Thank you for joining me for another edition of the Weekend Sermon. I am glad that I am able to post the sermon this week, and I hope that it will be of benefit to all who may read it.
We have had one storm after another this last week where I live. Thanks be to God, even though we have received a lot of rain, I do not have any water getting under my foundation. Thank you for your prayers in this matter.
Last night, a town of about 2,500 that is about 75 miles southwest of where I live was hit by a tornado. Many buildings are destroyed, but no one was injured. A church in the community is letting those who don't have a place to live stay at the church. Please pray for those who are affected by this storm.
I heard today on NPR that there was a terrible storm that hit Taiwan. Let us pray for those folks that they will be well.
Also, please pray for those injured in the shooting in Dallas last night. Pray for the families of those who have lost loved ones, and pray for an end to violence. Pray for peace.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us focus our attention on Indonesia and Bahrain. Pray that people in these nations will hear the message of Jesus' love and salvation.
During the last several weeks, we have been going through two different series of messages. One series is taking us through each of the Ten Commandments. Last week in this series, we focused on not taking the name of the Lord in vain. Today, we will return to our series about lessons from the animals.
As anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows, my dog Toby was my best friend. He still is my best friend for that matter. Jesus brought Toby into my life when I needed a friend in the worst way. A couple of weeks ago, I posted a message about something the Lord taught me through the life of my friend Toby. Today, I would like to tell you about something else the Lord taught me, and is teaching me, through my experiences with my friend.
When Toby came into my life, I was very depressed. As I've mentioned before, I have suffered from depression on and off since my teenage years. Some periods of time find me doing very well, but at other times in my life, I have gone into deep depression. One of these times was just before Toby came into my life.
Because of a lot of the bad things that were happening in the church and the school I went to, I was become very sad and down. I really didn't have anyone that I could relate to at the time, and I was quite sad.
I had always loved dogs, and I wanted to get a smaller dog who I could keep in the house with me as a companion. My Mom's show collies had a special kennel space.
Unfortunately, neither one of my parents were very happy when I told them about my idea to get a dog I could keep in the house with me. My Mom told me that she didn't want a puppy in the house and that I could only get an older dog if it was already house trained.
I looked at a few different dogs, but none seemed to be right for me. Then one afternoon after church, I saw an ad in the paper for a one and a half year old Corgi who was already house trained. I called and went to look at him right away.
This corgi's name was Toby, and I loved him right away. Toby had been a show dog who the owner said had feet that were too small to meet the breed's standard. So, she was finding a new home for him. I would actually find out not too far in the future that Toby had a terrible health problem and that was probably the real reason the owner was selling him. I write more about this in a few weeks.
Well, I brought Toby home with me, and I expected the two of us to be good friends right away. However, Toby had a different idea. For the first several days that I had him home with me, he hid. He didn't want to play, and he seemed just about as depressed as I was.
This state of affairs went on for several more days, and I was beginning to think that the two of us just weren't going to click. I was about to give up, but I decided to just keep being nice to Toby and give him good things to eat in the hope that he would eventually come around.
One day he did come around in grand fashion. I had some old balls of string that I used when flying kites. I was taking them out to the garage when a dropped one of the balls of string on the floor. Toby instantly shot out from this hiding place, grabbed the string and raced around the living room. I got the ball of string from him and threw it across the house. Toby immediately ran after it, and the two of us had a great game of fetch until we were both too tired to play anymore.
From that day forward, Toby and I were the best of friends. We went everywhere together and did so many fun things. The 11 and one-half years that we spent together remain to this day the best years of my life. I call them my golden days.
What these first few days with Toby taught me is the virtue of patience and waiting. In James 1:4 the Bible tells us to let patience have its perfect work in us so that we may be perfect in our relationship with the Lord.
Patience is important in almost all areas of life. When we rush ahead and don't let things come to pass naturally or with God's timing, we can end up missing out on something really great.
If I would have given up on Toby after the first several days, I would have missed out on the best time in my life. I was so depressed before he came that I am not sure I would even be here today if not for him. It was worth waiting.
Being patient can be hard, we want things to happen the way we want them to when we want them to. When that doesn't happen, we try to make things happen or we move on. That almost never works out.
Sometimes, we lose patience with others. Maybe you have been trying to help someone overcome some difficulty in life, but they keep falling back into the old habits or the old sins. Don't give up on that person. Have patience, and trust in God. Nothing is impossible with the Lord.
I know many people that have prayed for a friend or a loved one to come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior for many, many years. The friend or loved one still refuses Jesus' offer of salvation. Often, we are tempted to quit praying for that person thinking nothing will ever happen. Be patient, don't give up. I know of an instance where a woman prayed for over 15 years for her husband to come to faith in Jesus, and one night he finally came to accept the Lord.
Sometimes its hard to be patient and wait on the Lord in our own lives. Psalm 27:14 tells us to wait on the Lord. The Lord does things on His time schedule and not on ours.
It took many years before I was able to do the type of ministry work Jesus called me to do. I almost gave up, but I didn't. Now, I have the opportunity to use writing to spread the message of Jesus' love. I can tell people about the Lord in these sermons and other postings on this blog.
If you have a calling from the Lord on your life and things don't seem to be falling into place right now, don't doubt the call of the Lord. Keep praying and keep believing that the Lord will open up the right doors at the right time. Be patient, and good things will happen.
One thing that I have a hard time being patient about is the fact that I wish Jesus would come back soon. I am really looking forward to that day. I have to wait, and in waiting I need to grow in my relationship with the Lord and help others to know about His wonderful love.
Next week, we will return to our series on the Ten Commandments. The following week, I will have message about something I learned from a dog named Colm. On Monday, I will post the verses. I hope to have a review on Wednesday. May God bless you all. Amen.
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