I woke up Sunday morning in a good mood and ready for worship, and then I checked my e-mail. Hot off the press was fresh hate mail from some woman who had been sending me nasty e-mails for several days whereby she’d been accusing me of not responding to her relative who purportedly read my book and then sent two post cards to me from jail.
She chewed me out for being arrogant and railed about what a terrible Christian I am. I responded that I did not receive any post cards and her judgmental attitude based on her assumption that I did not reply to her relative because I was arrogant or whatever was exactly the kind of Pharisaical attitude that turned folks off to religion including me.
She responded with an even more virulent e-mail and called herself a Christian leader. I told her that if she represented Christianity I didn’t want to be one. She wrote me again and again and finally Sunday morning prior to going to church, (with great satisfaction), I personally unsubscribed her from Words for the Day and blocked further communication via the “block sender” option in junk e-mail for Outlook.
So I went to the Honey Lake Church and Worldwide Ministries worship service that morning and in spite of being ruffled about this nut’s attack on me, I managed to have a wonderful time. I enjoyed the tremendous music program of Terry Warren and then was fascinated as I listened to the oftentimes hilariously funny – yet soul piercing message of my good friend T.K. Wetherell. The congregation seemed to enjoy it very much, and once again God blessed the service mightily with people making first time decisions to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Then I relished some good chow at the Honey Lake Sunday brunch and spent the rest of the day with friends at their home. I arrived back at my abode last night and checked my e-mail and the first one I read was addressed to the resort: “I heard Mr. Bob Williamson’s great testimony at the Faith and Freedom Coalition prayer breakfast last week. Today I was sharing about hearing him and a person said that Mr. Williamson owns a profitable club in your county that serves patrons involved with alcohol and drugs. Do you have any idea what could give rise to such a rumor? Thank you.”
Arghhhh!
I responded “I don’t own any ‘profitable club’ in my county. I do, along with my son, own Honey Lake Plantation Resort and Spa, www.HoneylakePlantation.com, and we do serve alcohol at the resort for weddings/retreats/getaways and in our restaurant as do most resorts in Florida. As for motivations as to why someone would say something like that about me, I would think that your friend is either mistaken or a liar . . . ”
I was stewing about that and then got a call from the senior pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa. They video-taped my testimony at Idlewild on Friday and then used it in their worship service yesterday as a supplement to the series he is preaching on “Comebacks”. He called to thank me for taking the time to do it and to inform me that his huge congregation was really moved by it. He told me it was a “God thing” for me to come down there when I did, and he was appreciative.
Oddly the reason I was in Tampa was that my planned turkey hunt with the pastor of another mega church, Orlando First Baptist Church, got cancelled due to rain. I was disappointed that I couldn’t see my pastor friend and go on the hunt that we’d planned, but it freed up a valuable day for me to travel to Tampa to view the Idlewild Baptist Church’s 146 acre campus, (something I’ve wanted to do for some time).
Yesterday it rained “cats and dogs” most of the day. The downpour began precisely at the time folks started arriving at our church at Honey Lake. Our volunteers were undeterred as they donned ponchos and umbrellas and directed traffic and assisted folks with parking and getting into the church in the pouring down rain, thunder, and lightening.
I’m sure some folks remained home because of the foul weather or other reasons and thereby missed out on what many were calling the “best ever” service we’ve conducted at Honey Lake. Those of us who attended in spite of the rain and/or annoyances received our blessing. The same held true with my missed turkey hunt and subsequently traveling to Tampa.
Blessing came out of annoyance.
Don’t let pain-in-the butt people, bad news, or nasty weather adversely affect your life and cause you to miss your blessing. You need those blessings to combat the evil in this world. Satan launches attacks on me daily. I feel like little red laser dots are covering my body from head to toe to serve as targets for which his minions to aim their fiery darts. I try my utmost not to allow those clowns to rain on my parade and I try to remind myself that if I’m under constant attack, I must be doing something right.
Why are so many people angry, bitter, frustrated, lonely, hopeless, filled with hate, judgmental condemnation, and disappointment?
Satanic attack aside, I believe that far too many folks seem to think that we are entitled to a trouble free existence and when they realize that life can be a real bitch sometimes – well then they get frustrated! Make no mistake, the Bible makes it exceedingly clear and promises that we will have trouble in this life because sin entered into it. We are told early on that because of sin “our days will be short and full of trouble and we will work by the sweat of our brow in the thorns and the thistles all of our lives”.
The only way to garner our blessing of peace in the midst of such fiery tribulation is to turn to God and focus on him rather than those troubles that are sure to come. But hey, relax – There are sweet blessings ahead for those of us who endure in this stinky world, and when we enter into paradise we will hit the jackpot and enjoy an eternity of trouble free existence . . .
Yes Lord – Come quickly . . .
Selah . . .
John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”