Weekend Words

 From Beside the Still Waters...

January, Month of Beginnings - Read: Exodus 12:1-14, 24-28

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." - Genesis 1:1

God is before all beginnings.  That fact gives us confidence as we begin a new year.  We know that God has no beginning and does not count time as we do.  However, He knows all about the beginnings we face.  As His children, we can enter each new beginning of life with joy and expectation of His presence and blessing.

Why do we pause at new beginnings and consider them special?  It may be a new year, a new phase of life, a new child, or other new beginnings.  One reason is because they represent new opportunities to serve God.  Another reason is that from our viewpoint in the present, we can't see into the future.  We want God to be with us as we travel the untrodden path of 2024.  It's not that we know it will be significantly different from 2023, but the unknowns call for a security that doesn't come from within us.  Real security comes from the presence of God, who promised Moses, "My presence shall go with thee."  Moses felt his need so keenly that he said, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence" (Exodus 33:14:15).

Beginnings give promise of growth, progress and maturity.  This is especially true when we begin and then go on with God.  Obviously, those who read this are engaging in thoughts of God and instruction from His Word.  That is one way to begin with God.  A second way is to share those thoughts with other people.  Then we do not need to begin alone.  A third way to begin this year with God is to engage in fellowship with other Christians in a scriptural church.  All these methods lend stability and provide depth to the foundation of a new beginning. 

Delmar Eby - London, KY

To begin with God is to set the course for a good ending.

From Amish Peace...

Pass It On

"Here is my greeting in my own handwriting - Paul." (1 Corinthians 16:21)

There is nothing like an unexpected letter or package to bring internal sunshine to a long dreary day.  My Amish friend Irene remembers her excitement as a young girl running home from the mailbox with a large manilla envelope addressed to her: a circle letter had arrived!

A circle letter is a letter chain sent among family members or friends.  Irene was part of a circle made of girls with the same first name and born the same year.  With each envelope that arrived there was a letter from all the other members, including Irene's previous letter.  After Irene read the letters of the other participants, she'd pull out her old letter, replace it with a new one, and then send the package to the next young woman on the list.  The circle letter would be sent to each person, each adding a new letter and continuing the conversation.  Through letters like these, friends and family members talked about issues important to them, shared current events, and confessed dreams for the future.

When Irene told me about the circle letter, I imagined the excitement the letters from Paul, Peter, and other apostles brought when they arrived at new churches.  But instead of adding their own words to the revered apostles' letters, the churches studied them, rejoiced over them, and then passed them on.

I'm amazed at how God uses letters and personal experience to build His body.  More than once God has whispered instruction or encouragement to me through a friend's words.

What has God done for you lately?  Pass that on to another.  What messages has he spoken to your heart?  Record and share them.  Do you remember the last time you sent someone a handwritten note?  Take a moment to write one and send it today.  You never know when the words of news or encouragement you offer another person will come back around to you.

A Joyful Song

A joyful song of praise we sing, And thankfully we gather

To bless the love of God above, Our everlasting Father.

From shades of night He calls the light, And from the sod the flower;

From ev'ry cloud His blessings break, In sunshine or in shower.

For nothing falls unknown to Him, Of care or joy or sorrow;

And He whose mercy ruled the past, Will be our stay tomorrow.

Then praise the Lord with one accord, to His great name give glory;

And of His never changing love, Repeat the wonderous story.

- A. N. Blatchford