Hit the triple digit mark yesterday.  While the official temperature was 96, it was 101 in Carla’s garden.  As I write this the garden thermometer clicked over to 95.

The wind blows through the Gorge, sometimes in the 40 and 50 mph range – except when it gets this hot.  Animals find shade and hunker down through the heat of the day.

They are quiet; they don’t want to waste energy and suffer from the heat.  It is almost like it is too hot for even the wind, and the wind hunkers down and rests.

Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams stand out against the blue cloudless skies.  From inside an air-conditioned room, they are pretty, majestic and beckoning.  But even they are experiencing the heat of summer.

John 17: 14-18 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁵ I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁷ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

¹⁸ As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Oh, how heavy the soul seems at time, the burden – the cross – I have been given seems all too much for me to bear.

I try to direct my paths when I know, in reality, that I must yield my being to God.

I long to be in heaven with God, yet, I remain here subject to the fallacies of men and the attacks of satan.

The world seems to have gone crazy and without direction as it veers to the precipice of destruction – and I am unable to prevent it.

It is like watching a scene from a movie where the condemned go forth and are killed by overpowering forces.  Everyone knows that is what is going to happen and they are helpless to defend to prevent it.

But to let that settle into our minds is fruitless and damaging.

We are in the world for a purpose:  To bring the truth, the good news of Christ’s salvation to others.

Jesus prayed for us, even as He was sending us out into the world which hates and wishes to destroy us.

¹⁷ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

¹⁸ As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

We sometimes forget that Jesus knows what we are going through, yet, He sends us anyway.

When He walked this earth and proclaimed His deity many accepted His message, but many more refused it.  He knew that in most cases His message would be futile – and even many of those that initially proclaimed they believed in Him, didn’t.

In ‘the end,’ He suffered persecution, ridicule, torture and death.  Yet He endured all and has confirmed His Word as He sits next to the Father.

We sometimes forget that we are on earth but for a short time.  While we may read historical books, while we may watch films – biased as they are – about historical events, while we read the Bible and are told of both historical events and the power of God, we cannot comprehend all of it.

It is difficult for us to imagine time.  It seems like only yesterday my first child was born; only yesterday that my first grandchild was born.  I can look back on my life and it seems like a long time – yet it also seems so short.

How can we understand the events happening around the world today or events of 100 years ago, let alone 2000 years and longer ago?  There are so many things that happen we only hear or read about, we cannot experience them because while one thing was/is occurring thousands of others, impacting millions of people were/are also occurring.

There was a television program many years ago called, I think, the Naked City.  It was about New York City and each episode focused on one person who lived there.  After the program was over and just before the credits was the line that was something like ‘there are over 8 million stories in the Naked City; you have just seen one of them.’

Things are different for each one of us.  Even children in the same family experience things that are different from their siblings. 

We have commonality with each other because we come from Adam, who was formed by God from the dust of the earth – yet each of us is different and unique. 

When we accept Christ we are bound together in God’s love and His desire to share Christ with the entire world.  Yet, we are different from each other, different gifts, talents, abilities, etc.

Of the past we may only know what we read and trust that it is correct.  Of the present we only know what we, ourselves, experience and what others tell us – and trust what they say is correct.  Of the future we only know that there will be great tribulation before Christ returns – and we are confident He will return.

But God knows the truth in all things, past, present and future.

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

 Psalm 90:15-17 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.

¹⁶ Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.

¹⁷ And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

God knew what would happen to Jesus before the world was formed.  He knew when He sent Him into the world that He would be rejected by the world, yet He sent Him.

He sent Him because He wanted to provide a Savior that all could come through and be redeemed to Him.

And, as God sent Christ, so Christ sends us.

As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

He knows that His message through us will be rejected by many.  He knows that by standing for Him, standing on His Word many of us will undergo persecution and death for Him.

He knows that as He was rejected and as He suffered on this earth we may also.

Yet, He sends us.

He doesn’t ask, He commands.

He is our Lord.  As Jesus obeyed the Father, we too must obey Him.

We have the Holy Spirit to guide us and comfort us, because Christ sent Him.  He knew that we cannot go through all of the trials we will have – whether large or small – for Him by ourselves.

He wants to help us, to encourage us, to surround us with His love.  But He also has a mission that needs to be done, and it is up to us to do it.

As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Jesus’ work is not finished.  That was by the design of the Father.  We have become God’s messengers to the world, as Christ was His messenger.

Each person’s relationship with God is different from anyone else’s, but it must begin with the recognition of sin in their life and acceptance as Christ as their Savior.

God wants all the world to be saved; one person at a time; that person is to be told of God’s great gift – by us.

Mark 16:15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

May we keep that command, forsaking any self-doubts, in the forefront of our minds and act upon it at every opportunity.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again