"Day or Night, He Guides Us"

"He spread a cloud for a covering; a fire to give light in the night." (Psalms 105:39)
Oddly enough, it is our perception, not God's! We might be able to place something in between God and ourselves, but God and His deep love for us is not affected by idols. They might wreck our lives and our relationship with God, but that is simply from our perspective, not His. It is a pretty scary thing, this salvation we have been given. Does it all depend upon what Christ did for us, or are we dependent upon our own actions? Does what we do even matter at all? I would tend to think that our actions are basically reactions to the love that He reveals in our hearts. That was my whole point about hope making us stronger. It is really nothing that we have within our selves; unlike what the world would want us to think. The Light of Jesus that shines within our hearts, that is the power that overcomes the darkness, to not only help us see the truth, but it also lights the way; the Way being the way in which we are headed. Do you not realize that God guides His people whether or not they are faithfully serving Him, or even whether they are being held captive in a foreign land? His people are always His people; just as, if you are His child, then you have always been His child, and you always will be. Pastor Jon was speaking about some pretty heavy stuff yesterday; something about space and time continuum, and how it is that when we die, we are instantly in God's presence, even though the resurrection may or may not have yet taken place. That is some pretty freaky stuff, but in God's time table, time does not exist; it might be something that has an affect upon us, in the here and now, but it has not affect on us in the here after. It just hurts my head to even think about it. I guess what it is that I am trying to say, is that we are His children no matter where we might disappear into or what we might get mixed up in; in the light or in the darkness, we might feel different about Him, but He never changes His feelings about us. And because He never does change, He continually will guide us! You think you can get yourself into something that He does not know about, think again! We might think that we can play games with God, but He holds all the cards and He makes the all the moves. He paints the masterpiece, we are simply the paint that He applies. Our red and our green make brown; the black and the white make grey; but when it is all said and done, everything will be His way...
""But our ancestors were proud and stubborn, and they paid no attention to your commands. They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles you had done for them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt! But you are a God of forgiveness, glorious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them, even when they made an idol shaped like a calf and said, 'This is your god who brought you out of Egypt!' They committed terrible blasphemies. "But in your great mercy you did not abandon them to die in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud still led them forward by day, and the pillar of fire showed them the way through the night. You sent your good Spirit to instruct them, and you did not stop giving them manna from heaven and water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell!"" (Nehemiah 9:16-21) NLT