Friday's focus on firsts!

This is that dreaded Friday, March 13, 2009, that so many worry about, yet at the same time it really is, as corny as it may sound, the first day of the rest of your life. Our dear Bro. Milton attended services with his home Church last Sunday for the first time since his health crisis. They tell us it was an unforgettable time of reunion, tears of joy, and a time of loud praise to the God who accomplished something very few thought would ever happen again. My wife and I were able to spend the weekend in San Antonio for the first time in many years. God blessed us with a wonderful time of relaxation and refreshment. On Tuesday evening I attended my Crosstrainer Bible Club program for the first time in many weeks. There’s something about having twenty five mostly underprivileged children hugging all over you and telling you how they have been praying for you and your family that knocks the ball out of the park in causing you to be thankful to God. I often tell my Bible study class concerning the passage we are studying that they should read it again for the first time.

It is the newness of life, the refreshing firsts, that God gives to us in the midst of troubles and challenges that provide us with a sense of His abiding presence. Jeremiah’s woeful poetic words following the destruction of Israel are contained in the book named Lamentations. It is a gut wrenching, horrific read as verse after verse reflects on the intensity of the suffering and pain of a people who had turned their backs on God. However, in the midst of all of these calamitous pronouncements of woe we find the Prophet’s inspired words: 20 My soul still remembers And sinks within me. 21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “ Therefore I hope in Him!” (Copied from Chapter 3)

I thank God for these new times of refreshing where we recognize His mercy and grace at work in our lives. Doing life in this fallen world is no easy task. Don’t let anyone tell you it is! But God would have us to pursue the life He has given to us with a sense of awareness that His way, His will, and His direction is always best. Perhaps we all would be better off recognizing and cataloging all the compassions He has extended towards us this past week, or even today. Like the older fellow at a Church we attended used to say when asked how he was getting along: “If I kicked, I ought to be!” It took me a while to figure that one out but essentially he was saying that he, on his worst day, as a child of God, had more to be thankful for than to complain about. How many firsts did God allow you to experience lately? Did you stop and thank Him for arranging things so that you received a blessing? He did it because as Jeremiah put it, His faithfulness and compassions never fail. That’s a really good thought to carry us into our Saturday and Lord’s Day Sunday. Have a great one and may God bless! Amen. …..More later.