Week 36: Gathering Them Home
Today’s Text: Psalms 105-107
Key Text: Psalm 107:4
“Some wandered in a desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.”
One of the most beautiful Psalms is the 107th. Why?
Because it speaks so eloquently of how the Lord’s love endures forever and how that love reaches out to those who need it most.
The Psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say this…”
Say what?
How God
- Reaches out to those who wander in desert wastelands
- Reaches out to those who are hungry and thirsty
- Reaches out to those who feel as if their life is ebbing away
- Reaches out to those who sit in darkness and the deepest gloom
I think that means those who are literally hungry, thirsty, ill, dying, imprisoned.
I think that means those who are, spiritually speaking, hungry, thirsty, ill, dying and imprisoned.
The Psalmist celebrates – and calls us to celebrate – that our Lord is in the business of gathering the lost home.
And we, his followers, his children, must be about that as well.
This of course means that the Church is called to reach out to the “lost” spiritually speaking.
This of course means we must be, first and foremost, a loving people who not only worship God but also happily and sacrificially join God in compassionate, caring ministry.
Otherwise…why do we even exist?
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By Paul Simrell
The Reverend Paul W. Simrell has served for over thirty years in a variety of congregational and institutional settings. He is a recognized minister with standing in the Virginia region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada and is nationally endorsed by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for specialized ministry in both pastoral counseling and chaplaincy. Ordained in 1982, he has served congregations in Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and Virginia. He currently serves as the pastor of Elpis Christian Church, a small, historic congregation located just a few miles west of Richmond, Virginia. Elpis is the Greek word meaning “expectant hope.” He also serves on the associate clinical staff of the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care, Richmond, Virginia, both as a pastoral counselor and a ministerial assessment specialist, specializing in executive, clergy and relationship coaching. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and Lexington Theological Seminary and has done advanced clinical training in chaplaincy and pastoral counseling at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, Children’s Medical Center and Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas and the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care in Richmond, Virginia. He is a Certified Pastoral Counselor, an ACPE Practitioner, and a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. He is a Certified Facilitator of the Prepare-Enrich relationship assessment and skills-building program and served as a volunteer chaplain for over twenty years with the CJW Medical Center campuses in Richmond, Virginia. His avocational interests include playing the piano and drawing. He is very happily married to his wife Elizabeth Yeamans Simrell, a free-lance writer, who is also a Certified Facilitator for the Prepare-Enrich program.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
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