Psalm 71:2

                    
                                            IN THE ARMS OF LOVE

The Shepherd watches diligently for the needs and cares of His sheep, and He is ever ready to rescue them.

                    "In Your righteousness, deliver me and rescue me; incline
                                                    Your ear to me and save me."

The Lord is nigh unto them of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalm 34:18)  Your cry does not go unheeded; angels are dispatched to you with your first whisper.  Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is a Shepherd like no other; He holds you in His arms in times of trouble and carries you when you are too weak to walk.

Prayer moves Him, dispatches His multitudes of angels, and can even change the weather, to bring your answer.  You can encompass the world, fly like an eagle, stand behind a missionary in distress, pray at the Wailing Wall, and even reverse unfair laws, all on your knees.

In one of the most trying times of my life, the Lord said to me, "Get up, and go help somebody!"  The One who loves us more than life itself, will tell us what we need to hear, not what we "want" to hear.  I got up, wiped the tears from my eyes and began to work on the call-lines, at midnight, for my church.  In the beginning, I cried between calls for myself, but after a few calls, and after praying for others with their needs and cares, which seemed so much worse than mine, I discovered my burdens lifted.  It is the law of sowing and reaping; whatever you send out will come right back to you.  In rescuing others, we rescue ourselves.

If you live for the Lord long enough, you learn to prefer your brother; you hear "No" when you long for a yes; you spend time on the wheel, your "clay" being molded into a workable vessel; you learn that His treasures lie one step "below" the other; You find that to climb higher is to bow lower; to gain is to lose; to receive is to give; and to be a vessel of honor requires a step into the throws of humility.  It's an upside down, inside out, unreasonable, unpalatable, indigestible, sometimes unpleasant, mind-blowing, heart-wrenching, body-tearing, soul-searching, spirit-stretching kind of faith.

There is no God beside Him; He is Jesus Christ, father in creation, son in redemption, and Holy Ghost in regeneration; Revelation states, "One sat on the throne."  No one in earth or the universe can compare to Him; no entity or human is as wise; no computer presently or in the future can surpass His knowledge; and to prove all of this, He's coming back!

It stands to reason then, that if we want to be rescued, the firemen are good; the EMT's are great; and all the others who spend their lives giving "life" to another are wonderful, but I'm going for the "top," the One who holds the world in His hands and who said, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?"  Proverbs 30:4 says, "Who has gone up to heaven and come down?  Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands?  Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?

That settles it for me; my rescuer has hair white like wool; his eyes are as a flame of fire and His feet are like burnished bronze. He walks on water, sleeps when it storms, heals on Sunday, throws fits in the Temple, humiliates the devil, multiplies food, and grills fish on the seashore.  He's my kind of Man, Jesus Christ, my Lord!
                                                                                                                                                            By Sheryl Fowler

(Visit promiselandchurch.net; theexperience238.com.  PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas, "Austin In Love," Pastor Kenneth Phillips)