God Will Not Give Us More Than We Can Handle

I Corinthians 10:13 tells us that God will not give us more than we can bear. The proper context of that passage is in handling temptations. But all the stuff that goes on around us is sometimes the conduit of temptation. We get burdened down and temptation creeps in trying to entice us.

Our church situation has been a sore spot for me for a few years. The past year has been extremely stressful in dealing with people that are intentionally deceptive. For the last couple of weeks we have had to plan our exit strategy because of the greed of people that parade around like they are annointed of God. I have been tempted to call them up and tell them exactly how I feel about their conduct....then this week came. We still have nowhere to go. We are planning our final service and to sell all the stuff we cann't take with us in a big yard sale. This takes serious time....and this is what has happened this past week.

First my sons motorcycle locks up and he is in the middle of motocross series in which he is the points leader. That may not sound like much but Mikey has prepared for the past couple years to start racing. Not only that this has cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. The bike will cosst hundreds and hundreds to get repaired. Not only that he had a few bad crashes that he did not tell me about on a friends bike. That bike is worth $6000 alone!! Thursday, Brooke calls crying. I am on the floor my back has locked up I cann't move. The other problem was that there was a 4 month old baby stranded on the couch because Brooke could not get to her. Good thing she was carrying her phone when she fell or who knows how long she may have laid there in pain. We spend Thursday and Friday with that situation. Monday, my wife calls me while she is sitting for my niece in Atlanta. She says that she needs me to sit down and not be upset with her, and told me that I cannot worry. Well too late! She tells me that the only eye that she can see out of has hundreds of floaters and she is afraid her vitrus is leaking, that she has possibly detatched her retina. Now, detatched retinas have already equalled blindness in our family so this is real serious matter to us. So she goes to the doctor at Emory University (the one who diagnosed her years ago). They check her over and tell her the vitreous is leaking ...praise God no tear...but she is at extremely high risk. That if it worsens it could possibly be a detatchment next time. Then yesterday I get a call at 7 in the morning that Tony has been taken to the hospital with a possible heart-attack. Now, Tony is not just a member or an elder. He has been like a spiritual father to me since coming to Enterprise. He is a pillar in our church. Debbie is one of the sweetest women on the planet and I know she cannot stand alone in this (praise God they both have family that gives them loving support). Yet I want to be there for them. Then, my golf partner and good friend has to go through the fear of watching his wife battle cancer. She has to have part of her lung and rib removed. Today, I come in the office only to have a letter from Whittaker Warren threatening to sue the church for not paying the property insurance. We call them to let them know that the property is not ours and they simply say it was made out to us so we have to handle it. They will file suit by October 6th if we don't pay the bill. The owners will be notified! There is so much more that a book could not contain it all.

Okay...with all that said. God must be on the move because the devil has pulled out every stop and tried to use every situation to drag me down. God will not give us more than we can handle, but I think I am almost there. I believe so strongly that God wants to do something major in our church. The devil must know something that we don't because he has been really busy with out church. I had a conversation with him...it was like this .... devil, in the name of Jesus, that's enough, stop what you're doing. We are in a battle. We have to press-on towards the prize, the high-calling that Christ has called us to. NEVER GIVE UP!