His Grace is Sufficient: JESUS and Jack Daniels

"And do not be drunk with wine, in which is *dissipation, but be filled with the SPIRIT." Ephesians 5:13

"But the fruit of the SPIRIT is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:23

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

Be honest, how many of you clicked on this weeks email out of curiosity because Jack Daniels was in the title? I understand, that's why i used it in the title to get your attention:). No i haven't been campaigning too hard, and I haven't gone off the deep end. I have a legitimate story to tell you....about JESUS and Jack Daniels. If you're wondering if i'm talking about Jack Daniels, as in Jack Daniels whiskey i am...and you will have to read on to get the rest of the story.

Yesterday, i went into Lowe's to buy a pair of ear plugs to wear while i'm cutting the grass. While i was inside, i decided to go out to the Lawn and Garden shop and look around for some large clay pots to plant my tomato plants in this year. I saw some that would do, those large orange clay pots for roughly $30.00. I walked on the next aisle and i saw these wooden barrels cut in two and I REALLY liked them. It didn't take me long to see the tag on the side that said they were from Jack Daniel's Whiskey Distillery, but what really makes them authentic is not what the tag on the side says, but it was the smell coming from them. There was no doubt about it, those barrels were from the Jack Daniel's Distillery and they had the smell to prove it! I debated a few minutes about whether or not i should get them and then decided to go for it. I wasn't getting them because they were from Jack Daniels. In fact i wondered if it would cause anyone to stumble if they knew those barrels on my back porch used to hold whiskey in them. I wanted them because of their rustic look, and i decided the LORD didn't mind me having those barrels. They didn't hold whiskey anymore. The kind man at the store loaded them up for me in the back of the Yukon and i teased him and said i hope i didn't get intoxicated on the way home from the smell.

When i got home, i got them out of the car, one at a time, and rolled them on to the back porch where they are going to "age" a little more until i can get some dirt in them and my husband drills holes in the bottom of them so that the water can run out. The kind salesman told me to do that, and he said i needed to keep moisture in them so that the boards on the barrels will expand. Later on in the evening, i took Troy, our Maltipoo for a short walk, and when i returned, as i was walking up the driveway, i could smell the whiskey in those barrells! The smell permeated the air, and there was no doubt where those barrels came from and what they used to hold. Now the barrels are empty, waiting to be filled with some good organic soil, topsoil, natural fertilizer and tomato plants, but that whiskey smell, it's still there, because that's what those barrels used to hold. Until something else fills them up, they will continue to smell like what was inside it.

When i was a little girl, my family went to the Jack Daniel's distillery which is located not too far from where we live in Lynchburg, Tenn. I am not recommending this for your family for a family outing, i'm just telling you what mine did:). I don't remember a whole lot about the tour our family went on, along with other visitors, but i do remember the large vats that held the corn mash that went into making the whiskey. The smell was overpowering of all that corn cooking and i can still remember the way it smelled...yukky! In a large warehouse nearby, they kept the whiskey in the oak barrels for the whiskey to reach the proper age. I think some of it aged for different lengths of time. In that process of the whiskey aging in the barrels, the whiskey soaks into the oak, and the barrel becomes permeated with the whiskey, simply by the process of the whiskey spending time in the barrel. It soaks into the barrel. Back then they gave little whiskey bottles of samples, and some little towelettes with whiskey on them to sample. I don't remember sampling any of it, but i do remember that smell...that same smell of the barrels on my back porch.

You may wonder where i'm going with all of this talk about whiskey and barrels. A sermon last Sunday morning at our Renewal and Revival service by Dr. Mark Foley,the President of the University of Mobile, got me to thinking about all this as i was thinking about what to write the Friday email about. I know it hasn't been long since i wrote, but when the HOLY SPIRIT gives me the unction, i have to write. Last Sunday morning, Dr. Foley spoke to us about bearing fruit for JESUS. He said that bearing fruit was equivalent to being an influence for JESUS. This gave even more meaning to the powerful quote i used last week from Elisabeth Elliot and the Scripture that went along with it:

"God will see to it that we are in circumstances that are best designed by HIS sovereign love to give us opportunity to bear fruit for HIM." Or according to Dr. Foley...to be an influence for HIM.

"I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit (or influence) should remain." John 15:16

The only way we can be an influence for JESUS, and bear the fruits of the SPIRIT, is by spending time with JESUS in HIS WORD and prayer.

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with JESUS." Acts 4:13

He gave an illustration at the end of his sermon about Fajitas...how you can hear them sizzling, you can taste them, and by the time you finish eating them, you smell like them because you had spent time with them, and they were a part of you. He said that's the way it is when we spend time with JESUS, we become like HIM, and we smell like HIM, and act like HIM, and others can tell that we have been with JESUS. We don't spend time with HIM for the sake that others will know we've been with JESUS, but because JESUS loves us so much, and wants to spend time with HIS bride, and because when we spend time with HIM, others are drawn to CHRIST through our witness of HIM, as "the smell of CHRIST," on us, makes others desire HIM.
I hope my description of the whiskey in the barrels doesn't make anyone desire whiskey...that was not the purpose of me using that illustration! The purpose was to give you an example of the whiskey spending time in the barrel and the barrel smells like the whiskey because of the time it spent with the whiskey.

These little flowers remind me of the "grace upon graces" that are ours in CHRIST JESUS.

Dr. Joe Savage, also on staff at the University of Mobile where our daughter is in nursing school, spoke too at our Renewal and Revival Services Sunday night and Monday night. His messages were powerful, as was the singing by Hannah Veazy and the Voices of Mobile. On Monday night he gave an illustration of an empty picture of water being filled with milk, a power drink, and all kinds of things, including pure water. He showed how murky the vessel became and you couldn't see the pure water inside which was the example of the HOLY SPIRIT in us, because of all the sin represented by other things filling the picture other than the water. He shared when we have sin in our lives, the HOLY SPIRIT can't be as much an influence through us, as when we are a clean vessel, and not filled with the things of the world.

I was thinking again about the whiskey in the barrel and the whiskey represents sin... as long as that whiskey is in the barrel, the water, or HOLY SPIRIT will be diluted and others won't be able to see JESUS as powerfully in our lives. Once the barrel is emptied out of whiskey or sin, and only CHRIST can do that for us, then the HOLY SPIRIT can come and fill us and indwell us and be a powerful witness through us as we spend time with JESUS, the LOVER of our souls. When i fill up those barrels with good soil, and natural fertilizers and rain water, and plant my little tomato plants, they will be able to thrive in the fertile soil that the barrel contains and eventually as time goes along, the barrels will loose their smell of the whiskey and the good, fertile soil and tomato plants will permeate the oak barrels instead. The plants inside the barrels will bear much fruit i hope! It may take awhile for those barrels to change their smell and i may have some tomatoes tasting like Jack Daniels this summer... I sure hope not:). But the longer those barrels spend time full of the soil and whatever i plant, they will begin to smell like the influence of the soil instead of what was formally inside.

Gorgeous wildflowers along the creek

As i was thinking about what to write this week, and if i was going to write this week, i heard a song that really spoke to my heart. I'm not sure if i have heard it before or not, but the name of it is "How HE Loves Us," and it was sung by Kim Walker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-lYps .It's not a new song...but it is a powerful song and you can tell that Kim has spent time with JESUS and she is not just singing words that don't have any meaning to her....she has spent time with HIM and she knows that HE loves her and HE loves us.

"How HE Loves Us"

He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane,
I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of
His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.

Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.
(x2)

Yeah, He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves.
(x2)

We are His portion and
He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption
by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns
violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way

He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
OH, how He loves
(x2)

Yeah, He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us
He loves us
He loves us
He loves.

Yeah, He loves us
Whoa, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves us
Whoa, how He loves

He loves us,
Whoa, how He loves us
Whoa, how HE loves us

What about you and me...can people tell that we have spent time with JESUS by the way we "smell"? Are we so permeated and intoxicated with HIS love that others are either drawn to HIM or they are repulsed by us? That's what the Bible says:

"Now thanks be to GOD who always leads us in triumph in CHRIST, and through us diffuses the fragrance of HIS knowledge in every place. For we are to GOD the fragrance of CHRIST among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life." 2 Cor. 2:14-16

Wisteria fills our town with fragrance and beauty!

If we are saturated with the love of our SAVIOR from spending time with HIM, to one person we are going to be the aroma of death leading to death and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. Those aren't my words...they are Paul's words. The twofold effect of the gospel of JESUS CHRIST is to some the message brings eternal life and to others it is a stumbling stone of offense that brings eternal death. So don't expect everyone to like you just because you spend time with JESUS and "smell like HIM." That's not the point, the point is that when we our barrels have been emptied of ourselves, and sin, and the world, then as we spend time with JESUS, we will be filled and empowered by the HOLY SPIRIT, and we will be changed and the "smell of CHRIST" that permeates us, will either draw others to CHRIST through us, or repel them, depending on if they will accept CHRIST leading to eternal life or reject HIM leading to death.

A passage that Dr. Savage used from II Timothy 3:1 reminds me of the smell of the whiskey in those barrels...it is the smell of sin, our self and the world.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of GOD, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!"

So who do you smell like? We can be a CHRISTian and still smell like the whiskey in the barrel. We can have a form of godliness, come to church every Sunday and Wednesday night, be involved in umpteen church activities, yet deny its power. How do we receive this power...first of all by surrending our hearts to JESUS CHRIST, and turning away from our sin. Trusting that HIS death on the Cross was the payment for every sin that you and I would ever commit in the barrel of our lives.

"For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only begotten SON that whosoever believeth in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Then HE comes and cleanses us from all unrighteous, taking all the sin out of the barrel. As we spend time with HIM in HIS WORD each day and prayer, HE fills our barrel with HIMself, and we become permeated with HIS fragrance and with HIS power. We still will sin, because we are still humans struggling against our weak flesh, but CHRIST has empowered us with HIS HOLY SPIRIT to overcome that sin and HE cleanses our barrel as we come to HIM and ask HIM to forgive us.

"If we confess our sins, HE is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:7

Dogwoods are blooming out all over with the fragrance of the resurrection life that is ours in CHRIST JESUS!

I truly hope and pray that i have not offended anyone by using the illustration of Jack Daniels in my Friday email. I certainly thought about that...but i felt like maybe this would help some folks understand more how spending time with the LORD will rub off HIS smell on us, and empower us with HIS HOLY SPIRIT to fulfill HIS will through us and be HIS witnesses wherever HE sends us. It's more than that though, it's a love relationship with the ONE WHO loves us so much, HE laid down HIS life for us on the CROSS, and HE rose from the dead three days later, victorious over sin anddeath, so that we too might be victorious oversin and death and have a personal and intimate relationship with HIM. Our CREATOR yearns for us, He desires us, HE seeks us with HIS pursuing love, just as we are, whether filled with "whiskey" or whatever sin in our barrels. HE wants us to come to HIM, "Just as I am". HE cleans out our barrels and makes us holy... "Oh, How HE Loves Us."

"For you are a holy people, to the LORD our GOD; the LORD your GOD has chosen you to be a people for HIMself, a special treasure above all the people's on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set HIS love on you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you...the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharoah, King of Egypt." Deut. 7:6-8

These were words written to the Israelites, but they are written to us too...the LORD loves you, the LORD loves you, the LORD loves you ..."Oh How HE Love Us So" and HE tells us in Jer. 29:13, "and you will seek ME and find ME when you search for ME with all your heart." He loves us, HE seeks us out and pursues us, but HE also tells us to seek HIM...in a personal relationship, seek HIM setting aside time each day, in the morning, at noon, and the evening, to spend time with JESUS, and HE will be found by us, and as we spend time with HIM, we will become permeated and saturated with HIS love that brings joy to HIM and us, and flows out and influences all that we meet.

Star of Bethlehem blooming along the creek

I thought i was going to tell you about the book, Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers, this week, as it is such a beautiful picture of CHRIST's unconditional pursuing love for us based on the book of Hosea in the Bible. I guess that will wait until another time. I have told you about HIS Redeeming Love, just not the way i had planned to...maybe there is someone who needs to hear about JESUS and Jack Daniel and how HE loves us so. I didn't realize til just now there is a song by that name about CHRISTIANs struggling with drinking and another song with a similar name. I have not meant to treat this subject lightly as i know that drinking has destroyed so many lives, families, and influence for JESUS. I am so thankful for the power that is in CHRIST JESUS to overcome addictions when nothing else will work. I am so thankful for the pursuing love, for the REDEEMING love of JESUS, who died on the CROSS, so that we could overcome these addictions in HIS power and HE can turn our once "whiskey filled barrels" into a godly influence to be used by HIM to bear much fruit...."Oh, How HE Loves us SO!"
My stepgranddaddy who was addicted to drinking for many many years, was saved by JESUS, and GOD gave him victory over the bottle the final seven years of his life. When "Poppy Jack," was saturated with whiskey in his barrel, he went from being a kind man, to being very mean. The "smell" and influence of whiskey in his life was very ugly. When CHRIST saved him, he went from being a barrel addicted to "Jack Daniels," to a barrel being saturated with the fragrance of JESUS. Every time we visited them, the Bible was up on his coffee table and he read it daily. I have seen GOD's power over "Jack Daniels," in my own family and i praise GOD for HIS overcoming power in our lives whatever our addictions or sins

may be.

"Therefore if any one is in CHRIST, he is a new creature, the old things have passed away; behold new things have come!" 2 Cor. 5:17.

The Redbud trees have come back to life!

By the way, that "kind," salesman, i mentioned who helped me at Lowe's with the barrels and told me how to drill holes in the bottom to drain the water, and told me how to mix the soil, and went to the soil department with me to help me pick out the right soul...turns out he is a United Methodist Minister also. When he started to go back inside the store, he said, "You have a blessed day," and i ask him if he was a CHRISTian. He told me yes, and that he is a minister also. I told him i should have known he was a CHRISTian by his kindness and help to me. He went above and beyond in his job, and though he didn't have a "sign" on like a cross around his neck, he "smelled," like a CHRISTian by his influence and fruit that he bore through his job.

Thank you for taking time to read any or all of this email and may the LORD richly use it to draw you to HIM, and let HIM lavish HIS love upon you, filling your barrel and mine, with the HOLY SPIRIT as we spend time with HIM. ..."O, How HE Loves Us!"

With all HIS love,

mitzi

**Dissipation-Loose, irregular, given to extravagance in the expenditure of property; devoted to pleasure and vice. Scattering; dispersing, wasting, consuming ; squandering; vanishing, a dissolute, irregular course of life; a wandering from object to object in pursuit of pleasure; a course of life usually attended with careless and exorbitant expenditures of money, and indulgence in vices, which impair or ruin both health and fortune.

-from Noah Webster's 1848 Dictionary