I got a call the other day that just filled my heart with joy. What gives me happiness definitely wasn’t the same things that gave me happiness when I was younger. I got a call from a Christian brother letting me know our church, Southside Baptist Church, would begin hosting men’s breakfast for the community again.
The recent passing of my mother’s last two sisters within a few weeks of each other made me sad beyond measure. Sometimes we take time for granted, believing that we will always have time to connect with our loved ones. It is difficult to count the number of times my inner spirit directed me to make that call or plan that visit. Instead of obeying, I hid behind the inability to escape from work. I wish I would have simply paused to hear one last story or take a final glimpse of their whimsical facial expressions. Now it is too late.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about going hiking at a local park in Tulsa. Since then, I have continued to go back every week but I have decided to make exercise and working out a daily activity in general.
I woke up last Saturday a bit early for it being my day off. Instead of going back to sleep like I normally would though, I decided to make some coffee and sit on my back porch. With nothing but the birds chirping and my cat Starfox prowling around in the grass, I started thinking about how my life would be easier had I only taken different paths in my life. Then I remembered the following scripture:
How tragic it is Christian, when we allow the temptations and the enticements of this world to mesmerize our fleshly desires in such a way that our voices become silenced, silenced to God’s eternal judgement. In these moments it is as if we are led away to a holding cell, that is, a place in our mind where we can only see our wants and desires. It is then we become blinded to the reality that God will one day judge the world according to His perfect righteousness, and that His anger burns against the unrighteous, those who trample under their feet His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Oh Christian, if your mouth ever becomes silenced for any reason, may the Lord hurl a mighty tempest in your pathway. May he lose your tongue and force you to speak as Jeremiah, crying, “But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name, then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am tired of holding it in, and I cannot endure it.” May conviction in your heart become so inflamed when you think about the groans and shrieks of those who have been cast into utter darkness, that you will begin to plead with all, “Look unto Christ, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for He is God, and there is none else.”
213 E. Main St.
PO Box 577
Olney, Texas 76374
Phone: (940) 564-5558
Fax: (940) 564-3992