July 23 – He’ll Heal All, Large and Small

 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.   He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.” - Psalm 147:3-4 (ESV)

 

This is a wonderful reminder of how God is involved in our lives as His children. This psalm speaks of His response. He knows how to give us the help we need and to bring healing – to restore our spiritual health.  The context of these verses is the return of the Children of Israel to Jerusalem after 70 years in captivity. These words of praise are about how God cares for his own and about his knowledge as Creator God. God has given all the stars their names – not the names we use but the names given when He created each one. It is beyond our comprehension but He knows how many stars there are, something we’ll never know. Our verse mentions the wounds we suffer at times. They might be small wounds or large wounds. No matter the causes, God knows just how to bring healing.  And our verse also mentions hearts that are broken. Our wounds might be more serious hurts but God can take care of them too and bring complete healing. So whether our hurts today are large or small, let's allow God to do the healing promised and we know He can do.

 

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April 11 – He Was Wounded, We Are Healed

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” – 1 Peter 2:24 (ESV)

It is during this time of the years that we increase our focus on the resurrection of Jesus Christ because it is Easter.  After the Passion Week (Palm Sunday-Easter), How much do we think about Christ’s resurrection?  Doesn’t it diminish for the rest of the year?* We know, however, that the Resurrection Day, falling on the first day of the week is the reason the disciples and apostles began the practice of meeting for worship, teaching and fellowship. In the first century, every first day of the week was a time to remember. Christ’s death and then resurrection is the why of following the Way of Jesus. Our promise today from Peter is that we have been given by Jesus, eternal life and saved from death because Christ paid our penalty and defeated death for us. Why not follow the early example of the believers and make that the center of our weekly worship?  Worship happens in a community of believers as often and as regular as is possible. We need each other to remind all that we meet on Sundays mostly because the disciples set the pattern for us the first Sundays after Christ ascended into heaven.  

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*The Easter date floats on our calendar. Each year it is marked on the First Day of the week between March 22 (very infrequent) and April 25 (also infrequent).     

Easter is always on Sunday, but it moves around more than other holidays. 

Easter as early as March 22 is very rare. The last time it happened was 1818, and the next time will be 2285. Easter last fell on the latest date in 1943, and will again in 2038. Next year it's April 20.

How the date is determined sounds simple but is pretty complex. Generally, Easter is observed on the Sunday following the first full moon in the Northern Hemisphere, or the first full moon after the vernal equinox March 20.

In depth explanation of how the Easter Date is calculated:  http://assa.org.au/edm 

October 23 – Stars, Broken Hearts, Healing Wounds

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names."  Psalm 147:3–4 (ESV)

Did you know that for a "small fee" anyone can give a star a name of their own? However it is applicable only for visible stars – visible from any place on earth throughout the year. Depending on the price a standard star, or constellation, or even a binary star system can be named for you.  But wait, God has already given names to all of them and not just to the ones that are visible to us. Our promise is this: God, determined how many stars there are,  He also heals our broken hearts and He treats the wounds His creatures get in this world. Has your heart been broken over the action of another or a loss in anyway of a loved one in your life? God who created every star in the universe and knows their number and has named each one; He is the healer of our broken heart and the wounds that it caused can be attended to by Him. Some wounds are serious and require stitching up. We all need a new heart and God does that for us too. Let’s look to God for His help every time we need it.

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July 23 – All Hurts, Large and Small

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3 (NIV)

This is a wonderful reminder of how God gets involved in the lives of His children. This psalm speaks of His response and how He knows how to give us the help we need and to bring healing – to restore our spiritual health.  Our verse mentions the wounds we suffer at times and they could be small wounds or large wounds. No matter what causes these wounds our God knows just how to put on the bandages and bring healing.  And our verse also mentions hearts that are broken. These wounds might be more serious hurts but God can take care of them too and bring complete healing. So whether our hurts today are large or small, let's allow God to do the healing we know He can do.