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                    ||                       How beautiful on the mountains
                    ||                       are the feet of those ... who
                    ||                       proclaim salvation, who say to
                                             Zion, "Your God reigns!"
          Pastor RALPH & GENE ANN WOOD                  --Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
          E-mail:  randg.wood@encode.com
          FRESH MANNA, 02/05/1995, 10/05/1998 .............. JEREMIAH 13:16
          Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and
          before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye
          look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it
          gross darkness.   --JEREMIAH 13:16 (KJV)
             In the context of JEREMIAH 13, this verse is a warning to the
          kingdom of Judah to change their ways-- or get so benighted in
          spiritual darkness, that exile to Babylon would certainly ensue.
          But the metaphor used is one we can relate to, from experience!
             Too many times we've been out on some hiking trail, trudging
          along at the end of the day, trying to get to a campsite before
          dark. It's good for a husband's prayer life, I tell you, asking
          God over and over to grant it to you to reach the place He has
          chosen for you and your wife to spend the night in!
             The dusk of evening is the most melancholy part of the day, on
          the trail.  And times we've been pushing through that dusk to get
          down off some hill along Lake Superior, wondering, "How long can
          it be to that campsite?"  Another time, on Offa's Dyke Path, we'd
          come down from a Welsh mountain, into a town.  A town big enough
          that we expected to spend the night in a "Bed and Breakfast".  It
          didn't have one; just private houses.  So, out of town and up the
          next mountain.  The map showed a farm, where we might hope for a
          welcome to set up our tent in a field; but the trail went right
          past it, well out back of the enclosing walled compound.  Yet God
          has always granted us a place to stay for the night; only once
          have we actually had to set up our tent -in- the dark.
             But, if the dusk of evening is hard, on the trail, how bitter
          to bear is the dusk of what once was a great nation.  We dwell in
          an officially Christian country, The "Dominion" Of Canada, whose
          motto is, "From Sea To Sea", deliberate allusions to PSALM 72:8 &
          ZECHARIAH 9:10.  A country whose geography fits these prophecies
          of Christ's millennial dominion, literally!  But, we have fallen
          away from our first love; and God has begun to withdraw material
          blessings-- maybe, to catch our attention before nightfall.
             And praise God, many -are- giving glory to God.  Revival -has-
          started; and many are praying, and working, for more revival, in
          more places!  Wherever -you- live; won't you also pray and work
          for revival, before it gets too dark to pray or to work!   --RLW
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