A Piece of Peace for Today

A Piece of Peace for Today

I’m struck this morning with Psalm 46.  It is a good and timely passage.  I especially love the idea of “Be still and know that I am God.”

In my reading today this idea cropped up.  What if we interpret this passage in this light?  

“Be Still” becomes “Stop striving.  Stop fighting.  Christians-snap out of it.  Understand who God is.”

Whoa!  That’s pretty fresh.  What this says to me is this …

~Slow down and come to grips with a reframed sense of God.  Has he changed?  Has he abandoned us and our world?  Has He abandoned us and His plan for the redemption of mankind?  Is the world going to end tomorrow, or the day after the next election?

If you read my Facebook feed, you would think we are doomed to Hell and there is absolutely no hope for anyone anywhere in the world.  We have strife, wars, invasions of other lands, Congress up in arms, apparent corruption at many levels of our own US government as well as in other governments in other lands.  And the list goes on.

Is God’s attention diverted?

Is He asleep at the wheel? 

No – emphatically NO!

The first verse of Psalm 46 stabilizes us, I think.

“God is our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble. 

Therefore, we will not fear, even if the earth is removed, and the mountains fall into the seas.” 

Go and read the whole chapter for yourself.  You just might receive your great word of hope and you’ll actually look forward to awakening to a world full of bright hope for tomorrow.

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

The Ups and Downs of the Present Moment

The Ups and Downs 

of the Present Moment

How are you doing in this up and down, topsy-turvy world?  If you believe the news sources on any given day, we are headed for a recession, melting polar ice caps, the collapse of civilization, the President being ousted, Congress in revolt, and a civil war could break out at any moment.

So, how are you doing in all this?

There is one thing I know in the middle of all this madness and uncertainty. 

GOD IS IN CONTROL!

I believe that.

I trust that.

I trust that God is not asleep at the wheel, that He is aware of everything that is spinning around us, and aware of all the players on stage in this drama of the life we live.  I trust that He is watching, and perhaps, intervening in small and subtle ways that we can’t see with our human eyes, and yet His hand is working nevertheless.

In all the years of my life, I’ve never escaped some hard places.  God never promised I would.  What He did promise was that He would be with me “wherever I go”. 

So, come what may, I’m holding onto the only solid truth I can find – God knows where we are every moment of every day.  He is with us at the peak of the stock market and in the valley of the crash.  He is with us in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and through it all, He is going to see us through.

Ultimately, man is not in control.  God is in control. 

I’m staking my life on that!

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

The God Whose Name Is on the Invitation

The God Whose Name 

Is on the Invitation

Your invitation has been sent out.  Have you received it yet?  Have you read it and understood it?

The words are simple – “Come unto Me.”  Somewhere I read that there are 365 invitations in the scriptures with the full intent of these words.  We are invited in. 

There is no “Keep Out” sign on the door.

There is no qualifier of “Only Those Who …”

There is no “If your skin color is _____, then you may enter.”

There is no “If you’ve washed today, you may come.”

There is no “If you are American, you may come.”

There is no “If you’re a Jew, you are invited.”

No, No, NO!

God doesn’t distinguish between cowboys or crooks, peasants or politicians,

drummers or drunkards, Democrats or the despised.

We are all invited.  Our first job is to accept the invitation.  Come to the grace side of the God who loves you.  He will sort things out from there, after you accept His invitation. 

You don’t even have to change your clothing, get a haircut, shave, use deodorant, or eat your peas. 

God wants you as much as He wants Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, or the Apostle Paul. 

He is the sender of the invitation and your name is on it in bold letters.

Come to me!

That is well-aged grace.

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration