“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all you iniquity, who heals all your deceases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and faithfulness, who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”—Psalm 103:1-3
Here is a call to the innermost depths of our being to speak out in praise to God in view of the glory of His being as manifest in His works; particularly, in His works of redemption. Out from the very root of our being there erupts blessing to God; an eruption of blessing evoked by the incomprehensible wonder and beauty of who and what He is; the incomprehensible wonder and beauty of perfect goodness—benevolence, patience, forbearance, grace, mercy; perfect wisdom—only, always, ever doing what is wise and good; doing what is best; perfect power—effecting, flawlessly, all his good purposes; acting in kindness toward us so that we find ourselves fully satisfied; our inner being fully provided for, our mind and heart at rest; full peace. In view of such blessings, bestowed by such a One, the call to bless Him is appropriate.
I pray that the Lord will encourage your heart anew today in the truth of His goodness, His wisdom, His power;
As we look to the week ahead, more changes are coming. The Governor is expected to issue a state-wide stay-at-home order later today. This will mean the shutdown of even more business and services. Obviously it means that we will be continuing with our adjusted approach to the life of our church family. We will continue to send out regular updates to pass along pertinent information to keep people informed. Thank you for all that you are continuing to do to stay in touch and to reach out.
Some of us men “met” for prayer this morning via Zoom. Brent and Travis and I met for about forty minutes and it was a real blessing to see faces and hear voices. We are looking to set something up for this Thursday at 6:00am. So men, if you have a smartphone, you can download the basic Zoom app from the app store, register and you’ll be all set to join us for prayer on Thursday. If you do register, please send your email to Julie so that she can send out a list for the other guys to add to their Zoom contacts. If you do that in the next day or so, then Brent can send you an email with a link that will take you directly to our 6:00 meeting. It’s really slick.
Just so the ladies don’t feel left out, Geni is working on putting something together for Thursday evening; she’ll be in touch.
For those who don’t have the ability to link up via Zoom there is still the simple phone call. Eric and I “met” via telephone last week to read God’s Word together and it great.
I trust that yesterday’s message was an encouragement to you (linked below). In these extraordinary times, God is not drawing back from what He has purposed to accomplish in and through His creation; His Kingdom purposes are advancing, both in their breadth and in their depth. God is growing you. The challenges that confront us are His instrument to work that growth and we can count them nothing but joy as we understand that their end is to perfect me in Christ-likeness; the goal of the code by which we live as those who hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep on keeping on!
In the love of Christ,
Pastor Guy