December 10, 2006, is marked down in my journal as a day that changed my life.

As I was leaving a church service in Scottsboro, AL and heading to another in Fayette, AL, someone hit my vehicle. The impact sent my vehicle spinning out of control. After rolling the vehicle multiple times, I landed on my side. When the emergency responders arrived, they had to cut me out of the vehicle, because of the angle at which it had landed. By this time, my wife, Paula, and daughter, Deliska, had driven up and realized that mine was the vehicle in the crash. Deliska recalled how amazed she was that at as she watched them pull me from the vehicle, there were no signs of blood. Viewing the severity of the crash sight through natural eyes, the scene should have been much worse. They took me to the hospital and I was released that night. I had no broken bones and no open wounds. The most amazing thing was, I was alive!
Since then, I have had to undergo a battery of tests, as my shoulder and back have suffered some damage. In fact, I am recovering from recent shoulder surgery right now. But, I am here to report to you today that GOD IS GOOD! I am amazed at the mercies of our Lord. He keeps each of us in His hand.

My doctors have put me on many restrictions, disallowing me to drive or ride in a vehicle or plane (except to go to therapy and doctor’s appointments). So, as you can imagine, I am in a VERY strange place. God has put me in a position that is completely unique and awkward to me. Here I am, after years of non stop travel, lying in a bed, recovering and asking God, “Okay, what are you trying to say to me here?” I have been recently preaching a sermon about the first day, where in Genesis 1:5, it says, “So the evening and the morning were the first day.” Through this God has shown me that in life, we expect the day to come first, then an evening, or time of solitude with God, to come later. God established in His word on the very first day of creation, that the darkness would come first, then the light. So, after preaching that on Sunday morning, December 10th, I quickly saw the connection. “Okay, Lord, here I am in the dark. And you put me here on purpose. What do you want to teach me?”

Then I spoke with a dear friend of ours, Lucy Martini, who intercedes for my wife and I and who speaks into out lives on a regular basis. She called me and said, “God is changing your garments from woolen to linen.” Suddenly I realized that it is not only dark, but the season is changing and I have to prepare myself for what lies ahead.

Last Thursday, the night before my shoulder surgery, a fellow minister, David Emge, called me and began to share with me a message God had given him entitled, “Don’t Take a Dumb Ox Back to a Familiar Place”. He shared about King David carrying the Ark of the Covenant back to its rightful place. If you know the story you remember that the ark was being carried on the back of an oxen. And you also know that the oxen stumbled. Much blame has always been placed on the way the ark was brought back. In fact, I have preached it for many years, that King David was trying to use a Philistine method to bring the ark back, rather than the way God had truly intended it to be done. Brother Emge brought out such a profound thought, by pointing out that the reason the oxen stumbled is because when he reached the threshing floor, the oxen realized he was back in familiar territory. He did the only thing that he knew to do; he remembered that place, the old threshing floor and he stumbled. Old methods, the way we have always operated, the comfortable way; these represent the threshing floor. And any time you take an old ox back to a familiar place, he will always stumble.

I was blown away by what God was saying through Brother Emge! I just kept thinking, “God, it is dark, the season is changing and now, you are speaking to me that it is time to quit depending on the way I have always done things!?” As you can imagine, I am still a little dumbfounded. Just as we said in our Christmas letter, God loves us too much to leave us the way we are! He continually and lovingly pushes us forward. He stops momentarily to see if we are willing participants, because He is such a gentleman, and once he sees our willing heart, he pushes on. He loves us that much!

So friends, that is where I am. I am home, recovering, resting, listening to Him and waiting for instruction. This is a very strange new place for me. But, it has stripped me of all of my “want to’s”. It does not matter what I want to do. This time, along with fasting and prayer, has brought me to the place where I am saying to God on a daily basis, “I will do WHATEVER you want me to do. I am Yours.” And I know that is what He wants. He is a jealous God. He created us, so He has the right to be.