Day of Praise

Sa, 10/25/14, "Day of Praise"

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" - Psalm 42:1-2

Apparently, they were everywhere. That's why they had hunting season. But when I was a kid, I thought that deer were only on my Pap Yost's farm in central Pennsylvania.

I don't think I ever told anybody, but I thought the deer lived just inside the woods. At the top of the big hill, that was not quite a mountain.

My Pap had a big cornfield that ran from the top of the big hill, down the hill, and then across the flat to the farm house and buildings. In my mind there was a beautiful brook that ran between the bottom of the hill and the flat.

In my mind, one of the beautiful things about the brook was that it was a place for the deer to drink. I could see the deer coming down the big hill and drInking from the brook.

But I never saw them do that. I never saw them drink from the brook because, in my mind, they were afraid. They were afraid it was hunting season.

So they thirsted. The deer panted for streams of water, but stayed away because of their fears.

In today's verse, God says that we're like the deer. God says that as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, so much so that we ask ourselves, "When can I go and meet with God?"

And God would know because God made the deer...and us.

God knows that fear keeps deer and us away from life-giving water. So God sent Jesus to wIpe away fear and everything else that keeps us from God.

And Jesus wiped away fear and everything else that keeps us from God so that your soul that thirsts for God would know the answer to the question in today's verse.

"When can I go and meet with God?"

Anytime you want.

Christ is risen. To be with you. And quench the fears and thirst of your soul.

Drink of him today, and be blessed.

Praise God!


Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson