Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday August 19, 2009

I recently heard Pastor Mike Hoover preach to a crowd, a crowd mixed with men and women who have suffered and are willing to suffer for biblical truth, yet people who do not have a morbid outlook on life, but rather rejoice in God's sovereign care. I have known Mike since he was little child and I certainly rejoiced as he preached while his son, also a pastor, was in the audience with his own children. God sure is good.

Mike’s text was Matthew 10:29-30:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

Pastor Hoover pointed out that because God is on record as caring for "the extreme lower" the sparrow, we can be certain that He cares for us humans who are counted as His "extreme highest."

I don't know about you, but I sure need to know that God cares for me. Hardly a week goes by but that someone reminds me of the fact that someone doesn't care for me. Often this feeling goes beyond uncaring to outright hatred, hatred that of course is centered in the love of Christ. Messages like the one Mike preached are often brought to the fore of memory and the Lord uses these truths to encourage me to keep on trucking.

Certainly I find consolation in such preaching about sparrows; and being a man who is challenged in the folic area, I deeply appreciate knowing that God cares so much that even the tiny number of remaining follicles are inventoried by God Himself. DNA specialists tell us that our hair is unique and can be used to positively identify each one of us. I suppose the Lord thinned out this particular identifier on yours truly in order to have a closer, less cumbered fellowship with me.

Most people who have walked with Jesus for even a short while know that God cares. At least this truth is known at the intellectual level. Preaching like Mike's moves this knowledge from the head to the heart and it sure is good to know and to feel.

At the close of Pastor Hoover’s sermon, the Pastor of the church, Ben Townsend, led the congregation with this chorus from the song, "Does Jesus Care?"

"O, yes He cares; I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief; when the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2009 Use with care

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