It is amazing that we are entering the last few days
of August. Praise the Lord for the way He decorates the earth with
the beauty and blessings of summer.
It is written: "You visit the
earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
you water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges,
softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.
You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy." Psalm 65:10-13
you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
you water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges,
softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.
You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy." Psalm 65:10-13
The Lord of the earth caused the earth to
be a storehouse of provisions for His people. The
earth brings forth an abundant harvest. The Lord has blessed us
with a super Sunday; His day has been filled with sustained and stunning
sunshine. It has been cool and colorful all around us. The Lord blessed
us in His House with His presence, His promises, and His power. It is
always a thrill to be In His House with His people, to forget about ourselves
and concentrate on His majesty and worship His matchless might. Some
family members joined us for Sunday dinner. We had free range roosters and free
range goat meat for dinner along with fresh sweet corn and all kinds
of fresh garden vegetables. We are praising the Lord for His
bounty,His fathomless grace, and the sweetness of His unfailing
love. Sunita, Andy, Gabe, Addie, Asha, and Laureen, along with many
of their friends, were attending a ministry and mission conference in
South Carolina. One of the speakers was Heidi Baker - a scholar,
believer, and best of all, a born missionary. Laureen was sharing
that the Lord of the Church and the Lord of the world visited them with
fresh grace and fire.
As a nation we are stunned and saddened by
the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. We are praying
that the Lord of mercy and grace will sustain His people. Praise the
Lord for all the mission agencies and church groups which are at work in rescue
and ministering. Texas is blessed with strong and vibrant churches of all
denominations that are eager to respond with great courage, compassion, and
great sacrifice. According to His Word, the Lord restores the years that
the "locusts have eaten".
Praise the Lord that He is the embodiment and
personification of the love that heals and restores. His love brings life
and never fails. He is love. It is because we are made in His image
that we hunger for love. Once we receive Christ into our lives, our lives
orbit around Him so that we can share love and become channels of His
love and freedom. Without Christ we hunger and starve for love.
I read about Brian Keenan who In the 1980's
was taken captive in Lebanon and held hostage for four years, suffering
physical beatings and psychological oppression, but in his imprisonment he
turned to God, and one of the books that led him there was the Song of Songs.
That book awakened within him the longing for romance, the deep desire for
intimacy. It reminded him that he was human; that he was made to love and
be loved. It assured him that love was out there, and it could be
found. He ultimately found that longing fulfilled in a relationship with
Jesus our Lord.
One of the Books of the Bible is Song of
Songs which is often neglected.It is about human love, but
the object of the book, the one it points to, is God, the Lover of our Souls.
It points us to a relationship so intimate, so satisfying, and so
transforming that even the Song of all Songs cannot adequately describe
it. As wonderful as it is to love and be loved by another person, it is
enough to love and be loved by God.
One hot and dusty day Jesus was walking through Samaria. At the hottest point of the day, He came upon a well, and asked a woman there for a drink of water. It must have gone down nicely—cool and refreshing. Then Jesus offered her some water—living water, he called it, water that would satisfy her thirst like no other once and for all. "I'd like some of that water", she said. "I'm tired of coming out to the well a couple of times a day." "Very well", said Jesus, "go get your husband and I'll tell you about it". The woman stammered for a moment. "I have no husband", she explained. "I know", said Jesus. "I also know that you've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now is not your husband." For years this woman had been looking for love in all the wrong places; she tried all kinds of men; she'd tried marriage, singleness, cohabitation. None of it satisfied, none of them lasted, but that day at the well she met a man who would love her like no other, a Savior whose love would always satisfy, and never fail. Her life was transformed for ever. She was born again. Jesus brought her out of her shame and shadows. She began to walk in the light.. in the freedom. She was given by the Lord the gift courage and fearlessness. The Lord of love and life baptized her with life and liberty.That same love is available to us today. That same Savior wants a relationship with us. We're all looking for love, and that's a good thing. Love is worth pursuing, worth waiting for, and worth celebrating, but ultimately we won't really find what we're looking for until we love and are loved by Jesus.
In Him.
Brown
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