Weekly Reflection from Pastor Kevin 8/23/23

Weekly Reflection from Pastor Kevin 8/23/23

Dear SCC & Friends,

…is anything too hard for Me? ~Jeremiah 32:27

Reflection #181

                        Pray as though everything depended on God and work as though everything depended on you. ~Augustine~ It’s ironic when our schedule doesn’t allow us time for certain things, but then a crisis hits, and we don’t have time for anything else. A crisis may be defined as a convergence of intense difficulty, trouble or danger… A crisis has the faculty of getting our full attention. Think of Israel… backed up to the Red Sea, surrounded by mountains and hostile enemies… Pharaoh’s army racing towards them for utter annihilation. To us it’s a great Bible story… to them they were about to die… a crisis indeed… They said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?”…Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. ~Ex. 14:11-12 Crisis brings out the best in the best of us and the worst in the worst of us. ~Anon.~

                        In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity… Is anything too hard for the Lord? Israel got an answer they never could have imagined. …and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. ~Ex. 14:21 Our extremity is God’s opportunity. If you’re in a crisis at this very moment, the Lord is near… Nothing escapes His purview… the Author and Finisher of our faith who will never leave or forsake… Israel didn’t earn a miraculous deliverance… nor do we… It is simply His loving care. We never seek a crisis, but know they are part of life’s journey. …for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. ~Philip. 2:13 Whatever our present situation, we live by faith in the Son of God. Nothing is too hard for Him who sees the end from the beginning. Today’s crisis is tomorrow’s testimony… Keep up the good work!

Made for these days,

Kevin