Walk Toward the Light

Being a pastor is a rich calling. I get to experience so many wonderful things that many others might miss out on. Recently after finishing a Bible study on the life of Abraham I was engaged in a conversation with a woman from our church. She is a widow and was telling me the story about the last few months with her husband. He was battling a terminal illness and they both knew that without a miracle from the Lord his days were numbered.

She recounted how he suffered excruciatingly. It was not a pleasant experience but she was able to say everything that needed to be said. As the end came she had one last message for her husband that really spoke to my heart. He was a Christian and her last message to him as he labored for every breath was to walk toward the light. In just a matter of moments he left this world and stepped into eternity.

That is our challenge as we live out these days on this planet; to walk toward the Light. What I mean is that we are to live each day walking toward Jesus to know Him better as the Light of the World. This proves to be a challenge because often we do not like coming into the Light because our deeds are evil. Jesus as the Light exposes those evil deeds, thoughts, motives, and attitudes. The challenge is which do we love more, our evil deeds or Jesus?

Far too many love their evil deeds. “This is the judgment that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil, hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light so that his deeds may be manifested as been wrought in God.” Therefore, rather than coming day in and day out before the Light many choose to lurk in the shadows and dark places of not only this world but in their hearts as well. That explains why there is so little difference between church members life styles and those of pagans. Sin is loved, cherished, and fought to protect. We do so behind the cloak that sin is our choice and that is does not affect anyone but us. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our sin hurts and impacts the lives of those around us. Ask the family of the drug user, alcoholic, sex addict, or the one looking for contentment and fulfillment in the things of this world. We will never find what we are looking for in those places. [Jer 2:13]

If I do not love the Light and in fact hate the Light because I do not want Him to expose my evil deeds I will turn about and walk away from Him. People do this everyday. Pagans do it because they are deceived. Christians do it because the flesh is strong and loves for us to live in the shadows rather thank walking toward the Light. If I truly love Him and yearn for Him even if it means exposing the dark places of my heart then I keep walking toward the Light. Day by day, morning by morning, devotion by devotion, worship service by worship service I set my face toward the majesty of the Lord and with resolve set my course walking headlong into it.

This is exactly what I did yesterday morning. I was sitting in my chair in the living room while the rest of the family slept. It was dark outside and the only light in the room came from the lamp on the table near my chair and the scriptures in my heart as a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. [Ps 119:105] I was reading [II Chronicles 7:1-2]. As I was pondering those verses in prayer I could not help but think about the brilliance of the glory of the Lord shining into every dark place in my heart. I want to be consumed by the Light. No shadows. No dark hidden corners. No dimly lit places. I want Him to shine through every crevice of my soul.

In the middle of worship yesterday morning we sang a song with a phrase that grabbed my attention. The phrase was, “with You (referring to God) there are no shadows.” God is such perfect Light that you cannot find a shadow. I saw a little boy walking backward in his driveway on Saturday mesmerized by his shadow. You and I could search for all of eternity and not find an inch or even a millimeter of a shadow in God. Yes, walk toward the Light but don’t stop there, walk in the Light. Be engulfed by this Jesus and let His Light shine through our hearts to dispel the dark places and to comfort us as we walk with Him through the murky shadows of this world stained with sin.

I don’t want to wait until I am staring eternity into the eyes before I start walking toward the Light. I want to walk toward and in the Light now each day so my spiritual eyes are adjusted. I want to walk in the Light until the glittering things of this world no longer hold any appeal. Like the old song says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full into His wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Today you and I face the choice of walking toward the Light or walking toward the darkness. One brings life here and now abundant and afterward eternal. The other brings death a thousand times over now and into eternity a punishment so horrific it defies explanation. So which way will you walk today and when you face eternity? My exhortation is for us all to walk toward the Light for that is where life is both abundant [Jn 10:10] and eternal. [Jn 3:16]

Everlasting Preoccupation

There are so many things that compete for our attention and energies. The church is not exempt. The church and more specifically preachers are continually calling for people to do more, give more, serve more, and to become preoccupied with all of these. In calling people to do so much good we err calling people to be preoccupied with lesser things and not to be preoccupied with the best thing.

I am not sure what the Lord is doing in me but it is good, it is deep, and it is pulling me to closer and closer to Him. After a rather dry season and a seven day period during Thanksgiving where I did not have one quiet time, I was challenged a few weeks ago with [Matt 22: 37-38] which states that we are to love the Lord God with all of our hearts, souls, and strength. Since that day I have sought the Lord for a personal revival, which has translated to a great searching for the Lord and seeking Him. He alone is to be our everlasting preoccupation. Our thoughts should continually dwell on Him. Our affections should ever be increasing for Him. Our devotion should be continuously focused on Him. God has rekindled something real in the caverns of my soul.

Some of what we do in our churches actually can compete with our everlasting preoccupation with Him. We can stay busy but busyness can actually distract our preoccupation with God. We may find ourselves doing many things for God but never making the time to seek God and know Him in our private lives. By doing more we can actually experience Him less. Many do and have contented themselves to live in this dry and desert like condition.

None of us can produce this everlasting preoccupation with God. That is a work He has to produce in our lives but we can help to foster this by simply slowing down and lingering in His presence. He will create that desire and He will help us not only find the time but make the time to be sit at His feet and worship.

I know people who are preoccupied with making a fortune. What happens to all that money in the end? It doesn’t follow us into eternity. Others are fixated on sports for themselves or their children. The end of this path will only result in frustration. Most of our children will never play competitively at the college level much less the professional level. We create stress and frustration in the stands and on the playing field or court. During those times our preoccupation with winning and being successful at something as child like as playing ball can bring out the worst in us. How many sons and daughters have gone to bed misty eyed and broken hearted over the stinging words of an angry parent preoccupied with their child’s athletic career? How many student athletes play but resent the demands put on them by parents or coaches who only know the temporary preoccupation with winning but who have bankrupt souls who no little to nothing about the everlasting preoccupation with God.

How many are preoccupied with life and service at the church but inwardly they are hypocrites and rotten to the core of their souls? Worship is hollow and life for these people is nothing more than religious rituals, singing from rote memory, and staying in the religious ruts of many around them. Outwardly these people may appear to be the cream of the crop but inwardly they are inconsistent and living a life of pretense. Where is the preoccupation with knowing the Lord in the pews that translates into a life spent in pursuit of Him? [Ps 63:8]

I am captured by the thought of having an everlasting preoccupation with seeking to know the living God. It is an everlasting preoccupation because there will always be more to know about God even throughout eternity. There will always be more to know like a person walking into a huge library but one that contains every book that has ever been written since the beginning of time. I am talking about millions of books lined up on shelves from floor to ceiling stretching into infinity. No person could ever read and retain that much knowledge. Even if one could that would only represent a fraction of the person of God and all that can be known about Him. There is no greater reality in all the universe and yet countless numbers of people who call themselves Christians have seldom if ever been preoccupied with knowing Him and discovering more about Him for months at a time rather than everlastingly. It is a tragedy.

Here is the question before us. Will we plead with God to develop that everlasting preoccupation within us or will content ourselves to be preoccupied by other things? Lesser things. Temporal things.

Dear Father, I plead for you to come and reorient my mind and heart to be preoccupied with you for eternity. I want that preoccupation for the here and now and I want it to follow me throughout eternity. I ask you to consume my life and captivate my deepest affections. I ask for an insatiable craving to know you more than being entertained, chasing after idols, and settling for lesser things. Please help me not be too easily amused or satisfied with the flittering and glittering stuff of this age that will not last. I ask you for an everlasting preoccupation with you that gets me up in the morning, sustains me through the day and tucks me in the bed at night. In Jesus name, amen.

Hoist the Sails

God must have a sense of humor. I spent some time traveling this week back to Paradise to minister to my former secretary as she had major back surgery. After spending the night I turned around to drive back to Seminole.

While driving west on I-20 I was listening to a message from Louie Giglio about hoisting the sails of our lives and letting the wind of God blow us where He wants. As I listened to this message I literally was dodging tumbleweeds and fighting a strong head wind as a wind storm swept through west Texas. There were winds clocked as high as 68 miles per hour here in Seminole. At times the dust was so thick I could barely see the truck in front of me.

It is ironic or should I say a divine appointment that I would see the power of the wind while I was listening to a message about the power of the Holy Spirit to blow our lives and to use our lives for His purposes. The Holy Spirit is the wind in our sails.

Today while driving around town I noticed a few things the wind had damaged like trees, signs, and Christmas decorations. The power of the Holy Spirit can empower us to do great things and have great impact like the winds had this past Tuesday. Yet some of us live less than empowered lives because the sails of our lives are never hoisted. We keep them lowered and spend much of our Christian lives drifting. We want to chart our own courses and determine our own directions.

If we as the people of God could hoist the sails of our lives and let God fill those sails with the wind of His Spirit what He could do in us and through us. He could blow us to Kingdom assignments, witnessing opportunities, missions endeavors, and opportunities to give like so many of us are experiencing this Christmas season.

I am not going to say that I do it right all the time but I have sought to live with the sails of my life hoisted to the wind of God. That is exactly why I sit writing this at my desk in Seminole, TX as opposed to Paradise, TX. When I really made my life available to God day after day He drew me, called me, and blew me here. There is so much ministry to do here. Just today I got to pray for a saint struggling with a heavy burden, counsel a single mother about her daughter, minister to a grieving family over the loss of a loved one, eat breakfast with a man struggling in his marriage, and meet a couple of fellow ministers out working in the ministry.

When I woke today one of my prayers was to present this day before the Lord and allow Him to blow me wherever He wanted. It has been a good day. When we hoist the sails of our lives we never know where He will blow us next. I never imagined myself being blown to West Texas but I am enjoying the blossoming ministry that God is growing right beneath my feet. It is a blessing to serve Him and to be on mission for Him.

We never know what God will do through a life wholly surrendered to Him. We never know the people we will encounter, the needs God will use us to meet, and the role we will play in building His kingdom. My challenge for all of us is to hoist the sails and allow God to blow us wherever He pleases. God is settling the Edwards clan in west Texas. We have been baptized by wind. We have survived the dust and the gale force winds. From this vantage point God can blow me personally and FBC Seminole corporately to the far ends of the earth. The sails are hoisted and God awaits to send us on assignment for Him. Bring on the wind. We eagerly wait to be pushed by the wind of God and empowered to serve Him.

Let It Snow

This has been a pretty amazing week. I awoke early on Tuesday morning and went to the Fitness Center and discovered snow on the ground. When I came out of the Fitness Center it was snowing even harder. Our boys were giddy playing in it before school. I herded them outside and snapped a few pictures of them in it.

Today the temperature has hovered around freezing all day. It has been bitterly cold for the better part of the week. The north winds cut through the skin like a knife through warm butter. Tonight Brenda and I went to the High School Band Christmas concert and walking into the auditorium it was snowing again. There we were listening to Christmas music in the month of December and it was snowing outside. That is the first time I have experienced anything like that.

Growing up in East Texas I can only remember two times it really snowed in my eighteen years there. We had a few ice storms but seldom ever saw it snow. Looking around over the past couple of days and seeing the ground covered with a blanket of snow is a beautiful sight. Each day the snow has melted but it was beautiful while it lasted.

I looked up into the dark night from the parking lot pierced with the illumination of a street light and like dust floating in the breeze I watched tiny snow flakes dancing in the wind and falling gracefully to the ground. My wool overcoat was pelted with these flakes. It puts me in the Christmas spirit.

Once the snow has covered the ground it is pristine before tire tracks begin to muddy everything up. My heart is capable of sin. Always has been and always will be. Like the old hymn says, “Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” All of us struggle with the sin nature. All of us from time to time leave the God we love and choose sin over Him. We leave a trail of heartache, sorrow, and a heart soiled with the filth and stench of our rebellion. The tire tracks of sin mess my God’s desire for holiness in our lives.

We desperately need the snow of God’s grace to fall on our hearts to forgive and cover our sin. Only the grace of Jesus can cover the dark stains of our wayward thoughts and actions. I need God’s grace to fall like snow on my heart not just once or twice a year when a cold snap comes through. I need it continually like you do.

My kids are exited about the snow. They have been praying that it would fall even heavier. In a whole other connotation I am asking the Lord to let it snow as well. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” [Is 1:18]

Dear Lord, we are blood red guilty with our sin. We cannot hide it from you. I ask you to let grace fall like snow on our hearts and turn them white like snow. We do not deserve such forgiveness but we need it. I trust you for this in Jesus name. Amen.

1972-A

Yesterday morning we loaded up Brenda’s suburban and drove the near seven hours from West Texas to Paradise and then to Hurst for Thanksgiving. It was a smooth trip. To save time we packed sandwiches and drinks and ate on the go. We got into the thick of the Metroplex right at 5:00 p.m. and navigated the traffic until we finally came to Carolyn Sreet where we were reunited with Brenda’s youngest two sisters and their families along with Brenda’s mother.

Brenda’s sister Dianna has kept a Thanksgiving tradition for many years. The tradition dates back to the three Ortiz girl’s living in government owned housing where the rent was made affordable to a single mother trying to make ends meet from week to week. Brenda and her two sisters grew up in government owned apartments. They were all abandoned by their father when Brenda and Dianna were teenagers and while their mother was pregnant with Jennifer. Jennifer did not even meet her biological father until she was twelve years old.

Times were tough. My mother in law worked two and three jobs to provide for the girls. She did not let the girls play the victim though. She showed them a strong work ethic and encouraged them all to get a college education which she had not been able to do. The house was kept clean and the girls wore the best clothes she could afford for them until they got old enough and to help buy their own clothes. To this day she is one of the best money managers I have ever met. She learned the difference between wants and necessities.

I am not sure how old the girls were when the church they were attending started a food drive to help people out with food for Thanksgiving. The girls were excited when they returned home and opened the pantry to share what they had with those less fortunate. Times were tough but the girl’s mother who has always been a giver gave permission for the them to gather food to take back to the church.

A few days later someone knocked on their apartment door. It was a lady from the church bringing Thanksgiving food to their family. Brenda, Dianna, and Jennifer did not know they were the less fortunate. God has brought all three of those girls a long way from that apartment. All three are married, two have children and Jennifer is pregnant with her first child.

Dianna started the tradition of taking a Thanksgiving meal back to the residents of that apartment every year since then. She tells the story of how they received that blessing many years ago and then give bags of groceries filled with all the ingredients to make a Thanksgiving feast. In all the years she has been doing that only two years have the same residents been living in that apartment.

This year it worked out for the first time for Brenda’s mother and her three girls along with all of our families to join in on this tradition. Brenda’s mother commented that there were a lot of good times in that apartment and some really hard times too. Each of our boys and their cousins carried bags of groceries as we walked up to apartment 1972-A. True to history the door was opened by a new family who had not lived their last year. Dianna told the story and then each of us presented our groceries to an overwhelmed lady. She had not bought anything for Thanksgiving lunch and was grateful to receive the food.

I was asked to pray over the home and over the lady’s three children. One of my brother in laws actually had coached her sons when they were younger. It was a great time of giving. I am glad my boys got to experience that. It is good for them to know where they have come from and to know how faithful God has been to get them where they are today. We all need to stay in touch with our roots.

As we walked back to the cars I was walking with Jennifer and her husband Paul. Jennifer is like my flesh and blood daughter because she came to live with Brenda and I when she was fourteen. God simply spoke to my heart back then and told me to be a father to that hurt, confused, and angry little girl who had never known the love of a father. That is what I did and our relationship has a special bond. I walked her down the aisle at her wedding and then turned around preached the wedding the ceremony.

As we were standing on the sidewalk last night I put my arm around her and told her God had moved her a long way from that apartment. I was not talking so much about physically as I was spiritually and emotionally. I told her that never again in our families would any have to live at that level of poverty. The chains have been broken and God has provided hope with bright futures for Brenda, Jennifer, and Dianna. This little talk took on added significance for me when Jennifer and Paul told us over dinner that Jennifer is pregnant with their first child and they just bought their first house. Jennifer is a teacher and her husband is a physical therapist for Flower Mound High School. Dianna is a radiologist and MRI technician. Her husband John is a coach history teacher and together they have been blessed with two girls. You already know about Brenda and her four boys.

What a joy to return to apartment 1972-A in Bedford, TX to give and to remember all God has done for us. All of us are a long way from that apartment. God has been faithful to each of our families. My boys and their cousins do not have to live that way any more. I am grateful that this Thanksgiving my boys got to see how far God has brought their mother and aunts from apartment 1972-A.

Reunion in Paradise

Over the Thanksgiving weekend Brenda, the boys, and I enjoyed a little time back in Paradise. We met with several families from the church at a home and enjoyed laughing, great food, and more than anything just getting to be together. It was great to see everyone.

Brenda sat around a table surrounded by her girl friends. When I walked over at one point to tell her we needed to be leaving every lady sitting at that table looked at me with eyes that could kill. They were not about to give up their friend without fight. For a moment I thought I might be coming back to Seminole as a single parent as those ladies were going to hold Brenda hostage. I thought I was about to experience a mutiny so I backed away from the table cautiously not wanting to get a knife thrown at my back.

The boys were reunited with their friends. I barely saw them the whole night. They played football and basketball until right up to time to leave. I am so thrilled God worked it out for them to see each other. It was good for them to get to see some of their playmates. Leaving was not easy the first time but it seemed a little easier the second time.

Anna Belle even got to be reunited with her sister Sheeba who resides at the Young house. They have not gotten along so well in the past but did much better this past Friday night. I think Anna Belle may think she is a little better than her sister. She began barking loudly when we got ready to leave as if to say, ‘Hey don’t forget about me! Don’t leave me here.” When we were walking out the door she even growled at a lady who wanted to pet her while Brenda held her. Her Jezabel heart which is black has her fur often shows itself. She was in no way going to get left behind. She slept curled up next to me two out of the three nights we were away. She believes in everyway she is a major part of this family.

I enjoyed getting to visit with everyone. I talked with several men who mean a great deal to me. I enjoyed getting to see my former secretary and her husband. She is in a great deal of pain and is scheduled for back surgery on December 7^th. I am going to do everything in my power to make it for that surgery. I enjoyed seeing men I prayed with, coached with, discipled, and bonded with. It was a night filled with surprises as people dropped in all night long many whom we never expected to be there.

We talked about the future and what the Lord is doing in Paradise and Seminole in the present. I was a little embarrassed when one man persisted in asking me how many people were coming to the Sunday morning worship service in Seminole. I tried to dodge the question because I do not want to sound like I am bragging or taking credit for anything that is happening in Seminole. Over and over again I gave God the credit for the growth we have seen in Seminole in just three months. God is working and He alone gets the glory for it. I am simply hanging on for the ride.

All throughout the evening I mingled around the room trying to spend at least a little one on one time with all the people. Before I knew it it was 9:00 p.m. and we had to drive back to Brenda’s sister’s house in Hurst which is about forty five minutes away. Before we left I huddled all the adults in the kitchen and offered up a prayer for them. I had not shed one tear over Paradise since the last Sunday I preached there and we drove out of the parking lot for the last time on August 23rd. But in the middle of that prayer I got choked up and tears began to form. When I finished praying one lady had a tear stain on her sweater and most of the women were wiping tears from their eyes. It was great to see people we love so deeply but not so easy to leave them for the second time.

Of course they all wanted to know how things were going in Seminole. The one thing I miss more than anything is the deep relationships we had and still have with the Paradise church and community. I know that will also happen in Seminole but it will take a little time. I have to remind myself it has only been three months.

I am so glad there is day coming when none of us will ever have to say goodbye again. There will be no more death, no more moves, and no more separations by time or space. There will be a glad reunion for all those who know Jesus Christ as Savior. That happy reunion will go on for endless ages. I look forward to that day.

As we drove around Paradise briefly I saw the football stadium and track where they boys and I dropped gallons of sweat running and working out over the summer months. I saw the Finish Line Café where I ate breakfast most mornings and sat at my table in the corner. I often studied and wrote in my journal while there. Countless conversations about the Lord took place at that table. I shared my faith, counseled, dreamed, and listened to the heavy laden, and all the while developed wonderful relationships with those people.

We drove by the church and I actually got to walk into the offices. Walking into my office and seeing it empty with barren bookshelves standing at attention against the walls was a stark reminder that things have changed for both us and the Paradise church. I looked at all the additions and improvements that were made to the church facilities during the course of the four years we were there and remembered our journey of faith. That journey continues for both Paradise and the Edwards family though our God ordained paths have taken us in different directions.

I got a chance to drive by the land FBC Paradise will one day get to relocate to. I walked that land several times praying and dreaming God’s dream while the pastor of that church. It was a real joy to my heart to get to give the money from our last book signing to them to help them reach this goal. I pray I live long enough to get to see that new building and to watch God make that dream come true.

In many ways as we met with those people it felt like a Sunday night right after church as we had often gathered to fellowship. My heart reconnected with people I love at the soul level. There were the college students whom I got to watch grow up and fulfill the call of God on their individual lives. There were the young couples who came to FBC Paradise under different circumstances and made up the Connections Class Brenda and I taught for a couple of years. There were those I worked with like my secretary and children’s minister. Only God knows the agonizing prayers Brenda and I continue to pray for those people. Only God knows the deep love and tender affections we still have for those people. It is 3:36 a.m. and I couldn’t sleep. As I write about Paradise tears form in my eyes and an ache throbs in my heart as I think about how much I love and miss them. Tears roll down my cheeks as I think about those men, women, and children I love. I got to see two little boys I lead to the Lord. One was saved at the end of our baseball practice of the team I was coaching. He and I sat in the bleachers and talked about how to be saved and we both bowed our heads in prayer. There was another boy who was saved at children’s camp. He and I knelt on our knees as he wept over his sin asking Jesus to forgive him and to save him. I hugged them both tenderly kissing one on the head like I do with my own children. Both them spent the night at our house and my boys went to their house. We were all extended family.

One day I will be reunited with all of those people I love. Though we saw many there were others who were not able to come we love just as deeply and miss just as much. It was good to be reunited and a little hard to leave all over again.

Yesterday we spent close to seven hours traveling back to West Texas. It was around 4:30 p.m. when we turned off telephone road onto Hwy 385 back in Seminole. I turned to look at Brenda and I asked her if Seminole felt like home yet. We were lugging a U-Haul trailer with furniture that had been given to us by Paul and Jennifer. She looked back at me with contentment in her eyes and said yes. Seminole is home now. This is not just a stopping off place. It is not another rung on the ladder of ministry success. Seminole is not just where we serve and live; it is home.

Last night we began moving a few things into the miracle house at 2112 NW Ave B. We have all but two pieces of furniture in the living room. It was fun trying to figure out how to arrange it. We hope by the end of this week to be nearly moved in. God called us here, and God has begun planting our roots here. There is no way Seminole will ever replace Paradise in our hearts. We will never forget those precious people. God is creating a new love and a new place in our hearts for Seminole. In time we will form new memories and will experience fresh moves of God right here. In time, the bonds between a pastor and a flock will run deep and we will have our own faith journey to walk and our own dreams to believe God for. God is daily giving me a love for the Seminole flock and for this community. In time, we will love and be loved just as deeply as we experienced in Paradise. We have been extremely blessed and accepted in Seminole with open arms. I am overwhelmed with the blessings of God in allowing me to pastor such a great church.

For both Paradise and Seminole whom Brenda and I love as deep as we know how, I rejoice that in eternity I will not have to choose one over the other. I can worship with both flocks and I can be reunited with both sets of people. The tears I shed even now as I write this will be wiped away in Heaven. Gathered around the throne of God we will join in Heavenly anthem, “Worthy is the Lamb!’ We will do this together.

As great as that reunion will be and the reunion to see my Momma, sister Jamie, Papaw and Mammaw, along with so many who have touched our lives over the years I will be pulled to the Jesus, my King, Sovereign Lord, Gracious Redeemer, Savior, and Master. At His feet I will fall in both shame at my unworthiness and unbridled joy that I have been counted righteous by Him by faith and kneel in His presence. I hope to kiss his feet and spend ages thanking Him for His goodness to me. I will thank Him for His goodness for the Paradise years and I will equally thank Him for His goodness for our ministry in Seminole. I will thank Him that this nobody from the Pineywoods of East Texas was saved, hand picked to preach the gospel, refined by the fires of affliction, and given the mandate to preach the endless truth of the scriptures while getting to love and serve people as a pastor. That will be the ultimate reunion in Paradise. Until then, this is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it. I will seek to enjoy life and ministry here but know that a glad reunion day is coming.

Here Comes the Rain

The clock on my computer tells me it is 4:34 a.m. I went to bed early last night which means that I normally arise early. While writing another blog I heard the gentle tap on the windows in the living room of the mission house. At first I could not make out the source of that sound. In time the tapping increased in frequency. It was then I discerned that it was raining outside. This is a wonderful chorus for most living in West Texas.

Soon the rain fell more heavily causing me to cease typing and to listen. I don’t know why but I love to listen to it rain. I love sitting out on a back porch or inside the garage and watching storms roll through. I enjoy watching the rain give the dry and parched land a drink. I enjoy watching the flashes of lightening and hearing the peels of thunder while feeling the vibrations underneath my feet.

As so often happens just as quickly as it came the heavy down pour turned into a faint sprinkle. I still hear the pitter patter of a slight sprinkle on the cover over the back porch. I can hear the splatter as the water falls from the roof onto the concrete outside. There is a pretty big storm brewing. Weather forecasters are predicting frigid temperatures and possibly a wintry mix of precipitation over the next couple of days. This little shower is only the beginning.

It is early Sunday morning and a little bad weather can affect the crowds from time to time who are willing to brave elements to come to church. Some people see rain as an unwelcomed intruder messing up plans and causing us to have to alter our schedules. There are those on the other hand who see rain as a blessing from God and welcome it with open arms as the land is replenished being prepared for next year’s harvest.

There are people who go through life and see their glass as half empty. They are negative, never satisfied, and often make everyone around them miserable. There are also those who are look on the brighter side of things, they find the good in any situation, and they have the proper attitude. These people are a joy to be around. They are like sunshine on a cloudy day helping to drive away the dark clouds of despondency.

My question is what type of person are you? The rain is coming, or I should say has come and continues to fall. It might get a little slick later on tonight and over the next couple of days. We might not see a peek at the sun over the next thirty six to forty eight hours. Will you approach these days with joy and gladness as you walk with the Lord or will you whine and complain?

There is a little verse in the book of Philippians that has a little bite to it. I am thinking of Phil 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” The words rejoice can also mean be glad or find joy. Now every situation in life does not produce feelings of joy or gladness. In my calling I come across those who are suffering emotionally or physically continually. There are many times I walk out of a hospital or away from conversations with people very discouraged. There are times when I wonder if what I do makes any difference at all. The tide of evil seems to be swelling like a Tsunami about ready to come ashore with devastation in the aftermath. When I open the Bible I find both encouragement and inspiration to keep hope alive.

Paul dealt with more in his lifetime than most. He was persecuted without mercy. He spent the last days of his life imprisoned for his faith and was eventually martyred. While in prison he actually penned those words in Phil 4:4. I don’t want you coming away from reading this thinking this is another motivational reading about working on your attitude. That can be helpful but what I am thinking about here goes far deeper than some mental gymnastics about taking your lemons and turning them into lemonade.

Paul had something much deeper at the soul level that could cause him to rejoice whether being beaten, preaching to the masses and seeing dozens converted, or being stuck under house arrest. Paul could rejoice because no matter what happened or did not happen to him – he had a relationship with Jesus that was the source of real joy and gladness.

I have not known many people who really had true joy but of those I have known everyone of them prized their relationship with Jesus more than life itself. Circumstances will always try our faith. There will be sunny days and there will be rainy days and Jesus is Lord over both. Regardless of what is happening to me or around me I know God is in control. If I am being pelted on the head by rain drops and being drenched to the bone or whether I am being scorched by the sun, God is the source of my rejoicing not the rain or the sun.

When God is treasured and valued above all, He will be our reason for rejoicing. Today the rain is coming but what I must ask myself and you ask yourself is if you are going to rejoice in the Lord today. You might not be able to rejoice in your present circumstances but you can rejoice in the Lord. He is constant. Let the rain come. Bring on the bone chilling north winds. Come what may we must rejoice in the Lord. He alone satisfies. [Ps 16:11]