I’ll not leave you nor forsake you. You can count on me. God has promised; and His promise is for all eternity. Though your faith seems small, His faith is all you need to pull you through. So just trust in Him and believe again, for God believes in you.”
Our return to the Detention Center Sunday morning will be remembered as something special. The number of boys had grown, around twenty-four positioned in two rows before us, but behind them sat only that same girl there with us the last time. Three guards, more than required, stayed with us; and Nan opened up with a short witness that was on her heart. Bob spoke, then, of his ho hope that they would not repeat his own mistake of wasting so many years before coming to Christ. Tony’s contribution, in truth, would but reinforce that same thought from a different perspective, the Holy Ghost with us from the very beginning, His presence slowly made more manifest with each person’s sharing. When Mark poured himself into that saxophone, it was easy for these kids to see that experiencing “oneness” with Him was possible in the here and now. The entire room, indeed, was already under His anointing at I moved my chair forward, afterwards, to bring forth the above lyrics a cappella. It was written three decades ago and rediscovered an hour or so before leaving to rendezvous with my group, my actually singing it now merely nothing but a possibility previous entertained; and the message therein carried beyond, coming more out of my belly than it did my head, pointing to having purpose in our existence, to making sense of it all through a personal relationship with Him. When one of the two young men incarcerated there for many months raised his hand, just before closing prayer, to inquire if there was anything God would not forgive, it all came together in an assurance of the whole hour being in His hands. For me, this is “church”. Anything less is just a gathering. He, alone, creates the event…..
Amen, my friend. Darn right.
ReplyDeleteBtw, who's song is that? Lyrics sound vaguely familiar but can't imagine the melody...
It's an old one that I penned, me and an old guitar that mostly I just used to kill the sound of me, thinking about a friend and the words just coming up from inside me. The second verse goes:
ReplyDelete"Maybe somewhere down life's highway, you slipped and lost your way; and it seems that you have failed Him so that there's no use to pray. But the blood that flowed down Calvary's tree still makes lives brand new, and the One who died, then rose again, still gives His word to you."...
The melody is simple. You can about give it your own. I sang it in church once, I think, then laid it to rest in a small notebook along with others.
Well done, Jim. Now who's the one with hidden talents?
ReplyDeleteI'd really like to hear your melody. Any chance you could make a simple recording on your computer?
Sorry, Mich. My talents with this mechanical brain before me is limited to e-mails and blogging. This change to Windows Eight has made it even more challenging....
DeleteDang, am gonna have to go down there and record you myself? ;-)
ReplyDelete