Fishing, Farming and Crooked Sticks

Hello Church family! Thank you for your prayers and encouragement as Nicole and I went to Georgia for my cousin Clint’s celebration of life service. He was just 43 years old. He leaves behind his bride Lauren and 5 children. Please pray for them as they pick up the pieces of this loss. Clint surrendered to preach the gospel when he was 13 years of age. He left behind a legacy of spiritual fishing and farming. Something that I share with him as his older cousin. We had many talks and phone calls over the years about our responsibilities as spiritual fisherman and spiritual farmers. That becomes our legacy to our children, families, friends and churches we serve. I heard some ladies this morning (in a Bible study) talking about “storing up treasures in heaven.” The things we leave behind are important. We often focus on the material things, but these ladies reminded me of the importance of the spiritual legacy we leave to those we love.

Believe it or not, we don’t come out of the womb with a willingness or readiness to fish or farm for Jesus. We are all born “crooked sticks.” We all come into this world sinners and are bent and twisted as natural sinners (Romans 3:23). First, we must come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we are saved from our sins, God does an internal work in our life of straightening us out. Thank you, Jesus for your saving grace! Where would we be without the saving work of Jesus? We would still be naturally crooked and on the broad road of destruction. BUT GOD, scriptures says, being rich in mercy and great with love, even when were dead in our sins, He made us alive in Christ---that is Amazing grace! That grace is made alive through faith, and makes us a new creation in Christ. In other words, God has the power to straighten any crooked stick! But God is just getting started at the conversion stage of salvation. We are “works in progress” (Philippians 1:6), and God’s sanctifying work in our lives is done primarily through the Word of God, and through the Holy Spirit of God, but also through circumstances, and through other people. I’m grateful for these “shapers” in my life that God continues to use to straighten out my crookedness. All of these are precious gifts from God. The more we straighten out, the more focus we become on leaving a legacy of fishing and farming for Jesus. How is God “straightening you out” today? What is God using to remove your spiritually crooked bent? The Holy Spirit and the Word? Circumstances? People speaking spiritual “truth” into your life? My prayer is that we all set aside our stubbornness and pride and allow God’s truth to be planted into our lives, for His Glory! Let’s gather as many crooked sticks together that we can, this coming Sunday, and witness God’s straightening process!

Thanking God for You! Praying for You!

Pastor Todd