Deliverance!

It always amazes me - how quickly the time goes, and it's Saturday night again.

I always find myself trying to get my mind focused on all that will take place tomorrow morning, no matter what's happening on a typical busy Saturday - (today, it was finding an air conditioning repairman who could come and deliver us from - well..., no air conditioning - in June - in Florida.).

So, now that things are cooling-down, I'm trying to get in the zone. It encourages me to know that others are doing the same thing - of course, this includes Byron - and then the pastors, staff, volunteers, and others who are working, praying, and hoping that their friends and family will be touched by God tomorrow.

For Byron and me, and many others- this is our mission, it's what we work and wait for all week. We aren't alone, and that's what I'm going to focus on tonight. I'm also focusing on the ways God has blessed me in my journey: a courageous and loving husband, really cool kids, great family, awesome friends, and a vision that is bigger than all of us. And air conditioning.

As usual, someone else's words say it better than mine. But in this case, they are God's words, so it's all good - this is where I choose to place my focus. I hope it encourages you, too:

Romans 8:18-27 (The Message):

18-21 "That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."

Our Deliverance is coming! Peace!