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A simple message today.
A few nights ago, I was reading Psalm 68, where lies a verse that has a great meaning for me. I came upon it several years back, when I was living alone. My kids were with their mom and I was barely able to keep a roof over my head. I was working a second job cleaning as much out of killing a few more hours till sleep as for the extra gas money. I had a Church but was really not connecting the way I should have been. And in Psalm 68, I found a promise that seemed awfully far away...
Verse 8. "God sets the solitary in families."
And the night I read that again, it struck me just how much God kept His promises. I have Laurie. A better job. A grandchild! And of course Scrappy. The verse goes on: "...He brings out those who are bound into prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land." I was bound, for real. Being a Christian but surely not living it all that well. I had runes around my room, my hope for a break in the week rested on the largesse of a buddy who drug me along on his strip club adventures.
Didn't see the connection between my dry land and my rebellion.
At times, I was as close to God as I have ever been, before or since. But that was because of how far I had strayed, and how lost from the sheepfold I was.
And now? This is a promise that God has fulfilled. Am I changed? I've made progress, but in God's eyes (or maybe just mine), it's the progress of an ant on a round the world trek. God is not faithful because of us, He is faithful IN SPITE of us.
And when I read that verse again, I thought of my life verse, 1 Samuel 7:12: "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Eben-Ezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us"; and realized once again that I was looking back at a stone set up because the Lord had helped me.
Do you know what Mizpah and Shen mean? Well, yeah, they are place names, but if you track them back a step farther, the stone set up was between "the watchtower" and "the crag." I am continually on my journey from the crag to the watchtower. And once again, I am reminded of all the stones I have set up along the road.
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Chris:
ReplyDeleteYou're not doing anything that every other Christian hasn't done in their walk with the Almighty.
You have (from a human perspective) good days as well as not-so-good ones.
I refrain from using "bad" days, because ANY day in the Lord HAS to be a good one, simply because of who HE is and what HE has done for us.
If getting saved and then going about doing the work of the Lord was EASY, a lot more people would most likely sign on.
It's the challenges we face (sometimes daily) that make our walk with HIM through (our) trust, and faith, and encouragement much less problematic.
As long as the stones set upon the road are more like guideposts than stumbling blocks, the more knowledgeable and wiser we become.
But, that's just what I've come know.
A very good post.
Stay safe (and blessed) up there, brother.
In this venue, the stones are memorials, reminding me just what God HAS done.
DeleteDamn I liked this post
ReplyDeletePlease don't take this as me being offended, but you might be the first one ever to cuss on a Sunday message!
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