALL of us...and that's through Christ.

Are you ordinary? You're in GOOD company. Christ LIVED for you. Christ DIED for you. Christ ROSE AGAIN for you...you ordinary old buzzard, you! May God's great grace keep you mercifully and wholly UN-SWATTED until we meet again this Sunday for part two of our new series ORDINARY PEOPLE at Crossroads!

Peace.

(Art by will.lurie@crossroadsenterprise.org)