Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Trust”
Our Bible verse for today: “The Lord is the One who will go before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “You can trust God even in the most difficult circumstances.”
Do you trust God? I mean really trust Him? Do you trust Him in the most difficult of circumstances; even when things look bleak and the way forward is uncertain and confusing?
Recently I learned a powerful lesson in trust and obedience. As you know, I have just returned from a two week medical and dental mission to the Amazon Rainforest in Peru. For a variety of reasons I really did not want to go on this mission trip. I’ve planned and led close to thirty international mission trips for CERT International over these last thirteen years and this is the only one that I really did not want to go on.
But I did go, and the entire experience turned out to be one of great revelation and enlightenment for me. Never before have I had such a tremendous awareness of God going before me into a situation, and then of being there with me all throughout it.
If you would like to hear more about that adventure in my life, and the lessons I learned from it, you can listen to our mission trip presentation which was given at Oak Hill Baptist Church yesterday, Sunday March 12th. Just go to our website at www.oakhillbaptist.net, click on “listen” and select the sermon for March 12th. Be sure to also select the PowerPoint option so you can see the pictures Brooke Foster presented as well. Also, in order to better appreciate the lesson God taught me on this mission trip about trust and obedience, I recommend you first go to “Google” and Google the popular Christian praise song “I Am Not Alone” by Kari Jobe and listen to it. Then view the mission presentation.
In Deuteronomy 31:8 we read of the time that the nation of Israel was about to go forward to take possession of the Promised Land – but they were not going to simply have it served up to them on a silver platter. They were going to have to fight for it, and against some pretty powerful enemies. The situation had the potential to be frightening to the point of causing them to turn away and not go forward (exactly as they had done forty years earlier).
Beyond that, their trusted leader Moses was not going to go with them. They were to go forward under the leadership of a new leader – the young man Joshua. So Moses summoned the entire nation, called Joshua forward in front of them, and then on behalf of God he spoke the words we read in 31:8, “The Lord is the One who will go before you. He will be with you; He will never leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”
What was true for the nation of Israel going forward into the Promised Land was also true for me going forward into the Amazon, and it is true for you too. You will never enter into any situation where the Lord is not already there. He will have gone before you and prepared the way for you. Once you get there He will already be there and He will already have the situation well in hand for you.
Your job will always be to simply trust and obey. Do what you know He wants you to do and then simply trust Him.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 