Surviving swords and rest in the desert…

² This is what the LORD says:
“The people who survive the sword
will find favor in the desert;
I will come to give rest to Israel.”

He never takes his eyes off of His children.  Escape deserts and swords?  I don’t think so.  We all go through times where we work through tough times.

Those who were precious once and well favored, are still loved by our God.    He talks about surviving the sword and finding favor in the desert.  The last place one would look for favor would be after surviving the sword and being in the desert.   Yet anywhere He is, His grace can be found.

When you have HIM you have all you could ever wish for!

That “giving rest” stuff sounds pretty good to me…  To sit down…stop…rest…let the running end…let the desert be hidden in the oasis of His love…

And to think of all they have done.  They have rejected his ways.  They have run after other gods.  They have sought their own way.  It would have been enough for God to seek and destroy the whole lot of them.  However, HE made a promise to them.  He loves them.  He lavishes His love out on them.  Thank God He does.

That “Grace Thing” has been around a long time.

Sounds like He wants that for his children!

Major and Minor Surgery

¹ May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
Selah

They tell me (whoever “they” are) that minor surgery is when they are operating on your child.  Major surgery is when they are operating on my child.  I am reminded in a few minutes a family will gather at the outpatient surgical center and send their son off to the operating room to have his tonsils removed.  It will take them longer to knock him out and wake him back up than it ever will to take out his tonsils.  I plan on being there with them.  God will be gracious to them and bless them today and His face will shine upon us.  His gracious look is there with them.

My friends Ken and “Dee” Smith have walked through an interesting week where God was gracious to them and blessed them and made His face to shine upon them as well.  She had to have her gallbladder removed after a time of real struggle with elevated enzyme levels.  She had surgery late yesterday afternoon and at the last report was doing wonderful.

I am still thankful for Steve Lee who has seen the gracious hand of God, seen the blessings flow, and been one who has seen the Face of God shine down on him.  I remember Steve and the family as they wait in Marietta, GA as he recovers from serious surgery.

I have complete confidence that God will be gracious to me today and bless me and will make his face to shine upon me.  I want to see him today.  I long to watch for His face and hear His voice.

The verse is my prayer today!

¹ May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
Selah

I will surely save you out of a distant place…

²⁷ “Do not fear, O Jacob my servant;
do not be dismayed, O Israel.
I will surely save you out of a distant place,
your descendants from the land of their exile.
Jacob will again have peace and security,
and no one will make him afraid.

I remind myself this morning that I am self-centered.  On a good day, I like so many others, struggle to see who is really going to call the shots in my life.  I don’t have idols of myself in my home or pictures on the walls, but in honest reflection, I do long to do life my own way.  Yesterday while saturated in that great passage in Philippians 2, God said that he has exalted His Son and given him a name above all names – He called him LORD!  Boss, One who Calls the shots, sovereign authority.  I asked the class of senior adults to draw a circle in the middle of the sheet of paper and in that circle list the one who is actually in control of their lives.  They gave me the Sunday School answer and told me, “Why Jesus of course.”  Good answer.  There is always a struggle to do things in complete abandon to the Lord’s instructions or to do things my own way.  Since developing a relationship with him at age 11, I have discovered that he has never forced me to do  anything in that relationship.  He let’s me choose.  There are no robots in this wonderful relationship.  And to be honest with you I take advantage of my position in Christ in that since I am a child of God and cannot loose that status, and since I am a free agent in this relationship, I decide to do what I want to do.

When you observe what Israel had done, it is no wonder that God’s patience had run thin.  I have been reading through Jeremiah and hear the stomping of horses hooves as they are traveling toward the Israelites getting ready to kill and capture the whole lot of them.  I hear the clanging of the swords as they are being pulled from their sheathes and begin to be waved in the air waiting for battle.  The spears are up and the enemy is coming…you can hear it in the writings.  God has had enough.

His heart sings with restoration.  There is a price to pay for their disobedience.  However, the phrase, “I will save you from a distant place” sounded a note of hope in my own heart this morning.  I am reminded that He will restore…not all…but there is a remnant who will be restored.

I could never be more excited to remember that for every prodigal that goes off to a distant country wasting what was given to him, there is still the ability to come home.   For every woman who stands at the well there is still the chance to meet Jesus and watch her life and the lives of a town be changed.  For every woman who is drug up to the feet of Jesus caught in the act of adultery, there is still the promise of forgiveness and a future life that is bright.  For every demon possessed man who is chained in the grave yard there is the promise of peace and a productive future.  For every Lazarus who is dead…there still reigns the possibility of resurrection and another chance to face the future.  For every Nicodemus who will meet Jesus there is the promise that you can trade religion for a viable relationship with God that allows you to be born again…freed from the bondage of a religious background.  For every nation that walks away from the blessing of God there is still the promise of “I will save you from a distant place….there is hope in the future.  On and on the list could go this morning because the New Testament is filled with illustrations that promise a new life…even from a distant place.

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten–the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm–my great army that I sent among you”.  The promise of God from the pen of Joel gives a new touch to describing the restoring desire in the heart of God.  Thank God, He is making all things new today.

“Granny” Green and Jesus – Lessons at the grave!

…he came and took the body away. ³⁹He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

I woke up this morning tossing around in my mind the fact that I will bury Mrs. Green today.  She has been a part of our church since 1961.  She and her family has a stong legacy of faith that has been passed down to several generations.  There will be a gathering today at 2 p.m.  I call it a gathering because those who will miss her will be there.

The crowd followed Christ to the cross.  They watched him die.  They felt the darkness and heard the cries from our tortured Savior.  But isn’t it interesting only a few, that will truly cry when you die.  There were just a few that followed him to the grave.  Pilate gave them permission to take his body down and his friend Nicodemus followed them to the grave where they buried Jesus.

Sometime back I determined that I would find the few that would cry when I am gone and spend time – quality time – with that bunch.  I have a lot of acquaintenances but only a few friends.  I know people who know me on the surface.  But there are a few that know me and know my heart.  We have spent time together and it has changed both of us because of that relationship.  I was captivated by Nicodemus who as a great teacher staggered away from an encounter with Jesus that changed his life after Christ told him “…you must be born again!”.  His life changed.  I can tell it because he was there when they needed him the most.  He followed them to the grave.  He laid his body to rest.  Nicodemus was returning the favor.

Barbara McElveen and Shirley Hill will both get a glimpse of those whose lives have been impacted by their mother.  I will never forget a pocketbook full of Juicy Fruit gum.  I will never forget how she loved to hold children.  Here is a woman who had to quit school in the tenth grade because of having to help raise a her siblings and take care of a home, and then spent the greater part of her life making a difference in the lives of a church full of families by loving on their children.  We will get to see the difference one life makes.

I want to hang around the group of people who will cry when I am gone.  I am thinking of my dearest friends this morning and celebrating the fact that I have some that will follow me to the grave.  Our love is deep.  Our respect for one another is solid.  Our relationship is strong and growing richer.

Life is anything but boring!

⁷ He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

WOW!  I am amazed at the confidence that we can place in the love of our Lord toward us.  This morning as I sat and thought about what is going on around me of the verse in Proverbs that says for us to trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not to our own understanding…but in all of our ways we acknowledge HIM and HE will direct our paths (or make our paths straight).  What A God!  What joy there is in trusting in the Lord.

My friend Ken, is facing physical problems.  Complicating that his wife, Dee, is in the hospital in Florida needing her gall bladder removed on Monday.  Her enzyme levels which should be 30-50 were at 12,000.  It was critical.  People started praying and trusting in the Lord and the level is down to 120.  We are trusting the Lord that He will make that path straight where they can remove the gall bladder on Monday.  I have another young friend in the hospital whose life has been protected by God and we are trusting in the Lord for her complete recovery.  Steve is recovering in Marietta, GA and has God give him success through this tough surgery.  We are trusting in the Lord.  So many are hurting.  Our hope is in the Lord.  There is no One like our Father who daily shovels his blessings all over us.  We are a blessed people.  My cousin, Carol is still struggling with infection.  Oh, how I celebrate the grace and mercy of the One who is here pouring that over our life as we face each moment, each circumstance, through every situation.

Be still, My Soul

You are my hiding place…

I Know, LORD, that our lives are not our own.

²³ I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own.
We are not able to plan our own course.

A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord

1. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
   A wonderful Savior to me;
   He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
   Where rivers of pleasure I see.
   • He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock
     That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
     He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
     And covers me there with His hand,
     And covers me there with His hand.
2. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
   He taketh my burden away;
   He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved,
   He giveth me strength as my day.
3. With numberless blessings each moment He crowns,
   And, filled with His fulness divine,
   I sing in my rapture, oh, glory to God,
   For such a Redeemer as mine!
4. When clothed in His brightness, transported I rise
   To meet Him in clouds of the sky,
   His perfect salvation, His wonderful love,
   I’ll shout with the millions on high.

Maybe it is the day.  A friend of mine is on his way to face one more critical surgery.  He has cancer of the esophagus and will have MAJOR surgery tomorrow.  His actual surgery and recovery will be done, believe it or not, in the same hospital in which I was born.  Kennestone Hospital and Steve Lee will be dear friends for the next two weeks at least.  I am thinking of him tomorrow and remembering “… that our lives are not our own.  We are not able to plan our own course…”  I am remembering that we are cared for by our heavenly Father.  A wonderful Savior is Jesus our Lord.  He does hide my soul in the cleft of the rock especially as we face very critical days ahead.  We are not able to plan our own course.  I would have never wished cancer on Steve.  I would suspect that he never prayed for it.  However, our God, who is great beyond measure, is helping him get through these days ahead.  Only God knows and I choose to trust Him this morning.

My friend, Frank is dealing with cancer, recovering from thyroid surgery, and planning to go through a series of radiation treatments.  My friend Johnny is dealing with an illness that is stealing his life from him.   My friend Janice is dealing with the recovery process from brain surgery.  My friend Mary is learning to walk again after knee replacement surgery.  My friend Mark prays for his son and family.  My friend Tony has a grandmother who is struggling and a son whose arm is healing.  My friend Tammy is dealing with praying for her friend who has had a heart transplant while she is dealing with the condition of her own heart as she prepares her heart to send her son to Clemson.  I rejoice that my friend Jim is in heaven and that God is helping a whole family deal with the daily plans He has for them.  My friends Connie and Everett are both dealing with a family member with Alzheimer and needing a job for him.  My friend Brad is in Africa doing mission work.  And that is just a few of the ones that have to deal with the fact that God is at work even in tough circumstances.

And that’s just a few of my friends!

I am reminded again this morning to focus on the Father.  There are so many things we can focus upon.  Today I choose to focus upon HIM!  He is mighty.  He calls us to Himself.  The best thing I can do is to fall into his hands.  I trust Him today!

I want some of that ‘rest for your soul’ stuff!

¹⁶ This is what the LORD says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Yesterday I stood in our pulpit and read from the Bible, an ancient book given to us from the heart of God.  It has not been edited nor added to nor taken from in years.  This power packed Book is filled with stories and information with details that have not changed one bit.  It is incredibly old yet unbelievably new and fresh every day. What is so fresh about it is that people still respond to the message of the Scriptures.  People still can ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and can still walk in it, and yes, still find rest for their souls.

Ken Smith invited Anne Graham Lotz to share in a weekend in Wauchula, FL.  It was a big step for him and his church, especially since he has been there only a few short years.  However, he felt the leadership of God to bring her there.  He was faced with opposition from different places, which is to be expected when you are taking the message of Christ forward into a community.  The sting of it was that most of the opposition came from “religious” people, and I will leave it at that.  Hang in there with me… Anne spoke to over 16o people on Friday night, over 1000 on Saturday with 200 decisions following an invitation and then yesterday praise the Lord they had over 700 in worship.  Overall there were over 300 decisions for Christ in some form or fashion.  Pretty good weekend, huh? I guess so, if numbers can accurately indicate just the decisions, we are able to see, not to mention those who only God can see.  The impact of this weekend is still to be seen.

And she used some new presentation or technique?  I am certain that she stood up taking her place in the pulpit and  gave them some new thoughts on positive thinking or how to feel good.  NOPE!    Not Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham.  Guess what she did.  She formed her messages from places in that old ancient book, we call it the Bible.  John17 and Isaiah 6.  She spoke on how to study the Bible on Friday.  I am looking forward to the messages being posted on the website, so I can hear them as well.  The old ancient paths are still valid. She got the old ancient book out with its fire and heat and fanned the flame until it began to burn in her heart and the hearts of people gathered there.  The ‘rest for your soul’ is still available.

Stand at the crossroads and observe…just look!

The mystery of it all are the numbers of people (including myself at times) who look and ask…see the right way…and yet as an act of their own free will chose not to walk in it.  Why, then,  do we cry when we don’t find rest for our souls?  It’s not difficult.  His way is still the right way.  His guidance in life is still valid.    The context of this passage today was so interesting for it is seated in a warning of certain doom and destruction.  However, in the middle of that kind of warning comes a voice from heaven giving an option, old as it might seem, yet an option that is still as fresh and inviting as it ever was.  However, some still walk away from it.  They did yesterday and do every Sunday as the Word is preached and invitations are given.  They do it every day as they read the Scriptures for we are always standing at the crossroads with Jesus.

I hear him say, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…no man comes to the Father but by Me!  Oh, how I want some of that ‘rest for your soul’ stuff!  Bring the Fire Father!

It’s an Alabama Thang!

What is he trying to teach his class?

I forget.  He IS an Auburn Fan!

Lord, I’m Coming Home!

¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, “Even faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah! ¹² Therefore, go and give this message to Israel.^[a] This is what the Lord says:

“O Israel, my faithless people,
come home to me again,
for I am merciful.
I will not be angry with you forever.
¹³ Only acknowledge your guilt.
Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and committed adultery against him
by worshiping idols under every green tree.
Confess that you refused to listen to my voice.
I, the Lord, have spoken!

Bishop Patterson has a unique way of putting an old hymn in another perspective…I listen and smile and rejoice at the truth I can still come home…

I guess it was verse 12…come home.  I am so glad that we still can.  He has made a case of how faithless Israel has been.  How unfaithful that the people of God have been to their Lover.  Jeremiah is the mouth piece of God and calling to the people God loves the most and tells them to come home for He is a God of mercy.  Hearing the plea from God to come home pierced my heart this morning.  He still gives me another chance.

Confess – Admit – Acknowledge that you have done it…Acknowledge that you are worshipping other gods.  Everything in me rebells as admitting that because I am a preacher and I am writing this blog so other people can see.  Worship other gods?  I am reminded again this morning of a comment made in Amy Thompson’s testimony last week.  While in Romania one of the women who was blown away at her presence there knowing she has children and a husband in the states wrote her a note and stated that she was amazed that Amy loved Jesus more than her children.  Amy said she appreciated the note but was humbled by it because Amy knew the truth – she did not love Jesus more than her family.  She is obsessive compulsive about her children.  Challenged by her love for Jesus and watching her struggle over how that compared to her love for her children reminded me again that at all points in my life I have to ask myself consistently how much I love Jesus.  I come face to face with the fact that I love Jim.  I love what “I” want.  I have my own altars that I worship at.  Some of them look like a food bar at the local buffet.  Some of them are created simply to satisfy my own desires.

Again, as I prepare to worship and lead in worship with the greatest group of people in the world, I prepare my ownself by coming home to the Father.  A Father who takes me in His arms and loves me all the time, forgives me consistently, and uses me to His glory.  I am blown away because I can keep coming home where my heart is.

Old Sweet twittered yesterday – Know some ought-y people? Oughtiness next to haughtiness, then naughtiness. But gift of ought can also be gift of thought & wrought. I know I ought to confess and come home…but there are times when my pride gets in the way and I end up doing the very things that I should stay away from.  However, this morning God has called me to think that thing through and watch him bring out in me a walk that pleases the Father.

Repentance is the gift of God.

Sidebar – I have mentioned that I am praying for the event in Wauchula, FL with my friend Ken Smith who has had Anne Graham Lotz this weekend.  Friday they had a good number of preachers and leaders in the community and Anne Lotz spoke on how to study the Bible.   Last night there were two sessions at the church with over 1000 people present and over 200 decisions made, WOW!  Her husband Danny is to speak this morning during Sunday School and she will share in her final discussion with the church at 10:45 a.m.   I am looking forward to the report of how things went.  I will keep you in touch with it all. There are many victories that have come out of this single event for the Wauchula area.  God is so faithful in His work among His people.  Thank you Jesus!

I get in trouble when I dig my own!

¹³ “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

I am almost certain that this verse is for people in another town and living in another time for it certainly couldn’t be the reason that God stopped me at this verse this morning could it.  Diggin’ my own cistern…broken cistern that can’t hold water?  Nah.  That has to be for other people.

I remember cutting grass as a young man at a woman’s house who had an stream of water flowing out of the ground.  It was an amazing thing to me – an ever abundant never stopping supply of cool clear water.  When water is so vital to life, why would one leave the plush green place where the flow of water provided a pool of refreshment only to travel out into the arid desert and dig a cistern that could not hold water.  I was reminded of the son who told his dad that the days of his staying around the house were over.  He was on his way to find real joy in life.   His demands were answered as his father handed him money.  He went to the city and blew it all eventually ending up in a hog pen feeding the swine.  Why would he forsake his father, the spring of living water that provided for him, only to dig his own cistern – and a broken one at that.  Why is it that our tendency is to walk away from the spring of living water or better yet why is it that we forsake God?  His thirst was so bad that it drove him home to where the water was.  There waiting on him was his Father!

It is a good reminder to remember where the water is.  I faintly remember something in the Bible that states that a river of living water will come out from within us.  If I am not mistaken Jesus told a woman that if she would drink of the water that He supplied that she would never thirst again.  Her thirsty soul – dry because her desire to fill it with the broken cistern that she thought would fill the thirst in her life – was answered when she met the Living Water.  She drank.  Her thirst was so satisfied that she was able to be used of God to see a whole town come to know this living water.

Maybe it is because I have used every excuse in the book.  Maybe it is because in counseling people for 35 years I have heard every conceivable twist and turn on the old story of how people do what they do.  Maybe it is because I am a sinner and want to find my own way to do things.  But I am reminded again of the River of Living Water…  I am reminded again this morning to stay at the fountain…to get my thirst satisfied from that place alone.  There is nothing more refreshing than to drink from that fountain every day.

The lyrics are old.  There is no heavy metal that could wrap around this old song that I first heard Jimmy Swaggart sing…but to spare myself from his performance of the song, I am reminded of the lyrics…

• • There is a river that flows from deep within.
    There is a fountain that frees the soul from sin.
    Come to these waters, there is a vast supply.
    There is a river that never shall run dry.
  • There came a sound from Heaven, like a mighty rushing wind.
    It filled their hearts with singing and gave them peace within.
    The Master gave this promise, the Spirit will descend
    And from your inner being a river with no end.

    There came a thirsty woman, who was drawing from a well.
    Her life was ruined and wasted, her soul was bound for Hell.
    But then she met the Master, who told of her great sin
    And if you’ll drink this water, you’ll never thirst again.

    There is a river that flows from God above.
    There is a fountain, that’s filled with His great love.
    Come to the water, there is a vast supply.
    There is a river, that never shall run dry.
    That never shall run dry.

This little light of mine…shine!

⁴ We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.^[a] The night is coming, and then no one can work. ⁵ But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”

This is the command from the Father’s Son.  Context?  There is a blind man.  As a matter of fact, when you look at the actual account there are a lot of blind people there.  He has been that way from birth.  Jesus and his disciples are there.  And along with that fine bunch are floundering Pharasees.  What a special group of raunchy religious recalcitrants!   They never see the person only the rules.  They can handle the letter of the law but they miss the Law Giver!  He is standing right in front of them.  It is amazing how blind people with good eyes can be and how great people who are blind can “see” or perceive.  Physically blind is not so bad.  Being spiritually blind is deadly.

We have the privilege of having the Word of God so we are able to see the whole story.  I can imagine how difficult is was for the disciples to constantly face one miracle after another and try to grasp truth as Jesus taught it.  Obviously the disciples connected the sins of the parents of the child as a reason for this man’s blindness.  Jesus simply said he was blind for the glory of God!  And that is the long and short of it.  We are who we are because God made us that way.  I know that we all get to choose directions in life and we are products of our circumstances and situations in life.  However, in the wonder of God this man was born blind so that God would get the glory in it all.  Now the blind man is now seeing and a whole lot of people are having to deal with the power of God and the purpose of God.

Then he stated the part that caught me today…it has to do with the focus of the work ahead of me this day. ^“4 We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.^[a] The night is coming, and then no one can work.”  John 9 – The New Living Translation  We have today.  We have assignments.  We have to carry it out.  There are no others to do what we are assigned to do.  For me, my current assignment is to be a follower of Christ, a husband to my wife, a father to my children and daughter-in-law, a leader to my staff and a pastor to the church he has assigned me.  The time is now.  We cannot wait to do these tasks.

I am thinking of a friend, Ken Smith who is in Wauchula, Florida today.  His dear friend Anne Graham Lotz is there to speak to a group gathered today, tomorrow and on Sunday.  He has been faithful at his task.  His assignment has been tough but the work of God will be rich today.

I am thinking of Ken Sandifer who is in Costa Rica on a mission project.  His normal assignment is to care for the church family at First Baptist Church of Darlington.  He has some of that great church with him on this project.  His assignment is to do the work of God today.  There is no time to waste.  Oh that God would empower him and that group as well.

As Lenn Sweet said yesterday – At the end of my mission in life, I want to leave behind ashes, not dust bunnies…  Another one of my Facebook Friends, Tonya O’Neal, copied the following phrase that stuck with me as well when she posted – “”Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”

God, today I want to glorify you through how you made me.  Free me from religious laws that kill, steal and destroy and help me as I live in grace to see people the way you see them.   “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…”

It’s not where you have been, but where you are going…

¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

How Jesus loved people.  A group of men bring this woman “caught in the very act of adultery” into Jesus’ presence to try and trap him.  They did not care one ounce for the y0ung lady.  I guess it was easier that if their goal was to stone someone, then let’s stone a useless woman instead of going after the man who lay in the bed with her.  Here kneels the very One that made the ones doing the accusing, writing in the dirt that He made, loving a woman who was being accused by a large group.  She is a sinner among sinners.  But of course one becomes blind to their own sin when the focus is on other people.  They were excited that they had caught someone who could take the attention away from themselves.  Sinners forget they are sinners when they have a sinner to pick on.

I don’t know what he wrote in the dirt.  I doubt he drew pictures.  I wonder if he wrote the names of the men standing around this woman who had slept with her as well.  I don’t know and I could speculate all day long.  However, it was obvious that whatever he did, cleared the crowd out.  In the story it is the young men who are the slowest to learn.  The eldest left first.  Maturity has a way of putting things into perspective.  Experience is a powerful teacher.  No matter -  they left.

Now this poignant picture of Jesus standing there with this woman who had been dragged from the sheets to the street.  “Where are the folk that accuse you?”  She replied that she did not see anyone.  He looked at her and said, “Neither do I.  Go and sin no more!”  The God of the second, third, fourth, fifth…..chance.  WOW!  He can read our hearts.  He forgives.  He wipes the slate clean.

Here is a woman who needed a fresh start.  It is not the past that exercised the Lord.  However, the future of this young woman energized him to forgive her and aim her in the right direction.  I, too, am depending on that quality of our Lord as well today.

Sidebar about life! – This has been an interesting week so far.  I have officiated along with my dear friend Glenn Carter at the funeral of one of Southside’s friends, Hugh Benton.  I was struck by how God is able to come along side a family and help them deal with a difficult day.  I shared a few moments with Jim Nutter before driving to Darlington for the funeral.  Jim is a the McLeod Hospice House.  His weak body is catching up with him and the family is doing some of the best ministering in the world to him as they watch him make his way to heaven.  Just a few minutes ago I openned an email from Deborah Barnes informing me of Francis Therrell’s death.  She has been a part of my world for a long time here in Florence.  Her son, Frank Holmes has been my pharmacist and friend for years.  Mrs. Therrell used to be a member of our church.  I am not going to blame it on the moon being full, but that is the short list.  This doesn’t include the hurting and those in the hospital.  I am praying today for Francis Woodside who is dealing with a very sick daughter who happens to be my cousin.  Carol Woodside needs our prayers today.  God is so rich in how he makes daily provision for all of our needs.  May His name be praised.

They were eager to get him in the boat…

²¹ Then they were eager to let him in the boat, and immediately they arrived at their destination!

It is night and they are in a fishing boat.  There is nothing strange about that one.  They would fish all night.  However, they take off across the lake.  The Book says a gale came up and then they had to tough it out and row four miles.  Jesus comes along just walking on the water.  He’s God!  He can walk on what he made any old day.

They were never without Jesus.  He was there on the water.  They eagerly wanted him in the boat.  When he got in it said that “…immediately they arrived at their destination.”  That day their destination was across the lake but the journey was more important than getting there.

Why is it that it takes gales, rowing four miles, sweat and toil in the midst of the storms of life to get us to the other side?  Why not just “poof” and we are there?  I gues the journey is important.  I am not alone.  I may not be able to see him in my boat but with confidence he is here.

The phrase “…then they were eager to let him in the boat,” caught my attention this morning.  Sometimes I listen and trust and things go smooth.  At certain points in my own life, I am so stubborn or just not grasping it right and I have to learn life by ‘drinking out of the fire hose’ so to speak.  I wondered as I read this if a simple teaching on the other side of the lake would have been enough for them to learn the lesson.  I am confident that the struggles that I go through, develop in me a real eagerness to let HIM in the boat and when He “gets in” all things are OK.

Over the years I have seen gales and storms of cancer, illnesses, sick parents, house burnings, some horrible crime, accidents, etc. etc. etc., cause people to become eager to get Jesus in their boat.  I am glad that He lives.  I am glad that He lives IN me.  I get so tired of rowing and fighting the storms, so I decide to get Jesus in my boat and journey WITH HIM.  I will be honest enough to say that the school of education has been my best teacher in the storms of life…and after I have exhausted every ounce of energy in rowing in the storm against the wind for four miles…I am eager to get him in the boat.

I have an idea of what I am going to do today.  I don’t know when the next gale will blow or the next wave will slap up side my boat.  I can confess that I know he is here with me and I will trust HIM.

Religion Kills – Relationship with Christ Heals!

⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

It is fun to walk around with Jesus as he touches the lives of people. A man rejoices because after38 years,  he is no longer paralyzed.  He is free to move around.  He  can cause a change in the world.  However, it ticks off a bunch of religious people.

Religion is a dangerous thing.  Religion is man’s attempt to reach up to God and be acceptable before Him on the sole basis of what “I” do.  I was thrilled yesterday when Dr. Tim Spurling and Amy Thompson shared their testimonies of God’s work in Romania.  Both of them had a chance to testify to the nature of the orthodox church in Romania.  It is a religious nightmare.  Amy spoke of dealing with children, who had been taught all their lives that you get to heaven and please God by what YOU do.  Their religious orthodox church gives them plenty to do.  Tim spoke of a religious leader who found grace inviting and became a believer in Christ.  The opposition they have had over the past 12 years that they have been in Romania has come from the religious crowd.  The orthodox church has impacted so many people there.  All they know is religion and law – NO GRACE!  Wow.  They saw over a thousand people and one tenth became believers because of the labor of this medical team in the Romania area. In the base city where they slept there are over one hundred thousand people in the city and only 100 Christians.

This man in the scripture enjoyed meeting a Person that changed his life.  I thougth it was interesting as I read the passage that he was not the only one that was sick.  However, Christ found him.  And because of a relationship with Christ, the man was healed.  Christ really does care about people.  He did not sit in the counseling room waiting for people to make appointments to see him.  No sir, Grace found the hurting ones.  He, Christ (filled with mercy and love) found him.  Here is one who needed him – and CHRIST found the hurting one.  His life was changed.  He was free.  He was healed.  No demands.  No Worries…just free.

A relationship with Christ.  A living example of what God has done in reaching down to man.  Grace – God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.  Being in a relationship with a living Christ is the joy of celebrating almost moment by moment the gift of God not of what WE can DO to reach Him but of what HE DID for us.  We don’t earn it…just receive it!  And it ticks religious people off.

It was sad to me that the religious people could never get excited about people.  They didn’t rejoice that the young man was healed.  It did not phase them that one whose life was unproductive and needy was now back in society making a living and healed and whole.  They cared about whether or not the man was carrying his mat on the Sabbath.  God, please release me of all pressure to spend my time making sure the religious rules are kept.  Help me see people today and rejoice over what you are doing.

I am reminded again this morning that it really is about people!  Jesus died for people.  He came to heal people.

Yep!

I am Asking!

¹⁰ Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

Somehow in my mind, I see Jesus walk into Southside Baptist Church and see folk who have been sitting by a well all week long who have taken courage by the hand and wandered into a church house.  He still has conversations with people who are sinners and do things wrong.  He still meets them right where they are.  He does me!  And I am very grateful he is still going through Samaria to talk to folk.

Somehow this verse – ¹⁰ Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.” -  rings out in my own heart this morning.  If I could simply get a glimpse of how much God wants to meet us and open our hearts and pour His truth into us today as his special Bride.  There will be folk who because they are now saved have been supernaturally equipped to minister to each other.  Rick will be leading us in worshipping our God through singing.  There will be testimony of the power and grace of God exhibited in Romania by Amy Thompson.  We will have the joy of hearing the Word of God read out loud where we as a group of Christians will have the chance to hear our Father’s love letter read out loud.  IF WE ONLY KNEW…how much our heavenly Father wants to speak life into our hungry hearts.

I am asking.  I am tired of the stale and dry.  I want living water to fill my heart this morning.  God, let your Spirit come and communicate in power today.