Sunday Mornin' Hope : Twas blind but now I see

I just came back from a great motorcycle rally in Branson. What a great place for a motorcycle rally!! The winding roads, great food, hotels, all at a good price. Best of all, Jesus is there. The city has made a strong effort to keep the place family oriented and it shows. Road Riders for Jesus made Branson this years national rally site. Riders came in from New Hampshire and Australia and every where in between. Carl and Sally Crackel are the founders and leaders in this awesome ministry. I met them about 4 years ago and they are the real deal.



A few years ago my wife and I rode to one of the national rallies near St Louis and had a super time. Someone brought an extra guitar and I got to play with the worship team in the evening services. We had a blast. This week the staff again brought an extra guitar for me to play. It was an old Fender Mustang with great tone. I never did figure out the switches on it. It's quite the challenge to strap a guitar onto my bike. I was going to try but glad I didn't. They don't do so well in the rain. The worship leader/pastor led worship Thursday night and did a great job and several of us backed him on bass, lead, acoustic and violin (fiddle if y'all is in Branson). It was a Holy Ghost Hoe Down. Afterwards, the leader asked me to lead worship for the next morning because he was planning to speak for that service.



The bass player loaned me a book of gospel songs to choose from. It would be easy to just put some songs together and 'do' a song service. I really wanted to know what the Holy Spirit wanted for that service. The next morning I got up early and headed into the auditorium still clueless as to what to sing. Someone had been having shoulder pain and I felt it in my shoulder. The Holy Spirit does that to me sometimes. So we gathered around and prayed and God touched her. The guy running sound was having problems with his knee. So he got up to get in on some prayer time. As he was walking, the Holy Spirit touched and healed him. I felt strongly in my spirit that the Lord Jesus Christ wanted to heal some people in the worship service. Sometimes people are healed physically, spiritually, or in their soul. Sometimes people are going through a mental battle and need healing there.



With a large group of people from all walks of life, I decided to pick a familiar song Amazing Grace to start out. Then for the healing part of the service I picked a contemporary song Healing Word. For the last song we would sing Splendor of the King with How Great Thou Art tagged on it. As the people start coming in and the musicians are tuning up I'm thinking "Ok God when do you want this healing time to start (so I don't miss it and look really stupid)?" When you walk into the atmosphere of God, it's so wonderful that you kinda lose track of where you're going musically. Halfway through Amazing Grace that phrase jumped out at me 'twas blind but now I see'. It was like the Holy Spirit said "Sing that line again. And sing that line again." I asked the chapter presidents and leadership to step out into the aisles to be prayer leaders while we sang. Then we invited the people needing prayer for healing to come and receive from God thru these leaders. Heaven came down and glory filled the room. All these leather clad bikers were praying for each other and God was smiling. It was wonderful.



About two hours later after service I was getting on my bike to get lunch. An older chapter president walked up to me. "I had to lay my bike down yesterday to avoid an accident. All night long I fought with the devil about this. Today you asked the presidents to pray for others and God healed me. That thing broke." I rode away thinking "Jesus, You're so cool!"



It's God's desire to use you when you are and aren't ready. Sometimes He prefers the latter, so you won't get in the way. The Lord had giant plans for your life and wants you to take the time to listen to His still small voice. When He says "Here, and Now." stop and be ready to pray for people and listen to them there and then. He chooses imperfect people to share His joy with. Have a fantastic week and get some riding in before the snow flies. I'm praying for you.




Who am I that You are mindful of me
That You hear me when I call
Is it true that You are thinking of me
How You love me it's amazing

(Chorus)
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
He calls me friend

God Almighty, Lord of Glory
You have called me friend

(Repeat Chorus)

He calls me friend
He calls me friend...
-Israel Houton

Thanks Dino.

sounds like you had a great time dino , thanks