Thought for February 9

 History:

• 1555: Bishop John Hooper and Dr. Rowland Taylor burned at the stake as Protestant heretics
• 1775: Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion
• 1825: John Quincy Adams elected President by the House of Representatives after no candidate got a majority of the electoral votes
• 1870: National Weather Service established
• 1895: Volleyball invented
• 1900: Davis Cup established by Dwight Davis
• 1909: U.S. outlaws opium
• 1926: Atlanta schools prohibit teaching evolution
• 1942: Daylight Savings Time goes into effect
• 1943: Alexander Solzhenitsyn arrested and charged with conspiracy to overthrow Stalin's government. Sent to a Gulag where he will find faith.
• 1964: Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan
• 1969: First flight of the Boeing 747
• 1974: Dorothy Hamill wins Gold 
• 1995: Riverdance first opens in Dublin
• Born: William Henry Harrison, Wilhelm Maybach, Carmen Miranda, Dean Rusk, Ernest Tubb, Roger Mudd, Garner Ted Armstrong, Clete Boyer, Joe Pesci, Alice Walker ["The Color Purple"], Mia Farrow, Sandy Lyle, Travis Tritt, Michael Jordan ["Black Panther" not NBA]
• Died: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Sophie Tucker, Percy Faith, Bill Haley, James Cleveland [gospel singer], Bud Wilkinson [Oklahoma], Hank Bauer

Thought: 

Jeremiah 29 contains a verse often quoted and many times taken as a "life verse." 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." What a wonderful thought. The God of the universe has a plan for each of us. Consider that for a minute. 

• Who do you know that has a plan for your life? At one time, most of our parents had a plan for us. They had dreams of the day we would grow up, graduate from college [in my case, the first in the family to do so], get a good job [or maybe just get off their payroll], marry, have children. They may have planned for us to go to a certain college or to pursue a certain profession. A hard part of parenting and an essential part of growing up is the time when you come up with your own plan. What if you don't like the college your Mother attended, or the fraternity your Dad was in, or the job they wanted for you [my father wanted me to be an accountant]. Later on, bosses or coaches may have a plan for you--what they think would be best for you. 
• There are two others who have a plan for you. Satan has a plan for you and me. He will try his best to tempt us into his plan, to deceive us into his plan, to scare us into his plan. 
• Here in Jeremiah God says He has a plan for you and me. After all the rebellion of Judah. After all the worship of other gods. After forsaking God, refusing to listen to His warning and to delight in His ways. After defeat and captivity, a gracious and loving God, a God of mercy, reminds us that He still has a plan for them. This is comforting to me. God has a plan for me even when I fail. He still has a plan for how I can be whole, complete. How I can serve and grow. And His plan is always a plan for my good and for His glory. Look at what He says--Larry, follow my plan because in it you will find a future, a hope, a hope that will not disappoint. What a great God we serve.

Now, check out one more verse--29:13. Want to know God's plan for you? Seek Him with all your heart. Struggling with what God has planned for you, seek Him wholeheartedly. Trust Him without doubting. God will reveal His plan. My experience is that He reveals it in His timing. He reveals it in pieces I can grasp and understand. He reveals it in ways where I must trust and not doubt. In 1980, I left a law firm because the Lord told me that a merger it was undertaking was not right for me. I left with everything I owned as a lawyer in one bankers box. There was an office space shortage in Nashville and anything available was very expensive. I found a space in the same building newly remodeled for two lawyers. Rental rate--$14 a square foot. And I would need furniture, phones, equipment, everything. A lawyer who wanted to join me was excited--we found a space. I prayed and the Lord said no. Three days later, I get a call. An office with 9 or 10 offices, fully furnished, telephones, and a lease rate of $7 [and if I took the lease, I could have all the furniture and equipment free]. God had a plan and it was sure better than mine. 

Lord, thank you for having a plan, a plan for our good, a plan with a future and a hope. Help me seek Your plan with all my heart. 

Blessings

Larry