A Letter and Getting to the Point
A LETTER FROM POTTSY
How are things in Daytona well I hope. I just wanted you to know that the Lord loves you. Sometimes we don’t think about that enough but it is the only hope we have. If it wasn’t for Gods love we would be barren and desolate like a parched land. But the love of God has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ that while we were yet sinners he died for us. That is love! For no greater love has a man than this, that a man would lay down his life for his friends. So not only does God love us he likes us. he called himself our friend and we prove to be his friend by keeping his commandment.
A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. If you wanted to sum the gospel up in one word that word would have to be love. Gods love for us and our responsive love for God and one another. Can we fathom the love of our Father, do we return the same to him. Are we responding in that same love to our brothers and sisters? These are the questions that i think we need to ask ourselves.
Does my spirit cry out every time I pray with groans and moaning that is to deep for the flesh to comprehend. Do I weep at the reading of his holy living and breathing word. If i don’t I should. If I don’t i repent! My time is here and now and if God is willing I will have tomorrow. I love God now and want His presence in my life at every moment. What a joy it is to fellowship with the living God.
My prayer is that i will do nothing to break fellowship with him. For in all these thing we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angles, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord
Praise God I’m ready to jump a pew! Let’s get excited for Jesus, so excited that we ascend to higher levels of love. And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works
your servant in Christ
Pottsy
GETTING TO THE POINT
By Steve Potts March 19, 2000
This issue was along time in coming the text may contain things that a lot of you will possibly not agree with or want to hear. Of course, I write with all of you in mind, so take heart and read it in the spirit in which it was intended.
To begin with there are a lot of things that have happened in my life as with all of you, the experiences gained the battles won and lost. I could write this entire article on those points and let all of you in on what makes Pottsy, Pottsy. That is not my intent nor will I bore you with endless accounts of my life time accomplishments. The real purpose of this compilation is to let you know what is now happening and what has transpired since September 1,1999.
September 1st. that is a date to me that I will never forget. It was the first full day that I spent in Halifax Hospital, Daytona Beach, Florida. As things turned out it would be one of many days spent in a hospital bed, eating hospital food. The stay started out with me having phenomena and ending up 12 days later with the doctors telling me that I had a very rare disease called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. With the prognosis of my life span being only 2 years or less. This caused my wife Laura and I some concern as you would suppose and was not the happiest time that I can remember in my life. So now after many consultations with doctors and endless testing, prodding and blood letting as of March 14, 2000 I am listed on the national transplant list for a lung transplant , the only alternative known to modern medicine.
Getting to this point has been not easy task and at times has been extremely frustrating. Such was the case with my insurance company who would not allow me to be transplanted in Gainesville Florida which is only 2 hours away from my home. Saying that I was extremely upset at this prospect, along with my entire family, would be an understatement of the facts. It was however the best move for me although I did not realize this until I was listed. The facts being there is a much shorter waiting list at Jewish Hospital in Louisville than at Shands Hospital in Gainesville Florida. I am now located in Louisville Kentucky and await a donor lung for my operation. The list is so much shorter that it is possible that i may be transplanted and back home in Florida before I would have even got the call from Shands.
There are a lot of things that went through my mind when I found out that , according to medical science, I had a mere 2 years to live. With a transplant the odds are better but after 5 years they drop to a 50% survival rate. The longest living lung transplant was a little over 10 years and I am believing that I will be the one to break that record and live on much longer.
With all this said i want to come to the real point of this article. That point being, ” GOD IS IN CONTROL”. Looking back on all of the circumstances I can clearly see His mighty hand guiding me through this life. Though some things brought disappointment in the end they worked out for my edification and betterment. I don’t know all of you as well as i want to, some I know better than I should, but at times, when God’s attributes are mentioned, some people tend to get nervous and upset. This is bound to happen as long as people are people and if I offend some of you with what is said then please feel free to take it up with God himself. I am being careful to only write what He has put on my heart for those that I care for. You may say to yourself “Pottsy has gotten religious on us” but I have not. I have come back to personal fellowship with the Lord through Jesus the Christ.
Yes I have been a Christian for many years even though some of you have never seen that side of me. I am deeply sorry for that and ask you for your forgiveness for not being what God wanted me to be. In the Bible, it is quoted as saying,” I know your works ; you are neither cold nor hot. would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, i will spew you out of my mouth”. Sitting on the fence makes God sick, so much so that the word “spew ” ,in this context ,actually means to, ” throw up” . This is experience that we have all had when the flu bug bites us. A little later on in that same passage of scripture the Lord counsels, “Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent”. I repent, and may God have mercy upon me according to His steadfast love. I have found that it is only when I do what is right and serve God that I find real fulfillment and hope and I hope that it is the same with you. You may say, what does he mean serve God, believe in the Lord and Repent I will answer those concerns.
1 SERVE GOD.
The words serve and disciple have pretty much the same meaning according to my way of thinking. So just what exactly is a disciple and how does he serve God? The best example that I can think of to explain service to God is Jesus. His life exemplified what it means to serve, for he came to us as Lord but gave us the example of a life of service to mankind whom he loved so deeply and completely. He said, ” I have come to seek and to save that which was lost” and “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me. In the gospel of john He shows us yet another example of service when he washed the disciples feet after the Last Supper. (john 13:3-21) By His example we see that we are to serve and love one another as Jesus said,” if I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given an example, that you also should do as i have done to you. this example of the washing of the feet was given to show us that we are to serve one another not out of compulsion but out of a soft and feeling heart. The way of the gospel of Christ is the way of love anything else is worthless without it. Jesus said, ” A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as i have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”. All that Jesus did, taught or spoke came from love and all that we do teach or speak should come from love also. He is our example, our Teacher, our Lord and as that we should follow His example. A true disciple serves out of love.
2 BELIEVE IN THE LORD
Believing in the Lord is not a matter of head knowledge but a matter of the heart. (Romans 10:8-10) But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart ( that is the word of faith which we preach) ; because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with the heart and so is justified, and confesses with his lips and so is saved. Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven and is seated at God the Fathers right hand. He is there because he gave his life for the atonement of our sins. He did this once and for all that we may have forgiveness of our sins and the redemption of our bodies that at the Day of the Lord, He will come and take us to be with Him and there we will always stay in the presence of God. So you see it is not enough to say, “I believe”. For men believe many things even the demons believe in Christ and shudder. No to believe in Jesus the Christ is more than head knowledge it is a belief that springs from the heart that says, “yes He is the Son of God, yes He is Lord, yes he did die for my sins and yes God raised him from the dead”. That is the belief that God requires, it is a belief that relies upon faith and nothing else will do.
3 REPENT
Repentance therefore is the starting point for every child of God, we must repent in our hearts. (acts 2:37-40) Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them,” Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him”. And he testified with many other words and exhorted them saying,” save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So as you can see the requirement for salvation is repentance with baptism to follow. You may say to yourself, “I am not that bad, God understands me i don’t need that repentance stuff that’s for the real sinners. Again in the bible is says (Romans 3:23) “since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god” and (Matthew 9:12-13) Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. go learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous , but the sinners.” Jesus laid down his life, took the weight of the cross and was crucified at Golgotha to bring many sons to God. How are we to escape the wrath of God if we neglect such a great salvation? (1st john 1:8-10) “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” Therefore, Repent. It is that simple and God requires it for everyone. We are all sinners, we have all fallen short of the glory of God and we all need to repent, those who call themselves Christian as well as those who don’t. For if we sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth there remains for us the fearful prospect of judgement. So you see that repentance is not just for the sinner but also for the saint because sin separates us from God. ” IF ” we confess our sins he will forgive us, so confess and receive the mercy of God.
Now you know what is on my heart and I hope that you all will do what God has called you to do. I also want you to know that I am praying for each and every one of you. My prayer is that God will reveal the greatness of His mercy to you through Jesus Christ his Son. Also that you would accept the free gift of life that is through faith in Jesus. Grace and Peace be to all who call on the name which above every name, Jesus Christ.
God bless you, Pottsy
Check out my web page http://www.personalpowerline.com/?papottsy
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