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So, What Happened on YOUR Way Home from Church?

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death... Psalm 23.4

Our service yesterday afternoon was a bit down in attendance. Pastor Sidney from New Life Baptist Church brought the message to our small group of believers. It was his first at Faith. Yesterday, March 21, 2010 completed exactly one year of ministry at Faith. Dawn and I have been apart of the work for seven of those twelve months.

After our service we were to transport several of our kids to Hope Baptist where they would be a part of a presentation that Alexandre, our coworker, would give. "10 Months for Faith" is our campaign to raise funds to purchase a lot for our church building.

There was about an hour to kill before we made our way to Hope so we decided to take the kids from Faith to our house. Sounds like a cut from Pilgrim's Progress doesn't it? But here is were we leave Pilgrim and discover Mr. Attempted Murder.

As I rounded the corner to enter our neighborhood there before my eyes was something that I had never witnessed (except on TV) in my 56 years. At first I wasn't sure what was going on. Coasting past at about 40MPH tends to blur things but to me it looked like two men were trying to help a bloodied man up from a recent fall. Their first-aid techniques, however, were perplexing. The fallen man was being "helped up" with what appeared to be a belt that was wrapped tightly around his neck!

In that instant, which seemed like an hour, several things went through my head.
1. Call for help! Of course as usual my cell phone was at home.
2. Ignore the grotesque scene and it'll go away! It would have but at what cost?
3. "Let's help the guy!" This wasn't my thought but was what one of our teens screamed from the back of the van.

As I made a quick U turn I probed my brain for a good answer to what I was about to do. There wasn't one, but we were going back. It was the right thing to do, it's just that I had never been presented with such a drastic situation before. However, it all happed so quickly that I didn't have time to be too scared.

Will death be this way? Will it come so quickly that there won't be time to be scared? Or will it come in lingering swaths of time that seemingly will never end? Will it be a slow-motion process or a sudden slap? Whatever the case I am finally understanding that it will be a "I will fear no evil" situation. God will be with me and that is enough. God's presence makes death doable! Without God death is terrifying. It is a finality of choice that is inescapable. There will be no second chance if we ignore Christ's salvation while we have that option. So my friend think about your life right now! Where are you headed? Is it to an endless fellowship with the Great Shepherd of your Faith or is it to an eternity of torment? At present the choice is yours. It won't be that way forever.

But, wait a minute! What happened to the bloodied guy? I'll share more of the story tomorrow!

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