July 26 2009

“An Ending &  A Beginning”
Joshua 5:10-12

My “Mom” was instrumental in helping to develop my faith.  In both the study and life application of the Word she helped to determine and set the direction in life I have walked.   Like that of a Timothy, I believe God used my Mom to not only help develop my belief (faith) in Christ, but also to stir it at times throughout my life. 

2 Timothy 1:5 (ESV) I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

But there came a time I could no longer stand on my mother’s faith … I needed my own.  All my mother had taught me was good for a foundation, but if I was going to build a house of faith, I would have to do the work myself … constructing my faith and belief upon the Word of God, not just upon what Momma said.  I guess you could say, “God was ending one act of dependence, while starting another.”

Many of you have had someone in your life that God has used as tools (saws, chisels, hammers, wrenches) to construct your faith from the birth of salvation, feeding you milk, and growing you up in the meat of doctrinal faith. 

Maybe you are still being mentored in some capacity … someone teaching you the basics of faith in Christ … helping you dig deeper into the Word so as to build your faith on the soundness of God’s Word rather than opinions.

Whoever God has used in your life, this I know … in the scope of faith … it has to be personal.  I love the passage of scripture where “faith” is extolled as something “personal.”

• Blind man … “according to your faith let it be to you.” (Mt 9:29)
• Woman washing feet of Jesus … “your faith has saved you.” (Lk 7:50)
• Woman with a sick daughter … “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” (Mt 15:28)

Faith to stand on and live by can’t be your parent’s faith, your friend’s faith or your preacher’s faith (my preacher said,) … it has to be YOUR FAITH.  There is NO PIGGY-BACK FAITH.  God will bring us all to a place of “AN ENDING & A BEGINNING”.

Take the Joshua and NEXT generation (everyone wants to talk about the X-Generation … I suggest we focus on the NEXT-Generation our kids faith!) who were occupying the Promise Land … coming out of 40 years of wilderness living … hearing the stories of their God by the mouth of the parents.  But now it would not be their g-parent or parent’s faith … but their faith … and to show them God was brining an ending so that they might have a beginning.

Joshua 5:10-12 (ESV) While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. ¹¹ And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. ¹² And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

Here’s our point to remember … “WHEN GOD ENDS SOMETHING, HE BEGINS SOMETHING ELSE”

Would you agree that …

• Our God is a beginning and ending God … Alpha & Omega

Revelation 1:8 (NKJV)  ”I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

• Our God is an ending and beginning God …

John 12:24 (ESV) … unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

For FORTY years God was working to bring an END TO SOMETHING so that He might BEGIN SOMETHING ELSE!

Joshua 5:6-7a (ESV) For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place …

“WHEN GOD ENDS SOMETHING, HE BEGINS SOMETHING ELSE”

Now this is cool, how God works His ending and beginning work in our lives.

• NEXT Generation … observes the Passover (most likely had not observed it since leaving Egypt)
• NEXT day they eat from the produce of the land.
• NEXT day the MANNA they had eaten for 40 years ended. (Where’s the manna?)
• NEXT year they would eat from the produce of the land.

“WHEN GOD ENDS SOMETHING, HE BEGINS SOMETHING ELSE”

The ENDING and BEGINNING can be both a fulfillment and a challenge.

• God began giving manna and God ended giving manna … it confirms that such was not by chance, luck or natural means.
• God doesn’t intend to let us live off the miraculous forever … don’t expect extraordinary supplies when supplies can be gain in an ordinary way (work the land).
• God wants us to learn to “walk by faith not sight” (personal faith) … live in the UNSEEN by faith. 
• God is faithful … yesterday, today, tomorrow … He supplied food and will continue to supply in a different manner … We can trust God now and Trust God always!

To believe … “WHEN GOD ENDS SOMETHING, HE BEGINS SOMETHING ELSE” … brings into greater focus the biblical truth …

Romans 8:28 (NKJV)  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Such is not fabricated hope, or “talked into” faith … but real personal, standing alone, personal faith that believes … if God has ended something, He will begin something else in my life.

What has or does God want to bring to an END & BEGIN “next” in your life?

• Job … loss of job, change of job, careers, positions …
• Relationships … family, friends, co-workers …
• Places … destructive and harmful … interfering … pulling us down …
• Traditions … doing just because … trap us & cause us to be …
• Church … moving out of town … leading to another …
• Ministries … no longer effective or productive … preaching style …

Though all such situations can produce sorrow and hurt, we must not waste it. We all have a tendency to want to “HOLD ON” to our comfort zones of life.  But if we can begin to see and look for … “WHEN GOD ENDS SOMETHING, HE BEGINS SOMETHING ELSE” … our faith will begin to grow and cause us to stand alone.

This I know … God wants to move us forward … faith is never static and standing still.   So let’s start asking, seeking and knocking for our God who is ever active, present, and leading us onward in following Him.

“WHEN GOD ENDS SOMETHING, HE BEGINS SOMETHING ELSE”

Amen!

July 19 2009

Simply Profound
Mark 14:22-24

Sometimes in life it is the simplest of things that can make a profound impact upon us and others. 

Take for instance a 4” round grainy rubber disk.  It is simple but it has a profound impact on opening tightened jar lids.  It turns the weakling of a man or woman into Mr. or Mrs. Atlas of opening jars with tight lids.

As a kid I was totally amazed how manly and easily I could open new jars of pickles, tomato sauce, canned green beans.  With simple ease I used this 4” rubber disk to open just about every jar of whatever I could find until my Mom discovered what I was doing.  It was then that this simple 4” rubber disk had a profound effect upon my being … particularly my “behind.”

What is it that has simply had a profound impact on your life? 

Maybe something that “slices, dices and even makes Julian fries”?  My mother had one of those too (Vegomatic), but she didn’t let me use it! 

Maybe some thought simply stated has impact on your life in profound measures.

• “I want to be rich toward God” … struggling against the constant pull of the wealth of the world.
• “The difficulty in life is the choice.” (George Moore) … as life is always a series of choices to be made. 

Maybe it has been a simple act of kindness by someone toward you that has profoundly impacted your life.  Life can sometimes be simply profound.

Take the night in the upper room where both the words and actions of Jesus were “simply profound.”

Mark 14:22-24 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

Jesus took the simple actions of blessing a piece of bread, breaking it and pouring out something to drink for His disciples and invited them to eat and drink from it. 

Such actions had been and continue to be done a thousand times over … but that night Jesus knew the profound would soon set in when His body would be broken and His blood would be poured out for the sin of all mankind. 

What a simply profound blessing to consider!

The purpose is simply … remember what He did for you (dying to take sin away), and the profound … enter into the broken and poured out life of Christ.

Each time we eat and drink the “Lord’s Supper” as we simply call it, Jesus invites us to remember and enter into the profound life He lived … the Christ-Like-Life allowing our actions to be like His. 

The simplest of acts are sometimes the most profound!

• stopping for someone … “Jesus stopped and said …” (Mt 20:32)
• touching someone … “touched her hand … his eyes” (Mt 8:15; 9:29)
• speaking to someone … “your faith has made you well” (Lk 8:48)

It is in Matthew 25 Jesus speaks of the simple elements of “food – water – clothing” and said that when you feed someone who’s hungry, give a drink to someone who’s thirsty or provides clothing for someone naked … they become profound acts not only IN Jesus name … but also TO Jesus!

 ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’  - Matthew 25:40

“A LIFE SIMPLY LIVED FOR JESUS, IS A PROFOUND LIFE LIVED”

The life of Christ … how He lived and acted is to be exemplified in our lives.  And so He asks us … remember Me and then go live like Me.  God’s will is to conform us to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29).  What does that mean?  We are to be defined no longer by the world but by the life (examples) of Jesus.

“A LIFE SIMPLY LIVED FOR JESUS, IS A PROFOUND LIFE LIVED”

Consider … Jake Rodriguez, student at Shekinah Bible Institute … led several student missionaries to a small southern Mexican town, Palenque who were going to minister at La Esperranza Rehab Center. 

They stepped up to the challenge to live like Jesus.  Not a religious Jesus.  Not a happy Jesus.  But an active Jesus.

As they traveled in the back of a pickup they were all looked worried.  Their truck driver Eleazar a native Mexican pulled over and asked them what they were worried about.  Each of the young missionaries listed a few concerns … language barrier, saying the right words, assuming they knew what the people were going through, when they did not. Eleazar said said to them, “All those things point right back to you … it’s not about you.”

Jake after delivering the message, not really knowing what to say, said, “Wow, I know that wasn’t me.”  His simple words and acts by the other student missionaries saw over forty men declare their own freedom they found in Christ, many who were suffering from alcoholism, drug addictions, and spousal abuse. 

God had taken simply taken their words and acts of love to profoundly impact the lives of others.

“A LIFE SIMPLY LIVED FOR JESUS, IS A PROFOUND LIFE LIVED”

What simply profound difference is our life making in the lives of others?  Have we realized “it’s not about us” … it’s about Jesus, His life in us. 

Consider the simply profound difference we would make in our families.

Consider the simply profound difference we would make in our friends.

Consider the simply profound difference we would make in our co-workers.

Consider the simply profound difference we would make in our church.

If we begin to simply live for Jesus … profound would it not be?

Jesus is inviting us to come to His table where the simple elements of the bread and cup … are to remind us of Him and to enter into His profound life.

“A LIFE SIMPLY LIVED FOR JESUS, IS A PROFOUND LIFE LIVED”

Prayer … Lord we accept your invitation to come and dine, remembering you and entering into you life.  Let our lives be lived in a simply profound manner.  Amen.

The Lord’s Supper …

July 12 2009

R E M E M B E R   W H O S E   Y O U   A R E

Joshua 4

Why do people forget things?  The brain has the ability to store and retrieve.  We call it our memory.  Each of our brains this morning is crammed with massive amounts of memories we have stored over our lifetime.  The question is, “Why can’t we remember things when we need to?”

It was May 20, 1998 … now that date means nothing to you, but to my wife and me it does, as it was our wedding anniversary … 20^th to be exact, and I FORGOT IT!  The day went by and the evening came and Valerie asked if I remembered what today was.  That’s not a good question to be asked by your wife! My mind began to file through, birthdays, no that’s February, and then the mind retrieved what it or I had forgotten … our 20^th wedding anniversary!  I plead my case before the judge, jury and executioner … but to no avail, I was guilty.  I had forgotten our wedding anniversary. I left the house in a hurry, not because I was kicked out, but to go to 24/7 Wal-Mart to purchase a card and all the roses and anything else I thought would make up for my lapse of memory.  How could I forget my anniversary?!  I asked myself that about a hundred times going to and coming from Wal-Mart smacking myself in the head, hoping to wake up this brain of mine!

To be honest with you, I ask my wife this week, “Honey, do you remember which anniversary of ours I forgot.”  In rocket like speed of remembrance Val said, “The 20^th.”  My reply was, “Are you sure?”  I was hoping for some insignificant number like 13 … you know unlucky number could ease the pain of being unlucky to forget?  I did not question my wife’s memory … just said something profound like “Oh, ok.”

It all sounds sort of humorous now … but I remember seeing the hurt look on my wife’s face because of my not remembering.  It wasn’t just the date May 20, 1978, but it was that I had forgotten to remember the day when we made our vows together for a lifetime, pledging our love to one another. To forget can cause a lot of pain and hurt.  FYI … I haven’t forgotten since then.

Have YOU ever forgotten something that is a little more significant than your car keys, reading glasses, or the remote control? 

Maybe you forgot …

- Someone’s name at a strategic time that embarrassed you.
- Your best friend’s birthday that lowered your status from best to “good”
- A dinner date that never developed that relationship you were hoping for.
- An important meeting that made you look like a slacker in the company
- A job interview that didn’t land you the big job. 

We’ve all forgotten something that has affected our lives in some way and we’ve probably learned … What we fail to remember can have great consequences.

Have you stopped to think about how God who is “all knowing – remembering” relates to “forgetful” people such as ourselves who can’t remember who we are, much less where we put the car keys?  He gives us visual aids.  

God knew that Joshua & Co. like us would have trouble remembering what was important (relationship with God) so He gives them a pile of rocks as a reminder.  I love the profound simplicity of God dealing with His people as it’s not always in the miraculous, but sometimes in a pile of rocks.

Joshua 4: 2-3, 6, 7b, 20-24

Now the people had just witnessed the greatest display of God’s power in their life … the Jordan River being stopped and heaped up and the people crossing over on dry ground into the Promise Land.  It’s not your everyday occurrence in “River Crossing 101.”  WHO could forget that?

The rocks would be …

• SIGN … “this is to be a sign among you” … to cause the people to remember the event of crossing the Jordan River.

What God does is to be remembered now and later … as a testimony of faith and belief.

Remember to Tell … “What do these stones mean to you?” 

The question has nationalistic merit, but all the more PERSONAL merit, as you would tell your children and grandchildren of the mighty deeds of YOUR God.

It is similar to the question Jesus asks … “But who do you say that I am?” We know what the masses say, but what do YOU think I am?

We need to “internalize” who God IS and what He has done and is doing in our lives today.

• MEMORIAL … these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial … as a reminder of THEIR God who DELIVERED them and who is always FAITHFUL toward them.

Yes remember the EVENT … but remember GOD who performed the event.

• “the LORD your God” … dried up the waters of the Jordan
• “the LORD your God” … dried up the waters of the Red Sea
• “the LORD your God” … fear Him forever

There is a “personalization” here … God wants us to center on Him as our God.  Here’s the point …

“REMEMBERING WHOSE YOU ARE, REMINDS YOU WHO YOU ARE.”

 The rocks were to be both a sign and a memorial for remembering the “Whose Who”. 

For Joshua & Co … remembering WHOSE they were would make all the difference in discovering WHO they were to conquer the land that lay before them.  To FORGET would have great consequences!

Never forget WHOSE you are!

1 Corinthians 6:19b-20 (ESV) You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.  (2 Cor 10:7 … if anyone is confident that HE IS CHRIST’S)

God in Christ has … called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

“REMEMBERING WHOSE YOU ARE, REMINDS YOU WHO YOU ARE.”

If you try and discover WHO you are before discovering WHOSE you are … you’ll mess up your life. (countless testimonies of before & after coming to Christ)

If you make life decisions based on WHO you want to be (popular, rich, status) rather than WHOSE you are … you’ll make decisions that can destroy you.

God wanted Joshua & Co … as well as you and me … to remember the WHAT He had done as well as the WHY He had done.  Why?

To not remember the great work of God YESTERDAY diminishes the greater work of God TODAY.

Now think about this ….

“REMEMBERING WHOSE YOU ARE, REMINDS YOU WHO YOU ARE.”

… sets you free!

• Powerful to keep YOU close to God
• Powerful to keep YOU far from sin

In moments of …

• Temptation (sin) … remember whose you are!
• Trial (suffering) … remember whose you are!
• Testing (faith) … remember whose you are!

For Joshua & Co it would make all the difference in living in the land … and for you and me it will make all the difference living in this life.

We need to start making life decisions based on the true knowledge of “whose we are.”

• Impacts the present as well as the future.
• Impacts the person as well as the people.

How are you and me to remember?  Carrying around a pile of rocks?

• Start THINKING more about God than yourself.
• Start PRAYING more about what God wants than want you want.
• Start READING more of God’s Word looking for His work in your life.
• Start PRAISING more the work of God (inhabits the praise, ps 22:3)

“REMEMBERING WHOSE YOU ARE, REMINDS YOU WHO YOU ARE” is my life testimony.

so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”

Amen!

July 5 2009

* Sermon Prep & Delivery Note:  After reading Andy Stanley’s book “Communicating For a Change” I am attempting to put into practice his method of sermon preparation and delivery of a “one point” (principle) message.  I have for years practiced 3-4 points with subpoints … no poems however.  I found this experience very refreshing and challenging to dig out a central or main point to emphasis. 

In God We Trust
Jeremiah 17:7

I remember my Uncle Ray giving me a Kennedy half-dollar.  He tossed it to me in a flipping motion.  As a kid I liked to flip that coin in the air and catch it.  My friends and I made up a game called “Trust or Not”.  In matters of silliness we’d ask or tell each other things and then flip a coin to see whether or not we “trusted” what our friends was telling us. A silly notion for building trust!

There have been times throughout my life where my “trust” factor has flip-flopped like a coin flipping in the air.  I remember a time while in seminary, when Val was pregnant with Daniel and I made the decision to step out of school for a year and work full time to pay off some medical bills.  I felt like I had abandoned God’s call on my life.  On a particular evening while working (custodian at Shady Oaks Baptist Church) I prayed in the darkness of a hallway, “God I don’t know what do.  What do you want me to do?”  I remember hearing the voice of God so clear, “When are you going to trust Me?”  That night I didn’t know how but I knew God was going to put me back in school. The next day our education minister asked me, “Do you want to go back to school?  Go register for the summer session.  I can’t tell you who, but I can tell you it’s been paid for.”  When I registered the registrar office handed me a piece of paper was marked “PAID” … and for the next year and half as I registered for classes the registrar’s office handed me a slip of paper marked “PAID.”  And on each occasion I was reminded that I simply needed to trust in God.

I wish I could say that since that time my “trust” factor has never faltered but I confess that sometimes it’s like a coin toss waiting to see which side my trusting God will land on … “TRUST OR NOT” … “TRUST OR NOT”. 

How about you?  Is your trust level with God solid or more like a coin toss?  In the times that test you, is your reaction to trust yourself (resources, thinking, abilities) more than to trust God?  I think we have all been there … “TRUST OR NOT … TRUST OR NOT.”  Maybe you’ve asked yourself, “What difference does it make or what good is it to trust God?”  There are times aren’t there when you say to yourself, “Why should I trust God, look how bad things are and if God really …” And yet each of us have a “I TRUSTED” story of how God worked in our lives.  Trusting In God is to be the “norm” for us, not some coin toss.

But we should know that we are not the first to struggle with “trusting” God.  In the OT (not Over-Time, but Old Testament) Jeremiah and company (Israel) were in state of tossing a coin as to who they should trust.  The bad boys of Babylon were making noise up North and Israel (Judah, Southern Kingdom) was looking for a little help.  They had tossed the coin and decided to put their trust in a foreign alliance with Egypt to protect them against “BBB”.

Jeremiah exercising his “freedom of speech” reminds and warns the people … In God we trust.

Jeremiah 17:5-8 (ESV) Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” 

• Cursing & Blessing … nothing new
• Deuteronomy 28 … obey and be blessed … disobey (dis-trust) “cursed IN & OUT” of home.
• Galatians 5 … Law of the Harvest “Sow & Reap” … sow flesh reap corruption/destruction … sow the Spirit reap life

Every day and in every situation and circumstance we have a choice to make … “TRUST OR NOT.”

TRUST = this Hebrew word is rooted in “refuge” … tower of strength, rock of solid footing, hiding place of security and rest … and in HIM I put my total confidence, and therefore I can be sure and secure no matter what happens.

It’s in the arena of life, every day living, that God gives us opportunity to trust Him.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.

Jeremiah puts trust in perspective … “who trusts IN the Lord” … TRUST GOD NOW … in whatever is happening in your life right now.  But don’t make your trusting God some “genie in a lamp” item, because … “whose trust IS the Lord.” … TRUST GOD ALWAYS.

“TRUST GOD NOW & TRUST GOD ALWAYS”  (This is the ONE point -  Don’t Miss It!)

What if I don’t?  What if I decide to trust myself … my own intuition, information, gut feeling, strength? 

Consider … “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool …” (Prov 28:26)  and “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall …” (Prov 11:28) 

• Such a person turns away and moves away from God.
• Such a person’s life become “shrub-like” of only existing … deserted, dry and filled with disillusion.

Have we ever stopped to think that maybe the reason life seems so difficult, so hard, so frustrating is because we are not “TRUSTING GOD NOW & TRUSTING GOD ALWAYS”?

“He that puts a confidence in man puts a cheat upon himself.” (Matthew Henry) 

Are you cheating yourself out of the blessings of God?

What if I do trust?  Will all my problems go away?

Trust is not based upon the disappearing of our problems, but upon the person and power of our God.

The greater blessing of “TRUST GOD NOW & TRUST GOD ALWAYS” is not in external comforts, but internal securities of the mind (what holds our attention) and the heart (what holds our affections/hope).

The person who trusts God sees a “tree-like” existence planted by the streams of living water … that well up in us and spill out at all times. 

• Such a person does not fear when the heat of the situation is on. (1 Tim 1:7)
• Such a person does not become anxious when life becomes dry. (Phil 4:6-7)
• Such a person does live a fruitful existence. (John 15:5)

 “TRUST GOD NOW & TRUST GOD ALWAYS”

How many of you have a coin on your pocket or purse? The common factor of each of these coins is the phrase “In God We Trust.”  May that be the common factor in our lives as the people of God.

Did you know that in 1956 Congress made “In God We Trust” the United States motto.  It has been used on the one cent coin in 1909 (1916 ten cent).  In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter disapproving of the motto to be placed on U.S. coins.

“My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege … it seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins …”

It seems that our 26^th President was afraid “In God We Trust” would become something we say rather than do.  I’m afraid he might be right. 

Most, if not all of us this morning would like for “America” to be a nation that “Trusts in God”.

How does a nation trust God?  May I suggest one person at a time.

This week when you use a coin see it as a reminder to try and “TRUST GOD NOW” in some issue or circumstance of your life.  As you come to trust, move on to the next issue of “TRUSTING GOD ALWAYS.”

Seek the trust of God through reading His Word and through prayer.  Don’t fall back on trusting yourself.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

This scripture is saying, “TRUST GOD NOW & TRUST GOD ALWAYS” … in “all your ways”.  When you go to bed tonight, TRUST GOD … when you get up in the morning, TRUST GOD, when the expected comes on you, TRUST GOD, and when the unexpected grabs you, TRUST GOD.

Can you imagine what we might look like if we all would make a concerted effort to be a people that say and live “IN GOD WE TRUST”?

Imagine! 

• Imagine what our walk with God would look like.
• Imagine what our families would look like.
• Imagine what our neighbors and friend would see in us.
• Imagine what would happen in our church family.
• Imagine what our town would begin to think and do.

Now … imagine what our nation would be and look like … if you and I were to begin to

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.

Amen!