CHECKIN' IN

A minister passing through his church in the middle of the day decided to pause by the altar and see who had come to pray. Just then the back door opened, a man came down the aisle. The minister frowned as he saw the man hadn't shaved in a while. His shirt was kinda' shabby and his coat was worn and frayed. The man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away.

In the days that followed, every day at noon in walked this chap. Each time he knelt just for a moment, a lunch pail in his lap. Well, the minister's suspicions grew, with robbery a main fear. He decided to stop the man and ask him, "Whatcha' doin' here?" The old man worked down the road. Lunch was half an hour. Lunchtime was his prayer time, for finding strength and power.

"I stay only moments, see, 'cause the factory is so far away. As I kneel here talking to the Lord, this is kinda' what I say: "I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN. I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERY DAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM CHECKIN' IN."

The minister, feeling foolish, told Jim that was fine. He told the man he was welcome to come and pray just anytime. Time to go, Jim smiled, said, "thanks". He hurried to the door. The minister knelt at the alter, he'd never done that before. His cold heart melted, warmed with love, met with Jesus there. As the tears flowed, in his heart, he repeated old Jim's prayer:

"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN. I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERY DAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME CHECKIN' IN."

Past noon one day, the minister noticed that old Jim hadn't come. As more days passed without Jim, he began to worry some. At the factory, he asked about him, learning he was ill. The hospital staff was worried, but he'd given them a thrill. The week that Jim was with them, brought changes in the ward. His smiles, a joy contagious. Changed people, his reward. The head nurse couldn't understand why Jim was so glad, when no flowers, calls or cards came, not a visitor he had.

The minister stayed by his bed, he voiced the nurse's concern: No friends came to show they cared. He had nowhere to turn. Looking surprised, old Jim spoke up and with a winsome smile said, "The nurse is wrong, she couldn't know, that all the while everyday at noon He's here, a dear friend of mine, you see. He sits right down, takes my hand, leans over and says to me:

"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN. I ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERY DAY AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS CHECKIN' IN."

God's Resume'

To Whom It May Concern....

I heard you were considering a new manager for your life. I would like to apply for the job.

I believe I am the most qualified candidate applying. I am the only one that has ever done this job successfully. I was the first manager of life. In fact, I made all lives, so naturally I know how humanity works, and what is best to get people back into proper working condition. Hiring me will be exactly like having the manufacturer as your personal mechanic.

If this is your first time considering me, I would just like to point out that my salary has already been paid by my son, Jesus on the cross of Calvary. This salary covers the time prior to my hiring as well as my present and future employment.

If you decide to hire me I will need to receive from you an acknowledgment that you erred in not hiring me sooner. I understand this is a strange requirement, but since you violated the manufacturer's warrantee by placing your being under inferior management, this is a necessary prerequist to my engagement.

Lastly, I will require a carte blanche (a blank check) to reorganizing and managing your life. I intend to make some major changes and revisions. They are not for you to worry about. I need your permission to execute these changes, My way and in My time. I will establish new goals and objectives and restructure your life to meet these requirements. Please keep your hands out of the way. Don't try to help me and don't resist me and we will get along fine. I really do need your full commitment and cooperation in this. If you give me those, the process of getting your life back to manufacturer's intentions can go smoothly, without delays. I assure you, you will be pleased with the outcome.

I will require a verbal contract to all these stipulations in the presence of witnesses.

Yours Sincerely,
GOD

P.S. I created the heavens and the earth. I AM.

BELOW IS MY RESUME...
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GOD Everywhere All over, Every Place
Phone: (123) 456-PRAY

EXPERIENCE: From the beginning of time. Before the beginning of time. From everlasting to everlasting. I made time.

ABILITY: All Powerful

PRIOR EMPLOYMENT: Created the universe, put the galaxies in place, formed man. Established heaven and earth by My spoken Word and am currently holding up the world by My power.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING: I AM and I have all knowledge.

CHARACTER REFERENCE: Love, light, and life (1 John 4:16, 1 John 1:5, John 14:6). A representative, but by no means conclusive list of other character traits follows: Wisdom (James 1:5), Comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3), Truth (John 8:32), Healer (1 Peter 2:24), Strength (Phil. 4:13), Forgiveness (1 John 1:9), Provider (Phil. 4:19), Mercy (Ephesians 2:1-5), Good (Matthew 19:17), Peace (Romans 14:17).(See Scripture)

AVAILABILITY: Willing and ready to take over your life. Able to put your life together again. Will bring all of who I AM into your life. Can start now.

SALARY REQUIREMENT: Work in your life has already been paid for through the blood of My Son, Jesus. Your only responsibility is to commit initially and on a daily basis. To trust and obey what Jesus has done and wants to do in your life.

Other references available upon request.

The Golden Gift

Some time ago, a friend of mine punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy."

He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty. He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside of it?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh,Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness. My friend told me that he kept that gold box by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as parents has been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

The Smell of Rain

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand. That afternoon, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she's going to make it," he said. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, her future could be a very cruel one."

Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk; she would never talk; she would probably be blind; she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation; and on and on.

"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David with their 5 year-old son Dustin, had dreamed of the day they would become a family of four. Now, in a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away. "David said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements," Diana remembers, "I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me, but I just couldn't listen." I said, "No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say. Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"

Danae clung to life with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure but as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially "raw," the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort - so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests. All they could do was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.

As the weeks went by, she slowly gained weight and strength. When Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her. Two months later, though doctors continued to warn that her chances of survival-much less living a normal life-were next to zero, Danae went home, just as her mother had predicted.

Five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl. She shows no signs of any mental or physical impairments. But this happy ending is far from the end of her story. One blistering summer afternoon, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap watching her brother's baseball team practice. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?" Detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain." Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."

Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then hopped down to play. Her daughter's words confirmed what the Blessing family had known all along. During the first two months of life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest, and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.