August 16, 2010

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:19

Last week I shared what God had done in Mississippi following hurricane Katrina. Well, this week I must do it again. When God is moving and working, we MUST share it and not sit on it. Right? This is just too good to wait. While we were in Meridian there were around 100 NC Baptist Men and women who were there to do restoration. Cutting trees off people’s homes and helping them patch up their homes. There was a young (20 something) boy showed up from New Jersey named Russell. He was New Jersey from head to toe. White boy with dread locks, loud voice and accent that can’t be mistaken. Every other word was “man”, “like”, “dude” etc. Our people fell in love with him. They gave him the nick name “Monkey Man”. He was a professional tree surgeon and he had more energy than half our old retired people put together. Flip a rope over a tree limb, hoist himself up and swing around the tree, limb to limb, chain saw swinging from his belt and the limbs came falling down. I was setting with him one evening and ask how he came to be there in Meridian with us. If I leave out his likes, mans and dude’s, his one hour story became, “I wanted to do something for the people hurt by the hurricane; asked my boss if I could go and he paid for my air fair; called Red Cross and they said go to Meridian Mississippi. Flew in, called the city and they said a big bunch of NC people doing tree removal were staying at First Baptist; they picked me up and dropped me off, and, dude, here I am.” After we got back, on Sunday September 18 one of my members at Crest View handed me page 2A from the Friday 16 Charlotte Observer. Ken Garfield was telling the story of John Gore from Thomasville who had been in Meridian Mississippi 17 days cutting trees. The article ended with this paragraph and I quote. “Every once in a while on the hurricane shift, there’s reason for a church volunteer to smile. A tree surgeon named Russell came down from New Jersey to help remove limbs from roofs and power lines. In the midst of doing God’s work, he found Jesus. John Gore was there when he (Russell) was baptized in a lake. Russell’s buddies fired up their chain saws for a chain saw salute.” Russell thought he was doing a good civic duty. But when God is involved there is no such thing as coincident. He never dreamed God had his finger on him bringing him into contact with a bunch of NC Baptist who truly love Jesus and into an encounter with Him that changed his life for eternity. What “Russell’s has God brought into your life lately. Tell them about Jesus.

Thought for the week: What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves. -- Paul Valery

Funny for the week: Where did our innocence go?

Just before I was deployed to Iraq, I sat my eight-year-old son down and broke the news to him. 'I'm going to be away for a long time,' I told him. 'I'm going to Iraq.' 'Why?' he asked. 'Don't you know there's a war going on over there?'

From the mouth of babes………… Chaplain Barnes

Last week’s answer: Complete the following quotation of Jesus with two words: “Verily, I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt 18:3)

This week’s question: Where did Abraham grow up?