Praying For One Another

This story put me in mind of a Scripture passage that has been convicting me over the past few months. It was sent via email forward; I cut out all the yakked yak and copied it here. Enjoy.

I sat, with two friends, in the picture window of a quaint restaurant just off the corner of the town-square. The food and the company were both especially good that day.
As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the street. There, walking into town, was a man who appeared to be carrying all his worldly goods on his back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign that read, 'I will work for food.' My heart sank..
I brought him to the attention of my friends and noticed that others around us had stopped eating to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and disbelief.
We continued with our meal, but his image lingered in my mind. We finished our meal and went our separate ways. I had errands to do and quickly set out to accomplish them. I glanced toward the town square, looking somewhat halfheartedly for the strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing him again would call some response. I drove through town and saw nothing of him. I made some purchases at a store and got back in my car.
Deep within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking to me: 'Don't go back to the office until you've at least driven once more around the square.'
Then with some hesitancy, I headed back into town.. As I turned the square's third corner, I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the store front church, going through his sack.
I stopped and looked; feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet wanting to drive on. The empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign from God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and approached the town's newest visitor.
'Looking for the pastor?' I asked.
'Not really,' he replied, 'just resting.' 'Have you eaten today?' 'Oh, I ate something early this morning.'
'Would you like to have lunch with me?' 'Do you have some work I could do for you?'
'No work,' I replied 'I commute here to work from the city, but I would like to take you to lunch.'
'Sure,' he replied with a smile. As he began to gather his things, I asked some surface questions. 'Where you headed?' ' St. Louis '
'Where you from?'
'Oh, all over; mostly Florida .'
'How long you been walking?' 'Fourteen years,' came the reply.
I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat across from each other in the same restaurant I had left earlier. His face was weathered slightly beyond his 38 years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he spoke with an eloquence and articulation that was startling. He removed his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that said, 'Jesus is The Never Ending Story.'
Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times early in life. He'd made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences. Fourteen years earlier, while backpacking across the country, he had stopped on the beach in Daytona. He tried to hire on with some men who were putting up a large tent and some equipment. A concert, he thought.

He was hired, but the tent would not house a concert but revival services, and in those services he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to God
'Nothing's been the same since,' he said, 'I felt the Lord telling me to keep walking, and so I did, some 14 years now.'

'Ever think of stopping?' I asked.
'Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me. But God has given me this calling. I give out Bibles That's what's in my sack. I work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out when His Spirit leads.'
I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless. He was on a mission and lived this way by choice. The question burned inside for a moment and then I asked: 'What's it like?'
'What? 'To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to show your sign?'
'Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make comments. Once someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But then it became humbling to realize that God was using me to touch lives and change people's concepts of other folks like me.'
My concept was changing, too. We finished our dessert and gathered his things. Just outside the door, he paused. He turned to me and said, 'Come Ye blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for you. For when I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in.'
I felt as if we were on holy ground. 'Could you use another Bible?' I asked.
He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well and was not too heavy. It was also his personal favorite. 'I've read through it 14 times,' he said.
'I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church and see' I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well, and he seemed very grateful.
'Where are you headed from here?' I asked.
'Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park coupon.'
'Are you hoping to hire on there for awhile?'
'No, I just figure I should go there. I figure someone under that star right there needs a Bible, so that's where I'm going next.'
He smiled, and the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission. I drove him back to the town-square where we'd met two hours earlier, and as we drove, it started raining. We parked and unloaded his things.
'Would you sign my autograph book?' he asked. 'I like to keep messages from folks I meet.'
I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had touched my life. I encouraged him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse of scripture from Jeremiah, 'I know the plans I have for you, declared the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you; Plans to give you a future and a hope.'
'Thanks, man,' he said. 'I know we just met and we're really just strangers, but I love you.'

'I know,' I said, 'I love you, too.' 'The Lord is good! 'Yes, He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?' I asked. A long time,' he replied And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new friend and I embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been changed. He put his things on his back, smiled his winning smile and said, 'See you in the New Jerusalem.'
'I'll be there!' was my reply.
He began his journey again. He headed away with his sign dangling from his bedroll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said, 'When you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?'
'You bet,' I shouted back, 'God bless.'
'God bless.' And that was the last I saw of him..
Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The cold front had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to my car. As I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw them... a pair of well-worn brown work gloves neatly laid over the length of the handle. I picked them up and thought of my friend and wondered if his hands would stay warm that night without them.
Then I remembered his words: 'If you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?'
Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office. They help me to see the world and its people in a new way, and they help me remember those two hours with my unique friend and to pray for his ministry... 'See you in the New Jerusalem,' he said. Yes, Daniel, I know I will...

What's Good About A Tortuous Death?

It is Good Friday. When I was not a Believer, I thought people were crazy for calling this day Good Friday. "How could they call a day marking the murder of an innocent man good?" What I did not understand, because my eyes were closed to the things of the Spirit, was that is was not only good, but necessary. Only in God's economy could such a horrible day, become celebrated as good. This is the hallmark of a God's character; He is paradoxical. Do you want to be rich? Give all you have away, do you want to to strong? Then you must become weak. Do you want to be ruler of kingdoms, bow down and serve others. Do you want to live forever? Then you must die; to your sin, your selfishness. Do you want the world to have hope? Then You must die for them.
Thank You God, for not making sense.

Enjoy this Good Friday folks, and rejoice that it didn't end on that cross!

Clutter- Free Christianity Blog Tour

Clutter-Free Christianity
by Dr. Robert Jeffress

This book was different than I was expecting it to be; which turns out to be good. I was expecting a book that talked about the busyness of today's average Christian. What I got was just what I needed at this time in my life.
This book is a call to get back to the basic tenants of Christianity. It is a call to stop theorizing, speculating, and ministering for sake of ministry, and get ask ourselves if we are prepared for eternity.
Mr Jeffress opens up with the analagy of preparing for international travel and reckons that if we take such extreme care to prepare for a trip such as thisl how much more so should we take care to prepare for the most important destination of all. While a trip overseas may be subject to rescheduling or cancellation, the time we will leave for eternity is fixed in God's calendar and if we don't prepare now, we won't get another chance when it is time to go.
Realizing his own mortality was slipping by quickly, Mr Jeffress asked himself

What must I do to please God?

While understanding we are saved by grace and grace alone, we must also realize, says Jeffress, that the Bible is clear that God is interested in more just our justification,,we must also have a changed heart as suggested in Luke 10 . Our hearts must be transformed, and this is what the book goes on to address; broken down into 10 chapters that cover Connecting your heart to God's power on through to Prayer, communicating with God and ending with Creating a plan to change your life.
I have found Mr. Jeffress book refreshing, timely, and challenging. It is one of the few books of it's kind I have seen that delivers what it implies to promise, which is spiritual and personal growth.
If you think there is nothing you can do or must do to please God beyond accepting His gift of Salvation, I challenge you to read this book and find renewed focus and purpose for your life. Even knowing that I must do more, this book helped me, is helping me, to sort through the clutter of day to day struggles and frustrations and failures, and get to heart of what pleasing God really means. If you lead a small group, I would encourage you to consider this book for discussion, it has a study guide included.

Author Bio:
Dr. Robert Jeffress is the senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, one of the most historic churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. The author of sixteen books, he is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition, live broadcasts of Dr. Jeffress’ weekly messages reach millions of listeners and viewers each week, while his daily sermon series airs on 1,100 television stations and cable systems nationwide. Dr. Jeffress and his wife, Amy, are the parents of two adult daughters.
I am grateful to God for leading me to this book, for Mr Jeffress for writing it and to the publisher for making it available to all of us.
I hope you will check here to get a copy of your own and make your Christianity Clutter Free

Yikes, update indeed!

My last update was the 14th?! No wonder I got a request for an update. Tsk tsk tsk, shame on me!

Sigh, I really don't know what to say for myself except that I have been laboring under the side effects of new medication. Some my recall a post a while back about an embarrassing incident in the Health Food Store. Well the incidents became more and more frequent until I was forced to start wearing a protection almost all of the time and certainly if I were planning on being out of the house. I finally decided it was time to talk to my MD about it. I had been hoping it would get better as I lost weight but such was not the case, in fact I think it was getting worse with the weight loss. Of course he wanted me to try a medication, the main reason I had waited so long not to say anything was that I did not want to add another medicine unless absolutely necessary; but he said it was, especially to rule out other causes of the problem. But ever since I started the medicine I have become increasingly tired and sluggish. It has been long enough that it is obvious by now it is not going to go away, so I contacted my MD. I go back on Wednesday afternoon. He was going to just change my prescription but all the medicines in the class carry the same side effect, so now we need to come up with another approach. So this is why I have not posted, and have not done a whole lot of anything for the last couple of weeks. I just can't get enough sleep and when I am not sleeping I feel like I moving through half dried cement so I don't got a lot done. Seems like this is one the things that goes by the wayside when I am not up to par.
I will try to get on the ball and get back on here and get caught up with what is going on in my life.
Like getting a new puppy and my latest attempt at becoming independent.
I will also be doing more blog tours for some interesting books so stay tuned and please don't hesitate to poke me.

So This Is Why I Stopped Eating "Regular" Food!

I went to a Home Party for a popular kitchen gadget company last night and I decided to live a little and just eat what was being prepared instead of eating at home and refraining as usual. The demonstration dishes were a fake lasagna dish made with tortillas, canned sauce, etc. and a dessert pizza; which used a sugar cookie dough crust, whipped topping with cream cheese, pineapples, bananas, and strawberry ice cream topping. I only had a little slice of the dessert and a small serving of the main dish. I didn't even eat all the dessert. I felt like I had just poured a bag of sugar down my throat afterwords and today? Today I feel awful! OK part of it is the chair I sat in, and part of it is the weather changing but still- I feel like a giant slug, moving through freshly poured cement! I don't think I will be tempted to "cheat" again anytime soon, if ever. I don't like feeling this way!

On a diffrent note, I found this messing around online earlier today.
If you insert Jesus Christ where she says inside it is pretty right on. The direction our nation has taken is certainly scary, and if we stay on this course our future looks pretty bleak. If you don't regularly pray for our nation and our youth, I hope you will consider changing that. I know I will.
Yet still I praise God, for He is Worthy and He is our Hope and Help.

The Echo Within Winner

I only had one winner on this and it is Brandy; congratulations! Please contact me to arrange delivery of your book.

Dinner With A Perfect Stranger Blog Tour

Dinner With A Perfect Stranger by David Gregory is a large blessing in a small package.
Only 100 pages long, this little book does a great job of presenting Jesus and His Father to would be critics and detractors.
A man receives an invitation to dinner with none other than, Jesus of Nazareth and goes simply to play along with what he feels is an obvious joke on him by one of his colleagues. What he finds when he gets there is only the first surprise of the evening as he converses with a man who knows a lot about him and has some very interesting answers to his questions.
Well told, historically and Biblically accurate; this story will warm the hearts of the devout to the skeptic. It is a well written, interesting and perfectly paced while also being informative and even fun. I highly recommend this book and look forward to the companion, A Day with A Perfect Stranger.

What if a fascinating stranger knew you better than you know yourself?

When her husband comes home with a farfetched story about eating dinner with someone he believes to be Jesus, Mattie Cominsky thinks this may signal the end of her shaky marriage. Convinced that Nick is, at best, turning into a religious nut, the self-described agnostic hopes that a quick business trip will give her time to think things through.

On board the plane, Mattie strikes up a conversation with a fellow passenger. When she discovers their shared scorn for religion, she confides her frustration over her husband’s recent conversion. The stranger suggests that perhaps her husband isn’t seeking religion but true spiritual connection, an idea that prompts her to reflect on her own search for fulfillment.

As their conversation turns to issues of spiritual longing and deeper questions about the nature of God, Mattie finds herself increasingly drawn to this insightful stranger. But when the discussion unexpectedly turns personal, touching on things she’s never told anyone, Mattie is startled and disturbed. Who is this man who seems to peer straight into her soul?

David Gregory is the author of the best-selling books Dinner with a Perfect Stranger and A Day with a Perfect Stranger, and coauthor of two nonfiction books. After a ten-year business career, he returned to school to study religion and communications, earning graduate degrees from The University of North Texas and Dallas Theological Seminary. A native Texan, David now devotes himself to writing full time.


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