Morning Devotional

Good Sunday morning. What a beautiful day to celebrate life with the Risen Christ. I would like to remind you that on Wednesday evenings at 6 pm we gather on Facebook live for a Vespers service. Also this morning at 10 am on our web site. EOCCME.COM
   
Please keep in prayer the Pooler family as Jim Pooler passed earlier this week. A service will be planned for when we can gather again. In the meantime Ruth Mary could use our love and prayers. Their address is in our on line directory.
   
Please let us know if you have any needs and we will do our best to help out. We are still here!!!

Lamentations 3:18-26 18 I thought: My future is gone, as well as my hope from the LORD.
19 The memory of my suffering and homelessness is bitterness and poison. 20 I can’t help but remember and am depressed. 21 I call all this to mind—therefore, I will wait. 22 Certainly the faithful love of the LORD hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through! 23 They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness. 24 I think: The LORD is my portion! Therefore, I’ll wait for him. 25 The LORD is good to those who hope in him, to the person who seeks him. 26 It’s good to wait in silence for the LORD’s deliverance.

   
The writer of this passage was there when Babylon completely destroyed Jerusalem. Amid the rubble, the deaths and total destruction he wrote this passage. A tragedy of such magnitude that it would last with him forever. For us today it is like the Vietnam War, 9-11 and now the virus.  
     
What I love about this passage is the writer wrote about his pain, his misery in life. He did not hide from it or try and deny his own experience of agony. Yet, in this he projected to us and himself a undying trust in God. " I have hope. Great is your faithfulness. It is good to wait in silence for the Lord's deliverance.  What power these writing have for those who are mourning at this time. Those who are scared or even simply frustrated.
     
As I have said before, I believe God's love and compassion are renewed every morning. The sun will come up and we will make a choice to walk with the Lord or not. It is a choice to take one day at a time, to learn while our mind is grieving. A difficult task yes, but one that I have seen many achieve with Christ. In times of tragedy and grief it is easy to doubt if things will get better, but this is never a reason to abandon hope. I believe this is exactly why Christ chose to die for us, so we might have eternal hope in Him.
   
​I pray you will join us at 10 on our web site eoccme.com . You all are deeply missed. 

Almighty God, I know and have experienced Your renewing power in my life. This morning God I ask that this power be given to all whose hearts are open to receive this love and hope. Father, I give you thanks for the grace that is being seen in the world around me today. Thank you for being with us and lifting many up in Your arms. Father, I ask you to forgive me in my sinfulness. I ask you to renew my soul and heal my body. Lord Jesus, come.  Father, I pray this and all things in Your Son's Holy name. Amen