By Fred Pruitt
In my last “Update” of this sort, sent out January 31, I spoke of some writing and audio projects I was going to be doing, before John Bunting and I went on a planned trip from Alabama through to Texas, etc. Earlier in the year I had thought to repeat my last year’s late Feb/early March trip to various places in Florida. My original thought was to do that in February or March, back in time to join with John going south and west in early April.
That was the plan. I was really looking forward to working on these several writing projects I have going, thinking I had a good chance to finish at least one, as well as start a long-desired audio commentary on my book, The Axe Laid to the Root. Many people have asked me for some further explanation of the things I covered in the book, and rather than doing that in writing, I thought it would be better to do it in spontaneous sharings from passage to passage, much as we do in our home meetings when we are traveling around. And it was in that understanding that I postponed the trip to Florida.
What I did not know, but the Lord knew of course, was that in the last of February through the first weeks of March, we would have some important family situations to face, including and especially my father’s health problems, finally resulting in his departure from us into the arms of Jesus. It didn’t take long to realize that the Spirit had kept us at home for those reasons, even though going in we did not know why.
So over and above anything, we are always encouraged to see the constant leading and comfort of the Lord, even in and maybe especially in these very personal hard-to-speak-of passages and issues of life, for what is closer to us than sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, children, aunts, uncles, etc.? Even though it may be so that many of us find the bulk of our personal relationships and fellowship to be outside our “nuclear” family, still nothing ever replaces in this life our bonds together with those who are of our human heritage, who go back to the same roots as we, who are with us at our beginning and often still with us at our “end.” We can never really be separated, which is of course another parable of our life in Jesus, for in Him Who promised never to leave us or forsake us, we can never be separated from Him or all those Who are His, Who we will all know as our eternal family in an even greater intimacy tha we know in our earthly families now.
I apologize I am behind on answering some folks who have written me about this or that; I have not properly thanked some who have been real helps to us in the past weeks; so we will be catching up on all those things in the coming days, as well as preparing for a new trip mentioned above.
Thanks again to all of your for your prayers and concern, and other types of help always appreciated. Bless all of you.
I am sensing out of this a new wave of the Spirit, for in every experience, every word, every beautiful flower we are seeing in the outflux of spring right out my very window, God speaks loudly and ever more clearly! As we rode through Georgia north to south and south to north this past few days, we could see the growing victory of spring, and the quiet resignation of winter’s last puffs of cold air. Wisteria was the most obvious sign of the bounty of spring to come. In some places the purple/violet wisteria overgrew everything, so that all we could see was the victory of color after drab of winter, and my excitement grew with every floral display that only seemed to shine, to reflect light, to rejoice in the revealed sun even in overcast skies.
Spring has come. The Spirit has brought new life! What can we do but rise up, out of sorrow, out of death, out of darkness and out of a drab and colorless sight, and see what the Spirit is saying, always and again –
ARISE! SHINE! THY LIGHT IS COME!
AWAKE THOU THAT SLEEPEST, AND CHRIST SHALL GIVE THEE LIGHT!
Thanks to all, and the blessings of the Lord flow and flow over you each like pure water of life!
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