Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

     What is your favorite color?  your favorite flavor of ice cream?  your favorite TV show?  your favorite season?
     These types of questions - as simplistic as they may be - have the ability to excite our senses.  Who can help but bring to mind their most cherished memories of eating ice cream as a child or seeing a sunset (or sunrise) and the colors God paints in the sky.  When we are asked what our favorite anything is, our senses give us the answer.
     So what is your favorite scripture verse?  Do you have one?  For me it is not an easy decision.  But now that we are entering into the summer season, my heart - and my senses - are drawn to a verse that is near and dear to me.  Let me share it with you: 
     For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in pace:
     the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song,
     and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
                    Isaiah 55:12
     It is so easy for me to sit back and just revel in that verse.  Its poetry is far beyond anything I've ever read.  I can sit here in the parsonage and look out the windows and see the mountains and hills "bursting into song" and hear the rustle of the leaves, as the trees dance in the warm winds.  How can I do anything but experience joy and peace, as the verse says.
     (The poetics of the verse are so applicable to our land - even though it was written in the dry, arid Middle East.  If Isaiah could only know how true his words are - even thousands of miles away.)
     So this is what amazes me about the Bible:  it has the power to literally excite our senses.  I hope you'll take the time and prove me right:  simply by reading the Bible, our five senses can be excited.  Just as I can hear the rustling of leaves and "hear" the hills breaking forth into song, YOU can have a similar experience with another verse.
     The Bible is an absolutely amazing book.  It provides us with direction and spiritual stability.  It shows us the way to salvation in Christ.  But it also can warm our hearts with its poetry.  So take a look in your Bible.  Find a verse that literally speaks to you through your senses.  And thank God for those very same words - and the senses you have to experience those words. 
Marcia and I wish you a warm and beautiful summer season,

Pastor Jon