Stolen

The enemy of our souls desires to steal life from us - he wants to deceive us into thinking that God doesn't love us and use every means necessary to prevent us from experiencing His freedom.  Plus, he will attempt to make us comfortable in our sin. Acts chapter 3 states:
19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,
21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

Jesus came to give us eternal life - as I mentioned earlier this week, He is the door through which we enter into that life; the good shepherd who walks with us.  We can seek to follow His principles and the leadership of His Spirit.  He will lead us in His ways and He gives us the resources in order that we may be protected from the deception of the enemy, the one who comes to trap us in self-reliance.  Jesus comes to set us free through reliance on His power.

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Jesus taught about Himself in John chapter 10, using imagery of Himself as the door through which we can enter into eternal life and as the good shepherd who gives His life for His sheep.  We can see
this passage:
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

What a life that God has in store for us through a relationship with Jesus Christ!  He invites us to come into the abundant and eternal life that He has prepared for us. There are forces manipulated by the enemy that would work against the power and love of God in our lives, and it's important that we are aware of the operation of Satan, that we resist Him in God's power and that we focus our attention on walking in the victory afforded us by the One who gave His life so that we might be free.

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Throughout the Scriptures, we can see evidence of the heart - and the hand - of God.  In Joel 2, we
can see a reference to God's desire to restore His people to Himself:
25 "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.
26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.

Kenny Clark is a defensive lineman for the Green Bay Packers.  Recently he had accumulated more than $7,000 worth of toys to be donated to needy children in the community, according to Fox 11, which reports that:

Hundreds of toys donated by Green Bay Packers defensive lineman player Kenny Clark have gone missing.

According to KNBC in Los Angeles, the toys were set to be delivered to children in need when they were stolen from a shed in Clark's backyard.

This has been discouraging to Clark's mother; he said:

"It's just messed up man, it was for a bunch of kids. I mean it's difficult, especially for my family. My mom, she works so hard to do it. It's just really difficult for her, you know because she works so hard throughout the whole year putting it together."

As the article points out, Clark is known for his off-the-field work. It states: "This year, the Packers nominated Clark for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award for his charity work."

I learned a few things about Kenny.  For one thing:

Should Kenny win, he plans to donate the money to Angel Tree Sports Clinic™, a program that gives children with incarcerated parents an unforgettable day of coaching, encouragement, and hope in Christ.

That's from the Prison Fellowship website, which administers the Angel Tree ministry, providing Christmas gifts to children whose parents are incarcerated.  The site reports that:

For most of Kenny Clark's childhood, his father was incarcerated. Today, Kenny wants to shine a light of hope for children in similar situations, easing their burdens with the kind of encouragement he received from Angel Tree volunteers who reached out to his family at Christmas.

The Packers' website reports that "as part of the league’s 'My Cause, My Cleats' initiative, Clark wore specialty cleats he designed in support of Prison Fellowship and the program Angel Tree."

And, a GoFundMe page set up to support the Kenny Clark Foundation raised over $13,000 to replace what was stolen.

In the midst of it, Kenny tweeted out that God is "always working."

That's the first takeaway for us.  We can acknowledge that, in His great love, according to His plan, God is working to accomplish His desired purpose, and you can consider that He is moving toward restoration.  He is our mighty healer, and He wants to take us from glory to glory.  That's not to say there may not be trouble along the way; that's a given, but ultimately, He receives the glory.

We can also contrast the work of the enemy vs. work of God - Jesus was clear in His teaching: the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy; Christ came that we might have abundant life.  We clearly see the work of stealing vs. restoring, as well as Satan's agenda of taking away life and hope vs. God's desire to give life and hope.

If the enemy has stolen from us, we can look to God to replace what has been stolen.  The book of Joel refers to the years that the locusts have eaten.  We serve a restorer who wants to give us a new identity in Christ, who affirms where we have been rejected, who provides forgiveness for past hurts and love in place of shame.

And, we can also think about the opportunities we have as the Church to demonstrate the generosity of God's people.  When people heard about the stolen toys, they went online to give in order to replace the items.  When we become aware of needs, we can allow God to use us in order to bring a sense of His presence.

Finally, we rejoice in the work of Angel Tree, which is an outreach of Prison Fellowship, founded by the late Chuck Colson.  Angel Tree provides a tangible expression of the love of Christ through Christmas gifts to children whose parents are incarcerated.  The founder of Angel Tree, Mary Kay Beard, passed away in 2016 - the Prison Fellowship website quotes Colson:

“While serving six years of a 22-year prison sentence in a state prison for burglary, grand larceny and robbery, Mary Kay watched women gather soap, shampoo and toothpaste received from charity groups and wrap them as Christmas gifts for their children. She vowed she would do something for children who have an incarcerated parent when she was released from prison, and Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program is among her greatest legacies...

The site points out she was in an Alabama prison.  That ministry was founded in Alabama, and Chuck Colson was inspired to found Prison Fellowship in Alabama, while incarcerated at Maxwell Federal prison.