Hello loved ones.  My prayer for you today is that you find peace in His presence even though your circumstances may be anything but peaceful.  Let us not lose faith.

Keep Ruth in prayer.  This has been a bit of a difficult week for her and for Cathy.  Priscilla will get her surgery next week.  There is concern that there may be more unpleasant news ahead.  Pray for healing, that she will no loner be in pain and that the name of the Lord is glorified.

I think it’s safe to say that there isn’t one of us who does not have an urgent need right now.  We’re all praying about something.  We’re all looking to God and His word for answers.  We know that He is sovereign.  We know that He is good.  But sometimes the answers don’t come.  Sometimes they are not what we wanted them to be.  Sometimes as we read our Bible we sometimes find things that seem to add to the confusion rather than clear it up.

I’m going to talk about one of those on Sunday.  I suppose I could be the only one that finds it troubling, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case.  It’s the story of the Syrophoenician woman, found in Matthew 15:21-28.  Here the man we know as a healer isn’t interested in healing.  The one who taught us compassion doesn’t seem to have much for this desperate woman.  Though He finally grants her request, His initial response to her might seem to us to be  degrading and insulting.

What is happening here?  Why did Matthew and Mark feel that among the many things that Jesus did, (John said it was impossible to write them all down.) this was particularly important?  My studies have not yielded an iron-clad answer, but there are some great lessons for us here.  I hope you’ll join us as we explore them.

Love y’all!

Larry