Setting The Record Straight...

Late last night as I lay in bed, I picked up my iPhone, went on to Facebook and began to look at some of the comments that a few of my most loyal blog followers had written concerning yesterday’s post.  I was touched to read that my experiences had encouraged them and was personally enlightened by their precious words of encouragement back to me. 

This morning as I was helping my wife out of bed, I began to relay some portions of the Bible Study that I had just completed.  I had read from Psalms 33:20-22 where it says:

“We wait for the Lord.

 He is our help and our shield.

 In Him our hearts find joy.

 In His holy name we trust.

 Let your mercy rest upon us, O Lord,

 Since we wait with great expectations for you.” 

                                             (God’s Word © personalized)

Charles Spurgeon in his great exposition on the book of Psalms entitled “The Treasury of David” asked his readers to “Note the three ‘ours’ in the text.  These holdfast words are precious.  Personal possession makes the Christian man; all else is mere talk.”  The truth of that statement had hit a strong chord within me and as I was sharing this with Piper, my thoughts went racing back to yesterday’s post and I considered how my personal experience with Christ, the living Word, was affecting others.

It is my greatest and humblest desire that the words that I write in this blog do not come across as one who is a “know it all” or is arrogant or pompous. Over the years I have witnessed the Biblical message of faith that I believe, live and share, mistakenly come across by well meaning men and women of God as a boastful proclamation.  I have had both friends and close family walk out of some of our own church services feeling hurt and offended by words that were shared by those of us in leadership.  And while I can personally vouch that what was said was not meant in the way it came out, the damage was still done.

Your personal relationship and experience with Jesus is a very precious thing that I do not declare as inferior to my own.  I have endeavored to share from my heart the reality of the love, the joys, the pains, the victories and the failures of my personal experiences with you from the standpoint of how I believe and live my life as I understand the truth given to us by the Holy Spirit in God’s Word.  My hope is that my thoughts and that my stories would be an encouragement as well as a challenge to you as you live your daily lives.  I believe that God has given us all the tools to live a victorious life on this earth.  But as someone once said, great victories only come after great battles!

The journey that my wife and I have been on with the attack on her health over the last three or more years, has suddenly taken me from the comfort of the observer’s seat flying high above the fight and tossed me right into the heat of the battle.  I have learned more about myself and what I believe (or in some cases, what I thought I believed) and desire to be more empathetic, understanding, loving and giving to others who also deal directly with the heart rending experiences of life.

So as you follow along with me, let your tears, your laughter and your new found determination and great expectations in the Word of God catapult you on to greater strength and success within you and toward others as you share the Good News with them.  Have a great day filled with great expectations.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”