Good day dear friends.
We continue with our prayers of comfort for The Rev. Del Brown and his family. We pray for safe travel for family members coming to the funeral this week.
From Louisana we get this prayer request: "Please pray for Rev. James Haynes. He is meeting with his surgeon on Tuesday to schedule surgery to remove the cancerous mass in his colon. Neither chemo nor radiation will be used if it has not reached other organs. Pray for Millie "B" also --- she is more upset than Rev. Haynes."
We continued our sermon series "Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John" and we studied John 6:25-40 where Jesus made another of His "I am" declarations, and this one was "I am the bread of life." This seems very appropriate given this is Hunger Awareness month.
My deep, deep thanks for three special ladies, two of whom put up with crazy pastor's last-minute ideas for props. Mary Jo Everitt and Sherry DeMarcay put up bread machines to bake during worship so that folks could "think" about bread. It worked! Thank you dear ladies. And to Kate McWhirt, one of our lay speakers who helped Sherry lead the 11 a.m. and me the 8:30 services. You all did marvelous jobs from what I heard! Thank you!
Here is our study guide for today:
Monday: Read the 23rd Psalm. Meditate on verse 1. What does that verse mean to you today? What did it mean to you when you first read it? Do you understand it to mean that God completely provides for us? Read now verse 5. Bring to your mind that image of God preparing a table for you. Who’s there? What’s on your table?I
I learned this Psalm first in Spanish, later in my King James Bible in English, so here is that precious Psalm in KJV:
A Psalm of David. The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
I didn't pay attention to the meaning in Spanish nor did I understand verse one in English. I heard it and almost thought aloud, what does it mean that I don't want the Lord as my shepherd? How did this ever get into the Bible? This is a preposterous declaration! Thank God for loving Sunday school teachers! It was better explained to me that with God being my shepherd I would not be in need. And that has been the case for me. I have had all of my needs provided as I believe so have yours. We may not always have gotten exactly what we wanted, but God provides for what we need. I shared the story from my history of The Rev. Bud Roussett, now of the Rocky Mountain Conference, who invited me to have lunch with him at his dorm room on the day I had no food. A feast was set before me of one scrambled egg, a slice of whole wheat bread, with all natural peanut butter. I wonder why Bud declined my offer to have menudo some weeks later? ;) True it was my first experiment in making it, thanks to my Mom sending me the recipe, but turning down menudo? What kind of mountain man is that? (Bud prided himself in being a mountain man!)
If you have access to this email, you have access to probably most of your needs. What could we possibly want? God provides for us! In reading verse 5 we see David making the declaration that God even provides a wonderful celebratory meal in the presence of those who would rather see us starve! Eugene Peterson's translation, The Message has it this way:
"5 You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing."
Some might say I have no enemies, and someone once wrote it's not necessarily human enemies that we go up against. Life sends us sometimes enemies of a different nature such as illness or worry. This Psalm says if we trust in God even in the midst of these trials, God blesses us with celebrations!
Yesterday while listening to Del, Penny, Eric and Jamie remember Robin, this came out loud and clear, that Robin while even facing this illness celebrated life, such was her faith and trust in God. Pastor Leslie and I visited her last week and she laughed when I told her that Jody, our music director, had given Robin permission to be away from the choir during the summer. Robin knew the choir was on summer break. So she laughed.
However you imagine that "table" to be for you, make it a celebration! Invite God to that table and give God the glory for all that you have! I believe it was in the movie "Antwone Fisher" where the main character longs for family and his recurring image of family and celebration is to sit at this lusciously appointed table with all the foods you can imagine. But for him it wasn't so much the food as it was the idea of belonging. We belong to God!
PRAYER: Our Father, who provides all, provide for us this day that which we need to celebrate life and all that you have shared with us. Even in the midst of the enemy of sorrow or sadness, let us see Your goodness setting a table of peace and comfort. Share with us a double heaping of hope. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
