God, Our Rescuer

A Knight in

Shining Armor

Who doesn’t love a good story of rescue and redemption?  Happily-ever-afters are the best.  We long for them, don’t we? Too often our real-life story is filled with lots of missteps, mistakes and missed opportunities.  Often, we find ourselves a long way from a picture-perfect finish.  We are flawed, sinful people and we live in a world broken by sin with other flawed and sinful people.  That means lots of messy, problem filled lives.  How can we possibly make it thru? 



Many folks do a lot of pretending.  Pretending they are perfect.  “Everything is fine.  No problems in my life…my family…my marriage.”   Sounds great, but not a pain free way to live because all that pretend perfection is exhausting and pretty hard to keep up.  Sooner or later, that house of cards will fall, no matter how good you are at balancing.  Humans just are not perfect and pretend perfection is not satisfying.



Some people try to go thru the mess of life by numbing themselves with drugs, alcohol, excessive shopping, sex, destructive relationships or a host of other distractions, trying everything in an attempt to get some peace or relief. Most of us do a combination.  We vacillate between pretending we are living perfect, pain-free lives or we cave to the pressures of life and seek solace in the world’s bandaids.  None will ever lead to a happily ever after.  All you get is bigger problems on top of the problems you are trying to escape. Neither option is a real solution. 



The only solution is a real relationship with God; a genuine, honest relationship with the one who knows everything about you and loves you anyway.  God, who loves messy, flawed, sinful humans so much He died for us.  God doesn’t want a bunch of pretenders. Instead, He wants us to be willing to share our insufficiency with the world so He can be our sufficiency.  When we are honest about our need for Him, He shows himself faithful to us in every way.  A world full of hurting pretenders needs to see the real you: warts, scars and all with Jesus shining in and thru you, despite your imperfections and problems.  When we pretend and hide, we show our lack of faith in Him. 



We need to accept who we are in Christ.  He made us.  He defines who we are.  When we accept Jesus as Lord of our lives, we become part of God’s family.  We are daughters and sons of the Almighty God.  We aren’t perfect but He accepts us and loves us despite our flaws because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.  We need to believe what God says about us and be brave enough to show the world our real selves so we can share the love of Jesus with a world full of flawed people who need to know Him too. We need to accept that our identity comes from God and He really does love us.  That’s how we get a happy ending that’s really a happy beginning. 



From: Follow the Cloud by John Stickl:



In Jesus:

·         You are already loved—which means you have nothing to fear.

·         You are already forgiven—which means you have no debt to pay.

·         You are already his masterpiece—which means you are valuable.

·         You are already free—which means nothing can hold you back.

·         You are already accepted—which means you have nothing to prove.

·         You are already his beloved son or daughter—which means you are alive!

The roar from heaven says, “You’re mine.  You belong to me. And only I get to say who you are.”

Mighty warrior, it’s time to become who you already are.





Karen Long-Moore, Senior Leader

CBS Rutherfordton Day Class



Originally Presented to the Leadership 9/18/19