Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, September 16

For fifty years Westwood Baptist Church has experienced the faithfulness of God.  As He has guided us, perhaps at times it has seemed He was taking us the long way, along routes that may have seemed indirect, perhaps a detour.  This is not a new situation for the people of God.  God faithfulness to free His people is only the beginning of a journey that often times takes unexpected paths and turns.  Yet God plans and directs each step for a purpose.  

From this week’s text in Exodus 13: 17-22 we can see some principles that are timeless and applicable to our personal faith journey and the faith journey of this church.  This Sunday we will see how God is Faithful to Guide.  

Throughout their wilderness journey God guided the children of Israel in a unique and personal way.  The living presence of God through the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night was a very real part of their everyday lives.  While we don't have a cloud and pillar of fire, we do have the presence of God’s Spirit filling us and overshadowing us; the Word of God to guiding us in every walk of life; and Jesus, the Light of the World who is our Way.

Matthew Henry wrote:  “The Bible is a light to our feet, a lantern to our paths, with which the Savior’s love has provided us. It testifies of Christ. It is to us like the pillar to the Israelites. Listen to that voice which cries, I am the Light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life, John 8:12. Jesus Christ alone, as shown in the Bible, and as the Holy Spirit, in answer to prayer, recommends him to the soul, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life”.

Before we gather for worship this week let me encourage you to take some time to consider the path of your life and reflect upon God’s faithfulness throughout it.   How have you experienced the faithfulness of God even in the unexpected twists and turns of your life?  What unseen enemies has he protected you from?  What have you learned about Him during that ‘detour’?  How has He reminded you of His faithfulness?

Prayerfully consider this passage from Deuteronomy, and remember that as we saw in Hebrews 12, God discipline is designed to shape our lives and conform us Christ. 

And you shall remember all the way 

which the LORD your God has led you 

these forty years in the wilderness, 

that He might humble you, 

testing you to know what was in your heart,

whether you would keep His commandments or not. 

And He humbled you and let you hunger 

and fed you with manna, 

which you did not know, 

nor did your fathers know; 

that He might make you know 

that man does not live by bread alone, 

but that man lives by everything that proceeds 

out of the mouth of the LORD.... 

Know then in your heart, that as a man disciplines his son, 

the LORD your God disciplines you. 

So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God,

by walking in His ways and by fearing Him. 

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 5-6

I look forward to seeing you in church this Sunday. 

Gerald