Breckenridge Estates

What led up to this amazing story? Well, let me take you back to a man named Abraham. That’s right, the Abraham from millennia past, who lived as a Bedouin in tents on the other side of the world. One day, the Lord came to this man and told, “Abe, leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you. I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a blessing.” (Gen. 12:1-3). And so, the story of redemption took off and the blessing came. The story had many untold ups and downs through the centuries. The people would listen to the Lord for a time, usually a short time, and then disobey and rebel. Yet God was faithful in and through the midst of all the nation’s sordid history.

One day the people asked Samuel, the last of their ‘judges,’ to appoint for them a king, ‘like all the other nations.’ (1 Sam. 8:5). Even this was an act of rebellion, for the people were in effect rejecting the Lord as their king, they wanted to be like ‘all the nations.’ Yet, God was faithful, even in the midst of their obstinacy and stubbornness. First came Saul, but then came David, a ‘man after God’s own heart.’ (1 Sam. 13:14). David becomes king and desires to build a house for the Lord to be worshiped in. But the Lord comes to David and says, ‘No, you will not build Me a house, but I will build you a house!’ Not only that but God promised that one of his sons, would sit on his throne ‘forever.’ Now the nation has a kingly dynasty started and the story continues. Through the centuries, some of David’s sons would be great kings, one, Solomon did build the first temple, but others would be ‘toads’ that should never have sat on David’s throne. Yet, God was faithful, even in the midst of the sin and rebellion.

Now let’s jump ahead in the story centuries until we come to a man named Joseph and his bride to be, Mary. Mary is found to be ‘with child,’ an extremely shameful thing to happen in those days. Joseph, desiring to do his best to protect her dignity, is going to divorce her quietly but is turned from this by the intervention of an angel from God. Joseph marries her, Mary gives birth and, ‘When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Gal. 4:4-6). And God was faithful once again.

The story continues. Jesus came, poured himself into his disciples, who in turn made other disciples, who in turn continued to pass the faith down through the ages. As God was faithful, He was working all things for His glory. The day came when, after working through one family and bringing them to a place where they were able to be in a place to step in and help another family. That family had suffered many losses and now, through an unscrupulous seller, lived in a home that was literally falling apart at the seams. This family, not allowing anyone into their home because of the shame, was at the end of the proverbial rope.

God was again faithful. In drawing together, a company, a community manager who ‘just happened’ to note that there was an abandoned home in the community, along with a great need for a home that was loveable, along with a six-year-old boys’ prayers, it came together. On project day, Impact Cares was able to gift a newly remodeled home to a single mom with three kids who desperately needed a place to live that wasn’t bug-infested and where they wouldn’t fall through the floors. Imagine that a part of God’s plan, from thirty-five hundred years ago was to bring together, those who loved the Lord, who had been called according to His purpose, to be, in a small part, of passing along that blessing that had been promised to Abraham, through the gift of a new home.

God is faithful, not only in the above story but also in your life and mine. As we come together this week to celebrate Thanksgiving, won’t you stop and give thanks for all the amazing ways in which God has worked down through the years, in ways and through people we may never know, all to His glory!