Oak Run Community ChurchIt is called Oak Run Missionary Society.
If you picture those quaint country quilting circles that you read about in books,
you have an idea of what this gathering looks like
When we met on Tuesday they realized that the group itself has been around for 60 years!
What a testimony, and even though they have shrunk in numbers
they still are strong in the Lord, and strong of heart.
One of the ladies, Althea, gave our devotional this month.
She started off by saying that it was difficult to gather her thoughts as she could not write anymore but, would do the best she could with her memory :)
She spoke of the fact that as you grow older you begin to lose things...
(Althea has lost her hearing and is starting to lose her sight) she is not bitter about this, but just says that this happens to draw you close to God.
He removes things and you only have him left so you just cling to him, the most solid rock of all.
She also spoke of when you are young you feel invincible, and that you can conquer the world. There was a book she read when she was younger and it spoke of "The way to win" she says that now she knows that winning is not having victory or conquering anything,
it is being renewed in Christ and having a clean heart created by him.
She ended with the 139th Psalm, which she mentioned is her favorite and I must admit hearing it again reminded me how powerful Psalms are.
This Tuesday made me very reflective.
Althea is over 90 years old and her health is slowly deteriorating.
While she could spend her time complaining and being sullen.
She always has a cheerful word for me and others around her
She is praising God in the midst of her trials.
I see again now, why we are to put ourselves under the older women.
They have so much to show us. We just have to be open to see it.
May God richly bless you and may you rejoice in trials, and praise God through the storms of life.
Psalm 139
1 O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. 5 You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. 19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
No comments:
Post a Comment