Praise the Lord everybody! because He alone is worthy to be praised! I love what God is doing and I pray you all are enjoying Gods blessing in your lives. God has been very good to me and my wife despite what it might look like in the natural. We've been through many trials but our trust will always be in the Lord.
I was reading the paper recently and I noticed all the fuss being made over certain "Superstar" baseball players being caught lying about using steroids and how disappointed people were in their "Roll models". Some fans were very angry and some were almost suicidal. We as humans have a tendency to trust in what we can see and what we can touch. As I was thinking about these things Gods word came to mind. Jeremiah 17: 5+6
5 Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited
I was reminded of something that happened about fifteen years ago while I was in a Christian rehab program called Teen Challenge, It had a profound affect on me. I had been there a few months when a new guy was brought in fresh off the streets and totally broken by crack addiction. He had gotten saved at an outreach and was so happy God had saved him from crack and death. As time went by he became more and more attached to one of the counselors . This counselor was a former graduate of the program who was now a roll model and the programs poster boy success story, we all looked up to him.
One morning when we came down for breakfast we were met by a different counselor who had us sit down and told us to wait quietly and the director would be down to address us. Of course we were not quiet and began to speculate and wonder what happened to the regular counselor. Finally the word came down that Brother "Ben" had relapsed over the weekend and gone back to using crack. Shock waves went through the building, but the person hit the hardest was the new brother, he was distraught. He began weeping and mumbling uncontrollably. No one could console him and he had to be led from the room by myself and a few other residents.
After sitting and talking with him it became clear what had happened, he had stopped trusting God some where along the line and started putting his trust in man. You see in his eyes brother "Ben's" relapse meant he was probably going to fall also, if "Ben" couldn't stand and he graduated and was the programs success story what chance did he have. No matter what we said to that brother from that day on did not help. He could not get past man and see God. He eventually left the program and went back on crack.
He forgot who had called him out of darkness and brought him into His marvelous light. This is what happens when we focus on men, even the man of God. Paul said "follow me as I follow Christ". Men will disappoint because we are just men. God can do anything but fail. You can be cursed as it said in verse six above or you can be blessed as it says in Jeremiah 17:7-8
7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
I pray the Lord sees some fruit on my tree as I stay focused on Him and continue to pray for us men.
God bless you all, Brother Darrell, speaking off the wall
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