Hard Starboard

From The Pastor's Pen in the March 2006 Voice of the Valley, the monthly newsletter of Valley Bible Church, by the Reverend Frank C. Emrich. Reposted here with permission.

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When I woke up this morning I had a strange thought. I'm a little embarrassed to tell you what it was, but if you know me at all, you already know I am a little weird, so here goes: I was wondering if God was thinking about me. And if so, what was He thinking?

As soon as the bats left the belfry of my mind, my thoughts went to Isaiah 55:7-9, which says:

7 (A) Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his (B) thoughts; and let him (C) return to the LORD, and He will have (D) compassion on him, and to our God, for He will (E) abundantly pardon.

8 "For My thoughts are not (F) your thoughts, nor are (G) your ways My ways," declares the LORD.

9 "For (H) as the heavens are higher than Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

Have you ever wondered how deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? At its deepest, in the Marianas Trench, located in the Southwest Pacific, the ocean reaches a depth of 6.856 miles. The troposphere, which includes the layer of air we breathe, is about ten miles hight, but the atmosphere as a whole extends upward more than six hundred miles.

God's thoughts are greater than any thoughts that we could ever have. That's why I always say that we don't make something, it is from something that God has already created it. All thoughts are already in God's mind. We can't even comprehend how great those thoughts are.

We have a God Who spoke one word, and time and space came into existence. We have a God Who carved the mighty mountains and filled the sky with hundreds of billions of stars. We have a God Who breathed life into man and made him a living soul. We have a God Who looks out over a storm and says, "Peace, be still," and the storm stops.

And that same God Who has all these great thoughts beyond our imagination has thoughts toward us.

Thoughts of good:

'For I know the (A) plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for (B) welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a (C) hope.

Thoughts of love:

For this reason I (A) bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on Earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to (B)
the riches of His glory, to be (C) strengthened with power through His Spirit in (D) the inner man, so that (E) Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being (F) rooted and (G) grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with (H) all the saints what is (I) the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know (J) the love of Christ which (K) surpasses knowledge, that you may be (L) filled up to all the (M) fullness of God.