Tag Archives: grace

The Living Bible

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Today’s post was taken from an e-mail that I received from Wes Gates of Grace Revival Fellowship.  He received the e-mail from Pastor David Broome.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

“Now this is the Living Bible:

His name is Tim. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college.

He is brilliant. Kind of profound and very, very bright. He became a Christian while attending college.

Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church.  They want to develop a ministry to the students but are not sure how to go about it.

One day Tim decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Tim starts down the aisle looking for a seat.

The church is completely packed and he can’t find a seat. By now, people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything.

Tim gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit, and when he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet.

By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick.

About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Tim.

Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with a cane and, as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to themselves that you can’t blame him for what he’s going to do.

How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?

It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy.

The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man’s cane.  All eyes are focused on him. You can’t even hear anyone breathing. The minister can’t even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.

And now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty, he lowers himself and sits down next to Tim and worships with him so he won’t be alone.

Everyone chokes up with emotion.

When the minister gains control, he says, ‘What I’m about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget.’

‘Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some people will ever read!'”

So, how are you doing?

Three Powerful Words

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On Saturday evening Tara and I sat and watched the “Precious Memories” television program hosted by Bill Gaither.  He was featuring a new DVD that highlighted the Crabb Family.  This was a really good program.  There are three or four of their songs that I really like.  The songs I seem to like have been written by the father of this family, Gerald Crabb.  In one of his songs he says, “… on the back of my old four wheel drive Chevy is a fish and a cross for the world to see”.  He is just a regular guy.

Jason Crabb told the story of how his daddy had sunk pretty low.  He had gone so far down as to drink alcohol heavily and had lost his vehicle and was on the brink of loosing his car wash business.  One day God spoke to Gerald Crabb and said, “I still love you.”  As you can imagine the tears began to flow down my cheeks.  As Gerald Crabb knelt in the muddy floor of his failing car wash he pray, “Lord, I still love you too.  Please forgive me.”  Then he wrote from that experience one of my favorite songs, “Please forgive me.  I need Your grace to make it through.  All I have is you.  I’m at your mercy…”  You can watch a video of this song here.

Lost

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Luke chapter 15 has become one of my favorite chapters in the Word of God.  In verses 11 to 33 we have what is commonly known as “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”.  I think it would be better labeled as “The Parable of the Lost Son”.  The reason I say that is because if you look at the first ten (10) verses of the chapter Jesus is dealing with lost things.  He tells of a lost sheep and a lost coin.  Then He moves on to a lost son.  God has given me five (5) sermons on this passage of Scripture alone.

Today, as some will go to our respective Churches we will hear the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.  If your Church does not teach this then you need to leave this so-called Church and find one that does.  Write me and I can help you, I promise.

If you have never began a relationship with Jesus Christ, today is a great time to do that.  You must realize that you are a sinner.  We have all sinned against God and need His forgiveness.  We must admit this to God.  We must believe that Jesus died for my sin.  Then we must confess our sin to Him calling upon Him in prayer.  If we mean this with all of our hear then He will save us.  Then it can be said of you the words of Luke 15:32, “It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”

So, how are you doing?

This Is The Day!

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Let me wish you “Happy Resurrection Day!”  So many people love Christmas and it is a holiday worth celebrating.  If there were not Christmas then there would be no Resurrection Day.  In my heart today is the pinnacle for we who know Christ as Saviour.

The world has it all wrong!  It is not about a “Easter Bunny”.  I love the post I saw on facebook the other day.  It said, “Silly rabbit, Easter is for Jesus!”  Amen!  Jesus endured hell, separation from His Father, beating and much more all for you and I.  Praise His name!  As I type this I can hardly contain myself between crying and shouting.  If I could have our dear friend Jessica sing “His Life for Mine”, I would just die and go to Heaven.  “His life for mine.  How could it ever be?  That He would die.  God’s Son would die to save a wretch like me.  What love divine.  He gave His life for mine.”

I can never do enough, say enough or anything else to repay Jesus Christ for what He has done for me.  All I can do is try to tell all those who will listen.  For this reason I write this blog.

Let me reassure you parents of God’s special children that you have hope.  The reason you have hope is because the One who has named Himself The God of Hope loves you supremely and cares for you so deeply that He died so that you may have life eternal in Heaven.  Today is the celebration of His victory.  Because Jesus arose from the grave we have hope of eternal life too.  Truly we can say as did the writer of Psalm 118:24, “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

So, how are you doing?

What Would You Do?

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A couple days ago I sat in tears watching an episode of the TV show “What Would You Do?” from ABC via the internet.  (click here to view)  The reason it was so emotional for me is because it was actors portraying a family with a boy with autism trying to enjoy a meal in a restaurant.  This video was an all too familiar scenario for my family and I.  Thankfully we have never had a negative reaction that we know of like in the video; but, it has been tough to say the least.  Our last try at eating out was at a new Cracker Barrel.  Our son was having such a bad time that I put a pocket full of change (probably three dollars or more) on the table and my wife and I “escorted” him to our van where he proceeded to hit the door and window as hard as he could hit.  You can only imagine how we were feeling at that time.

We work very hard to not over react to these melt downs; but. it is difficult.  Let me ask you a question.  How do you respond when you are around some child who is legitimately having a melt down?  As a parent; sometimes, you want intervention (like a hug or a word of condolence or an offer to help) and other times you just want people to just clear out and let you handle the situation.  When you see this please pray for these families and caregivers!  I beg you to pray for them and us.

We need the help of Jude 22, “And of some have compassion, making a difference:”  You can make a huge difference in the lives of these families by simply having compassion.  Don’t feel sorry, feel compassion.  One man described compassion as “someone else’s pain in your heart.”

So, how are you doing?

As The Eagle, So The LORD 5

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Today is our last look at the last phrase in Deuteronomy 32:11, “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:”

The phrase “beareth them on her wings.”  The word “beareth” is nasa’ or nacah (Psalm 4 : 6 (7)) {naw-saw’}; a primitive root; to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, and can be translated advance, arise, (able to, (armor), suffer to) bear(-er, up), bring (forth), carry (away),.  This was a great revelation to me. The Hebrew word is “nasa” and is pronounced “naw-saw”.  I bet our space exploration program comes from this.  Now, you get the gist of where today is going.

When the eaglet gets on the mother’s back she takes off and he digs in with his talons.  Then she flies up and suddenly turns over to knock the eaglet off her back.  As the eaglet falls and is screaming from his mother he can look at her and see who she flies and he can follow her example.  One puff of wind and the eaglet is flying.

As we parent children with special needs it “feels” like God has dumped us off His back so to speak.  I have to tell you that I have felt this way often.  Now I look at it much differently.  I have seen this example in the eagle play out in our lives time and again.  We have to learn to watch the Father and stretch out our wings and do it His way and then we too can fly like the eagles.

During this whole scenario of training of the eaglet the father is flying far above the mother and the eaglet watching to ensure no predator interferes with the training of the eaglet.  God our Father is watching over us from Heaven and He cares so deeply for us that He allows us to go through this training.  Oh, how He loves you and me.  He knows what you are going through as you parent one of His special children.  Look to Him for strength for today and hope for tomorrow.  Maybe even the next minute is your need.  Look to Him.

So, how are you doing?

As The Eagle, So The LORD 4

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As we continue our study let’s look at Deuteronomy 32:11, “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:”

The next phrase I want to look at is, “taketh them”.  It means to take (in the widest variety of applications)and can be translated accept, bring, carry away.  In the life of the eaglet, this is where things seemingly takes another turn for the worst.  This eaglet has lost his nest.  The parents have torn it apart and it is long gone.  The eaglet has now spent a cold night on their rock probably shaking and shivering all alone there. The next morning the mother goes to the eaglet and motions for it to jump on her back.  When it does it finds that the mother’s feathers are warm and it digs in with it’s talons until it draws blood.

God wants you and I to live the abundant life.  Jesus tells us in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”  This begins when we leave our comfort zone and begin to trust Him.  We have to “dig in” with our “talons” so to speak.  If we are going to parent children with special needs then we need to get a good hold on God.  The beauty of this is that He has a hold on us.  Are you clinging to God?  I hope you are.  If not contact me and I would love to show you how you can get a hold of God personally.

So, how are you doing?

 

As The Eagle, So The LORD 3

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Today I would like to continue our thoughts on the example of the eagle.  Let’s look at Deuteronomy 32:11, “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:”

The phrase I would like to focus on today is, “spreadeth abroad her wings,”.  The word “spreadeth” means to break apart, disperse.  I find this very interesting.  When the eaglet begins to grow the mother breaks apart the nest.  This makes the eaglet very uncomfortable.  Why would she do this?  She is starting the process of getting the eaglet to fly.  Once the hide is removed from the nest then the mother can begin to use her wings and talons to disperse the nest.  Now the eaglet spend the night on a cold, hard rock.

The LORD will do the same for you and I.  You see, we get comfortable in our comfort zone.  In order for us to grow God has to make things uncomfortable for us.  This way we get out of that comfort zone.  It is very unpleasant; but, it gets His goal accomplished if we will but yield to Him.

Raising children with special needs is not easy.  If you think it is then you need to talk to a parent of one of these special children.  The days are long and the nights are short.  There is physical pain and suffering and there is the emotional pain and suffering.  Only Jesus truly knows your pain and hurt.  He has designed it to make you stronger and point you to Him.  He loves you supremely and He will go to great lengths to make you want Him.

So, how are you doing?

As The Eagle, So The LORD 2

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I would like to continue our thoughts today that we started yesterday.  Look at Deuteronomy 32:11, “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:”

Today we will look at the phrase, “fluttereth over her young,”.  The word “fluttereth” means to brood; by implication, to be relaxed and can be translated flutter, move, shake.  When a storm comes the eagle will get the eaglets around her in such a way that they get covered over by her wings.  It is their protection of the young eaglets.  The parents provide shelter in the time of a storm.

God will do the same for you and I.  Look at Psalm 91:4, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”  What an awesome picture of God’s protection of His children.  God loves you and I so much that He cares for us and gives us the example of the eagle to show us.

As you parent your child with special needs you have a great responsibility placed upon you.  Remember that God; in His plan, hand picked you to parent this child or children.  It helps tremendously to get the right perspective on this first.  If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it (whatever “it” is).  Keep watch over God’s special people.

So, how are you doing?

Remember

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Several years ago my uncle was in the nursing home with alzheimer’s disease.  It was so difficult.  A lot of the times I would go visit and he would talk to me about things that took place before I was born.  He spoke with me like I was his brother.  This was hard to say the least.  I would just go along with him so as to not upset him and cause him more pain that was already there.

This was a horrible battle that eventually took his life.  It was a battle that nobody or nothing can truly prepare you for.  One thing is for sure.  We need the help of Jesus Christ in all of our battles no matter how big or small.

As the parent of an autistic child, the battles of life some days seem overwhelming.  I mean as sincerely as I can say it, that there are days that I really think I am going down for the last time.  Why?  Somehow, I have let myself get into a place where what I was focused on has become out of focus.  I have lost sight of Who is really fighting the battle.  Look at Deuteronomy 20:1, “When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”  I know that our son is not our enemy; but, the autism that consumes him is my enemy.  One day I hope and pray that God will change my perspective on autism.  For now the disease is the enemy of this family and we fight in God’s power.  You my friend, what about you?

So, how are you doing?