083 Tuesday, March 24, 2009

083 Joshua 19 – 21; Mark 4

Safe haven are powerful words, especially if you are being chased. Fair trail are also dynamic words that can warm a person's heart, especially if they are not guilty. I took a class on the O.T. and I still remember reading about the asylum cities and thinking how cool that concept is. I think some of my thinking it was cool had to do with old westerns I had seen on T.V. Someone would accidentally kill a person and they knew the family would come to hang them and so they would seek out a safe haven.

There is another way to apply this concept in our time. A pastor I knew had been wounded deeply by a church he was pastoring in the Northwest. It was in this time of pain that he had a vision of starting a ministry called Safe Haven for ministers, missionaries, and lay people who had been wounded while in ministry. Even though Charles Shepson has passed away you can still visit a thriving ministry in the hills of Tennessee. Where do you go to feel safe? Where do you go when the fingers are pointing at you? First run to Christ and let this Jesus protect you. He is your chief Shepherd.

What do you do with a crazy man? Jesus delivered him from the demons that lived inside of him. Then this man became a force for the kingdom of God. Changing lives was what Jesus was about on this earth. Christ is still about transforming lives on this earth that is full of gravity and sin. ‘Come unto me all who are broken and weighed down’ is the message of Christ.