TGIF RedStaters!  Welcome to Friday’s Water Cooler, always an Open Thread!  What’s on your mind?

Thank God it’s Friday!

Thank God: We have made it another day, another week, through another staff meeting, another illness that had the kids down for a week, finals week, whatever.  We got to make a new friend.  We saw a new grandchild.  We go to the Lord with the right heart, and he is right there.  We are blessed.  One small neat blessing – I get Fridays!  Sure it’s just a day – but it means that every week I can say TGIF and think about what that means.

But our weeks also included other things – hard things.  The lost job.  The negative person you have to be around.  Loss of someone who was a blessing to you.  Yikes.  God didn’t promise us that everything would be easy – just that he would be with us through everything, should we want this.  And as I’ve noted, I went through phases of wanting, not wanting, and now wanting him with me.  Wanting to be with him.  The whole deal.  But being here on Earth, broken as it is, some days are easier, some are harder, and some days I have to consciously stop and look for the positive.

Miracles

In one of my prayer times this week I hit one of those moments, and it hit me that I needed to list just the miracles that I either experienced first hand or in some cases secondhand through a trustworthy source.  It was a pretty healthy list.  I filled half a page in my journal.  Can we make this an encouragement for everyone here today and add some of your own at the bottom?  I’d love to hear about the miracles that impact(ed) you or yours, the ones that you KNOW are real and can return to over and over in praise and worship of our Lord.  The ones that no one will ever talk you out of.

Right off, I know that there is no miracle that can’t be argued against.  For Heaven’s sake – people deny Jesus’ resurrection.  His healings.  Etc.  So there is nothing that I or you can say that someone won’t doubt or argue.  Who cares?  We know what we know, what we experienced.

Here are two of my personal gotos outside of The Book:

Firsthand: I’ve shared that my wife and I lived through some nasty lawfare aimed at us, that we were ultimately victorious, and that the episode is what brought us to Christ many years ago.  But I don’t know that I shared here a personal miracle from that experience.  Stop me if you’ve heard it before (LOL)… One day we were in the courtroom for a hearing.  Before going in, we got our copy of the materials that the judge would see against us that morning.  As I started to read the lies about my wife and I, my chest tightened and I felt I could barely breathe.  There was no way out.  No way the judge could know what really happened.  I literally wondered if I would die there on the bench waiting to go into the courtroom.  I was not a believer, but called out in my moment of need, “God Save Me!”  And he did.  God moved several pieces into place, we won the day, and ultimately the legal war.

Secondhand:  Probably a little over a decade ago, I personally saw Pastor Rick Jones speak at a local church.  His story includes multiple miracles, firsthand for him and his family.  He handed out CDs and said we were free to copy them and hand them out.  He wasn’t selling anything, just telling his story.  I have listened and re-listened, and made and distributed many copies over the years.  I know that some of you today need to hear something that will remind you of God’s power and presence in the world – and God had me share it.  I did some research and figured out how you can get your own copy – now you have the baton:

Pastor Rick Jones is at Houston’s First Baptist Church.  Call the public number from the site (713) 681-8000.  They will mail you a CD.

Happy New Year

All for me – I hope your year is off to a great start as is mine.  Thank you, God!  And thanks to all of you for reading and your contributions.