Surprise -God Answers in Unexpected Ways

Holy Land Picture of the Day

Red Skies over Haifa Today's picture is of a gorgeous red sunset in the skies over Haifa. It reminds us of Matthew 16: 1-3; "The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?"  “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (I John 3:1-3) Hey gang:  The sun is out bright, the birds are singing their morning songs, and we even have a resident squirrel that seems to have adopted us.  So, I asked Abba Father to give me something that is light and beautiful for you this morning.  Is there anything more beautiful than to know we are being conformed into the image of His Son?  One of the very profound statements that the underground pastor made in chapel while we were at VOM was, “What a wondrous revelation it was to learn that I am an ambassador of Christ and God will hone me on His wheel of adversity until I am like Him”.  Does that get your corpuscles to corpuscle?   One of the very neat parts of serving as a volunteer for Voice of Martyrs is the televisions are there primarily to review the many tapes about persecution around the world.  They are not equipped with outside antennas so getting the evening news is not an option.  On returning to the mission field, the outside world, I turned to the evening news and learned nothing had changed.  It was as if I had just turned the news off from yesterday instead of five weeks ago. And the results were the same, my blood pressure began to rise and a sense of sadness and depression resurfaced.  How many know that God responds to our down times, if we seek Him to do so.  On Sunday morning it was a damp and rainy day.  I felt like I had been hit by a semi loaded with sharp needles.  The bride of my youth has taught me that I will not feel any worse in church than I do at home, so I trucked off to church.  And Abba Father was faithful in answering my scream for “help”.  My very favorite hymn is “Jesus Loves Me, this I know”.  Now I ask you, when was the last time you heard someone sing or play Jesus Loves me in a church service, but the pianist had chosen to play a fabulous rendition of Jesus Loves Me and I so enjoyed  whispering those words, Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so!.   Was there instant healing.  No, but I knew that my heavenly Daddy knew the pain I was feeling  and  sent me a clear message that He was aware of my struggle and sent his assurance that He would never leave me or forsake me through this, my very favorite song.     Soooo, my young friends, be advised God stands ready to meet you at the point of your need and, if you ask Him, He will provide a new song for your heart or one of the very good oldies that has impacted on your life many times before.  Blessings, Gramps