Just thought of this song while listening to a podcast about how Jesus wants
to have a party in heaven for each of us.  Looked up the song and found this
video!  I hope it moves each of you like it did me.

Shari

I was reading Romans this morning, and I really like the NLT translation of Romans 5:11, and I think it speaks greatly to what we are working through right now:

So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God
Ro 5:11

Genesis 50:20-21

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.  So then, don’t be afraid.  I will provide for you and your children.”  And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. 

These are the words of Joseph – his brothers wanted to kill him, he was sold into slavery, double-crossed, and imprisoned, among other things.  This is a passage of scripture that I have turned to many times in my life when trying times rear their ugly heads and discouragement overwhelms my soul.  Sometimes I’ve felt that the world is against me, people are against me, fate is against me.  I can’t win, I can’t catch a break, I can’t get ahead.  Someone’s out to get me, and I am broken.  My feelings are hurt, I physically hurt, I am without hope. 

I have been thinking about Joseph quite a bit these last couple of months.  What mankind intended as harm to Joseph, God intended for good.  I’ve been told before that mankind will always, consistently let me down — whether intentionally and maliciously, or unintentionally and accidentally.  But the Lord remains true, and He will never let me down.  As scripture tells us, God was always with Joseph.  And he is always with me. 

We don’t know – we CAN’T know – what is in another man’s heart, in his mind.  We may be astonished, appalled by the words and actions of people we think we know – or thought we knew.  Some things are not for us to know.  Eternity is an unfathomable expansion of vastness – God’s big picture – and our own individual little fragment of the picture is but a little Kellogg’s cornflake on the breakfast table of God’s creation.  We cannot see all God sees,  nor can we know how He knows how our cornflake fits into the gargantuan painting of all eternity. 

–and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God — Romans 8:28

God is STILL good.  Christ is STILL king, and we are still his children.  Keep believing.  Stay strong in your faith.  Trust in the Lord.  God is the same, unchanging God.  We are all brothers and sisters in Him.  Love one another. 

Luke 6:31-33  Do to others as you would have them do to you.    If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that.

v. 35  But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.