BY THE HIGHWAY SIDE© 2008
By Ronnie Johnson
Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus,? sat by the highway side begging.? Mark 10:46b (KJV).
What I feared to be parted from,? was now a joy to surrender.?
—-Augustine
The Jesus we all need to know is the Jesus on the highway and the Jesus By The Highway Side. There is a big difference in being on the highway and being beside it.
Many people fear coming to God, coming to Jesus and dealing with this person called the Holy Spirit. They are afraid of what they might lose. They are afraid of the change that might happen to them. People become attached to their world, their conscience, their culture, and the social conditions they have become accustomed to.
Bartimaeus wanted his sight. He wanted to be like everyone else. He had heard the reports about Jesus and his healing power, no doubt. But Bartimaeus was about to discover a Jesus who heals not only the physical body, but also the person inside the body.
Bartimaeus was about to discover what Augustine was talking about, “What I feared to be parted from, was now a joy to surrender.”
The scriptures teach us:
Thou wilt show me the path of life;?In thy presence is fullness of joy—?At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Psalm 16:11 (RKJV).
Bartimaeus was one of many people on this earth begging for a new life, a new way of living. He wanted seeing eyes. He wanted to be released from his darkness. By the highway side is symptomatic and symbolic of all of us who are in need. We all have our weaknesses, our addictions, our illnesses and our inferiorities. We all sit beside the highway waiting for help at one time or another; in one way or another.
Those people on the highway, those people where the parade is and in the heart of the festivity of life has similar needs that Blind Bartimaeus had. They are just fortunate enough to be beside Jesus and sailing along smoothly on the highway. But most people at one time or another find themselves by the highway side of life. Things are not going well for them: they have lost their job, their health; they have had great discouragements with their family members, they have experienced divorce, or a business disappointment.
I remember how Dr. Chuck Swindoll once told how his daughter wrote him a letter from college. She expressed how awful life had become for her: she was broke, her car wouldn’t run, she was failing in her classes, she lost her part-time job and her best friend left her. Then at the bottom of the letter his daughter has an arrow for him to turn to the back of the card.
It read, “Just kidding Dad, April Fool!”
However, the truth is, this is a real picture of just how life actually is at times….for all of us. We sit by the highway side of life; just like old Bartimaeus did centuries ago..
We can be in the midst of the biggest celebration in the world and the largest banquet room on earth and still be living in misery and utter despair.
Jesus went to people beside the highway, not those who were on the highway of life; not to those people who had it all together.
No! Our Jesus sought out those who were seeking refuge, a harbor to rest their souls and know the “peace that passes all understanding.”
Sometime ago my wife and I were traveling along with our grandchildren. I noticed an elderly lady traveling down the side of the road. She was carefully and meticulously taking one step after another to move herself as she sat in her wheel chair. It was a very hot Colorado summer day. No wind in sight. Suffocating! And there she was, this elderly lady with no one to push her. She was by the highway side—puttering along at a snail’s pace.
What a picture of the Bartimaeuses of this world. Many people are along side the highway and byways of life. They need a Jesus to come by and notice them. They need a Jesus to come along and heal them. Whether they are blind, battered, buffeted, beaten or bruised from life’s turbulence and heartaches, they need that soft, caring, loving and tender voice of Jesus calling their name.
It is not surprising that everyone on this highway urged Bartimaeus to, “Shut up! And Keep quiet!” When this blind man shouted out to Jesus for mercy, the crowd treated him as a nuisance. But Jesus treated him as any other person. Well people do not need a physician. Well people do not need help. Well people do not need hope. Well people do not need God. This is a common response from those who are OK.
But he cried the more a great deal.? Why? He wanted to see! When you can’t see, you want to see.
Out of his night of despair, out of the blackness of his blindness, and the misery of his emptiness he cried the more. The crowd could not silence his aching heart to get to Jesus.
And in this great throng of people Jesus hears Bartimaeus’s cry. No matter where you are in life; on the highway next to God or beside the highway midst a stubborn and silencing crowd Jesus knows where you are.
The very person society wants to hold at bay, is the very person Jesus wants to heal in body.
Jesus is a Savior and Comforter who wants to salvage your life. He wants to help you get upon the highway again. His role was and is redemption. His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, whom he sent to us, has the role of Comforter.
When Jesus went to the woman at the well he went to someone by the highway side. He went to a lady living in adultery, not a lady with a lifetime clean slate and member of every Christian organization in town. He went to someone along side the road of life who needed hope, who needed a helping hand..
When Jesus met the woman caught in adultery and ready to be stoned to death he joined himself to someone by the highway side of life. She was not in the choir at the First Baptist Church, of Samaria. She was not a popular socialite of Samaria. You can be sure she did not serve on the board at the First National bank of Samaria. No! She was a woman of a sordid past. She was blind like Bartimaeus, just with a different kind of blindness—she was blind spiritually and morally.
When Jesus found Zachaeus he found a rich, lonely and hated man by the highway side up in a tree. He had no friends to speak of because he was a tax collector. The people despised the very person Jesus called out to and invited himself to Zachaeus’s home for dinner.
If you feel like no one cares about you….if you feel like you are by the highway side of life…..if you feel that you are hopeless today….if you know you need healing in your body…..if you feel that you are on the “outs’ in life. Then shout out for Jesus. Cry the more! Run to Jesus. Beg for Jesus. Ask for Jesus—ask and you shall receive.
He Hears My Feeblest Plea© 2008?By Jason Lloyd?
I sought the Lord night and day
And He came to me just like he promised
Just like I believed he would
He came, and made my day
I sought the lord with all my heart
And He came to me with healing words
Words of hope and help
That changed my life that changed my heart
I sought the Lord with the simplest prayer
And He heard my cry
He heard my feeblest plea
And answered my simplest prayer
Whoever you are remember that when you come to Jesus whether you are on the highway or by the highway’s side Jesus is reachable.
Hitherto you asked nothing in my name, ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full (John 16:24 RKJV).
This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles (Psalm 34:6 KJV).
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19 KJV).
Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Luke 11:9 RKJV).?
We sing Our God Is An Awesome God, but He is not Awesome if He can’t and won’t come to us in our blindness by the highway side of life. The Good News is that He will come to you and me. He will console our soul. He will pick us up. He will heal us. He will restore us. He will change us. He will save us. He will help us. He will renew us. He will revive us. He will listen to us, and to our faintest prayer.
Are you on the side of the highway today? Do you feel like shouting out for help? Do have emptiness within you? Do have a helplessness feeling within you? Do you feel inferior? Do you feel lost? Do you feel like nobody cares about you? Do you sense darkness before you? Do you feel like crying out like Blind Bartimaeus? Do you want new eye in your soul?
I cannot help but think about the story of the Lady in New York. She lived alone in a high-rise apartment. Larry Walker was a minister in the Big Apple; a chaplain at the time. He tells the story. He tells how this lady had no friends; how she had lived alone in this vast metropolis of humanity. He tells how she lived along side the highway of life.?
I went to chapel one day at the seminary years ago. I heard Rev. Walker tell this story firsthand. He said that he received the call just like the paramedics and the firemen did. He raced to the apartment and showed his identification to the emergency team. He said they brought me into her little cramped apartment and showed me her body lying on the floor.
Rev. Walker said he looked down at the frail little lady’s body and discovered a small piece of paper stained with her own blood upon it. He said he picked up the note and it read repeatedly—over and over: No one came today….no one came today….no one came today…no one came today.
When you’re by the highway side of life it can get real bad, real dull, real listless, real cold, dark, foreboding, empty, lonely, exhausting and fatiguing.
Remember the Psalmist who cried out:
I am like a pelican of the wilderness:?I am like an owl of the desert.? Psalm 102:6 (KJV).
That is David’s way of saying that he knows what it is like to be by the highway side of life. He knows loneliness, unhappiness, emptiness and restlessness.
You do not have to be alone or helpless whether you are on the highway in the shadow of Jesus, or whether you are stranded beside the highway just trying your best to get a glimpse of Jesus. Jesus came to minister, not to be ministered unto. He came for you. He loves you. He wants you. He cares about you. He can rescue you. He can enable you. He can change you. He can enliven you. He can enlighten you. He can transform you. He can remake you. He can heal you.
The key is always upon your knee.
—-Ronnie Johnson
Listen to those compassionate, receptive, moving and loving words of our Lord:
Him that comes to me I will in nowise cast out (John 6:37 RKJV).
Jesus is in the business of reaching out to people by the highway side of life. No matter how desperate your life has come to, no matter how shattered your dreams are; no matter how fearful you are about your future, or frustrated you are in life Jesus is ready to call out to you, too. He is always present, always waiting to aid you and reach out to you if you will only allow him to. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8 RKJV).
Let go of your past, let go of what you have feared to be parted from, and discover now an unspeakable joy to surrender. Jesus is calling you.
He ain’t go’in nowhere! Come to Him in your most simple trust. Come to Him in your most honest way, in your most child-like faith. And he will not turn you away.
Trust in the Lord with all of your heart? Lean not unto your own understanding? In all your ways acknowledge him? And he shall direct your paths.?Proverbs3:5, 6(KJV).
Down the road ...
Ronnie Johnson
If I Could Only Tell You What He’s Done For Me© 2008
By Ronnie Johnson
If I could only tell you what he’s done for me
If I could only pen the words of my awesome Lord
If I could only share with this whole world how great God is
If I could only tell you what he’s done for me
So you could know, so you could see
So you could have and hold the One who died for you and me
If I could only tell you what he means to me
If could only somehow say just the right words
And you would know the Master of this universe
The Caring Christ who gave his all
For your sins and my sins on Calvary’s tree
So you could have and hold the One who died for you and me
If could only put into a song, a piece of poetry
A picture of this Man and all his grace
The love he gave and those he forgave
The incredible mercy he has for you
If I could only tell how great he really is
So you could have and hold the One who died for you and me
Chorus:
If I could only tell you what he’s done for me
How he’s become my Friend of friends
How he’s changed my thinking
And transformed my living and giving
How he’s made all the difference in the world to me
And millions more who’ve come to see
His mighty love from Calvary
So you could have and hold the One who died for you and me
So you could have and hold the One who died for you and me
Down the road ...
Ronnie Johnson
You Are Loved
By Ronnie Johnson
For God so loved the world (John 3:16a).
One loving heart sets another on fire.?——-Augustine?
You really are loved by God. As humans we make big flops in this life. We just do.
If we didn’t we would not be human. We would be God-who is perfect, divine, holy and righteous.
We just hosted three of our grandchildren. It was a constant teaching, coaching and guiding experience. They were constant targets for our lessons on life and encouragements for smart thinking.
I thought it was so cute when the five year blurted out at the breakfast table one morning when we joined hands for prayer. Hayden said loudly, “Not again Papa!”
“Yes, again Hayden, we give thanks at every meal,” I said softly as we bowed our heads.
Our grandchildren reminded me of my late mother and my dad and their constant words of wisdom they gave us five children while growing up. Parenting is work! Good, sound, sensible and stable teaching of doing what is right demands effort on every parent.
It is the home where we find love or don’t. It is the home where we are taught about God and truth, about how to live and how to share.
People who hate, people who are biased and discriminating in the world all too often get this from home and family. If you were so privileged to grow up in a good Christian home then you have much to be thankful for.
You are loved. I have written two books on this subject. This theme is near and dear to my heart. No matter how unloved, lonely, empty and miserable you may feel at times in this life, be sure of one thing—God loves you over and over a trillion times and then some. Even with all of your blunders, all of your mistakes, all of your worst actions in life He still cares about you, still loves you just as you are…sins and careless stupidity.
When the Christ gave his blood on the cross of Calvary, he did so knowing that we would be rotten at times. And because of this incredible principle in life, You are Loved by a kind and gracious heavenly Father who loves unconditionally, perfectly, eternally and indiscriminately. Our God’s loving heart therefore sets my heart and your heart on fire.
Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13 RKJV).? And He did.?
Down the road ...
Ronnie Johnson
BETRAYAL© 2008
YOU WILL NEVER LIVE UNTIL YOU FORGIVE? By Ronnie Johnson
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.? Luke 23:34 (KJV)
Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds upon the heel that has crushed it.?
—-Mark Twain?
Nothing to me is more earth-shattering than a broken relationship on this planet. When someone betrays us it is the worst hit you can take in the gut. It is nauseating, depleting, sickening, and even terrifying at times.
When a friend, family member, business or professional associate, or even a client does us in, it hurts. It hurts like no other sting we can get in life.
It is sin really. When someone betrays you, an ex-spouse, a friend or family member the internal injury leaves lasting scars. That pain is forever there—more awake at different times in our life
You find yourself second-guessing your own mind. Was it me? Did I do something wrong? Could I have done better? And on and on the process begins. But in most cases it would have happened anyway. We must learn to consider the source as we often hear and say ourselves.
People hurt people more than any other weapon could possibly do so. When someone betrays you, you never look at them the same again. That unwelcome dagger in the heart leaves a lasting reminder. You may try forgiving them, and perhaps you do—but you will always be gun-shy of that person from then on—no matter what! And you should be! Why go through the same hurt, the same agony again?
People who lie to you, take advantage of you and sneakily go behind your back are the people you and I must deal with in life. They are robbers in every way and sense of the book. And you will meet these kinds of people if you live long enough upon this green earth—it is inevitable! Inevitable!
But forgiveness frees us up. Forgiveness allows us to not be strangled by their attitudes and actions. Forgiveness brings a certain amount of dignity to ourselves and our own psyche. Forgiving them does not mean we have to be with them again, associate with them or foster anything they are doing. It does mean, however, that somehow, someway we let them go—we do not keep a slate of their offenses and drool over their injurious offenses toward us.
I have had associates, family members and others over the years to hurt me deeply. But my actions often became just as bad as their ugly ways toward me. It’s not what happens to us that counts the most in life, it‘s how we react and respond that makes all the difference in the world.
Forgiveness helps us grow up really. Forgiveness also helps us realize that life means going forward, not backward. If you stay and fume forever over someone who disappointed you, hurt you, and betrayed you, then you will lose. Unforgiving is costly. Very costly! It is ultimately injurious to you, not to the one who betrayed you.
Unforgiving can affect your health, your attitude, your work and your sanity. Most of all it can affect your own relationship with those you love most and with God.
Forgiveness is a needed catharsis. It is a cleansing mechanism. It will realm out your soul and spirit. Forgiveness will put you back on the highway of life—out of the ditch of remorse, hate and the temptation to gutter talk about humanity. Forgiveness becomes a washing within.
As long as our mind stays upon the enemy and the hurt we have experienced, we will find ourselves crippled by negativity, and thwarted by the erosion of spite and revenge. No matter what that person did to you, let him go! Let her go! Let them go! Loose them from your mind, heart and soul.
Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain you.?
Psalm 55:22 (RKJV).?
The Christ, the Messiah, the Carpenter who died for you and me forgave us—He, in fact, let us go, our sins and our ugly ways. He let our meanness and faults go. He forgave us of all our own crimes and wrongs. He did not chalk up our mistakes and hold them against us. He forgave you and me. He forgave us totally, perfectly and eternally.
And this is why I am convinced that you and I must do the same. We must forgive, too. As much as we detest what a person has done to us. The real key is to let it go. And if we are not willing to do so we are tying a tourniquet around our own life and our own peace of mind. Remember this:
You will never live until you forgive.?
Down the road ...
Ronnie Johnson
There’s One Other Thing© 2008
By Ronnie Johnson
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.? Lamentations 3:1 (RKJV).
I believe in the sun even when it isn’t shining.? I believe in love when I am alone.? I believe in God even when He is silent.?—Jewish refugee,
World War II, Poland ?
Hopeless. In despair. Miserable. Nothing going my way. That feeling of inadequacy has overcome me like a thick, dark cloud or shadow; that inner turmoil we all feel at times—almost like death itself is knocking at our door. That hint that I’m alone and no one cares for my soul. Emptiness. Restlessness. No way out! At the bottom of the ladder and then some.
This is the picture of a person where his face is in the dust. He is without any light or dawn of day. It’s a very bad forecast for his life. He is shockingly remorseful and filled with that sickening feeling that bad results are coming no matter what.
There is no light at the end of the tunnel. No one to turn to. A feeling of friendlessness takes control his mind. Helplessness. He knows only question marks—answers evade him. He sees no open window at all.
Hope is the thing with feathers? That perches in the soul,? And sings the tune without the words,? And never stops at all.?
—Emily Dickenson
His dreams have disappeared. His luck has run out. His company has crashed. His life has ended-at least in his mind. He feels divorced by society itself. The one person he thought he could count on seems to have taken a vacation—God.
He feels deserted. Cheated. Bankrupt. Broke. Listless. He can not fathom the words of Tertullian, “Hope is patience with the lamp lit.”
The blue sky has turned to a grey sky—no! It’s even black and ominous to look at. Surely this is the end. This is it! There is no more reason to go on. There is no one I can count on. There is no mitigation for my situation. I’m in trouble. I’ve reached a dead end street.
Gloom, sadness, horror and sorrow have filled this person’s soul. And then we read about his awesome discovery, There’s One Other Thing:
He ground my face into the gravel.? He pounded me into the mud.? I gave up on life altogether.? I’ve forgotten what the good life is like.? I said to myself, “This is it. I’m finished.? God is a lost cause.”?
It’s a good thing to hope for help from God? I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,? The taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.? I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—? The feeling of hitting the bottom.? But there’s one other thing I remember,? And remembering, I keep a grip on hope:?
God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,? His merciful love couldn’t have dried up.? They’re created every morning.? How great your faithfulness!?I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).? He’s all I’ve got.?
God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,? To the woman who diligently seeks,? It’s a good thing to quietly hope,? Quietly hope for help from God.? It’s a good thing when you’re young? To stick it out through the hard times.?
When life is heavy and hard to take,? Go off by yourself. Enter silence.? Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:? Wait for hope to appear.? Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.? The “worst” is never the worst.?
Why? Because the Master won’t ever? Walk out and fail to return.?
Lamentations 3:16-31?
Down the road ...
Ronnie Johnson
THE CREATOR© 2008
By Ronnie Johnson
Earth’s crammed with heaven;?And every common bush afire with God;?But only he who sees,? Takes off his shoes,? The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.?
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning?
Honestly it looked like it would just start bouncing across the horizon. I had just spoken in Eastern Colorado. The giant, huge reddish-orange ball starred me in the face as I drove back toward the city. It was setting in a hurry as it sparkled against the Rocky Mountain silhouette.
The more I tried to look into the face of this giant, huge reddish-orange ball the more I realized just how powerful its rays are even at the close of sunset. But there it sat. Beautiful! Stunning! Arresting my every thought of The Creator.
“Hey!” I said to myself, “I haven’t put anything like this together in awhile. If He can throw a sun together and a few mountains silhouetted in the background, and spread dirt upon a horizon like this, can’t He do anything with my life or other people’s lives? With your life? Can’t He?”
I kept driving as the giant, huge reddish-orange ball began to sink right into the earth, right into that light, purple silhouetted curtain of mountains. Later I noticed after I had been driving for several more minutes this giant, huge reddish-orange ball was gone—spoof! Like magic it disappeared. But then an enormous fire upon the earth’s horizon raged in the midst of this glorious sunset. Spectacular! Brilliant! Hues of pink, orange, red, yellow and salmon resonated in a natural fireworks display. Wonder of wonders! No Hollywood stage could touch this.
The Artist painted scenes like no man could ever imagine or muster. Simply captivating! It was one of those evenings you would have had to have been there to believe your eyes. No wonder the Psalmist declared:
The heavens declare the glory of God;? The firmament shows his handiwork.?
Day unto day utters speech,? Night unto night shows knowledge.?
Psalm 19:1, 2 (RKJV).
Down the road ...
Ronnie Johnson
HOW MUCH MORE….? (C) 2008
By Ronnie Johnson
More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain, night and day.?
—Alfred Lord Tennyson
I am convinced that most people have many fears and anxieties when it comes to understanding and knowing the Holy Spirit .I call Him the orphan of the Godhead. Why? Because most people have this question mark about whom to talk to when they pray. People are afraid of what they cannot see…who they cannot fathom or understand.
And when you think about it talking to an invisible God is challenging. You can’t see Him. You can’t feel Him. You can’t touch Him. It is totally a faith world. The Lord is not kidding when He teaches us in His word, The Just Shall Live By Faith.
Recently as I read in the Gospel of Luke I was taken by the affirmation that God gives us His Spirit when we ask for Him. The Christ is teaching how much more our Father will give us His Spirit compared to our earthly father giving us temporal gifts.
If a son shall ask bread to any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or, if he shall ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent??
Or, if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion??
If you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him??
Luke 11:11-13 (RKJV).
I address Him often as: The Breath of God, The Wind of winds, The Comforter of all comforters, The Counselor of all counselors, and The Dove of heaven.
A dear friend said to me recently as we were discussing the Holy Spirit, “Ronnie, allow him to be more than a resident of your life, make him the President of your life.”
I do not believe that we have even begun to understand the awesome presence and available power of this Third Person of the Godhead as we often allude to Him. The Holy Spirit is not one we always address as the living presence of Jesus Christ. He is treated much more as an orphan of the Trinity. He is there, but we seem to avoid talking to Him easily, intimately, personally and comfortably. And yet Jesus himself is quietly and notably urging us, his followers, to ask for the Holy Spirit-his mighty presence, his limitless power and his daily authority in our lives.
Even the worst of fathers would not place a snake on a plate before his own son or daughter. Unthinkable! Most every dad wants to give the very best to his child; to shower that child with gifts that will make a difference in his or her life. Why would any father surprise a child at the breakfast table with a spider or poisonous viper in a bowl of cereal? It just doesn’t even make any sense.
How Much More does your heavenly Father want to endear you and help you. Our world is full of complicity, confusion and chaotic moments. What comfort! To know that the Holy Spirit is available to you day by day. Whatever difficulty or dilemma you may be facing—He is there with you….even this day.
Ask and you shall…...?
Down the road ...
Ronnie Johnson
THE FLOOD© 2008
By Ronnie Johnson
At the profoundest depths in life men talk not about God, but with Him.? —Elton Trueblood? It is now very vivid in my mind. It is an image I will carry with me to my grave. I was in a small single engine plane, a Cessna, with three other men.
We had been commissioned to go to South Texas and help set up the Baptist Rio Grande Mission Project. This was in the early Seventies. I shall never forget the exciting and exhilarating trip.
Only a day before severe rainstorms had swept across the Southwest causing some of the worst flooding in the history of the Lone Star State. There had been multiple deaths following the storm. Many farmers and ranchers had lost thousands of acres of their crops, and some of their livestock from this vast deluge of wind, rain and hail.
And here we come sailing over all this land below us seeing firsthand the immense flooded part of this enormous state. There they were huddled together. There were countless groups of cattle, goats, sheep and horses surrounded by water standing on their different islands where the water had not receded. It was a shocking spectacle to say the least.
It was a sight that commanded our attention. The great State of Texas had been thoroughly soaked especially south of San Antonio. As we flew over these animals and this immense amount of real estate I could not help but think of those touching verses our Lord gives us through the poetry of the Psalms:
For every beast of the forest is mine,? And the cattle upon a thousand hills.? I know all the fowls of the mountains:? And the wild beasts of the fields are mine.? If I were hungry, I would not tell thee:? For the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.?
Psalm 50:10-12 (KJV).
Floods have a way of coming into our lives. One day we are well, the next day we are ill. One day we are married, the next day divorced. One day we have a job, the next day we are job-hunting. One day there is smooth sailing, the next we are bemoaning our plight in life. One day, like Job of old, all is happiness and laughter, the next day all is sadness and frowns.
In life expect The Flood to come; it’s not if, but when. The Flood is God’s way of the catharsis, the cleansing effect. It has come before and it will come again—what? The Flood! The Flood reminds us of where we have been in life, the good ole days. The Flood also teaches us gratitude for those days and years when all was well and peace existed; and we were not totally thwarted by turbulence and heartache from loss.
And remember after The Flood sweeps us off our feet, we do have that wonderful promise of a rainbow to follow. God promised Noah the covenant of the rainbow for perpetual generations:
I do set my bow in the cloud,? And it shall be for a token of a covenant? Between me and the earth.?
Genesis 9:13 (KJV).
As we flew farther toward the Rio Grande in a far distance the colorful hues of a rainbow flooded the great Lone Star State’s horizon. Awesome. Stunning! Memorable!
The Flood had ended. I hope your flood has ended, too.
The End
Down the road ...
Ronnie Johnson
