Just Fishing

Just Fishing

Today we went fishing. We started at about 2pm and fished for several hours. We had the perfect bait. We fished with worms and then resorted to fly fishing with dry flies and popping bugs. The

weather was just right. The temperature was cool the wind was still. The sun was at our backs and I couldn't have ask for a better day but apparently the fish did not think so. We did not bring home any fish. What I learned was that even tho all things seem just right sometimes you just simply do not catch fish. We put forth the right effort. We planned each strategy. We went on the best day. Our homework done and yet no fish. In comparison to be fishers of men we study, we live the life before them, we pray,we fast. We hunger to see souls saved. After all is done and we see that everything is in order sometimes we just leave empty handed without any being won. But there is always tomorrow. What I learned through all of this is Just keep on fishing. Tomorrow will be better and when all is said and done we will land a great catch. We started to leave and an older gentleman was sitting on the bumper of his truck just fishing. Like us he caught nothing. He was mostly enjoying his day when I spoke. I ask him if he goes to church to which he said yes I visit here and there. Smiling inside I said well how about visiting our church. "I sure will" he said. We pulled up the hill to tie down the boat and the man drove up and waved out the window as he drove off. See you next month he said. I will see you at church... Who knew that on this ordinary day of fishing I would end up fishing for men...Think I will just cast out there one more time. You just never know when the day will turn from catching nothing to catching something worth while.

Matthew 4:19

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Today is a Great Day

Today is a Great Day

Today I still serve the master. Today through its little ups and downs I find reason to praise. No everything is not right as for as comfort or things being perfect is concerned. But today even though we have a hole in our boat, even though my daughter forgot to pay my house payment and they called wanting a to know why, today even though Wal-Mart was sold out of fishing crickets, today even though when I went to clean my carpet my carpet cleaner did not work, today even though I am hungry...

Today is a Great Day

Today is another day which God gave me breath and let me be in my right mind..(as right as that may be.)

Another day to praise.

Psalms 121:1

  I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

Prayers Answered

Prayers Answered

Sometimes I wonder which prayers I have prayed that really have come true. Some of them are

obvious while some are hidden. Today I was painting and praying again for Anniston, for our world and for God to heal our land. Benny came into the room and I ask him if I could teach him a Bible study. He said yes but what he said next caught me off guard. "Will you teach me to pray too" he ask. Of course I said. I guess some things I just take for granted like praying and just instinctively knowing what words to say. I fail to consider that some people struggle with words as they pray. One of the things I have been praying of late is that God will put the words in my mouth which need to be said. Sometimes I don't have the knowledge or understanding to pray the right things. I am not an elaborate speaker and my words are few but since praying this way I have noticed a difference in the things I ask for. I have been asking for things I have never mentioned before. Again as I sit here I see that map. The one of the city we are trying to reach. Each time I look at it I remember to pray for souls there. I noticed a small airplane in the corner suggesting an airport I am sure. It made me think to pray for God to send angels to Anniston. Angels, both warriors and reapers to help subdue the forces of the enemy.  Cover us Oh God and help us to be effective as we live for you, as we share you with our world. 

Happy Birthday Benny I love you

James 5:16

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

My Witness My Voice

My Witness My Voice

Today I decided to go shopping. On my way there I was just praying and asking how I could be a witness of my love for Jesus. How can I spread his name abroad. Not to some foreign land but in Oxford,Al.  I noticed that laying there in the car were some business cards with the logo in big black letters. It simply said Jesus. The name of my church and the contact info on the back. I have been wanting to teach a Bible study or just invite people to church but I am so shy.  I picked those cards up and they seemed to glow in my hand. I know that they really did not but it did seem that way. I quickly put them in my wallet I did not know why. As I got out of my car in my hand was a card. As I walked up to the car beside mine and gently slipped it into the window stripping. I said a quick prayer and went in. I shopped at three stores and in each dressing room I left a card. Will they be thrown away....Maybe.....but maybe not. Finally I left a card in a shopping cart so lets see that is five potential souls. Who knows at least I did something. I know my efforts are for good. Maybe one day I will know the end results and just maybe I will be surprised.

Isaiah 62:6

I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,

 

The Reality and The Responsibility

The reality... is that I am human. Ha! you might say....Well I am. I work nights and I went to sleep about 830 am yesterday. The Responsibility...By noon I was awake. I was kinda surprised that when I woke up it was to find that my pillow was soaked. Not from some liquid which I had spilled but it was from tears. I found myself crying once again for my children and the city of Anniston. This feeling won't last forever but for now it is necessary. Lord please help me to be an instrument and help me to do whatever I can to win someone to you. Help me I pray to be molded by your will. Help me to reach the place where I can in all sincerity say Not my will but thine.

Psalms 34:18

   The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

 

The Spirit of a Servant

The Spirit of a Servant

Tonight I was around a lot of people yet so all alone. Of course when they spoke to me I answered with a 

smile yet on the inside my heart was distraught. The place inside which felt sadness was so because as they sat around cursing and making obscene jokes I was talking to God about their needs, about the condition of their souls. I did not pray aloud as at other times but from my heart to his. I prayed for them and their families, I prayed because the world is a dark dark place. The funny thing is that they will never know that someone sitting across from them in this very public place was crying inside. I bow my knees and my heart. No one notices as I take the back of my hand and brush away the wetness as my eyes fill with tears and I go about my day to day at a public job. Today, this day I feel broken, no not as broken as I want to be as I need to be. I fast so that my flesh will allow the spiritual part of me to cry out, to travail, to weep for my world, my city,my family, your family. Am I crazy? No I yell no but as I read in the Bible about all those great men of God who carried the burden of their time I feel the calling to pray like never before. I feel upon me the spirit of a servant and also I pray that God will never let this spirit depart from me. I am consumed with a fire a passion for the lost. As I pass people on the street I whisper a prayer. As I see people in their cars my heart goes out to them. And then I weep as someone who has lost a loved one with deep groanings which can not be quenched. Again I am encapsulated with travail. And I do not want this spirit to depart. 

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

A Spirit of Unrest

A Spirit of Unrest

Today I pray for a spirit of unrest. You might ask why would anyone ask for such a thing.  I feel the burden of the world on my shoulders. I shutter a cry from the depths of my being. Do I want it to go away? No by all means no. I long for a burden for the lost. For a calling to pray, a yearning that will not be quinched. So I cry, I pray that I

will never be comfortable when so many are lost. I hope that I will always feel that Spirt of Unrest as

long as there are souls who don't know Jesus. I pray that God will use me to reach someone,to tell them about bapism in Jesus name and that there is only one way. As I look at a map of Anniston, Al and the surrounding area I feel it consuming me... the burden to stand in the gap and cry out with groanings for souls...Any souls.

 Luke 23:28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children