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the story. What does it want to find? A man named Harold? Good enough. Was passed small church in the real, He heard a 30 year old woman during his ministry there And one Sunday

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morning he baptized her into the christian faith and into the Methodist church. She was pregnant with her 2nd child, her only daughter. That woman's name was bobby johnson jones. I just called her mother.

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Mhm. Some 18 years later, Bobby Jones delivered her daughter again This time to a women's dormitory on 27th Street, just north of the ut camps, where I found my room on the east wing overlooking

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the state library at the Presbyterian Seminary 10 years later by graduated from that seminary and 40 years later are processed in the opening convocation with the other resident faculty . Did spirit imagine us together as freshmen, bobby

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K looked out her window. I don't know. I still see through a glass dimly. I don't know how, but I do know this God calls us together in this window in this moment for this

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season and sends us with purpose to the land. We will be shown Listen with me now to these opening verses of the 12th chapter of genesis. God's sending of the faith parents. We call Abraham and

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Sarah. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and I will

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bless you and make your name great. So that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you. I will curse and in you all the families of

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the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went as the Lord had told him and lot went with him . Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haram, Abram took his wife Sarah and his brother's

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son lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Harran and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan . When they had come to the land of Canaan

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. Abram passed through the land to the place at Shek um to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring,

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I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him . From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with

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Bethel on the west and I on the east and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the negative, the word of God

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for the people of God. Will you join me for a moment of silent prayer? And will you please pray for me and that God's spirit will bring a blessing in our time together this morning? Oh

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God! Me! The words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight for you alone, our our rock and Redeemer coming. I wonder if any of you identified with

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Abram and Sarai At home in one place and then compelled to another. Perhaps you sit here this morning looking at your feet gathered under the pew and wondering , how did I get here? Well, let

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me bring a witness. One minute I was minding my own business and settling into retirement and the next I was unloading boxes into a seminary office having answered a call, I only dared imagine 40 years ago

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. I don't know how, but I do know who a friend of mine says. God is sneaky more traditionally expressed, whether we can read the next heading on the compass or not. God sends us

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with purpose. I will bless you so that you will be I wasn't Abram and Sarah, I chose to trust God's call on their lives would bring to blessing through their lives. Can we their offspring trust

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that we are blessed to be a blessing, whether we clearly see the way ahead or not not because God is sneaky exactly, but because we can see behind us the stories that brought us here and you

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know this already. God loves stories. I love the beginning of the vessels, novel gates of the Forest. When the great Rabbi, Israel ba'al Shem tov saw misfortune threatening the jews. It was his

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custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate there he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished . The misfortune averted. Later, his disciples had

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occasion to intercede with heaven. The first went to the forest Master of the Universe. Listen, I do not know how to light the fire, but I can still say the prayer, and this must

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be sufficient. And again, the miracle is accomplished . Still later, another rabbi went to the forest , but he could not like the fire and he did not know the prayer. I know the place

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and this must be sufficient and it was sufficient. Finally, it fell to Rabbi Israel of racine to overcome misfortune, sitting in his armchair, head in hands. He spoke to God. I am unable

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to light the fire and I do not know the prayer. I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story and this must be sufficient. It was sufficient because

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God loves stories. Here's a story Featured on 60 minutes Mohammad, his wife baptism and their son Carson was settled in mary at a Georgia just about the time that governor sought to ban social services from Syrian

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refugees, johnson very baptist church stepped in, rented and furnished an apartment, took family members to doctor's appointments, tutor Children in school work began teaching everyone english sticky notes covering every surface in the home with

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the night. Senior pastor, brian bright, former president of the southern baptist convention found himself at odds with the governor, A man for whom he had voted right said are calling is to follow christ and

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do what christ teaches whether there's an R. Or a. D. Behind your name. That's what we've got to live. And so a construction manager in marietta Georgia witnesses to christ spirit by teaching english

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to Syrian refugees because his church gave him a better story. Holy Spirit story, blessed to be a blessing isn't God always inviting us to live a better story I share about johnson baptist church confessional e to

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illustrate God's invitation to me. You see I'm prone two judgmentalism. Yeah I am not prone to embrace a beautiful blessing story about a southern baptist church own the story Burn a Brown says or the story will

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own you. How did you get here? What is your holy spirit story like those disciples, jesus called? Most of us were one minute minding our own business and the next unloading boxes into seminary life

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. I don't know how but I I do know who who sends us with purpose to the land. We will be shown. Have you ever taken any of those quizzes asking if you could be anything?

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What career would you pursue anybody? I used to always put ballet dancer or philanthropist. Yeah. Ballet dancer. It seems obvious. Grace and beauty and physical expressions. And about as unlikely for me as

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a philanthropist. Growing up in a farmer farming family , I was well aware of the precarious nature of financial stability. I never went hungry but I knew a lot about credit and debt. I wanted to

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be so rich that my job was giving money away . Mm hmm. One day after my frontal lobe developed, I experienced an epiphany of self awareness. Y'all I mm. A philanthropist. My life work

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is to share the abundance of a blessed gift I received through grace and grace alone. I know that I am loved not as a treasure immeasurable. That revelation Was the moment I consciously entered Genesis 12.

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And that holy story became my school blessed to be a blessing. I have not seen the Oak of Moreh on our campus. Many beautiful trees and spaces and places and people, some of whom will midwife

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for you an appearance of the Lord in the days to come build your altar. Genesis reminds us build your altar and move on what God needed specifically from Abram and Sarai is not what God needs from us

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today. But why are we journey is the same and how we journey is not that different like them . We journey on by stages. The poet Rumi wrote as you start to walk out on the way

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the way appears. I have no question that spirit has walked and worked among you as you have lived your lives in your journey on your way, as God's beloved and beloveds our time, like all times

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finds misfortunes threatening the vulnerable and many are needed. Who will act with purpose and cry to heaven even when you find yourself head and hands unsure of your place, unable to light a fire, incapable of

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saying a prayer and all you can do is tell the story, for this will be sufficient. And who knows, perhaps through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. I love to tell

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the store, it will be mother Team to come . The old old story. Right? Oh,