Journals of the Heart

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I said, “Lord, I know You have given me a ‘prophetic word’ for this church and You know that You have given me a ‘prophetic word’ for this church, but they do not know that You have given me a ‘prophetic word’ for them. However, I will make myself available by going in and waiting for You to tell the pastor.”

Any true father or mother looks forward to doing all these things and even more for their family if they have the time and energy. However, how can one “run and not be weary” while attempting to do all of the necessary things required in a family these days?

While sitting in my office that day I learned two very important lessons. The first lesson was that God never forgets any promise you have made to Him and He will even help you fulfill it. The second lesson is that we are limited as to how far we can go in life if we do not keep our word to God and to man.

One Sunday morning I sent our ministry helpers downtown to pick up a van load of drunks and street people for the morning service. After a while the back door of the church opened and my helpers were dragging a drunken bleeding man into the building. The man’s name was Johnny. He was the third generation in his family who slept under a bridge in Houston. The reason Johnny was bleeding and crying was because when he saw the mission van coming to pick up people, he fell on his face in the middle of the street as he tried to run away. His face looked as if it had been run through a meat grinder, and his nose was badly broken. He was in such pain that he was weeping out loud.

A few months ago, after preaching the Sunday morning message in a small East Texas church…I went to a home for lunch with some of my dear friends. Everyone in that family is a master cook, so you can imagine how the table was filled with all of those country delicacies. Even though the table was large, the extended family was even larger and more so with my family joining in.

Perhaps in some small way that experience was a prophetic picture of my future life. The Lord always knows where I am. I am happy that He does because I only want to be where He wants me to be.

Perhaps when the Bible said in Ephesians 4:26, be ye angry, and sin not, what it was saying was that anger does not have to be sin, but choosing to be unhappy is sin because it shows a lack of faith in God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please God.” That means that if you are not pleasing God, then you are sinning. Wow! This gives a whole new meaning to being unhappy.

This question certainly makes one examine more closely the difference between love and “greater love.” We live in a society that has almost done away with the word like, having replaced it with the word love.

What many people fail to realize is that the local pastor was never meant to compare with the superstar preachers. Trying to feed those of his congregation that are already full has become quite a challenge for him.

Feeding your enemy is not a ministry most folks would desire. However, that day at the service station heaven came down and the glory of God was manifested in a practical way to a rebellious sheep that had gone astray.