Issue 1365 – Bagzend – February 8, 2024
I have a nasty cold this morning, and my brain feels foggy and sluggish. I dug around in the archives and found this one from 2003.
When you read this morning’s title, you are probably wondering what in the world a Bagzend is and how it can relate to you. Please allow me to explain.
To begin with, Bagzend is pronounced bags-end. and is a term I coined a number of years ago. When cooking and going to the freezer, I frequently find the ends of several bags of vegetables or other goodies. That night, I’ll combine the leftover bags of vegetables, and we’ll have them with supper. It has become a running joke that when I’m asked what we’ll have for supper, it might include “Bagzend” brand veggies.
The other night, the Bagzend veggies were peas and a stir-fry mix. There have been some very eclectic combinations, but they always seem to work. I don’t know what they’ll be until I open the freezer.
Bagzend can also apply to things other than veggies, it might be bagzend fries (usually shoestring and curly mixed) or the meat course (some chicken wings and some ribs or whatever).
In many ways, the church is made up of bagzend people. Throughout the Old Testament, we see God using the wise and powerful but also the outcasts, oddballs, misfits and unqualified. Who else but God would use a prostitute (Rahab) to save his people? Who else but God would use a frightened man from a small tribe (Gideon) to win a substantial military victory with only 300 soldiers?
Jesus’ disciples were a misfit lot that would never have “qualified” for church leadership in the first place. The Apostle Paul started as a fanatical persecutor of the church until his conversion.
Who else but God would use a Jewish tax collector, hated by Jews and Gentiles alike, to write one of His gospels?
I’m so blessed to know that God can use the leftovers, the bagzend. You see, I am one of them. I lived an ungodly life until I found Christ. If He didn’t love Bagzend as much as the rest of the bag, there would be no hope for most of us.
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:1-7
After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:27-32
If you’re a Christian who looks down on bagzend people, check your heart, Jesus loved them.
Until next time, if you’re one of the bagzend who has found Jesus, rejoice.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the Glory of God alone)
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