The MIracle of Crossing: The Promised Land

Two Rivers: The Jordan and I-85.

14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. Joshua 3

It's Morning, Jesus
This twisting river is your view. It is what you see from heaven.
One river is I-85 in Ga, made of concrete and steel.
The other river is the Jordan in Israel, composed of mud and water.

You have been with us in the past, and you are with your people in the present.

We are experiencing the miracle of crossing into the promised land.
"I promise, that I will bring you up and out of your affliction, to a land flowing with milk and honey."

You are a God of miracle.
You are a God of the prayer walk, when, four years ago, you promised all of us in spirit...the best year ever.
You are the God of delay.
You are the God of immediacy.
You are the God of promise and fulfillment.
You are the God of mystery and clarity.
The best year ever, has now come.
But it is not the year of our making, but yours.
It comes after the years of testing.
It comes after the purification of all sin.
It comes after mutual sin and mutual confession.
It comes after pain.
The crocus has bloomed in the wilderness and streams have flowed in the desert.
You have restored unto us the years the locusts have eaten.
You have restored unto all of us a right, humble and contrite spirit.
We have known the woe of sin, together
And now we know the mutual glory of a hallelujah shared.
You demonstrated unto all of us the end of all flesh
You demonstrate now, the power of the Spirit.
We are ashamed of our flesh
But by it we glory in your Spirit.
We have all sinned, each one of us,
We have all fallen short of the glory of God.
And it is grace,
Grace upon grace,
That you have blessed us.
You have blessed us all.
Lord be with each entity behind the differing letters that we chose to name us: WHBC, LCS, COP, WGCA.
We confess that these letters never had the power to unite us.
But there is one WORD that has called us all together.
His name is above all names.
His name is Jesus.
Amen
We are awed by you, your wonder and your grandeur.
Amen

It's Morning, Jesus: Psalm 25

It's Morning, Jesus
1To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
2 in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.

3 No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.

4 Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;

5 guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.

6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD.

8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

9 He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.

10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

11 For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD ?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

13 He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.

14 The LORD confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.

15 My eyes are ever on the LORD,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.

17 The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
free me from my anguish.

18 Look upon my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.

19 See how my enemies have increased
and how fiercely they hate me!

20 Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.

21 May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you.

22 Redeem Israel, O God,
from all their troubles!

It is Well with My Soul

Congratulations: Boy's Pack a Lot of Punch

It's Birth
It's Celebration
It's Boy
And Joy

Under the Mercy.
"Uncle" Greg

You Are God Alone

Don't Feel Like Praying

It's Morning, Jesus
And I am tired.
A little groggy.
I just don't feel like praying.
But I will go by what I know
and not by what I feel.
I know that as you chose your disciples, you also chose me.
I know this by reading your Word, when you said to them:

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15)

So, it is Lord, that your choice of me, and your desire that I pray is greater than my fatigue. So, I rest in you....and in that rest, I pray.
I sit in front of you..and by your appointment, not my will, I pray.
By the power of your creative word that I should bear fruit,
I consent to be, this morning, as a withered branch, attached to the vine.
By abiding in you...yes by abiding in you alone...
without effort, without strain, without striving, I will bear the fruit of prayer.


And as the waves of the ocean are lifted upward by the pull of the moon
So my groans and sighs are lifted up to you: You who said:
"If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself."

For the gravity of your spirit pulls upward.
and Your Holy Spirit interprets my sighs.
And in the knowledge and experience of such prayer,
my praises follow.

Amen

"You Did For Me"

Photos from Former Volunteers in Nalerigu, Africa

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

It's Morning, Jesus
Lord be with Sherri, Julie, Kathy, Nan, Gene, Nancy.
Their ministry is to you, you who come in distressing disguise.
Grant that, today, we would not pass you by in hurry, frustration, impatience,
focused task.
Give to all of us your heart, as you gave to the good Samaritan.
Reveal to us our own hearts of flesh.
I confess my hurry
I confess my worry
I confess my scurry.

Without you living in me, Lord Jesus, I am undone.
Christ in me the hope of glory.

Thank you for this day.
Thank you for waking me up this morning.
Thank you for the sacred trust of these hours before me.

Amen

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

It's 7:00 p.m. in LaGrange, Ga on Sunday Night.
It's 12 midnight in Nalerigu, Ghana where our missions team is, no doubt, drifting off to sleep.

God be with you
As you lay your head
Into dreamy rest.
May the cool of an African night visit you in sleep.
May the dawn find you refreshed for the tasks ahead.
Amen

Sabbath Prayer for Africa

5 "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. (Nehemiah 1)

It's the Sabbath, Jesus
Help me to pray without ceasing.
Help me to enter into that zone of prayer that is true petition, true intercession, true prayer.
Grant to me a vision for prayer
A strength for prayer
A focus of prayer
A prayer without ceasing.

Lord, be with our team as they worship today.
May the worship of this day refresh our team
May the music of this day uplift
May the sermon of this day instruct
May the community of this day comfort
May the rest of this day honor you

Give to Sherri, Kathy, Julie, Nan, Nancy and Gene
a supernatural filling of your life.
You know the challenges they face
You know the needs of the hour
You know the valleys they encounter
You know the mountains they climb.

Be the bread that strengthens
Be the water that quenches their first
Be the light that illuminates the way
In Jesus Name
Amen

Help Us, Lord, to Pray Like Jacob

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16

Now, Lord Jesus
We pray for the blessing.
We pray for Africa.
As we were prayed for, so we pray.
We pray to you,
because in you resides all power and blessing.
You have the power to bless.
I will not slip off into my own comfort this afternoon
I will pray
I refuse to forget
I refuse to retreat
I refuse to languish

Prone to seek my own comfort
Prone to slip into the shade
Prone to sip the lemonade and coke and sweetened tea

How can I languish in my own comfort when those I love
are on the mission field?
How can I pretend this day is about me
When it is about you and the work you are doing right now.

God be with Sherri and camera and lense and pen
God be with Nan and blood and bible
God be with Nancy and surgery and knife and wound
God be with Kathy and needle and bandage
God be with Gene and pharmacy and pill
God be with Julie and mother, infant, child.

Give them your blessing.
Give them your joy.
Give them your strength.
Impart to them your life.

Amen

Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

(Gen. 32:26)

African and Honduran Mission

It's Sunday, Jesus
One team is back from the Honduras
Another is in Africa
Give us pause to remember
Give us space to pray
We remember the barriers you helped us overcome:
the language
the culture
the fatigue

"Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the flood drown it..." (Sol. 8:7)
Let your love fall down mightily.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, [1] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [2] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I Cor. 13

Prayer on Sunday Afternoon

It's Afternoon, Jesus
And so we prayed
And so we pray
And continue to pray for Sherri, Nan, Gene, Julie, Kathy, Nancy.
Strength for labor
Sleep for rest
Cool for heat
Clarity for mind
Stability for emotion
Focus for task
Safety for body
Spirit for flesh.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, patience, gentleness....against such there is no law.

Amen

Lifting up the Bowed Down

10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues,

IT'S MORNING, JESUS
You are high and lifted up, seated at the right hand of God the father.
From that lofty place you rule and reign, commission and care, comfort and give, heal and bless.

Praise be to your name.
Glory.

11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.

From your place in heaven you see our need on earth. You know today, those bent over and bowed low by sin. You know today those bent over and bowed low by errant life-style, dark and dangerous habit, self-misunderstanding, cultural shaping, will-full sin.

This woman could not straighten her body, so she could not look upwards or forwards. The shape of her body was a symbol of people who are stunted and distorted by ignorance, prejudice, anger or malice. As it was, she could see only the dirt at her feet, as many people can see only the bad side of things. She could not look up and see the possibilities before her. She could not see the smiles on people’s faces. She could not see the sky. She could only see downwards to the dirt.

Jesus told her that she was free from what had twisted her body into a deformed shape. He put his hands on her, and immediately she was able to straighten her body. She could look upwards, and she could see forwards. It was not just her body that was healed, but her soul as well. Her immediate response was to praise God


Thank you God,, for the light you give when you are present. Thank you Lord Jesus for your insight into our lives, your power over our rebellion, your Holy Spirit to convict and convert our waywardness.

12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity."

You have the power Jesus, to set us free today.
You have the authority to call us forward, to move us from the place of hiding into the very center of your will. By your Holy Spirit, you still call men and women forward, to deal with their captivities.

Some today, Lord are captive to pride.
They want to be in charge. They believe too highly in themselves.
They surrender to you, only to the point that they still retain power.
They are not broken.
So, too, some are captive to greed and lust and envy and sloth and love of possessions and gluttony. Their appetites for more rob them of what they have.
Their comparing eyes destroy the beauty and gentility of the landscape before them...the beauty of their own husbands, wives, children, neighbors, friends.

13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Do put your hands on us today, Jesus.
That we may be healed. Your hands are the hands of God, that scooped man from the dusty earth. Your hands are the scarred hands, the sacrificed flesh, that saves the world of judgement, appeasing the Father's wrath.
Your hands are the hands that...
held the scroll of truth
touched the blind man
cleansed the leper
multiplied the loaves and fish
wrote in the sand

14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

15 The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?

16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"

17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

(Luke 13)

Nalerigu, Africa (Baptist Hospital from Baptist Press)

It's Morning, Jesus
We limp towards you
We run towards you
We lift our hands toward you
We are all beggars of mercy
beggars of grace
Reveal to us our lack and our plenty
Our need and your supply
Impart strength, protection and Spirit
to those who minister now among your neediest children.
May they feel our prayers, even now.

Amen

Prayer for a Saturday Morning

Child at Baptist Hospital in Nalerigu, Africa
It's Morning, Jesus
She is in Africa at the Baptist Hospital and I am here at home.
They are in the midst of poverty and I am in the midst of plenty.
From your vantage point in heaven, what do you see, Lord Jesus?
My girls are sleeping this morning in air-conditioned bed rooms.
They are sleeping in the humidity and heat of a continent sometimes forgotten by the prosperous.
Chelsea and Hannah are dreaming.
Do shape our dreams, our plans, our use of our resources for the use of your Kingdom, Lord Jesus.
What exactly do I deserve?
For what reason(s) have you trusted me with much?
That I might be fat and comfortable?
That I might be able to afford air-conditioning?
That I might go, now and then, to touch the poor to alleviate my conscience?
That I might die to self in order that my all might be given for you?
I pray to you, Lord Jesus
from the Dominican Republic
from Mexico
from Honduras
from Cuba
from Africa
from New Orleans
from Camp Viola
and from the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course in Alabama.
Amen

Prayer for Africa

The Africa missions team arrived in Nelerigu, Ghana on Wedensday night. We've been at work since 7 this morning (that's 3 a.m. Georgia time!). First miracle...an 8 year old boy with sickle cell anemia needed a blood transfusion desperately. He shares the same blood type as Nan Jackson and she donated first thing this morning. Please pray for him as he is still very ill. (Nan is fine. We even found a clean needle for her. Ha!)

There were three surgeries Wed. night and four more this morning. Kathy Brawner went out with drs. and did public health this morning. Sherri Brown took pictures all over the hospital -- including during surgery. Julie Spears is working with Dr. Teresa Clark from Atlanta and Nancy Crockett is also shadowing doctors at the Baptist Hospital. Gene Covington is back "home" working in the pharmacy.

Please keep us all in your prayers.

Sherri was in surgery when an amputation was taking place. The generator went out and it was dark, but they continued the amputation using flashlights.

2007 Honduran Mission Trip

Notes from a Volunteer at Baptist Hospital in Africa

Our team has arrived! These photos from Baptist Hospital are from the online journal of a former volunteer. They are not current photos from our team, but give you an idea of how to pray and visualize their "on the ground" presence.



During part of my journey in Ghana I volunteered at the Baptist Medical Center in Nalerigu. This is one of the most remote hospitals in the world. I witnessed many sad sights. The most common hospital visits are due to snakebite (cobra and pit vipers are very common) and Malaria (this is during the rainy season). During my stay there was a lorry accident and many of the survivors had limbs amputated. Tuberculosis was common and sufferers were kept in confined corridors until they unfortunately passed away or managed to get better. Aids is fairly uncommon in this region due to the lack of people travelling through that could infect the locals.

I also worked in the nutrition area where young children who are brought to the hospital due to lack of proper diet stay until they are healthy again. The parents are required to stay and work with the nutritionist until the child is healthy and they have been taught the proper foods for the child. This medical center needs volunteers as well as medical supplies.

Before I Go On....

"Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb" Deut 4:10

"Remember ...that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." Deut 5:15

"Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way" Deut. 8:2

It's Morning, Jesus
Before I go on the the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, I will remember. I will not allow the memory of your activity to become old hat.
Today I will remember how you led us, intervened for us, provided for us; used us; allowed us to come to the end of our strength and then became our strength.
Today I will remember that you are God.
Today I refuse to demand more miracles of you, as if you are a jack in the box God who pops up when I pray right, or sing right, or turn the handle of faith right.
Today I accept your sovereignty over my life; your omnipotence. You are God and you do what pleases you.
Today I rejoice in the fact that even as you are close at hand, you are far removed from me in the heavens and command and order this world to your pleasure, not to my desires. And you take all of this world and order it for good to them who do love you and surrender to your will according to your purposes.

You are God, above all other God's, and there is no other.

I praise you as you watch over our Africa team.
I praise you as you admminister healing and mercy through them.
I praise you
You who are high and lifted up
You who are holy
You who are my hallelujah
You who are my amen.

Amen

An Improbable Miracle

It's Morning, Jesus
"I did this that you may know" you said.
You are the God of the valley as well as the God of the mountains.
We did what we can do. We did what we could do.
We drove over mountains, through creeks, up narrow trails, down dusty and then rainy pathways. We bumped along, crawled along....soared even. You let us do what we could do. But when we came to the city of 1,100,000 inhabitants, and faced that traffic jam, we could not. So you stepped in, Lord, and gave us the ride of a lifetime. You turned our tired vehicles into chariots of deliverance. while we rumbled in confusion you advanced in certainty; while we followed with some questioning, you led with stern direction: Stay close to me. Do not separate. Stay close together as a team. Stay bumper to bumper. (Gentlemen, start your engines" I think I heard you say on that bridge.) "Receive right now the anointing of Nascar race drivers." And so it was.
To God be the Glory.

Amen

Suffer the Little Children To Come Unto Me

It's Morning, Jesus
And I am holding the future.
If I die thirty years from now, she will be in the prime of her life.
May the concrete floor we poured for her, speak your name.
May the foundation of her physical home be prelude to the building of her own spiritual house upon you, Lord Jesus, as the Rock.
May this little girl grow up to bless the Honduras.
May she touch the world with your favor.
May she make a difference in the lives of all she meets.
May she carry the love with which I hold her....which is Your love...to all she meets in her lifetime.

Amen

Against the Sky

It's Morning, Jesus
Heaven falls down around each of one of us.
The shape of our life is revealed against heaven's sky.
It is when we are lifted up, between heaven and earth,
That we really find out who we are.
We see things as they are.
No mirrors.
No reflections.
Show me myself today
In your revealing light.
Let today be a day of examination by your word, not my sentiments,
by your truth, not my interpretations.

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

(Galatians 5)

Boom

Ever since I was little I have known missions. I grew up hearing about our church going to the Dominican Republic and seeing my mom doing stories on local mission work. Every year, the Sunday after the mission trip team got back, I would listen to the report and wonder if I could ever experience the humility that the team described.

When I got into middle school I started doing youth mission trips. They were fun, but when I came home nothing changed. There was never a BOOM moment. So I thought, "Maybe the BOOM moments only happen when you go out of the country."

Now, of course, being the preacher’s kid I was, I knew that was wrong. But something inside of me still hoped it was true. The summer after my freshman year of high school I got my chance to go outside of the United States on a mission trip, I took it. It was fun and interesting and I learned a lot about other cultures, but no “moment.”

Nothing.

I didn’t fall in love with a poor kid on the streets, or get brought down to my knees, or give away all my clothes. Sure, I felt more fortunate when I came home but that didn’t last long.

I didn’t know what was wrong. I was left standing on the stage with my teammates just being glad I wasn’t the person rambling at the pulpit about bugs and some kid that sat in their lap the entire week. I was glad because I didn’t feel anything.

I went along just fine through two weeks of Camp Viola, Mission Lagrange, Turn, and now Honduras – my second foreign mission trip.

In the middle of the Honduras week, I began to experience the same emotion as last year and I asked myself: Why am I not feeling anything?

Then I thought of something. Something that changed my outlook on missions. My entire life I had been taught that missions was serving other people and showing them God’s love through your actions. But regardless of my upbringing, my focus was on what people got out of serving others. That was my priority on the mission field. Yes, I wanted to serve them and give them a painted apartment or a cement floor. but what I wanted more was to get something out of it.

How selfish is that? Thinking that a mission trip is for you...when it’s really about everyone else but you.
BOOM.

Hondura Mission Trip Photos by Carrie

Pieces

It's Morning, Jesus
You are the one who takes the pieces of our lives, the many parts of us, the differing moments of our lives, and put them together. In you, we are made whole.
Give to my daugthers, today, a picture of the who they are in you. May they see all things come together in your watchcare. "I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord of Hosts. Plans to help you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future."
Amen

Glory to the Lamb

It's Morning Jesus
And there you are, seated at the right hand of God the Father.
Glory to your name.
You are high and lifted up.
You are the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
There is no suffering you have not known.
There is no pain you have not endured.
There is no temptation you have not conquered.
Glory to your name.
Glory to your name.
Your name is Jesus.
You are our Joshua
You are our deliverer
You are the one who takes us to the promised land
You are the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
Have mercy on us and grant us peace.
You are our very present help in time of trouble.
You are very presnt with the sick
You are with Austin this morning.
You are very present with the grieving,
You are with Kristi Hacker this morning
This is the day, Lord Jesus
When you rose from the dead
This the day they found out the grave was defeated
This is the day man peered into eternity for the first time
with truly curious eyes
As one who would journey there one day with you.
Lamb of God.
We love you
We adore you
We honor you
We lift you up
You are worthy to be praised.

Amen