Sunday School Lesson for Jan. 9, 2011: Salvation for God’s People (Isaiah 45:14-25)

Isaiah 45:14
…They will bow down before you
and plead with you, saying,
‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other;
there is no other god.’”

John 3:8
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Acts 10:34
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

Eric is my witness, or I am his. We were having lunch Friday afternoon at a local fast food restaurant and as is our custom, we were discussing the Sunday School Lesson. In fact, we were discussing this Sunday School lesson. A young man came in, ordered his food and quietly sat and ate his lunch. He was a few tables over from us… just one of the customers. When he finished his lunch, he passed by our table on his way to the restroom and said “I want to yell at you when I get back”. When he returned he introduced himself and asked what were we discussing. When we told him, a big grin came over his face and he began to tell us that he ‘just knew’ that we were ‘God’s peoples’ and he just wanted in. Eric asked whether he was a Christian and David began down a familiar path: yes, he was raised in church by a praying grandmother, but had strayed away to do his own thing. Now hold on. This wasn’t just a regular ‘guy’. He was one of ‘dem’. C’mon, you know who ‘dem ‘ is. You don’t hang around wit' ‘dem’ folks. In fact, when you see ‘dem’ coming, you cross the street, you don’t even make eye contact. You know, it’s ‘dem’. David (his real name) smelled of smoke, and told us that after he left there he was going across the street to buy some beer. But, while he looked like one of ‘dem’, from his heart, he spoke like one of ‘us’. After talking to him for a few minutes, we offered to pray for him. He gladly accepted. We started praying, really praying for him, but you know what? We weren’t praying hard enough for him. He took over the prayer and really, really stepped it up a notch. In fact, a couple of notches. Whoa! For Real! He prayed for Grandma, mom, sisters, brothers, cousins… his old girl friend. Head down, eyes closed tight, repenting over and over to God (“I’m sorry Lord, I’m sorry”) for his behavior and praying Heaven right down to Earth. Right down to the dining area right in the middle of Golden Chicken! Really! Afterwards, David asked us where we held church. He wanted to come to ‘our’ church. When we couldn’t get him to accept that we didn’t run a church, we finally had to tell him to meet us next week at Golden Chicken… for church. Same time, same place. I hope he remembers and I hope he shows up.
Beloved, how does this story relate to today’s lesson? God’s vision for mankind is so vast, so high, so wide, so deep. He loves people you or I would like not to. Truly, He is long suffering, not willing that any should perish. This is how it’s supposed to work. I’m thankful that the Father saw fit, found us worthy to send David our way. Keep him in your prayers. Along with that, remember: whatever your situation, whatever you’ve been through, what ever you’re going through. Whatever your problem, whatever the burden; God is with you. He’s willing and able to meet you where you are, wherever that is and be what you need Him to be to make you whole. Behold, He stands at the door and knocks…
♪ Jesus loves me, this I know… ♪

Blessings

.wb

Isaiah 55:9
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Luke 14:23
23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.