Doubt And Despair

SCRIPTURE

John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

~Matthew 11:2-3, NLT

QUOTE

It is not unusual for great spiritual leaders to have days of doubt and despair.

~Warren W. Wiersbe

There is a huge difference between doubt and unbelief: Doubt is a matter of the mind–we cannot understand what God is doing or why He is doing it. Unbelief is a matter of the will. We refuse to believe and obey God’s word. John’s disciples kept him informed, Jesus was healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. The passage that Jesus quoted to John’s disciples comes from Isaiah 29–“Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” But other passages in Isaiah were a part of the Messianic expectation like Isaiah 61–The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. John must have wondered why Jesus did not set him free. I wonder myself but God is never obligated to explain to us what He is doing but it is during these times when we don’t understand why God is not intervening that we get discourage and that leads to doubt and despair.

• Ministry project this morning at Mrs. Edith Sandlin’s–Yard work.
• Normal Schedule Tomorrow and we do have a baptism.
• I think I mentioned yesterday that Bill Wilbourn was upgraded to room 522 and Tracey Luker had a knee replacement, I think she is at DGH.
• Life can be a struggle when you take your PM meds in the morning. Who’s is that stupid? I want call names but I know one guy who has done in three times in the last 6 months.

Wow, That Is Amazing!

SCRIPTURE

And His {Jesus} mother told the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”…So they followed His instructions.

~John 2:5,7, NLT

QUOTE

Changed from glory into glory, Till in heaven we take our place, Till we cast our crowns before Thee, Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

~Charles Wesley

I love the story of Jesus transforming water into wine and Mary’s incredible faith in her Son but today I want to focus on the SERVANTS. The servants, who represent us, did nothing spectacular. They simply filled some pots with water and at Jesus instruction, they carried them to the host. I could fill a pot with water and so could you. I could not do what Jesus did and neither could anyone else. Jesus did and does things that no other man can do. No other human lived a perfect life and thus fulfilled the laws every demand. No one else could die for our sins and no one else could do the miraculous signs He performed {John 15:24}. Jesus is the unique Man.

I am a servant and I can pour water in a pot. I cannot do anything spectacular; but I can follow Jesus instructions and I can celebrate His wonderful uniqueness. So today, we look at this story from the servants point of view.

1. The servants witnessed the supernatural glory and power of Christ.

2. The servants were the only ones who really knew what happened.

3. The servants witnessed the results of the miracle: the celebration extended, the host overjoyed.

4. The servants experienced personal joy because Jesus involved them in the miracle.

5. The servants had a testimony…they had a story to tell.

I don’t think these servants were tempted to take the glory from Jesus. I think they were just thrilled to be there and be a part of this fantastic moment. When we are in the presence of such greatest, we are absorbed in the shadows of their glory. We are like Peter when Jesus directed him to the miraculous catch, we are so overwhelmed with His infinite greatness, that in the moment, we cease to exist apart from Him. The problem with our worship these days is that we do not cease to exist. “LORD Jesus do something among us which would cause us to lose our ‘selves’ in Your glory.”

• Today we Pray for TEACHERS.

• Those who know me well know that you never walk up before a service or after a service and give me money for anything. When I came home last night, after visiting the Funeral Home, Hospital and Nursing homes in Decatur; June was hanging up my jacket and she said what is this and she pulled out a $500 which will build another house in Guatemala. I had forgotten all about it. This means we are almost halfway to our goal.

• Don’t forget to pray for Kane and I think we gave 110 pints of blood on Sunday which is a record for our church. The LIFE SOUTH workers were exhausted and had Hurricane KaTrina shut it down at 6:00. There were 10 waiting to give. This means we had 135 donors–some got turned down. Trina did a great job. She is to be commended.

• Lara and Lexi had lunch with Big Mama and I yesterday. Lara said, “Big Mama, I want you to make me a carrot cake.” June said, “I can’t. I do not have enough carrots.” Lara said, “Do you put carrots in a carrot cake?” June said, “Of course, why do you think they call them carrot cakes?” The girl is a true blond. I have bad news for Mr. Hardy and several more: Big Mama says she is shutting down the bakery–no more cakes for anyone. If you want her to make you a cake, you’ll have to go through Seth. She told me after Christmas…”No more cakes big boy, this bakery is closed for good.“

• HOUSE COUNT: 8 down and 12 to Go!

Miracles

SCRIPTURE

Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.

~Exodus 13:18, NLT

QUOTE

Do you believe in miracles?

~Al Michaels [1980 Winter Olympics]

The Soviet Union won the Olympic Hockey championship from 1954 to 1980. They were all professional soldiers/hockey players. They practiced 365 days a year but were on the army payroll which of course made them illegal because in those days Olympians were supposed to be amateurs {O for the good old days}. In 1979 the Soviet team beat the NHL all stars. The 1980 US Hockey teams was made up of college kids in their teens and twenties. No one gave them a chance.

There is a greater miracle recorded in the Old Testament. Moses lead 2,000,000 plus Israelites through a wilderness that is hard on rattle snakes. I want you to get a picture of this in your mind. Marching in columns with 50 per row, the Israelites were spread over 25 miles. If you had put them in box cars, it would have taken 200 trains all pulling 100 cars. To top that, God forced them to spend 40 years in the wilderness due to their disobedience and during that time, they ate 9 billion gallons of manna. No one died from the trip. No one died of starvation or heat exhaustion: they died from disobedience, otherwise Moses would have lead this horde through a snake infested wilderness into a land of promise. Miracles happen all the time, we simply don’t recognize them. No one in history; no one living today can explain how Moses and the Israelites survived other than giving God the glory for a miracle.

• Today we pray for those having TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS. I think Kane has a chemo treatment today at 11:00.
• Tom Bennich coming Sunday. Mission Offering goes to Disaster Relief. Johnny Burnett is our rep.
• GOLDEN GIRLS Saturday.
• The group below had a name: Can you tell me their name without Google?

Name this Country Music Super Group

Amazing Grace

SCRIPTURE

Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone; And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength;  And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

~Deuteronomy 6:4-6, NLT {Shema}

QUOTE

The key to authentic faith is to have an every day faith.

~Reggie Joiner

For forty years the Israelites had a daily, consistent and physical manifestation of God’s presence, power, grace and glory. They had manna every morning, a constant reminder that God was their provider and they had the shekinah glory cloud which glowed in the dark– so night and day God’s glorious presence was evident.

Moses knew it would not be like this in Canaan. It was time for the Israelites to grow up spiritually and face the harsh realities of warfare and a life of shear faith–minus the signs and wonders. How could they possible pull this off? Moses had the answer: they had to develop an every-day-faith and they had to transfer this faith to their children. There would be no more manna, no more Red Seas, no more audible voices: they had to learn to take God at His word. What do you do when the miracles stop? Do you have an every-day-faith or a once-a-week faith?

• The above thoughts were inspired by a book entitled “Lead Small” by Reggie Joiner and Tom Shefchunas. It is a small book filled with amazing insights.
• One more AWANA class night and two more suppers. May 21 will be an AWANA party night and our last Supper.
• Baccalaureate May 28th.
• Vacation Bible School is ever so close–June 2-6.
• Very good service last night: David and the band were superb.
• We had a visitor yesterday: Big Al and General Joe stopped in…

General Joe Wheeler and Aunt Mandy

A Mystery Wrapped In An Enigma

SCRIPTURE

“John didn’t perform miraculous signs,” they remarked to one another, “but everything he said about this man {Jesus} has come true.”

~John 10:41, NLT

QUOTE

Men can see the miracles of God and yet miss His glory. The generation who saw the most miracles crucified the Son of God.

~Thomas Wells

COMMENTARY

John the Baptist didn’t perform miracles, nor did he have any performed in his behalf. We cannot doubt Jesus power to do miracles but for some mysterious reason, Jesus did not do one for John. Jesus did many miracles for many people but He did not give everyone a miracle, including Himself. Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest man born of woman and yet He allowed him to languish in prison and die by the hand of Herod. John was a righteous man; a man of incredible faith and given to prayer so why didn’t he get a miracle? I don’t have the answer but I do have some encouragement.

Jesus gave John His word that everything was going according to plans and the scriptures were being fulfilled. It’s as if Jesus was saying, “John trust Me; you let Me to be God and you be John. I will reveal what I choose to reveal but you must trust Me to do the right thing.” Sometimes life boils down to hard faith, the ability to trust Christ when you are in a dungeon of darkness. Remember Peter got a miracle, an angel broke him out of jail but James got a sword. It is a mystery wrapped in an enigma: if you could figure it out, you would be God and you are not God.

• Got a call from Ardmore yesterday, my Aunt Cora was promoted yesterday evening [April 3]. She was the last person who knew my Grandfather Bailey. She was 12 years old when he was killed in a logging accident [1927]. She would have been 99 next month. She was born in 1915, same year as Mother, Irene Pope and Ona Holladay. Mrs. Irene will be 99 in July and Mrs. Holladay will be 99 in August.
• GOLDEN GIRLS meet Saturday morning at 9:00 am [Cracker Barrel].
• Deacon’s meeting Sunday morning at 8:00
• Below is Aunt Cora and her oldest Son who looks more like Granddaddy Bailey than any descendant [my opinion]. I wish I had a picture of the whole family but Uncle Crutcher passed away in 1967 and I’m not sure I’ve seen a picture of the entire family. [I put this on as a hint to my sisters. If you have one send it.]

Aunt Cora and Wayne, July 4, 2011

Girls with Hope