Love and Dominion

   From Psalm 103 this morning:

   "Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion."
   The word that caught my eye was "dominion", and, as I walked, I thought about what all that entailed.

   The dictionary defines that word as "sovereignty or control", and I see it as encompassing the whole universe, not just our planet, but definitely that. There is not a place on earth that God is not in control. It sure may look like it sometimes, take for example Syria today, where violence and bloodshed reign, but if God is not sovereign there, He is not God, with a capital G, at all.

   I think of a friend of ours, a girl in our church, who is traveling today toward a 5 week stay in Africa. She will be working way out in the bush, in a small orphanage, with some kids who have little in the way of material goods, but who are in the process of being saved and ministered to in the name of Jesus. These are kids that had little hope of a life at all, until they were rescued from a situation that was far from their control. Most had either been abandoned to the streets by parents who could not care for them, or left without parents because of the ravages of disease in that part of the world.

   God's dominion stretches to that village in Africa. He is in control of those people who serve there, and those who do not know He even exists. He has plans for each and knows their names. Our friend travels there to show God's love to those who are forgotten by the world, but not by Him. He has put those kids on her heart, and she goes to obey the call.

   When she was asked why she was going so far away, in mileage and in comfort and lifestyle, she answered "I'm just going to love on those kids for a few days". No high-powered agenda, no reward except the faces of those she loves on and the knowledge of her service for a Savior that she loves above all.

   So I pray for Stella today. Praying that God will protect her in her travels, in her stay way out there in the bush, and bless those kids through her. He alone is sovereign, even there.

   May I have that kind of love for all the people that come into my life today.