Gracious and loving God, in Your loving hands is this your child as she or he reads this; bless and protect them is my prayer. In Jesus' precious Name, amen.
Okay, this is a little later than usual (or is your clock set wrong?). No, it comes from Kerrville as we prepare for the heaviest work meeting of the year for the Board of Ordained Ministry.
Okay, this is a little later than usual (or is your clock set wrong?). No, it comes from Kerrville as we prepare for the heaviest work meeting of the year for the Board of Ordained Ministry.
Tomorrow we start with the interviews of those who would join our ranks as fully ordained ministers and as fully connected to our annual conference. Please be in prayer for those dear canidates as well as for us who sit and listen and interview. May the Holy Spirit guide all of us in our work.
Our theme this week is on the importance of being a builder for the kingdom of God. Our two texts emphasized different aspects of that. Nehemiah 4, selected verses took us to the story of those who taunted the Jews in their efforts to rebuild as well as the prayer said in anger against those taunting them. Nehi shared his words of faith when in verse 20 he said, "Our God will fight for us." In Mark 12 we found that awesome story of faith of the widow sharing her last money with God in faith that God would indeed "fight" for her. Yes, it is a stewardship sermon and our theme is a stewardship theme: God is with us. We should turn over all our challenges and rebuilding goals to God in prayer; and we should have faith that no one or no thing can taunt us to quitting or into not being the person God would have us be.
In the book of Psalms, the 65th Psalm in verse 5 we find this song of trust: "You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds, O God our savior. You are the hope of everyone on earth, even those who sail on distant seas." (NLT). Such should be our trust: remembering the awesome things that God has done for us before and how God will still answer us in the same way; God is indeed the hope of those who sail on distant seas." I shared a story on Sunday that Laurie Beth Jones shared in one of her books about the woman who at her lowest point asked God to send her sign that she was going the right direction in her life and that she still mattered to God, and she tells of finding a penny as soon as she finished praying and on the penny were the words, "In God We Trust." She knew that she was to trust God and she did. Every time she needed a reminder from God, there would be a penny for her. The day came for this woman to have surgery and she searched and searched but could not find that penny. Even as she was wheeled in on that gurney to the holding area before surgery she fretted about not having a penny, and just then an orderly came in with a penny and asked her, "Ma'am, I found this penny right outside and wondered if it was yours?" It was. It was more than a penny, it was that simple yet powerful message that in God we trust.
What are you facing that you've yet to direct back to God? May this be the day you say, "God, I can't face this alone, I need You and so I turn over to You all these things."
PRAYER: God, that's my prayer. I can't face what I'm facing alone. I need You and I turn over to You all that has been keeping me up at night. I need not worry to the extreme where my health is suffering. I turn it over in full faith that You will fight for me. In Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
