Weekly Devotional by Mark Jackson

♪A Note of Thanks ♪ A Word of Hope – The Wonder of God

“ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Do you ever stop long enough to think about God’s wonderful world? Isn’t it amazing, how, in the course of events that God sends us rain to clean the air and water the earth. Last night, on Sunday evening, it was so good to hear the thunder and then slowly the rain started to fall, watering the parched dry earth. What a blessing to look out the window and see the rain coming down.

How is it with you? Do you feel dry and parched, spiritually? Are you like my 6 ½’ Confererate roses in the garden, with leaves drooping and blooms that instead of bursting forth are falling to the ground?

As a child, do you remember the excitement you would feel when you were about to go on vacation? You could hardly sleep the night before. You’d already packed and was’ ready and raring to go’ early the next morning. This is the kind of wonderment we need in our lives, excited for what’s around the bend and can’t hardly wait to see what God has in store for us.

My oldest son, Bradley, an Ole Miss graduate, had been working at a bank in Abbeville, Mississippi, near Oxford, for a year and a half. This past May, while coming out of North Oxford Baptist Church, he spoke to the CEO of Renasant Bank (the second largest bank in Mississippi). Her remembered Bradley and asked if he was still at the Bank of Abbeville, to which Bradley replied, “Yes, but I would really like to get back to Birmingham..” To my amazement, and the Grace of the Lord, Bradley started working at Renasant Bank in Crestline back in July, and, last week just closed on a house in Roebuck Forest. It is so exciting to sense the wonder of working together, cleaning, taking out the old carpet and getting the house ready for its new occupant, my son. Who would have thought back in May that God had a plan to work it out for Bradley to move back home and even become a new homeowner? Wow!

As we think about the beautiful Autumn with clear, crisp nights, and trees showing leaves of crimson, yellow, burnt orange and shades of brown, the changing seasons let us see the beauty of God’s creation. With expectant hearts, join me, as we go ‘round the bend, with excitement and wonder at every turn of events, being flexible and yielding to God’s Spirit as He leads us.

The Wonder of it All

There's the wonder of sunset at evening,
The wonder as sunrise I see;
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me.

Refrain
O, the wonder of it all! The wonder of it all!
Just to think that God loves me.
O, the wonder of it all! The wonder of it all!
Just to think that God loves me.

Verse 2
There's the wonder of springtime and harvest,
The sky, the stars, the sun;
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is a wonder that's only begun.

-George Beverly Shea

Holy God, restore to us the wonder of a child, the excitement for what’s around the bend in life, and the joy that You love us. Amen.

Joyfully serving along-side you,

Mark David Jackson

Weekly Devotional Thoughts by Mark Jackson

♪A Note of Thanks ♪

A Word of Hope and Something to Ponder

Gentle words are healers and helpers; but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit. Proverbs 15:4

Do you ever get angry at someone and say unkind words to them or about them, whether family, friends, church family or co-workers?

As a boy, I was raised in East Lake on Third Avenue South, with elm trees that hovered over the street, like a tunnel in the Summer, and bungalow houses with grass cut neat and trim, with sidewalks on both sides of the street. The neighborhood children would ride their bicycles on the sidewalks waving at those sitting on their front porches. On our block three churches were represented: East Lake Methodist, 76th Street Presbyterian and Ruhama Baptist Church. We lived one and a half blocks from the old Howard College Campus (now Samford University). Almost everyone had some sort of garden to tend, whether flowers or delicious vegetable gardens. It seemed that everything was within walking distance to department stores, grocery stores, drug stores, churches, schools, a theatre and even the old East End Hospital.

During warm weather, we would play outside sometimes until after dark where the lightening bugs would appear to glow, yonder in the dark…a flash here and a flash there…blink, blink, blink. Sometimes we’d have an old Mason jar that would have holes punched out of the lid to let in air. We would catch lightening bugs and put them in the jar thinking that we’d keep them as pets. Sometimes we’d catch ‘roly-polies’ or caterpillars. We might even crush them with a rock or our fingers. If it had been raining or was very humid and moist, we might find a snail (actually a slug) and pour salt on it and watch it melt away. We might even stomp little black ants.

The other Sunday, my high school counselor, Sue Sims, asked me to teach her Sunday School Class, a group of wonderful ladies. The lesson was on the story of David bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem so that they might truly worship God in the sacred place. At the beginning of the class period, I asked each lady to introduce herself and to tell us something interesting about them self. It was a great way for us to get to know each other. Prior to the lesson, and as a way for us to get focused, the class did an exercise following verbal instructions and drawing a picture on the paper provided. If the instructions were followed correctly, the picture would end up being a sailboat, but there was one key part missing…the rudder. Basically, without the rudder, the sailboat would just go in circles.

As King David needed everyone to worship God by bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, we need God to control the rudder of our ship and our lives. Also, we need to let God control our tongues and bring peace and harmony in our lives. Like the caterpillar, how often, as children or adults, have we callously brushed aside or destroyed small lives such as those without any regard for environmental consequences? Without the caterpillar going through its short life cycle, it cannot become a beautiful butterfly. How often have we injured the spirit of another human being with a thoughtless word that would change that person’s future forever?

We see the same motif repeated throughout the Bible, too. James compares the tongue, such a little thing, to the rudder of a ship guiding it into peaceful seas or destroying it on the treacherous rocks.

Whether we choose to use our feet to squash a harmless spider or our tongues to crush a spirit, these supposedly irrelevant actions do matter to God, and who can predict when our future can be changed by a thoughtless action forever?

Loving God, teach me to tread lightly in Your world. Help me to be a person that brings peace and harmony wherever I go. Shine Your Light in and through me, so that others make know of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gives us abundant life. Fill us anew with Your precious Holy Spirit. In Your Holy Name. Amen.

With a grateful heart for serving alongside you as we sail life’s seas, I am your friend,

Mark David Jackson