“Man plans and God laughs.” – Yiddish Proverb

We had a plan. It was a good plan. I liked the plan. However, God decided to change our plan! We were going to host the Southern Oregon Area Meeting on February 27^th but with the weather that we had been experiencing we decided to reschedule the meeting. Our area will still get together and hear about what is going on in our Yearly Meeting. We aren’t sure when, but it will happen.

I say that with full assurance that it will happen. Because God changes our plans all the time and it always works out in the end. He does good things in His own time. He plans and follows through even when it means our plans fall through. God is the one who is in control and this is just another reminder of that. “We aren’t sure when, but it will happen” is a good mantra for us to hold on to as Christians. It is a perfect summation of the hope that we have in Christ’s return. We don’t have to know when God is going to act or how God is going to take care of a situation to be sure that He is present and moving. Maybe a fitting response to the proverb above would be “God acts and Man praises.”  When our plans change due to God’s orchestration of our lives we can respond in praise or petulance. I hope that in this season of changing plans we are flexible enough to praise God.

We are going to be working our way through the Gospel of John for a little while. If you are interested in taking a closer look at what we are studying on Sundays please read through the Gospel and be praying for God to illuminate it to you. Also, I am going to be looking at A.W. Tozer’s “And He Dwelt Among Us” so if you enjoy reading and want to follow along as we study please pick up a copy. Along with that, text Bible.Org has some good resources that help in our study of Scripture so be sure to check those out!

I am praying that God’s powerful truth would cause us to long for more of Him daily.

As we step into the New Year I am excited and nervous. The Lord is doing good things and changing life up in some beautiful and painful ways for us here at Medford Friends Church. We have an opportunity to step into some new relationships and find ourselves connecting in new ways with God through them. I look forward to the ways in which we seek these things together and how God will continue to show His love and favor to us as we step into these new things. But the saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” So even as we step into these new things we continue to be faithful to God and seek to worship Him day by day, to point to Jesus in all that we do. Even when the world changes and things seem like they won’t ever be the same for us that truth remains: God loves us and is shaping our lives to reflect that love to the world!

This is Advent season. This means that we participate in the expectation of Christ’s return and the remembrance of His incarnation. We celebrate this season as a time of looking forward and looking back. It is a season of hope and joy, of peace and celebration. We are called to an expectant waiting on the Lord to reveal Himself to us again. A hope in the future that Christ has offered to us and is offering to us each day, a new life in the Kingdom of God. This is not the anticipation of a trip somewhere else but the expectant waiting for our King to return and reclaim what is rightfully His. As we step into Advent we are stepping into this expectant hope and the celebration of what Christ’s incarnation and His return mean for us.