Happy Friday!

Exciting news! My former principal called Geni today for a long term substituting position at Burton Hill! The teacher Geni will replace for a time had her baby and is unable to begin the school year. The position is in early childhood special education. That is what her diplomas say she is qualified to do! There are some administrative hurdles to overcome due to the beginning of school being just around the corner, but they are not insurmountable - just some paper work and general procedural red tape. Please pray for Geni as she begins this journey into the career of education.

Prayer Alert! My Daddy, Jerry Helvey, will be having a heart catheterization and hopefully stints put in place on Monday in Sherman. Bruce and I will go to Howe on Sunday afternoon and stay until at least Tuesday as they are keeping Dad overnight. Please pray for Dad’s healing and a successful, uneventful surgical procedure.

Prayer: “Jesus, pour out Your Spirit of grace on me so that I might understand and appreciate more fully what You did for me on the Cross. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

When I begin writing each evening I pray for God to open my mind to help me understand His Word. Sometimes I have understanding almost immediately and then there are other times I don’t “get it” until some other time when the Word is presented to me in a different way so that I do understand and then apply His Word to my life. So tonight’s scripture is like the latter and much of the writing tonight is presented as a paraphrase of the meditation from which I am studying.

Zechariah 12:10 “I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieves for Him as one grieves for a first born.”

Jerusalem rejected Jesus as the Messiah, but even though at the time of Jesus on the earth and during the time of the crucifixion of Jesus God still loved them. This passage tells us that even though the Jews rejected the Son of God, He will pour out His Spirit on those who rejected Him. The Jews will then know who Christ really is and recognize him as their Messiah. When that day comes the Antichrist will come to defeat Israel and the Lord will come to defend Israel. The Jews did not expect the Messiah to be the boy from down the road. The child from Joseph and Mary; a simple carpenter’s son did not come as they expected. When Israel figures this out they will mourn because of their past failures and their lack of recognition of Jesus as the Messiah, God’s only Son. They will mourn because they killed Jesus and other prophets of Jesus. They will remember the words they shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” And still God promises He will pour out His grace on the nation that proclaimed Him criminal instead of Savior.

How does this fit into our lives? Well, I am not Jewish and I don’t think many of you or any of you are Jewish either. However, we are all sinners. We all have rejected Christ at some point when we have looked back on past failures, have not been obedient or have not practiced the law of love to those we know or have just met.

The Jewish faith has a yearly event called the Day of Atonement. It is the day of forgiveness. I am so glad that Christ and His death on the cross does not make me wait for a day of the year to ask for forgiveness or give forgiveness. We can, because of the grace of God through Jesus, be forgiven and forgive every day. God is good all the time and His grace endures forever! Amen!

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. God’s grace is a gift given to each of us. All we have to do is believe in the only Son of God and give thanks. Love you all and stay cool! Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.