Wednesday November 30

After service this past Sunday Bro. Gary Welborn told me that he was already having a problem trying to find just ONE thing for which to be thankful - because the moment he began thinking about one blessing - just one thing that the Father had already done - dwelling on that one thing unleashed an avalanche of memories of so many other things the Father had done as well.

Understand what he was saying, for I'm having that same problem.  I have not "scheduled" my list - but I will admit that in preparing for the message last week, I did sort of run through some of the things I thought I would focus upon this week.  However, there has been this avalanche of memories, of things I have not even thought about in a long time that has at times overwhelmed me at just how good and faithful the Father has been to me.

Maybe its the mention of 701 Traffic Street in an earlier blog this week, but today I'm revisiting a memory of "blessings and mercy past" that I had pretty much forgotten.

I've already resurrected all the details of what brought me to this point - details that from a 30+ year perspective don't seem to be that overwhelming.  However, at that moment I remember the despair, the frantic desperation, the feeling of not knowing what I was going to do - and at the same time knowing there was really only one place to which I could run.

I remember after work hurrying across the Texas Street Bridge to get to the church as quickly as I could.  I do not know why I went to this particular Sunday School classroom, I do not remember ever going there to pray before or after this moment.  But I ran up the stairs to what for many years was the Junior Sunday School Class.  There in that darkened room, illuminated by the light of the single window - in the far dark corner I fell on my face and began to pour out my heart to the faithful Father.

Though I had been around His presence all my life; and though I had been filled with His Spirit since a young child of 5, this day, in the middle of a storm that at that moment felt like it was going to sink my ship - in that moment I found Him to be more real - and the Source of more comfort, more strength, more direction than I had ever known Him to be before that moment.

I do not remember how long I prayed, how long I spent in His presence that day.  I do remember walking out of that room with a confidence, a knowing that even though I was not aware that any of the details of what I was facing had changed, I was totally aware that He was Sovereignly in charge:
Psalm 56:11 - In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.

A lot of years and miles since that day 30+ years ago.  But looking back over the past 24 hours, I have realized that what I discovered about the Father in that crisis moment has been the fundamental core confidence that has brought me through every storm I have faced since.   

Looking back I admit that what brought me to that moment doesn't look like that big of a deal.  From His eternal perspective, I can't imagine how small and trivial it looked.  But in His presence I did not find rebuke or disdain, but I found strength and comfort.  

Today I thank You, Father, for that moment.  I thank You that even when what has me overwhelmed isn't really as big as it seems to me at that moment - You are faithful, consistent - using my crisis moments to reveal Yourself even more greatly to me.  Over the years You have proven Yourself to be my continual Source of strength and confidence.

Psalm 61:1 - Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.  2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3 For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

Tuesday November 29

I don't deserve it.  Haven't been able to figure out why God would bless me so greatly.  All I know is that He has been so much better to me than I could ever ask Him to be.

Today I am grateful for my greatest blessing.  

October 25, 1981 I got up the nerve, with some prompting from some friends, to ask the most beautiful girl I had ever met for a date.  I really didn't think she'd give me the time of day, much less go out with me.  

Two years later, September 24, 1983 she said "I DO" and for 28 years she's been my best friend, my biggest supporter, my greatest source of confidence.  In true Proverbs 31 style, no one outworks her.  She is tireless in her care and concern.  And she is as real and authentic as anyone could ever be.   Her passion for Christ is genuine and transparent.  

I say it often that she is my "best half".  There is no other way to say it.  God knows I'd be lost without her.

God, Thank you for Tammy.  Forgive me for taking her for granted and for not thanking both You and her more often.  

Oh, by the way -- there are no brownie points with Tammy by posting this :).  By choice, Tammy doesn't to computers or the internet.  :)

Monday November 28

I thank God for awesome parents who are not perfect, but who are authentic Christians.  I am grateful that they are and have been committed to Christ for their lifetimes - and who did their best center their home and our family on their love for Christ as well.  Who they were at home was who they were wherever they went - including church.

I am thankful that I was immersed in a God-awareness since before I have memories.  I cannot tell you the first time I felt His presence, or was exposed to expressive worship, or heard my parents weep and rejoice as they prayed.  It was just "who" they were.   No, it was just who "WE" were!  I am so grateful.

Today I thank God that as just a 5 year old boy I had my own God-encounter.  The memories are vivid.  I remember the gold carpet at the altar at 701 Traffic Street in Bossier City.  I remember the faces of dear saints and friends who were praying with me.  I remember the feeling as the presence of God overwhelmed me - and I began to speak in tongues.  I remember that same night in a baptistry filled with frigid water, being baptized by my pastor, L.J. McDaniel in the wonderful Name of Jesus Christ.

Today I do not take this for granted.  Today, what next April 16 will be 45 years ago -  I remember and express my gratitude for a lifetime of mercy - blessing - and knowing that His presence is with me.  I cannot brag about perfection.  I cannot boast about never sinning or never making any mistakes.  But I do confidently state that God has never left me, never given up on me, and always confirms His presence and His love in my life.

Sunday's Intentional Gratitude

Today I am thankful for life, for breath - for the statistical impossibility that I exist.
Sounds over dramatic, but today I take time to remember the details of the story I've heard my dad tell numerous times.
How that in 1949 when my parents' world was shaken when after nine months what they thought was a pregnancy turned out to be a huge mass in my mother's womb.  "It just so happened" that William Branham came to Tulsa, where my parents were living.  That night he prayed for my mother - and "only God" - miraculously that same night mother was completely healed.  A year later, my big brother was born.

Then in December 1961, my mother's fourth "miraculous" pregnancy developed complications during delivery.  The doctors allowed my father to come into the delivery room to say his "goodbye's", for they did not believe that either my mother or the baby would make it.  My parents lived in a small town with no surgeon on staff at the local hospital.  On a long-distance telephone call with a surgeon in Shreveport giving them directions, the local doctors performed their first Cesarean and delivered ME!

I've heard my dad tell these stories all my life.  He always gets emotional reliving these moments.  At one point I may have thought he was a bit too over-dramatic about it all.  However, today I realize that it is only because of the goodness and the mercies of God that against all statistical odds I even exist.  In rehearsing these details out loud - I am humbly and gratefully aware that I am not here by accident.  That I do have destiny in my DNA.  That me and my three siblings are all proof of the miraculous.

And since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, TODAY and forever - His power is just as authentic and God is just as much FOR US as ever before.

35 Days of Gratitude

This past Sunday, November 27, in the message - I challenged the congregation at Oak Park to commit to spending the rest of 2011 in intentional gratitude for what God has already done - and for the mercy He has shown.

One of the Scriptural basis of this is Mark 5 - where Jesus delivered the man of demon possession.  When the man asked to go with Jesus, Jesus refused - but instead, Jesus told him to go back home and to tell his family and friends what Jesus had done for him - and the mercy that Jesus had shown him.  The story ends by telling us in Mark 5:20 that the man did not just go tell his family, but he told everyone in "Decapolis" - a ten city region south and southeast of the Sea of Galilee - and that everyone was amazed when they heard the man's own story of what Jesus had done FOR HIM - and how much mercy Jesus had shown HIM.

Beginning with this story, along with numerous passages of Psalms which tell us to share what God has done ("Let the redeemed of the Lord say so") - as well as Revelation 12:11 (...they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony) - I challenged the congregation for the rest of 2011, the next 35 days, to intentional gratitude.

The plan I gave is simple:

• Every day - remember.  Take time to just remember one thing God has already done for you.
• Think about it.  Don't just "remember" - but take time to dwell upon it, relive the moment.  Once again marvel, be amazed at just how good God was to you, and how much mercy He has shown you in just this "one" thing
• Write it down.  Journal.  Make a written log of the one thing you took time to remember each day.
• Speak it out loud.  Remind yourself out loud.  Talk to yourself, rehearse the details out loud
• Be Grateful.  Specifically thank the Father all over again for this one thing
• Share it.  Look for an opportunity to share this "one thing" with someone else each day.

In personally keeping with this challenge, I felt to create this blog - my first endeavor into the blogosphere :)

So each day, I'll be posting my thoughts of intentional gratitude for the "one thing" I will be thanking the Father for on that particular day.  I pray it blesses, strengthens, encourages those who read it - as just my remembering and dwelling upon and thanking the Father has already blessed and encouraged me.

Be blessed - but more importantly, be thankful for the blessings you've already received.

I challenge you - become personally involved and join me in spending the rest of 2011 in intentional gratitude.