Faith journey

Sometimes when our faith isn't growing in great leaps, we just walk step by step through each day, asking God to guide our steps. That will have to be enough, until we slow down, stop, and make Him a priority. As we heard from Haggai yesterday in church, "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

I read an encouragement to make God a priority in a forwarded email, when I read, "Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart." When I work every day in cyberspace and don't talk much to "real" people, that's encouraging to hear!

Shepherds

Today Matt picked up where he left off talking about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. He noted that Mary and Martha were disappointed in how their "Good Shepherd" chose to handle the death of their brother Lazarus. I remember reading in the fictional account of Amos how shepherds discipline their sheep--sometimes by harming them to keep them from straying--with a view of the "big picture." It looks like that happened with Lazarus--Jesus could see the ultimate glory of God in the situation. That builds our faith, to know He is in control and sees, knows, and cares far more than we could imagine.