Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “The Lord’s Presence”
Our Bible verse for today: “God set’s the lonely in families.” Psalm 68:6 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “The Lord’s presence is often manifested through other Christians.”
The poet John Milton once observed, “Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye named not good.” He was referring to the creation account in Genesis. As God’s creative endeavors progressed and new elements of His creation came into being, He declared them all to be “good”. The first thing His eye fell upon which He declared to be “not good” was the fact that Adam was alone (Genesis 2:18). And so God created Eve to keep Adam company and to make his coffee, prepare his meals, clean his house, and, well, you get the idea.
Seriously though, God created us as relational beings and therefore it is not good for us to be alone, at least not for extended periods of time and not on a continuous basis. We need companionship.
Yesterday we considered the reality of the ongoing, never-ending presence of the Lord. The truth is that He is always with us and therefore we are never really alone. But we also need the presence and companionship of other people. Spouses, children, grandchildren, and other blood relatives are often an excellent and much needed source of companionship. Close friends too. But not everyone has a spouse or children or grandchildren. Some people don’t even have friends. And that can be a lonely existence.
This is where the church becomes so vital. The church can and should be the place where the lonely are welcomed – the place where they find a family and friends. When David wrote in Psalm 68:6 that God set’s the lonely in families, I’m not so sure he was talking about biological or adopted families. I think he meant church families. I think he meant that God sends lonely people to the church to find brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, the grandchildren they never had, and good friends.
Does that describe your church? More than just being welcomed into your Sunday morning worship service, are the lonely reached out to and drawn into the full life of the church? Are they invited out to lunch, and into your home? Close-knit biological families can often become insular and difficult for an outsider to become part of. Church families can sometimes be like that too.
But the church is intended by God to be the place where the lonely find a family. And it is often through the openness, the friendliness, the kindness and compassion of Christians, that Jesus manifests His presence in the lives of sad and lonely people. I encourage you to make sure that is true of you, and of your church. God places the lonely in families – and it could be yours.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 