United Church of God

Letter from Braden Veller (December 20, 2019)

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Letter from Braden Veller (December 20, 2019)

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Letter from Braden Veller (December 20, 2019)

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Pastor’s Letter 12-20-2019

         

Not everyone that prays gets through to God (Matthew 7:21).  But out of the 7 Billion people that live on earth, perhaps millions do connect with God through prayer.

So … If All of These People are Praying … HOW Can God be Listening to Me ?

…because God is God .  He is all powerful.  He is all knowing.  God has the remarkable ability to perfectly and completely keep track of millions of prayers, and not miss the tiniest of details.  Even without realizing it, we can minimize the extraordinary power that God has.  His abilities exceed our own by seemingly millions of light years.  He can simultaneously absorb millions of prayers all at the same time and remember every detail in every prayer. This is a testament to the complete awareness God has of each of us.

The artistic drawing below features a telephone exchange representing phone activity in a large city at the turn of the last century.  By today’s standards, it seems incredulous that all phone conversations back then were routed through miles of phone cord to a central exchange house.  However, God has wireless ability to hear us clearly as we discuss with Him our needs, goals, concerns for others peoples’ needs,  and prayer for the strength to be an instrument of God’s will.  We all have a private line to God’s throne and He never puts us on hold – even if He is listening and responding to the prayers of many others whom we know and don’t know.

In Romans 12:12, we are able to be “instant in prayer” which indicates that there are times when we have to have immediate contact with God – no matter where we are. David (Psalm 55:17) and Daniel (Daniel 6:10) set aside regular time periods (3 times a day) to connect with God in prayer.

According to the book of Revelation, our prayers are like sweet incense that wafts up to God’s throne.  This all powerful being is quite interested in our daily activities.  In Matthew 6 God does not say “If” but “when” you pray…follow the outline that Christ used. God loves to hear from us. There is nothing too hard for the Lord.  We simply have to remember to not inadvertently, in our own minds, re-create God in our image.  If we want to have more faith, we must connect with our God who is infinitely more powerful that we think He is.

 

Local Notes

Our Vero Beach deacon, Bill Wilson, continues to feel great after less than a week out of the rehabilitation center. Many thanks to all the brethren that visited him and brought over food. He may be cleared by doctors to drive soon.

A man who attended our first public presentation in Tallahassee returned the following week. He said that he wants to bring his middle aged daughter to the next Sabbath service that we will have for Tallahassee on January 4.

This week we have interactive in-home Bible studies in Stuart and Palm Bay. One new contact is interested in attending the Palm Bay study. She told me that if her current church finds out that she has attended with us she will be disowned by her friends.  It would appear that her faith is about to be stretched. Please remember to pray for her. It is not certain that she will be part of us but she may. It will be important for us to be friendly but non-proselytizing with her if she comes.

We ask you in prayer to remember Sharri and Sherrie in the Ocala area and the Surratts in the Ft. Myers congregation. Jan continues to make slow but steady progress. Also remember Ann Branno with her mobility issues.  It is nice this month to see an attendance surge in Ft. Myers.

This week, Jim Kocher will speak in Ft. Myers, Stan Braumuller will speak in Ocala and I will be in Vero Beach. Tallahassee will reconvene January 4. 

BV