This is my last \u201cEarly Voting\u201d day at the polls. Now onto the big finale on Tuesday. If you haven\u2019t already \u2013 please, please vote before it\u2019s too late. Do you need a friend to take you to the polls? Please call someone to take you or if you\u2019re concerned about the pandemic, just drive up to the closest polling location and ask for someone to \u201ccurbside\u201d vote you. There will be a sign out front that gives you the phone number to call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking of the polls, my dear, new friend that I spoke of in a recent blog, told me yet another story. This gal is a beautiful black woman. She told me about the time when she and her friend were around 18 years ago and set out on a 600-mile road trip. They pulled into a service station for gas and were accosted by white men who were cursing at them, using the \u201cn\u201d word and refusing to give them gas. At one point, one of the men pulled a gun on the girls and the girls quickly drove off in a panic, crossing over the next exit to a Stuckey\u2019s where kind people saw their panic, filled their car with gas without charge and directed them to the safest way of escape. My friend said that she could hear God say \u201cI will never leave you or forsake you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe today you too are in a panic and you don\u2019t have a friend to help you. Maybe you feel \u201cunfriended\u201d. Back in the day, when we unfriended someone, we walked away, erased their name off our notebook or wrote a \u201cDear John\u201d letter. Here we are decades later and we can unfriend someone with the tap of a button. Our lives are about relationships — with Jesus and with people He\u2019s created. Period. Good thing I\u2019m not a god who carries a big stick. I\u2019d be whack-a-moleying mean, hateful and ornery folks all over the place. If some of them were my friends, I would unfriend them without a second thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then comes along the full-volume, yet gentle voice of God, with His personal guarantee, “I will NEVER unfriend them.” Argh! But, please, God! Then God\u2019s gentle tap on my shoulder reels me back into what His grace is all about. Our God would die before He would unfriend anyone. Fact is: our God did die rather than unfriend us. \u201cGreater love has no one than this: than to lay down one\u2019s life for His friends.” (John 15:13)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus didn\u2019t leave, unlike, or unfriend a single one of his twelve closest friends. He\u2019s not about to start with you and me. Instead, He keeps on keeping the promise He first made that He would never leave or forsake His people. He knows all about us and still loves us. This is the God who has pursued you and me since before time and Who never ever considers us a waste of time. This is a God who died on a cross to reach our hearts and souls to rescue us. We are loved \u2013 in spite of, because of, and instead of, but do we believe it? Do we believe ours is His Love Story and in His Love Story \u2013 the Lover never leaves us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My beloved friends, please let Him love you and wrap you in His grace and mercy. Just say \u201cyes\u201d \u2013 ACCEPT His \u201cfriend\u201d request. He will take away all your sins, failings, fears and give you His own life \u2013 life to the full. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) You are loved!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is my last \u201cEarly Voting\u201d day at the polls. Now onto the big finale on Tuesday. If you haven\u2019t already \u2013 please, please vote before it\u2019s too late. Do you need a friend to take you to the polls? Please call someone to take you or if you\u2019re concerned about the pandemic, just drive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17610,18991,18990],"tags":[1210,1769,18987,15329,1159,40,750,18988,16834,16298,18986],"class_list":["post-13391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-facebook","category-never-leave-you","category-unfriend-2","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-curbside-voting","tag-dear-john-letter","tag-early-voting","tag-inspiration","tag-love-story","tag-never-leave-you-or-forsake-you","tag-panic","tag-polls","tag-unfriended"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13393,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13391\/revisions\/13393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}