Stardust

Our Minister at St. John's, Dr. McClendon, preaches the best sermons. Earlier this year, he taught us about stardust. The following notes are from his sermon.

Wedgwood is made from Kaolin. The English company sent two agents to NC to find what they called “Cherokee Clay.” They came and dug up tons of it and sent to Charleston to be shipped to England. They missed the largest deposit in the world right here in Aiken/Edgefield.

Look at the back of your hand at the blood vessels. They look blue, but when you are cut, the blood is red because of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin comes from iron, and iron comes from super novas which occurred eons ago when stars died out and burst forth as iron particles throughout the universe. In this swirling mass we call earth, iron has come. When you look at the blood vessels on the back of your hand and see red in your blood, you're seeing stardust. When you look in the mirror you see stardust. Adam in Hebrew means clay. Psalm 139:14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;” Iron deficiency causes poor self esteem. Carl Segan says we are built of 'star stuff.” Physicist Chet Raymo, “We are indeed the detritus of stars, our atoms are the flour of celestial mills, our bodies he backings of solar fires.” So value yourself and everyone else. There's nothing you can do to make God love you less, there's nothing you can do to make God love you more. In Jesus we have been redeemed, forgiven, adopted.... everything we need – Jesus.

Ephesians 1:3-14

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal,t he promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

God Uses Ordinary People To Do Extraordinary Things

I've got to tell you about the bunny trail God lead me on today! This is truely a message from him to us. I just followed the trail.

I was reading some Christian fiction, Inn Dependence by Angelo Castillo.  One of the characters said, "God uses ordinary people to do amazing things. 2nd Corinthians 4:7 says God uses treasures found in earthen vessels so that the world will know the power is from Him and not from us. We're all flawed, and we all have problems." I thought that was lovely so I wrote it down to share on this blog. 

Then, as I often do, I searched for a graphic to put with it. My Google seach was 'God uses ordinary people.' That search gave me the graphic below which also mentions  1 Corinthians 1:26-29.

"Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."

 On that same Google search was the following from Grace Fox www.gracefox.com. “Too often we fall into the mindset that says we need to be strong, brave, super-talented, or super-educated for God to use us, but Bible story after Bible story proves this is wrong. He used Noah—a landlubber—to build an ark; Moses—an 80-year-old who was still working for his father-in-law—to lead the Israelites out of captivity; Paul—a murderer—to become the greatest missionary of all times; Esther—a teenage exiled orphan—to save her entire nation from annhiliation; David—a teenage shepherd boy—to kill the giant who intimidated armies of adult men, and many other such characters to accomplish His purposes. He looks for people whose hearts are genuinely bent on pleasing Him, and then He gives them the opportunity to partner with Him and experience Him in new ways as He leads them beyond their personal comfort zone.”

Then all of it reminded me of my FAVORITE song, Nobody, by Casting Crowns. So God REALLY  does use ordinary people, like me to give you this message of thoughts and ideas from different people and connected to scripture to make a lovely message. Me? I didn't do anything except follow the bunny trails and type. I love bunnys by the way.