Riptide

Getting caught in a riptide or rip current is frightening. The more you fight, the further you are drug from safety. The best move is to let go and to float until you are released from the rip’s grip. Then you can swim sideways until you reach the shore.

One day at the beach, when I was very young, I got caught in a bad rip current. I panicked. I think I screamed for help. I believed I was going to die. As I was getting pulled under again, an arm reached down into the water and pulled me out. It was my dad. He probably saved my life.

Psalm 18:16-19:

He sent from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of many waters.

He rescued me from my strong enemy

and from those who hated me,

for they were too mighty for me.

They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

but the LORD was my support.

He brought me out into a broad place;

he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

Always remember God’s love. He will rescue you from the rip currents, just like my dad rescued me, because he delights in you.

Kevin Bibo

Did God really say?

I realized something this week. I realized that Satan is just as crafty today as he was in the garden with Adam and Eve.  Satan is the ultimate deceiver, while God is the ultimate truth.  Every human being is faced with this fact:  God offers salvation; Satan offers death in disguise.

I think for us as Christians, more so than non-believers, Satan makes it a point to assault us with lies and deception.  He wants to get our eyes and attention off of God. It is inevitable that throughout our lifetime we will find ourselves in situations that will elicit a response to what our hearts truly believe.  Are we going to trust God and what He says, or are we going to listen to the lies of the enemy of our soul?

Adam and Eve were the first ones to have to make this choice.  Even though the evidence of God’s truth was literally all around them and even though God spoke His word of truth in them, sadly, they believed the Liar over the Life-Giver.

“Did God really say, ‘You are not to eat from any tree in the garden’?” Genesis 3:1

I don’t know about you, but I find myself having to choose the Truth over the Liar all the time - Different day, different tree; same opportunity to choose as Adam and Eve had.  Sometimes I get it right.  I listen to God regardless of how things look and I trust Him.  Some days I blow it.  I let the circumstances and lies become my “truth.”  Praise God, that He is abundant in grace and mercy!  He knows our weaknesses and frailties and covers them with understanding.

“For He understands how we are made, He remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14

Dina Pugh