Have you ever noticed that God sometimes does things totally opposite of what we think He will do or something totally unexpected? He is a God of surprises.
We often hear or make the statement that “God has His hand in things.” Honestly, when we look around we have cause to wonder. Does He have His hand in the national stage? Russia/Ukraine. Israel/Palestine. And how about closer to home? Lawlessness. Distrust. Hatred. Violence. Our own personal desires to be first and to have our own way. On the surface things do look bad…really bad. But underneath it all is a belief that God has got this all under control. I don’t know how and I certainly can’t presume upon Him on how to do His job, but nothing that has happened or will happen flusters Him. He is not surprised. But He often does things which surprise us!
This Sunday’s message is entitled Our God Reigns! and is taken from 2 Kings 1-19. He is a God of surprises. True. But He is also a God of His Word. He will never contradict Himself or go against His Written Word. We will be talking about Ahab & Jezebel, Elijah, Elisha, Naaman, and a host of other characters. I invite you to join us in person at 9:00 and 10:45. We also live stream both services if you are unable to be with us in person. You can send a request to join our Facebook Group at Owen Valley Christian Fellowship or view our public page at Owen Valley Christian Fellowship-Spencer, In. Or you can watch via YouTube at Owen Valley Christian Fellowship. I look forward to seeing you or hearing from you online. And let me ask you to do me a favor: please let us know you are watching and then feel free to comment-yay or nay. If you have any questions, please ask and I will get back to you. Thanks. And thanks for praying for us.
May 13
Tuesday, May 13th, 2025I tire of the news. Am I alone? I don’t think so. Maybe I ought to clarify more of what I mean. I tire of bad news. I tire of mainstream media news. I tell myself I should just quit listening to it. I have one app on my phone where I sometimes read the news. I definitely don’t find myself listening to or reading any of the mainstream media news, and that TV show that has the female talking heads- (who to quote a Tommy James song from the ’60s-“Talk and signify and say nothing)? Not a chance. To be honest, I have better things to do with my time than watch mainstream media news-like watch grass grow or twiddle my thumbs or (here is something novel)-READ!
Part of my problem is I need to know what is going on in the world so I can converse and not act so ignorant when people talk about current events. But there are so many political, cultural, and ecclesiastical events which occur every day. I sometimes feel like an owl with my head spinning in circles. I no longer digest one event that another smacks me in the face. Someone has snarkily said, “If if wasn’t for the bad news there wouldn’t be any news at all.” That’s not totally true but it sure seems like it.
The problem as I see it-and I’m not expert-is that the media has seemed to have already doomed us from the start. Their viewpoint is that the world we live in is an out-of-control mess and there isn’t much we can do about it. No sense in fighting it because there is no chance to change it. And in some ways I agree. Our world will not be changed by a law, a treaty, a tariff/no tariff, a deal/no deal, a ruler/party in power, or any such action. But I am not a doom-and-gloomer type of person. I’m well over a 90+% positive person. But do I think the world will get better? No, not really. It may make progress but humans being who we are-humans-we will eventually revert to our old sinful desires.
There really is only ONE who can change things and there really is only one way it will happen. When we sing the Christmas song “Let there be peace on earth” it all sounds good. But only when Jesus reigns supreme will there be the peace we so desire. I DO KNOW THIS: God has not been and never will be dethroned. It may look like it. But He is still on the throne. All the talking heads can ignore or deny Him, but I will choose to stand with Him. Remember that old song? “He’s got the whole world in His hands”? I still believe that.
Soapbox dismissed.
Posted in InTheShadow | 6 Responses »
Tags: Commentary, God's Plan, Opinion, Politics, Reflection, Worldview