From: "Beverly French" <frenchb@vcss.k12.ca.us>
To: "Heritage" <gheritage@juno.com>
Subject: Joyous Greetings
Date: Sunday, April 29, 2001 7:53 AM

"But He knows the way I take;
 When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold."  Job 23:10

Job, in the midst of his woes, cried out "Oh that I knew where I might find
Him!" (Job 23:3)  He has look forward, backward to the left and to the right
and He can not see God.  But Job is sure that God knows right where he is
and he has the confidence that at the end of his troubles he will come forth
as gold.  Do we Believers have that sure confidence when we are in the midst
of a hard trial or circumstance?  We most definitely should!

The Believer is intimately known by God:
In our times of trouble,
"The Lord is good,
 A stronghold in the day of trouble,
 And He knows those who take refuge in Him."  Nahum 1:7

He knows our everyday comings and goings (He sees us),
"Nathaneal said to Jesus, 'How do You know me?'  ['How is it that
You know these things about me?']  Jesus answered him,  'Before [ever]
Philip called you, when you were still under the fig tree, I saw you.'"
John 1:48

He knows our individual names,
"But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the
doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep
by name...   'I am the good shepherd; and I know My own and My own
know  Me.'"  John 10:2; 3 and 14  (Vs. 14 really tells of the intimate
aquaintance He has with us and we with Him!)

The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 8:3, "But if anyone loves God, he
is known by Him."  God knows those who truly love Him -- He knows the
heart of man so much more than man knows his own heart.

Believers stand firm in the sure foundation of God,
"Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: 'The
Lord knows those who are His,' and, 'Let everyone who names the name
of the Lord abstain from wickedness.'"  2 Timothy 2:19

In John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life..."  He
is life!
Without Christ we would still be dead in our trespasses and sin.  BUT HE
CAME!
Jesus says in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and
destroy;
I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly."

To know Him is life!  Through his troubles, Job tells God (and us),
"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;
BUT NOW my eye sees You."  Job 42:5  (The Amplified says "my spiritual
eyes see You.)

Let us seek to have hearts that hunger and thirst to know Him in an ever
greater measure, for the as Psalmist has said,
"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good;
 How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!"  Psalms 34:8

Bless and praise His name forever.  Amen!