A Phone Call

Last week on Thursday morning I was sitting at my desk at work and my phone rang...that is not an odd thing to happen. the person on the other end of the phone asked if this was Joe Brown and i said that yes it was. Then they asked if I knew who this was....i said that this sounds like my Aunt Teen....i guessed correctly...now she doesn't usually call me at work so I was concerned. she and my uncle have gone through some tough heath problems the last couple of years but God has answered so many prayers for them....i asked what was wrong....you know the feeling..take a deep breath....heart sinking to the floor,...beating much faster than it was a minute ago. She said all was ok and that they got a good rain and my uncle shut down his wells and they came down to Fredericksburg for a couple of days....had a real good visit with them that evening. I got to thinking which can be a real dangerous thing in my case and I was wandering why when we get an unexpected call we immediately think the worst...she could have just been calling to say hi, she loved me and my family or something special. As believers in Christ we can often get the same feelings when a preacher or friend starts to read our mail...the idea is that this has to hurt for me to grow in him....well to that i want to say...BULL...you see even God can send us his children words of encouragement, words of love, words of caring and he never goes back on those words. You see God can also give us words of correction but he never does it with loud embarassing yells, screams, and temper tantrums. he might take us out to the wood shed but we are the only ones who know about it unless we tell others around us you know folks that we trust to keep our words in confidence but to also hold our feet to the fire if we start acting goofy again. Must we always look at the dark side of what is going on in our lives....there is usually a brighter side if we just poke around alittle bit.
Another quick thought about things we hear. Last week on Sunday morning during praise and worship one of the men at church walked up to me and asked me to pray for him. He told me that the week before he had some cancer removed and he was waiting to get the biopsy report back. Well we prayed for him and then before my pastor got up to share we prayed again. well this last Sunday morning I went up to him and asked if he got his report back. he said yes and grinned great big and said it was a GOOD REPORT.....FREE OF CANCER.....NOW THAT IS A REASON TO SHOUT!!!!!!!!! I read from the Psalms Sunday morning about the Lord's SHOUT but we to need to shout every once in awhile....SO SHOUT UNTO GOD WITH A VOICE OF TRIUMPH,,,,LETS GIVE IT A TRY AND SEE IF WE SEE THE GOOD SIDE MORE OFTEN THAT THE BAD SIDE.......BLESSINGS JOE

KIND WORDS

My pastor's daughter has one of the funniest blogs that I have ever read. She is also probably one of the few people who read my ramblings or at least leave a comment about my ramblings. If you ever get a chance go to http://blogglingbrooks.blogspot.com/ and read her great stuff. Sarah is a wonderful young lady I guess that I have had the pleasure of knowing her for 20 years of her life....now as she shares about Bella, Buddy and Hoss and N (her husband) I am blessed by them. Sarah, just want to say thanks for the "kind words" you are truly a gift from God. Thanks, Joe

FEW WORDS

Well it has been almost a month since I last put some thoughts down here it just seems that everything that has taken place is just for my family and me. I pray that if you read this blog you can understand. My wife has told me that a couple of times lately when I have shared at church that I might have shared some to close to the family stuff. As i think about it I am sure that she was correct. Well we had our service at Luckenbach yesterday morning and we were blessed by having Debbie Hadaway there to share some music with us. In a short note I want to say thanks to the wonderful people that have been such a blessing to this preacher over the last five or six years. I am truly a blessed man. blessed by my wonderful family, my friends at Luckenbach, friends from all over the place that I have been honored to meet and walk beside, pastors who have seen things in me that i have never seen....just sort of a introsepective look from my heart today.....BLESSINGS

NEXT SERVICE

OUR NEXT OUTRIDER SERVICE WILL BE THIS NEXT SUNDAY MORNING JULY 13, 2008 AT 8:30 A.M. AT LUCKENBACH. ANY QUESTIONS CALL 830/456-3450. BLESSINGS, JOE