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!

Listen You Rebels

Pray For MY HOPE

SCRIPTURE

“Listen, you rebels, must I bring you water from this Rock?” And lifting his hand he struck the Rock with his staff, till water gushed out.

~Numbers 20:10-11, Moffatt

QUOTE

Giving God the glory is a simple choice, not an impossibility. Anyone can do it!

~Yaakov

COMMENTARY

Moses had a unique relationship with God. There is nothing like it in the Old Testament but at Meribah Moses offends God and the offense is unforgivable. It does not keep Moses out of heaven but it did keep him from leading the Israelites into the Promise Land which was his dream.  Twice in his farewell messages to the Israelites, Moses blames the congregation, “The LORD was angry with me because of you.” He also tries to discuss the subject with the LORD [Deuteronomy 3:26-27] but the LORD would not discuss it. Matter of fact, He said to Moses “Don’t bring it up again.” What did Moses do that was so offensive?

1. First of all, Moses who was good at following instruction, does not follow instruction this time. The LORD clearly said, “Speak to the Rock.” [Numbers 20:8] Moses struck the Rock.
2. Moses was aggravated and perturbed in his spirit. He acted in anger toward the congregation and the Rock. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 10 the Christ is the Rock. Thus by striking the Rock, Moses dishonors God. By the way, the rock was in a desert and a river of water came forth from the Rock, enough for over 1,000,000 Israelites and all their livestock. You talk about an all-sufficient Savior, wow!
3. Moses failed to give glory to God. “Must I bring water from this Rock.” Moses was neither the source nor the power that unleashed the source but he did take the credit and it proved to be a costly error. Aaron took part in this little theatrical production and he got the same penalty.

Lessons

1. The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. We need to keep our cool: our anger quenches God’s Spirit.
2. Honor Christ. The Father delights in the Son. The one thing that we know to be unpardonable is rejection of His Son.
3. Giving God the glory is huge. He will not share His glory with another. It is not just what we say, it is our spirit and intent that God sees. We must give HIM the glory. Moses was super gifted and had a unique call but we cannot glory in God’s gifts, we must give proper credit to the Giver of the gifts.

EXTRA

The Cook Out went great and this week we have the STEW and TRUNK-A-TREAT and then Friday, November 1st all attention goes to our REVIVAL [Nov. 3-6] and MY HOPE [Nov. 7 to whenever]. The offering for My Hope was really good, close to $1,000. We will try to get something done about ice machine today and the third projector. We have 22 vendor for Trunk-A-Treat: if it rains we will move into the FORTE.