I wasn’t sure how I was going to begin today’s message until midway through the weekly Bible Study at the Gazebo Apartment’s last Thursday. Before we begin that study, the elderly ladies who are in their mid to late eighties usually express how thankful they are in knowing that Jesus loves them. They also speak about issues (usually health related) they are dealing with. When it was my turn I told them how happy I was to be with them that morning, especially after Satan’s unsuccessful attempt to prevent me from attending.

I went on to explain how I had awoken that morning after a very restful night’s sleep and suddenly found myself on the receiving end of a barrage of absurd thoughts suggesting that it was time for me to stop pushing myself to live for Christ with all of my might, and try to find a younger man to take my place. In other words, retire. I told the women that nonsense was compounded by a comment unwittingly shared by a friend shared with the Harvest Time group the day before. I had asked those folks to pray that my upcoming endoscopy would go well and that there would be no complications. I had been thinking to myself that I had that procedure performed a couple of times in the past twelve years, and by now I considered it to be pretty routine. And then Satan socked it to me through an unsuspecting friend who reminded us that his late mom had the same procedure performed and to the surprise of everyone a big tumor was discovered. Being subjected to constant spiritual assaults for a little more than ten years can become emotionally draining. Judging from their facial expressions, it was obvious those elderly women had similar experiences throughout their lifetime. I told them that just as I was beginning to think I was all alone and that God was far away from me during this trial, I suddenly found myself humming: “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” and “Just A Closer Walk With Thee”

Then as I usually do, from that point forward I shared last week’s sermon with them. I mentioned the fact about how I suddenly woke up at 2 A. M. last Sunday morning with a torrent of thoughts racing through my mind strongly inclining me not to preach the sermon I had promised you folks I would. I told them about how I got out of bed and crafted a sermon devoted to the necessity of us to handle our anger in a way which is pleasing to God and the necessity of you and me to forgive everyone who had wronged us including folks who had hurt us deeply. Then I quoted my request from last week’s sermon by saying: “If what I’m about to share is especially meaningful to someone who is here this morning or if you think it may be helpful to someone outside of our church; I would appreciate it if you would please let me know.”

Before I could start my sermon; those ladies wanted to know if any of you folks had told me that God had spoken especially to you. When I said that two of you did and that one has agreed to study the Bible with me, those women were deeply moved, one even to the point of shedding tears of joy. Those elderly women know that unless you and I get rid of our sinful anger and also forgive those folks who had wronged us; regardless of our profession of faith, God will not let us into heaven. I’ve been prayerfully hoping the events I just shared will complement this morning’s message. I’ve named it,

A LETTER FROM GOD

My dear precious child! I know you sometimes feel as though you’re all alone while you’re struggling with your seemingly never ending difficulties and you are tempted not to trust Me and worry and become discouraged. That’s the reason I’ve sent this letter to you. I want to jog your memory and assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. However, before I explain I want to remind you of some very important facts of whom and what you have become through your faith in my beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

As you read this letter you will see that I have sometimes personalized various Bible passages throughout it just for you. Although my words as they are recorded in the Bible were spoken or written thousands of years ago to ancient people, much of them are applicable to my children such as you who are presently dwelling on the earth. I want you to speak them out loud a couple of times to yourself. When you do so you will be storing them up in your mind and heart as the treasured possessions they truly are. Then, whenever it’s best for you, I’ll bring them to your remembrance to enable you to once again be blessed by them.

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, John 1:12 (ESV)

Think about that! And think about it often. Satan is no longer your father. On the contrary, through your faith in Jesus you have become one of my precious adopted children. Speaking of Jesus, I want you to consider His following very carefully.

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:1, 5 (ESV)

I want you to look at yourself as being, metaphorically speaking, one of the many branches of the True Vine. As such, you are a channel my Son utilizes through which He delights in bestowing blessings upon your fellow human beings.

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 (ESV)

Please don’t ever forget that my Son considers you as being one of His friends. Ponder that awesome truth and then tell me how you can possibly worry about anything or, as many of my children often do, think they are all alone as they make their way through this world on their way home to me. I’m saddened whenever my children spend so much more of their time on relatively unimportant things, such as worldly interests and, comparatively speaking, so little of their time thinking about Jesus. For instance, read the following verses about Him out loud to yourself and then stop completely and spend a lot of time savoring these awesome facts.

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. John 1:3 (ESV)

6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 1 Corinthians 8:6 (ESV)7

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Ephesians 3:7-9 (ESV)

Ephesians 3:8 (ESV) 7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. Ephesians 3:7 (ESV)

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. Colossians 1:15-16 (ESV)

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Hebrews 1:1-2 (ESV)

And now my child, I want you to consider the following thoughts of my servant David when he took the time to meditate on the act of creation through my beloved Son. I want you to do the same. Here’s what David wrote:

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8:3-4 (ESV)

Although no human being can even come close to comprehending and describing the awesomeness of what my Son accomplished when He spoke the world you are living in into existence, it will be helpful for you to meditate on just a small portion of creation a contemporary of yours wrote about it almost ten years ago.

“From the time David wrote those words until the invention of the telescope in the early seventeenth century, only a few thousand stars were visible to the unaided eye, and the universe appeared far less impressive than we now know it to be. Even until the second decade of the twentieth century, it was thought that the Milky Way galaxy was synonymous with the universe. This alone would be awesome in its scope, since our spiral galaxy contains more than 2000,000,000,000 stars and extends to a diameter of 1000,000 light-years (remember that a light second is more than 186,000 miles; the 93,000,000 miles between the sun and the earth is 8 light minutes). But more recent developments in astronomy have revealed that our galaxy Is a member of a local cluster of about 20 galaxies and that this local cluster is but one member of a massive superclusters of thousands of galaxies. So many of these superclusters are known to exist that the number of galaxies is estimated at more than 100,000,000,000.”

“What is humanity indeed! The God who created these stars and calls them all by name (Isaiah 40: 26) is unimaginably awesome; his wisdom, beauty, power, and dominion are beyond human comprehension. And yet he has deigned to seek intimacy with the people on this puny planet and has given them great dignity and destiny: “Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!” (Psalm 8:5). These words are applicable to all people, but they find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, as the quotation of this passage in Hebrews 2:6-8 makes clear.”

Whenever you become overly anxious and are tempted to think the worse, I’ll jog your memory and cause you to remember this wonderful fact.

6 “…neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from my love of you in Christ Jesus your Lord,” (Romans 8:38-39”. Please make the time and really think about what you just read and then consider the following promise My Son made a long time ago to His little band of beloved disciples. He assured them and His followers such as you after them of His everlasting presence with these words, “Behold, I am with YOU always, even to the end of all the days YOU will live on the earth,” (Matthew 28:19).

Do the following passages sound familiar? They ought to. Thousands of years earlier I also spoke those comforting words of assurance to another one of my faithful servants. But, I didn’t send Jacob a letter such as the one you’re holding in your hand. Instead I spoke them to him while he was fast asleep and dreaming. Please read them.

15 I am with YOU and will watch over YOU wherever YOU go,” Genesis 28:15 (NIV)

Think about that promise often because, as I mentioned a moment ago, it applies to you, too. Some time afterwards when certain men in a foreign country were taking advantage of Jacob, I instructed him to return home. Once again I reminded him of the following fact.

3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” Genesis 31:3 (ESV)

As you can see in chapter five of Genesis Jacob in turn shared this great promise with his wives Rachel and Leah. Please read that whole chapter, my child. Now I want you to think about the time my Son promised His little flock that even if there were only two or three of them who were gathered together in His name, and even though they couldn’t see Him, He was right there with them. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:20 (ESV)

It’s as though my Son was saying to His disciples: I realize you men are frightened and don’t know everything you will have to endure as I am about to send you on a new phase in your journey through this dark sin infested world. Now I’m going to bring to your remembrance something from the Scriptures you men are very familiar with. It’s the account of an amazing series of events I planned to unfold in the life of another one of my precious children a long time ago. I told Moses that I knew he was frightened because he didn’t know what would happen to him when he obeyed mu command to go to Pharaoh and bring my people out of Egypt. That’s the reason I strengthened Moses with a very comforting fact. Please read the following account of these events out loud. It leads up to the first of the promises I made to him, promises I have underlined just for you.

1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” Exodus 3:1-12 (ESV)

21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Exodus 3:21 (NIV)

3 The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and by the people.) Exodus 11:3 (NIV)

36 The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. Exodus 12:36 (NIV)

And my dear precious child, you also don’t know what difficulties I planned for you to experience as you continue on your journey through the world you are presently living in on your way home to me. But you can be absolutely certain that I will be with you just as I am with all of my children and, in one way or another, provide for your every need. Now take a moment and consider some of what I have already done and will do for you in my Son.

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed YOU in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose YOU in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined YOU to be adopted as one his children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, Ephesians 1:3-5 (NIV)

11 In him YOU were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, Ephesians 1:11 (NIV).

As I mentioned in the beginning of this letter you may sometimes feel as though you are all alone while you struggle with one difficulty after another, but nothing could be further from the truth. You must remember that I’ve been with you and watching out for you since the moment of your conception.

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit ME together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)

Regardless of whatever trials I have planned for you to endure; I assure you they won’t be anything you won’t be you able to deal with in a way which is pleasing to me provided you follow my Son’s wishes.

Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God and also in Me, (John 14:1).

Take another look at something I told Jeremiah a long time ago. It concerns my children who were dwelling on the earth back then. You can be certain that my plans for you will be just as wonderful.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) 11 For I know the plans I have for YOU,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper YOU and not to harm YOU, plans to give YOU hope and a future, Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV).

Before I end I want to leave you with this final reminder. I have never taken my eye off of you even for a split second; nor have I ever not been present with you and taken care of you. In fact,

YOU are never out of my sight anymore than the tiny sparrow that Ethel Waters sung about in her famous song , His Eye is on the Sparrow, (Matthew 6:26-27). I have written you this brief letter in the Spirit of my everlasting love for YOU! DAD