GOD then told Elijah, “Get out of here, and fast.

Head east & hide out at the Kerith Ravine on the other side of the Jordan River.

You can drink fresh water from the brook;

I’ve ordered the ravens to feed you.”

Elijah obeyed GOD’s orders.

He went and camped in the Kerith canyon on the other side of the Jordan.

And sure enough, ravens brought him his meals, both breakfast and supper, and he drank from the brook.

Eventually the brook dried up because of the drought.

Then GOD spoke to him: “Get up and go to Zarephath in Sidon & live there.

I’ve instructed a woman who lives there, a widow, to feed you.”

So he got up and went to Zarephath.

As he came to the entrance of the village he met a woman, a widow, gathering firewood.

He asked her,

Please, would you bring me a little water in a jug? I need a drink.

As she went to get it, he called out,

And while you’re at it, would you bring me something to eat?

She said,

I swear, as surely as your GOD lives, I don’t have so much as a biscuit.

I have a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a bottle;

you found me scratching together just enough firewood to make a last meal for my son and me. After we eat it, we’ll die.”

Elijah said to her,

Don’t worry about a thing. Go ahead and do what you’ve said.

But first make a small biscuit for me and bring it back here.

Then go ahead and make a meal from what’s left for you and your son.

This is the word of the GOD of Israel

The jar of flour will not run out and the bottle of oil will not become empty before GOD sends rain on the land and ends this drought.’” …

1 Kings 17:2-14 MSG

I don’t like what’s going down right now in our surroundings!

I don’t know anyone that’s getting a kick out of anything our so called
“elites” are coming up with as a solution.

The natural thing is to find fault with every leader and every so called
solution.

There’s a lot of desperation everywhere.

There’s a hopeless rage that’s brewing & building.

What if it gets worse? What if “so in so” gets elected?

What if the famine of sensible solutions totally dries up?

What if our police protection gets cut down 50% of what it is?

What if they all retire and run for the hills of Idaho?

What if we’re not in good hands with Allstate?

What if ruthless people surround our houses and demand that we get out because their taking everything we have and we can go live under the bridge with the big troll?

The psalmist asks in desperate prayer

WHY DO You stand afar off, O Lord?

Why do You hide Yourself,

Lord, You’re acting like You’re holding Your hands over Your eyes.

You’re acting like You’re looking the other way.

Don’t You see our trouble? Don’t You see our distress & desperation?

If we go to pot the whole world goes to pot.

We thought You we’re our Shepherd.

These twisted maniacs are chasing us with clubs.

They’re burning us to the ground and our in proud arrogance elected officials are cheering them on.

Their emptying the jails of all the riff raff so they can refill the jails with us

We keep waiting for You to pick us up.

We keep thinking this nightmare surrounding us will backfire and everything will get back to how it used to be.

Are we destined to be controlled by a mob of ruthless goons?

Psalms 10:1-3 paraphrase

Life can become a big tangle. And God let’s it happen.

But God will untangle us, because His mercy endures forever;
We need to wait & see the unfolding of His plans,

We should never let our emotions make us feel trapped in all the constant impossible quagmire that we are so prone to fall into

We have to let God work it out & don’t get caught in the sludge of despair

It’s tempting to hang our head in failure.

I do it constantly

I keep trying though to Let God into every situation. But We have to trust.

Even though almost Everyday I blow it. I start feeling frantic.

I commit new acts of stupidity & bungle into foolish reactions.

I used to live in Western Colorado.

It was back when trapping wild game was legal.

I had a couple of Bible studies with guys who were trappers by hobby.

One guy was so into animal pelts that he would stop & skin roadkill.

He took a hide he’d tanned and recovered one of my Bibles

One time I went up into the mountains with him We checked his trap lines.

He at the time he was trapping Coyotes.

There was a bounty that could be collected plus the value of the pelt.

He was incredibly fast at emptying the traps and skinning.

The prey when trapped was passive and calmly accepted their fate.

We’ve got to let the Lord untangle our traps.

We can’t be like the coyote who caught his leg in a snare and chewed off three wrong legs while the one leg stayed trapped.

F. B. Meyer wrote:

We need to pray out every problem and Wait,

that means really, patiently wait!!!

God always has a way, His way out!!!

Psalm 91 says:

We sit down in God’s presence, we rest under our Lord’s shadow,

GOD, is our refuge. We trust in Him and we’re safe!”

He rescues us from hidden traps,

He shields us from deadly hazards.

His powerful outstretched arms protect us

We’re perfectly safe; as His powerful hands fend off all harm.

We’re to Fear nothing.

There isn’t any phrase repeated more often by God then FEAR NOT!!!

Don’t fear ravenous wild wolves in the night,

Don’t fear flying bricks and Molotov cocktails in the day,

Don’t fear germ warfare and sinister diseases that prowl through the air

Don’t fear disaster that erupts on every street in our cities.

Even though others succumb all around us,

Even though our ICU’s are jammed to capacity and people are

dropping like flies all around us; DON’T FEAR.

No harm will even graze us

We’ll stand untouched,

We’ll be safe with corpses stacked all around us.

I picked up a coffee at Starbucks the other day.

I asked the masked barista what he was taking in college,

He said he was studying undertaking.

I looked at my cup thinking an embalmer just made my drink.

Don’t fear if cold hearted embalmers are serving us.

because GOD ’s our refuge,

Evil can’t get close to us, tragedy and harm can’t bust through the door.

God has ordered his angels to guard you wherever you go.

If we stumble, they’ll catch us; their job is to keep us from falling.

We’ll walk unharmed among lions and snakes, and ruthless humans that

act like poisonous serpents in our path.

God is holding on to us in His loving arms

Our Lord Jesus promises to get us out of all trouble.

We can trust Him. We can call on Him.

He’s faster then 911 on our speed dial me

He always answer, He’s always at our side in bad times;

He’ll rescue us, then we’ll throw a praise party.

Fact is might as we’ll start that praise party of gratitude now

We have a friend who died of a very rapidly growing brain tumor.

She said she wanted to memorize Psalm 91 while her brain was still

functioning.

She wanted the Psalm treasured in her heart as she waited for Jesus

to carry her home.