That makes me think of that tv preacher who used to ask you to make a
monitary vow and if it was for enough money he would send you what I would
laughingly tirm a prayer rag.  It was a hankerchief which they said they had
praied over.  I would laugh about that but then when they would have one of
those unsolved mistery storeies about how someone had been through some
terible accident but had had a bible in their back pocket or purse or
something so the accident didn't touch them I was fasenated.
Jimmy Evans, our marage counciler/pastor we have been listening to tells a
story of how he had a tought or saw a vision concerning what he was doing
wron in his relationship with his wife.
He said the first part of the vision was of himself in a wedding dress as
the bride of jesus and jesus was gently taking the word and dropping it upon
him to "clean him up.
He said the next vision he saw was a vision of his wife in a wedding dress
and himself with a fire hose washing her down trying to clean her up.
I know that sounds dumb but the message was, in our relationships we want to
clean people up right now and make them "right!
Where as Jesus is gentle and just applies the word lovingly as long as it
takes to clean us up.
He said that Jesus had been washing him in the word for 20 years and that he
still wasn't totally perfect.
He said that he began to talk lovingly to his wife and stopped being hateful
and expecting immediate results and things began to change for them.
I am going to stop saying he said but this is all a message we got from him,
you understand.
You do the right thing and tell the truth and that's all you can do.
The truth has it's own power and over time it can change the situation.
God is not looking at your clock, he does things in his time and we don't
know what that is.
My brother, who I talked off on this list, who was into drugs and not doing
right by his family is doing better these days.  I am not saying he is
perfect, but he and I can comunicate now where as we had stopped talking for
about 3 years.
I no longer give him money or things and I do not pay his bills for him or
pay for his drug treatment and I also don't run him down.  I am careful to
not get involved a lot in his life yet but am taking my time about it.  I
still see things about him which I do not like but I understand that it's
not my place to fix it.
I have forgiven him for the wrong he has done to me in my mind and repented
for my wrong doing in the situation and other than telling him the truth
about my feelings as they come up, that's all I intend to do.
You can't make an inner vow and say I'll never do this or that because it's
not in your hands but you can do right and live right and pray for them.
If the prayer rags work then I can't argue with them but their's really only
so much you can do and I think that's kind of over board.  If people have
time to do that kind of thing and don't expect the rags to work, but rather
god in his own time then their's no harm I guess.
Anyway, enough of my opinion.  hahah
Matt