Today’s "Life Journal" Daily Bible Reading can be found on Line. Click Here!
Because Of Your Unfailing Love,
I Can
Enter Your House
Get
in this house! Mrs.
Penn used to say that to me whenever I would go over and visit her. She was the
best encourager a young Seminary pastor could ever dream of having. I would
drop by her house, usually when I was discouraged, knock on her door and she
would always say to me with a big smile on her face, “Get in this house!”
Scripture
7 Because of your unfailing love, I can enter your house;
I will worship at your Temple with deepest awe.
Observation
Get
in this house!
Mrs.
Penn used to say that to me whenever I would go over and visit her. She was the
best encourager a young Seminary pastor could ever dream of having. I would
drop by her house, usually when I was discouraged, knock on her door and she
would always say to me with a big smile on her face, “Get in this house!”
Her
husband Glenn, who was also a great encourager of mine though in a more subtle
quieter way, had died on the operating table during heart surgery not to long
after I became pastor of their church. His unexpected death was a learning
experience for me, a young seminary student pastor; it was a lesson that I
would never forget.
My
prayer for his healing was answered differently than I expected. He told me not
to miss seminary class to be at the hospital with his family while he had his
surgery. A regret that I carry with me to this day even though I know that my
presence would not have changed the outcome, I knew in my heart that I should
have been there with his family.
Mrs.
Penn and I would sit and talk. We would talk at her small, home made kitchen
table and while she talked she would often have her hands soaking in hot wax
relieving the pain of her crippling arthritis. She would always offer me a soda
and then we would talk! After my pastoral visit, which for me was always an
uplifting experience, I would end our visit with a short prayer with her.
When
I walked out the old screen door of her house everything suddenly seemed a lot
better.
Mrs.
Penn was so much like my Heavenly Father! The warmth and love shared with a
young kid pastor sitting around an old kitchen table will always be for me Holy
ground.
Sometimes
even to this day with friends as I greet them at church I will say to them with
a smile on my face, “Get in this house”! And when I say those words they are a
reminder to me of a lesson learned from a special elderly lady about how I
should make other people feel when I talk to them.
Application
I
want people to be encouraged by being around me because of my love for Jesus
Christ. How about you?
Prayer
Heavenly
Father, don’t ever let me forget the lesson that Mrs. Penn taught me by her
life. Give me a love for people. Help me make them feel welcome and wanted.
Help me be an encourager. Don’t let me be selfish. Don’t let me only think
about myself. Give me Your heart for those around me.
Daily Bible Reading: Job 28,29; Galatians 1,2
> If you are reading this simple blog this morning you are an encouragement to me!
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