My heart has been touched by many of you in the past few weeks and I am asking the Lord to anoint me in such a way that I might be able to encourage you in your daily walk with Jesus. I know that the major thing needed in all of our lives is to know that we know we are connected or abiding in the Lord. I also know that this is the greatest desire of God for each of us. One of the last prayers that Jesus prayed to the Father is for us to be one with them.

"I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me." (John 17:20-21)

The Lord is working in each of us to bring us to the place where He and Adam were in the beginning. The major stumbling block to this walk is our inability to walk in faith. Jesus addressed this weakness in Peter as they walked back to the boat together. I had a glorious vision of some sort one morning of this walk back to the boat. These two men were walking together, arm in arm and the loving Christ was talking to Peter about his faith. The Holy Spirit quickened the following verse to me as I watched them walking on the waves.

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and He delights in his way. When he falls, he shall not be hurled headlong; because the Lord is the One who holds his hand." (Psalms 37:23)

Peter's steps were ordered by the Lord that day when He told Peter to "come" and what we must grasp is that it was a delight to the Lord to see Peter get out of the boat and take off walking towards Him. Sure, we see Peter stumble around some as he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to observe the waves but we also see Jesus coming to his aid and holding his hand as they walked back to the boat. The joy that Jesus was experiencing that day did not stop when Peter stumbled. It was a joy and delight to Him to be able to grasp Peter by the arm and lift him up and to continue their walk together.

While I was in Israel recently I observed the grape vines that are in the dormant stage this time of year. It is amazing that each grape vine is trained to make a cross. I asked Ruby to sketch this scene for us and I pray that each of us will be able to grasp our place of abiding in Him. It is in Him that we will find everything that we are looking for in life. Our lives can be fruitful in every area and we can only find abundance. We must learn how to cooperate with the vinedresser and this comes through yielding. May God grant us special grace as we take another look at this Abiding opportunity in Him in the next few e-pistles. Glory!

Thanks for continuing to order our soap and lip balm and other items on our web site. Here is a recent testimony from a happy user. "As I began to use the soap my skin felt better and I have noticed that my feet no longer peel. As I use the soap I pray for the healing of my body through the soap, and I also thank you for the Lip Balm." http://www.samaritanfoundation.org/product.htm

Thanks for being here with us in our walk together in Jesus.
Blessings, Homer Owen.

www.samaritanfoundation.org
homer@samaritanfoundation.org