Sitting home Monday evening watching the rain pour down from our metal roof my mind drifted away to a time and place I haven’t been in a while. To New Orleans, a city that has attached itself somehow to my soul. I have a yearning deep within me to live there and serve God by serving the people of the town. Not a calling to stand on a corner of Bourbon street and yell out scriptures concerning the damnation of sinners, (for there’s plenty of those already) but rather as a living example of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
I’d like to think that somehow what I’m doing now is in preparation for what I’ll do in New Orleans. Maybe somehow He’s setting all of this up, (me opening two successful businesses in the past two years) as a way to secure the financial means I’ll need when I get there. Truth is, I just don’t know. I only know that there’s been that connection for a long, long time.
Someday I’ll know more about God’s plan, I’m sure of that! I hold to that. I seek that. But right now, I’ve settled into a role of serving the folks right here in my own community. Good folk. Hard working folk. Troubled folk. Folks with a need to see God work in their lives. Sometimes I sit around wishing I could do more, but my maturity as a Christian reminds me not to get out ahead of God, again.
Looking back, I haven’t written many journal items this past year. Lots going on, I guess. I’ve started numerous items that are still left undone and call to me from time to time. I’ll know when it’s right with God, and then the item will take the shape He intends. Till then they’ll sit, and I’ll seek. One unfinished item I started long ago (2007 the computer tells me) is the following item. It’s not colored with any feel-good story, or funny anecdote, it’s pretty much a plain and simple reminder of things we’ve all learned over the years. Today God said share it, so I am.
"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built" (Luke 6:46-48).
August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southernUnited States and flood waters surged over New Orleans like a filling bathtub
Bad things are going to happen--that's a given. Jesus says, "When a flood arose" (Luke 6:47).
Not if, but when the storm comes.
Jesus never promised life would be easy. He never said if we believe in Him, He'll take away all of our trouble. What He said is; He will be there with us to help us through those times of trouble.
Jesus gave the people three steps to building the kind of foundation that lasts. They were (and are) to come to Him, to listen to His teaching, and to obey.
Jesus says, " Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). (A scripture I quote so often in this journal.) The bottom-line is, God desires a personal relationship with you and He has extended an invitation to you/us through His Son, Jesus.
God has given us His Word, the Bible. Through it we can learn how God desires for us to live and the blessings He has in store for us. Us, all we have to do is not ignore or forsake it. Don’t let it sit there collecting dust, or allow others to plant into our minds and hearts a false version of its teachings.
After we've come to Jesus and heard His Word, it's up to us to put that Word into practice in our lives. That's the part that so many people refuse to do. The Bible says, "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his face in a mirror" (James 1:23). These people are the ones who crumble when the tough times come.
The flood waters are coming—be wise, build your foundation on the Rock. doug
And that was about as far as I got in 2007 with this item.
“The flood waters are coming” boy was that ever a prophetic statement four years ago. In 2011 we as a nation are very similar to New Orleans after Katrina - we’re trying to find the strength and courage to rebuild, to clean up, and put back together what God has entrusted to us. All the blame of failure has been shifted from FEMA to the White House, and the levees that broke this time was our very own financial system.
It’s so much easier to point a finger of blame, to yell and scream out ridiculous lies and half-truths, to criticize every move that is made by those working hard to solve the problems. It’s much easier than coming up with a workable solution on our own. To getting off our backsides and help “fix” what needs fixed in our own backyards. It’s much easier than being a “doer”.
Truth is; we’re not even sure the floodwaters have reached their peak yet. Has the river crested yet? Have we seen the worst of damage and destruction, or is this really just the beginning of the end for the great nation we call our United States?
I know this; until we reach out and take each other’s hand and we help pull those being sweep away in the currents to a safe place. Until we stop complaining and start slinging sand bags. Until we open our cupboards as well as our hearts up to our starving neighbors we’ll continue to see more and more perish in the storm.
We have to get, not just ourselves to that solid foundation, yet we have to help our neighbors get there as well. We have to stop screaming out abusive comments and statements about our leaders, and start teaching and preaching God’s message of hope, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and LOVE. It’s hard to get that message across all the while talking ugly (as my mom used to say) about someone else.
We need to be about our Father’s work. We need to be building up, not tearing down. We need to rethink our position, our actions, our attitudes, our words. And that goes for me personally. Maybe my New Orleans has been swept north by the floodwaters and actually lies right here in North Central Alabama now? Maybe this is the opportunity God has been preparing me for all along.
“And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built"
The flood waters are coming, or maybe they’re already here —and again I say; be wise, build your foundation on the Rock.
doug
Someday I’ll know more about God’s plan, I’m sure of that! I hold to that. I seek that. But right now, I’ve settled into a role of serving the folks right here in my own community. Good folk. Hard working folk. Troubled folk. Folks with a need to see God work in their lives. Sometimes I sit around wishing I could do more, but my maturity as a Christian reminds me not to get out ahead of God, again.
Looking back, I haven’t written many journal items this past year. Lots going on, I guess. I’ve started numerous items that are still left undone and call to me from time to time. I’ll know when it’s right with God, and then the item will take the shape He intends. Till then they’ll sit, and I’ll seek. One unfinished item I started long ago (2007 the computer tells me) is the following item. It’s not colored with any feel-good story, or funny anecdote, it’s pretty much a plain and simple reminder of things we’ve all learned over the years. Today God said share it, so I am.
"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built" (Luke 6:46-48).
August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern
Bad things are going to happen--that's a given. Jesus says, "When a flood arose" (Luke 6:47).
Not if, but when the storm comes.
Jesus never promised life would be easy. He never said if we believe in Him, He'll take away all of our trouble. What He said is; He will be there with us to help us through those times of trouble.
Jesus gave the people three steps to building the kind of foundation that lasts. They were (and are) to come to Him, to listen to His teaching, and to obey.
Jesus says, " Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). (A scripture I quote so often in this journal.) The bottom-line is, God desires a personal relationship with you and He has extended an invitation to you/us through His Son, Jesus.
God has given us His Word, the Bible. Through it we can learn how God desires for us to live and the blessings He has in store for us. Us, all we have to do is not ignore or forsake it. Don’t let it sit there collecting dust, or allow others to plant into our minds and hearts a false version of its teachings.
After we've come to Jesus and heard His Word, it's up to us to put that Word into practice in our lives. That's the part that so many people refuse to do. The Bible says, "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his face in a mirror" (James 1:23). These people are the ones who crumble when the tough times come.
The flood waters are coming—be wise, build your foundation on the Rock. doug
And that was about as far as I got in 2007 with this item.
“The flood waters are coming” boy was that ever a prophetic statement four years ago. In 2011 we as a nation are very similar to New Orleans after Katrina - we’re trying to find the strength and courage to rebuild, to clean up, and put back together what God has entrusted to us. All the blame of failure has been shifted from FEMA to the White House, and the levees that broke this time was our very own financial system.
It’s so much easier to point a finger of blame, to yell and scream out ridiculous lies and half-truths, to criticize every move that is made by those working hard to solve the problems. It’s much easier than coming up with a workable solution on our own. To getting off our backsides and help “fix” what needs fixed in our own backyards. It’s much easier than being a “doer”.
Truth is; we’re not even sure the floodwaters have reached their peak yet. Has the river crested yet? Have we seen the worst of damage and destruction, or is this really just the beginning of the end for the great nation we call our United States?
I know this; until we reach out and take each other’s hand and we help pull those being sweep away in the currents to a safe place. Until we stop complaining and start slinging sand bags. Until we open our cupboards as well as our hearts up to our starving neighbors we’ll continue to see more and more perish in the storm.
We have to get, not just ourselves to that solid foundation, yet we have to help our neighbors get there as well. We have to stop screaming out abusive comments and statements about our leaders, and start teaching and preaching God’s message of hope, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and LOVE. It’s hard to get that message across all the while talking ugly (as my mom used to say) about someone else.
We need to be about our Father’s work. We need to be building up, not tearing down. We need to rethink our position, our actions, our attitudes, our words. And that goes for me personally. Maybe my New Orleans has been swept north by the floodwaters and actually lies right here in North Central Alabama now? Maybe this is the opportunity God has been preparing me for all along.
“And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built"
The flood waters are coming, or maybe they’re already here —and again I say; be wise, build your foundation on the Rock.
doug
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