Two Sermons for One

Today was a good day, full of many life lessons and inspiration. This morning I learned the importance of taking time for yourself, I cooked before church and took extra time to feel GREAT in the skin I am in. Church was great and it addressed self-centered Christianity. Many churchgoers look at what a church can do for them, versus really thinking what they can do for the church. Church is not about being entertained but really about showing and sharing Gods grace to others who are too lost to see his presence and love. Religion is not really about what you can't do, but is more about what you should do for your fellow man.

I enjoyed church and then walked outside and was blessed by a story I heard. It was about a man that was a victim of a petty robbery. He went to vote and received a phone call from the police saying that the policeman had his bag. The man didn't believe it because he assumed his bags were in the car, when he turned around to see, he realized he had been robbed and two bags were missing.  In this day in age, where we all have automatic locks, I wondered how they broke into his car without any visible signs. He later said the robbers popped the lock. The crazy thing is that he didn't realize that something had been taken from him until he received the phone call, up to that point he didn't even realized anything was missing. He went to get the first bag and wanted to thank the person who found his bag. Turns out it was a minister that is opening up a church, ironically he lived in the same subdivision as the man. The minister was able to locate him because he found the man's phone number and a church bulletin.

A few days later he received another phone call from a good Samaritan who said that his other bag had been found. This time the bag was found by a great couple who were from Rome GA. They were great people who were happy to help.

Lesson: So many times in life we stress about things lost either from negligence or things taken, but God sees and know all and in his divine way will fix any situation IF we give him the power to do so. Obviously the churchgoer who told me this story was a believer but what I appreciated was the second lesson in this. Which is when you have done all you can, you must release it and turn it over to God, because God will always straighten our path, even if we are not at fault. The man also went on to say the symbolism of bags or baggage, and said much of what was "taken" were things that he needed to deal with and move on but that he allowed to carry because he wasn't ready to let them go and after being robbed he was forced to let them go because they were no longer in his possession. In life we carry so many things around explaining their significance to others, when in reality Gods wants us to drop the baggage and open our eyes to his glory and his presence.

God is always present and is always teaching and I am BLESSED that I heard this story today, so I received multiple sermons this morning