Please find below the notes from the Elder's Prayer this past Sunday.

What a true and beautiful song we just sang...

In days of peace and days of rest

In times of loss and loneliness

Through rich and poor, your word is true

That all my ways are know to You

No trial has come beyond Your hand

No step I walk beyond Your plan

The path is dark outside my view

Still all my ways are known to You

The truths of Psalm 139:1-10 come to mind when I hear this song...

LORD, You have searched me and known [me.] 

2 You know when I sit down and when I get up; You understand my thought from far away. 

3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. 

4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, LORD, You know it all. 

5 You have encircled me behind and in front, And placed Your hand upon me. 

6 [Such] knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is [too] high, I cannot comprehend it. 

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 

8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 

9 [If] I take up the wings of the dawn, [If] I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 

10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will take hold of me.

-there is no where we can go that God is not already there.

-scripture says, “if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me...physically, one of the most remote places I have ever been was a leper colony in southern Russia, but, God was there!

-spiritually and emotionally, He is there!

-there is nothing about us that He does not already know.

-all of our hopes and aspirations.

-all of our joys and successes.

-all of our sins and failures.

-everything...He knows everything about us and praise God He does! - when we stand before Him, there will be nothing that He doesn't already know about us – He will not be surprised about anything – and the good news is that He loves us and sent His Son for us anyway!

Let's praise Him together...

-Lord God, in one sense, we are rightly ashamed that You indeed know everything about us, the good, the bad and the worst.  

-Yet we are also comforted that You indeed know everything about us and still love us.

-You love us and care for us in spite of our short comings, sins and failures.

-You sent Your Son to pay a price we could never pay in order that we might be reconciled to You. For this we love You, we thank You and praise You.

-Help us to never lose sight of what You gave to bring us to Yourself, in Jesus' name we pray.