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“ . . . I know my sheep and my sheep know me-

just as the Father knows me and I know the Father . . . .”

John 10:14 (NIV)

Some belief systems take the stance that God made the world and then sat back and chose to watch what human beings would do to it. This view of God portrays Him as being distant and uncaring; our God is neither. We have a Lord who cares for us. He knows everything about us.

Several years ago, I fell in a parking lot and did damage to an ankle. We had already made reservations for a special trip-a cruise planned for our then upcoming 25th anniversary. After a few weeks, my ankle wasn’t getting any better. I finally had to have a bone scan, with particular attention to that ankle. When I arrived at the hospital and saw the machine I remember thinking, “Doctor will know me almost as well as God.” Of course, that wasn’t exactly true. Our Creator sees more of who we are because He can see our Spirit.

God protects us as we go through the valleys of life. Sometimes those valleys are deep:

●serious illness of a loved one,

●sudden death of someone who has been close,

●the loss of a job,

●the loss of a friend,

●being a victim of a crime,

●a friend or friends being the victim of a crime.

●a chronic medical condition that can change how we live.

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When we meet someone, we say, “Hi, my name is,” then we give them our name. Next, we ask them, “What’s yours?” Some conferences have name tags for those who attend with this greeting and question printed on them. One time many years ago, a local pastor lead a revival meeting at our church. His church was a very small, non-denominational group. He said he’d never been to a meeting where they had those kinds of name tags. I was acquainted with him-he had worked at the factory with my husband. The next service, I found the name tag stock and printed the greeting and question on one just for him, just to make him feel at home. He got a laugh out of it.

When we meet God, we don’t have to introduce ourselves. He knows all about us-even the things we wish no one would ever discover. The fact that God knows our name is just a hint of how omniscient He is. Our Lord sees each deed we do or don’t do. God is privy to all our inmost thoughts and feelings-good and bad. He is present when we make plans for our future. He can see how those plans will unfold for us.

Several years ago, I met a Christian couple at an auction. I had to sell my dad’s real estate, personal property and his household goods. These people and I were talking and I said something that I quickly told them I was sorry for. The husband told me, “It’s not me, you need to apologize to.” Although the man said it in an offhanded manner, I knew he meant I should have been asking God to forgive me. I stood there and approached Jesus with a very quick internal sentence prayer and got on with what I was doing.

God knows when we will mess up and he awaits our coming to Him, throwing ourselves on His mercy, and asking for forgiveness.

Our creator knows beforehand how we will handle certain issues that will come into our lives, based on our relationship with Him. As we walk with Him, He gives us strength to deal with whatever future traumatic events we will face.

As we reflect on different times God took care of a need in our lives, we realize how dependent we are on Him because He was there for us. Whenever we have a problem that seems insurmountable, we need to realize we have the Holy Spirit beside us at all times to help us through.

We need to thank Him for his goodness to us every day of our lives.

"Bible verse and quote" from Jan Couns

Bible and Quote - March 4-8