Y’all, while he was away, pastor John sent this email to me to forward to the group and I goofed up, and did not do it. This was pertaining John David’s testimony from last night.
For some reason I saw “NetMail” in the subject line and thought it went to everyone, but he clearly asked me to forward, and I missed it. Please forgive me not getting this to you. I’ll be more careful in the future.
Bro. Gary
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Hey Dad,
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>> I feel like the spirit spoke to me while I was walking around my yard today. I noticed a beautiful rock in the driveway, so I picked it up. It was white and translucent and even had a shine to it. But, I knew it was just another quartz, so after I looked it over for a few seconds, I threw it back in with the gravel.
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>> The spirit pointed out how I would have reacted differently if I had known it was a rare rock. Just its being rare would have made me value it more, even if it had no greater beauty than before. I probably would have made space for it in my house, had it been really rare.
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>> Then the spirit compared that to how beautiful blessings can go unnoticed in the background if they aren’t rare. Particularly, I felt that the spirit was pointing out all of the people that are here. What a wonderful blessing to “rub shoulders” with each other! The blessing of being around somebody who is living a clean life is beautiful!
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>> While I was thinking about this, it dawned on me that to shy away from each other here in order to avoid having to speak out when something isn’t right is another way of hiding our light under a bushel.
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>> John David
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> That is very good, John David!
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> There are ways to care for the precious relationships God has given us, and there are ways to damage them. If we walk in the Spirit, we will improve them constantly.
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> Interestingly, I have been working with several people lately on that very subject. Apparently, Jesus is wanting us, as a body, to learn this lesson. When the body of Christ is functioning as it should, we are wise enough and have sufficient love to “reprove one another”. That is one way that we “edify one another”. The apostle Paul complimented the saints in Rome for having such depth of fellowship among themselves that they were able to do that. Let’s pray for enough love and wisdom to be able to do that, too!
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> When Solomon became so rich that he made gold and silver “as stones” in Jerusalem, the children who grew up at that time probably didn’t know how rare and valuable gold and silver were. That is how it can be with us when Jesus blesses us with spiritual riches, especially the riches of sincere, holy people in our lives! May God help us to realize and to hold dear those true riches which God has poured out on us, and not lose them!
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> Dad