Our weather the last two days has been on the cool side. But I was still able to get outside to get the patio in “summer condition.” Tomorrow Christian, Bridget and grandkids come to Fort Collins after their church service. I did make it for a short swim at our neighborhood pool. We are looking forward to the summer season.<\/p>\n
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…<\/strong> “If I say, \u201cSurely the darkness will hide me, <\/span>and the light around me will be night\u201d\u2014<\/span> even the darkness is not dark to You. <\/span>The night shines like the day; <\/span>darkness and light are alike to You.”<\/span> <\/em>Psalm 139:11,12 HCSB<\/p>\n Paul writes to the Romans and affirms that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”<\/em> (Romans 8:38) I believe Psalm 139 is the Old Testament equivalent as it affirms that God is the “ever-present” God. Wherever we go, what ever we do, He is there. We can’t hide and we can’t be removed from His presence.<\/p>\n That fact can bring a sense of conviction at times and comfort in other circumstances. For example, if we try to “hide in the dark” so our actions are not obvious, we only fool ourselves. However, we need to remember that the “darkness of our soul” or our situation that would attempt to block God’s light is of no avail. We may be lead to believe that is the case, but our deeds and our needs are both known to God.<\/p>\n The psalmist declares, “…You are aware of all my ways.”<\/span><\/em> (Psalm 139:3 HCSB) When the circumstances of life, the trails and tests come our way, we can feel abandon and alone. We ask, “God, are you there! Do you care!” The resounds answer from the hallowed halls of heaven is, “Yes!” As much as He is with us in the “bright of the day” He is with us in the “darkest hour” that we face.<\/span><\/p>\n That challenge for us is to not live by human emotions as real and as strong as they are. In the midst of those times we need to remind ourselves of the Lord’s love and being our “ever present help in time of need.”<\/em> (Psalm 46:1)<\/p>\n “Dark times” come from a variety of sources and for a variety of reasons. For me it was a major health crisis. But that was not my first and only time of sensing “dark clouds” hanging over my head. Like many those times came due to my own failings, or the challenges of life and leadership. Regardless of the situation and circumstance, I need to remind myself of God’s love and present work available to me.<\/p>\n When the psalmist declares, “The night shines like the day; <\/span>darkness and light are alike to You<\/span><\/em>” – I am reminded of John’s declaration, “God is light and in Him dwells no darkness at all.”<\/em> (1 John 1:5)<\/p>\n In the “dark times” of your life, realize that the Lord is just as close as the light. He is there, working and available as we trust in Him and cry out to Him in our need.<\/p>\n Prayer for today…\u00a0<\/strong>“Lord, thank you for the comfort that comes from knowing You are always there. The darkness of the circumstances or challenges of life does not hide Your love or Your intervention. Help me to remember that when my feelings contradict my faith. I choose to live by Your light and rest in your love.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our weather the last two days has been on the cool side. But I was still able to get outside to get the patio in “summer condition.” Tomorrow Christian, Bridget and grandkids come to Fort Collins after their church service. I did make it for a short swim at our neighborhood pool. We are looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3195,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194\/revisions\/3195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}