Script #160

Beloved,

Harold left the mob because he was converted to Jesus and then called to pray and minister with me.

That was a long time ago in Pennsylvania; yet I still remember something that he said to an irregular, irascible, and irreconcilable that has stayed with me over the years in helping me to address people who think I'm thinking about them when preaching about...or writing about...or...

A notoriously sinful woman who portrayed herself as the victim of everybody else's sin with other rationalizations of sin so that she never had to deal with the reflection in her soul's mirror while pointing out everybody else's sin to distract anyone including herself from hers confronted Harold in front of several people in a public setting, "You targeted me in last week's sermon!"

Calmly yet pointedly, Harold responded, "It takes a great deal of arrogance for you to think that I think so much about you and that I would preach a sermon just for you...but if the shoe fits..."

Anyway, a few people think that way whenever I preach/write about...

Psst.

Don't tell 'em; but when they say that to anybody, they're exposing themselves as...guilty.

Duh.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

Loosely translated, "If you is, you is and know you is even if you don't want anybody tellin' you that  you is though you know you is."

Or something like that.

Go back to Harold and his miscreant.

I thought I'd mention that because while our family of faith on the corner of Lincoln and Main is in a gloriously massive revival of cerebral faith expressing itself in concrete action yet acknowledging there will always be room for improvement 'til the roll is called up yonder, it's getting better and better and better as we've moved from the season of purging, pruning, and exorcism to an expanding season of experience, expression, invitation, inclusion, welcome, and agape.

Keep the preceding in context as you read Ella Jane's witness below.

And don't forget this Sunday's many opportunities to grow and glow and give and share...(check out www.belvpresbyterian.org and www.bnnsradio.com not to mention previous bulletins/newsletters for more on...).

Psst.

Don't miss the rocking chair on the communion table.

Blessings and Love!

P.S. And if you miss the rocking chair on the communion table this Sunday, you missed it/...Don't blame anybody else if you miss it/...If you is, you is...

Thought for the Day...Leave the Results To Him

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed. —Amos 9:13

Beloved:

    A few weeks ago I was praying before our morning Sunday Service, concerned at the lack of attendance and not seeing the growth I had hoped to see this year.  The Spirit of the Lord very quietly and strongly spoke to me, saying, "Don't worry about the growth - that's MY job!  Your job is to plant the Seed and water it. Leave the results to Me."  A great weight lifted from my spirit as I realized my part is to obey -- His part is to perform His Word!

    I believe the Word that says "If we are faithful and are not weary in well doing we will reap a harvest."  We will see the acceleration of the Manifested Word of God at work in and through us. We see time is caught up in an accelerated process. "Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am" (Isaiah 58:9a). Notice the immediacy of God's response. The closer we get to the end of the age and the imminent return of Jesus, the shorter time becomes. The time is coming when seed time and harvest will be the same time. He said He would do a quick work in the last days, so I believe that when we pray -- we will have the answers quickly. 

    God is not going to allow us to "lag" behind when we need to be two steps ahead of the enemy. He has a plan and a strategy that will not be delayed, detained, held up, held back, or compromised.  Our part?  Obey and do what He tells us to do!  Then... leave the results to Him, for at the appointed time His Vision will speak, will produce, and will manifest!

Obeying,

Pastor Ella Jane Coley

Passageway Ministries, Inc.

PO Box 507

Bixby, OK  74008

918-366-4415