I am told that “hurricane season” for Florida begins around June 1st. Each year before “hurricane season” we have a chapel here on “hurricane preparation.” It is a good reminder to stock up on emergency supplies before the shelves in the stores are bare.
I play guitar and sing tenor for a little gospel band called “Homemade Jam.” We sang a few songs before our “hurricane preparation” chapel back in May. One of the songs we did was quite fitting—A Shelter in the Time of Storm. The last line in the chorus goes:
“Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a Shelter in the time of storm.”
But we modified the words a bit:
“Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a Shelter in a hurricane.”
So we have been into “hurricane season” for 1 month and I see that tropical storm Elsa is now brewing in the Caribbean and might be headed our way. We would sure appreciate your prayers concerning that.
Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, the Free Grace Alliance will be having their annual Summit in Daytona Beach next week—July 9th through 11th. The theme of the Summit is “Our Identity in Christ.” I will be speaking on Saturday the 10th regarding “The Importance of Our Identity in Christ.” Then on Sunday the 11th I will be bringing the morning message at Sanford Bible Church. Between a possible hurricane/tropical storm and message preparation, it could make for an interesting week. To top things off, I have been without an internet connection since a lightning storm on Saturday fried the cable that goes into my modem. That actually got fixed yesterday afternoon and I was back online for about 3 hours. And then another storm knocked out the internet for all of us on our property.
We are definitely in rainy season here in central Florida. We have rainstorms with lightning most every afternoon. My poor plants have actually been getting too much rain. The leaves on my pepper plants have been turning yellow and curling which is a sign of too much water. But I was able to pick a bunch of Jalapeno and Hungarian Wax peppers so that I could pickle them. I have also harvested a bunch of Tabasco and Chiltepin peppers to dry in my food dehydrator. I am finding that my “gallbladderless” stomach is now able to handle hot peppers! Yippee!
Blessings,
Bob
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Can You Sleep When the Wind Blows?
Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals.
Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. “Are you a good farm hand?” the farmer asked him. “Well, I can sleep when the wind blows,” answered the little man.
Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man’s work. Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand’s sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, “Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!” The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, “No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.”
Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.
Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.
Moral: When you’re prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm. We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God. We don’t need to understand, we just need to hold His hand to have peace in the middle of storms.
