Men's Weekly Devotional - 9.13.11


Gentlemen!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  
Men's Breakfast /Bible Study / Wednesday Mornings / 6:30am - 7:30am / Burger King at Hwy 38 and I 69

Men's Basketball / Thursday Nights / 8:30 - 10:00pm

Men's Bent Club Classic / Sunday, September 25 / $35 / Kilbuck Golf Course / 1:30pm
Good to see everyone signing up at church for the event!  Be sure to do so over the next two weeks if you haven't yet.  Also, be sure to sign up any friends that you are bringing with you.  We want to do our best to create the teams before that day.  ESPN coverage begins at 1pm with interviews and behind the scenes human interest stories. :0)

"The Lord Almighty has sworn, 'Surely, as I have planned so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.  I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down.  His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.'  This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations.  For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?"  Isaiah 14:24-27
As a teenager, I had more interesting moments behind the wheel of a car than I care to remember.  On one such misadventure, I was driving in a heavy snowstorm and the roads were getting covered up as fast the plows could clear them.  Everyone was driving under the speed limit taking extra caution.  Even still, however, my Oldsmobile Omega still managed to find the ice patch that sent us spinning out of control.  I turned this way and that way to no avail.  We just spun around in circles, across the oncoming traffic lane into the bank on the other side of the road just as the cars in the other lane passed by.  I won't ever forget that feeling of sheer panic and then utter relief.
On a regular basis, and it seems even more so these days, this old world appears to be spinning out of control as well.  Panic and fear are the orders of the day.  In our scripture today, Isaiah reminded the people of a very important truth ... God has a plan.  He has purposes in play that man cannot thwart.  In the middle of the spins of this life and our helpless attempts to regain our illusion of control, it is imperative that we remember God is still on his throne.  He is in charge.  He has a plan.  He has a purpose.  We certainly will not see it many times, but as followers of Jesus, we walk by faith and not by sight.
Right now, in my life and yours, there is a storm of some kind.  Financial, relational, professional, physical, emotional, and/or family storms are crashing into your life.  I know that because that is exactly what Jesus said would happen.  He also said that as we hear and do what he says, we will still be standing when the dust settles, even when the storm is our appointment with death.

Grace and Peace,

Tom

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