If, Then; July 3, 2019

Posted on July 7, 2019 by jgarrott

Deuteronomy 11:13-14 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil.

We often lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of the promises in the Bible are conditional. It’s not that we could ever earn all of God’s goodness to us, much less eternal life itself, but we can certainly cut ourselves off from all of that by our rebellion and disobedience. We want God to be like Santa Claus, who supposedly “knows if we’ve been bad or good” but gives us stuff regardless. God (not Santa) is genuinely omniscient, knowing everything, and He is also totally righteous and holy; we can’t pull anything over on Him. He loves to do good things for us His children, but He also knows what is genuinely best for us, and spoiling us rotten certainly doesn’t fill that bill. Perhaps the most precious thing He’s given us is our free will, but we have to be trained in using that correctly. (Hebrews 5:14) That’s where all His conditional promises come in. It is precisely because God wants us to be happy, mature, satisfied, fulfilled, and all of that, that He tells us to choose for ourselves those things, those actions, that lead to those desirable outcomes. Every one of His commands has that purpose, but we have to choose to obey. As John said, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:3-4) If we believe God enough to obey Him, regardless of what the devil, the world, and even our own senses and intellect tell us, then we will experience victory beyond our wildest imaginations.

Well! I’m certainly preaching to myself this morning! Looking back over my life I can see countless times I’ve made major choices, both good and bad, but I realize that I’ve made far more unconscious choices, and often those have the bigger impact. That said, the unconscious choices generally start from deliberate choices, like my choice to start every day with the Bible and prayer. That’s now automatic, and I feel considerable frustration when things get in the way. As a pastor, I desire to instill the habit of right choices in each of the believers. However, they have to choose to receive instruction! That’s where coaching can be very helpful, because it focuses on helping the one coached to recognize things themselves, and not be spoon-fed instruction. With my Teacher gifting, that takes some deliberate choices on my part! However, James gives us a very encouraging promise: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5) By God’s grace I continue to discover how much I lack wisdom, and I have certainly found James’ words to be true.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I constantly need Your wisdom for my own life and for the sake of those to whom I minister. I pray that by Your Spirit I would make the right choices, in full obedience to You, for Your will to be done for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Praise!; July 2, 2019

Posted on July 3, 2019 by jgarrott

Deuteronomy 10:21 He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.

The first phrase in this verse jumps out at me: “He is your praise.” In Japanese it says, “The Lord is your praise,” explicitly using the term that is used to apply to singing to God. That brings to mind the famous line from Psalm 22:3, “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.[enthroned on the praises of Israel]” The King James says, “inhabits the praises of Israel.” Something very special happens when we praise God. It can’t really be explained in human terms, but when our hearts are turned to Him in praise, omnipresent God manifests Himself in a special way. I think that’s why Moses said what he did. If you want to encounter God, try praising Him from your heart! Just going through the motions doesn’t do much good, but conversely, failing to praise God because “you don’t feel like it” is self-defeating. It is interestingly true that choosing to praise God, especially when you don’t feel like it, can really change your attitude and draw you close to Him. The devil will try to discourage that, telling you it’s hypocritical, but it works. Many people have discovered that reading through some of the Psalms can be powerful indeed, especially when you are depressed or lonely or afraid or in any of a number of negative states. As I tell people frequently, being self-centered never leads to peace and happiness because it blinds us to our Creator who loves us. Conversely, praising Him changes our focus to Him and opens us up to all that He has for us on every level.

This is something I really started understanding after I was exposed to the Charismatic Movement in 1973. I’ve always loved to sing, and particularly to sing to God, but I hadn’t understood the mechanism of it all before that. Since then, I couldn’t begin to count how many times I’ve “sung myself out of a slump,” so to speak. My wife and others who have been to heaven report that everything there, even the grass and trees, sings praise to God. That’s really something to look forward to! I am greatly blessed from having been raised in a musical family, but others haven’t had that experience. I’ve read that true tone deafness, being physically unable to distinguish between different frequencies, is an extremely rare phenomenon. However, environment has a very great influence. We once had a young man (an American) ask, “How do you make your voice go up and down like that?” He was certainly not tone deaf, but he had no idea how to sing. That was sad! It is my experience that there are many musical styles, and virtually all of them can be used to praise God. (There may be exceptions!) As I try to encourage the people in this congregation, the important thing is heart focus. Beautiful performances can be completely sterile. As the song says, “I love You, Lord, and I lift my voice.” When we sing out of faith and love for God, He manifests Himself for our blessing and His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. It’s something I practice constantly, but something I want to be more effective in leading others into. I ask for Your wisdom and anointing so that we may be a praising people indeed, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Skipped Verses; July 1, 2019

Posted on July 3, 2019 by jgarrott

Deuteronomy 7:16 You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

This is the kind of verse in the Old Testament we like to skip over. The very idea of being told not to have pity on a whole group of people and destroy them all violates our sense of justice and even humanity. However, what we don’t know, or conveniently overlook, is the sort of people these individuals were. Their religious practices are only now being deduced by archaeologists, and it’s not a pretty picture at all. Infanticide was just the beginning. What should give us pause is the fact that there are people advocating for infanticide in the US right now. The parallels between the tribes and cultures the Israelites were told to destroy and sections of US culture today are many, and should be deeply disturbing. We create our own standards for everything, including justice, righteousness, and mercy. That’s what is called humanism, because humans make the rules, and it’s considered a good and admirable thing. Political correctness is just one expression of it, and it is an assault on the very idea of truth. We forget that our Creator is holy, and so make up all sorts of excuses for our lack of holiness. In reference to this verse, the Old Testament has an extensive record of what a snare the gods of these people really were to the children of Israel. Today, anyone who expresses opposition to things that are in clear violation of Biblical standards is labeled a “phobe” of one sort or another. What we should have is a healthy fear of Almighty God!

This verse makes me uncomfortable as well. I certainly don’t like the idea of genocide, which is what this seems to be talking about. I know that I am certainly not to take things into my own hands in terms of anyone’s destruction, but I also know that God’s Revelation to John talks a lot about destruction. I also remember how Jesus responded to sinners of various sorts, and model my responses after Him. I am to be gentle and loving, but at the same time not be seduced by humanism, taking man as the standard. I am to remember that God is love, but He is also absolutely holy, and understand the need for His grace and mercy. We have all earned destruction, and the fact that He has withheld it should be a source of deep gratitude.

Father, keep me from skipping over anything in Your Word, but rather give me insight and revelation so that I may understand it rightly. Help me remember that the very first part of the prayer Jesus taught us is that Your name would be acknowledged as holy, and then that Your dominion would come and Your will be done on this earth, even to the degree that it is in heaven. May I be Your agent to bring as many as will come into Your dominion before the otherwise inevitable destruction that their sins have earned, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Rules; June 30, 2019

Posted on July 1, 2019 by jgarrott

Deuteronomy 7:9-10 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

Once again we have Moses trying to drill it into the people’s heads that Yahweh alone is God, and He’s not to be fooled with. Being used to the idols of Egypt, they didn’t really think about God as having any real power in the here-and-now, either for good or for bad. In that they were much like a lot of people today! The emphasis here is on God’s faithfulness, Moses makes it very clear that hating God, that is, ignoring Him and His rules, is going to get you into a world of hurt. Part of the conscience that God designed us with gives us the expectation of punishment after we’ve done wrong. It wasn’t until Christ that such punishment was ultimately dealt with. Here, Moses is using the expectation of punishment as a tool to try to keep the people on the right path. Actually, human beings need boundaries. If we sense no boundaries, we tend to get anxious. Our whole lives, the time we are least anxious is when we are in the womb, and it is no coincidence that we have the strictest boundaries at that point. Many parents fail to realize that children need boundaries for their emotional health and development. The rules/boundaries God sets for us are not to restrict us but to guide and protect us. That’s why here and so many places in the Bible love is connected with obedience. That’s why the very next verse says, “Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.”

Just a few minutes ago I was thinking how blessed I am that my parents raised me to acknowledge when I was in the wrong. That’s not to say I don’t get defensive sometimes, or that I have a perfect track record by any means, but that was part of my upbringing. As a pastor I deal constantly with people who have great difficulty with that. As I was taught in seminary counseling class, and as I have seen in my own experience, there’s no such thing as a totally one-sided divorce, for example. (I’ve seen some pretty lopsided ones, but there’s always something.) Before God, we have nothing we can rightly accuse at all, though mankind has tried to accuse God of all sorts of things ever since Eden. I need to help people realize how much they are loved and how much they are forgiven by God, so that they will in turn love and forgive those close to them, not carrying the weight of the other person’s faults and sins. Our own are more than heavy enough, and Jesus tells us to give them all to Him. (Matthew 11:28-30) I don’t have the wisdom to get that through to people, but I can speak the truth in love and the Holy Spirit can use His words through me to set people free.

Father, thank You for this very timely reminder. Thank You for what You’ve already done through me this morning. I do pray that in all things Your name would be acknowledged as holy and Your kingdom come as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Loving God; June 29, 2019

Posted on June 30, 2019 by jgarrott

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

This is the Shema, called that from the first word in Hebrew, and there is no more sacred text in all of Judaism. As the NIV indicates with footnotes, all sorts of word arrangements are possible legitimate translations of the initial statement. It is both a statement of monotheism and a restatement of the first commandment, out of the ten given at Sinai and restated in the chapter before this. Theoretical monotheism does someone no good until the Creator becomes their God, to the exclusion of all other allegiances. That is followed with the appropriate response to knowing your Creator: loving Him with all you are. We spend our entire lives discovering just what that looks like, because that love is to be renewed daily and not allowed to go stale. It is entirely appropriate that immediately after saying this, Moses starts talking about God’s commandments. We are rightly wary of legalism, but Jesus made it very clear that “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15) It means nothing to protest love for God if we are unwilling to do what He has told us. This is where so many of us trip up. We say we love God, and may honestly believe we do, but we love Him like we would love a puppy, or perhaps even a hamburger. In other words, we love Him for how He makes us feel, for how He meets our needs, rather than for what and who He is, in full obedience. The subject of idolatry has come up several times in recent days, and it remains true that anything we allow to take priority over obedience to God has become an idol to us. That is clearly in violation of what Moses says here. We need to examine our hearts to be sure we can proclaim the Shema in all honesty.

I’m preaching to myself here. I have curiosity about everything, which makes everything a potential distraction from wholehearted obedience to God. It’s not that curiosity is bad, it’s just that God must have absolute priority and authority in my life. We all tend to dislike hypocrisy in others, but then fail to recognize our own. I am a prime target for James’ famous words: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22) My love for God is only as valid and as deep as my obedience to Him.

Father, thank You for this reminder. As John said, help me “not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:18) May I be the obedient, loving child that You desire, delighting in You so that You may delight in me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Monotheism; June 28, 2019

Posted on June 30, 2019 by jgarrott

Deuteronomy 4:39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

Monotheism was a major stretch for the Israelites, after generations of living in Egypt. Maintaining monotheism was a struggle for them all the way through to the Babylonian Captivity, because all the nations around them had gods, and the general feeling was that all of them were simply territorial deities, or else specialized for different functions, like storms or fertility. They had no mental framework for direct interaction with the Creator, which is one reason why the supernatural manifestations at Sinai scared them witless. Today in the West, monotheism, agnosticism, and atheism seem to cover most of the bases for people, with Hinduism being the largest active polytheistic religion, followed by Shinto. Buddhism is a special case, because at its root it is atheistic, but in practice it is polytheistic. It can be argued that Mormonism is polytheistic, because it teaches that good Mormons go on to become gods to create their own universes. For that matter, it has been argued that Catholicism is polytheistic because of their plethora of saints to whom people pray, but the degree of that seems to vary from country to country. All of that is clearly in violation of what Moses says here, and is a danger to the wholehearted devotion called for throughout the Bible. That’s why it’s so important that the Bible starts with, “In (the) beginning, God…” Various spiritual entities are mentioned in the course of the Bible, particularly angels and demons, but from beginning to end there is only one God. Most of us don’t think in terms of polytheism, but in practical terms we depend on a number of things other than our Creator. A major one is government, but after tangling with bureaucracy I would hate to think of it as divine! Science also takes on the aura of divinity for many people. That is doubly tragic, because any honest scientist will tell you there is far more we don’t know than we do know. It all comes back to the choice to believe that the Creator of the universe is personally interested in us, and that He has made a way for us to be able to relate to Him.

This is a major issue for me because I minister in Japan, where the vast majority of people practice both Buddhism and Shinto when the occasion calls for it, but have no personal faith and mostly operate on superstitions of one sort or another. The idea of personal monotheism is offensive to many, because it says that the traditions of their ancestors are invalid, and they have been taught to revere their ancestors above all. My wife had a good friend explicitly decline to become a Christian even after having read the New Testament and hearing a lot about Christ, because “My ancestors weren’t Christians, and when I die I am supposed to go where they are.” Tragically, she dropped dead one day, and now she knows the truth. All I can do is keep speaking the truth in love, demonstrating with my life what a relationship with Christ looks like, and pray for the Holy Spirit to break through for people to understand that they can have what they admire in me. Frankly, I’m tired of people liking me without opening their hearts to Jesus!

Father, presenting the Gospel has never been easy in Japan, but nothing is impossible for You. I pray that You would use me, use this church, to break down the spiritual and cultural barriers and sweep multitudes of Japanese people into Your kingdom, Your family, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Consequences; June 27, 2019

Posted on June 29, 2019 by jgarrott

Numbers 14:11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?”

God is bigger than merely human emotions, and He also knows what will happen before it does, because He is outside of time, but here He expresses something He knows Moses can identify with. The failure to believe and obey is a perennial problem with mankind ever since the Garden of Eden. In Romans 1 Paul talks about how God has made Himself evident through nature, yet people pursue their own gods instead of their Creator. We see that problem all around us even today. To be perfectly honest, we’re guilty in that respect too! The story here goes on to Moses quoting God’s description of Himself back to Him (verse 18) and begging God to forgive the Israelites. It’s important to note that then God does forgive them, but they still have to endure the consequences of their unbelief. That is something a lot of people overlook about sin, grace, and forgiveness. Too many people teach, and/or believe in, a “greasy grace” that they think eliminates all consequences of sin, but it doesn’t work that way. God’s forgiveness does remove the penalty for our sin, since Jesus bore it for us on the cross, but it’s not a time machine transporting us to back before we ever committed the sin. Time is linear, and we can’t make something not have happened. What we can do, however, is release everything to God so that He can turn it around and use it for good in spite of our failures. (Romans 8:28) What is even better is when we believe God and walk in obedience in the first place! The vast majority of human misery is the direct result of sin, either our own or that of someone else. We will have to wait for Jesus to return to straighten it all out, but in the meantime, our best course is always to walk in the obedience that comes from faith.

Right now I see God working in the lives of people all around me, and I also see them being blind to what God is doing and getting anxious and frantic to a pathetic degree. All I can do is keep praying for them, speaking the truth in love. I remember plenty of times when I have been less than trusting and obedient! I am to keep remembering God’s character, even as Moses quoted it back to Him, and live accordingly. I too am tempted to anxiety and frustration very frequently, so I am to make the conscious decision to trust God and wait expectantly for Him, (Isaiah 40:28-31) because the consequences of that will always be far better than the consequences of unbelief.

Father, You know who came so strongly to mind as I read this just now. They don’t see that their unbelief is damaging not only to themselves but also to those around them. I ask Your grace and mercy for them, and also for those around them, so that the end result may be solid spiritual growth, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Aliens; June 26, 2019

Posted on June 28, 2019 by jgarrott

Leviticus 19:34 “‘The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.'”

When you think about it, this is quite remarkable. For all the many statements about how God had chosen the physical descendants of Abraham as His special people, referred to today as Jews, here we have explicit instructions to love the Gentiles who were among them. This is a detail many of them missed, and some continue to do so today. The lesson certainly applies to the Church as well. It is only when we realize that it is only by God’s grace that we have been saved that we will start treating those who have not yet been saved correctly. That’s one of the big problems with cultural Christianity: we almost feel it’s genetic, that you have to be born into it. Christian homes are a beautiful blessing, but every human being is born with the tendency to sin. I once had a pastor who ran a kindergarten say to me, “If you don’t believe in original sin, just watch the children for about five minutes.” We demonstrate our fallen natures very early! The command in this verse levels the playing field, reminding the Jews that at one time they too were pathetic and powerless. Then, in common with virtually all the commands in this section, it ends with, “I am YHWH your God.” Scholars today are well agreed that the Tetragramaton, as those four letter are called, would rightly be pronounced Yahweh, but devout Jews would never say the personal name of God, which it is, (Exodus 3:14) and so would read it as Adonai, Lord. That’s why the NIV and some other translations render it as LORD. I think the point of that being repeated so many times is that these instructions were in stark contrast to the religious practices of virtually all the cultures around them. The Jews were not to follow the practices of Baal, Ashtoreth, Molech, or any other of the “gods of the nations.” Israel slipped up in that countless times, and Christians today do too. Our lives are all too often indistinguishable from those of the non-believers around us. We forget just Who it is we worship, and so fail to fear the Lord, and become foolish. “Everybody’s doing it” is never a valid excuse.

Having lived most of my life as a Caucasian in Japan, I am painfully aware of what it is to be an alien. Until a few years ago when they changed the terminology to “Residence Card,” I carried an “Alien Registration Card” with me at all times. When I applied for permanent resident status I was told that because of my special circumstances (being born in Japan and my parents being buried in Japan) it would be easier for me to get citizenship than permanent residency, but I declined the offer specifically because of the issue brought up in this verse. I knew that because of my different racial background, the vast majority of the people I would meet would not accept me as Japanese; I would forever be an alien to them. America is unique among the nations in accepting people of any background as Americans, but sadly, recent “identity politics” have fought against that historical trend. In any case, the point for me is to recognize that everyone, however similar or different they might be to me, is equally in need of the grace of God, and equally worthy of His love.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me indeed live as a citizen of heaven, (Philippians 3:20) extending the Good News of Your kingdom to all, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Loving Your Neighbor; June 25, 2019

Posted on June 28, 2019 by jgarrott

Leviticus 19:18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.'”

Jesus was spot-on when He said that this, along with the command to love God, (Deuteronomy 6:5) summed up “all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:40) The various specific things listed in the verses preceding this one help us recognize just what this should look like, because we can be remarkably dense at times. We are forever saying and doing things to other people that we would not be happy if they were said or done to us. Legalism kicks in when we make rules for the sake of the rules, instead of for the benefit of those to whom they apply. Sadly, that is the case for quite a percentage of formal laws, as well as school rules and the like. I have long said that such rules are simply training in ignoring rules, and that has an actively negative effect on individuals and society as a whole. Jesus restated this principle famously in what is called the Golden Rule: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, stated a little more compactly in Luke 6:31) We need to be careful about this, however, because every individual is different, and your neighbor might not like what you would enjoy. As I tell people in marriage counseling, we need to care enough about each other to find out what would please/benefit each other, and then do that, rather than making ourselves the standard that everyone else should meet. Some people try to dismiss the Bible as “ancient mythology,” when nothing could be further from the truth. Human nature certainly hasn’t changed in 4000 years, however much society, not to mention technology, has changed. God is still Lord, and He tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves.

This certainly applies to me. I can be as self-centered as the next guy, even though I frequently point out to others that being self-centered never leads to genuine happiness. I am quite the expert at thinking that I’m the expert! I need to have the humility to know that God’s smart and I’m not. He had to point that out to me explicitly, and it was very liberating when I grasped it. I need to love myself, and thus my neighbor, enough to know that we are all works in progress, and keep moving closer to God. Even Paul was very clear that he hadn’t “arrived,” (Philippians 3:12-14) and we need to be encouraging one another to keep growing. (Hebrews 10:15 and several others) As a pastor I have to be very careful that even as I seek to set a good example, I must not come across as holier-than-thou. I know I don’t like someone to have a superior attitude toward me, and I must not be that way toward others, however much I feel they might be in the wrong.

Father, thank You for this reminder. It’s certainly practical! I have a lot to do each day this week, interacting with many different people. I ask You to help me love each of them indeed with Your love, just as I want to be loved, so that the fragrance of Christ may go out to all those around, drawing them to You for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God; June 24, 2019

Posted on June 26, 2019 by jgarrott

Exodus 34:5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord.

The more you think about it, the more remarkable this is, that the infinite Creator would manifest Himself in such a personal way to a mere human being. However, we know that He went even further, sending His Son to actually be born as a human being, to take the penalty for the sins of mankind. We really have a lot of trouble with the whole concept of God, because He defies all the categories we try to fit Him into. He Himself was constrained by human language in describing Himself to Moses, as He does in the very next verse. He starts out by speaking of His love and grace, which is certainly appropriate when He is Love, (1 John 4:8) but he goes on to give a strong word to those who would mistake love and grace for weakness. We tend either to picture Him as Santa Claus or as a cruel taskmaster, and both of those images are false to the point of being deliberate deceptions of the devil. One thing we need to be very clear on is that God is not some impersonal Force, nor is He the “Divine Watchmaker” posited by the Deists of a few hundred years ago and currently dressed up as “Intelligent Design.” He is the omnipotent Creator, which is certainly an infinite amount of force, but He is intimately concerned with His creation. He indeed designed the universe deliberately, out of His total omniscience, but He cares about it all, to a degree we can’t really imagine. He even pays attention to how much hair we have! (Matthew 10:30) Accordingly, He knows what is best for us and wants us to follow the path that He has laid out for us. That’s why punishment is part of His self-description in the next verse. Much of the mess we get ourselves into stems from our failing to grasp God as He is, because when we grasp Him in truth, everything falls into place.

It was just a few days ago that the Lord gave me a revelation that we indeed serve the Lord of Glory, appropriately enough from Revelation 1. With that so fresh in my awareness, this is a powerful reinforcement. I have been taught about God from infancy, attending worship in the womb, quite literally, and being raised in an environment of love and prayer and Scripture. Even so, I am as human as anyone, and I need occasional attitude corrections. That phrase applies both in the psychological sense and in the way an aircraft pilot would use it. I need to “straighten up and fly right!” As a pastor, a major part of my job description is presenting an accurate image of God to others, both through my words and my lifestyle. The saving grace in that is that though I am obviously very flawed, I serve a perfect God, and He can do the job in spite of my imperfections, if I will submit myself to Him. That is my part in the process: loving Him and yielding myself to Him in full trust and obedience. He is more than worthy of it all, and He will (and does) do things through me that I can hardly imagine.

Father, thank You for Your incredible faithfulness. Thank You for the joyful baptismal service we had yesterday. I’m sure everyone was very blessed, and I saw distinct signs of spiritual growth in several people. Help me trust You more and more fully, resting, relaxing, and rejoicing in You so that You alone may receive all the glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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