POWER

Most of you receiving this have now weathered (pun intended!) the ice storm
of ’09! Man, hasn’t this been something?! You might guess where I’m
going with the title. Our home is all electric. Yep, that meant it got
awfully chilly around the Jackson household one night. We were very
blessed to have only been without ‘power’ for one night. Some of you
STILL may be waiting to have the lines up & electricity flowing.
Our prayers are with you. We sat around & read to each other by
candlelight & flashlight. My son said it was like ‘bible times’ or something.

Like some of you, I have become a ‘fan of linemen.’ Saw a note on one of your facebooks about the lineman fan site. It said, “if lineman were on the moon there wouldn’t BE a dark side.’ Kudos to all who brave the elements to keep us in power!

The thing is when the storm hit; it gave the church the opportunity to BE the church. We were unable to HAVE church last Wednesday at my home church, but we tried to BE the church. We bought stuff & made soup & chili for emergency workers & those who came by hungry!

The past few days have been full of reaching out & helping others. Many of us have either had limbs, trees or chainsaws in our hands most of the time as we’ve
cleaned up the havoc reeked by the ice. Again, it’s been an opportunity
to show the love of Christ in action. We have a group of folks from South AR staying at our Family Life Center at church going around to area residents helping clean up. We’ve had about 15-20 folks from here going around freely helping
anyone who needs it. Again, BE the church. We have a crew going out
Saturday if you want to join in & be an instrument of change too.
Just call me to hook up.

The storm has really reminded us how reliant we are on the power electricity produces. Things almost ground to a halt when the lights went out. The same can
be said of us spiritually. If we try to make it & muddle through life on our own strength & resources, we’ll simply drain like an old battery & be useless! We must have God’s power & strength to be what we’re created to be. One of God’s servants, Paul, wrote this encouragement in a letter to any early church:
“…We tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in
their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard,
depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.”
Colosians 1:28-29 NLT

If you’re trying to live life‘unplugged’ take a hint from the power
outage….get plugged into the source for life: Christ!

www.myspace.com/davejacksonnewport.
Dave Jackson on facebook ASUN website www.bcmasunewport.org
Dave Jackson-Campus Minister djackson@absc.org
Cell: 870-217-9376 Dave’s Desk - http://bcmasunewport.blogspot.com