HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS

Hello Hopeful Ones. How's your HOPE FACTOR?

HOPE: elipis (el-pece')= to anticipate (usually with pleasure), expectation, confidence, confident expectation.

"Now...faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things [we] HOPE FORE, being the proof of things [we] do not NOT SEE and the conviction of their reality--faith PERCEIVING AS REAL FACT...what is NOT REVEALED TO THE SENSES." (Hebrews 11:1 The Amplified Bible)

Sometimes what we assume is HOPE...is really WISHFUL THINKING. The worlds hope is wishing something will happen...but probably won't. It is usually the last straw...the end of the rope...the fading wish. Biblical HOPE is confident expectation that God's word is real. Our hope is not in human beings, situations, circumstances, politics, religion, dreamed up dreams...but in GOD HIMSELF. As soon as something shifts in our expected results...our hope dissolves into fear, doubt and worry. We become like George Baily in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE... when everything falls apart...where dreams of leaving Bedford Falls is constantly deferred...where our wishes and dreams become dashed nightmares on the shores of our "hope"...we are pushed to the brink of suicide.

When we are faced with HOPELESSNESS....we need to have our EYES ENLIGHTENED...to the HOPE that will get us through in the face of the impossibility of our abilities to accomplish anything. Sometimes that means our dreams of visions dying to how we have envisioned them being accomplished.

God has been called the God of 11:59...who comes in just before 12:00 strikes the clock...BUT sometimes...there are a few more clicks on the clock after 12:00 before God comes into play...and if we have abandoned hope because we have put God on our timetable...then we give up.

Abraham...had a PROMISE from God...BUT the promise was way beyond Abraham bringing it to pass. As I have said many times in the Ruminator Sunday School Class (that meets at 9:00 A.M. Central Standard Time at Smyrna Assembly in Smyrna Tennessee)...Abraham had dried up and Sarah's womb was a tomb. All Abraham could do...was look down at what he thought could bring about a child...and only see the place of circumcision...a symbol/sign of THE COVENANT PROMISE. All he had left was the PROMISE. It was way past 11:59...into the wee hours after 12:00. ONLY GOD COULD MOVE ON HIS BEHALF NOW.

"As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He was appointed our father---in the sight of God in Whom he believed...who GIVES LIFE TO THE DEAD...and SPEAKS OF NON-EXISTENT THINGS that [He has foretold and promised]...AS IF THEY [ALREADY] EXISTED. [For Abraham, human reason for] HOPE BEING GONE...HOPED ON IN FAITH...that he should become the father of many nations, as HE HAD BEEN PROMISED, so [numberless shall your descendants be (Genesis 15:5). He DID NOT WEAKEN IN FAITH when he CONSIDERED the [UTTER] IMPOTENCE of his own body, which was AS GOOD AS DEAD because he was about a hundred years old, or [when he CONSIDERED] the BARRENNESS OF SARAH'S (DEADENED) WOMB. (Genesis 17;17; 18:11). No UNBELIEF or DISTRUST made him WAVER or DOUBTINGLY QUESTION concerning the PROMISE OF GOD...but HE GREW STRONG and was EMPOWERED BY FAITH....AS HE GAVE PRAISE AND GLORY TO GOD...fully SATISFIED and ASSURED THAT GOD WAS ABLE AND MIGHTY TO KEEP HIS WORD...AND TO DO WHAT HE HAD PROMISED." (Romans 4:17-21 The Amplified Bible)

HOPE was gone...but Abraham...HOPED ON...in FAITH. So many times... we desire to "see a miracle"...but to see a miracle...you need a miracle...where there is no way on earth...that you by your own means can pull off that needed miracle. Usually we see that our HOPE was not in the Lord...but in our own abilities...or our hope was not really hope...but WISHFUL THINKING ON OUR PART. We are walking along on the water...UNTIL WE SEE THE WAVES...and then FEAR sets in. We begin to look at our ability to walk on the water (which is not our ability in the first place)...and then SINK...until Jesus comes along...and reaches out...and lifts us up out of our HOPELESS IMPOSSIBILITIES. (If you see me with my guitar...ask me to sing you WALKING ON THE WATER...a song I use to sing with that rockin' little trio...Hosanna...who could not only sing...but praise the Lord just as much as we want [tip O da hat to Archie Bell and the Drells).

If you are going through a HOPELESS TIME...I would like to join in agreement with the Apostle Paul as he prayed in Ephesians..."I do not cease to give thanks for you...making mention of you in my prayers. {For I always pray] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, that He may grant you a SPIRIT OF WISDOM and REVELATION--OF insight INTO MYSTERIES AND SECRETS--in the [deep and intimate KNOWLEDGE OF HIM. By having the EYES OF YOUR HEART...flooded with light...so that you can KNOW and UNDERSTAND...THE HOPE to which He has called you and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints--His set-apart ones." (Ephesians 1:17-18 The Amplified Bible)

Listen...I don't want to be someone who gives you FALSE HOPE...getting your HOPES UP...only to be dashed again by reality...BUT...I will say that REALITY is...well...REAL. We don't deny what is going on in our world...BUT...Jesus defined what is TRUTH..."sanctify them by truth...Thy Word is TRUTH. (John 17:17) I am convinced...that TRUTH trumps REALITY...if we have a WORD... a PROMISE from God.

"Remember...that you were at that time separated (living apart) from Christ--excluded from all part in Him; utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nations, and strangers with NO SHARE in the sacred compacts of the [Messianic] promise--with no knowledge of or RIGHT in God's agreements, His covenants. And you HAD NO HOPE--NO PROMISE...you were IN THE WORLD WITHOUT GOD. But now...Christ Jesus...you who once were [s0] fare away...through (by, in) THE BLOOD OF CHRIST HAVE BEEN BROUGHT NEAR." (Ephesians 2:12,13)

This is talking about...the inclusions of the Gentiles (you and me)...into what was once for the Jews (to the Jews first...then also to the Greeks/Gentiles Romans 1:16). This is the great MYSTERY that has been revealed. The way that you go from NO HOPE to HOPE...is JESUS THE CHRIST (yoke breaking, burden lifting, oppression removing, healing power of the Holy Ghost).

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY.

The last picture is a picture of a set of SURPRISE LILLYS in our yard. The neat thing about these flowers...one day...they are not there... and then the next day...SURPRISE. Oh they may have been silently growing...but I never noticed them...until one day BAM...full bloomed SURPRISE LILLYS. HOPE...does not go based on what we see or don't see on the surface...but one day...when you least expect them...BAM...what we have been praying for...trusting for...believing for...even in the face of NO HOPE...we HOPE ON.

Love and Hopeful Kisses
Rodney "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise Lillys" Boyd

Bedford Falls versus Pottersville

Many Seasons Greetings....Merry CHRISTmas...Happy HOLYdays my dear friends. Made any good choices lately? In the book of Deuteronomy (5th book of the Old Testament)...we have been given the choice of blessing or curse...life or death. Let me throw in another choice...choose this day....Bedford Fall...or Pottersville. One will be a life of family and peace...the other will be one of nightmare and unrest.

Of course I am referring to the movie IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. There are always some Ramblings about this classic movie during this season. This movie is in the TOP TEN RUMINATOR RECOMMENDED MOVIES.

Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey...who has been trying to escape Bedford Falls for years...but something...someone...some circumstance always seems to circumvent his dreams, his plans, his perceived destiny. His frustration leads him to the point of suicide...when his world as he knows it falls apart.

As a result of multiple, collective prayers...Clarence (Angel 2nd Class with no wings) has been sent to save our hero. Clarence gives George the ability to see what Bedford Falls (the town and the people) would have been like...if he had NEVER BEEN BORN.

Of course the WONDERFUL LIFE...becomes IT'S A MISERABLE LIFE...when George's presence and goodness is taken out of the mix...and Mr. Potter (the bad guy in the movie) is allowed to run rampant with his greed and hate. Pottersville is Bedford Falls GONE BAD.

Pottersville is what this world will be like when the believer is taken out of this world...as if we never had been BORN AGAIN. The world will turn back to IN THE BEGINNING when the world was formless, dark, void...CHAOTIC.

George eventually comes to his senses and realizes that he REALLY DID HAVE A WONDERFUL LIFE...in spite of the stuff that was happening. He prays to to be able to return...return back to his wife, his children, his friends. The events that drove him to the brink of despair...had NOT CHANGED...BUT....his perspective had changed.

GODISNOWHERE You may see GOD IS NO WHERE....or GOD IS NOW HERE...it all depends on your perspective. Well, George had a new perspective.

I love it when the movie opens up ...with people praying...as the camera pulls back and upward...as the prayers begin to swirl heavenward for George Bailey. it is a picture of COLLECTIVE INTERCESSION...for a man who can only breath out...a drunken prayer in Martini's Bar. These prayers...again...sets into motion DELIVERANCE.

As with real life prayers...versus celluloid prayers...there is a time gap between the point of prayer and the point of provision. I like to call this gap...the land of nitty gritty. This is a land where we WALK BY FAITH...not by sight (things revealed to the senses Hebrews 11:1). A land where on the surface...things actually may appear to get worse. It is the type of gap experienced by Daniel when he prayed a prayer...and the angel rolled in 21 days from the point of the original prayer....saying that the prayer was heard on the first day...but the prince of Persia (a spiritual entity)...had been battling to keep the angel from arriving.

Take a look around you. Stop at work...and see the people that you are working with...and the people you live with...and the people you go to church with...and the casual friends...and those you pass by everyday as you drive from work. Imagine what their lives would be like if you were NOT IN THE MIX. Imagine what if would be like if you were not praying, loving, giving words of encouragement...living out your faith in a real practical manner.

Stop and RUMINATE. You ARE IN peoples lives. You are NOT AN ISLAND of ISOLATION.
Sometimes we act as if we were never born....and avoid the very people that need us. Oh we may not consciously do it...but when we ignore or become numb to people, situations, circumstances...and just walk around with automatic pilot on and don't realize that God is using imperfect people to manifest himself in this lost and dying world. I want to wake up to the fact that I AM IN THEIR LIVES...and I CAN HAVE INFLUENCE...and I MAKE A DIFFERENCE in this world. Darrell Worley has a great song called AWFUL BEAUTIFUL LIFE that talks about the mix in life of the good, bad, and ugly...is what makes up our lives....but when you have a different perspective...it may be awful at times...but overall...IT'S A BEAUTIFUL LIFE. This is especially true...when we LOVE GOD...LOVE PEOPLE AND SERVE OTHERS. It really is a WONDERFUL LIFE...that we need to be sharing with others...in JESUS CHRIST...and His yoke destroying, burden lifting, oppression removing, healing power of the Holy Ghost.


Now a break for a commercial.

At Smyrna Assembly (MY CHURCH HOME)....LAMPLIGHTERS THEATER is presenting a play called IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE ( A Live Radio Play by Joe Landry). This is not your typical "church play". This is a church play...on steroid. BAM!!! This is a wonderful opportunity to see a RADIO VERSION of the movie. I love OLD TIME RADIO.

"Set in the Golden Age of Radio...this delightful retelling of the story of a man who believes he has nothing to live for...and an angel who just wants to earn his wings, will enchant and entertain every member of the family. Five actors performs the dozens of characters in the play as well as producing all of the sound effects."

You DON'T want to miss this opportunity. If you are in the are...make a night out of it. Get a date...take out your wife...bring your family...kick off the reason for the season.

WHO: You
WHAT: Lamplighter's Production of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY
WHEN: December 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th...and December 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th
WHERE: Smyrna Assembly 12119 Old Nashville Highway Smyrna, TN 37167
WHY: Why not?
HOW: For ticket information go to http://www.smyrnaassembly.org/ or call (615) 459-3421


THANKS AND A TIP O' DA HAT TO LAMPLIGHTERS THEATER FOR TAKING BACK THE ARTS FOR THE GLORY OF GOD!!!

FINAL THOUGHTS....FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It rains on the just and the unjust...storms/rain/winds blows on houses built on sand and storms/rain/winds blows on houses built on the rock. In Jesus it really is a WONDERFUL LIFE....even in the midst of the storms.

Love and Wonderful Life Kisses
Rodney "I Love Old Time Radio" Boyd

DESIRES, DREAMS, VISIONS

Greetings loved ones. I LOVE this time of year. There is a shift in the atmospheric condition as the seasons change from summer to fall. Leaves change colors, there is a nip in the air, and there are echos of Thanksgiving leading to Christmas. One of the ripples in the echo pool is the classic movie...IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (IAWL).

IAWL...is a 1946 "slice of Americana" by Frank Capra. The movie is based on a short story called THE GREATEST GIFT by Phillip Van Doren Stern. Stern originally mailed out the story/plot to his friends as a Christmas card. The movie stars Jimmy Stewart/George Bailey (fresh out of the military), Donna Reed/Mary Hatch/Bailey (her first starring role),Lionel Barrymore /Mr. Potter(resident curmudgeon on the silver screen), Ward Bond /Bert the cop(future wagon master on Wagon Train), Frank Faylen/Ernie the taxi driver (future father of Dobie Gillis), Henry Travers/Clarence Oddbody (angel 2nd class/no wings), and Thomas Mitchell /Uncle Billy...and a recurring star in all of Frank Capra's pictures....Jimmy the Raven.

The plot of the movie is a despondent man...who had his DESIRES, DREAMS, and VISIONS...put on perpetual hold...so others can realize their DESIRES, DREAMS and VISIONS. He reaches a breaking point...after years of getting stuck in Bedford Falls...and attempts to commit suicide...that is thwarted by PRAYER...and a gift of seeing how his world would be without him being born. He eventually sees that he really does have a WONDERFUL LIFE... that was manifested in his friends and family. NOTE: The next play for LAMPLIGHTER'S THEATER at our church is a RADIO PRESENTATION (like Old Time Radio). I CAN'T WAIT. What does this have to do with ME...and you. Oh...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to but ME in bold leaders and you in small letters.

God does have DESIRES, DREAMS and VISIONS for us...and sometimes it seems as if we have entered the GEORGE BAILEY ZONE. This is a TWILIGHT ZONE experience of spinning our wheels on this spinning ball called planet Earth. God has a solution for the DELIGHT DESTROYERS in our lives.

What do you do when EVILDOERS and WRONGDOERS...seem to be getting out of BEDFORD FALLS...and experiencing your DESIRES, DREAMS, and VISIONS?

The key is found in Psalm 37...and specifically in Psalm 37:5.

"DELIGHT YOURSELF IN THE LORD AND HE WILL GIVE YOU THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART." (Psalm 37:5)

This verse is in the context of EVILDOERS and WRONGDOERS seemingly getting away with murder...and having the things that you DESIRE. The whole chapter has a plethora of ACTION words....that you can DO while you can't SEE God moving.

NOTE: Take time and circle and underline all of the ACTION WORDS...and the CAUSE & EFFECT of your ACTIONS in the face of your DESIRES, DREAMS, and VISIONS not coming in to instant fruition.

Psalm 37:5...has the solution...(1) DELIGHT yourself (2) in the LORD (3) and HE (the Lord) (4) will GIVE you (5) the DESIRES
(6) of your HEART.

1. DELIGHT: aw-nag'= to be soft, pliable, effeminate, luxurious, delicate. Delighting as a verb is NOT jumping up and down, clapping your hands together and saying..."I'm deeeeeeeeeeeelighted." It is a yielding...being pliable (to the Lord) not the circumstance. It is yielding our will to His will...and not be hardened in our hearts towards circumstances, evil/wrong doers, and God.

2. THE LORD: We are not delighting in the circumstance. The circumstance may seem impossible. The circumstance may not seem fair (at the time). The circumstance is in constant flux...and may seem unchangeable. But the Lord is ROCK SOLID. He never changes. Circumstances must conform to the Lord...not the Lord conforming to the circumstance.

3. HE= The Lord will DO something...IF you DELIGHT yourself in HIM. It's called the FAITH CAUSE AND EFFECT.

"Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality--faith PERCEIVING as REAL FACT what is NOT REVEALED TO THE SENSES." (Hebrews 11:1 The Amplified Bible).

4. WILL GIVE YOU: Much like Jabez...when He prayed five specific things in his prayer...GOD GRANTED WHAT HE REQUESTED.

"If you live in Me--abide vitally united to Me--and My words remain in you and continue to live in your HEARTS...ASK whatever you will and it shall be done for you." (John 15:7)

"And this is the confidence---the assurance, the [privilege of] boldness--which we have in Him; [we are sure] that if we ASK ANYTHING (make any request) ACCORDING TO HIS WILL (in agreement with His own plane) He LISTENS and HEARS us. And if (since we [positively] know that He listens to us in WHATEVER WE ASK...we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we HAVE [granted us our present possessions] the REQUESTS we made of Him" (I John 5:14,15 The Amplified Bible)

5. THE DESIRES: mish-aw-law'= a request, desire, petition. Good will (1) give in the sense of planting those desires in your heart
(2) and will bring to pass what he planted in you.

6. OF YOUR HEART: labe=the feelings, the will, the intellect, the CENTER of anything. Deep in the core of your being...in your spirit... in your place of intimacy with Him...in your inner man...is where your DESIRES, DREAMS, and VISIONS are BIRTHED...INCUBATED, AND DELIVERED...way before you actually SEE THEM. You see them first within...where your human spirit is intimate with the Holy Spirit.

"So too the (Holy) Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer no how to offer it worthily as we ought, BUT the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groaning to deep for utterance. And He who searches th HEARTS OF MEN...know what is in the MIND OF THE (HOLY) SPIRIT---what His intent is--because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints ACCORDING TO AND IN HARMONY WITH GOD'S WILL. We are assured and know that [God being a PARTNER in their labor] ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER AND ARE [FITTING INTO A PLAN] for good to those who love God and are called according to {His] DESIGN and PURPOSE." (Romans 8:28 The Amplified Bible)

NOTE: The design and purpose...are linked with the DESIRES, DREAMS and VISIONS that he GIVES/PLANTS in us.

NOTE TO THE NOTE: There are well orchestrated schemes and attacks against us and the seed of the Word planted within our hearts to STOP production of crops in our lives. (See Mark 4; Ephesians 6; Genesis 2-3)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY!!!!!

Timing is everything...and eventually...you will experience what God has in store for you...if you become focused...and don't try to escape from what you feel is your prison..either Bedford Falls or your circumstances.

Love and Bedford Falls Kisses
Rodney "Can't Wait For The Lamplighter's Production" Boyd

WHAT'S YOUR SHAWSHANK?

Hello Fellow Free People.

"It was for FREEDOM that Christ set us FREE; therefore KEEP STANDING FIRM...and do NOT be SUBJECT again to a yoke of SLAVERY." (Galatians 2:5)

As I once again sit at the keyboard...ramblin' on...I am listening to the soundtrack of one of my favorite movies...THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. One of my favorite genre of music is the movie soundtrack. Not music inspired by the music...but the actual music playing under the actor's lines.

The SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is a movie about Andy Dufrane...who was a banker who was framed...and convicted for his wife's murder. He is sentenced to a long term at SHAWSHANK prison. The story revolves around Andy... and his optimistic sense of HOPE (confident expectation) that he would be released. Many of the friends he develops...Red (Morgan Freemon) and Brooks (James Whitmore)...have been in Shawshank a long time...and have become what is known as INSTITUTIONALIZED. They have been in prison so long...it has crushed there hope of ever getting out...and if they do get out...they cannot cope with the outside world...to the point of Brooks carving in a beam in his rooming house...BROOKS WAS HERE...just before hanging himself.

The words on the promotional poster for the movie says it all..."FEAR CAN HOLD YOU A PRISONER...HOPE CAN SET YOU FREE." Andy...with his hope eventually escapes the confines of Shawshank via a sewage pipe in to the refreshing pouring rain. With HOPE set before him...over a period of years...he slowly...methodically...daily tunneled out of prison...taking a rock to the sewage pipe...and crawling to freedom to his dream of paradise on a beach working on making a boat.

Sometimes...in our daily lives...we have a SHAWSHANK experience. We become numbed to our situations...our conditions...even the good ones...not to mention the thinks that bind us...that we become INSTITUTIONALIZED in our MINDSET. Remember what it says in Romans 8:6..."the MIND SET on the flesh is death...but the MIND SET on the Spirit is live and peace."

On a personal level...I have and in the middle of a SHAWSHANK moment. For the past 12 years...I have been employed at HCA at Southern Hills Medical Center. I love the place, the people, the work that I do...but for the last few years...it has been difficult for various reasons. The other day...another company called me up...and asked me if I would like to work for them. I went for an interview...and they asked me what it would take to get me to work for them. I layed out what it would take...and they agreed to everything. NOW... comes the moment of decision. Would I take the step...outside the confines of my comfort zone...even though the comfort zone has been unCOMFORTABLE..
and go outside the WALLS of Southern Hills. I asked the man during my interview if he had ever seen the Shawshank Redemption...and how I was in that type of MIND SET.

Well...yesterday...I accepted the job...turned in my resignation...and will be stepping into the new world on May 12th. As I do this...the old hymn rings true to me...MY HOPE IS BUILT...ON NOTHING LESS...THAN JESUS BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS...I DARE NOT TRUST THE SWEETEST FRAME... BUT WHOLLY LEAN ON JESUS' NAME...ON CHRIST THE SOLID ROCK I STAND...ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND...ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND. It's a new adventure.

It reminds me of a time back in the fall of 1970...when a 19 year old kid...paranoid, fearful, hooked on the things that made me paranoid and fearful...stepped outside of my personal SHAWSHANK...and accepted Jesus Christ (the D.B.R.)...and walked outside of prison into his MARVELOUS LIGHT. At the point of that decision...even in my worst hour...I had some sense of comfort of my old friends...my music... my room (that was painted totally black)...my identity. I said YES to JESUS...and NO...to SHAWSHANK (my old life).

Much like Andy Dufrane...after he crawled through the sewage pipe...and came out the other side FREE...standing in the creek with his arms raised high...and the refreshing waters washing away the external stench of the old life...I...Rodney Lewis Boyd...was SET FREE.

Because Jesus...stretched out His arms...and allowed nails to be driven in his feet and hands...NOW...I can stretch out my arms in praise for the fact that as Jesus was crucified...SO WAS I.

"I HAVE BEEN (it's good to be a has been)...crucified with Christ...and it is NO LONGER I who lives but Christ lives in me...and the life which I NOW LIVE...I live by faith in the Son of God...who loved me and DELIVERED HIMSELF up for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Hey...there's life after SHAWSHANK...LIVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love and Released Kisses
Rodney "God is Faithful" Boyd