By Dr. Jacquelyn Simmons
Scripture: When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:13-19).
The subject of the first sermon was The Box . The text was Isaiah 40:28-31. Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
My Friends, please pray with me that our triune God, One, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit will bring me instant and accurate recall of His message He gave me, one of His female children to share with His children on that BLESSED night. The subject of the first sermon is The box .
My neighbors, who live on the street behind me, own a lovely, tall tree, which sheds its leaves at the end of each summer. However, their leaves seem to like the yard God permits me to call my own rather than in their yard. As usual, I always employ someone to rid me of them in order for the yard to have a nice appearance like other yards in our neighborhoods and theirs, of course (smile). The man performed a very neat job and afterwards stuffed them in bags, which he placed atop the ditch bank next to the street.
I felt that the people employed by the city would soon remove them from where the man placed them. But, alas! No!!
In those days, the people employed to remove them did not appear to be as well organized as they are today. I waited and waited for them to be remove but to no avail. My patience became much shorter after someone added a box, which seemed to contain various discarded items, which they no longer wanted in their possession. My nerves really became inflated because someone had decided to add a discarded part of a car to the already annoying pile of junk on top the ditch bank.
Eventually, I became soooo annoyed until I decided that I was going out there and remove that junk in order that the land appearance next to the ditch would look nice, Thanksgiving was soon appearing and members of our family who lived in other cities usually gathered here in Monroe at My sisters home , which was located in another part of the city. But, they always stopped and visited me, also.
However, in other words, I wanted the box, the piece off the car and other added Stuff, gone!!! Even before I reached home after work, I found myself peering from afar to see its whereabouts. But no, it was still in its annoying location. I became soooo obsessed with its removal I would got up during the night from a warm, peaceful rest and peer out of the window to see whether some miraculous event had taken place and it was gone. Well! It continued to remain in the same place day after day and night after night.
I finally became soooo annoyed at its presence until I decided to go outside and remove it myself. I did not consider where? How? I just wanted it GONE. Then, God said, during one of my exasperated moments, Tena (one of my nicknames), I WILL REMOVE THE BOX! Well, when we get orders from headquarters , there is nothing else to do but sit down and wait! Oh! What a long and impatient wait.
