His Love Endures Forever

Good morning. Today is Saturday, the twentieth of November, 2021.

Peace be with you!

Day 23,263

Five days until Thanksgiving.

Of course, we will be having a sort of “Thanksgiving” today, with R & J, up here in Indy.

This is our last full day in Indy, as we must fly home tomorrow. Our flight tomorrow leaves at around 2:20 PM, I think.

Yesterday was a great day, as well. Even with it being interrupted by having to exchange our rental car.

We had a great breakfast at Lincoln Square, in the Irvington community of Indy. The food was delicious. The coffee was only okay. But the food was amazing. I’m going to lobby for having breakfast there again, tomorrow, before we head back to the airport.

After breakfast, we walked around the area for a bit, and wound up looking at a couple of shops. Both were just an assortment of stuff, gift shops, I suppose. S found a journal that she wanted in the first one. The second one was much more “local,” and had a lot of neat stuff in it. We found a nice gift for Mama in there, and I bought a little rock. Yes, a rock. I like having a small stone in my pocket. The last one I had, which I found up in Broken Bow, OK, fell on the floor at my last job, and broke in half. This one is a small Lapis Lazuli stone.

Stones such as this are said to have special properties or “powers.” I don’t know about that, but Lapis is supposed to increase creativity, so I figured, why not, right? Plus they are pretty. It’s also supposed to connect me with “cosmic wisdom,” whatever that is.

After that, we ventured back through the back part of that store, where we found a charming little book/record store. It’s a good thing we are flying on this trip, not driving. I probably would have wound up with at least a handful of used records.

The exchange of the rental car was relatively painless. We were helped by a couple of very friendly folks, though, who made it good for us. I wish I had gotten their names. I will say that we rented from Dollar, and were helped at a counter where Dollar, Thrifty, and Hertz were all represented. We even got an upgrade for our inconvenience. We are now driving a Toyota Highlander, a full-size SUV. And it has more of the features that my personal car has, including push-button start and automatic headlights. Plus, it seats seven, so we can pick up R & J, this morning, and all fit comfortably.

Our meetup with our old friends, Mike and Kay, went great, last night! We met at Edwards’ Drive-In, and had a nice dinner. I had the grilled pork tenderloin, because I hear that you must have one of those when you visit Indy. It was okay, and the fries were okay. C said her burger was good, but felt like her quarter pounder at Mickey D’s was better. I had some of their chili which, not surprisingly, had spaghetti on the bottom. Yes, they do that up in these parts. The best part, for me, was the root beer in the frosty mug. Yum. Actually, the best part was catching up with people we haven’t seen in thirty-plus years. It was wonderful to see them, and didn’t seem awkward at all.

Today, we are returning to Yats for lunch. We will be picking up R & J and heading over there at noon, when they open for lunch. Incidentally, Mike and Kay both agreed that that was an excellent choice. I plan to have the Chili Cheese Etouffee again, along with, hopefully, the Chipotle Alexio, which they were out of Wednesday night.

Not sure what is happening after that. There is talk of a Children’s Museum in the area that is nice and fun. Then, for dinner, we plan to have City BBQ deliver food to R’s house. That’s what we are calling “Thanksgiving.” I’m not sure what we will order, but I’m thinking the thing they call “The Motherload” would be sufficient. Another option might be several of the City Samplers, which include four meats and a couple of sides. The Motherload has pretty much all the meats and six sides, and some bread. But we will decide all that later.

It has been a wonderful time, and I will be leaving Indianapolis with some good feelings about my first visit, and no hesitations about returning, as we will, no doubt do, probably at least once a year.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS

"O Lord,
you have mercy on all.
Take away my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me
the fire of your Holy Spirit.
Take away my heart of stone
and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore you,
a heart to delight in you,
to follow and to enjoy you, for Christ’s sake.
Amen."
(Prayer for A Renewed Heart, St. Ambrose)

The LORD is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God,
and I will praise him,
my father’s God,
and I will exalt him.
(Exodus 15:2 ESV)

Today I am grateful:

1. that You are my God, the God of my father and mother, and of my ancestors, and that You have placed it in my heart to praise You
2. for the privilege and responsibility of prayer; may I be faithful in that
3. for Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life
4. that Your love endures forever
5. that it has pleased You to bless my household

to the praise of his glorious grace,
with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
(Ephesians 1:6 ESV)

And whatever you do,
in word or deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
(Colossians 3:17 ESV)

Scriptures and Prayers from Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year

ORDINARY TIME – WEEK TWENTY-SIX – DAY SEVEN

INVITATION

Your righteousness also, God,
reaches to the heavens;
you have done great things.
God, who is like you?
(Psalms 71:19 WEB)

As I pause during this quiet moment, I consider the truth that there is no one like You, God. No one, nothing, You are completely and utterly unique; You are “Other.” I am, at my most base essence, completely unworthy and unable to interact with You. I give You thanks for the gift of Jesus, which makes me worthy and able.

BIBLE SONG

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.
to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.
(Psalms 136:1-4 NIV)

He remembered us in our low estate
His love endures forever.
and freed us from our enemies.
His love endures forever.
He gives food to every creature.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.
(Psalms 136:23-26 NIV)

BIBLE READING

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
(Jeremiah 31:31-34 NIV)

DWELLING: SILENCE AND MEDITATION

As I read these passages again, slowly, I look for words or phrases that catch my eye or move my heart. I linger over those, repeating them, and I pray my thoughts and meditations to the Father, enjoying his presence in this place.

There is an evident theme to the antiphonal Psalm 136. At least it appears to be of an antiphonal nature, what we called “responsive readings” when I was a child, growing up in a Southern Baptist church. I always liked when we did those readings, and still feel like they weren’t often enough.

In this one, the theme, the repeated line, is “His love endures forever.” Is it strange that we need to be so constantly reminded of this truth? But here, we have it repeated twenty-six times (if you read the entire psalm).

His love endures forever.

This truth is further established by the covenant made between the Lord and His people. We see a bit of this in Jeremiah. The Lord establishes a “new covenant” with the people of Israel. “I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about GOD. They’ll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I’ll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I’ll forget they ever sinned!” (vv. 33-34, The Message)

His love endures foverer.

Just like the most-often-repeated “command” in Scripture, which is a variety of “do not fear,” we see this truth repeated often, as well. The more something is repeated, the more important it is, the more sure it is.

His love endures forever. We cannot escape His love; we cannot lose His love; we cannot increase or decrease His love. It is steadfast, it is sure; it endures forever.

Father, I cannot adequately express my gratitude for Your love. Beyond the fact that it endures forever, it is strong and powerful. I cannot even begin to comprehend it. As the psalmist said in Psalm 139, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, I cannot attain it. Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness stretches to the skies, Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, and Your justice rolls like the ocean’s tide. As Third Day, sang, “I will lift my voice to worship You, my King.” I will celebrate Your love, that endures forever, and nothing can take this away from me. I praise You that there is nothing that I can do to either increase or decrease Your love for me, and I most certainly cannot lose this love. May it rain down on me today, and may it permeate everything I do today.

I pray, Lord, that Your Church would experience unity and holiness, and that this enduring-forever love would flow between us all, shutting out all competing entities.

"Covenanting God,
You are my God and I belong to You,
bound to You through the grace of Jesus.
Set me free in Jesus Christ to live in grateful obedience,
not from threat of punishment or persistent nagging but because Your will is imprinted on my heart.
Lord,
You have my heart;
I am Yours because You have given Yourself to me.
Amen."

BLESSING

Now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant,
that it may continue forever before you;
for you, Lord Yahweh,
have spoken it.
Let the house of your servant be blessed forever with your blessing.”
(2 Samuel 7:29 WEB)

Father, during these days, I am torn between remaining ignorant of current events, and struggling to be aware of them and dealing with the vitriol that is spewed from both sides of every issue. Give me wisdom, as I navigate these times, and help me above all, to show love to all, as much as is possible, and as much as it is up to me.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(Psalms 16:11 ESV)

Grace and peace, friends.