Thursday... Maybe there is more to what we are going through?

I love rivers. When we lived in Colorado we tried to go up or down every canyon stream on the eastern range of the Rocky Mountains. We even tried to find the beginnings of some of those streams. I love streams. I love rivers.

Now Proverbs 21:1 says, "The king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord, he guides it wherever he pleases." That is a great picture to me.

Over in Acts of the Apostles, a book in the New Testament, I read this morning in chapter 16 a statement that set into motion the rest of the Apostle Paul's life. It was not just something that came to his mind but I'm sure it was a part of the stream of water of Paul's life that was being directed by God. Verse 37 (NLT) says, "But Paul replied, 'They have publicly beaten us without a trial and put us in prison - and we are Roman citizens." And that statement about his being a Roman citizen set into motion the rest of Paul's ministry.

Paul was a very effective missionary to the Gentiles. He and different partners went around starting churches and teaching them but his great desire was to go to Rome and hold a major gathering striving to win to the Lord as many in Rome as he could but God had a different plan and this statement set God's plan into motion. Paul didn't go to Rome as a free man but as a prisoner and God used that to change the world.

You see God wanted Paul to write a big portion of the New Testament and God knew he needed to be a prisoner in order to do it.

I wonder how the streams of a Pandemic in our lives is moving us to God's desired destination. Maybe the complacency of our day to day lives needed to be moved out of its rut into a new stream that God wants to use us in. And maybe it would be a good thing for us as Christ followers, His church to stop griping and start letting the stream of water directed by the Lord guide us to wherever He pleases. He wants to make a difference through us as He did with Paul. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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Friday... Yes, we need them. We really do

Psalm 8:3-4 (NLT), "When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers - the moon and the stars you set in place - what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?" Friday... Yes, we need them. We really do. No, not the fact that I can go out my front door and look out at night at the marvels of the sky. I can do that and it is amazing and it takes my breath away each time I see it. Yes, that is a fact but the reality of who did that and the wisdom and the faith that I have to believe that and to marvel that the one who did that cares about me makes such a difference in how I live my life. Yes, God really does. That is so wonderful for us to believe. And that is why faith and wisdom are so important. Now whatever belief you have at how that marvel happened must also be believed through faith. And the sad thing to me is that more and more people have been taught that there is no God and therefore he did not have a h...

Wednesday... It didn't just happen.

Psalm 16;10 (NLT), "For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave." Wednesday... It didn't just happen. We are headed into a weekend of deep emotion. One that we really really love was killed and it didn't just happen. David in Psalm 16:10 (NLT) writes of this happening. He says about God, "For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave." We read over in the Gospels at the beginning of the New Testament in the Bible of the life of God's Son who came to earth to be our sacrifice so that our soul would not be left among the dead. Jesus came so that we wouldn't have to be buried at death and just left there. But he also shares that Jesus who was going to be killed as a sacrifice for our sins would not have to rot in a grave. David many generations before foretold this and that is what happened. Now that had to be a God thing. We can guess a lot about our future and we d...

Tuesday... Each one of us see and describe what we are going through differently but...

Tuesday... Each one of us see and describe what we are going through differently but... We each one have our own way of explaining what we are going through, don't we? Some of us are maximisers, other are minimizers and neither one is better. We each one are different and we see what we are facing differently but no matter what it is and how you see it and describe it, God can handle it! Now the writer of Psalm 46 shows the extremes. In verse 1 he states the basic reality and then he moves on into our fears and he maximizes them to make sure we really understand. Here is what Psalm 46:1-3 (NLT) says, "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!" So what do you fear? The Amplified Bible says verse 1 this way, "God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable], a very presen...

Todays Beginning

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