Trivia:
Well we had a split in which president coined the phrase, "It's the economy stupid". The correct president was Bill Clinton, his advisor James Carville who advised him to address the financial woes of the average American home and their economic recession being experienced.
Can you guess; What is the largest desert in the world? Is it the Arabian Desert; Gobi Desert; Atacama Desert; to the Sahara Desert? Make your guess.
Challenge:
Psalm 33:20-22 "We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone."
What did the psalmist base his confidence and joy on from the Lord? Notice its based on his courage to wait, trust and hope in His powerful works.
Here we are reminded of this important lesson on rather than living in fear, uncertainty, hopelessness, we can rather adopt the stance of resolute faith.
Psalm 40:1 speaks of the necessity of this determination, "I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and He turned to me and heard my cry."
While I was hiking in the New York Adirondack's with several friends we climbed up a steep cliff where there was a complete dead end cliff which offered no ability to turn back. After surveying all the possibilities, we determined that our only choice was to jump off the cliff and dive into the lake below and then swim to shore and then hike back. My roommate Jim was the most daring of us so he volunteered to be the first one to attempt this feat. He pumped up his lungs for what appeared to be a deep water plunge, then jumped. Fortunately, this plunge was much milder than we thought, in fact it became one of the challenges that we took our TWA adventures through on our number of two week lessons.
What appeared to be almost impossible to survive became an adventure that we survived and in fact became quite exhilarated by. This phrase, "He is our help and our shield" reminded me of this adventure. This is the test that we many times face when living in a world that is so greatly devoid of the trust, and hope, that this verse is calling us to live out. All around us today. there is a dearth of those peoples seeking to look to God for His aide through these very times.
SO GO WITH GOD my dear ones, for He is always there with outstretch arms saying, "Jump, I'll catch you. Your not alone, I'm here surrounding you with my loving kindness."
I think elsinore.