Hello First Family!

Today’s Code word is Wash! 

In this season that we are in with the COVID-19 pandemic, our global response has been a renewal to wash our hands and keep our distance from others. When we wash we focus on our hands to make cure they are clean and as germ-free as possible. Today, O.S. Hawkins focused on the hands of God and the way that He deals with His people. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the father let his son go. He did not force him to stay or guilt him into submission. He let him go with open hands and kept an open heart for him to return. God does the same thing with us. We are free to go in any direction that we want. Most of the time we are traveling in a direction that would lead us further from the Lord rather than to Him. He doesn’t force His hand and allows us to wander until we return to Him. O.S. Hawkins highlights the reason that God deals with us with an open hand, “Like the father in this story, your loving, heavenly Father has an open hand toward you. You are not a puppet. You are a person, with the ability to make decisions in life. And so, He lets you go . . . because the love you can voluntarily return to Him is indescribably valuable to Him.” What an amazing love our Heavenly Father has for us.

Today’s focus verse, in Romans 8:38-39, is a great reminder that no matter how far we travel away from God, NOTHING can separate us from Him, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Today, as you wash your hands, let it be a reminder of God’s love and care. See ya tomorrow on our Journey to the Cross!

Pastor Kevin