One Sunday morning recently, while driving back from Savannah, Georgia (USA), I had a buzzard almost fly into the side of my red convertible mustang. I caught myself ducking...and thinking about my next blog.
In case you're not familiar with what a buzzard is they are sometimes called vultures. Vultures are scavenging birds, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals. If he is frightened away from his "buzzard feast", he will return as soon as he feels it is safe.
I begin to research "buzzards" and quickly found that there is a book out titled, "The Buzzards Are Circling, But God's Not Finished With Me Yet", by Stan Toler. Another book on the market about buzzards is "Don't Let the Buzzards Get Your Children" by Barbara Middletonand. In reading the review of this book it appears to use the story in 2 Samuel 25 (The Bible) about a mother by the name of Rizpah. (For my preacher friends, this is a great sermon for Mother's Day). "Oh Lord, I Wish I Was A Buzzard" and "Where Buzzard's fly" was two other books on the market.
So I am not the first to use the analogy of a buzzard. But what can I say? A buzzard is a buzzard no matter what species they are and from what part of the world they are from. A buzzard is not something that many folks want as a pet. I don't see any pictures hanging on your walls of a buzzard! Most folks consider them an ugly creature. No one tries to dress up a buzzard. It is like putting perfume on a skunk. It is still a skunk.
Satan is who he is. No matter how this world may try to disguise him, he is still Satan. Like a buzzard he keeps circling his prey hoping to find opportunity to have a "buzzard feast". Jesus puts it a little kinder to Peter when he said, "Satan desires to sift you as wheat."
I guess the moral of this blog is, "when going through this life's journey watch out for that old buzzard (Satan). He is like a vulture looking for a place to land!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Route 95
Forty-five years ago I attended my grandfather's funeral in a small South Georgia (USA) church on a hot summer day. The nearest thing to air condition was the fans the funeral home provided. I remember at the end of the service crying as the Hearst, carrying the body of my grandfather, pulled away from the front of the church. My heart was broken. At the age of six I never dreamed that I would stand and preach to a group of people in that same church building.
But again, 15 years later, I traveled 200 miles to that South Georgia town to preach. It was so hot that day that the pastor of the church compared it with hell by saying "hell will be hotter than this." It was a great opportunity for me to preach in the church that my grandparent's use to attend.
This past week I traveled back to that same South Georgia town, walked back into that building, this time not to attend my grandfather's funeral, nor to preach as a young preacher, but to finalize the sell of the church property for the organization in which I am a part of. The church congregation had relocated and the money from the sell of the property will be used to improve the facility they are now using.
This is a new chapter in the life of this church, and I truly believe is a great move for this church. I am convinced that the building served it's purpose for the organization that I am a part of and it was time to release it for someone else to carry on the work in that community. I am thankful that I had the privilege to be a part of this transition. I journeyed back by the building one last time to give thanks to God for the many lives that had been changed during the time that we had this facility. I stood at the altar and asked God's blessings on the next group. I drove away feeling that this is a new beginning for the existing congregation that relocated as well as for this community. I know that somehow in God's sovereignty He has a plan.
This journey that God has us on may take us on a detour from time to time but some how we always seem to come back to our roots. If I live to be 95 (45 years from now), I wonder where this journey will take me - probably to the Nursing Home :)
"Lord, make me to know my end,And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am..." (Psalm 39:4 NKJV).
But again, 15 years later, I traveled 200 miles to that South Georgia town to preach. It was so hot that day that the pastor of the church compared it with hell by saying "hell will be hotter than this." It was a great opportunity for me to preach in the church that my grandparent's use to attend.
This past week I traveled back to that same South Georgia town, walked back into that building, this time not to attend my grandfather's funeral, nor to preach as a young preacher, but to finalize the sell of the church property for the organization in which I am a part of. The church congregation had relocated and the money from the sell of the property will be used to improve the facility they are now using.
This is a new chapter in the life of this church, and I truly believe is a great move for this church. I am convinced that the building served it's purpose for the organization that I am a part of and it was time to release it for someone else to carry on the work in that community. I am thankful that I had the privilege to be a part of this transition. I journeyed back by the building one last time to give thanks to God for the many lives that had been changed during the time that we had this facility. I stood at the altar and asked God's blessings on the next group. I drove away feeling that this is a new beginning for the existing congregation that relocated as well as for this community. I know that somehow in God's sovereignty He has a plan.
This journey that God has us on may take us on a detour from time to time but some how we always seem to come back to our roots. If I live to be 95 (45 years from now), I wonder where this journey will take me - probably to the Nursing Home :)
"Lord, make me to know my end,And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am..." (Psalm 39:4 NKJV).
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Several weeks ago, Bro. Tim asked me to consider posting an occasional guest blog. I didn’t think that I could adequately speak to a Lamb’s journey but agreed to try. I pray that he will soon be at full speed and again filling these pages with his own words. Bill Davis
I remember growing up in a small church in Empire; visiting speakers had to stay with people in the church. There was no Hampton or Holiday Inn Express and if there had been the church couldn’t afford to pay for it. Since it was only my mother and me in our home, often we’d have guests.
A missionary spent a few days with us when I was about five, or so. She was home on furlough from somewhere in Asia; China or maybe Hong Kong. She looked frail and undernourished to me. I overheard her tell my mother that the thing she had missed from home while she was on the mission field was whole milk. She was only able to get powdered milk. I was so sad to hear her say that when she got home, she couldn’t drink it because it was too rich for her body to deal with.
I asked her why she didn’t stay home long enough to get herself stronger so that she could again enjoy drinking milk. I’ll never forget her answer. She said, “My body is not my own, I was bought with a price.” She went on to say that she must take care of some necessary business and then go back to the mission field that God had called her to.
Even at that young age, at some level, I understood what she meant. Those words have stuck with me for many years and I understand them better now that I did then. God had clearly shown her what her calling was for that season of her life. What a blessing! Many times we don’t really know what we should be doing for the kingdom of God. Are we impatient? Are we not listening? Is our mission not to our liking, requiring more humility that we can muster?
Clara H. Scott took the words from Psalms 119:18 and said this more clearly than I can when she wrote:
Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Refrain
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
(Suffering with a broke arm and a cast on, I appreciate Bill Davis being a guest writer for me this week. He is a greater writer that you would enjoy reading his blog at http://chickenroadwisdom.blogspot.com/) Tim Lamb
I remember growing up in a small church in Empire; visiting speakers had to stay with people in the church. There was no Hampton or Holiday Inn Express and if there had been the church couldn’t afford to pay for it. Since it was only my mother and me in our home, often we’d have guests.
A missionary spent a few days with us when I was about five, or so. She was home on furlough from somewhere in Asia; China or maybe Hong Kong. She looked frail and undernourished to me. I overheard her tell my mother that the thing she had missed from home while she was on the mission field was whole milk. She was only able to get powdered milk. I was so sad to hear her say that when she got home, she couldn’t drink it because it was too rich for her body to deal with.
I asked her why she didn’t stay home long enough to get herself stronger so that she could again enjoy drinking milk. I’ll never forget her answer. She said, “My body is not my own, I was bought with a price.” She went on to say that she must take care of some necessary business and then go back to the mission field that God had called her to.
Even at that young age, at some level, I understood what she meant. Those words have stuck with me for many years and I understand them better now that I did then. God had clearly shown her what her calling was for that season of her life. What a blessing! Many times we don’t really know what we should be doing for the kingdom of God. Are we impatient? Are we not listening? Is our mission not to our liking, requiring more humility that we can muster?
Clara H. Scott took the words from Psalms 119:18 and said this more clearly than I can when she wrote:
Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Refrain
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
(Suffering with a broke arm and a cast on, I appreciate Bill Davis being a guest writer for me this week. He is a greater writer that you would enjoy reading his blog at http://chickenroadwisdom.blogspot.com/) Tim Lamb
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