Tom's Message - June 30
Hey, everyone…
Hope you’re having an awesome week! Hope your heart is filled with singin’, praisin’, feelin’ groovy...”just kicking down the cobble stones….
lookin’ for fun and feelin' groovy…
Ba da-da da-da da-da, feeling groovy…”
(Wow! Where’d THAT come from?!)
But even if it’s not going amazingly in every way this week, it’s probably not as bad as a guy I was reading about recently…
He lost his mother and four siblings before age 6. His father was the cold-grumpy-type who you could never really please. William, the kid, was sent away to boarding school where people were super unkind to him. He fell in love but his dad broke up the engagement. He lost all confidence and when his dad made him take an exam to be a clerk in England's House of Lords, he gave up all hope!
Clerk?! He didn’t want to be a clerk!! Bob Crachit hated it!!
But then things began to…change! And get better!
(That would be about the only change possible ‘cause it couldn’t get much worse!)
What made the difference?
Encouraging people!
“Courage” + “in” = “encourage”! He found people who put “courage en” him!
“Courage” comes from the word “cuore”…Latin for “heart”!
People who help you “take heart”!
While spending time in a hospital for the mentally distressed, William met a doctor who encouraged him…and helped him find some Scriptures he needed…mostly in Romans ‘cause guilt was really getting our friend. One day, he fell into a chair, opened up the New Testament and his eyes fell on Romans chapter 3 where it says “God gave Jesus to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, so we can know the sins of the past are gone…” (3.25)
Here’s what happened…
“Immediately I received the strength to believe it, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fullness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed, and received the gospel. Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy. My eyes filled with tears, and my voice choked with transport; I could only look up to heaven in silent fear, overwhelmed with love and wonder.”
Now you’re talkin’, Bill!
After Dr. Nathaniel Cotton finished his work, our sad-but-improving friend met a couple who invited William to rent a room in their home. Mary and Morey Unwin listened, prayed, and ENCOURAGED their new boarder. And then they introduced him to a pastor in their little town…
John Newton was an encouragement genius! He came up with the idea of writing songs about Jesus together. His new friend, William Cowper would eventually be known as the greatest poet in the English language.
Together they wrote 384 hymns! The most famous is number 41…
”Amazing Grace! How Sweet the Sound…”
Encouragement.
Everybody needs it! That’s why we have community groups at 9:30 on Sundays. It’s a time to learn, a time to pray, a time to laugh, and a time to get some encouragement!
If you haven’t yet, why not make up your mind to join one?
William Cowper wrote…
"For solitude, however some may rave, seeming a sanctuary, proves a grave. A sepulcher in which the living lie, where all good qualities come to die."
In other words…
Encouragement rocks!
William Cowper struggled to feel encouraged for the rest of his life.
But everybody needs encouragement sometimes…
Some people like William Cowper need encouragement a lot of the time…
You may be at a place where you don’t really need encouragement right now…
But somebody needs some from you!
Someone like…us!