Why Should We Care About This Stuff Anyway?

The heat has arrived early this year.  It's only mid-June and already we are approaching temperatures over 100 degrees!  It may surprise and dismay us, but God is not surprised or worried because He is sovereign and very much in control.  That is one truth that is reinforced as we continue our journey through the 8th Chapter of Daniel,  But first we gathered in our cool sanctuary to join our hearts and voices in corporate worship and praise.  After the welcome from Daniel McGinty, the choir, orchestra and all our dedicated accompanists presented a contemporary song called "Mercy Tree", that begins on a solemn note remembering Christ's death on the cross and ends with the triumphant declaration that He has risen and He is alive! After that, the congregation joined in singing a couple more songs, before Pastor Wes led us into Daniel 8, another chapter of the prophecies of Daniel.  I have only put selected verses into the collage and I would recommend reading the chapter yourself and watching the Live-stream.  You may wonder why we are hearing sermons on this part of the Bible on Sunday morning.  Many pastors would be hesitant to preach from it, but Pastor Wes has said that if it is in the Bible, then God wants us to know about it.  God is faithful to preserve, protect and prepare His  people for living in a broken world where there is still suffering and tragedy and persecution.  We, as Christians, are not exempt from it nor are we to be pulled away from what God says is right by our popular culture that says we can make things work out if we just compromise a little,  When life gets loud and God seems silent, we should rest on what He has already said in His Word.  Pastor Wes lays it all out much better than I can in the Live-stream and he wraps it all up by saying that we don't get to choose the times we live in, but we do get to choose what we do with the time we are given........Today is Father's Day in the United States and I am blessed to still have my father who is 93.  I may add a picture in the extras later....