Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Saturday!  All is well here at 811. Bruce is beginning to rehab our middle bedroom and turn it into a room for our little goddaughter. I am going to be keeping her for a while when her Mom goes back to work and her Dad continues his rotations for medical school. The first task is to empty the room and then pull up ancient carpet before the new flooring goes down and the paint goes up.  Pray for Bruce as he works against the clock to have the room ready. And as for me, I began putting together a resume for chaplain positions today and created a business card. So as long as you are praying for one Chrystie, would you be so kind to pray for one more. Thank you all.

Dear God, thank you for all the ways I know that you love me with an everlasting love. Forgive me when I doubt. Thank you for your blessing when I remember to trust you first. Please transform the way I think so I won’t worry and be anxious, but always hope in you. I know your message to me is peace and the reminder of your unfailing love and ever present grace. Help Bruce and I as our lives move forward into new stages, new adventures with you leading us.  Give us the strength, perseverance and faith to live into your plans. I love you Lord, in Jesus’ name, amen.

The scripture passage for tonight comes from one of my most favorite stories in the gospels. It comes from the story of the woman at the well.  It speaks of the love that Jesus has for this woman. He loved her so much that He identified Himself to her. (I personally think that it is so cool that the first person to whom Jesus identifies himself is an unnamed woman.) The stories of the unnamed women hold great fascination for me. These women have great courage, were usually outcasts and when they encountered Jesus they realized possibilities, blessings and received the greatest love of all from the very source of perfect love; God. They may not have understood this love at first, but as they continued to be in conversation with Jesus they began to know that it was God who loved them so completely.  Jesus spoke these words to the woman at the well, “If you only knew the gift God has for you…” this outcast woman then know without any doubt or question of God’s great love for her.  Jesus told  everything about herself, forgave her and freed her from her past allowing her to live into a future knowing what it really meant to be loved. 

What would it take for each of us to realize this great love that God has for each of us?  Just askin’…

“If you only knew the gif God has for you, and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

John 4: 10

“I know the one I have faith in, and I am sure that he can guard until the last day when he has trusted me with.”

2 Timothy 1: 12

Take joy in the journey praying as you go  living and breathing the great love God has for us in Jesus. Wear comfortable shoes and get some sleep.  See you in church. Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene