SLAVIC GOSPEL ASSOCIATION

Innercircle Perspective

With Your counsel You will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory (Psalm 73:24).

This is an awesome verse. It expresses the Lord’s eternal love, compassion, and faithfulness to His own. It is a phenomenal, forever guarantee from the sovereign Creator and God of the universe. In His Word, the Bible, He says that He has taken hold of our right hand and is continually with us on earth . . . and when it is His perfect time for each of us, He will welcome us into heaven.

The Bible is replete with references to His constant guidance to those who belong to Him . . . those who have repented of their sins and trusted in His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, as their Savior and Lord. It was these wonderful promises from God that kept the faithful Christians from giving up during the 73 years of communist oppression in the last century. From pastors and fathers being taken in the night to never be heard from again, to children being made fun of at school, higher education being denied, and employment opportunities being severely limited, life was a continuum of one grievous experience after another. But the Lord was faithful to guide them through it all. They had Him, His love, His promise of heaven, and they loved one another. They needed nothing more!

The Bible talks about how He calls the stars by name and perfectly leads them, as well as how He guides the 88 constellations. The nations are always in an uproar, and the peoples are always devising vain things, but the king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes . . . It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings . . . For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God . . . And He will give the nations as an inheritance to His beloved Son, and the very ends of the earth as His possession. And, repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem . . . and then the end will come.

For their disobedience, the Israelites had been banished to wander in the wilderness for 400 years, but the Lord did not forsake them. In His great compassion He sent them a pillar of cloud to guide them by day and a pillar of fire to guide them by night . . . to light for them the way in which they were to go.

As the Lord guides the stars and even the constellations, He guides all the nations . . . and always will. As His chosen ones, we can rest in these great truths. But there is much more. It is personal. He calls His own sheep by name. His perfect Word is filled with promises that He will guide each one of us. There need only be one such promise, but His love and care for us is so great that He has given us many such promises. Space limits me to sharing just a few of them for your encouragement.

For such is God, Our God forever and ever; He will guide us until death (Psalm 48:14). He who has compassion on them will lead them And will guide them to springs of water (Isaiah 49:10). And the LORD will continually guide you (Isaiah 58:11).

The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed (Deuteronomy 31:8). For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). I am continually with You (Psalm 73:23).

As we press on together through 2008, may these promises from our Heavenly Father be a constant source of comfort, encouragement and strength to you. Your precious partnership in the Gospel made manifest in your faithful prayers and support enable us to keep going forward for His glory. We can never thank you enough!