For the Love of God and Country

In the next few weeks, one of my dearest friends, Travis Jewell, will graduate from Chaplaincy school at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and then assume his new post in San Diego, California with the US Navy.  I appreciate his take on this assignment from God:  "I get to travel the world and tell people about Jesus...and the government pays for it!"  Whereas we all know it is not that simple--there will be trials, tribulation, heartache, etc.--it is exciting to see how God will use Travis, his wife Misty (my wife's bestest friend!) and their 4 precious children to take the radical message of Christ to the uttermost parts of the world.  Please join me in praying God's blessings on The Jewells....  BRH



I am in awe of God and His sovereignty.  We are loved by one who will never let us go.  In Hosea 13:4-5, God reminds Hosea (the one who was told to marry a prostitute, all for the purpose and glory of God revealing His grace and mercy to Israel) that

But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought;

The words that translate "I who knew you" come from a Hebrew verb that indicates so much more than a social knowledge i.e., "I know who you are."  It implies intimacy.  A deep knowledge and understanding of every fiber of our being.  And this knowledge began long before we began.  David testifies to this in Psalm 139:13-16 when he sings, 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

As Raymond Ortland rightly observes in his treatment of Psalm 139, David makes this point "...because it assures him that he is not here in this present danger by chance."  Nothing escapes God.  Nothing suprises God.  And so, Ortland also states, David "collapses in a sort of glad defeat, overwhelemed by this inescapable and loving God." 

Such a understanding of God should drive us to worship.  That a sovereign God would choose me unto salvation is beyond my capactity for cognition and speech.   

Father, you are the matchless King of Eternity.  Forever, you are all to us.

The link below is to Chris Tomlin's song, "All to Us".  Enjoy.  Worship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoXPhuDVp4U