It’s that time of year once again…
The time when resolutions abound, as folks pledge to lose weight; have a better attitude; be diligent in Bible reading and prayer; spend more time with the family; give while the spirit if giving is on them; eat the ‘right’ foods; quit all disgusting habits; exercise; remove all clutter and distractions from their lives; and more…
Some may think that it is silly and even wrong to make such resolutions, for though the intentions of the individual may be all so sincere, before the new year can even begin, all good intentions usually fly out the window.
However, it is my humble, and admittedly biased opinion, that resolutions are a good thing, if that for only for a few moments it causes us to think on ways of improving our personal and spiritual lives…that doesn’t seem like such a bad thing to me.
And though the saying goes that “the road to yon lower regions is paved with good intentions,” this still should not prevent us from at least looking for ways to a better and more fulfilling life.
It occurred to me the other day that my New Year resolution will be based on a familiar portion of the Word, The 23rd Psalm. The Living Bible is my favorite rendering of these passages…
Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need!
He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He gives me new strength. He helps me do what honors him the most.
And there we have it…my New Year resolution is simply and clearly to do what honors Him the most.
It is not a goal I cannot attain. The choice is mine to make, whether to do what honors Him the most or to follow my own will and way.
When the waitress gets my order completely wrong, and when she neglects to refill my glass of Coke, without being asked; when my little world is turned upside down and today doesn’t seem to be ‘my’ day; when the attitudes of the crowd I am with scream for me to return their ugliness with an even worse attitude, there are questions to be asked…
At the height of whatever situation, am I allowing the abiding Spirit of Christ to help me to do what honors Him the most?
Is the Lord pleased with my conversation, or have my words hindered His work and will?
Does my attitude gender peace or strife?
If the Lord is truly my Shepherd, and I have everything I need…if He really lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside quiet streams…and if He really does give me strength, restoring my failing health, am I honoring Him in all I do and say?
There is a quote that I love, and I have decided that this shall be my mantra for 2011...
Every thing we do - every conversation, every action, every attitude, either adorn or obscure the Gospel.
My hope is that you make this your prayer this year…
Lord, let my every word, action, thought, and attitude adorn your precious Gospel, and may the world see the beauty of Your purpose in me!
Have a blessed New Year, doing what honors Him the most!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Unforgettable
There used to be a regular feature in the old Reader’s Digest periodical titled My Most Unforgettable Character. It was my favorite part of the magazine and the first thing I read when it came each month.
But in the last two weeks I have wondered if the folks who sent in their article had to think about it long and hard before they chose their most unforgettable character. Perhaps they pondered it over in their mind, finally coming up with interesting stories and anecdotes.
Well, if anyone should ever ask who my most unforgettable character is, the answer would come quickly and sincerely. I don’t have to sit and conjure up funny stories to hold your attention, for his voice is forever with me, and my memory is long...very long.
My most unforgettable character was not well known, as far as worldly recognition goes. Barbara Walters wouldn’t think to mention his name on her yearly broadcast of The Year’s 10 Most Fascinating People and Larry King never called him for an interview.
He never sang for the President or preached in a cathedral. He never made the Forbes 400 list of wealthy men in America. As a matter of fact, if he had a dollar in his pocket, he would spend it on you or me.
It was said at his passing that “he was the most under appreciated man” they had ever known. I believe that is true, but it was mainly because he wasn’t seeking appreciation or accolades. He was just being himself…a gentle giant, full of laughter and love.
A friend of his said that he “pushed others to the front of the line when he should have been the one leading the way.” It was because he wasn’t interested in applause for service well done or titles and positions of honor. His joy was in seeing others climb to the top. He chose to influence by standing in the background, mentoring in quietness and humility.
He served so discreetly, the right hand never really knew what the left hand was doing.
And though not a flashy dude, when he walked…let me rephrase, when he burst into a room, he had our undivided attention. He made everyone feel at home in his presence, and never discriminated…he would tease children and seniors, laity and bishops. No one was off limits, yet he always showed the utmost respect.
He was forever touching somebody, and his hugs were lethal. He would sit down beside me and kinda lean over, with his big hairy arms smothering me…I’d say, “Boy get off of me…you are so hot!!” But he didn’t care, and he would keep on hugging and laughing.
One of a kind…that was my brother, David.
In the past few days, I have tried to find the words to describe who he was. Please forgive a loving sister for viewing him through 'Rose colored glasses'…
Peacemaker… He longed for peace at every level of his life. David couldn’t stand turmoil and strife.
Servant… He learned the gift of serving from our parents, but David took it to the extreme. He would give when he did not have it to give. Though tired from working two, and sometimes three jobs, He continued to work at the church and in prison ministry because it was his passion.
Loyal… David stood shoulder to shoulder with his pastor, even when it was unpopular to do so, and he loved the pastor’s family as his own.
Funnyman… His humor would surface it the oddest moments, but it would always be when it was needed most…
For example, when our nephew, John, passed, David broke the grief stricken silence with a corny joke. It relieved the tension, if only for a moment, and that, of course, was his goal.
Another time, as we stood by the grave of two dear friends, a teenaged David was asked how he was doing. David’s reply to the elder was, “I’m okay…I’m just looking for a church to take over!”
As an alternate juror, David wasn’t allowed an opinion…until they asked for one. He entertained a room full of jurors, so much so that the Bailiff came to the door to see what the noise was all about. After they rendered their verdict, the jurors asked the judge if they could have a reunion…several of them did meet later for dinner.
David held the attention of young men waiting for ministerial license so well, that when his older brother said they had to leave and get on the road, the preachers said, “You can go, but leave him here with us!”
At his home going service, someone told me how she always asked to work with David at the polls on election day…polling can be so boring, but not when one worked with my brother. This past election, when his ‘dance card’ was full, the woman told her husband that she would not volunteer without working with David.
Unforgettable, in every way…
Husband and father…He loved his wife and children very much. Kingdom work is a delicate thing, and family life equally as delicate. Finding the balance between the two is tricky, and not always attained. In hindsight, I’m not sure if he ever found that place of perfect balance, but I know he tried…in his own way, I believe he tried with all of his heart.
Son… When our dad went in for the diagnosis we all dreaded to hear, David was there. He used up all of his vacation time that year, but spent it at home with his dad. His devotion for our mom never wavered, and I know she would say, “David was a good son!”
Brother… Always available, whatever the need. When dad was in the hospital and I fell on the ice, breaking an ankle, David was here before nightfall. He stayed several days, at my beck and call, and laughed about my ‘demands’ for years afterward…of course, I think he exaggerated just a tad in the retelling. And when our sister in law’s father passed, David drove four hours for a one hour service, then drove back home. He made us laugh and he made us cry…he was uniquely David.
Brother in law… David's sisters in law loved him as a brother, and their grief is as real and heart wrenching as any sibling.
Uncle… His nieces and nephews were all there and wept as though he had been their own father. His love for them was returned 100 fold, and then some.
Everybody’s kin…Oh, my word! David had more brothers and cousins than the Kennedy’s!
But he could not have loved Dan & Tarrah Mundy, Reg & Tammi Nevitt, Luke & TJ St. Clair, Dan Hill, Brian Spooner, America Nevitt, and Shayla Bailey Adams any more than if they had been blood. That was SO David. He just simply loved, and they all loved him!
Pastor… That is what those he ministered to called him, “Pastor!” In 18 + years of teaching and preaching to men confined to prison, David probably saw every thing imaginable and heard stories beyond description. But he loved what he did and he made a difference. There are men, free though behind bars, with many more on the outside, living and preaching the gospel, all because my brother showed them the Way!
And now he is gone…
There is a hole in my heart which can never be filled, but I rest in the assurance that one day, and it can’t be too long now, we will meet again!
But in the last two weeks I have wondered if the folks who sent in their article had to think about it long and hard before they chose their most unforgettable character. Perhaps they pondered it over in their mind, finally coming up with interesting stories and anecdotes.
Well, if anyone should ever ask who my most unforgettable character is, the answer would come quickly and sincerely. I don’t have to sit and conjure up funny stories to hold your attention, for his voice is forever with me, and my memory is long...very long.
My most unforgettable character was not well known, as far as worldly recognition goes. Barbara Walters wouldn’t think to mention his name on her yearly broadcast of The Year’s 10 Most Fascinating People and Larry King never called him for an interview.
He never sang for the President or preached in a cathedral. He never made the Forbes 400 list of wealthy men in America. As a matter of fact, if he had a dollar in his pocket, he would spend it on you or me.
It was said at his passing that “he was the most under appreciated man” they had ever known. I believe that is true, but it was mainly because he wasn’t seeking appreciation or accolades. He was just being himself…a gentle giant, full of laughter and love.
A friend of his said that he “pushed others to the front of the line when he should have been the one leading the way.” It was because he wasn’t interested in applause for service well done or titles and positions of honor. His joy was in seeing others climb to the top. He chose to influence by standing in the background, mentoring in quietness and humility.
He served so discreetly, the right hand never really knew what the left hand was doing.
And though not a flashy dude, when he walked…let me rephrase, when he burst into a room, he had our undivided attention. He made everyone feel at home in his presence, and never discriminated…he would tease children and seniors, laity and bishops. No one was off limits, yet he always showed the utmost respect.
He was forever touching somebody, and his hugs were lethal. He would sit down beside me and kinda lean over, with his big hairy arms smothering me…I’d say, “Boy get off of me…you are so hot!!” But he didn’t care, and he would keep on hugging and laughing.
One of a kind…that was my brother, David.
In the past few days, I have tried to find the words to describe who he was. Please forgive a loving sister for viewing him through 'Rose colored glasses'…
Peacemaker… He longed for peace at every level of his life. David couldn’t stand turmoil and strife.
Servant… He learned the gift of serving from our parents, but David took it to the extreme. He would give when he did not have it to give. Though tired from working two, and sometimes three jobs, He continued to work at the church and in prison ministry because it was his passion.
Loyal… David stood shoulder to shoulder with his pastor, even when it was unpopular to do so, and he loved the pastor’s family as his own.
Funnyman… His humor would surface it the oddest moments, but it would always be when it was needed most…
For example, when our nephew, John, passed, David broke the grief stricken silence with a corny joke. It relieved the tension, if only for a moment, and that, of course, was his goal.
Another time, as we stood by the grave of two dear friends, a teenaged David was asked how he was doing. David’s reply to the elder was, “I’m okay…I’m just looking for a church to take over!”
As an alternate juror, David wasn’t allowed an opinion…until they asked for one. He entertained a room full of jurors, so much so that the Bailiff came to the door to see what the noise was all about. After they rendered their verdict, the jurors asked the judge if they could have a reunion…several of them did meet later for dinner.
David held the attention of young men waiting for ministerial license so well, that when his older brother said they had to leave and get on the road, the preachers said, “You can go, but leave him here with us!”
At his home going service, someone told me how she always asked to work with David at the polls on election day…polling can be so boring, but not when one worked with my brother. This past election, when his ‘dance card’ was full, the woman told her husband that she would not volunteer without working with David.
Unforgettable, in every way…
Husband and father…He loved his wife and children very much. Kingdom work is a delicate thing, and family life equally as delicate. Finding the balance between the two is tricky, and not always attained. In hindsight, I’m not sure if he ever found that place of perfect balance, but I know he tried…in his own way, I believe he tried with all of his heart.
Son… When our dad went in for the diagnosis we all dreaded to hear, David was there. He used up all of his vacation time that year, but spent it at home with his dad. His devotion for our mom never wavered, and I know she would say, “David was a good son!”
Brother… Always available, whatever the need. When dad was in the hospital and I fell on the ice, breaking an ankle, David was here before nightfall. He stayed several days, at my beck and call, and laughed about my ‘demands’ for years afterward…of course, I think he exaggerated just a tad in the retelling. And when our sister in law’s father passed, David drove four hours for a one hour service, then drove back home. He made us laugh and he made us cry…he was uniquely David.
Brother in law… David's sisters in law loved him as a brother, and their grief is as real and heart wrenching as any sibling.
Uncle… His nieces and nephews were all there and wept as though he had been their own father. His love for them was returned 100 fold, and then some.
Everybody’s kin…Oh, my word! David had more brothers and cousins than the Kennedy’s!
But he could not have loved Dan & Tarrah Mundy, Reg & Tammi Nevitt, Luke & TJ St. Clair, Dan Hill, Brian Spooner, America Nevitt, and Shayla Bailey Adams any more than if they had been blood. That was SO David. He just simply loved, and they all loved him!
Pastor… That is what those he ministered to called him, “Pastor!” In 18 + years of teaching and preaching to men confined to prison, David probably saw every thing imaginable and heard stories beyond description. But he loved what he did and he made a difference. There are men, free though behind bars, with many more on the outside, living and preaching the gospel, all because my brother showed them the Way!
And now he is gone…
There is a hole in my heart which can never be filled, but I rest in the assurance that one day, and it can’t be too long now, we will meet again!
Unforgettable in every way
And forever more, that's how you'll stay
And forever more, that's how you'll stay
Thursday, December 9, 2010
No Room
O the joy of Christmas!
Christmas trees, making a list and checking it twice, giving gifts to those near and dear, eggnog (for those who like it), fruitcake (ummm…no!), family, Nativity scenes, caroling, ringing of bells, cards in the mail, crowded stores with endless Christmas music, Santa, elves, Rudolf and the sleigh, snow...
Charlie Brown’s one-bulb tree (I have one and love it!), lights and tinsel, frosted sugar cookies (no sprinkles for me, thanks), the smell of evergreen, Christmas themed movies replayed again and again, hearing Nat Cole’s The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting…), Bing Crosby crooning White Christmas, the smell of honey baked ham (and the taste, too!)…
It all signals one thing…Christmastime is here!
But of all of the things listed above that ring of Christmas, I would dare say, the most overlooked display of the season is the Nativity. It is possible to look at it, and think, How sweet and precious that Nativity scene is! But in our excitement of Christmas, perhaps we miss how it really was.
Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale Of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” and it was no different on that night in Bethlehem.
Without question, it was the best of times because it was the birth of our Lord. To think that the God of all creation would prepare Himself and body and dwell among us…marvelous is He!
But it was also the worst of times…
To begin with, it was not the silent night we so fondly sing about, for the village of Bethlehem was far from quiet on that holy night.
There was the crush of people weary of travel, as the decree came that all the known world should return to their place of birth to be taxed and counted in the census…
Perhaps many unable to find accommodations ended up sleeping on the streets with the camels and donkeys…
The cry of merchants surely could be heard well into the wee hours of the morning, hoping to make an extra dollar with the need of the hungry masses…
Little children were crying out in the night for their parents attention…
And into this overcrowded and noisy situation we find a man and his very young wife, great with child.
Luke writes that there was “no room for them in the inn,” and we have always assumed he was speaking of a hotel of some sort. Certainly not a Ramada type inn of bed, bath, and cable television, but a simple place of respite from travel. Probably a bed, wash basin, and not much else.
However, the Greek word for inn used in Luke’s telling of the birth of Christ is not the same Greek word he used in relating the story of the Samaritan taking the injured man to an inn (Luke 10:34).
Luke’s actual words were, She wrapped Him in cloth and laid Him in a corn crib, as there was no room in the guest room (Luke 2:7).
In other words, it leaves us to wonder if perhaps Luke wasn't referring to an inn at all, and merely that Joseph and Mary were hoping to stay with family or friends...for whatever reason, the guest room was already taken, so there was no room.
We will never know the real reason there was no room, but let us ‘reason’ it out…
Perhaps family members were already booked to the max and simply could not find even a corner for another boarder.
This idea is so foreign to me. Coming from a large family, I know that there are times family come to town, and if there is no room, we make room. Not so in Bethlehem, or so it seems.
Another possibility is that just maybe they were shunning them because Mary was not married to Joseph at the time she found she was pregnant. And though married when they arrived in Bethlehem, that Joseph would not publicly humiliate or judge her certainly would not sit well with those who closely followed the letter of the Law.
Yet not wishing to leave Mary to deliver her child by the side of the road, someone offered their stable…
It was not a barn with a semi-clean loft or the quaint open-air corral that we see depicted, but was a dark, damp cave where animals were kept. Can you imagine the smell of such an enclosed place?
I am the question girl...
Did they even have a candle or lantern? Did they have their own blankets or were they offered one from their family? Did someone bring them a basin and clean linen or did Joseph have to ‘make do’ with the water he carried with him on the journey? Did anyone assist him or was Joseph left alone to help Mary bring the Savior into the world?
Though her soul had magnified the Lord with the knowledge of what had happened to her, Mary was just a young girl. So, even though she and Joseph had heard the word of the Lord from the angel, one wonders what thoughts were going through their minds? Where was her mother? Why did no one come to their aid? I cannot imagine how they felt…perhaps Mary thought, At least it is a covered and private place.
And into this place of most unsatisfactory conditions, the King of Kings was born!
Mary wrapped her baby in strips of cloth, as was the custom, in order to keep the infant’s limbs straight. She then laid Him in a manger…a corn crib…a feeding trough for animals. Not quite what the man had in mind when he built it, and certainly not an appropriate resting place for a newborn, not to mention our Lord.
But so it was that a babe was born, and they called His Name Jesus…
His only visitors that night were men of a most lowly position in society. They were humble shepherds, keeping watch over their flock. Historians believe that by reason of being yet in the field with the sheep, it had to have been between April and September when the angels of the Lord appeared unto them bringing glad tidings that the Savior was born.
The Scriptures do not say that they followed a star, so one has to wonder if the star was merely a sign for the Magi to follow two years later, when they found the young child and his parents in their home (Matthew 2:11 ).
What is known is that somehow they found Mary, Joseph and the babe in the stable. When the shepherds saw all that was told by the angels, they told it to all around, but the reaction of the people was one of wonder and not worship. It was one continuous display of no room on that wonderful night…
As someone said long ago, “And so it is today…no room!”
There is room for “houses, land, and pleasure.” We make room for gadgets and entertainment…room for people and distractions of every sort…room for chatter and nonsense…room for working and relaxation…room for grief and regret…room for family and friends…room for bitterness and strife…room for loving and being loved…room for personal agenda and programmed performance…room for wasted moments.
“But for the One who reigns forever, there’s no room today…”
People's lives and hearts can become so overcrowded with the clutter of this present world that there is no room left for Jesus.
And for some, it is not so much the general clutter, as it is the circumstances of life. As I was reminded in Sunday School recently, not everyone is full of the joy of the season. The hustle and bustle, not to mention the expense, is not so joyous for those without a job.
Others dread this time because of memories of Christmases past. Perhaps they have gone through a divorce, or have suffered the emptiness the death of a loved one can bring. Even in a crowded mall or a festive dining room, the pangs of loneliness can be a terrible thing.
All of this, and more, can crowd our hearts so that there is no room for the One who knows us best and loves us most.
But please allow me today to encourage your heart. Let us turn everything over into the loving hands of the Master. He is asking us to lay it all down at His feet, and simply let Him reign.
He who sees and knows all recognizes our pain and disappointment. He is there in the midst of our financial woes. He feels our grief and despair. He is here!
Please make room for Jesus today, not just in this time of celebration of His birth, but for always. May the Peace and Joy of Christmas dwell in you, and may you rejoice with exceeding great joy!!
Christmas trees, making a list and checking it twice, giving gifts to those near and dear, eggnog (for those who like it), fruitcake (ummm…no!), family, Nativity scenes, caroling, ringing of bells, cards in the mail, crowded stores with endless Christmas music, Santa, elves, Rudolf and the sleigh, snow...
Charlie Brown’s one-bulb tree (I have one and love it!), lights and tinsel, frosted sugar cookies (no sprinkles for me, thanks), the smell of evergreen, Christmas themed movies replayed again and again, hearing Nat Cole’s The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting…), Bing Crosby crooning White Christmas, the smell of honey baked ham (and the taste, too!)…
It all signals one thing…Christmastime is here!
But of all of the things listed above that ring of Christmas, I would dare say, the most overlooked display of the season is the Nativity. It is possible to look at it, and think, How sweet and precious that Nativity scene is! But in our excitement of Christmas, perhaps we miss how it really was.
Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale Of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” and it was no different on that night in Bethlehem.
Without question, it was the best of times because it was the birth of our Lord. To think that the God of all creation would prepare Himself and body and dwell among us…marvelous is He!
But it was also the worst of times…
To begin with, it was not the silent night we so fondly sing about, for the village of Bethlehem was far from quiet on that holy night.
There was the crush of people weary of travel, as the decree came that all the known world should return to their place of birth to be taxed and counted in the census…
Perhaps many unable to find accommodations ended up sleeping on the streets with the camels and donkeys…
The cry of merchants surely could be heard well into the wee hours of the morning, hoping to make an extra dollar with the need of the hungry masses…
Little children were crying out in the night for their parents attention…
And into this overcrowded and noisy situation we find a man and his very young wife, great with child.
Luke writes that there was “no room for them in the inn,” and we have always assumed he was speaking of a hotel of some sort. Certainly not a Ramada type inn of bed, bath, and cable television, but a simple place of respite from travel. Probably a bed, wash basin, and not much else.
However, the Greek word for inn used in Luke’s telling of the birth of Christ is not the same Greek word he used in relating the story of the Samaritan taking the injured man to an inn (Luke 10:34).
Luke’s actual words were, She wrapped Him in cloth and laid Him in a corn crib, as there was no room in the guest room (Luke 2:7).
In other words, it leaves us to wonder if perhaps Luke wasn't referring to an inn at all, and merely that Joseph and Mary were hoping to stay with family or friends...for whatever reason, the guest room was already taken, so there was no room.
We will never know the real reason there was no room, but let us ‘reason’ it out…
Perhaps family members were already booked to the max and simply could not find even a corner for another boarder.
This idea is so foreign to me. Coming from a large family, I know that there are times family come to town, and if there is no room, we make room. Not so in Bethlehem, or so it seems.
Another possibility is that just maybe they were shunning them because Mary was not married to Joseph at the time she found she was pregnant. And though married when they arrived in Bethlehem, that Joseph would not publicly humiliate or judge her certainly would not sit well with those who closely followed the letter of the Law.
Yet not wishing to leave Mary to deliver her child by the side of the road, someone offered their stable…
It was not a barn with a semi-clean loft or the quaint open-air corral that we see depicted, but was a dark, damp cave where animals were kept. Can you imagine the smell of such an enclosed place?
I am the question girl...
Did they even have a candle or lantern? Did they have their own blankets or were they offered one from their family? Did someone bring them a basin and clean linen or did Joseph have to ‘make do’ with the water he carried with him on the journey? Did anyone assist him or was Joseph left alone to help Mary bring the Savior into the world?
Though her soul had magnified the Lord with the knowledge of what had happened to her, Mary was just a young girl. So, even though she and Joseph had heard the word of the Lord from the angel, one wonders what thoughts were going through their minds? Where was her mother? Why did no one come to their aid? I cannot imagine how they felt…perhaps Mary thought, At least it is a covered and private place.
And into this place of most unsatisfactory conditions, the King of Kings was born!
Mary wrapped her baby in strips of cloth, as was the custom, in order to keep the infant’s limbs straight. She then laid Him in a manger…a corn crib…a feeding trough for animals. Not quite what the man had in mind when he built it, and certainly not an appropriate resting place for a newborn, not to mention our Lord.
But so it was that a babe was born, and they called His Name Jesus…
His only visitors that night were men of a most lowly position in society. They were humble shepherds, keeping watch over their flock. Historians believe that by reason of being yet in the field with the sheep, it had to have been between April and September when the angels of the Lord appeared unto them bringing glad tidings that the Savior was born.
The Scriptures do not say that they followed a star, so one has to wonder if the star was merely a sign for the Magi to follow two years later, when they found the young child and his parents in their home (Matthew 2:11 ).
What is known is that somehow they found Mary, Joseph and the babe in the stable. When the shepherds saw all that was told by the angels, they told it to all around, but the reaction of the people was one of wonder and not worship. It was one continuous display of no room on that wonderful night…
As someone said long ago, “And so it is today…no room!”
There is room for “houses, land, and pleasure.” We make room for gadgets and entertainment…room for people and distractions of every sort…room for chatter and nonsense…room for working and relaxation…room for grief and regret…room for family and friends…room for bitterness and strife…room for loving and being loved…room for personal agenda and programmed performance…room for wasted moments.
“But for the One who reigns forever, there’s no room today…”
People's lives and hearts can become so overcrowded with the clutter of this present world that there is no room left for Jesus.
And for some, it is not so much the general clutter, as it is the circumstances of life. As I was reminded in Sunday School recently, not everyone is full of the joy of the season. The hustle and bustle, not to mention the expense, is not so joyous for those without a job.
Others dread this time because of memories of Christmases past. Perhaps they have gone through a divorce, or have suffered the emptiness the death of a loved one can bring. Even in a crowded mall or a festive dining room, the pangs of loneliness can be a terrible thing.
All of this, and more, can crowd our hearts so that there is no room for the One who knows us best and loves us most.
But please allow me today to encourage your heart. Let us turn everything over into the loving hands of the Master. He is asking us to lay it all down at His feet, and simply let Him reign.
He who sees and knows all recognizes our pain and disappointment. He is there in the midst of our financial woes. He feels our grief and despair. He is here!
Please make room for Jesus today, not just in this time of celebration of His birth, but for always. May the Peace and Joy of Christmas dwell in you, and may you rejoice with exceeding great joy!!
No room
No room for Him
No room to let Him in
No room for Jesus
In the heart He made
Just for Him
No room for the King of Kings
Room for others and for other things
But no room for Jesus
In the heart He made
No room
Room for houses, land, and pleasures
Room for things that pass away
But for One who lives forever
There's no room today
No room for the King of Kings
Room for others and for other things
He just keeps knocking
But He hears you say
"No room!"
--Lanny Wolfe
No room for Him
No room to let Him in
No room for Jesus
In the heart He made
Just for Him
No room for the King of Kings
Room for others and for other things
But no room for Jesus
In the heart He made
No room
Room for houses, land, and pleasures
Room for things that pass away
But for One who lives forever
There's no room today
No room for the King of Kings
Room for others and for other things
He just keeps knocking
But He hears you say
"No room!"
--Lanny Wolfe
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Have a blessed day!
Clichés and oft repeated catch phrases are nothing new, for main stream society or the Church…
I vividly recall the first time this really struck home for me. It was a Wednesday evening in Pasadena, Texas, and the year was 1972. In an effort at trying to win my heathen soul, Buddy Thompson said, “Barb, tonight can be the first day of the rest of your life.”
It is a rather outdated expression today, but it made enough of an impact that after lo these many moons since that night, the words ring loud and clear.
Some frown upon such expressions, but I don’t think they are so bad. As a matter of fact, sometimes they can have a most unexpected effect.
Case in point…a few weeks ago I was on my early morning Walmart run for groceries. Trust me that before the rest of the world wakes from slumber is the best time to frequent Walmart.
So there I was, loading my goodies on the conveyor, when the young lady at the cash register asked something I’m sure she has asked a zillion times to a zillion customers…“How are you this morning?”
I could have said, “Fine,” or “Glad to be here before the coyotes get up,” but I didn’t say either of those things. Very simply and without fanfare I said, “I’m blessed, thank you…how are you?”
How many times have I answered cashiers in the same manner…no real thought behind it…just making a blanket statement?
True enough, I am blessed, but I don’t think I have never really said it with the intent of conveying to the hearer the glad tidings that I am indeed blessed beyond what those words can reveal.
It was really no different on this particular morning. The young lady responded to my question of her condition of life, by saying, “I’m fine…” It wasn’t but a moment later that she said, “Ya know what? I’m going to say like you…‘I’m blessed, too!”
This woke me from my routine of writing the check with one eye closed to one of opportunity. There was no one in line behind me, so it gave us a chance to talk about the blessedness of waking up this morning. We talked about the fact that regardless of how many cranky customers come her way, she is still blessed.
I asked where she went to church, and when she said she attended Metropolitan Baptist Church, I was able to tell her that I knew some of the members there. It gave us a connection. As I told her the church I used to attend, which is how I knew her church family, it opened a door of opportunity to share.
The expression on her face had totally changed by the time I pushed my cart and walked away, and it all began with a simple phrase…I am blessed!
It doesn’t take much to make a difference in someone’s day. For the young lady in Walmart, it was nothing at all, or so it seemed to me. I did not have to overextend myself. Speaking positive words did not cost me anything. She did not even ask me for anything, but what I gave made all the difference in the world…even if just for those few moments.
Several months ago, I was at the takeout window at Mickey D’s, and I could see that the young lady had been crying. Though there was a lineup behind me, I asked if I could help her in some way. She said that there was a personal matter that was troubling her.
The impatience of those in line behind me necessitated that I hurry, but I said that I would pray for her that very day. Pray I did, for as I pulled to the next window, I whispered her name to the Lord.
A few days later, I pulled up to the same window and the same young lady was there. I don’t think she even remembered me, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the change in her appearance, and the tone in her voice.
We have a chance…sometimes only a slight window of opportunity to water the ground. I didn’t have time to give a Bible study that day, but I did have a moment to water the soil of her heart, allowing that someone could come along and plant the seed.
I believe that, I really do. We don’t have to see folks coming to our church for water baptism to speak a word. They may never come to our local assembly, but we can make a difference, and soften or break up a heart that has been hardened by the cares of life.
So allow me to encourage you today to seize the moment. When the window of opportunity is there to speak a word of blessing, be careful to respond. Our attention at being a blessing just could possibly even save someone’s life…who can say, for we may never know the despair a person may be in at the moment they cross our path.
We have been blessed to be a blessing. Let us remember, not just in this holiday season of warmth, but throughout the year to let the world experience the blessing of a blessed day…
I vividly recall the first time this really struck home for me. It was a Wednesday evening in Pasadena, Texas, and the year was 1972. In an effort at trying to win my heathen soul, Buddy Thompson said, “Barb, tonight can be the first day of the rest of your life.”
It is a rather outdated expression today, but it made enough of an impact that after lo these many moons since that night, the words ring loud and clear.
Some frown upon such expressions, but I don’t think they are so bad. As a matter of fact, sometimes they can have a most unexpected effect.
Case in point…a few weeks ago I was on my early morning Walmart run for groceries. Trust me that before the rest of the world wakes from slumber is the best time to frequent Walmart.
So there I was, loading my goodies on the conveyor, when the young lady at the cash register asked something I’m sure she has asked a zillion times to a zillion customers…“How are you this morning?”
I could have said, “Fine,” or “Glad to be here before the coyotes get up,” but I didn’t say either of those things. Very simply and without fanfare I said, “I’m blessed, thank you…how are you?”
How many times have I answered cashiers in the same manner…no real thought behind it…just making a blanket statement?
True enough, I am blessed, but I don’t think I have never really said it with the intent of conveying to the hearer the glad tidings that I am indeed blessed beyond what those words can reveal.
It was really no different on this particular morning. The young lady responded to my question of her condition of life, by saying, “I’m fine…” It wasn’t but a moment later that she said, “Ya know what? I’m going to say like you…‘I’m blessed, too!”
This woke me from my routine of writing the check with one eye closed to one of opportunity. There was no one in line behind me, so it gave us a chance to talk about the blessedness of waking up this morning. We talked about the fact that regardless of how many cranky customers come her way, she is still blessed.
I asked where she went to church, and when she said she attended Metropolitan Baptist Church, I was able to tell her that I knew some of the members there. It gave us a connection. As I told her the church I used to attend, which is how I knew her church family, it opened a door of opportunity to share.
The expression on her face had totally changed by the time I pushed my cart and walked away, and it all began with a simple phrase…I am blessed!
It doesn’t take much to make a difference in someone’s day. For the young lady in Walmart, it was nothing at all, or so it seemed to me. I did not have to overextend myself. Speaking positive words did not cost me anything. She did not even ask me for anything, but what I gave made all the difference in the world…even if just for those few moments.
Several months ago, I was at the takeout window at Mickey D’s, and I could see that the young lady had been crying. Though there was a lineup behind me, I asked if I could help her in some way. She said that there was a personal matter that was troubling her.
The impatience of those in line behind me necessitated that I hurry, but I said that I would pray for her that very day. Pray I did, for as I pulled to the next window, I whispered her name to the Lord.
A few days later, I pulled up to the same window and the same young lady was there. I don’t think she even remembered me, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the change in her appearance, and the tone in her voice.
We have a chance…sometimes only a slight window of opportunity to water the ground. I didn’t have time to give a Bible study that day, but I did have a moment to water the soil of her heart, allowing that someone could come along and plant the seed.
I believe that, I really do. We don’t have to see folks coming to our church for water baptism to speak a word. They may never come to our local assembly, but we can make a difference, and soften or break up a heart that has been hardened by the cares of life.
So allow me to encourage you today to seize the moment. When the window of opportunity is there to speak a word of blessing, be careful to respond. Our attention at being a blessing just could possibly even save someone’s life…who can say, for we may never know the despair a person may be in at the moment they cross our path.
We have been blessed to be a blessing. Let us remember, not just in this holiday season of warmth, but throughout the year to let the world experience the blessing of a blessed day…
Saturday, August 28, 2010
The Power of A Witness
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of seeing old friends at a reunion. It was not a high school or ‘family reunion’, as in a connection by virtue of a natural bloodline, but we are family nonetheless. People who were members of the church where I grew up came from across the nation for a one-day event, and we had a wonderful time.
During those bygone days, they were all saved and I was the rebel, so it was sure nice to not only see them again after 40 years, but to see them through the eyes of God’s grace.
Heritage is a glorious thing and not something to be cast aside like a worn or outdated tennis shoe. It means something, and I am grateful for those who showed me the Way. Being with them and seeing their faces brought a flood of memories, and all of it good.
When the day was done, and my family members were rehearsing the events of the day, one of my brothers shared a conversation he had with Fred Wilson. Fred is a pastor, and we hadn’t seen him in what seems like forever.
Richard and Fred were discussing the connection that our families share, and the story goes like this…
It begins with a little girl, born February 19, 1898, the eldest of six children. Her name is Sophia Prieur, and she had two sisters (Zelia and Mary), and three brothers (Joe, Richard, and Charley).
At the tender age of nine Sophie’s mother died, and her father remarried three months later...the 19 year old babysitter no less.
Nine year old Sophie was forced to quit school and help take care of the family. Her story is one of a hard life, and I know it well…Sophie was my grandmother. Grandma would sit and relate her life history for hours on end, and she never seemed to grow tired of telling it. I know I never grew weary of hearing it.
Her family were French-Canadian and Catholic, but they were not what some would describe as ‘good Catholics’, meaning, though baptized as babies, they were not especially religious.
I don’t remember hearing too much about that, but I clearly remember Grandma describing how she came into Holiness, and again, it was a story that she loved to share.
You wouldn’t look at her and think that she was great. She never taught a Sunday School class and only had a third grade education, yet she knew the most important thing anyone can know…she knew who Jesus is and the importance of walking carefully before Him.
In relating these stories to us, she was instilling a love for truth and heritage, though I am sure that she never realized it. When she passed away, she did not have the riches of this world to leave us. However, Grandma bequeathed to us the greatest inheritance of all…she left us the Word.
None of our aunts and uncles on my dad’s side were ever saved, or their children, but all of Sophie’s grandchildren have been baptized in Jesus Name and Spirit filled, and three are preaching the gospel.
Eleven of her sixteen great grandchildren have also followed in this Way, and there are now six great-great grandchildren…one great-great grand was just baptized a few weeks ago, 7 year old Rylee.
Now, for how Grandma’s life story relates to Fred Wilson…
Grandma’s youngest brother, Charley, had a neighbor by the name of Johnny Wilson, Fred‘s dad. It was the late 1940’s and Johnny and his family came 'North' (I assume because of the factory jobs).
One day Uncle Charley, Johnny, and Johnny’s brother in law, Barrett Burnett, were talking about church and all that it involves. Uncle Charley told them that he didn’t go, but his sister went to a Sanctified church, and that she was the one they needed to speak to about this.
They all went to meet Grandma, she invited them to church, and there they remained for many years. Their families grew, giving their lives to the Lord and His service.
Along with Fred, Barrett’s son and Fred’s cousin, Ron Burnett, is a minister of the gospel.
I wonder where we would be if she had not shared her story with us? What if she had not witnessed to her unsaved brother about the Lord Jesus? Would any one in the Burnett/Wilson families be saved today? Perhaps, but who knows and who can really say?
What is certain is that she told it, and in doing so, she changed the destiny of many, many people. Only eternity will reveal the lives that have been redeemed because of a little lady who loved to tell a story.
And so it was that in a pavilion in Flushing Park, on an extremely hot August afternoon, two preachers were once again repeating this story.
My brother, Richard, told Fred that the strangest part of the story is that our Uncle Charley never came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Grandma’s story impacted him enough that he knew where to send others, yet he never gave his life to the Lord.
Brother Fred said, “That is the power of a witness!”
Those words have wrung in my spirit since I heard them…The power of a witness.
When I think about witnessing, the word expectation comes to mind. Grandma shared the Good News with her brother and his wife with the expectation that they would respond. And I believe that that was the Lord’s expectation, as well, for He desires that all men come to repentance.
But above and beyond our limited expectations, the Lord’s view is great. He sees the whole, while we see through eyes of us four and no more. So it was that God saw farther down the road than Charley and Jenny Prieur to a world impacted by hearing His Word.
I do not believe in coincidence, but I do believe in divine arrangements. That is why I can say with surety that it wasn’t by chance Johnny and Barrett brought their families to Michigan, nor was it luck that Johnny and Uncle Charley were neighbors.
It was the Word of God manifested before their eyes….
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (Isaiah 55:8-9).
The testimony of a sister to a brother carried tremendous weight in the Spiritual realm, and still does. The power of a witness reached past a third grade education and the unrepentant heart of a brother, and did not return again void. In it’s wake it found fertile ground in which to grow and produce much fruit.
Uncle Charley was a believer…an unsaved believer. Today we link believers as Christians, all in the same chain, but many people believe without ever coming to repentance. It is true that belief denotes an action, but my uncle did respond, just not in the manner my grandmother expected.
His action to the testimony he saw and believed first hand to be real was to share it. When questioned about a church, Uncle Charley did not fall back in silence, but pointed to the Cross.
That is the power of a witness. It will cause even the unrepentant to say, "I know there is a Way..."
We can't be moved by their seemingly lack of interest, for God sees the end from the beginning. We may look at this person or that one and think that they would be a good soldier for the Lord…“If they just heard the Word!” But the truth of the matter…God sees the heart and the final outcome.
That is why it is so important that we not neglect to witness of His saving grace, for we never know whom the Lord will use to carry the Gospel. That He used a stammering little Frenchman in such a marvelous way speaks to the power of the Word.
And so we have it…
A little lady with a testimony touched countless lives, and never knew it. She thought her life was unimportant and no one would remember her after she was gone. But she had a testimony…
A little man believed the testimony, but never responded in faith for himself. For whatever reason, he could not or would not come to salvation. But he shared the testimony…
Two men took the Word presented to them and gave it to their families. Today their descendants are sharing the truth of God’s grace and mercy…and the testimony never ends.
This is the power of a witness!
During those bygone days, they were all saved and I was the rebel, so it was sure nice to not only see them again after 40 years, but to see them through the eyes of God’s grace.
Heritage is a glorious thing and not something to be cast aside like a worn or outdated tennis shoe. It means something, and I am grateful for those who showed me the Way. Being with them and seeing their faces brought a flood of memories, and all of it good.
When the day was done, and my family members were rehearsing the events of the day, one of my brothers shared a conversation he had with Fred Wilson. Fred is a pastor, and we hadn’t seen him in what seems like forever.
Richard and Fred were discussing the connection that our families share, and the story goes like this…
It begins with a little girl, born February 19, 1898, the eldest of six children. Her name is Sophia Prieur, and she had two sisters (Zelia and Mary), and three brothers (Joe, Richard, and Charley).
At the tender age of nine Sophie’s mother died, and her father remarried three months later...the 19 year old babysitter no less.
Nine year old Sophie was forced to quit school and help take care of the family. Her story is one of a hard life, and I know it well…Sophie was my grandmother. Grandma would sit and relate her life history for hours on end, and she never seemed to grow tired of telling it. I know I never grew weary of hearing it.
Her family were French-Canadian and Catholic, but they were not what some would describe as ‘good Catholics’, meaning, though baptized as babies, they were not especially religious.
I don’t remember hearing too much about that, but I clearly remember Grandma describing how she came into Holiness, and again, it was a story that she loved to share.
You wouldn’t look at her and think that she was great. She never taught a Sunday School class and only had a third grade education, yet she knew the most important thing anyone can know…she knew who Jesus is and the importance of walking carefully before Him.
In relating these stories to us, she was instilling a love for truth and heritage, though I am sure that she never realized it. When she passed away, she did not have the riches of this world to leave us. However, Grandma bequeathed to us the greatest inheritance of all…she left us the Word.
None of our aunts and uncles on my dad’s side were ever saved, or their children, but all of Sophie’s grandchildren have been baptized in Jesus Name and Spirit filled, and three are preaching the gospel.
Eleven of her sixteen great grandchildren have also followed in this Way, and there are now six great-great grandchildren…one great-great grand was just baptized a few weeks ago, 7 year old Rylee.
Now, for how Grandma’s life story relates to Fred Wilson…
Grandma’s youngest brother, Charley, had a neighbor by the name of Johnny Wilson, Fred‘s dad. It was the late 1940’s and Johnny and his family came 'North' (I assume because of the factory jobs).
One day Uncle Charley, Johnny, and Johnny’s brother in law, Barrett Burnett, were talking about church and all that it involves. Uncle Charley told them that he didn’t go, but his sister went to a Sanctified church, and that she was the one they needed to speak to about this.
They all went to meet Grandma, she invited them to church, and there they remained for many years. Their families grew, giving their lives to the Lord and His service.
Along with Fred, Barrett’s son and Fred’s cousin, Ron Burnett, is a minister of the gospel.
I wonder where we would be if she had not shared her story with us? What if she had not witnessed to her unsaved brother about the Lord Jesus? Would any one in the Burnett/Wilson families be saved today? Perhaps, but who knows and who can really say?
What is certain is that she told it, and in doing so, she changed the destiny of many, many people. Only eternity will reveal the lives that have been redeemed because of a little lady who loved to tell a story.
And so it was that in a pavilion in Flushing Park, on an extremely hot August afternoon, two preachers were once again repeating this story.
My brother, Richard, told Fred that the strangest part of the story is that our Uncle Charley never came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Grandma’s story impacted him enough that he knew where to send others, yet he never gave his life to the Lord.
Brother Fred said, “That is the power of a witness!”
Those words have wrung in my spirit since I heard them…The power of a witness.
When I think about witnessing, the word expectation comes to mind. Grandma shared the Good News with her brother and his wife with the expectation that they would respond. And I believe that that was the Lord’s expectation, as well, for He desires that all men come to repentance.
But above and beyond our limited expectations, the Lord’s view is great. He sees the whole, while we see through eyes of us four and no more. So it was that God saw farther down the road than Charley and Jenny Prieur to a world impacted by hearing His Word.
I do not believe in coincidence, but I do believe in divine arrangements. That is why I can say with surety that it wasn’t by chance Johnny and Barrett brought their families to Michigan, nor was it luck that Johnny and Uncle Charley were neighbors.
It was the Word of God manifested before their eyes….
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (Isaiah 55:8-9).
The testimony of a sister to a brother carried tremendous weight in the Spiritual realm, and still does. The power of a witness reached past a third grade education and the unrepentant heart of a brother, and did not return again void. In it’s wake it found fertile ground in which to grow and produce much fruit.
Uncle Charley was a believer…an unsaved believer. Today we link believers as Christians, all in the same chain, but many people believe without ever coming to repentance. It is true that belief denotes an action, but my uncle did respond, just not in the manner my grandmother expected.
His action to the testimony he saw and believed first hand to be real was to share it. When questioned about a church, Uncle Charley did not fall back in silence, but pointed to the Cross.
That is the power of a witness. It will cause even the unrepentant to say, "I know there is a Way..."
We can't be moved by their seemingly lack of interest, for God sees the end from the beginning. We may look at this person or that one and think that they would be a good soldier for the Lord…“If they just heard the Word!” But the truth of the matter…God sees the heart and the final outcome.
That is why it is so important that we not neglect to witness of His saving grace, for we never know whom the Lord will use to carry the Gospel. That He used a stammering little Frenchman in such a marvelous way speaks to the power of the Word.
And so we have it…
A little lady with a testimony touched countless lives, and never knew it. She thought her life was unimportant and no one would remember her after she was gone. But she had a testimony…
A little man believed the testimony, but never responded in faith for himself. For whatever reason, he could not or would not come to salvation. But he shared the testimony…
Two men took the Word presented to them and gave it to their families. Today their descendants are sharing the truth of God’s grace and mercy…and the testimony never ends.
This is the power of a witness!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Lose, Loss, Lost
Have you ever lost anything?
Sure you have, we all have, and the stories are endless…
I have a brother, a couple of them to be exact, who cannot hang onto their keys; a supervisor where I work is forever losing his clipboard; a friend is famous for losing her cell phone. My deal is my glasses…I have four pairs of eyeglasses and I still am constantly looking for them.
But let’s analyze this…did we really lose it, as in there is no replacement if it is never found, or have we just misplaced the thing? And is there a difference?
As I see it from my house, with or without my glasses, there isn’t much of a difference…if I misplace my glasses, they are momentarily lost to me. In other words, things are lost only because we don’t know where they are…simple, right?
Glasses, keys, clipboards, and such are somewhere out of our line of vision, but they are not lost forever. They can, and will be eventually found, if not by us, by someone else. Things can be replaced. It’s not like the locksmith has forgotten how to make another key or the planet is depleted of eyeglasses.
Even in death, people are not really lost to us because we have a wealth of memories and a blessed hope of life eternal. Our loss is in not seeing them again in this realm, but they are not lost.
Think about how often we use the word ‘lost’ when it really doesn’t apply…
We ask, “Have you lost your mind?” How does one lose their mind, y’all?
And let me digress for a moment…the word is LOSE, not LOOSE. Ugh! One does not LOOSE their keys, as if they are demon possessed. The word is LOSE…it gets on my ever-loving last nerve when someone makes that mistake in writing.
There now *sigh*…I am back…
The mind can become diseased and all memory is gone; extensive drug and alcohol use can effect the thinking process; someone can have a breakdown of emotions and reality and act irrational, to the point of being hospitalized for their protection and ours, but it doesn’t mean they have lost their mind.
Disease, accident, and personal abuse steal the memory, but the mind is not lost. The only mind that is ever truly lost is the reprobate. The reprobate is lascivious, totally out of control in every area of life, unable to determine right from wrong. Their mind has been “given over” to that of a reprobate (Romans 1:18), by God, and there is no recovery.
That is a lesson all by itself, but back to the subject at hand…
Someone may tearfully say, “I lost my best friend,” but friends are not lost, they are found. People come into our lives for a season. The season may come and go or remain forever, but we never lose anything we need to survive.
The Bible relates the story of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream…
He saw a tree growing in the midst of the earth, and the Lord told him to hew down the tree…cut it down, cut off the branches, shake off the leaves, and scatter the fruit thereof (Daniel 4:1-14).
“Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth…” (v 15).
The Lord told him to leave something, a remnant, if you will. Leave something that can grow again…something with some life left in it.
Sometimes people are cut from our lives, shaken off, and scattered to the four winds, and we mourn. But if we can remember that all is not lost…if we can but hold onto the stump which remains, we will be the better for it.
The depth of the roots always determine growth. Take heart that we will see growth and the stump will one day produce a tall tree with new branches. The leaves will once again spring forth, and the fruit of our faith and trust in a God who does all things well will bring great results.
Another expression oft repeated is, “They have lost their way,” but folks don’t lose their way, y‘all. They may turn their focus and begin walking in another direction, but trust me, they know the Way.
Though they may be following every wind and trend of doctrine, they have not lost their way. The same wind that blew them out the door, like a tornado suctions out the living room furniture, can shift, and in this shift is correction and restoration.
I speak from experience.
Finally we come to the reason for my dissertation on lose, loss and lost...we have all said at one time or other, “I lost time,” but it is not possible, in my humble opinion, to lose time. One may lose track of time by becoming distracted or not paying attention to the hour, but time is not lost.
We cannot lose something as precise as time. Sixty seconds of every sixty minutes of every twenty-four hour day is not something forfeited or regained.
So what then did the Apostle mean when he wrote these words in Ephesians 5:16...
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
How can we redeem, or as it reads in the Greek, buy up time? If a day is here and gone…if there are no ‘do-overs’, if time is not lost, how can we redeem moments that are but a memory?
We have to first look at the entirety of Paul’s writing here and see how this verse relates to the whole…Hermeneutics 101, for all of you Bible scholars.
The writer begins with admonishing the Church to be followers of Christ and to walk in love. He then lays it on the line…
As Saints of the Most High, fornication/adultery, uncleanness, covetousness, filthy, unholy talking and jesting are not on the same level with godliness.
This is not talking about the “merry heart doeth good like medicine” brand of joking. Paul is referring to the foolish talk that goes on…the innuendos, the so-called ‘innocent’ conversation. He is telling them that this is not becoming of Saints.
Paul then reminds them that no whoremonger or idolater will have a part in the Kingdom of God. Don’t be deceived by them. Don’t be a partaker. You are no longer in darkness…open your eyes and see the Light.
He tells them to refuse fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Don’t even talk about their evil, secret ways. The Light will reveal it for the deceptive act it is.
The preacher told the church in Ephesus to wake up, and walk circumspectly…walk exactly and carefully, not as fools, but as wise.
It is here that Paul said, “Redeeming the time…” Buy up; to rescue from supposed loss; improve opportunities. This is what it means to redeem the time.
Time is the indefinite continued progress of existence, and cannot be lost, but it can be wasted. Yesterday in Sunday School, the teacher said that we have ALL have shortcomings. We have ALL made mistakes and wasted the precious fleeting moments in our progress of existence.
It is easy to look at someone else as being a spiritual giant and never in need of this type of teaching, when in reality, as the lovely lady so aptly said, “I think, ‘if you only knew, you would never ask me to teach!’”
She didn’t mean she was a street running heathen in disguise, but that we all err and waste the time God gave is to serve Him. It is not always the ‘big’ sins that hinder our progress, but the little things that weigh on us and cause us regret.
But Paul said, in essence, “If you wasted time, buy it back. Improve your opportunities…get back up and be about the Father’s business. This is serious here, y‘all. Don’t be shortchanged because you stopped or detoured in your progress…step out and do the will of the Lord. Forget the wasted moments and move on into a new and better day. What’s behind you is not important. Forge ahead in the favor and blessing of the Lord.”
And then once you are up and doing, gain understanding…
I read this quote recently… “Like Israel, the Church tends to see God’s blessing as the sign of a special anointing rather than a call to responsibility.”
We have a responsibility to do all we can while we can…
Do you hear the call of responsibility? The call of responsibility may take you across town, around the country, or to the other side of the planet, but if you can hear the call, you are blessed of the Lord.
We also have a responsibility to walk exactly and carefully before God and man. Someone said, “Everything we do - every conversation, every action, every attitude, either adorns or obscures the gospel.”
Allow me to encourage you today to let your life be an adornment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has been said that the only Jesus some will see will be in you and me, but equally true…
For some, the only grace they will see will be manifested in and through us. We can talk it all day long, but seeing is believing.
The grace of God, shed abroad in our lives, extended to the world…this is redeeming the time to the nth degree.
Sure you have, we all have, and the stories are endless…
I have a brother, a couple of them to be exact, who cannot hang onto their keys; a supervisor where I work is forever losing his clipboard; a friend is famous for losing her cell phone. My deal is my glasses…I have four pairs of eyeglasses and I still am constantly looking for them.
But let’s analyze this…did we really lose it, as in there is no replacement if it is never found, or have we just misplaced the thing? And is there a difference?
As I see it from my house, with or without my glasses, there isn’t much of a difference…if I misplace my glasses, they are momentarily lost to me. In other words, things are lost only because we don’t know where they are…simple, right?
Glasses, keys, clipboards, and such are somewhere out of our line of vision, but they are not lost forever. They can, and will be eventually found, if not by us, by someone else. Things can be replaced. It’s not like the locksmith has forgotten how to make another key or the planet is depleted of eyeglasses.
Even in death, people are not really lost to us because we have a wealth of memories and a blessed hope of life eternal. Our loss is in not seeing them again in this realm, but they are not lost.
Think about how often we use the word ‘lost’ when it really doesn’t apply…
We ask, “Have you lost your mind?” How does one lose their mind, y’all?
And let me digress for a moment…the word is LOSE, not LOOSE. Ugh! One does not LOOSE their keys, as if they are demon possessed. The word is LOSE…it gets on my ever-loving last nerve when someone makes that mistake in writing.
There now *sigh*…I am back…
The mind can become diseased and all memory is gone; extensive drug and alcohol use can effect the thinking process; someone can have a breakdown of emotions and reality and act irrational, to the point of being hospitalized for their protection and ours, but it doesn’t mean they have lost their mind.
Disease, accident, and personal abuse steal the memory, but the mind is not lost. The only mind that is ever truly lost is the reprobate. The reprobate is lascivious, totally out of control in every area of life, unable to determine right from wrong. Their mind has been “given over” to that of a reprobate (Romans 1:18), by God, and there is no recovery.
That is a lesson all by itself, but back to the subject at hand…
Someone may tearfully say, “I lost my best friend,” but friends are not lost, they are found. People come into our lives for a season. The season may come and go or remain forever, but we never lose anything we need to survive.
The Bible relates the story of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream…
He saw a tree growing in the midst of the earth, and the Lord told him to hew down the tree…cut it down, cut off the branches, shake off the leaves, and scatter the fruit thereof (Daniel 4:1-14).
“Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth…” (v 15).
The Lord told him to leave something, a remnant, if you will. Leave something that can grow again…something with some life left in it.
Sometimes people are cut from our lives, shaken off, and scattered to the four winds, and we mourn. But if we can remember that all is not lost…if we can but hold onto the stump which remains, we will be the better for it.
The depth of the roots always determine growth. Take heart that we will see growth and the stump will one day produce a tall tree with new branches. The leaves will once again spring forth, and the fruit of our faith and trust in a God who does all things well will bring great results.
Another expression oft repeated is, “They have lost their way,” but folks don’t lose their way, y‘all. They may turn their focus and begin walking in another direction, but trust me, they know the Way.
Though they may be following every wind and trend of doctrine, they have not lost their way. The same wind that blew them out the door, like a tornado suctions out the living room furniture, can shift, and in this shift is correction and restoration.
I speak from experience.
Finally we come to the reason for my dissertation on lose, loss and lost...we have all said at one time or other, “I lost time,” but it is not possible, in my humble opinion, to lose time. One may lose track of time by becoming distracted or not paying attention to the hour, but time is not lost.
We cannot lose something as precise as time. Sixty seconds of every sixty minutes of every twenty-four hour day is not something forfeited or regained.
So what then did the Apostle mean when he wrote these words in Ephesians 5:16...
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
How can we redeem, or as it reads in the Greek, buy up time? If a day is here and gone…if there are no ‘do-overs’, if time is not lost, how can we redeem moments that are but a memory?
We have to first look at the entirety of Paul’s writing here and see how this verse relates to the whole…Hermeneutics 101, for all of you Bible scholars.
The writer begins with admonishing the Church to be followers of Christ and to walk in love. He then lays it on the line…
As Saints of the Most High, fornication/adultery, uncleanness, covetousness, filthy, unholy talking and jesting are not on the same level with godliness.
This is not talking about the “merry heart doeth good like medicine” brand of joking. Paul is referring to the foolish talk that goes on…the innuendos, the so-called ‘innocent’ conversation. He is telling them that this is not becoming of Saints.
Paul then reminds them that no whoremonger or idolater will have a part in the Kingdom of God. Don’t be deceived by them. Don’t be a partaker. You are no longer in darkness…open your eyes and see the Light.
He tells them to refuse fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Don’t even talk about their evil, secret ways. The Light will reveal it for the deceptive act it is.
The preacher told the church in Ephesus to wake up, and walk circumspectly…walk exactly and carefully, not as fools, but as wise.
It is here that Paul said, “Redeeming the time…” Buy up; to rescue from supposed loss; improve opportunities. This is what it means to redeem the time.
Time is the indefinite continued progress of existence, and cannot be lost, but it can be wasted. Yesterday in Sunday School, the teacher said that we have ALL have shortcomings. We have ALL made mistakes and wasted the precious fleeting moments in our progress of existence.
It is easy to look at someone else as being a spiritual giant and never in need of this type of teaching, when in reality, as the lovely lady so aptly said, “I think, ‘if you only knew, you would never ask me to teach!’”
She didn’t mean she was a street running heathen in disguise, but that we all err and waste the time God gave is to serve Him. It is not always the ‘big’ sins that hinder our progress, but the little things that weigh on us and cause us regret.
But Paul said, in essence, “If you wasted time, buy it back. Improve your opportunities…get back up and be about the Father’s business. This is serious here, y‘all. Don’t be shortchanged because you stopped or detoured in your progress…step out and do the will of the Lord. Forget the wasted moments and move on into a new and better day. What’s behind you is not important. Forge ahead in the favor and blessing of the Lord.”
And then once you are up and doing, gain understanding…
I read this quote recently… “Like Israel, the Church tends to see God’s blessing as the sign of a special anointing rather than a call to responsibility.”
We have a responsibility to do all we can while we can…
Do you hear the call of responsibility? The call of responsibility may take you across town, around the country, or to the other side of the planet, but if you can hear the call, you are blessed of the Lord.
We also have a responsibility to walk exactly and carefully before God and man. Someone said, “Everything we do - every conversation, every action, every attitude, either adorns or obscures the gospel.”
Allow me to encourage you today to let your life be an adornment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has been said that the only Jesus some will see will be in you and me, but equally true…
For some, the only grace they will see will be manifested in and through us. We can talk it all day long, but seeing is believing.
The grace of God, shed abroad in our lives, extended to the world…this is redeeming the time to the nth degree.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
It Won't Rain Always
Strange as it may seem, there are people in this world who love storms…
A friend lives in California, and as she doesn’t experience the effects of thunder storms much in the Wild West, the girl will actually stand with the door wide open during a storm whenever she comes back home to Michigan.
The booming crash of thunder, and lightning streaking across the darkened sky do not frighten her…the girl loves it.
I say this with the love of a true friend…she is crazy!
My mother has the same craziness. Let the weather dude announce a ‘Tornado Watch,’ and we will find mom standing in the door, saying to our pleading that she seek shelter, “I will when I hear it coming down the street…”
What is it about storms that drives otherwise rational people to do silly things?
I don’t know, but as for me, when stormy days come all I want to do is go to bed. I don’t like thunder, lightning, heavy rain, strong winds, freezing rain, blizzards, tornadoes, or any other weather interruptions…I don’t like storms.
Let it stay a nice 73 degrees year round, with the sun shining during the day and cool in the evening, and I will be happy.
But alas, tis not the way of things. In simple terms, storms blow in as the result of a violent disturbance of the earth’s atmosphere.
Sometimes we have advance warning that something is brewing and are able to escape danger by seeking shelter or evacuating the area. Advance notice of impending storms allows us time to prepare…
Folks will board up windows during hurricane season. When a blizzard or ice storm is predicted, the warning signals that we need to run to the store for food or buy a generator in case we lose power.
Depending on where we live, we may make sandbags to prevent water from reaching our abode when we are forewarned of heavy rain and flooding.
It would be nice if every storm came with a red flag waving, saying, “Ready or not, here I come!” but it doesn’t happen that way…
However, in describing storms, someone wrote, “Understanding the conditions that give rise to powerful storms is the key to preparing for their devastating effects.”
For example, if it is an extremely hot day, but suddenly the temperature drops and the sky begins to darken, “it is ‘good’ weather for a tornado,” as my daddy would say. Those who have lived in a tornado region for any length of time know what to do…
We should end the picnic or ballgame right away, call the kids inside, take the clothes off the line (for those who still do that sort of thing), open a window to release pressure in the house, get the flashlights and check the batteries…you get the idea. Experience has taught those in ‘tornado alley’ what to look for and what to do.
But for all of our precautionary measures and advance warnings, we cannot control the timing of storms. They blow in, do their thing, and are not concerned with our plans. We can take every precaution and yet feel the effects and experience the consequences of a sudden storm.
As the Bible so clearly describes it...
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). KJV
As it is with the weather patterns, so it is that we cannot always control the storms of life when they blow in. Regardless of all precautionary measures, the storms of life come, and as with the natural storm, they do not discriminate. The sanctified folk go through just like the unsaved.
So we can be assured that sooner or later we will go through a storm. That is our first bit of encouragement, y’all, in that storms do not come to stay. Sometimes they seem to come one right behind another, but storms are never permanent fixtures. We will go through it.
There are storms that we just can’t outrun or anticipate. With a squall or windstorm, there is hardly ever an advance warning…they seem to appear from out of no where, and with some situations that arise, it seems that it is the same scenario. From out of no where a storm blows in our lives which cause us great fear and trepidation.
But the bright side is, and there is a bright side...not every storm is meant to bring us harm. Some storms are for our making and are a necessity. If it were not for the storm, God only knows...
So be encouraged that every storm is not destructive or deadly. People do survive being in the eye of the hurricane. A typhoon may capsize their vessel, but folks do live to tell the tale. The tornado may have taken out their barn, but the house is left standing.
Survival in the storm is not based on luck or chance, but is possible only because the Lord’s timing decreed it to be so. If it is our time to leave here, there is not a storm shelter in the world that can prevent it.
But, by the same token, if the Lord says that there is yet work for us to do, the tornado can spin us around like Dorothy’s Kansas farm house, and we will live.
It is my humble opinion that people do not die before their time…how many times have we heard folks say that? It is true that someone may leave here before they reach a ripe old age, but their demise is never before their appointed time.
So look up...though it may feel as if the storm is too hard to bear or that it will be the end of us, we have assurance that it won’t rain always. He will not put more on us than we can bear, and we shall not die before our time.
There is a secret to the storm, and our attitude plays a huge role in the outcome. While seeking shelter under a table from a tornado, Steve Adams penned these words…He gives me peace in the midst of the storm!
Though we may be shivering from the cold, uncertain of the outcome, the peace that passes all human reasoning and understanding will give hope and confidence in the One who does all things well. This peace allows us to ride through the storm with victory.
And true enough, there are some storms that we just have to ride out. But as we do, at the end of the day the sun is once again shining and the dark clouds have rolled away.
Several years ago, I left the home of someone in a state of upset and turmoil. They were angry with me and had likewise worn the last nerve on my patient meter. It was not a good day…
As I left and got on the highway, it seemed that the rain began to fall in buckets. It was raining so that I had to pull off the road…visibility was zero.
But as the rain subsided, the most remarkable thing happened. The rainbow came from the left and arched so that it ended in the middle of I-69. My mother and I stared in amazement as I drove right through the rainbow…I know this word is overused today, but it truly was amazing!
The Lord took the stormy condition we had left and brought a smile to our faces and a peace that cannot be described.
He wants to do that for us each and every time the atmospheric pressures of life bring violent disturbances to our lives.
We don’t have to anguish over situations and worry that we will be consumed in the storm. It is not necessary to wring our hands…we can lift them, thanking the Lord for seeing the rainbow while we are in the rain.
That is the uniqueness of our God. Our vision is limited…it is only hindsight that is 20/20, and our accessibility is limited as well...we can't be everywhere or all things to all people.
But not so with God.
Not only did He see us at the beginning of time going through this storm, He will be with us in the here and now as we ride through it, and be waiting on the other side as we cross over into victory, all at the same time.
That is just the awesomeness of God. He is the vessel and rides with us in our earthly vessel. He is in the storm and waiting on the other side as we make it through. It is almost too hard for our teeny minds to fully comprehend, but such is our God.
Hear the Word of the Lord…
For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome (Jeremiah 29:11). AMP
The Lord is thinking about you and me right now. His plans are not for failure in the storm. The plan of the Lord is that we prosper and be in health. His design for our lives is peace and not evil.
Remember that the Lord not only saw Job’s storm but gave the devil permission to afflict him, knowing all along the final outcome. Whoa! Does it make you wonder if the devil goes to the Lord about us, and God says “Dude, take your best shot, but this far, and no farther!”
And as with Job, the all knowingness of God is confident that we will make it. The Lord doesn’t take Valium because He is nervous about our situation. He isn’t pacing the corridors of Glory because we are going through. He doesn't remove His hedge of protection, hoping we will fall.
God sees victory and not defeat, and so must we! The Lord has our best interest at heart!
Be encouraged today in the Word…
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy (I Peter 4:12-13) .
Do not fear or dread something God may have ordained for your good. Learn the secret in the storm...learn to praise!
A friend lives in California, and as she doesn’t experience the effects of thunder storms much in the Wild West, the girl will actually stand with the door wide open during a storm whenever she comes back home to Michigan.
The booming crash of thunder, and lightning streaking across the darkened sky do not frighten her…the girl loves it.
I say this with the love of a true friend…she is crazy!
My mother has the same craziness. Let the weather dude announce a ‘Tornado Watch,’ and we will find mom standing in the door, saying to our pleading that she seek shelter, “I will when I hear it coming down the street…”
What is it about storms that drives otherwise rational people to do silly things?
I don’t know, but as for me, when stormy days come all I want to do is go to bed. I don’t like thunder, lightning, heavy rain, strong winds, freezing rain, blizzards, tornadoes, or any other weather interruptions…I don’t like storms.
Let it stay a nice 73 degrees year round, with the sun shining during the day and cool in the evening, and I will be happy.
But alas, tis not the way of things. In simple terms, storms blow in as the result of a violent disturbance of the earth’s atmosphere.
Sometimes we have advance warning that something is brewing and are able to escape danger by seeking shelter or evacuating the area. Advance notice of impending storms allows us time to prepare…
Folks will board up windows during hurricane season. When a blizzard or ice storm is predicted, the warning signals that we need to run to the store for food or buy a generator in case we lose power.
Depending on where we live, we may make sandbags to prevent water from reaching our abode when we are forewarned of heavy rain and flooding.
It would be nice if every storm came with a red flag waving, saying, “Ready or not, here I come!” but it doesn’t happen that way…
However, in describing storms, someone wrote, “Understanding the conditions that give rise to powerful storms is the key to preparing for their devastating effects.”
For example, if it is an extremely hot day, but suddenly the temperature drops and the sky begins to darken, “it is ‘good’ weather for a tornado,” as my daddy would say. Those who have lived in a tornado region for any length of time know what to do…
We should end the picnic or ballgame right away, call the kids inside, take the clothes off the line (for those who still do that sort of thing), open a window to release pressure in the house, get the flashlights and check the batteries…you get the idea. Experience has taught those in ‘tornado alley’ what to look for and what to do.
But for all of our precautionary measures and advance warnings, we cannot control the timing of storms. They blow in, do their thing, and are not concerned with our plans. We can take every precaution and yet feel the effects and experience the consequences of a sudden storm.
As the Bible so clearly describes it...
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). KJV
As it is with the weather patterns, so it is that we cannot always control the storms of life when they blow in. Regardless of all precautionary measures, the storms of life come, and as with the natural storm, they do not discriminate. The sanctified folk go through just like the unsaved.
So we can be assured that sooner or later we will go through a storm. That is our first bit of encouragement, y’all, in that storms do not come to stay. Sometimes they seem to come one right behind another, but storms are never permanent fixtures. We will go through it.
There are storms that we just can’t outrun or anticipate. With a squall or windstorm, there is hardly ever an advance warning…they seem to appear from out of no where, and with some situations that arise, it seems that it is the same scenario. From out of no where a storm blows in our lives which cause us great fear and trepidation.
But the bright side is, and there is a bright side...not every storm is meant to bring us harm. Some storms are for our making and are a necessity. If it were not for the storm, God only knows...
So be encouraged that every storm is not destructive or deadly. People do survive being in the eye of the hurricane. A typhoon may capsize their vessel, but folks do live to tell the tale. The tornado may have taken out their barn, but the house is left standing.
Survival in the storm is not based on luck or chance, but is possible only because the Lord’s timing decreed it to be so. If it is our time to leave here, there is not a storm shelter in the world that can prevent it.
But, by the same token, if the Lord says that there is yet work for us to do, the tornado can spin us around like Dorothy’s Kansas farm house, and we will live.
It is my humble opinion that people do not die before their time…how many times have we heard folks say that? It is true that someone may leave here before they reach a ripe old age, but their demise is never before their appointed time.
So look up...though it may feel as if the storm is too hard to bear or that it will be the end of us, we have assurance that it won’t rain always. He will not put more on us than we can bear, and we shall not die before our time.
There is a secret to the storm, and our attitude plays a huge role in the outcome. While seeking shelter under a table from a tornado, Steve Adams penned these words…He gives me peace in the midst of the storm!
Though we may be shivering from the cold, uncertain of the outcome, the peace that passes all human reasoning and understanding will give hope and confidence in the One who does all things well. This peace allows us to ride through the storm with victory.
And true enough, there are some storms that we just have to ride out. But as we do, at the end of the day the sun is once again shining and the dark clouds have rolled away.
Several years ago, I left the home of someone in a state of upset and turmoil. They were angry with me and had likewise worn the last nerve on my patient meter. It was not a good day…
As I left and got on the highway, it seemed that the rain began to fall in buckets. It was raining so that I had to pull off the road…visibility was zero.
But as the rain subsided, the most remarkable thing happened. The rainbow came from the left and arched so that it ended in the middle of I-69. My mother and I stared in amazement as I drove right through the rainbow…I know this word is overused today, but it truly was amazing!
The Lord took the stormy condition we had left and brought a smile to our faces and a peace that cannot be described.
He wants to do that for us each and every time the atmospheric pressures of life bring violent disturbances to our lives.
We don’t have to anguish over situations and worry that we will be consumed in the storm. It is not necessary to wring our hands…we can lift them, thanking the Lord for seeing the rainbow while we are in the rain.
That is the uniqueness of our God. Our vision is limited…it is only hindsight that is 20/20, and our accessibility is limited as well...we can't be everywhere or all things to all people.
But not so with God.
Not only did He see us at the beginning of time going through this storm, He will be with us in the here and now as we ride through it, and be waiting on the other side as we cross over into victory, all at the same time.
That is just the awesomeness of God. He is the vessel and rides with us in our earthly vessel. He is in the storm and waiting on the other side as we make it through. It is almost too hard for our teeny minds to fully comprehend, but such is our God.
Hear the Word of the Lord…
For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome (Jeremiah 29:11). AMP
The Lord is thinking about you and me right now. His plans are not for failure in the storm. The plan of the Lord is that we prosper and be in health. His design for our lives is peace and not evil.
Remember that the Lord not only saw Job’s storm but gave the devil permission to afflict him, knowing all along the final outcome. Whoa! Does it make you wonder if the devil goes to the Lord about us, and God says “Dude, take your best shot, but this far, and no farther!”
And as with Job, the all knowingness of God is confident that we will make it. The Lord doesn’t take Valium because He is nervous about our situation. He isn’t pacing the corridors of Glory because we are going through. He doesn't remove His hedge of protection, hoping we will fall.
God sees victory and not defeat, and so must we! The Lord has our best interest at heart!
Be encouraged today in the Word…
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy (I Peter 4:12-13) .
Do not fear or dread something God may have ordained for your good. Learn the secret in the storm...learn to praise!
IT WON'T RAIN ALWAYS
(Gloria Gaither / Bill Gaither / Aaron Wilburn)
Someone said that in each life
Some rain is bound to fall
And each one sheds his share of tears
And trouble troubles us all
But the hurt can't hurt forever
And the tears are sure to dry
And it won't rain always
The clouds will soon be gone
The sun that they've been hiding
Has been there all along
And it won't rain always
God's promises are true
The sun's gonna shine
In His own good time
And He will see you through
The sun's gonna shine
In God's own good time
And He will see you through!
(Gloria Gaither / Bill Gaither / Aaron Wilburn)
Someone said that in each life
Some rain is bound to fall
And each one sheds his share of tears
And trouble troubles us all
But the hurt can't hurt forever
And the tears are sure to dry
And it won't rain always
The clouds will soon be gone
The sun that they've been hiding
Has been there all along
And it won't rain always
God's promises are true
The sun's gonna shine
In His own good time
And He will see you through
The sun's gonna shine
In God's own good time
And He will see you through!
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