"Connection............................."

My pastor friend in Pensacola posted on Face Book several times yesterday, stating in one place how his church had known “a powerful time in God’s presence” Sunday morning, but afterward noting that “as pastors, we pray, study, and prepare; and sometimes it still doesn’t come out like we had planned”. If his words seem to contradict one another, it is only because we all too often hold a wrong view of what it means to walk with Christ. Wednesday evening, “my” group will be visiting the men at the rescue mission again. I have no three-point message to share. My mind, at the moment, is a kettle of soup, Bible verses and my existence as it has come to me lately all mixed into a gumbo and cooking over the fire, the main ingredient no more than a question as to what Jesus actually meant when He said that He came to give us life and that more “abundantly”. To many, it would seem in this present generation, it translates to health, wealth, and a guarantee that whatsoever they speak will be granted them as heirs to the kingdom. People fail, I think, to comprehend that the promise concerns that which comes to us internally through the covenant, a restoration of that which was lost in the Garden, the Holy Ghost “in” me! One with both the Son and the Father, He is a continual source of strength, peace, wisdom, all that we might need in so far as, not only in taking the next step, but finding within it purpose, encouragement, those things that make our existence more than just sucking in air and going through the routine. Billionaire or beggar, facing terminal illness or feeling like you could whip whatever, He alone defines our completeness, our fullness. He is “life”……