March 2004

THE SOVEREIGN LORD IS FAITHFUL TO ALL HIS PROMISES: PSALM 145:13

To Abraham -- the land: To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates. (Genesis 15:18)
To Abraham and Sarah -- a son, Isaac: Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant, for his descendants after him. My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year. (Genesis 17:19-21) Isaac was born the next year at the appointed time. (Genesis 21:1-8) When Isaac was sixty years old, his wife, Rebecca gave birth to Esau and Jacob. (Genesis 25:26)
To Jacob: Jacob wrestled with God. (Genesis 32:22) God said, "Your name will be no longer Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men. I am God Almighty, be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from your body ... The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you and I will give this land to your descendants after you. " (Genesis 35:11, 12)
To Israel: This is what the Lord says, "I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, and provoked Me to anger by all the idols their hands have made. My anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched." (2 Kings 22:16) "Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions ... So I poured out My wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land, and because they defiled it with their idols. I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions." (Ezekiel 36:17-19) (Some have thought and preached that Israel will not receive the promised land.)
"I will bring you back": "I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the Lord your God. (Amos 9:15) "For I will take you out of the nations. I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land ... I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you, and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers. You will be My people, and I will be your God." (Ezekiel 36:24-28)
Israel began coming back in large numbers after World War 2. Israel was recognized as a state in 1948. Jesus proclaimed the time Israel will have the land: "Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." (Luke 21:24b) Then Israel will be given the land: "The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God." (Genesis 17:8)

SALVATION AND HEAVEN PROMISED TO BELIEVERS

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." (John 3:16-18)
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me, that you also may be where I am." Jesus continued, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me." (John 14:1-3, 6)
"THE LORD IS FAITHFUL TO ALL HIS PROMISES!"
(Lizetta Williams)


THE DIRECTOR'S CORNER The first clue was the empty pair of rain-soaked shoes in front of her chair. The K-2nd grade girls Awana group was about to start and the little first grader was missing. Becky had talked to her earlier when she had been dropped off at Camp by her uncle, and the girl had made it clear that she did not want to be at Camp. Becky took the shoes and went to check in the ladies' room. Sure enough, one of the stall doors was locked, with no feet visible. She would not unlock the door. So, giving her some time, Becky went for a screwdriver and put the wet shoes in the dryer.
Still uncooperative back in the classroom, the girl was on the verge of missing out on the good-behavior treat, when Becky decided instead to ask her if she had been home since school, or had seen her mother, or had anything to eat. A tearful "no" prompted a hug, some warm dry shoes, and a snack. Please pray that we'll never miss the cues to shift from correction to compassion -- and act as Jesus would.



David and Rebecca McMillan, Lizetta, Mary, Mark & Karen Williams, Judith Chesebro, Joji Barredo: Philippines, Trudie Hayon: Trinidad

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