Message by:
Pastor Terry Crawford
Covenant Church
Shepherdstown, WV
God has Given Himself since the beginning.
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
The Christmas Story started before the beginning of all creation.
Adam/Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, The Priests, David, Solomon, The kings, The Nation. God has been chasing us all throughout History, loving us and desiring that we put Him in the right place in our lives so it will go well with us.
Ephesians 1:4 (MSG)
Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.
God loved us and was thinking of us before we recognized Him.
He was setting things in motion to rescue us – to pursue us. The sins of all humanity were laid on Him once and for all so that we might be called sons and daughters.
God designed us to be whole.
This is a word that comes from the ritual of sacrifice. It is amomous. It means, “without a blemish or spot.” It describes someone who has been declared “not at fault.” ámōmos (an adjective, derived from 1 /A "not" and 3470 /mṓmos, "blemish") – properly, unblemished, without spot or blot (blight); (figuratively) morally, spiritually blameless, unblemished from the marring effects of sin.
Isaiah 53:6
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
God designed us to be holy
Ephesians 1:11 (MSG) It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living
One aspect that makes Christianity distinct from other religions is the fact we serve a God who chases us. He binds Himself to a person and then pursues them with earnest, even when they run from Him. The degree to which He will travel, fight and give up something costly to win over His “true love” is truly remarkable and far exceeds the most stirring emotions of any romantic movie.
C.S. Lewis wrote of his encounters with this ‘Hound of Heaven’: “You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England …The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?”
We are designed to be caught
Psalms 139:7-10
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If God can turn a man like Paul around, a man who’s former driving passion was persecuting the church, then He can surely turn your life or situation around. All it took for Paul to change His identity was ONE encounter with God. The change was so deep, He even changed the way he perceived himself. The name Saul means “asked for, prayed for”, but Paul simply means “little or small”. Paul was irreparably changed. His life was no longer about himself. He saw his life as little. He threw his former place of prominence out the door and relied solely on God. Maybe you need a name change that kind of encounter. Maybe your identity has become influenced by your situation instead of the other way around.
Francis Thompson in his poem, The Hound of Heaven, tells about how he tried to flee God. As a young man he studied medicine, hoping to find meaning and purpose. It did not work so he got involved in drugs. He came to such despair that he contemplated suicide. In the poem Thompson describes how he latched on to various philosophies that denied God: "I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind." He tried to distract himself with sensual pleasure, but it all turned sour. In the end he heard God say, "all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!" God sought him like a bloodhound. In the end Francis Thompson allowed God to find him. Weary, he fell into God's arms.
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