A Note From Tom: July 27th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome day! Maybe God has something beautiful for you today that you're not even expecting! Check out this promise! "Every good and perfect gift is from God. It comes down from the Father of the the heavenly lights!" (James 1.16)
There you go! Just those words are something beautiful for you today that you might not have been expecting!
Speaking of "unexpected"…
Did you hear about the family in Defiance Ohio where all the cousins were snooping around in the attic of their granddad's house? They found this old trunk and discovered that he had departed this world for the next, leaving behind his baseball card collection. And not just any ol' pile of baseball cards with a rubber band wrapped around 'em! Turns out the "700 nearly mint cards just might represent the greatest and rarest discovery in the sports card industry's history!" This caramel company included baseball cards "back in the day" and grampa collected all the Ty Cobbs, Honus Wagners, Christy Mathewsons, Connie Macks, Frank Chances, Johnny Evers, Cy Youngs from all the stickiness he could chew!
Estimated value? $500,000!
Wow! It was there the whole time and no one knew!
What if you have hidden surprises stored up that you don't even know about? You do! Jesus said…
"“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew 13)
There are treasures in your Scriptures. They're old. But when you find one that is just the word you need for the day you're in, it's new! For you! Like the other day…
I was hiking up to Mt LeConte with Austin Morgan. In the pouring down rain! Awesome! It made me remember the last time I was soaked on that trail…
1972…working for the summer in Gatlinburg….just graduated from ORHS, waiting to go to UT in the fall…hiked up and down LeConte in a day…by myself…rainy day…dripping and tripping…because I was trying to read a book while I walked. "The Power of Positive Thinking" It was weak as water and didn't talk about Jesus much at all but it was the only book with Scripture in it I knew of.
Because I was trying to find Him. I wanted and needed God and I didn't know how to get to Him. I'd been trying to figure out how to know Him for a long time. Attending St. Mary's. Going to hear Billy Graham every night he was at Neyland Stadium in '69. I just wanted God!
I didn't find Him until 1974. Until then, the Apostle Paul says I was lost, dead, and separated from God. But I always felt that in a strange way, I was going to find Him. And He was calling me. I wasn't afraid I wouldn't make it to Him. Somehow I knew I would.
The other day, I was reading the Gospel of John. I was at chapter 17. The whole chapter is a prayer of Jesus to His Father just minutes before His darkest hours. And I'd read this treasure bunches of times. But I found something there that seemed unexpected, unfamiliar, and completely new! More precious than forty original, mint condition 1927 Babe Ruth cards. It was verse six. "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me…"
Wow! You and I were given to Jesus! You and I were a gift from the Father to the Son! When you accepted Jesus, you became a gift-wrapped present! Before that moment, as Jesus said (check this!), "Yours they were…"
Wow! Before I accepted Jesus I was lost, dead, separated from God! But somehow…in some way… I already belonged to the Father as a gift He would give to Jesus on the day I believed in Him! He had a plan for this wandering, confused dude! He knew a new day was coming for me! His hand was on me already! I wasn't His yet…but somehow…in some way...I was! Before I accepted Jesus, it was a dark time for me. I couldn't see a thing. Now I know it was because the Father was gift-wrapping me up to give to His Son!
It's so cool to find something new in the old, old Book! It was there all the time but it's like you just discover it for the first time! A word for you! A truth for now! A promise for this moment!
In fact, just yesterday, I was reading the first half of Romans 4 and found something amazing I'd never seen before! It's right there where Paul says…
Hey! Wait a sec!
Why don't you check it out? See what you can find! A treasure for you! For today!
Amazing!
It's been there the whole time!