Alafia River State Park, Lithia, Florida
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. ~ Matthew 1:18-19 Back then, being pledged (sort of like an engagement) was serious business. Being pledged was the equivalent of being married, but conjugation was forbidden. Mary left town for three months to visit her cousins Zechariah and Elizabeth (parents of John the Baptist) after being told by the angel Gabriel that she was carrying the Son of God (Luke 1). When she returned everyone knew she was pregnant, and it wasn’t Joseph’s child. Even if it was, her pregnancy would’ve been frowned upon very severely. I imagine at least a small part of her was terrified, not only of the potential of being stoned to death, not only facing the scorn and ridicule of her family and community, but also of what Joseph would do. For His part, Joseph had to have been shocked, dismayed, and maybe even angry that she disgraced him in such a way. As her husband, he had the right to deal with her as he pleased. But Matthew is quick to point out that Joseph was a righteous man, which means he wanted to treat her as God would – mercifully. So he had in mind to release her from their pledge without making a public spectacle of it, and without causing her harm or even death. But God had other plans. How often do we make our own plans to address a situation, only to discover that God has another way? How often do we petition the Father before taking steps in our own direction without Him?
Blaine located the Fish Hawk Fellowship Church for us to worship in this morning. First impression? This wasn’t going to be our kind of place. There was smoke and lights and rap-sounding music playing as we waited in the sanctuary for the service to begin. But there were some relatively friendly people around us, so that was good.
At the appointed time, the Pastor walked out on the stage and announced that he didn’t know how the service was going to go today. He mentioned something about a place called ‘Asbury’ having a revival, but we didn’t know what he was talking about. (Later, we looked it up. It’s a Christian college in Kentucky. They began with a worship service, and it’s now blossomed into at least a 10-day, non-stop revival service! Thousands have been attending! Isn’t our Lord wonderful?!?)
Anyway, they ‘threw away the play book’. We spent nearly 1 ½ hours worshiping – most of the time on our feet, but we never grew tired of it! At one point the pastor came out again and gave a brief message, then cried and talked about his own sin of making the ministry an idol.
In the end, they called for people to come forward and spontaneously, during the service, there were a couple of new brothers added to God’s family and at least eight people were baptized!
We’ve not experienced or felt the Holy Spirit like that in ages! So glad we were there! But we wondered what would happen at the second service, as the first just kinda rolled over into the time for the second. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!!
After church, we went walking again. Pretty much the same places as yesterday. Not too interesting, but we reveled in our Sunday morning encounter with God the rest of the day!
Here’s a little something to make you chuckle!
