October 2011

I completed the As I See It for October a few days ago.  This morning as I was reflecting on a  speaking engagement that I recently  had at St. Peters AME Church of Jonesboro, Georgia,  I decided to write this one.  Jonesboro is a suburb of Atlanta and is pastored by the Reverend Isaiah Waddy.  Isaiah is a dear friend I met in 1969 in a coal-bend at Fort Benning, Georgia.  During this period of time both Isaiah and I were Jonahs trying to run and hide from God. This part of our lives is a powerful testimony in itself, but I will have to share it another time.  The opportunity to speak at Isaiah’s church was a tremendous blessing and I assure you  I was both humbled and honored.  God has given each of us different gifts of the Spirit.  I can with all honesty state that I have never, and I do mean never, heard anyone, to include the evangelist T. D. Jakes, preach with the power and anointing that God has awarded Isaiah.  Under his guidance St. Peters AME has grown from a “store front” church into an eighteen acre, two million dollar facility in an upscale Jonesboro area.  I thank God for our friendship and the privilege of watching Isaiah survive Viet Nam only to exist in a non air conditioned mobile home in an open corn field on a back road in South Georgia, and then to be set free from drugs, alcohol, and dire poverty and obtained a college degree, a master’s degree and then graduate from Theological Seminary. Along with his helpmate Deborah, they have become a powerful example of God’s miraculous powers.  Isaiah is black and I am white.  He is a Democrat and I am a Republican.  There is little that we can agree on politically.  We do set politics aside and agree that our God is still in control. That Jesus’ blood still washes away sin. There is no other way by which a man can come to the Father except through Christ.  We both have a deep passion for the poor and third world countries. We will continue to disagree politically and continue to love one another.  It was this morning as the sun was rising and I was traveling to Bainbridge, Georgia, while listening to the praise song, Days of Elijah, that I remembered several years ago sharing this song with Isaiah. 

These are the days of Elijah.  Declaring the word of the Lord. And these are the days of your servant Moses…Righteousness being restored. And these are the days of great trials..of famine and darkness and sword.  Still we are the voices in the desert crying, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord”.  Behold He comes, riding on the clouds, shining like the sun, at the trumpet call.

God’s love joins Horton Griffin and Isaiah Waddy so I just do not see any reason why our nation’s leaders refuse to allow our God to join them in love. If Isaiah and I, with our different views, coming from different cultures and a different era can join together for the inspirational call to be God’s servants to the lost and the poor, then the “think tank IQ’s” of Washington can do the same thing and that is just The Way I See It.

Praise God and I remain in His Service.

Griff

P.S.  Keep your eyes on the eastern skies !!