Israel

The Battle is Not Done

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

Yesterday, being Father’s Day, I chose to sing “This is My Father’s World,” at Discovery Villages. This is not only one of my favorite hymns, but with war raging, both in the Middle East and Ukraine, it is easy for our hearts to become anxious. We close our eyes and imagine the bombs bringing down buildings. What was once only a distant possibility, has become a daily nightmare both in Israel as well as Iran. Along with military targets, innocent men, women and children are buried under rubble, others are fleeing for their lives, wounded and terrified. “Where is God in the midst of all of the chaos?” the world asks. That is when the assurance of the final stanza rings loudest, “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” This hymn rings true to our hearts, not only because of the poetic mastery of the hymn writer, but because it is a reflection of a deep truth of scripture.

Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10

Now we may not all be in the middle of a warzone, but every believer has their own battles and battle scars to prove it. When we are in the middle of the worst, we need to remind ourselves that God has not fallen asleep at the wheel. No matter our situation, God remains firmly in control of both our lives as well as the affairs of earth. But we like children riding in the backseat, want to know, “When are we going to get there?” In my experience, God rarely tells us the answer. Instead, He helps us to learn how to trust Him, even when we don’t get filled in on all the details. Whatever you need to trust Him with today, why not take a moment to be still, and then pray, “God teach me to be still. In the middle of this battle and help me to trust you with every detail of my heart!”

Softly With the Lambs

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. Genesis 33:14 KJV

I love the scene from The Chosen, when Jacob’s sons are digging a well and a neighbor comes over to tell them they probably won’t find any water and then falls into a conversation with Jacob about God. You see no one had ever heard of the God of Israel because Jacob’s name had only recently been changed to Israel. So, the neighbor begins to ask what kind of god Jacob served. First, Jacob begins explaining that God created the universe, that He is invisible and that they do not have a statue of Him anywhere. But as their talk is coming to an end Jacob adds, “Oh yes and He broke my hip!”  Now I personally have always found that fact pretty curious. Why would God do that? Maybe the Bible answers that question in this scene from the day after the hip breaking. Jacob had come to meet with his brother Esau and is both astonished and grateful for the mercy he encounters. And when I came to today’s verse I simply thought that Jacob was again dealing in half truth’s when he told his brother to go on ahead. But then I remembered why Jacob had to follow slowly. God had put his hip out of joint and we are told that Jacob walked with a limp because of that for the rest of his life.

Do you feel like God has broken your hip? Does it seem that other people can hurry ahead to do all kinds of exciting things, but your disability holds you back? But just as God did with Jacob, He has not caused us injury to harm us. Instead, God is teaching us to walk softly with the lambs. You see, all his life Jacob had been running. He always did everything he could to get ahead of everyone else. But after Jacob met with God, he lost his ability to run. God wanted Jacob to walk softly with the lambs, and just in case he forgot, he was given a limp. Every step reminded him to go at the pace that God had chosen. Maybe the limp in your life looks different than Jacob’s but when you struggle with that weakness and pain, remember that God has given us every one of His children a limp and each of us some lambs to care for until we finish our journey home.

Photo by Ylanite Koppens on Pexels.com
https://thechosenapp.org/

The Blessing – Israel

/ pastorpete51 / 9 Comments

I loved this version of The Blessing so much as it includes the very land from which this blessing came. Both the cinematic and vocal quality are beautiful but more than this; its core message needs to be heard over and over. Our world is tore and shaken and wounded in so may ways and so I pray again – May the Lord bless you and keep you this Sunday and may He give you peace through Jesus Christ both now and always!