• Home
  • GracEmail Ministry
    • What is GracEmail?
    • Latest GracEmail
    • frequently asked questions
    • GracEmail Category Index
  • Written Ministry
    • Articles
    • Special Bible Studies
    • Books
    • Online Books
    • Worship Resources
    • Interviews
  • Videos
  • About
    • The Personal Pages
      • Photo Albums
    • My Professional Life
  • Contact

Edward Fudge Ministries

Joyously drawing water from the springs of salvation Isaiah 12:2-3

You are here: Home / GracEmail / our response to God's salvation / ACTION FOR GOD'S SAKE / daily work / WHAT GOD TOLD ME, BESIDE A LAKE IN MAINE

WHAT GOD TOLD ME, BESIDE A LAKE IN MAINE

WHAT GOD TOLD ME, BESIDE A LAKE IN MAINE

Edward Fudge

mainefoliageAround me, red, orange and yellow leaves flutter silently to the ground, contributing their variegated tones to the multicolored October carpet. The blue sky and white clouds appear twice this morning, first in the sky and then in the mirror stillness of the lake. I hear a splash. A fish breaks the water’s surface to snatch some breakfast morsel. A wild goose circles in majestic observation overhead. From the small island in the center of the lake comes the unmistakable cry of a loon.

Behind me up the hill a thin column of smoke rises from the chimney in the borrowed cottage where Sara Faye and I are enjoying part of a week’s vacation in Maine, after a busy weekend that included seven speaking appointments in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. A smooth rounded boulder provides a seat for my view this morning, here beside the lake. The air is crisp and clean. My cup of coffee comforts by its warmth as well as by its aroma and taste. I cannot imagine a more perfect setting for a daily mediation.

For several years I have followed a devotional plan recommended by Billy Graham, which takes me through the Psalms once every month. Today is October 11, 1995, which means I read Psalms 11, 41, 71, 101 and 131. I praise God as I turn in my New American Standard hardback Bible. “Please speak to me, Lord,” I beseech, ” as I open your Word. And thank you so much for this magnificent place!”

What a contrast to my usual surroundings in metropolitan Houston, Texas. There are no 40,000 vehicles jamming the freeway this morning, not here in Maine. No crazy drivers, to whom a turn signal is an invitation to cut me off. No oppressive humidity, no depositions or trials or interrupting phone calls. No impatient clients, or obstreperous adversaries, or management crises. Why can’t I just stay right here on this rock, I wonder, immersed in such peace and quiet? Is there any way to carry some of this tranquillity back to the place I am presently called to live and work?

Then He speaks — through the words of Psalm 71:3. “Be Thou to me a rock of habitation, to which I may continually come.” I pause to absorb the Word. GOD is my source of peace, I realize, and He is present always and everywhere. HE is my “rock,” and I can turn to Him in any situation and be refreshed — on the freeway, in the conference room, at the courthouse — wherever I happen to be.

Today two enlarged photographs of that lakeside scene hang framed in my house, one in the front foyer and one in my bedroom. They stir beautiful memories each time I view them. But they also remind me of a greater truth and a more permanent reality than even this beautiful creation. That reality is the Creator of it all. For now I know that, whatever my physical surroundings or circumstances, God himself is my “rock of habitation, to whom I may CONTINUALLY come.”

Filed Under: daily work, GracEmail, nature and travels, prayer, the inner life

Search

SEARCH more than 1,200 gracEmails by verse or word below:
Enter a term in the search box and press enter. You can also further restrict the search to a sub-category by using the drop-down menu.


Sign Up to gracEmail

Click HERE, then fill in the blanks and click “Subscribe.”

Or send a completely BLANK email to:
join-edwardfudge@injesus.netatlantic.com

  • Home
  • Site Map
  • Latest GracEmail
  • Written Ministry
  • About
  • Contact

Copyright © 2023 Edward Fudge Ministries · KT Websites · Log in