Of course, I already knew that God made me and that He made me unique.  But I never really thought about the fact that I’m His idea.  I mean, this morning I made a cup of coffee, but I didn’t come up with the idea of coffee.  God not only made me, but my very existence is His idea.  There were already billions of people on the planet, but none of them were me, and in His mind God conceived the idea of me and then made me.  My height, my complexion, the color of my eyes and the shape of my nose… my strengths, weaknesses, the things that make me laugh and the things that make me nervous… all of this was God’s idea!  I originated in His mind.

This insight gives much more meaning to Psalm 139:13-15: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.”

Think about it: You are God’s idea.

“The first testicular guard, the ‘cup,’ was used in hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.  That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.”

This morning when Ms. Grace was teaching the Bible story at the Training Station, she asked them what a miracle is.  One little girl raised her hand and said, “Something only God can do.”  That floored me.  Adults write huge volumes and preach long sermons trying to explain what a miracle is, and usually leave people confused.  And here’s this four-year-old girl nailing it right on the head in only five words!

When Ms. Grace was telling the story and mentioned Jesus, one little guy interjected, “God and Jesus are the same people!”  I’m totally putting him in our preaching rotation.

“We’re in a recession, and we’re still fat….  That is uniquely American.”

“The cause of the increase is the subject of debate. Several experts blamed the increase in teen pregnancies on sex-education programs that focus on encouraging abstinence.”

Are these people just trying to create fodder for the late night comedians?  I’ve never claimed to be an “expert” like the “experts” cited here, but I’m pretty sure that “encouraging abstinence” does not impregnate teenage girls.  If these programs required artificial insemination in order for a girl to participate in the program, then I could understand.  Otherwise, these “experts” might seriously need to consider taking a vocational aptitude test.

Maybe they accidentally omitted a “not” somewhere in that quote.

Either way, the fact that the current administration has withdrawn $150 million in funds for abstinence programs might have a little something to do with the current rise in teen pregnancies.

It’s from page 115 of Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.  The narrator is an old dying country preacher writing about dancing the waltz alone in his study:

“I plan to do all my waltzing here in the study.  I have thought I might have a book ready at hand to clutch if I began to experience unusual pain, so that it would have an especial recommendation from being found in my hands.  That seemed theatrical, on consideration, and it might have the perverse effect of burdening the book with unpleasant associations.  The ones I considered, by the way, were Donne and Herbert and Barth’s Epistle to the Romans and Volume II of Calvin’s Institutes.  Which is by no means to slight Volume I.”

Now that’s rich.  What an amazing writing gift.  And what a lovable character!

- Craig Groeschel

Sounds kinda like a bad idea to me!