God's Power Demonstrates

Holiness
Ezekiel 39:1-40:49

""I will bring the people back from other lands and gather them from the lands of their enemies. So I will use my people to show many nations that I am holy." (Ezekiel 39:27)

Just as I studied yesterday, God is in control of all our comings and goings. I remember singing as a child, "Children, go where I send thee." Little did I know the extent of that sending- the many places God would send me. Of my own accord I would've never had the opportunities to travel to Spain, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Boston, Lancaster, Harrisburg, and Millville. God's power to send and that return, to separate and gather, to punish and to rescue shows that our God who is in control of all is worthy of our complete devotion.

Generosity
Psalm 132:10-18

"The Lord has chosen Jerusalem; he wants it for his home. He say, 'This is my resting place forever. Here is where I want to stay. I will bless her with plenty; I will fill her poor with food. I will cover her priests with salvation, and those who worship me will really sing for joy.'" (Psalm 132:13-16)

God is generous with His power, showering gifts and blessings upon His children. This can sometimes bring up the tricky question- why some and not all? Why are some people blessed while others seem to have such hardship. Living in Campo Limpo, I learned the value of God's many varied blessings. Perhaps it is not that some are blessed and others are unblessed, rather I now view it as being "differently" blessed. God in His wisdom decides which are the blessings to give to each one. One may need the blessing of time, another a loving family, another a beautiful voice, another a full table. I'm learning to accept that God is perfect and holy and knows how to generously give all good gifts, even though I (in my humanness) am incapable of understanding apparent disparity in the blessings distributed throughout the world.

Goodness
James 5:1-20

"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen." (James 5:16)

Prayer- perhaps nothing quite so adequately displays God's power, or God's goodness. There are at least three very important parts to this verse.

Confession of sins- something I confess to forgetting to do all to often. Yet, sinner that I am... it is something I need to do every day: to appreciate the divine mercy and grace of my savior, to recognize my own humanity, to become conscious of wrongdoing and aim to avoid it.

Praying for one another- the ambiguity of "so God can heal you" is interesting... is the one who is praying or the one who needs prayer being healed... or are we all "healed" in a certain way through prayer. To me, just contact with God and a personal encounter with my Lord is healing in a way. And God's ways are not the ways of man, so I need to always remember that God's answers are not my answers.

Believing and great things happening- believing is the whole essence of a prayer. If we are not truly believing in what we are saying, what we are doing, why we are praying... why are we praying? It's serious stuff... not just babbling on alone into the darkness. God is listening and through all the babbling jibberish, it must be all too easy to decipher the truly faithful prayers prayed by those who really mean it. And great things do happen (though not always what we plan).

In July of 2007, I along with so many people that I knew were praying non-stop for my uncle and aunt and cousins... and though it didn't make it easy and though it didn't bring Amanda back... it's hard to describe but I know that I felt God in those moments. In those moments of deepest darkest despair, believing people prayed, and God's presence made a difference... just knowing and sensing in a very real way that Jesus was there with all of us.