Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”.
Good morning everyone, sometimes I kid around with Steve Porter about how many books there are in the Bible. Some of you remember a couple of Sunday’s ago he said there were 67 and I said no 66. Anyway, we do have what we call 66 books in the Bible, 39 in the old testament, and 27 in the New Testament. But in reality some of the “books” are actually just letters written to others, like the letters that Paul wrote to various people. The point of all this is, whether you know the number of books in the Bible or not, is not that important. Knowing that answer on a pop quiz is not what will set your life free from worries or give you direction in life when most needed, nor will it encourage you when you are feeling low. Knowing Jesus and the voice of the Holy Spirit is what matters. What we all need is a true relationship with the living Lord. Learn all you can from reading the Bible, pray, stay in contact with God daily, hourly if possible and you will begin seeing and experiencing miraculous peace and Joy in your life.
Psalm 119:176. “Come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.”
The following is an excerpt from Jim Cymbala’s new book “Jesus Every Day”
After writing the longest chapter in the Bible, including the verse, “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11) it’s hard to believe that the psalmist ended with, “I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me” (Psalm 119:176)
What a great encouragement for us. Even the man who had written all those wonderful verses came to a time in his life when he wrote, “I have wandered away like a lost sheep.” What did he wander away from, though? It was from the Lord and the walk of faith. Haven’t we all done that at some point? Notice though, what the psalmist did: He acknowledged that he had wandered. How do we know that? Because the last phrase of the verse is, “for I have not forgotten your commands.” In other words, “I know your commands. I know your goodness, your holiness, your faithfulness. But oh, God, I have wandered.”
Wandering doesn’t happen overnight. It’s like when a sheep sees a little green patch of grass and moves toward it. “Let me go over there. It’s only a few feet away.” Then he sees another tasty bit of turf. He starts to wander in that direction. Pretty soon, he’s left the flock. Sheep do not exactly have high IQ’s. And sadly, we’re like sheep. We wander from the Lord, and the next thing we know, we’re heading toward major trouble with predators setting their sights on us. But here’s the beautiful part: The Psalmist wrote, “Come and find me.” He didn’t say, “Lord, I’m coming right back!” No, he knew that when temptation, sin, or spiritual blindness causes us to wander, we can’t always get back so easily, even if we still remember God’s commands. Sometimes all we can say is, “Lord come find me. Put me on your shoulders and bring me home.”
Come to your Spiritual home on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 for Choir rehearsals and Sunday mornings at 10:30am Services. 1000 University Drive, Esic Worship Center.
Do you have any beautiful photo’s you have taken? Send them to me by email, kent@bonniburns.com and I just might use some of them on the blog.
Stay warm, stay in prayer for one another. See you soon, love, pastor Kent