Scripture

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

~Matthew 11:28, NLT

Quote

Everyone you know is poor, wretched or lacking in some way.

~Charles F. Stanley

I am not comfortable around people who pretend to have it all together. I don’t trust them and why should I? If they are lying to themselves, would they not lie to me also. A good friend told me a few days ago, “My wife must be informing you, your blogs have been describing me.” I said, “No, I haven’t talked to the wife, I am simply preaching to myself.” Everyone has problems. Some are broken hearted over some deep disappointment, some are grieving the passing of someone very dear to them, some are in a bad relationship, some are tortured by regrets, some are lonely and isolated, some are disturbed emotionally and struggle to find peace, some have unmet needs and unfulfilled desires. No one is this world is trouble free. I know there are people who pretend not to have problems: they are smug, conceited and always full of advice for others but they never confess their own sins. Perhaps they are unaware of their problems, but you and I know they have them.

You are familiar with Hans Christian Andersen’s folk tale about the Emperor’s New Clothes. Some tailors, who were con-artist came to make the Emperor new clothes for a parade. The charlatans pretending to be tailors picked up on the emperor’s conceit and arrogance. Since they were frauds and did not know how to make clothes, they pretended, they could see the clothes when in fact, there were no clothes at all. The Emperor was naked, but they were pretending he had on royal garments. The emperor’s vanity lead him to believe he was clad with majestic clothes when actually, he had on nothing. He marches out into the street naked as a jay bird. The crowd is awing and praising the emperor for his new clothes until one little boy says, “The Emperor has on no clothes.” The person who pretends to have no problems is like the emperor–deceived by their own vanity. Everyone at the parade saw the emperor nudity except the emperor.

I’ve said a hundred time, “Everyone has problems,” but it is certainly refreshing to hear Charles Stanley say the same thing. As an old school teacher told me once, “Everyone has a screw loose somewhere.” I think the greatest hindrance to REVIVAL is our pretending to be alright.

Extra

I do want to praise the LORD for a great day of worship. We had another good service at the POINT with at least a half dozen coming to the altar. Then I was blessed last night. The song Rex sang was perfect for me. I went to him after the service and asks what the name was because I had never heard the song before, he told me and now I can’t remember. Teddy brought a great message and told me things that I didn’t know. Maybe I had heard them before but if so, I don’t remember. Imagine that! Old Spencer is as slick as a banana peeling. The boy loves the spot light; he can preach announcements. It is always good to see Ben and Paula Bates. Ben keeps me humble. He made fun of what I wore to the annual meeting last week and it really hurt my feelings. He has to be nice to me when Paul is around. The house was not full but it was close. We could have seated at least 30 more people but I think we had the 250. The singing was great! A full house really helps the praise and worship.

If you are a GRACE POINT member, we have made some changes and some plans. We are going to begin our Wednesday night worship service at 6:00 instead of 6:30. We are also going to have our CHRISTMAS fellowship on Sunday night December 18 instead of on a Sunday morning like we did last year. The women are doing a Christmas program December 18 at 5:00 and we are going to eat at 5:45. So just two fellowships between now and Christmas: this Sunday night at 5:30 and December 18.

Continue to pray for those battling cancer. Lincoln was still in ICU yesterday but Andrea was hoping he would be moved to room yesterday evening or today.

Have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.