A short while back, I was leaving the nursing home (my
mother had another stroke), and I passed a thin, little, elderly gentleman (whom
I had never met) resting in his wheelchair in the sunshine outside the nursing home
door. Being in a bit of a hurry, I was
past him and opening my car door before I fully realized the Holy Spirit was
nudging me to talk to that elderly man.
But I was in a hurry, so I climbed into the car, started the engine, and
backed out. Then I remembered a
point in our pastor’s sermon that morning, “Be
obedient.” So….I pulled under the
portico, popped out of my car, and approached the gentleman with “I noticed you looked a bit lonely, and I
wanted to tell you that Jesus loves you.”
The light of a million suns burst forth from his face as he excitedly
told me, “Yes, yes, I know! Jesus loves me!! And He’s right here beside me! He goes with me wherever I go!” For the next 5 minutes, we proceeded to talk
together with great joy about the Lord, about the coming rapture, and about the
awesome life that awaits us. I left
feeling SO BLESSED and encouraged. And
here I thought it was for the little old man’s sake that God wanted me to stop!
When I got home, I sat down to have a little quiet time with
the Lord (since I’d left the house at 7:00am without more than a quick
prayer). I’m currently reading through
Acts, and the verses were Acts 2:25-28, talking about when Peter got up and
addressed the amazed crowd of onlookers immediately after Pentecost. Peter is talking about what David says
concerning the Lord in Psalm 16:8-11, “I
have set the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand, that I may not
be shaken or overthrown or cast down.”
It brought to mind the little old man in the nursing home; he
had given me a picture example of that verse.
In an atmosphere of public noise, lack of normal privacy that we in our home take for granted, dependence on others, and only a part of a room to call his own, he was able to be joyful and expectant and thankful (instead
of miserable), because he saw in his mind’s eye the Lord constantly beside him. It struck me as I studied the verses that it
is an act of choice to “set the Lord
constantly before us.”
The rest of the verses go on to explain the benefits of
doing so:
·
We won’t
be shaken or overthrown or cast down, so troubles and problems won’t get to
us and Satan won’t defeat us. Verse 25
·
Our heart
will rejoice and our tongue will exult exceedingly (we’ll be speaking and
singing praise). Verse 26
·
Our flesh
will dwell in hope (absolute knowing of heaven coming!) verse 26
·
He will
show us the path of life (the way we should go) verse 28
·
We will be
enraptured with and in His Presence (filled exceedingly with joy
because of our fellowship with the Lord).
Verse 28
Which leads back to
the other point of my pastor’s sermon:
“Fall in love with God and be
satisfied with His fellowship”. The
little old man was even beyond satisfied; he was ENRAPTURED with the Lord.
