for you delighted in them

In 1939, in the shadow of World War II, about a dozen people began to meet and study the Bible in Mosherville Station, a village that no longer exists.   A few years later they converted a barn into a chapel in nearby Omega, another village that no longer exists.

But the church still exists. And thrives. Such are the wonders of God’s Providence.

We celebrated that miracle last week at Countryside Bible Church with a special service, with stories and song. We are not so old as a congregation that we can not hear from folks who were there at the beginning. Psalm 44 says:

“O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you have performed in the days of old.”

The Psalmist was careful not to take any credit. The preservation of God’s people is the Lord’s own doing and for His own glory. He has planted His people and He has set them free, we are told.

“For not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them,” he says. This is certainly true of Countryside, which has survived messy church splits, doctrinal divisions, economic hardships—and still the Lord has blessed:

“Nor did their own arm save the, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of Your face, for you delighted in them.”

It’s good to remember.

It is even better to understand what you remember.