So many of us need help in so many ways.  Me first.   So, the whole family is in TF Green Airport in Providence, Rhode Island headed back to Orlando.  Been in New England  for a week.  A family wedding.  A family cancer visitation.  A 6 year old young girl with cancer visit trip. One of those tough weeks in ministry looking at the misery Satan had caused.  My youngest daughter is an extremely outgoing person.  She can engage anyone….well, like my wife.  So, my daughter is in line waiting to board Southwest and there is an older lady, maybe 70 years old standing nearby.  The lady looked distressed.  My  daughter says hello and then just asks the lady why she is going to Orlando.  This is a dangerous question because I just want to get on the flight and get home.

This older New England woman is traveling to Orlando to visit her brother who recently had a heart attack……  Life can be pretty tough sometimes.  The prognosis for the brother was not good.  I tried to disengage myself,  but my daughter would have nothing to do with that.  She asked the woman if we could pray for her there in line in the airport.  So, guess what we did…..?

You would have thought it was a “scene” but what it really was, well,  a wonderful time of sharing, praying and just feeding into a woman who wanted to be ministered to.  You ever needed help?  The Holy Spirit filled the area…..and it was a sweet time.  The scriptures say that we should be ready in season and out of season.…..in the airport and out of the airport. (ok I added this) My daughter began to quote Isaiah on being healed.  You see, God wants us to minister to each other. Engage others as they need our help.  Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to those that need help….they may be on your “list” or not.    Don’t miss an opportunity……. So, you ever needed help?  I have and do..

So, my wife gets an IPhone 4. She does not know what she has. She had some sort if goofy flip type phone that texting was hard and did not show all of the message, did not get email, did not get internet, …. it was just like an old technology phone that was klunkier than an Edsel.  I hated it. We would laugh at it.   Me and the kids have macs.  All in.  But she resisted….until today.

Now, let me tell you this.  She does not know what she has.  She has an Iphone4 but does not know how to work it.  She does not know all it has to offer.  She does not know all that is is capable of.  She does not know all that it can do.  She does not know all that it was made to do.  She does not appreciate the power of it in a traffic jam to get around stuff.  She does not know the power it has to skype all over the world.  She does not know the power of money and purchasing it has.  She does not know …… well, the power and ability of all it was meant to be.  Then, I sit on the porch and think about me and God.

God has all this power, all this salvation, all this healing, all this provision, all this peace, all this love, all this joy, all this forgiveness, all this righteousness…… and I don’t just grab it!  Me!  I don’t access the application.  I don’t use it.  I don’t call on it.  I don’t just get into it and just soak in all that God has for me.  What am I thinking?  My wife has this powerful product and she got it because me and the girls have apple stuff and she sees it and says I want that too.

God has it, I want it too.  I think I can still learn from my wife.  God has all these applications for my life and I don’t know what I have.  I thought she did not know what she has…..it is really me.  God has it for me and you.

So this buddy of mine for 25 years, he was a narc and deep undercover….comes to me after many years.  Once you are a cop and much less, manage narcs,…..they are a strange group.  But this guy was as good as gold.  He had the gift of gab,…was just a pristine guy and knew his stuff…great teacher and fantastic cop.  I am out of the business now, but was a cop for over 20 years….managed a lot of functions in a big police agency in Florida.  Then God just turned my life upside down.  And my cop buddies….worked with me and for me,….did not know how to handle the new person I am.

He hears I gave my life radically to God….comes to me and talks for 45 minutes…..wears me down (a cop interview technique) and asks me if I am a preacher and know God now……  OK.  I have grown to know that this is one of those times for God.

His wife has cancer….he needs prayer…..I know him…he knows me…..this is the way God works!!

His wife went through hell with kemo and radiation.  I can’t imagine.  But I know that God is bigger than cancer.

Look….if a friend of yours needs prayer…..stop what you are doing….don’t worry about what you used to be….your old reputation….your old self…just pray for them and pray …. you…  against breast cancer.  It might be  bad…. but God is over and above this…..  He is able to do more than we can do….  Trust Him.

My buddy called me today…..well, texted me….  His wife’s cancer is now gone.   Could be kemo…no doubt… prayer don’t hurt.  Give it a try.   Spread Hope.  It never hurts.

Ok.   I am still here and not in Heaven.  Darn it.

So, I did not spend my life’s savings on bill boards.  I did not give away everything and wait up all night for the world to end..(although I was up pretty late).    Now, don’t get what I am saying wrong.  The cat that said the world was going to end on Saturday night……May 21, 2011…….I am not saying he is crazy…..  The scriptures just say that no one knows the end date…..not even the son…just the father.  The scriptures say that there will  be many that will say, Lord Lord…..  Don’t  be deceived.   The Scriptures say…..Do not follow them…!

So, what do we do with stuff like this……where the world is supposed to end……and it does not?

Well,……what we do is ……   we just make disciples.  We share the Word of God.  We look at those around us and we minister to them…..on earth as it is in heaven…

I suspect that you know someone that desperately needs Jesus Christ.  I suspect that they…(and me sometimes) does not  know what Jesus did on the cross is an absolute substitutionary work of judgement on us for today.  Share this love of Jesus with them today.

So here is at least one bump lesson.  The surgeon removes the bump.  A golf ball sized growth.  Not cancer.  It hurt for over 8 weeks.

The issue is not the bump.  It is my attitude of denial.  Guys suffer from this….well, at least I do.  So, I am in denial.  I needed help with this bump thing and just ignored it….for quite a few years it appears.

I seem to ignore or deny my irritation issues….(nice clean word for maybe anger or irritation).  I don’t exactly know what makes me aggravated sometimes, I just get that way.  Anxiety, well, again, I don’t know what makes me anxious sometimes, but I get that way.  Fearful,…sometimes I get fearful of how things are going to turn out…..but like all the other things,….I will often first deny it, …instead of really deeply seeking God on what I should do….

I am not sure what denial really looks like, but I think I may have some of it.

Scriptures say that Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.  They say that He will be with us always.  They say that He came  that we would have abundant life….  You know, I sometimes deny all of that too.  I am sure glad that God did not deny us.  My hope is that we will not deny what God has for us.  What He has done for us. What He wants for us.

He is really awesome.

So I have this bump on my hip.  Guys don’t really care too much about lumps, bumps or appearance too much,…especially when it doesn’t hurt or isn’t in the way.  But it sort of got bigger over the last few months.  My wife mentioned it and I ignored it.  That is often what I do when I don’t want to deal with something….I ignore it.  But when my 6 year old boy even notices it….and as it began to hurt….I showed it to my doctor.  He did the obligatory CT and sent me to an orthopedic surgeon since it was on my hip bone.  That guy met with me and wanted an MRI.  He said he may have to refer me to an Orthopedic Oncologist in Gainesville, Florida.  No matter what else he said…I sort of zoned out and that is all I heard.  Big man of faith huh?

The scriptures say I should not worry, the scriptures say that God does not give a spirit of fear,…easy stuff to preach but a quite a bit harder to live.  You ever been like that?  Say something but maybe can’t quite practice it like you want.  That was me these last few weeks.  This has given me some clarity as I have been specifically praying for and visiting 2 different people with cancer….and not to mention a really good friend that survived melanoma.

Practice what you preach…and me a preacher..    God promises to be with us always.  That is all that I could really understand.  I just sort of settled into that.  Really simple.  Not so profound that I had to know a bunch of doctrine or greek to know.  Just that God loves me and will be with  me.

The MRI results came back good.  Got to get the bump out and take a closer look.  I believe all will be well.  Preaching is easy.  Living it….well, lets just say I am still learning that.

louie

So, I am in the Christian Book Store….and of course, all the folks look “churchy” ….they have their cross necklaces, have ties on, have the bible look…..and I am in there getting a video.

This guy comes in with a rushed look on his face and obviously out of place and uncomfortable.  Like the guys feel when their wives want them to go to Target and get them a fresh pack of kotex or worse yet,…tampons.  This guy was a fish out of water and it was all over his face.  He asked real quickly…where are the shirts….like he was an escaped convict and needed a change of clothes…..he saw the shirts and grabbed a red shirt…..and got to the counter.

He said that he had to have a passport photo for a job as a security guard and that his white t-shirt was prohibited…he needed red or blue and this job depended on it.  So, he grabs a t-shirt that says on it….only….Jeremiah 29:11….just the verse number….nothing else. 

So, he is in this Christian Book Store,….fish out of water,….needing a job….extremely uncomfortable in his surroundings… and this shirt is what he needs to help him get a job….  then he asks me….. hey, what does this mean, this Jeremiah 29:11?  I told him it meant that God had a plan for his life….a plan to prosper him.  He said, “cool, I need that.”  I told him that he would be wrapped in God’s word when he took the photo for the job. 

You see,…even when we don’t know what God’s word means….it has meaning.  Even  when we are not searching for God…he is searching for us.  Even when we don’t know that God has a plan for our lives, …. a plan to prosper us, a plan for a hope and for a future…..He is still working….

 God has a plan for us…..even when or if we don’t know it.  It may even be in a red shirt.

I have this guy at work that is a tech type.  Really a good teacher, really a smart person, can see processes, can see technological answers to problems and wants to share it with everyone.  My belief is that he really really does.

Problem is,…not everyone can adapt to technology at the same pace.  My parents have a cordless phone at their home and they think that is cool.  I want to share stuff wirelessly with my daughter on our Macbooks.  I think that is cool.  I am still behind too.

So, this guy at work has some good ideas but some of my folks are not budging.  They are not ready for it yet.  They like it their way, and they have been quite successful doing it their way…I would say very successful.  But my buddy is frustrated…and me, the boss, is in the middle of someone with the light and others that have the light too,….just a different light.  My buddy wants to bail out and not try to help them anymore…..”let them do it the Model T way if they want…but not me.”

Luke 11:33 talks about having a  light, having something that someone else does not have, having revelational knowledge or understanding, having insight that someone else does not have, having ability that someone else does not have…..and then not sharing it..or worse,…hiding it?  I told my buddy that he should continue to share what he sees, what he has, how it can be done….then I thought about me.

Jesus Christ has done so much in my life.  I am just a new person.  Then I got to thinking how much I shared what Jesus has done for me and my family, my outlook, my attitude, my disposition, my temper (still working on that), my selfishness, ….  I guess I should practice what I preach. 

Look, if Jesus has done something or is doing something in your life,….share it.  There are those around us,…maybe in our own family that need the light, that are surrounded by darkness, that are lonely and in need.   There are folks on the street that maybe just need a meal or a coke, I know they smell.  May be some folks at work that need a few minutes, I know they smell.  Share what you have, when you can, where you can.  put your light up on the table. 

My buddy is on the way to Saudi Arabia to set up a  remote web surveillance system for a prison.  Not the Model T way for sure.

This good buddy of mine sends me a message that he lost his job…..I mean this was a dream job managing hundreds of acres of land and a business in the Carolinas.  He sent me pictures of what he did and they are on my screen saver at work.  Just spectacular.  My heart ached for him.  And on top of that, he is the type of person you want working with and for you.  He and I worked together for 15 years or so.  He is (not was) a go to guy.  You can trust him.  Solid.  You would want to hire him!

But he is a changed man.  After he got this job,….he gave his life to Jesus Christ…..after that….he married a Godly woman….started going to church (not a requirement for anything…but a good thing I think) and he turned his life around.  I am proud of him.  And now,…after I get this word from him….I am still very proud of him….because he knows that God has him in his hands.  As I was praying about my friend the other night,….I saw God providing for him….I saw God has a plan for his life….a plan to prosper him (like he already has)  it is like God has already paid him up and has more for him. 

I do not know about your situation, about your job prospects, about your outlook… but my buddy in the Carolinas has God in his corner.  He has God in his heart.  I know that God has a plan, a purpose, a success for his life.  I know he has for you too.  God loves you more than anything else and wants the best for you.  As I do this entry, I see success more than my friend can imagine…..I see it for you and I see it for….me.

So, tonight….I speak encouragement into my friend.  I speak prosperity into him and his situation.   I do the same for you,….and for me too.  God loves us.

So me and my 5 year old son are fishing.  Of course, I am a fishing expert.  Especially in the company of a 5 year old young boy.  I mean, I have caught hundreds of fish, especially fresh water bass, and have a real good knowledge of how to do it, how to catch them, how to bring them onto shore….the whole deal.  And me and my 5  year old little son have been catching these bass from a lake in our neighborhood….on artificial lures….I want him to get this early in life….how to do it without a cork and live bait.

He has caught some fish….had some success…knows what the bite feels like and knows how to set the hook….but he is just learning and under my close tutelage.  I am showing him the ropes, step by step, technique by technique, special tactic by special tactic….lure by lure.  But…well, he likes his own lure selection…and often it is … well, wrong.  I want to make it right with him and basically tell him he can’t use that lure because it is the wrong one….but he likes it….so I let him.  He has some success….some failure.

It is the classic battle I have with God.  I seem to want to do it my way, to use my techniques, my lures, my way of thinking, my battles instead of just listening to God…..instead of just letting God tell me what to do and I do it,…..instead of just seeing that God has all the fish and I need to do it His way.

I want to try to get my son to do it my way….then  I think about me….how often I don’t just do it God’s way.  A classic battle between faith and works, between flesh and spirit, between trust and unbelief…  Just like I am doing now with the sickness of one of my daughters…and so much of my life..  I want to do it my way.

God help me to do it Your way.   Help me to help those around me to do it your way…    louie