It's Testify Tuesday again! It's your turn to share about God and His presence, His hand, His protection. Where ever you have experienced Him, tell us all, it will open our eyes to His presence in our own lives.
Habakkuk 1:5 says this:
Look among the nations!
Observe!
Be astonished!
Wonder!
Because I am doing something in your days--
You would not believe it if you were told.
Observe!
Be astonished!
Wonder!
Because I am doing something in your days--
You would not believe it if you were told.
That's God's words to Habakkuk, and I believe that same God is still as much at work today. Tell us something so we can be astonished, so we can have wonder. Tell us what He is doing in your days!
Don't be afraid of that comment button - it doesn't bite! My prayer is that you will knock each other's socks off with your stories.
Be Blessed in Him today,
Don't be afraid of that comment button - it doesn't bite! My prayer is that you will knock each other's socks off with your stories.
Be Blessed in Him today,
Royal Princess Daughter Of The King
I wrote about this on my blog, but I would love to share what happened to me Saturday night. I was discussing the words greed and excess with my wife the other night during dinner at a restaurant with our kids.
ReplyDeleteMy stepson was taking off his sillybands that were apparently cutting off the circulation to his hand – due to the fact that he was wearing about 30 of them.
I told my wife that sillybands were a great example of something that in of itself are not bad, but in excess they become an issue.
So we were talking about the excess and greed in the hearts of our children during dinner. I had finished my salad, and decided it was time to get up and go to the buffet line to get my pizza.
I am standing in line for what seems to be an eternity. There is a VERY slow couple holding the line up, seemingly there to grab at least 3 pieces of every pizza on the buffet table, and after a few minutes, I become extremely aggravated. When I finally get to the pizzas all the ‘good ones’ are gone. So now I am mad and as I go through, randomly picking out 7 pieces of pizza that I don’t really even want, God spoke to me.
“There are people that would give everything they had to be standing where you are right now. People dying of hunger. You are complaining about pizza, and you have 7 pieces on your plate that you don’t even want. Do you still want to talk about greed and excess?”
Ouch.
When we got home that night I apologized to my wife and told her what God spoke to me at the restaurant. I guess I proved the point I was trying to make, I just wasn’t expecting to be a crucial part of that point.
With the nature of my job I often visit people in the hospital and on occasion some of them are very sick, even to the point of death. Such was the case late last week. I received a name from a church member that requested I stop in and pray for their friend. So, I gladly went to the hospital to meet the person, not really knowing what condition they were in other than they were in ICU (usually not a good place to be).
ReplyDeleteThe hospital I went to is VERY strict about what times you can visit those in ICU and not paying attention to what time it was, I was not sure if I would be able to meet the gentleman or perhaps meet the family in the waiting room. As I walked through the hall toward ICU I was actually trying to talk myself out of visiting him on this particular day. I was thinking to myself “I maybe here at the wrong time, who is this guy, I don’t know him, he doesn’t know me, what am I going to say to him, etc.”
I finally decided that if the door to ICU was closed I would turn around and go on. Well….. Wouldn’t you know it, the doors were opened. I found the man bed and as I was about to walk into the room a nurse stopped me and asked “who I was, family, friend, etc.” I didn’t think she was going to let me in. I told her I was a pastor there at the request of a friend. After hearing that she encouraged me to go in and pray briefly with the man because he was near death. One lady visitor was with the man and she said “I know you. I have heard you preach.” (I hope that was a good thing).
She introduced me to the gentleman and by this time I could tell the man was laboring to breath and that his condition seemed grave. I told him I would like to pray with him and he said “pray for my physical health.” I told him I was interested in his physical health but more importantly I wanted to know about his spiritual health. I thought I heard him try to say “me and God have it worked out.” Immediately I thought to myself “that is not the answer I was looking for. That can mean many things.” Before I could say anything else he went on to say “I know Jesus.” After hearing that I feel my heart leap for joy! By the sound of his voice I believe he was stating that he knew Jesus as his Savior.
Needles to say, that one sentence said it all. It ministered more to me I’m sure than my prayer did to him. Shortly after that prayer the gentleman took his last breath and went home to be with his Savior.
Todd