Reflections on Sunday, January 13, 2008

The sermon today was “HOLDING ONTO THE END OF YOUR ROPE”. While Minister Austin was preaching he asked us all “had we ever been or felt desperate”? Now that question particularly reminded me of a place and a time when I was so spiritually and emotionally bankrupted that I was DESPERATE for God to intervene in my life. I know what it feels like to be in a place where there’s no one or nowhere you can turn to and get help. Even if someone wanted to help me they couldn’t because I put myself in a place where only God could help me. I grew up in church as a child of a pastor. So I knew the bible and thought I knew God. I found out later in my life I really didn’t know God for myself.

I used drugs for a period of fourteen years of my life and thought I could and would run from God and would live my life without rules or someone telling me what to do. I found myself “DESPERATE” and calling out for God to help me and to heal me from my addiction. Now I have to be real my journey down this self-destructive path didn’t start out bad. It didn’t get bad until I was spiritually bankrupt and couldn’t remember how to call on God and at that point I didn’t believe he would or could help me. After all everyone I knew in the church told me I was going to hell anyway simply because of the person I happened to love. What I know now is God had another plan for me and it was about me understanding that God loved me and would forgive me but he wanted me to have a personal relationship with him. I went through a spiritual warfare for what seemed like a lifetime. Actually that time period wasn’t really that long but I had to humble myself, I had to cry out and ask God for his help and he didn’t let me down. I had to work to seek him out with all of my heart and he heard my cry.

Now when the blind man cried out to Jesus and asked him to heal him, I believe that parable was created so we will always realize no matter how low we get, we can and should call on Jesus for help. He’s just waiting for us to call out and ask him for his help.

The sermon brought me back to the reason why I come to church. I come because I need to hear something that will continually remind me that I need God and I can’t do this all by myself.
I thank God for the Minister’s at Liberation Ministries and I thank God for Min Austin letting God use him to deliver this message.

Sis Adrienne

Scripture text: Luke 18:35