He's not finished with us yet

The startling fact is He's not finished with me yet. That's epic. And scary.

The Bible says it this way, though. "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns."

Eugene Peterson's the Message says it this way: "I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God's Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears."

If today you fall, you get angry, you get rubbed the wrong way, you think that Democrat over there or that Republican over there or that straight person over there or that gay person over there or that gun owner over there or that pacifist over there is absolutely dead and buried to you then remember this ... oh, remember this ... God is working on them and GOD IS STILL WORKING ON YOU. 

You have no more right to condemn them than you have the right to think you're (or ME) is there, all the way there, all the way perfect, all the way fixed, all the way righteous.

It's just not that way.

God, who began the good work, is still working on the good work.

There's a story about Michelangelo at the unveiling of his statute of David, when asked how he did it, he supposedly said, "It was easy. All I did was chip away everything that didn't look like David. A little here. A little there."

I suspect that God has been doing that to me for 20 years or so, if not longer. A chip here. A chip there. Anything that doesn't look like Billy in His eyes is being removed. There is much to work with, I'm sorry to say.

But He won't quit, if I won't. He's not finished with me yet.

Singer/songwriter Brandon Heath wrote it this way (I'm changing Tennessee to Mississippi to make it my own story)
"I was born in Mississippi
Late July humidity
Doctor said I was lucky to be alive
I've been trouble since the day I got her
Trouble till the day that I disappear
That'll be the day that I finally get it right
There is hope for me yet
Because God won't forget
All the plans he's made for me
I have to wait and see
He's not finished with me yet
Still wondering why I'm here
Still wrestling with my fear
But oh, He's up to something
And the farther on I go
I've seen enough to know
That I'm, not here for nothing
He's up to something"

Amen. And Amen.