Get Edified

To tell you the truth, I'm not very good with negativity (some people teasingly call me "Pollyana").

And over the years I have sometimes found myself surrounded by negative situations, when morale is bad, people are unhappy, and no one nearby has anything much good to say.

When I've maybe tried to inject something positive into the mix, I've sometimes been shot down!  I hate that. And sometimes it can get discouraging, leaving me feeling quite unedified.

But one day in the midst of such an experience, 1 Corinthians 14:4 popped into my mind (thank God for the Word). It says, One who speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself. 

I knew it was the Holy Ghost speaking to me, and I learned a valuable lesson. Our circumstances can very often be unedifying, but we can always edify ourselves by praying in the spirit! In fact, if we don't do it, we may well have to go without!

Crabs In a Bucket

One thing praying in the spirit does for us is lift us above the negativity going on around us.  We can choose to keep our spirit “on top” when everyone else  may be "down" and want us to join them.

It reminds me of what I've heard about crabs in a bucket.  

I don't know if it's true, but I've heard that if you catch a bunch of crabs and put them in a bucket, you don't have to put a lid on it to keep them in there.  Because when one crab tries to get out, the other crabs will grab it and drag it back down into the bucket.

Life is like that sometimes! The people around us act like crabs! Sometimes it's people you love!  Even believers!

But you don't have to let them bring you down. And you don't have to count on them to edify and lift you up.  The Bible says you can edify yourself...by praying in the spirit.

In fact, sometimes no one else will do it for you. It's nice when others build you up, or something edifying happens, but it's not as dependable as you being able to edify yourself!  

Guaranteed Edification

The only way to guarantee that you stay edified, is to edify yourself...and do it on a regular basis.  

Aren't you glad that we don't have to be dependent on our circumstances or other people to stay edified?  God has given us a way to stay edified all the time!  Now all we have to do is use it...

Europe Trip Update

It was a wonderful trip. I preached 22 times in 9 days! It was the first time I’ve taken a travel companion with me…my friend Trena, from Jenks.

We so enjoyed the people, and in spite of the jam-packed preaching schedule, we still had some time to do sightseeing-type things…saw one of Ludwig’s castles near Trostberg, took a day trip to Salzburg (Sound of Music Tour!), and spent part of a day in Cologne (near Bonn).

Then of course, Paris. For pictures of the whole trip, click here: (This link will lead you to Facebook, but you don't have to be a Facebook member to view them).