Scripture
“Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.”
~Matthew 7:7, NIRV
Quote
We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth.
~Andrew Murray
During the 74 years of communist rule in Russia, a Russian pastor was arrested and put in prison. His wife and children were sent to live in a run down shack in Siberia. One wintry night in their remote and dilapidated cabin, the three children divided their last crust of bread and shared the last cup of tea before crawling into bed hungry and worried about tomorrow. Before retiring, they knelt by their bed for prayer and they asked their mother, “Where are we going to get food mama? We are hungry. Do you think Papa knows where we are?” The mother assured them that the heavenly Father knew where they were and so they prayed and asked Him for provision.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, God woke up a deacon of a church in the area and instructed him to get out of bed, harness his horse to the sleigh, load it with food that his church had gathered and take it to the pastors family who were over 18 miles away. The Lord said emphatically, “They are hungry, take them food.” The deacon protested, “But LORD, it is below zero out there and I and my horse could freeze to death in this weather.” Again, the LORD spoke clearly through the Holy Spirit, “You must go, the pastor’s family is in trouble.” The deacon argued, “LORD, you know there are wolves out there, they will eat me and my horse, we will never make it back.” The LORD said, “You don’t have to make it back, you only have to go.” The LORD won the argument and t deacon harnessed his horse to his sleigh, loaded it with food and made it to the cabin in the wee hours of the morning. His knock on the cabin door startled the starving family but when they opened the door and saw the food, they began to celebrate God’s mercy and goodness. He held out a sack of food and said, “Our church collected this for you and there is more where this came from.” By the way, he made it back home safely.
Years ago I got into a debate which one of our senior adults. He had been voting his pocket book and I had gotten close enough to him to talk about sensitive issues like politics. He was voting straight democrat even though he did not agree with anything in their platform. I asked him why. I will never forget his answer, he said, “I have to live don’t I?” I said, “No, actually you don’t.” Our greatest call is not to live but to be obedient. We don’t have to come back but we do have to go. In defense of my friend, he believed the democratic propaganda that without them, Social Security would be defunded. I didn’t blame him, his fears were real but shame on the democratic party for terrorizing senior adults. Samuel said to Saul, “What pleases the LORD more? Burnt offerings and sacrifices, or obeying him? It is better to obey than to offer a sacrifice. It is better to do what he says than to offer the fat of rams.” I might add that sometimes obedience calls for sacrifice.
I mowed grass in a wind breaker Wednesday and it felt good. My office so cool yesterday morning that I needed no A/C. Hey, I thought after last week and the hot weather… “We will not have any more cool weather until fall.” But praise God, I was wrong and in this case, it is great to be wrong. Our awesome God is full of wondrous surprises, amen!
The story from the blog comes from THE INSANITY OF GOD, page 166-177.
Went to see Old Gregg yesterday: he is doing pretty good. They were moving him to Health South as I was there. He was up and walking. Old Gregg is pretty tough. I finally got the truth out of him yesterday, he does not have another tape of me singing Sunlight. Praise the LORD! When they didn’t play it at my retirement party, I was pretty sure they didn’t have another.
Had something happen yesterday that I do not recall ever happening to me before. I stopped at Cracker Barrel on my way to Huntsville and my waitress said to me, “This is your lucky day; someone has paid for your meal.” It was one of our youth. I doubt if he reads the blog but just in case: thank you. I am highly impressed and that’s a fact.
If you are planning to camp this weekend, you better change your plans: Big Mama is predicting rain for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
I’m not sure what I am going to be doing today but chances are, it is something I’ve never done so pray.