Thoughts ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZONPRTOFF dateof comment Look Inside Data Conditions:Order: Dateof Comment 09/22/2026 You begin to realize how good you have it after reading this story A pastor picked me up at to go to the airport. You said brother Gibbs, I'm all the way across town from the church, and he said, "Would you mind if I made a hospital call?" I said, "No, that'd be great." The hospital was just literally around the block from the airport, and we pulled in, and he said, "You know, there's a lady in our hospital, Brother Gibbs. She's a young mother with 3 kids. Barring a miracle, she's not going to live another day or two. Would you like to come in and pray with her? Come in with me." I replied, "Preacher, let me beg off just a little bit. okay. I'm just a little uneasy going in to see ladies in the hospital I don't know. He said, "I'll go in with you and I'll sit in the waiting room or wherever you want me to do. And I'll pray for you." I replied again, "But let me beg off you." He replied, "I understand but let me tell you her story. She and her husband the very best members of our church we ever had, they never missed a service, serve the Lord passionately. She teaches a Sunday school class and sings in the choir. Her husband is an usher and a Deacon. A year ago they were in church on Sunday like ever Sunday. Monday morning, he got up to go to work. He drives a big semi and delivers building materials to construction sites. And at 7:10 am, he pulled his semi up next to a construction site and got his truck in line with others waiting to unload. They were transferring steel I-beams overhead. Suddenly without warning a cable snapped and a beam that weighed 40 tons started traveling back. It hit right over the top of the cab of the truck. Only it didn't stay horizontal. It came down standing vertical right over his truck. He was sitting in the cab of his truck with a cup of coffee an his Bible open. That beam took his body and drove it through the bottom of the truck and buried his remains 4 feet in the concrete underneath. They were both just in church on Sunday, like ever Sunday and at 7:10 on Monday he's in eternity. Can I remind you? One church service will be your last service and highly likely you will not know when it's going to be. So you wanna make sure you do everything with God you need at every service. We buried her husband and she stood there with those three small kids. The oldest is 7. Tears came down her cheeks, but she rejoiced because he was in heaven. Thirty days after her husband was taken home to the Lord, her parents, who are her only family on either side, were coming across the state of Georgia, coming to see her at night. A drunk on the interstate got on the wrong side of the road with no headlights on and ran into her mom and dad and killed them. We buried her husband, thirty days later it was her mom and dad. After all this happened, she would be singing in the choir and tears would just come down her cheeks. Heaven got real dear to her. After about 6 months, she told me, "You know, pastor sometimes when you're preaching, I'm just having trouble even seeing you from the fire in my head that hurts so bad." I told her Mary, "I think it's all the stress and all the strain, but let's take you to the big clinic and get you all checked out. What they found is this dear lady has cancer of the lining of the brain. They've operated now numerous times there's nothing more they can do. They've told her she has just a few days to live. She has nobody to take these three kids. How about coming in and praying with her." I said, "Whoa! Pastor I know you've been there in her life." I walked in with my Bible in my hand. I began asking, "Oh, God, give me something. I can't even imagine what this lady is going through." When we walked in her room, I was not ready for how sick she was. All her hair was gone, and you could see huge incision marks where they'd operated and tried to help. I noticed one flap of her scalp was still rolled back. Her eyes were black. You couldn't have taken black paint and painted them any darker. They have tubes in her everywhere. She was having difficulty just breathing. There was nothing in the room except one picture on a tray table over her bed. It was a picture of her three kids. When that lady saw her pastor, her face lit up. I mean her eyes brightened. She even smiled through all that pain. His presence brought joy out of her. We could hardly hear her as she was talking. We both bent way over to try to hear her. All the tubes were muffling her voice. She said, "Oh, pastor I'm so glad you're here. I have something I need to tell you." The pastor asked, "What is it Marianne?" She replied, "Pastor, while I don't know who's gonna raise my three kids, God has promised me that he loves my children more than I do. God promised me he can do all things well." She looked at me and she said, "Brother Gibbs, isn't God good?" All I could say is, "Woah! Yeah!" Let me have all my druthers, let everything be going my way. Let me have my wish list just ticked off and I'll tell you how good God is. What happens when life puts a bear hug on you? What happens when you're facing what you cannot imagine. For the next 5 minutes, that lady testified to me about how good God had been to her. Finally, I've still not said a word. This lady said, "Brother Gibbs, (this was her quote.) I'm on real good talking terms with the Lord and I'd like to pray for you. What do you need now?" I said my first words. I said, "Mam, I come up here to pray for you, not for you to pray for me. You know what she said "Thank you, but my needs are met. I'd like to pray for you." For the next few minutes she prayed for me. I walked out of that hospital room, and I turned to the preacher, and I said, "I feel like a fake. I feel like a phony. I feel like a fraud. That lady has something that I don't have." That pastor replied, "Brother Gibbs, it's called virtue. It's an inner integrity, an inner strength, an inner honor." I said, "Whoa!" I had nothing else I could say about what I just experienced. 09/16/2026 You all know that patience is not my forte. When I saw the verse of the day: Psalm 62:5 NLT 5 Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. I thought to myself that the phrase "wait quietly" must be in scriptures a lot. I was wrong. I only found it one other place: Lamentations 3:26 NIV 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. How many of us find it difficult to wait on God's timing and shut up long enough for him to speak to us? I am definitely NOT a expert on this phrase, but it is a trait worth learning. P.S. I think AI read every version of the bible to come up with this conclusion and it came in seconds. 03/13/2026 You always hear about God hardening Pharaoh's heart like that is the only thing God is capable of. Our God is a God who also softens hearts. After Israel upset God so bad, he exiled them into slavery for 70 years. There are some amazing things God did to allow the people to finally come home: Ezra 1:1-7 NLT Cyrus Allows the Exiles to Return 1 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given through Jeremiah. He stirred the heart of Cyrus to put this proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom: 2 “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Any of you who are his people may go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem. And may your God be with you! 4 Wherever this Jewish remnant is found, let their neighbors contribute toward their expenses by giving them silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock, as well as a voluntary offering for the Temple of God in Jerusalem.” 5 Then God stirred the hearts of the priests and Levites and the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. 6 And all their neighbors assisted by giving them articles of silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock. They gave them many valuable gifts in addition to all the voluntary offerings. 7 King Cyrus himself brought out the articles that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his own gods. I never hear about this side of God. He did not stop here. Nehemiah was about to see what God was about to do: Nehemiah 1:3-4 NLT Nehemiah’s Concern for Jerusalem 3 They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.” 4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. God was about to do something for Nehemiah like he did for Ezra: Nehemiah 2:1-6 NLT Nehemiah Goes to Jerusalem 2 Early the following spring, in the month of Nisan, during the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was serving the king his wine. I had never before appeared sad in his presence. 2 So the king asked me, “Why are you looking so sad? You don’t look sick to me. You must be deeply troubled.” Then I was terrified, 3 but I replied, “Long live the king! How can I not be sad? For the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.” 4 The king asked, “Well, how can I help you?” With a prayer to the God of heaven, 5 I replied, “If it please the king, and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried.” 6 The king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked, “How long will you be gone? When will you return?” After I told him how long I would be gone, the king agreed to my request. Here are two occasions where our God softened hearts. What is really interesting about Pharaoh of Egypt, King Cyrus, and King Artaxerxes, is that the method God used on each brought Glory to his name. What we have to realize that God does not just make people stubborn. 03/07/2025 You can tell those who really love the Lord when they begin to think like this: Psalm 139:23-24 (New Living Translation) Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. If you are like me you know this is right but it may be disappointing when we find out how many things we do that offend God. It is necessary to know if we are to correct it and get back on living like Jesus. Jesus - King of kings! 04/02/2024 You and I are very fortunate to not know the entire plan that God has for us. Here is more proof on how much Jesus loved us because he on the other hand knew everything: Matthew 20: 17-19 (New Living Translation) As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” Did Jesus know this from his great understanding of the Old Testament or was it revealed to him by the Father? I am not sure what I would do if I knew what Jesus did about his life was to unfold. Jesus told his disciples how everything was to unfold when he made this last trip to Jerusalem. When Jesus did rise from the dead everyone really did not believe it happened. It was like what Jesus said went in one ear and out the other. The spiritual world is entirely different than what this world says. The world can cloud our judgement of spiritual things. Gods Kingdom is spiritual, and it requires a different kind of thinking to understand the things of God. Other than what is in God's word, the rest has to be explained to our brains by the Holy Spirit himself. He wants to reveal everything to us if we just ask him.