I'm back

For that dozen or less of you out there who follow this blog - I am back.  2010 turned out to be quite the year, and in posts coming soon I will address how God moved in my life in a powerful and very personal way to bring about changes in me, changes in those around me, and to answer my prayers.  Now before you think, gee, things like that never happen to me or, my prayers haven't been answered know this - some of these answers have been twenty years in coming.  I want to use this blog to look at some of the men and women in the Bible who had to wait for God, and at the profound ways in which they were used when at last they were called, as well as to look at the ways in which God uses 'bad' to accomplish good in our lives.  Our Lord and God does not create or instigate evil, but He graciously and mercifully uses our choices for evil for our ultimate good. 

Today, I just wanted to say 'hi' and 'I'm back.'  The other words I will leave to Pastor Greg Laurie.  I am cross-posting his blog entry from today.  If you are touched by his words and God given wisdom, please take a look at his webpage: http://www.harvest.org/ and think about becoming a contributor to his mission to spread the Word to the world.  (Think Billy Graham, but sort of an aging hippie type....LOL)


SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2011

When Bad Things Lead to Good


Chuck Swindoll tells a story about a man who was shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. Seeing that rescue might be a long time in coming, he painstakingly built a little hut to provide himself protection from the elements, and a place to store the few items he had managed to salvage from the wreck.

For weeks, this man lived in this little hut, with only the hot sun and the cold nights to keep him company. Each and every day, he would prayerfully scan the horizon, hoping for the approach of a ship.

But there was nothing.

One evening, after he had been searching for food on the island, he came back to see that his little hut was in flames. He tried to put the fire out, but it was too late. Everything he had in this world had gone up in smoke. He went to sleep that night, listening to the pounding of the surf, stunned by his own misfortune.

The next morning, he awoke to find a ship anchored off the island—the first ship he had seen since he had been marooned. Still trying to believe his eyes, he heard footsteps and then a human voice, saying, "We saw your smoke signal and we came to rescue you."

That's how it happens sometimes. In sovereignty and grace, the worst case scenario somehow becomes the best case scenario.

Sometimes disasters can turn out to be great opportunities for God to work in your life. The Lord is always present with us, always intimately acquainted with our circumstances, and He can take impossible situations and turn them around.


The image of Christ in this post is by James Jacques Tissot 1830 - 1902.