Seven Ducks iin Muddy Water

One and only holy God said, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.” (Isaiah 44:6) or “I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25). All Naaman knew was the puny god Rimmon-who was a Baal god So God in his infinite wisdom and his compassionate love pursued Naaman to make him his own just as he pursues us so that we” might not perish but have eternal life.”

What’s exciting is the way God pursued Naaman to bring him into the fold. God used a young Israelite slave girl, the very least in society to be a missionary. God worked through her trial of being captured and led away by foreigners. If God’s eye is on the sparrow, how much more does He care about his children and orchestrate what happens to them so that good will come from their difficult experiences.
Quincy and Quetilla saw God’s miracles take place before their eyes this week. They’ve had a very bad experience of having no place to live for some time and finally this week through prayer and God’s work things came together. They now have a place to live. Quetilla’s words were, “I can’t thank the Lord enough for what he’s done for us.” God is pursuing them too out of his love for their family. He wants them to totally give their lives to him.
This slave girl could have said the same words to her captors that Joseph said to his recorded in Genesis, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.” Truly that was the case for the slave girl, and it can be our experience too when we turn our bad situations over to the Lord. He will use our wretched experiences to His glory. I know it is a tempting for many people, especially young Christians, like our young Christians here today to think there’s nothing significant I can do for Christ because there is nothing special about me. But God again and again chooses the “least of these” to carry out his mission. Scripture gives us lots of examples.
God chose this nameless POW in Syria, to be a missionary. She had a great passion and a deep concern for Naaman who had to be depressed about his humiliating disease. She went to Naaman’s wife and told her, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” What great faith and courage she displayed. We can be sure that this girl had parents who saw to it that she received godly instruction otherwise she couldn’t have delivered the message that she did with such knowledge and confidence. Her parents are to be honored for doing all they did to prepare her for the missionary assignment God had in store for her.
I want to encourage all the parents and grandparents here today to prayerfully do what you can to make sure that your sons and daughters or your grandsons and granddaughters will be instructed about God from their early years so that they will know God personally, will love him dearly and will be ready to serve him faithfully. Don’t be a parent that has to regret that you didn’t do what you could have to help your child to faith and to a life of joyful discipleship. Grandparents, pray for your grandchildren who are receiving no Christian instruction that something may change. Maybe God will lead you to pick them up on Sunday