God is preparing a table before us!

Psalm 23 is a beloved and powerful psalm of God's provision. However, it does not promise us a rose garden. Life is no tiptoe through the tulips. Sometimes our path is "through the valley of the shadow of death" (v. 4), but we are told that we need not be afraid because God is with us.

Similarly, the psalmist says of our ever-present God: "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies" (v. 5). Even though we are surrounded, perhaps, by adversity and adversaries, God prepares a table, prepares a meal for us. And what is most prominent in this meal? The Bread of Life Himself (John 6).

The Bread of Heaven has come into our chaos, our ignorance, uncertainty, sin and fear. The Bread Himself says: "He who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst." It is in believing in, depending on, relying upon Jesus Himself that we are filled, that we are sustained even in the midst of adversity.

Please consider joining with your Fredericksburg-area brothers and sisters on May 5 for our annual National Day of Prayer event. God will be there, and He will prepare a table before us. Jesus Himself -- the Bread of Life -- unites us and sustains us. Come with courage; join with joy -- not because our lives and our nation are adversary-free but because a meal awaits us, awaits you.

For more details about our National Day of Prayer event, visit our "Events" page.

 

Glory unites us!

I have been reading the Bible for 33 years, and two mornings ago, it felt like I was reading a verse for the first time. Seriously, it was like I never actually saw these words before:

"The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one" (John 17:22 NASB).

Glory, from the Father, through Christ, was given to us. Why?

A "good and pleasant" time together

A "good and pleasant" time together

King David, the man after God's own heart, said: 

       "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1)

The 200 or so of us that gathered for Fredericksburg's National Day of Prayer event experienced that goodness and pleasantness. We ate together, worshiped together, and prayed together. We didn't manufacture unity. We discovered what already exists between brothers and sisters in Christ:

Jesus' Comprehensive, City-Wide Mandate

Jesus' mandate for all the Christians in our city has, for the most part, remained in a figurative locked box -- unseen and unappreciated. The key to unlocking this box is found in the Philippians 1:1. The apostle Paul greets the Philippians as follows: 

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons. 

"All the saints in Christ Jesus" is another way of saying, "All the Christians." Recognition that Paul's epistle was written to all the Christians at Philippi is the interpretive key that opens the lid to compelling insights.