A-MAZE-ING!

Memphis has received bad press lately---

going beyond the local and state level to national & world news.

But.....the September/October 2022 4MEMPHIS Memphis, delivered to my driveway, reminded me once again, 

"Seek the peace and prosperity of the city 

in which I have placed you. (Jeremiah 29:7)

The same day, the nightly news shared another reminder! The Halloween maze will open once again but without the planting of corn in a design. A robot will now do all the work!

That was not the best reminder. The best reminder.....

....to me was recalling Acts 17:26. It was God who made all the nations ....to inhabit the whole earth, marking out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their dwelling place. (paraphrase & emphasis, mine) ESV verse 27 states God's purpose for those boundaries, "so that they should seek, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet, he actually is not far from each one of us." (Though it might sound like me, even "actually" is ESV, not mine)

4MEMPHIS publisher Jim Walker's comment said it well, "....brokenness is their inspiration to bear fruit by loving their fellow Memphians. (p.26) 

The A-MAZE-ING truth is that God is near me right here in Memphis; He has me here for a purpose, regardless of scary reports from Nightly News. (Psalm 34:18)

4 MEMPHIS!

I am always 4Memphis.  Memphis has been His choice for me for past 68 years!  

I also am 4Memphis during the pandemic....God determined Memphis during college days to this day as the boundaries of my dwelling place. (Acts 17:24-26) May I serve well where He has placed me even when others are fed up and disowning.

Jeremiah starts it all---at the top of every magazine issue of 4MEMPHIS  "From the Publisher" page of the magazine.

"Seek the Peace and Prosperity of the City in which I have placed you." (Jeremiah 29:7)

Such a worthy read in every publication I have seen.

His Sovereign-TEA = my locali-TEA

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, (Acts 17:24-26, ESV)

Last Sunday's sermon (8/31/14) at Allen Bible Church, "Addressing Atpopia," gave me lots of food for thought. Atopia, a placelessness, somewhere between utopia (idyllic) and distopia (danger). It was another in the series of "Our Locality, His Sovereignty"---and a good one it was! God determines our times and our location. Wherever we are at this season of life, we're right where He wants us to be.
Location! Location! Location! He's put us in the dwelling place of His choice.
The crux of the message to me:

• There is a spiritual art to neighboring.
• Can ask, Why here, Lord?" but better to ask, "For whom?"
• When everyone is our neighbor to love, no one is your neighbor. (Too broad---ask God for focus.)
• Love locally. 
• Start by knowing your neighbors names so your neighborhood isn't a "strangerhood."

My notes spilled over from the pages offered. So much seemed so important. Then I lost my "important" notes. So typical---but God confirmed my remembrances as later hubby found those notes under his car seat.

My notes were numerous and yet the New Century version summed up my focus, "God decided exactly when and where they (Dotsy included) must live."
His sovereign-TEA sweetens my cuppa locali-TEA, as I seek to feel compassion for my neighbors and continue to move toward them as I get to know them and share God's grace---beyond the fences.