08/12/2024
Being Lucky, Being Touched by Grace
What a wonderful time of worship and refreshment we had together yesterday (Sunday). Our Fall Kick Off has become one of those moments in the life of our church that you just don’t want to miss. No, we didn’t have the big tent this year (financial restraints and parking lot concerns held us back), but we did have tents out back and the Lord provided a perfect afternoon to share a meal outside and inside.
On Sunday we talked about luck and how in some instances God’s grace can feel a lot like very good luck. We are beyond fortunate in being loved for who we are and not what we have done or not done to meet the standards a good and loving God lays out for us. Being a child of God and knowing we are loved because of who we are because of that relationship is overwhelming. Joy and gratitude for His grace or a celebration of how lucky we are—either way—is part and parcel of the good news Jesus came to share.
In my weekly dialog with ChatGPT I asked who were some real- life lucky people. You heard about Frane Selak—the Luckiest, Unlucky Person in the World—yesterday, but you might be interested who else made the list:
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi - Survived Two Atomic Bombs
Details: Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on August 6, 1945, when the first atomic bomb was dropped. He survived and returned to his hometown of Nagasaki, where the second bomb was dropped three days later. Despite suffering severe burns and radiation sickness, Yamaguchi lived to be 93 years old. - Joan R. Ginther - Lottery Winner
Details: Joan Ginther, a Texas woman, won the lottery four times between 1993 and 2010. Her total winnings amounted to over $20 million. Statisticians estimated the odds of winning four times as one in 18 septillion. - Juliane Koepcke - Sole Survivor of a Plane Crash
Details: On December 24, 1971, Juliane Koepcke was the sole survivor of LANSA Flight 508, which crashed in the Peruvian rainforest. She fell 10,000 feet while still strapped to her seat and survived the fall. She then trekked through the jungle for 11 days until she was rescued. - Bill Morgan - Survived a Near-Death Experience and Won the Lottery
Details: Australian truck driver Bill Morgan was declared clinically dead for 14 minutes after a severe heart attack. Miraculously, he revived and fully recovered. To celebrate his new lease on life, he bought a scratch-off lottery ticket and won a car worth $17,000. When a TV crew asked him to reenact the win for a news segment, he bought another ticket and won $250,000. - Harrison Okene - Survived Underwater for Three Days
Details: Nigerian cook Harrison Okene was trapped underwater for nearly three days after his tugboat capsized and sank. He survived in an air pocket 100 feet underwater in pitch darkness before being rescued by divers.
You don’t need artificial intelligence to identify real-life grace filled people. If you love God, follow Jesus, and lean into the Holy Spirit then all you need to do is look in the mirror. How lucky are we to have Lord and Savior who is slow to anger, quick to forgive, and steadfast in his loving-kindness.
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The Clothes You Wear
Sunday I talked about Joshua the High Priest having his filthy clothing replaced by a cleaned and beautiful garments. I also used the illustration of a boy becomes a dragon—who ‘wears’ dragon scales—and is stripped of those scales in order to be restored to a boy. In fact, I could have done the whole sermon around all the clothing imagery in scripture.
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Naaman’s servants may actually become one of the hidden gems of the sermon. They say, essentially: “If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it.”
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