3-9-2017

 Good Morning All,

                 Hosea 11:4; “I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.”

     About every ten days to two weeks, I need to take an afternoon or a day to tie up loose ends.  I’ll have projects that are a third to a half done but need to be finished pretty soon.  It might be a Bible study I am planning or a service or a wedding sermon; you never know.  Sometimes it is catching up on doing the paper work like getting records filed properly.  A few years ago I had to add cleaning up the inboxes of my emails accounts.  That is beginning to take more and more time.  The only loose end that seems to slip by is cleaning my office and desk; that usually loses its appeal quickly.

     Sometimes those loose ends are a little more personal.  Sometimes it is a shut in that I haven’t seen in a while.  Sometimes it is taking time to visit my parents or spend time with my family.  It is kind of a shame when our important relationships can be seen as “loose ends.”  Yet relationships need maintenance.  We need to spend time together or the cords of kindness or the bands of love can unravel.  We can end up at frayed ends instead of loose ends.  Sometimes when the frays begin to show, you have to stop and tie them together or better bind them up and heal them.

    This can, and often does, include your relationship with God.  We can push it back, put it off, or try and set it aside.  We can miss some of our devotional time, we can miss some of our prayer time, we can miss some of the corporate worship time and our relationship with God can begin to fray.  We can begin to feel that God is distant or not hearing our infrequent prayer.  The ends begin to unravel and we wonder where we are.  We feel lost and drifting, which is probably what we are doing.

    Fortunately, we have a God that doesn’t give up on us.  We have a God who is continually calling us back into the security of his mercy and the constancy of his grace; giving us the forgiveness that we need, and the encouragement and the desire to bind our wounds.  He calls us to repentance, a turning away from our in but more importantly back towards him.  We see his face shine upon us and we can rest in his loving arms.

    It is by his grace that we can bind up the loose ends in our relationships.  He moves us by his great love to try.  The devil will encourage you to let it slide, to let it wait.  Yet God, through his Word, seeks to have you tie up the loose ends right away so that you can live in the joy of the love of the people whom he has placed into your life.  God binds you up with his bands of love and his desire is for you to have loving relationships here as well.

Loving Father, you gently bind us up with the bands of your love.  Keep us in your loving embrace.  Guard us with your Spirit.  Enrich our faith and strengthen our heart.  Guide us to support the loving relationships that you give us.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret