Monday Morning Musings ...

Yesterday was another great day. What a great summer season we are enjoying. The spirit was great during our time of singing and prayer. People were very involved, focused and most were participating. Our regular worship leader was gone along with some of our worship team. The guy who led worship did wonderful and the team really led us by worshipping themselves. Our attendance was very low but it did not dampen anything.

The message was from Jeremiah 29:10-14. The question was "What System are You Using?", in other words what plan are you following in your life? Your system determines your decisions and choices. I told of the story of an old woman in Scotland many years ago who went about selling buttons, thread and such. Whenever she came to a crossroad she would toss a stick into the air and whichever way it pointed that was the road she took. One day someone observed her repeatedly tossing the stick in the air and asked her why. She replied that the stick kept pointing to the left and she wanted to go to the right, so she continued to toss it until it pointed to the right. For many of us that is how we live and claim that it is following God's plan.

We use systems all the time to get through our lives. We have a pattern for getting up, getting ready for the day and so on. Whose system are you following in your life? God's system is the best. Jeremiah 29:11 says it well that God's plan is for our good and for our future. Two big points about God's system is that you can know his system, or plan for your life. He doesn't hide it or play games with us. You must seek it and you will discover it. The other point I made was that God's system is hopeful and forward-moving, as opposed to depressing and stuck in the past. If you are wondering about God's plan if it is not hopeful, or if it focuses more on the past than the future then it is not God's plan. Part of that forward-moving hope is the promise that God will carry you back from wherever you have landed away from God's plan.

On a personal note, our oldest daughter was with us yesterday and that is so encouraging to see how she is living for the Lord. Also, one of my wife's best friend from college days and her husband were with us Saturday evening and Sunday. It was great to see them again, to watch my wife and her friend tell stories on each other and laugh till they cried. It was even greater to see, and hear, how God is working in their lives.

Yesterday was a very good day.