Quote-of-the week: “Divine service conducted here daily.” – sign over a kitchen sink.

Most of us realize — sometimes all too clearly and exhaustedly — that we’re ‘citizens’ of numerous ‘worlds.’

There is first our own inner world of thoughts, knowings, intentions, memories, and feelings where we spend sometimes ‘way too much’ time doing unproductive things such as living in the past, or reliving some hurtful moment — whether the hurt was inflicted upon us by another or self-inflicted — and we keep re-living it.

Or perhaps the hurt was inflicted upon another by us … and we’re still either regretting or savoring the moment.

Then there’s the world of the home where we live, alone, perhaps with a pet, or in the company of a spouse and perhaps assorted children, even grands and great-grands. We get up and go to bed in that world daily, savoring (or ‘enduring’) it, perhaps awaiting the day a newborn enters it or a ‘pain’ leaves it.

It’s the world that probably does the most either to refine us, compelling us to learn give-and-take or patience or forbearance or forgiveness…or ‘driving us crazy’!

Beyond that is the world of the neighborhood, the stores, the beauty and barber shops, the eateries, the car repair shops and dealerships, the doctors’ and dentists’ offices and pharmacies, the schools, and the churches. In this world we do most of our interacting with others in some form of giving and taking, buying and selling, earning and spending, hurting and healing, eating and fellowshipping, learning and teaching, or studying and worshipping.

This latter world lies on both sides of us, across and down the street from us, and for blocks beyond us.

Its availability of goods and services determines whether we can shop and trade and get things repaired here or must call or drive elsewhere. Its size affects the availability and cost of services, or whether we do without them. Its crime reports (and those of Robeson) affect our feelings of security and safety and have much to do with the cost of our car and fire insurance. The ratings earned by its schools have much to do with what our children learn.

It is this Red Springs world which most impacts most of us, whether we enter it every day or encounter it only at our front door through Meals on Wheels or Feeding Jesus. And it is to this world that I summon your thoughts now, then hopefully your five-minute daily investment and ninety-minute involvement on the first Friday of each month.

What on earth am I talking about?

The Jabezites have returned to where we were ‘born’—the back room of the Flavor Restaurant (formerly Gore’s Seafood). Who are we? People of all races and denominations who meet with God individually to pray daily at home for different areas of life in Red Springs, from our Town Hall to our rest homes and the school bus stops where our children get off, sometimes entering houses alone in unsafe areas where no adult is home yet.

Our list has thirty-five categories, five per day. Also we pray for one another, because to specifically target the work of Satan and to upset his agenda and reclaim his turf is to put a bulls-eye on yourself. He knows who we are… and we’ve met him.

To be a Jabezite is also to meet together on the first Friday of each month at five o’clock to enjoy a sip of tea or cup of coffee and discuss issues, needs, and problems in town or in the larger world, directly affecting life here.

We’ve seen highly specific, amazing answers! We’re changing our world… and invite you to join us monthly… and as we “conduct divine service daily.”

Have a good week!