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CHRIST FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
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Day 410 | Monday, 3 May 2021

5/3/2021

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Day 410 - Audio Version

Day 410 | Monday, 3 May 2021
      
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-11 The Message

1 There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: 2 A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap, 3 A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct, 4 A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer, 5 A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part, 6 A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go, 7 A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up, 8 A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace. 9 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? 10 I've had a good look at what God has given us to do - busywork, mostly. 11 True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time - but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going.

It was Friday, March 20, 2020 that the first of these daily messages was sent out to the neighbors at the Woodlands where Judy and I live.  When I began these thoughts, the intent was to connect us together in our community after hearing about the Corona Virus and the shutting down of life as we had known it.  We were in new territory.  There was uncertainty, fear, worry and many questions.  I wanted the daily thoughts to be a source of hope for all of us as well as bringing us a sense of togetherness even though we needed to be in isolation.  It wasn’t long before the neighbors were referring to me as The Woodlands Shepherd.  When I shared what I had started in the Woodlands with my pastor, she asked if I would send the daily messages to the church so they could be added to the church web site and face book page.  Friends and family soon asked to be added to the email list to receive these daily offerings.  Last fall I was asked if there was a way for me to record these offerings so that people with vision problems could hear them.  That proved to be very meaningful to some.

As Ecclesiastes reminds us, there is a right time for every season.  Even though we are not completely back to normal and out of the woods regarding the Corona Virus, I believe that we are no longer in crisis.  Most of us have received our vaccines.  Many are resuming activities and family gatherings.  In fact, this coming Friday, we are traveling to West Virginia to meet our great grandson who was born Feb. 16th.  We will also be visiting a couple daughters and families one of whom we have not seen since August 2019 and the other since December 2019.  The need around which I started these daily messages is no longer there.  With all that being said, today will be my last daily message to all of you.  The Church Mouse and I have decided to refocus.
Periodically I will send out a similar email.  I will probably focus my thoughts on the change of church seasons and when there seems to be a time of need.  I might even focus on the Sunday messages.  I thank you for reading, listening to or even passing along these messages. 
​
We will continue our weekly meeting at Noon on Wednesday to pray the Lord’s Prayer and give strength to one another.  God Bless everyone – stay healthy and stay safe. 
 
The Woodlands Shepherd and The Church Mouse!
 

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Day 409 | Sunday, 2 May 2021

5/2/2021

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Day 409 Sunday, May 2, 2021

 The assigned Scripture readings for this the fifth Sunday of Easter are Acts 8:25-40, Psalm 22:25-31, 1 John 4:7-21 and John 15:1-8.

 I am sharing the gospel reading which is a reminder of how we are connected to Jesus.  The imagery is one I have always found to be very powerful.  I am a branch.  Have I been producing, or have I started to dry up and be unproductive?  Every now and then, I need to be trimmed to be productive.

 The second reading is from 1 John.  This week I have shared thoughts on trust and faith.  This reading is just one that talks about love.  It is challenging in today’s world to be loving of some people.  What does this mean for me as a disciple?  How do I show my love when there is so much hatred and evil?

John 15:1-8 CEB I am the true vine
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. 2 He removes any of my branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit. 3 You are already trimmed because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything. 6 If you don’t remain in me, you will be like a branch that is thrown out and dries up. Those branches are gathered up, thrown into a fire, and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified when you produce much fruit and in this way prove that you are my disciples.

1 John 4:7-21 (The Message) Love and God
7 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. 8 The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love - so you can't know him if you don't love. 9 This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. 10 This is the kind of love we are talking about - not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. 11 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. 12 No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us - perfect love! 13 This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. 14 Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. 15 Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. 16 We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God. 17 This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day - our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. 18 There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life - fear of death, fear of judgment - is one not yet fully formed in love. 19 We, though, are going to love - love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. 20 If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? 21 The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
​
Today:  How are you doing as a branch connected to the vine?  How loving are you?

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Day 408 | Saturday, 1 May 2021

5/1/2021

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Day 408 - Audio Version

Day 408 | Saturday, 1 May 2021

 Welcome May!  We have had a wonderful rain to replenish the earth and fill up the pond.

 We are still in the Easter season on our way to Pentecost.

 An Easter Season Beginning:
“Let everything that breathes - Praise the Lord.
 Babies, infants and loud purring cats, Praise the Lord.
 Children on skateboards and towering waterfalls, Praise the Lord.
 Coyotes howling at the moon and the crash of cymbals, Praise the Lord.
 Sun, moon, stars and all living creation, Praise the Lord.
 Easter voices, piano chord and drumbeats, Praise the Lord.”

 An Easter Season Invocation:
“Awesome and loving God, in this morning light, open our eyes to the brightness of your resurrection. Open our ears to the call of our name. Open our hearts to the joy of forgiveness, the blessings of healing and the peace of believing. In Jesus' name. Amen.”

 An Easter Season Prayer
“O radiant God, in the midst of crippled hopes and shattered dreams, you worked your brightest surprise- the shining glory of the risen Christ. Even now, you are birthing new hopes and prompting new dreams. Our eyes are open wide - seeing traces of your glory in the lemon blossom and the rosebud, noticing that your blessing leaves a calm in our hearts and a patience in our voices, sensing your presence in the breaking of bread, the embrace of a friend, the planting of the seed. O radiant God, with songs of praise and hearts of gladness, we serve you as beams of joy and candles of hope. In the name of our risen Lord Amen.”

 An Easter Season Affirmation of Faith
“We believe in God- creator of shoreline and mountain range, who fashions a world of beauty, splashes it with color, renews it with rain and blesses it with sun; who made us to see and appreciate the variety around us and calls us to delight and cherish; who turns darkness into day, despair into hope and dead ends into living options.

We believe in the risen Christ- still present to each of us, turning our eyes from death to life, beckoning us to look up and out to see beauty in creation, to look into the eyes of another and know they too are God's beloved, to look into a mirror and see ourselves loved and cherished.

We believe in the Holy Spirit- mysterious yet as real as the wind, a force for good, for justice, for reconciliation, blowing away hatred and fear, stirring up the dull and the bored, kindling hope and joy.

This we believe. God, help us live as Easter people.”

 An Easter Season Blessing:
“May the re-possessed life of our Lord comfort you in your grief over the death of loved ones and help you overcome your own fear of death. May the power of the risen Lord convince you that, with God, all things are possible. And may the love of the risen Lord spur you onto deeds of self- giving love, enabling you to accept and embrace all fellow humans as creatures of God and all fellow Christians as members of Christ body. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Go, celebrate God's gift of new life! Amen”
​
 Today: Celebrate May day!
 
 

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Day 407 | Friday, 30 April 2021

4/30/2021

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Day 407 | Friday, 30 April 2021

Yesterday I shared an article about faith.  Hebrews 11 is a wonderful chapter from the Bible on faith.  There is a hymn based on Hebrews 11 that was written in 1960 by Anders Frostenson and translated by Fred Kaan in 1972.  It was introduced in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal.  Here are the words. (There are many other hymns around faith, but I thought you might appreciate a newer one.)

  1. Faith, while trees are still in blossom, plans the picking of the fruit; faith can feel the thrill of harvest when the buds begin to sprout.
  2. Long before the dawn is breaking, faith anticipates the sun. Faith is eager for the daylight,
    for the work that must be done.
  3. Long before the rains were coming, Noah went and built an ark. Abraham, the lonely migrant, saw the light beyond the dark.
  4. Faith, uplifted, tamed the water of the undivided sea. and the people of the Hebrews
    found the path that made them free.
  5. Faith believes that God is faithful: God will be what God will be. Faith accepts the call, responding, “I am willing, God, Send me.”

 “Anders Frostenson, was born on April 23, 1906, in Skane, Sweden, and died on Feb. 4, 2006, in Örebro, Sweden. He graduated in 1947 with a bachelor’s degree in English, Slavic languages and philosophy from Lund University and served as a Lutheran Priest at the Lövö Assembly until his retirement in 1971.”  

“Fred Kaan translated this particular hymn in 1972 for the 4th edition of Cantate Domino, hymnal of the World Council of Churches, printed in 1974. Mr. Kaan was born on July 27, 1929, in the North Holland city of Haarlem. Mr. Kaan’s mission of spreading Christian unity is exemplified here by the way he contributed to the accessibility of international hymnody as well as the ecumenical and biblical character of this hymn.”

“This hymn is based on Hebrews 11, beginning with verse 1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.” In stanza three, he refers to Genesis 6:13 (also Hebrews 11:17) and Genesis 12:1 (also Hebrews 11:8). In stanza four, he refers to Exodus 14:15-16 (also Hebrews 11:29). In the final stanza, he paraphrases Exodus 3:14 and Isaiah 6:3.”

“The repetition of the first word “Faith” in stanzas one, four and five, as well as “Long before…” in stanzas two and three, subtly expose and emphasize the consistency of God’s faith.”

“All the hymn’s images set the imagination of the singer in motion, and one can almost hear the birds in the garden, the rain in Noah’s times and the wild waters of the Red Sea. In the final phrase in stanza five, Mr. Kaan concludes by proclaiming that we need to respond to God’s calling by serving in faith.”

 “The final line of the last stanza ends with the singer responding, “I am willing, Lord, send me.” In comparison to another recent hymn based on Isaiah 6, “Here I am Lord,” this hymn enjoys surprisingly little popularity.”

“This may be attributed to the choice of less stirring tunes, like FOR THE BREAD and MERTON. Neither tune seems to work well with the text because they do not underline the beautiful language or its vibrant and colorful storytelling.”
​
 “Frostenson and Mr. Kaan collaborated on the book Songs and Hymns from Sweden in 1976. Mr. Kaan included and translated 13 of Frostenson’s hymn texts.”
 
Today: Think about who the people were who guided you and your faith.
 

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Day 406 | Thursday, 29 April 2021

4/29/2021

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Day 406 - Audio Version

Day 406 | Thursday, 29 April 2021

On Monday I brought up the concept of trust and shared an article.  I followed that with more on trust on Tuesday using the hymn He Leadeth Me.  I want to share an article today on faith.

“Faith is one of the most central parts of our relationship with God. No matter who we are, no matter what our walk in life, there will be trying times for us. These difficult moments test our faith and trust in God. Our faith is tested daily — by terrible news stories that remind us of death and cruelty, by personal troubles, by the human failings of our family and friends. And yet the more we live in faith, the better we are able to make our way in the world, to trust in God and his ultimate plan for the human race.” “Faith makes us stronger, braver, better. Faith helps us through times of trouble and allows us to help others going through their own sets of trials. What exactly is faith? It is the trust that God exists, and by following him, we look forward to a world beyond this one — the kingdom of God, where we will live in peace with him forever.”

 “Biblical Definition of Faith - Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:1 – 3”  “What is faith? Everybody talks about it, but few take the time to define what it is. The Bible offers a definition from the letter to the Hebrews. Faith is not merely holding to certain teachings, such as that God exists, but rather it is a strong conviction that the world around us is part of a greater plan, God’s plan. Faith means that although at times the world looks chaotic and uncontrolled, we feel deep down that this chaotic world is not where we truly live. Rather, our existences are guided by God’s strength and power.”  “With faith, the world is more than just a wild place of cruelty and power struggles, of seemingly meaningless deaths and hardships. We are more than mere animals with animal desires. A world seen through the eyes of faith is a world in which each one of us — along with everything that happens to us — has meaning as a part of a great plan. Faith means that there is more to the world than what we see with our eyes.”

 “Moreover, faith is not just a mental agreement. As the rest of Hebrews 11 illustrates, faith drives action. If we believe there is more to life than what we see, true faith will drive our values, decisions and actions to align with our belief.”

 “Faith in Difficult Circumstances -He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20

“Jesus Christ here reveals the power of faith. In a difficult and often chaotic world, something as simple as faith can change everything. Think about the great men and women throughout history who have changed the world for the better — Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa. Without their faith in God and their courage to act on it, where would we be today? It is only through faith that we can see the world as it ought to be.”

“The stories on the evening news are not the ultimate reality. Instead, God’s final reality is a heavenly kingdom to which we aspire. If we keep our eyes on him and make decisions based on faith, we become agents of a God who can move mountains. Faith is based on the objective Word of God. In fact, faith is crucial to our daily walk with God. We must remember that “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).”
​
Article drawn from the NIV Essentials of the Christian Faith, New Testament.
 

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Day 405 | Wednesday, 28 April 2021

4/28/2021

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Day 405 - Audio Version

​Day 405 | Wednesday, 28 April 2021

 A recent conversation about ministry and doing God’s work prompted me to thinking.  I was asked by a friend who is in another profession, how he could tell he was doing God’s work.  We talked about ministry and how everyone, not just professional clergy, is involved in ministry.  We have all been given a gift form God and we are to use that gift, working together to build up the community of faith.  Ministry takes on many forms and is always directed at serving others and sharing God’s love.

 One place we find a list of gifts is in Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13 CEB     
                                         
“4: 1 Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God. 2 Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love, 3 and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. 4 You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.
7 God has given his grace to each one of us measured out by the gift that is given by Christ.   
11 He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. 12 His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ 13 until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ.
 
A Prayer for the Ministry of Jesus:
“God of life: We thank you this day for giving great powers of healing to your divine son and for filling his heart with compassion for the sick and the sorrowing. 

We praise you for his wisdom in insisting that the sick do as much as they can for themselves and for his pity on those who could not help themselves and had no one to care for them or about them.”

“We give you thanks for his keen insight, which enabled him to detect even a glimmer of faith in persons in need of healing and for putting to work whatever faith they had in their fight to get well.”

“We thank you for this impartiality in healing Jew and Greek, man, woman and child and for his disregard for everything, even the proper observance of the Sabbath, when it might interfere with or delay relief from suffering.”

“We praise you for his generosity, which prevented him from ever accepting even a gift for his healing ministry and for his touching surprise at the 10th leper, who actually came back to say “Thank you!””

“We give you thanks for his courage that moved him to engage in combat even the ultimate enemy, death and for restoring a son to a stricken, widowed mother, a daughter to a distraught father and a beloved brother to two grieving sisters.”

“We acknowledge, Father, that you placed his healing ministry at the service of his mission, and that it is not for us to speculate on where medicine ended, and miracle began.”
​
“We would rather praise you for your great love, which you revealed through his caring for the sick and the dying; and we would be enabled, by your grace, to contribute whatever we can to the healing of those about us - in his blessed name. Amen”
 
Today: How are you using the gift God gave you for ministry?

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Day 404 | Tuesday, 27 April 2021

4/27/2021

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Day 404 - Audio Version

Day 404 | Tuesday, 27 April 2021

 Yesterday I shared a scripture on trust followed by a commentary.  I don’t want to leave that topic to just one day.  Today I am adding some more thoughts on trust by lifting up at least one hymn that follows the theme of trust.

“He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought” words by Joseph H. Gilmore 1862 with Psalm 23 as the scripture reference.

  • He leadeth me, O blessed thought O words with heavenly comfort fraught! Whate'er I do, where'er I be Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.
​

REFRAIN: He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand He leadeth me. His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me.

  • Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom, sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,  by waters still, over troubled sea, still 'tis His hand that leadeth me.

REFRAIN:

  • Lord, I would place my hand in thine, nor ever murmur nor repine; content, whatever lot I see, since 'tis my God that leadeth me. 

REFRAIN:

  • And when my task on earth is done, when by thy grace the victory's won, even death's cold wave I will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me.

REFRAIN: He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me. His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me.

“In 1862, as a 28-year-old student who was about to become a pastor, Joseph Henry Gilmore was invited to preach at the historic First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. "I set out to give the people an exposition of the Twenty-third Psalm. I had given this exposition on three or four other occasions, but this time I did not get beyond the words 'He leadeth me.' So greatly impressed was I with the blessedness of divine guidance that I made this my theme." He later felt that the dark days of the Civil War may have subconsciously led him to focus on God's leadership.”

“At the close of the meeting, Henry and some others went to the home of a deacon. "There," he wrote, "we continued our discussion of divine guidance. While I was still talking and listening, I wrote on a piece of my exposition manuscript the words to this hymn. I handed the paper to my wife and more or less forgot the incident."”

“The words that Henry had written began with this famous stanza: He leadeth me! O blessed tho't! O words with heav'nly comfort fraught! What-e'er I do, wher-e'er I be, Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me!”

“Three years later, having pastored for some time in New Hampshire, Henry was invited to preach a trial sermon at the Second Baptist Church in Rochester. "I picked up a church hymnal to see what songs they sang and was surprised to have the book fall open to the very song I had written three years earlier," he wrote. "When I returned home, I related this experience to my wife. 'I do not understand it,' I said. 'My words had been set to music by Dr. William B. Bradbury, yet I had not given the words to anybody.' My wife smiled and said, 'I can explain it, Joseph. I felt that the words would bless the hearts of people in these troublesome times; so I sent the poem to The Watchman and Reflector. I am glad to know that they have printed it.'"
​
“The famous hymn composer William Bradbury had seen the lines and added music and the last two lines of the chorus. Henry took this incident as divine leadership that he should accept a situation at the Rochester church. That put him in position two years later to accept an offer to teach Hebrew at Rochester Theological Seminary. The following year, he was offered a professorship of logic and English literature at the University of Rochester, which he held until his retirement in 1908. An English chair at the school is named after him.”
 
TODAY: Prayers for Alan Richards and his family as the ending of life stage is near.
 

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Day 403 | Monday, 26 April 2021

4/26/2021

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Day 403 - Audio Version

​Day 403 | Monday, 26 April 2021

Trust God

I want to lift up Psalm 121 which is a song of trust in God’s Protection and then follow it with what the Bible says about trust.

Psalm 121 CEB
 I raise my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from?  2 My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.  3 God won’t let your foot slip.  Your protector won’t fall asleep on the job.  4 No! Israel’s protector never sleeps or rests!  5 The Lord is your protector; the Lord is your shade right beside you. 6 The sun won’t strike you during the day;
neither will the moon at night. 7 The Lord will protect you from all evil; God will protect your very life.8 The Lord will protect you on your journeys—whether going or coming—from now until forever from now.

Question: "What does the Bible say about trust?"

Answer: “
The words translated “trust” in the Bible literally mean “a bold, confident, sure security or action based on that security.” Trust is not exactly the same as faith, which is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Rather, trusting is what we do because of the faith we have been given. Trusting is believing in the promises of God in all circumstances, even in those where the evidence seems to be to the contrary. Hebrews 11 talks about faith, which is accepting and believing the truth that God reveals about Himself, supremely in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, the practical consequence of faith in God is trust, which we prove by living out our full acceptance of God’s promises day by day. Furthermore, it is by this trust that we are promised peace: “You will keep in peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).”

“The classic verse regarding trust is Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” This verse sums up the Bible’s teaching on trust. First, it is the Lord in whom we are to trust, not ourselves or our plans, and certainly not the world’s wisdom and devices. We trust in the Lord because God and God alone is truly trustworthy. God’s Word is trustworthy (Psalm 93:5; 111:7; Titus 1:9), God’s nature is faithful and true (Deuteronomy 7:9; Psalm 25:10; 145:13; 146:6), and God’s plans for us are perfect and purposeful (Isaiah 46:10; Jeremiah 29:11). Further, because of God’s nature, we are to trust God with all our hearts, committing every aspect of our lives to God in complete confidence. Finally, we are not to trust in ourselves because our understanding is temporal, finite, and tainted by our sin natures. Trusting in ourselves is like walking confidently across a rotten wooden bridge over a yawning chasm thousands of feet deep. Disaster inevitably follows.”

“Trust in God is a feature of many of the psalms of David. There are 39 references to trust in the Psalms alone, whether referring to trusting in God and God’s Word, or to not trusting in riches or the things of this world. It is on the basis of this trust that David finds deliverance from all the evil he encounters. Many of David’s psalms describe situations when he was pursued by Saul and his army, as well as his other enemies, and always did the Lord come to his aid. One thing that can be noted about biblical trust is that it always engenders further trust in our God. A person of God never stops trusting in God completely. Our faith may be knocked, we may stumble, or we may fall into the foulest of sins, but “though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand” (Psalm 37:24). A Person of God knows that, though trials will beset in this life, their trust will not waiver because that trust is based on faith in the promises of God: the promise of eternal joy with the Lord and the promise of an inheritance that “can never perish, spoil and fade” (1 Peter 1:4).”

Today: In whom do you place your trust?
 

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Day 402 | Sunday, 25 April 2021

4/25/2021

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Day 402 - Audio Version

Day 402 | Sunday, 25 April 2021

 The assigned scripture readings for this the fourth Sunday of Easter are Acts 4:5-12, Psalm 22:25-31, 1 John 3:16-24 and John 10:11-18.

 The reading from 1 John is a reminder of the fact that we are to love each other.  Verse 23 says “This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love each other as he commanded us.”

 The passage from the Gospel of John is where Jesus affirms that he is The Good Shepherd.

Here is the passage from The Message.
11 "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary.
12 A hired man is not a real shepherd. The sheep mean nothing to him. He sees a wolf come and runs for it, leaving the sheep to be ravaged and scattered by the wolf.
13 He's only in it for the money. The sheep don't matter to him.
14 "I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me.
15 In the same way, the Father knows me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary.
16 You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They'll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd.
17 This is why the Father loves me: because I freely lay down my life. And so I am free to take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will. I have the right to lay it down; I also have the right to take it up again. I received this authority personally from my Father."

 “Jesus is both the good shepherd and the gate of the sheep (vs 7-10), a stone enclosure to keep and protect sheep at night.”

“The shepherd – sheep relationship is one of intimacy, guidance, and care.”
“The image of Jesus as the good shepherd focuses on his death (mentioned five times) as an essential part of offering abundant life.” (CEB p 1349)

 The Hymn that reflects this scripture is “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” words: attribute to Dorothy A. Thrupp, 1836
​
1.   Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need Thy tender care; In Thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use Thy folds prepare: Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Thou hast bought us, Thine we are; Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.

2.  We are Thine; do Thou befriend us, be the Guardian of our way; keep Thy flock, from sin defend us, seek us when we go astray: Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Hear, O hear us when we pray; Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Hear, O hear us when we pray.

3.  Thou hast promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be; thou hast mercy to relieve us, grace to cleanse, and power to free: Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, we will early turn to Thee; Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, we will early turn to Thee.

4.  Early let us seek Thy favor; early let us do Thy will; Blessed Lord and only Savior,
with Thy love our bosoms fill: Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Thou hast loved us, love us still;
Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Thou hast loved us, love us still.
 

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Day 401 | Saturday, 24 April 2021

4/24/2021

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Day 401 - Audio Version

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