Praise You in This Storm

Laughter is an instant vacation. 

          ~Milton Berle

 

Sing hymns to God;
    all heaven, sing out;
        clear the way for the coming of Cloud-Rider.
Enjoy God,
    cheer when you see him!

Father of orphans,
    champion of widows,
        is God in his holy house.

 ~ Psalm 68:4-5

     Sometimes, it is beyond possible to contain oneself when one sees God at work.  The joy, the laughter, the tears of realizing what God has done.  It is far more difficult to see how God is working when you in the midst of the struggle, the center of the storm, ten years in to believing for the miracle.  

     The tide seems a bit too high, the sun is a bit too hot, the season lasts a bit too long.  In short, it is hard to laugh, let alone cheer.  And yet, this is precisely when we must.

     We must praise Him in the midst of the storm. Casting Crowns does a beautiful job of directing us in this effort.  Hold on church.  God is truly as close as breath.  Take a deep one, down to your toes.  In fact take three.  God will raise you up at the most unusual moment.  And then you will laugh, and cry and praise and yes, cheer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUWbmtbzDno

I will Praise You in this Storm

Because of Him,

Linda

Taking the Risk.

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? 

 

     ~ Milton Berle

 

Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.

 

     ~ 2 Corinthians 5:19-20

 

     We just saw the movie The Sum of All Fears.  My vote landed there because I know the quality of Morgan Freeman’s acting.  In this political thriller, based on Tom Clancy’s novel of the same name,  peace all boils down to two men who keep a conversation going against all odds.  They watch each other’s backs, they keep contact going on behalf of avoiding a disaster.  They look past their race, creed, politics and quietly keep talking.

     On more than one occasion this year, the Lord has lifted not only the wounds, but the hurts that go with them.  The scars remind me of the victory that God has wrought in relationships.  

     Sometimes, we approach the same old person, or the same old topic and our auto-response kicks in; “I can’t trust him,” or “She really hurt me last time, ” or  “My mother always said.”

And sometimes those things are good, but when God is doing a work, there is a risk involved and taking that risk often launches me into healing.

 

Lord, mothers (and fathers, and kids) don’t always need two hands if we rely on yours in the situation.  Help me to trust you even more.  Amen.

 

Because of Him,

Linda