ER

Hymns in the Dark

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

“Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn’t believe their ears. Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose.

 Startled from sleep, the jailer saw all the doors swinging loose on their hinges. Assuming that all the prisoners had escaped, he pulled out his sword and was about to do himself in, figuring he was as good as dead anyway, when Paul stopped him: “Don’t do that! We’re all still here! Nobody’s run away!”

The jailer got a torch and ran inside. Badly shaken, he collapsed in front of Paul and Silas. He led them out of the jail and asked, ‘Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved, to really live?’ They said, ‘Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus. Then you’ll live as you were meant to live—and everyone in your house included!'” (Acts 16:25-35).

Today at The Church at Avenue South, Matthew Page preached on the passage where Paul and Silas sang hymns in prison. I wonder if I could do that, especially if I were behind bars for something I didn’t do.

Matthew spoke about how they lived a questionable life, as in a life that led people to ask questions about what kind of men they were and why they lived the way they did.

The most powerful part of their witness was being able to sing praise songs in a prison cell. That more than anything captured the attention of not only the fellow prisoners but of the prison guard as well.

I wonder if the earthquake would have happened if Paul and Silas has remained silent. Or if they had chosen instead to make a laundry list of all the wrongs and injustices inflicted upon them. Maybe. Maybe not.

The result was that a prison guard and his entire family came to faith in the Jesus that Paul and Silas sang about. Some scholars think that the other prisoners converted to Christianity as well.

Matthew went on to talk about being in the ER with a family whose daughter was near death. The prognosis was grim but some of those there with the family broke out singing hymns.

Do you sing as loud during the dark as well as during daylight? Do you praise God during the hard times when life doesn’t make sense? Does your speech reflect gratitude and thanksgiving in the midst of extreme trials and tribulations?

There was a doctor in that ER that eventually chose to follow Jesus because he saw what he couldn’t understand. He had probably seen people rage and curse at God but he had most likely never seen people worshipping through tears in the midst of tragedy.

By the way, the girl miraculously survived.

I won’t say that every time you praise Jesus, everything will automatically turn out the way you want it to, but I will say worship will change the way you see your circumstances.

It was convicting. Maybe I need a little more praise and a little less anxious analysing.

As always, I believe. Help my unbelief.

 

Lessons From an ER

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

ER

I never thought I’d be spending my Friday night at the ER. . . again. This time it wasn’t for me. It was for my grandmother (who is much better, by the way). But it got me thinking about life.

Emergency Rooms are for.  . . wait for it. . .  emergencies. Profound, I know. But you never know when an emergency will strike. You never know when your life will be forever altered. So I’m offering up a list of a few things I was reminded of tonight.

1) Life is short. Too short to spend it with bitterness and unforgiveness. It’s still true that holding back forgiveness and harboring bitterness against someone is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die. It only affects you. So forgive, especially since you never are guaranteed that you will get the chance tomorrow. I think it’s easier to bite the bullet and forgive someone than live with the regret of not doing it.

2) Don’t pass up and opportunity to let those in your life know how much they mean to you. Don’t assume a person knows you love them. Say the words, “I love you.”

3) Take chances, Go for broke. Step out in faith. And all of those other cliches. Don’t wish you had taken risks. It’s better to try and fail miserably than look back near the end of your life and wonder what would have happened had you tried.

4) Don’t just spend your days living for the next weekend or the next holiday or the next big event in your life. Savor each day and relish each moment in your days. God is in this moment, speaking to you now and you will miss Him if you’re too busy looking ahead.

5) Take care of yourself. Exercise, eat healthier, give up those bad habits, and so forth. Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels. I didn’t say skinny, I said healthy. Your goal is not to look like the cover of a fashion magazine. That’s not realistic. Your goal is to be healthy and happy in your own skin, regardless of the numbers inside your jeans. Oh, and pay attention to what your body is telling you. Don’t neglect warning signs or pain. Take care of yourself.

6) The next time you see an ER nurse or doctor, be sure and thank him or her. They earn their pay. In fact, they probably don’t get paid enough for all the crazy they have to deal with on a daily (or nightly basis).

All of that from six hours in the ER, I think that turned out to be time well spent.

Two Hearts Beat as One

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I was getting ready to mow the back yard when God brought an image to my mind. I thought of an article I read online a few months back about an elderly couple who died holding hands. This doesn’t happen often, but I literally dropped everything and got to my laptop to get this all down while it’s still fresh in my head.

The couple was Gordon and Norma Yeager, married for 72 years when they were both involved in a car accident. When they got to the ER, they were both more concerned about the other than themselves. Finally, they got moved to a room with side-by-side hospital beds where they could hold hands.

He died first. But that’s where it gets interesting. I’ll quote a bit of the article.

“Someone in there said, ‘Why, then, when we look at the monitor is the heart still beating?'” Sheets recalled. “The nurse said Dad was picking up Mom’s heartbeat through Mom’s hand.”

“And we thought, ‘Oh my gosh, Mom’s heart is beating through him,'” Dennis Yeager said.

That to me is what a Godly marriage looks like. That is also a beautiful picture of fellowship and community in the body of Christ. That’s a perfect picture of divine love shown in it’s fullest and most complete expression.

We should be so connected and intertwined as believers that I cry when you hurt and I suffer when you are in pain. That your sorrows are my sorrows and your joys my joys. I think the Bible calls that carrying each other’s burdens.

Most of all, I want to be that way with Jesus. I want to be so close to Him that people can feel His heart beating through mine. I want to be so intimate with Him that His heartbeat literally becomes mine and I can see people through His eyes and reach out to them with His hands and love them with His heart.

I want my heart to be broken over what breaks the heart of God. No just when I’m serving in missions or when I’m in a church service, but all the time, everywhere I go for everyone I meet.

May that be your heartbeat also. May that be the one desire of your heart.

By the way, if you want to read more about the Yeagers, you can go here. http://abcnews.go.com/US/iowa-couple-married-72-years-dies-holding-hands/story?id=14771029

From one beggar who has found the Bread of Life and is trying to tell everyone else how to find it, too.