Scripture

Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come.

~Isaiah 57:1, NLT

Quote

For reasons we don’t understand, bad things happen to good people, and perhaps even more inexplicable is that good things happen to bad people.

~John Hamby

Pat Summit, the legendary coach of the Tennessee Volunteer women basketball team died June 28, 2016 at the age of 64. She had suffered from Alzheimer’s for the last six years. This means that her quality of life dropped drastically at age 58 and that my friend is young. I’ve had a lot of friends depart this world at an youthful age. My next door neighbor and the man I spent the most time with growing up was killed in a freak accident in his mid-twenties. If I made a list today, it would make the blog too long to read. Perhaps all of them were better men than myself; some of them for sure and it left me wondering: Lord, why would you take them and leave me? Why did you take them and leave drug pushers, wife beaters, dead beats, crooks and child molesters? It doesn’t make sense to us, does it?

Josiah was the best king  in Israel’s history: yes, he was a much better man than David. Josiah was a puritan with bulldog tenacity. He set out to destroy the pagan altars in Israel and his crusade lead him into the North where he was not recognized as a king. He hated Baal with a passion and he loved Yahweh. He got killed in battle at the age of 39, but the Lord allowed this to protect Josiah from seeing the evil that was to come. God has a way of turning our deepest grief into our greatest joy. My oldest brother died as an infant. My mother almost gave way to despair and she did have a root of bitterness. God gave her three more sons and all three broke her heart more than once. She told me once, “The only son that I’m sure will be in heaven is the one God took.” Over time, God took her grief and turned it into a comfort. He is an amazing God. Fortunately for mother, all of her sons repented.

I love Isaiah 55, and lately I read it daily. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Extra

Another good LORD’s day. God is good and He never changes. He is not good one day and bad the next: He is always good. He has a reason for allowing evil to exist; its just that we don’t understand the reason. On the day of the crucifixion of Jesus looked absolutely horrible but now it is glorious. Given time, He will make all things glorious.

We have a lot of suffering people to remember, to help, to comfort and to lift up in prayer. I got a nice note from Amanda Mote last night. She and David covet our prayers. It has been a difficult year for the Motes. Amanda’s dad, Rick Freeman {from Flomaton, Alabama} in a good friend. Rick is pastor at Gum Springs. I texted Christy Clark last night. She got tied up yesterday and did not get to come to church but she said things were about the same. Remember Christy and Charity Clark, no relations. Charity is a member of the DBC praise team. Lincoln Kallas has some surgeries coming up in a month or so. Lincoln stays on the go: he was with Josh Saturday chasing storms. Keith Turney’s day Billy is in HH with pneumonia. Billy is 83 and frail: pneumonia is not good. Mary Bradley had surgery on her arm and is recovering at home. I understand it was a painful surgery and the recovery has been slow. Pray for Mike Garnett, Willard’s brother; he has a rare lung disease and he is not doing well. Pray for me that I will get to where I need to go today and be a faithful ambassador when I get there.

God bless you. I hope you have a great day and a great week.