“But God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of
the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory
in his presence.”- 1 Corinthians 1: 27-29
God can make something out of nothing. Out of the void he spoke the world into
existence. He create life from dirt. He exalted a simple shepherd boy to rule over
nations, and changed a radical anti-Christian into a mighty evangelist. God can take so very little, and make so
much. He can take death and make
life. He can take the cold, dead, sinful
heart in you and make it into a vibrant, flourishing, heart of righteous. If you give it to him.
We are conditioned by the natural to carry our own thoughts and
ideals, into the spiritual. In the
natural, you do not get something for nothing, and you do not make something
out of nothing. To build a house, you need materials, tools, mortar, labor,
etc. To build a business it takes time,
energy, investments, and ideas. You have to have experience and higher education
to get a “good” job (so they say), and you have to have academic prowess and
volunteer hours to get higher education (money helps too). What you give is what you get; and to a
certain degree, this is true in the spiritual world as well, but when it comes
to salvation, you cannot earn you way in. God can make something, a great
something, out of nothing. He majors in dealing with hopelessness, littleness,
and lack. In the man Moses, he took a
Hebrew/Egyptian prince turned shepherd and made him an instrument of salvation
to the Jewish nation. In Joseph, he took
the once Hebrew slave, and made him giver of life to the whole world. In
Nehemiah, he took a Persian king's cupbearer, and made him the CEO of the
greatest restoration project there ever was (before Christ). Even Jesus, the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords, made himself of no reputation and took on the form of a servant. A common carpenter, Savior of the World. The
smallest seed (no bigger than a grain of sand), when given to God; can make a
mighty tree. A little boy, with five loaves and two fishes in the hands of the
Almighty can feed thousands. You do not need to bother worrying about what you
are bringing to the table, just bring it, willingly; and God will prosper as he
sees fit. In the world, we are always
“auditioning.” Auditioning for the next
stage of life. Whether it be the college you want to attend, the person you
wish to marry, the job you hope to have, the house you want to live in. It is
always up to us to labor and get gain in order to advance. When it comes to
your soul, God does not want you to gain, but give, and then you will gain the
kingdom. Give up your life, your all, everything; give it over to Jesus and he
will take it and make something beautiful.
We are all born in sin, and without grace, without Jesus, that
is the highest state anyone could ever attain to; a wretched sinner. Grace is the unmerited favor of God, which
looked down upon a fallen mankind and sent a Savior to redeem us, back to an
identity with him. Jesus made a way so
that anyone could experience Holiness within that creates holiness without. It
was grace that wrought the plan of salvation, and grace that accomplishes the
plan of salvation within us. When we
take our nothing: our brokenness, sinfulness, and selfishness when we take it
and give it over to God he saves us and sanctifies us. He changes us from death
unto life, from nothing to something, from a poor beggar to a child of the
King! No wonder we praise Him, for
praise Him we should.
