COLOSSIANS 1:6-14 NLT
This same Good News that came to you is now going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.
7 You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. 8 He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
Pictured above is a picture of the Upper/Lower 9th Wards of New Orleans a few days after Hurricane Katrina hit. All week we've been talking with, praying with, and serving people that were directly affected by Hurricane Katrina, but a few of the individuals have with smiles testified of how much a blessing Hurricane Katrina was for them. Did you get that.......Hurricane Katrina WAS A BLESSING!
Let me remind you that lives, property, possessions, and pets were loss during Hurricane Katrina. Let me remind you that families hundreds of thousands of families were displaced some of which are still not back on their feet, others were vulnerable to predatory contractors, some didn't know how to steward the monies they received due to their losses. Some people that were homeowners are now homeless. So please help me to understand, how Hurricane Katrina was a blessing.
I'm glad you asked.......(and I have more than one story to back this up)
Please meet Mr. and Mrs. Larry Taylor :
This young man and his wife, that our teams from Calvary has blessed and been blessed by (me included today) stated that " Pastor, I have nothing bad to say about (Hurricane) Katrina it's because of this storm that GOD has totally won me and my family." Let me share with you what, as we know him Brother Larry, shared with me. The water had rose to twenty feet, and he was on his roof top with his five year old son and there he sat for 3 days before being rescued and dropped off in Conway, Arkansas. Where a church adopted him and his family for 18 mos., not only did they give him shelter, but they provided him with a job, and a church family.
"What Katrina did for me was give me a new start. It took my life of drug dealing and wayward living, and introduced me to a community of love. People that I never would've known, I now know, and not just know them but love them. They welcomed me in a stranger, they gave me money, they gave me shelter, they gave me food, and this is all to a person who deserved death." He went on further to talk about when he bought his home he had been in it for 6 years and was on a 30 year loan. When they came back from Arkansas to that same home it was paid off and he has since been rehabbing it, and while beautiful, they are not able to move back in yet due to much remains to make it livable.
So why this scripture.....easy:
Larry testified of this very GOOD NEWS, that it's because of CHRIST and the allowance of this storm during a time in his life that he needed more than a rescuing off of his roof, but he needed to be rescued from his life of sin. During this rescue he became alive to the LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST, through the kindness of other people.
Linda Douchant and the many, many women (few men which I hope to help) have not stopped praying for Mr and Mrs Taylor, and the fruits of their prayers is a changed man. A man that says, " If God doesn't do anything else for me and mine, He's done enough."
As we concluded our time with Larry we asked him how could we pray for him, and he responded by saying..."So many people have given them so much, he desires to now be generous with what they have." They want to be known as givers, generous neighbors as people move back in. After the shedding of tears, and hugs we walk outside to here a neighbor that has just been there for 3mos from New Jersey saying "......they are the best neighbors around here.."
Let me sum it up for you: God's not dead (He's acutely aware of your current situation), the storm you are currently in, maybe a temporary inconvenience, but stop complaining and look around to see who is it GOD is sending to love on you, and you on them. Look to see what it is that GOD is trying to rescue you from, and out of. Consider giving thanks through your storm, and draw closer to GOD as He leads you to places that will not only restore what you have counted as loss, but restores you with what it is you didn't value you before....people who want to love you, whose love you're in need of, as well as people who are in need of His love in you. We live in a day and age where the LOVE of GOD can make a world of difference, and is deeply needed. #LGLP365
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