My eldest daughter Pat picked up a stray dog on the road between Luther and Harrah.  It was nothing but fur and ticks.  She started knocking on doors, but nobody living on two or three miles of that road had ever seen it before, so she took it to my other daughter Becky and said, "You've been looking for another dog.  See if this one will do."

So Becky took it to the groomers.  They cut it's hair and underneath it all was a beautiful Schnauzer.  With a beautiful nature.  Very loving.  This was really a "before and after" moment.  Nobody would have wanted her before she had a bath and a haircut.  We named her Annie, from Little Orphan Annie.  She has been to the vet, had her shots, and found her place to sleep at night--at the head of the bed.

We were like that when Christ found us.  Fur and fleas and ticks.  But he saw something underneath it all worth saving.  We were lost.  But he picked us up, cleaned us up, and took us to God and said, "I have paid the groomer.  They have been to the great physician.  I am presenting them to you clean.  I will pay all their expenses from this day forward.  I am going to love them and take care of them from now on.  They are forever mine."

We were lost, but now we are found.  We were hungry, but Jesus fed us.  We were unclean and sinful, but Jesus paid the price to clean us and save us from ourselves.  We found a home with God.  We belong to Him.

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20  "What?" Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God and you are not your own?  For you are bought with a price:  (the blood of Christ)  therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

You are part of a new family.  Act like it.  Don't embarrass your Father.