LoveReign
a Love Affair with a SoveReign God
February 17th, 2023
RESCUED—not ARRESTED
I John 3:1-2, ‘Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us—He calls us children of God! It’s true; we are His beloved children. And in the same way the world didn’t recognize Him, the world does not recognize us either. My loved ones, we have been adopted into God’s family; and we are officially His children now. The full picture of our destiny is not yet clear, but we know this much: when Jesus appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is.’
We just chatted the other day, how, when we were growing up, we weren’t dreaming of someday living unhappily forever after or how we never intended to get married just so we could then get divorced when we grew up. I bet no one ever wanted to be an inmate when they grew up either. Most little kids want to be a policeman or a doctor someday; maybe a mommy or a football player or a teacher. Never a criminal. Children dream of going to college someday. Never to prison. But unfortunately, it happens. More than we realize. Especially with drugs being so accessible and commonplace today and so harmful and addictive. What begins as experimentation suddenly can be lifechanging in just moments.
~ We have all been there. That surprise announcement, an unexpected phone call, the unsuspecting person, a startling revelation, a tragic accident, the unforeseen, that sudden dread in the pit of our stomach, those words we never wanted to hear, the unknowing and the unraveling. What happens with the disappointments in the hands of an all-knowing, sovereign God? What is on the other side of the tarnished coin?
Story after story fills every appointment. Even though one can be prepared, it’s never what you expect, the shock and sadness is always the same. We sit one-on-one with dozens every week who are trying to get their lives back, trying to rebuild what crumpled, trying to iron out all the creases in the folds of court requirements and legalities, so someday they might have something successful and fruitful again. One young man, who has no one left because he disgraced his family so badly, isn’t sure he can even cope again. He’d rather stay in prison. Tears streak his face. They were childhood sweethearts, best friends, couldn’t wait to grow up and get married and leave the brokenness, the wreckage, of their addicted families behind. They never considered what would happen when he turned eighteen two years earlier than she. He didn’t even know how to pronounce the crime with which he was being charged: statutory rape. His life had been forever changed. What had been perpetrated on him during the long years of imprisonment couldn’t even be conveyed from his lips; he was embarrassed and horrified.
Another man fights back his tears. Forty-five years almost. He has no idea how to use a cell phone nor navigate and swipe through the options online. Heck, he doesn’t even know what online means! His parents, dead now. everyone gone. He has nowhere to go and terrified when he gets there. A foreign face sits down and introduces himself, and with sadness shakes his head. ‘Twenty-eight years,’ he mumbles. ‘That was an expensive shot of whiskey and bar fight that followed,’ he mutters.
But many of our friends, guys and gals we yearn to help, often say, they are grateful. They were rescued , not arrested, on the night they got in trouble for the crimes they committed. ‘I have no idea where I’d be now,’ they say, ‘—I doubt alive—if God hadn’t rescued me. He is the reason I got arrested. He was rescuing me, not arresting me. Thank God, He showed up dressed like a police officer that night!’ I wonder if that ever happened to you, too? It might seem like the most horrific calamity ever to befall you when the red-and-blues turn up flashing in your rearview mirror or in front of your home. You might be filled with such a sense of dread and foreboding that your life has just come to an end. But sometimes it might just be Jesus showing up to save you from yourself and your pitiful future.
So many of our friends have new lives, even while still incarcerated, than they had before. They have so much hope and peace on their faces, so much joy in what’s to come. Many express their gratitude to God for their no longer having to run, to no longer having to peek over their shoulders at who was once in hot pursuit. In fact, many recognize God’s pursuit of them, the reckless extravagant love of God chasing them down, breaking down their doors, crashing through their stubbornness and excuses, seeing through their lies, coming to arrest and rescue them.
The first time I went into prison to help my parents with a Bible Study, I really didn’t want to go. I dreaded it actually. When the evening was finished however, I was stunned. I was obviously able to leave, walk through all the metal gates, take myself home, while all the men I had just met and spent the evening with, stayed behind, went back to their prison cells to sleep on inch-thick cots. They were joyful and grateful and FREE! While I left the bars behind and the shackles, so bound inside—while I walked into freedom—yet I found myself in more captivity deep down inside, more of a prisoner in the world I ran in than these men who were literally imprisoned. It was lifechanging for me, and suddenly, I wanted what they had more than I wanted anything else. I wanted to be free, like they were.
A sovereign God truly works in mysterious ways! He showed me my captivity, and then He took me to the places where I had held myself hostage, and then, He set me free, Free indeed. And that’s what He is doing with so many of our friends also. Setting them free on the inside so they can be free also on the outside.
Jeremiah 29:12-14, ‘”When you call on Me, when you come and pray to Me, I will listen. When you come looking for Me, you will find Me. Yes, when you get serious about finding Me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree. “I’ll turn things around d for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you,”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it. You can count on Me.”’ (MSG)
“When we feel like we are not good enough to be loved by God, we should remember that God’s love is greater than our doubts. We must silence the sounds of condemnation so we can hear the voice of God’s loving assurance and remember that He has selected us to be part of His family”. (The Voice, Bible Gateway)
