ChrisJD wrote:
Miccah, thank you for the encouragement brother!!Very much appreciated.
_________________Christiaan
Hi again everyone,Miccah, I think I can say this without hesitation, that one of the things that I have found the most fulfilling in life is to be able to be a blessing or encouragement to others in some way. It seems to me that Heaven will be one continous state of blessing, of others, and ourselves, unto and from and before God. Brother, the blessing has and continues to be mine! Grace upon grace, blessing upon blessing! Praise be to God for the gift of being able to give and share with others!As I continued to meditate on these things I wanted to relate some how the proper glory and honor to God. It seems to me more and more that God is pleased, or that He may be, in using men or women that are least fit humanly speaking(2 Co 4:7) to accomplish something.That would surely have to be the case with me in going out to share the Gospel. I think that one of the greatest struggles of my life has been with fear. And the area in Baltimore that we lived had terrible problems with drugs and prostitution. I remember two men that I spoke with fairly often. It was strange, but as we talked, I remember clearly how they sometimes would pull out a knife and start cleaning their fingernails. Not exactly encouraging!It wasn't as though they were hostile or mean to me. But it seemed looking back, to be just what you suggested, how that the adversary will seek to throw us off or stop us by any means.And you know what, this happened again when I moved here. Once downtown, and then again it happened as I was talking to two men on another street. This man walks up behind us and I tell you he had a knife with him that looked more like a short sword! He walks up to us and asks if we knew anyone that would buy it or where he could sell it.Of course all kinds of thoughts can run through your mind looking at something like that! Actually, it was hard to think about anything else. I think I can relate somehow to what Paul said about being among them in Corinth with much trembling and with fear(1 Co 2:3).But he also said that his sufficency was of God!!!Blessings brother.
_________________Christopher Joel Dandrow
The other day I ran into something different. I was buying groceries, and there was a young man running the cash register. There was something very baffling about him. Each time that he scanned an item, he would "toss" it over to the bagging area. He would not speak, and he would not look at me, just scan "toss", scan "toss", scan "toss."Back when the Lord first go a hold of me, I was in a restaurant and saw a newscaster on the television by my table. A revelation came over me that the man was just a talking head - it was as if he was empty - had no soul - and the words were just pouring forth from his mouth.But the young man in the grocery store was different. It was as if he was dead. Stone cold empty with nothing coming forth. As I was praying this morning, and remembering the incident, an image came to mind of a pitiful soul, trapped behind a thick layer of ice, screaming in terror - but all of his voice was trapped behind the ice.The look on this boy's face reminded me of what I see on the faces of many of our youth - only his was complete - completely void.
HeartSong wrote:The other day I ran into something different. I was buying groceries, and there was a young man checking me out.
_________________Mike Jones
:-o oops - I'll go fix it.