Jack’s Winning Words 7/27/20 “God sometimes does His work with a gentle drizzle, not storms.”  (John Newton)  The hymn Amazing Grace was written because slave-trader Newton believed that God had rescued him from a storm at sea.  Others, too, have had miraculous conversions.  But for most of us, God has come in a gentle drizzle.  Maybe it was the chance of being in a home where faith was passed on from parent to child.  It was that way for me.  Storm or drizzle, God’s work never ceases.  ;-)  Jack FROM AFIE:  i loathe that song... and now we get to cancel it bc a racist wrote it. good news! ===JACK:  I sense a misunderstanding.  We need to talk. FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  ok... i seriously do loathe that song, too.===JACK:  The lyrics, the melody, or both?  I can say "ok" to that, but the story of John Newton is something to become familiar with.  I particularly like the line..."that saved a wretch like me,"  Wretchedness seems to be an onamatopoeia word. t FROM NORM'S BLOG:    We sometimes only think of God, or call on Him, when life gets stormy. Hopefully, for most of us life isn’t all that rough and God comes into our lives in the more gentle settings of loving and faithful homes or in our Sunday School classes and church services. But, for some, life may seem to be a constant battle with storms all around buffeting and tossing them. Perhaps it is the demands of their jobs or the obligations that they have at home. Maybe it something like the Corona Virus Pandemic upending everything else that they had to hold onto in life. Whatever it is they can begin to feel like warriors engaged in constant battle. Many of our front line health care workers probably feel that way each day as they head into work.  For those who feel embattled, seeking God’s help allows them to take up the mantle of the warrior and face the storm anew each day. For those people another quote from Jack’s blog has stuck for some time in the back of my mind –  “Fate whispers to the warrior ‘you cannot withstand the storm’ ... the warrior whispers back ‘I am the storm.’" (Author Unknown)===JACK: I can only imagine what it must have been like on the Titanic.  I think that the ship's orchestra played, Nearer My God to Thee,"  FROM BLAZING OAKS:   My MYF Youth group with Pastor and Mrs. Honeywell was Influential in my life, with retreats and camp, etc. I prayed very rd in H.S. and College about big decisions i was making; I believe it helped me to choose wisely! Of course my mom saw that we always got to church, and choir, etc.!===JACK: I think that, for most of us, God comes in a drizzle...He's always there, but we hardly are aware of it. FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  How true,===JACK:  Are the Tampa rains like a drizzle, or do they come as a deluge?  FROM BB IN CHGO:  Once again, your words warm my heart.  Maybe it was a heavy drizzle on the homefront😊?===JACK:  Storms do get our attention...like when the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee when a storm came.  It seemed as tho Jesus was asleep.  "Master, we are perishing.  Don't you care?  Wake up!"  Jesus heard their crying and said, "Peace, be still."  Was that said to stop the storm, or to stop their cries of fear?