Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday October 20TH 2024, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

It’s been an interesting past 2 weeks for me – starting with the build-up and widespread panic-buying and mass hysteria leading-up to Hurricane Milton. It made landfall early in the evening of Wednesday October 09TH 2024. I live between Sebring and Avon Park in northwestern Highlands County Florida. After making landfall as a Category-3 on Siesta Key near Sarasota (about 80 miles away) – it crossed the state in a general ENE direction. It passed about 30 miles to the northwest of here in southwestern Polk County (very near Fort Meade and Homeland – which I wrote about on a recent #TravelThursday).

Here in my neighborhood – we received maximum sustained winds of Tropical Storm force (45-60 MPH) with a few wind gusts approaching but probably not quite reaching Category-1 Hurricane force. We only received about 2 inches of rain here. We had scattered leaves, twigs, and small branches on our main ring road. Little to no structural damage was noted. Our neighborhood was built tough almost 40 years ago during the mid-1980s, and it has endured much worse than Hurricane Milton (such as a freak April 04TH 2022 hailstorm).

Many other parts of Florida in all different directions did not fare as well – with dozens of tornadoes, ferocious winds, and torrential rains (up to 20 inches in many locations along the Gulf Coast). A lot of Floridians lost everything from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Thank God for the good work of Samaritan’s Purse.

The biggest issue here in the local area were power outages. Highlands County was about 97% in the dark after the storm had passed. A portion of my neighborhood had its power restored on Friday morning. A majority of my neighborhood was out until Saturday afternoon. My power was restored after 63 hours and 34 minutes in the dark. That has inspired a sermon that I’m praying about and will soon be writing titled “63 & 34”. It was a very unique and quite peaceful “63 & 34” as I used God’s daylight to guide and direct me. I grew spiritually during that time – more so than any other time recently. I’ll share how so in my upcoming sermon. I really need to experience more “63 & 34” time – without the assistance of a power outage. I’m going to work towards that.

Psalm 107:29-31 (NLT):
He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves.
What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into harbor !
Let them praise the LORD for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them.

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.