God’s Hope

True Revival

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True revival is not about emotions or even miracles but about a real place on earth where the Father’s will is done. That being said I would ask for prayer for myself and our ministry team this Wednesday. We will be sharing the hope of the gospel in five different nursing home meetings tomorrow. There is no where more needing of transformation encouragement and restoring revival than in these places. People face discrimination, neglect, physical suffering and depression. Only Jesus can and will untie the knots, draw close and bring real spiritual healing. Pray that we will display clearly the amazing love of Jesus Christ and be His hands and feet in these places.

Alley Cats

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In our back alley we have the blessing of stray cats, one of whom seems to have adopted me. I have come home on various occasions to find him sleeping contentedly on the front porch or at my back door step. Though I have never fed this cat, he acts confidently like a member of the family! I used to gently chase him out of the yard but he always returned. We have a sort of truce. I don’t get worked up over his presence and he just moves on to the next house after his nap!

Problems come into every one of our lives like my alley cat. Getting angry, stressed out or shocked doesn’t faze him. No matter what, because he lives in our neighborhood he will keep coming back. He comes to see if I will feed him or invite him in. But instead of freaking out I remind myself that wherever there are alley cats the mice are few and far between! Problems pass through our lives for a purpose. So if tribulation shows up at your doorstep this morning don’t fall into despair. It is all a part of God’s plan for our good. Instead look up because His everlasting hope is on the horizon!

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Romans 5:3‭-‬4 NKJV

Cast Your Bread on the Water

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When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.  Exodus 2:3-6

When we read the story of Jochebed, Moses’ mother we see a woman trapped between two agonizing decisions. If she kept Moses for herself any longer he would be discovered and killed. If she threw him into the Nile River according to the king’s command he would drown. Lovingly in faith she chose to do all she could as she worked into the night forming a basket for her child. She wove together the bulrushes and covered them with tar, then fearfully placed the basket into the river and prayed. If ever anyone cast their bread upon the waters it was she. Her heart floated down the river in the basket with little Moses inside. She trusted God with what was beyond her control. Then as Moses cried, Pharaoh’s daughter heard him and chose to save his life.  You and I may not be forced to put our child in a basket and send it down a river but we each face choices that seem like the end of own hopes and longings. There are times when it feels like everything good and beautiful in our lives is being torn away. We hold on to them as long as we can but the time comes when we have to release them to God’s grace. We must trust our loving God. He sees beyond the bend in the river to a plan that is greater than anything we can imagine. God will never abandon us. God will always watch over our fragile dreams. One day He will put back into our arms what we have let go of and trusted into His mighty hands.

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Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Ecclesiastes 11:1