Are you
enjoying your summer? It sure is going
quickly for us. This year’s conference is only 2 ˝ months away! I hope you are as excited about that as we
here at Shine Ministries are. If you haven’t received a registration form in
the mail or via email please go to www.shine4jesus.com
to download one for you and your friends!
SHINE 2006
Speaking of
this year’s conference, are you ready to be encouraged? I had the opportunity to speak on the phone
with our key note speaker, Jennifer Sands not long ago. I was very impressed with her
genuineness. I think you will agree when
you meet her at SHINE Survivor 06
A thought...
We are
spreading our wings! God has answered
our prayers and we are presenting our ministry to a group of 40-50 pastors in
Splinters and Wounds
by Jerry and Marla
Graham
“Ouch!” Kate exclaimed out loud grabbing her
forearm. “How many times have I told you
not to climb that nasty old fence?”
pointed out Kate’s mother who was trying to clean the wound on Kate’s
arm in between having her daughter pull away.
“Would you stay still please?!”
exclaimed Kate’s mom, but Kate didn’t think she could take her mother touching
the sore spot one more time. “Okay mom
that’s enough!” shreaked Kate exclaimed
pulling away for the last time. “I don’t
even have it all the way cleaned. I need
to see it better than that, you need to let me see if there’s anything in
there,” Kate’s mother objected. But
Kate would have none of it. “It’s fine
just leave it alone mom.” Kate’s mother
threw up her hands. “Fine. You’re a big girl, but don’t come crying to
me when it’s all infected.”
After a few days the wound healed up
but the area still remained sore. She
tried to put it out of her mind. After
a week and a half the wound was still very sore. As Kate walked through the kitchen one day
her mom stopped her surprised, “Your arm looks terrible. Does it still hurt?” Kate, reluctant to answer sheepishly
replied, “I was hoping you wouldn’t see
that.” “We need to get the Doctor to
look at that,” her mother said picking
up the phone.
Soon Kate was sitting in the doctor’s office. “That looks horribly painful, Dr. Harrison
stated, What have you been doing to take care of it?” Doctor Harrison was well aware of Kate’s
refusal to have her mom take care of the wound. He turned Kate’s arm over to see it. “It’s terribly infected Kate.” Dr. Harrison moved his face closer to the
wound inspecting it thoroughly. “Kate,
I think something’s in there.” He poked at the wound and Kate let out a
yelp. “There sure is” said her mother
looking over the family doctor’s shoulder.
“We’re going to have to get that out of there.” said Dr. Harrison
turning around to his cabinet. He began
getting out some of the tools needed to take care of the wound. Then Kate saw a surgical knife. “What are you going to do with that!!” she
said almost in a scream. “Well Kate,
I’m going to have to cut that wound back open to get whatever’s in there
out.” Kate was not happy with that at
all. “Can’t you just leave it in
there?” she objected. “Not if you want that to heal without your
arm falling off first we can’t.” Kate
knew the look in Dr. Harrison’s eye was serious.
As Dr. Harrison finished he carried
a tray over to Kate’s mom. “That’s a
pretty big chunk of that old fence that was in Kate’s arm.” He said holding the piece of wood with a
pair of tweezers. Kate’s mother stared
at her and said, “Next time you’ll listen to me won’t you?” Kate only nodded her head in embarrassment.
So many times in life we go through
circumstances receiving wounds from people we love. Too many times we tend to brush off these
wounds as not needing much attention or as being too painful to deal with. Maybe it is the splinters of anger or hurt? Maybe it is frustration, jealousy, or
bitterness? Maybe it is resentment or
some other splinter? When we leave
these splinters in the wound that is created without properly dealing with them
they leave us wounded. Then when we get
“bumped into” by other circumstances or people the pain returns. Over time the “splinters” cause festering and
infection until the pain is so great we begin to lash out because of our
wounds. There are times in our lives
where we need to “go to Dr. Harrison’s.”
We need to, as painful as it is, get that splinter out of the wound so
it can properly heal. Do you have this
kind of wound? Have you had it properly
taken care of? Jesus said in Matthew
5:23-24 and
- Jerry
Truth
is we all have splinters. Maybe they are
new and just need some quiet time and prayer to get them out? Or maybe they have been there for quit some
time and will require a bit more attention before they can heal. Sometimes we don’t even realize we have a
splinter until it gets bumped into by someone or something else. Whatever the case may be those splinters have
to go. God’s word is filled with answers
and healing ointment for these wounds. If you are struggling to find specific verses
or have more questions please email me at graham_cracker490@yahoo.com. Another great source is a book we as a SHINE
team are reading. It is entitled, Captivating, by John and Stasi
Eldredge. Chapter six is particularly
helpful!