Last Sunday I was fighting work exhaustion, jet lag, and the urge to go to church. I wanted to go to church, had every intention of attending a real contemporary service in one of my favorite churches. But, I had a significant amount of work to do and church would mean waking early and spending a good bit of time on buses and subways. I decided to set an alarm, grab breakfast and see how I was feeling before finalizing my decision on church.

As it turns out, there was no decision. Church came to me! I woke up to a phone message that my Audible account (Amazon’s electronic recorded books division) said that I had to use two credits to buy books that day or they would expire. I love recorded books and didn’t want to lose those credits. I quickly scrolled down Audible’s recommendations for me. God was waiting there and pointed out N.T. Wright’s recent book, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. I was captivated. I bought the Kindle book to go along with the recorded book. In doing that, I noticed that Wright had written a new translation of the New Testament back in 2011. How had I missed that? I bought The Kingdom New Testament: A Contemporary Translation. I was soon engrossed in both book and Bible.

After much reading, I decided to clean up and head down for breakfast and continue reading. But church wasn’t over yet. My Christian Praise tunes wouldn’t play in Google Music so I loaded Amazon Music on my phone. There was a new Playlist, “Casting Crowns and More.” I couldn’t have selected a better set of 28 beautiful, wonderful, worshipful songs. Casting Crowns, Matthew West, Chris Tomlin, Newsboys (you might recognize “I Believe” makes a great creed) and others, lit up my worship, finished turning around my mood, and raising my spirits and energy.

God knew that I really needed to be in church – so God brought church to me. Thanks, be to God!

Psalm 139, one of Annie’s favorites (I believe she has referred to it as the “Runaway Bunny Psalm” on at least a couple of occasions). It’s one of my favorites, too. The “Inescapable God” of Psalm 139 made us, loves us and will not let us go. Whether we run or stay, God is with us.  Wherever we are and whatever we have done,  God loves us. Even when we try to run, or try to forget God, God is still with us. And when times are bad, the God that created us, finds us, sees us, and loves us is also with us.

Read Psalm 139: 1-18 about the God who won’t let you go, and remember: God loves you unconditionally!

Mike

Today’s reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139%3A+1-18&version=NRSV

If you wish to read about the books mentioned in today’s blog, go to:

1. https://smile.amazon.com/Day-Revolution-Began-Reconsidering-Crucifixion-ebook/dp/B01ARKFWSC/ref=la_B001H6NEG8_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491001029&sr=1-1
2. https://smile.amazon.com/Kingdom-New-Testament-Contemporary-Translation-ebook/dp/B004V5251M/ref=la_B001H6NEG8_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491001029&sr=1-10        
3.  https://smile.amazon.com/Runaway-Bunny-Margaret-Wise-Brown/dp/0064430189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491006477&sr=8-1&keywords=Runaway+Bunny