August / September 2010

Detours

This has been a summer of detours. Everywhere you drive there are signs to detour you around construction. It is just a part of life on the road. Those unexpected interruptions on the journey to where you are going. This summer has been a season of detours in my life as well.

Surgery, train wreck, flying out of state to be with a loved one in their last hours. Just to list a few. 

Yet, in the midst of all these detours I have listed, I have seen the hand of God in the middle of every one of them. I have been aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit walking along side the individuals involved in each of these situations.

WOW! Are these things really detours, or are they the precise path God has chosen for us, even though at the time they catch us by surprise.

Yes they are difficult, painful at times, and not what we would choose, but yet God is in the midst of every event in our lives as we walk through these unknown territories. Things that were not on our mapped out journeys.

Yet, when you look closely, you find God is there. He is not unaware. He IS in control!

Proverbs 3:5-6 says,

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path."

The scripture says of Jesus, that

"He is a lamp unto our feet, and a light onto our path."

I really believe that the God who loves us so IS in control. We are not on just another detour, but on a path that leads us to God and closer to God, if we will love Him and trust Him.

I would challenge each of us to be looking for God on those "detours".

And maybe even be looking for those God has for us to meet or be with while we are being rerouted in life.

Our life in Christ is always under construction, so don't be too surprised by the "detours".

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Please continue to pray for this ministry as God continually opens doors of opportunities to be a pastor to those who are in need, and for the mentoring of young people going into the ministry.

Thank you for your prayers and support. They mean so much.
Rick Messer / Pastor of a church without walls