February 26, 2012

Again it has been a while since I have written.  I felt you would want to know we are safe at home.  when I awoke this morning, I felt like this just isn't a good day for us to get on the road, and they have called off our services.  It is the first time this winter that we have had a real winter storm.  I am thankful for a safe home and that Jack is here with me.  I am thinking of some who aren't used to this weather.  A family at Starkweather is living in a camper or travel trailer with two little propane tanks.  I know there are people that would help them.  Pastor has just said about a woman and two little children in Cando.

I share this devotion with you this morning:

Chicken Shelter


I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.
Selah --Psalm 61:4

My co-worker at Joni and Friends, Billy Burnett, was raised as one of eleven children
in a poor sharecropper's cabin on the corner of the Jimmy Lynch farm in east Texas.
When Billy's father scraped together enough money from cutting cotton, he moved
his family to Texarkana.

When Billy was a little boy, he'd watch his mother - Mama Teal - throw grain to
the chickens in the backyard. He would sit on his haunches and observe how the chicks
would flock around the mother hen. Whenever dark clouds of a storm gathered and
wind would blow, the hen would lift her wing a certain way and her chicks would
come running. Her arched wing was their signal that danger was near. She was indicating
they should scurry and find safety by her side.

Oh, that you and I were like one of those chicks. Oh, that we would run without
hesitation or question to find refuge in the shelter of God's wing. Even Jesus,
when He looked out over the Holy City, said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would
 I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under
her wings, and ye would not!" Matthew 23:37 (KJV).

Don't be one of the "would not's" today. When the dark clouds of trouble start brewing
on the horizon, run - don't walk - to find protection near the breast of God. When
the Lord gives you the signal, "Come quickly," take it as an indication from the
 Holy Spirit to find refuge under the shelter of God's wing. There you will be safe
from any stormy trial.

Under your wings I am safely abiding, though the night deepens and tempests are
wild. Still I can trust you; I know you will keep me. You have redeemed me and I
 am your child.