Thanks Feeds Our Trust

An entire congregation thrown out of its church building - it seems almost inconceivable. But as our eyes are being opened to the biblical pattern we have been thrust into, we marvel. We gathered again yesterday in the little white country church in the cornfields (our "wilderness tabernacle), and the Presence is so strong there, we can but worship and weep.

We have entered into the season of SOJOURN and EXILE -  and in this sojourn we grow closer to Him and to one another, for we have nothing to distract us. We do not have the beautiful banners and the furniture and the trappings. And I think of my dear, blessed Anglican friends around the country who have been experiencing this same thing at the hands of the Episcopal Church, who filed lawsuits against the faithful. Those who took a stand for the Word of God, and chose to keep His Truth have been banished from their beautiful church properties also, and were not allowed to take anything out but their fierce passion for Messiah Yeshua. They too are getting the lessons of the Exile.

But the lessons are sweet. The lessons are Trust and Obedience, Manna, Provision. We watch the hand of God work and we find ourselves overcome with tearful gratitude. Quoting again from Ann Voskamp: "Remembering with thanks, this is the bread. We take the moments as bread and give thanks and the thanks itself becomes bread. The thanks itself nourishes. Thanks feeds our trust."

As we are finishing our gathered meal and fellowship time, my daughter and grandson and their pastor enter the building pushing a huge carton on a dolly. It is her new electronic piano! Family coming together in a common cause, to lift the highest praise unto our God!  We help her unpack and assemble the beautiful new instrument, and then I sit in tears and listen to my little girl (now 37) play my favorite piece of music, Claire de Lune. My heart soars - I have not heard her play this soul-stirring song since she was a young girl at home, My eyes start to leak. This was a "remembering with thanks moment."

This morning I overflow with thanks, and my heart dances to the song I hear: "My heart and my flesh will fail me, but I know this one truth remains: God, You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Thanks feeds our trust; and so we trust the Yeshua-Cloud that leads us and we sojourn on toward our Passover Deliverance.