Dear Faith Family, 

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want, (Psalm 23:1). 

True confession: I am a Jersey Mike’s fan.  A club supreme – number nine on their menu.  Can’t you just smell the roast beef, turkey, swiss and applewood smoked bacon?!  I order the regular size, not the mini.  Know why?  No, not just because more is better.  They cut the regular in half.  Half for lunch and half to take home.  How delicious to know that the other half is waiting patiently for me in the refrigerator! 

Reminds me of Journey Manna in the wilderness wanderings of the Hebrews.  You can read about it in the book of Exodus.  Here’s what’s interesting.  No leftovers except for the Sabbath.  Why not?  Was it because they didn’t have a refrigerator big enough for all that manna? 

Truth of the matter?  God was out to prove His presence every day to His people.  God wanted His people to know that He is the One who provides.  God wanted His people to know that He was faithful and dependable.  God wanted His people to know that He would take care of them. 

That knowledge is more than information.  If God simply wanted His people to have the info as to who He is and what He’s like, He could have just told them.  He did tell them.  But He did more than just tell them.  Exodus is a tell and show.  In the wilderness the people of God were experiencing the truth of God through the delivery of God.  It was called manna. 

So, here’s the question (or four).  Is God still proving His presence every day to His people, us?  Does God still want His people, us, to know that He is the One who provides?  Does God still want His people, us, to know that He is faithful and dependable?  And does God still want His people, us, to know that He will take care of us? 

Yes!  Yes!  Yes!  And yes!  He has given us His Word.  And the application of His Word affords us the privilege of experiencing God daily.  How?  (ok.  ok.  that’s a fifth question!)  We experience the truth of the presence of our God in so many ways: communication from a friend, answered prayer, a reminder through the lyrics of a song.  We experience the truth of God’s provision every day through the food that we eat.  Through gifts from friends.  We discover that God is faithful and dependable when a timely word reaches our ears.  When a flower blooms.  When the sun rises.  And we know that God will take care of us when the hummingbirds show up in the spring.  

Our theology isn’t constructed out of our experience.  Instead, our experience is informed by our theology (the very Word of God). 

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! 
Pastor Karl