A Note from Tom: December 3rd, 2010
Hey, everyone!
Wow! What an amazing morning! This a.m. early I was out jogging. You see so many wonders early in the morning in the “Springs”! When it’s really dark, horses I can barely see are galloping in the fields beside me…at first I thought it was me going faster than I thought I was! Lately the moon has been so bright! There’s a little bit of woods I run through and the moonbeams shining through the trees…well, it’s just out of a poem somewhere! I’m not sure which poem (don’t know much about them!) but you probably remember which one! (The one about the woods and the moon…?)
I’m learning that skunks standing by the side of the road will let you jog past unbesquirted if you just mind your own beeswax and trot on by. At least for the fall season, I’m about seven-for-seven! Hope my record holds up! If it doesn’t we’ll all be holding our noses!
Wednesday morning I ran through…snowflakes! December 1! Unbelievable! It was sooooo cool! (Cold-as-all-get-out, actually!) I almost burst into singing, “Christmastime is Here!” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”…but I didn’t. The cows in the fields thanked me for this!
I love my running time! All alone…under the stars! And flakes! But before I left the other day, I read an amazing scripture. It was in Acts 16, when Paul and Silas were arrested for talking about Jesus. They were not only thrown in the “slammer” for their faith, but they got really beaten up for it as well!
Somebody apparently didn’t like to hear about how much God loves us! Go figure!
But they weren’t discouraged or down-hearted! All shackled down and locked up, they just started “prayin’ it up” and singing praises! “…and the other prisoners were listening to them.”
It must have really been an unbelievable thing! To hear two bruised and abused brothers in Jesus, talking and singing to their Lord, Who was invisible to their eyes but more real than air to those two hearts!
Then the next unbelievable thing happened. Suddenly, at the stroke of twelve (mas o menos), there was an earthquake! The jailhouse rocked!
Then the next unbelievable thing happened! All the doors of the jail flew open and the chains on guys’ ankles “disenshackled”! They were all free to go!
Then the next unbelievable thing happened! None of them went anywhere! They all stayed right there! With Paul and Silas!
“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!"
I wondered why. Why didn’t they “hightail it” down the road towards home? Free after all this time…and they just stood there!
Amazing! Maybe…
…Maybe, Paul had shared with some of them in between praise songs, the Message of how to trust in Jesus! The guard was asleep so Paul wouldn’t get in trouble for it. Maybe, those dudes opened their hearts to Jesus! And maybe, when they had the chance to run or stay, they hung around because they realized, “I need these guys! I just accepted Jesus, and it won’t be easy on my own! Friends who love Him too, are my greatest treasure right now! I’d rather be in the “pokey” with brothers around me, than outta here without ‘em!”
We really need each other! There’s a war going on out there for your heart! We need each other to stay encouraged and strong. There are guys who meet at CCC on Saturday morning at 7:00am for that purpose. There are folks who meet at other times. There are community groups and small groups. There are people who get together because they need each other. And they need you! And you need them!
Got friends?