March 3, 2010 With numerical growth in our community we will each encounter growing pains, such as traffic congestion, increased pressure on our social services, water and sewage problems, overcrowded schools, etc. As we add a projected 112,137 people to our county we may have times that we view growth an newcomers as an enemy, but we must not. Instead we must see this growth as a mission opportunity. Ask God to teach us to pray for those people you pass by each day. Ask Him to calm the tensions of the drivers and to reveal Himself to them. Let’s learn to praise God for sending these people to us and ask Him help us be worthy of the task before us of loving each and everyone of the residents within our community to Jesus. 1 Praise the Lord.Praise the Lord, O my soul. 2 I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— the Lord, who remains faithful forever. 7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, 8 the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. 10 The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord. Psalm 146:1–10