Tag Archives: Johnnie Morris

VISION BEYOND THE DEAD-ENDS

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2014 - YOSEMITE WINTER - writers refuge FEBHow are things going for you in this new year? Had any hopes, dreams, buildings raised ~ and then dashed?

Bad news and burdens just keep piling up like a snowdrift against the door. It could get you down, yes? As one dear friend said, “I think I’m a bit depressed.”

The comfy chair beckons. We just want to collapse in it, sip cocoa, and wait to feel better. Wait for circumstances to change. Wait for the phone call.

 

PATHWAY w timbered stepsBut before you decide to just park, may I offer you a different vision?

~  A bend in the path ahead often appears to be a dead-end, but isn’t.

~    New hopes can grow like a phoenix from the dashed ones.

~   “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but actually you’ve been planted.” *

 

FOG in color

These chirpy little sayings might appear to be silly platitudes. But they contain nuggets of truth. Sometimes we all need reminders of a truth that, at the moment, is foggy to us. Nudges to persevere. Words to revive our hope.

 

 

Often “dead-ends” are meant to make us pause, look around, evaluate. Not quit. But if we stop in our tracks when we see the closed gate ahead and sit down, we’ll never see the new path, new sights, joys, mercies, or miracles that wait just over the horizon.

So I invite you to pause and remember:

~It was not raining before Noah, working on the             plain, built an ark.

~Moses and the Israelites didn’t reach the Promised Land without plenty of walking.

~The walls of Jericho stood tall and strong until Joshua and his army, in faith and obedience, walked around them and blew their trumpets.

HORIZON over water w mntns

~”Be patient. It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. One step at a time. In the right direction. No pressure. Just keep moving. You’ll get there.” Johnnie Morris

Or in the words of that brilliant theologian, Gracie Allen: “Never put a period where God has put a comma.”

What small step can you take today to move beyond an obstacle?

Tweetables ~

Need a fresh vision? Sometimes a dead-end is really just a bend in the road.

You won’t see the mercies or miracles God has just over the horizon if you quit at the first roadblock.

* Quote seen on Facebook. Author unknown. If you know who said this, please let me know so I can give them proper attribution. Thanks.

 

LIVING ON TIP TOES

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A young lad named Edward, just a toddler, grew up in sunny California and, at 2 years old, had seen little rain. While visiting his grandparents in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, one afternoon a rainstorm broke out. Delighted, he ran to the porch and squealed and giggled as rain poured and a huge clap of thunder—well, thundered.

STORM CLOUDS - MountainsPointing to the sky, he called out, “Thunder again.” But only the rain tapped on the roof. He turned to his grandmother and asked her to bring the thunder again. She told him she couldn’t. So he bellowed at the sky once more.

“Edward,” she said, “only Jesus can make it thunder.”

He raised his arms to the sky and hollered, “Jesus, make it thunder again.”

And a boom of thunder came rolling over those mountains, louder than any his family ever heard. *

I had determined I wanted to live this year (And, why not from now on, really?) in eager anticipation of what God would accomplish and how he’d bring good out of what appears to me as sad or disappointing. I call it: living on tip-toes. And now I have my role model.

[Story told on January 3, 2016, by Johnnie Morris about his own son. Johnnie’s message can be heard here for the next 4-6 weeks.]

FLOOD IN THE DESSERT

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Ed at Yosemite - falls close up brtAre you needing guidance from God? Perhaps a word of encouragement, hope, or comfort? Sunday Johnnie Morris preached an encouraging message from Leviticus. (Yes, encouraging. Yes, Leviticus.) One point was ~

God leads us into a dessert to re-introduce us to Himself before he leads us to our promised land.

I asked God for a word for 2016. Then I asked for confirmation. I sincerely wanted his reassurance that I’d heard right.

Well, over the next days he flooded me with signs of reassurance. It was as astonishing and powerful as encountering a Niagara Falls in the dessert. So many Scriptures, ideas, stories, people, information that on Sunday evening I actually whispered, “I have to unplug. My brain is jangled trying to grasp it all.”

[Can’t help smiling as I write this next bit.] On Monday morning as I was working on this blog post ~ a gigantic wrecking ball flew out of nowhere and smashed through our family. The devastation is severe and will be long lasting.

It’s taken a couple of days to get back to writing this post. And though there are likely more consequences of our wrecking ball to be revealed, we are at peace. Also incredibly grateful.

Grateful that as each of us learned the hard news, the first thing we did was call to God, “Help!” And he did. Many of those lessons and words and Scriptures he’d poured over me on Saturday and Sunday were just what was needed on Monday. Amazing.

Grateful that, as bad as the situation is, we all see it could have been much worse.

And I’m so grateful that God flooded us on Sunday knowing Monday was coming.

Silly, childish me, fearing that the God who answered my request so wondrously might drown me with blessing!

TREE in Fog POSTER - No Vision 2 crMy word for 2016 is vision. God certainly gave me a glimpse of life through his eyes. I aim to remember it as we walk through this dessert. I fall into “Be Thou My Vision.” Here’s a link to a lovely version.

Our words matter to God. I hope you can take encouragement from this experience of ours. I pray you see God’s flood of provision over you and your family. Please, let me know if you have a need I can pray for.