Archive for the Devotional
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
He feeds the sparrows–at the birdfeeder
Not sparrows, actually. Chickadees.
Perhaps this internet friend’s story caught my attention because it came so soon after my own God-incidence (no coincidences, you know), when all the pieces came together for me to be in the right place at the right time to hear from God what I especially needed at the moment.
I also resonate with this story because I too lie fretting in bed very early some mornings, and because I too enjoy birds, and chickadees are the most faithful, year-round little friends in my frigid, northern, urban yard.
Do not be anxious . . . God feeds the birds.
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Thanks. I needed that.
On Saturday evening, we had dinner with old friends. We talked about God’s love and the difficulty sometimes of feeling the truth that we know in our heads.
Then on Sunday, we visited Sovereign Grace Fellowship in a southern suburb of Minneapolis. It’s one of our sister churches and a place we love to visit when we have a free Sunday.
Pastor Rick Gamache is in the midst of a series preaching through 1 Peter. But since this Sunday was communion, he felt led to take a detour and preach from Ephesians 1:4-5:
[H]e chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons, through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will . . .
Afterward, my husband said it was probably the best sermon he’s ever heard about God’s fatherhood and his adoption of us. For me, it was a direct message about God’s love when I heard Rick saying things like:
When we were adopted, God the judge put down his gavel. God the judge stood up and he stepped away from bench and he took off his judicial garb. He came to us and took us in his arms and he said to us, “my child, from now on call me Father, and he rejoiced over us with loud singing.”
The rest of the sermon was just as good.
Coincidence that Rick should change course and preach about God’s love? No way. God knew what I needed.
