This is wonderful Phil.  Thank you.  I also can't wait for the next part.

Jackie

At 02:49 PM 2014-03-11, you wrote:
>When I was in Bible college, my roommate told me one day that he had 
>a fish tank at home but it was empty.  I told him to bring it back 
>to school, we'd fill it, and I'd pay for the fish.  He set it up one 
>day, filling it with water, putting the brightly colored rocks in 
>along with open geode rocks, pronounced ge odes, which the 
>dictionary defines as a small, hollow, usually spherical rock with
>crystals lining the inside wall,
>They sparkle like diamonds and are beautiful, and he had castles so 
>the fish could swim in and out of the little houses and a soft light 
>over head along with the water pump to keep the tank water 
>oxygenated.  The only problem was, we never bought any fish.  I 
>begged my roommate time and time again and that I'd would buy the 
>fish but I guess he didn't want to take care of them so we just 
>never bought any fish for this nice fish tank.
>
>Our part of the 4-plex we lived in had the washer and drier so every 
>weekend, guys from the other three parts of the 4-plex came right 
>through our front bedroom, which was in the living room, and three 
>guy bunked upstairs in two different bedrooms, and after loading 
>their clothing into the washer, they'd come out and talk, or read, 
>in our living area as they waited for their laundry.  The fish tank 
>always came up in conversation like this.
>
>I might be stretched out on my bed, my roommate working at his desk 
>at something, and after moments of long silence, the guy would say, 
>"Hey, you guys.  Where are the fish in this tank."  My roommate or 
>I, would look up and say, "Oh, there in there.  Just keep 
>looking."  Minutes passed.  "I don't see any fish."  One of us would 
>reply and say, "Oh, they like to hide among the rocks and 
>castles.  Just keep looking."  Sometimes this ruse, or deliberate 
>deception, would last for 15 or 20 minutes until they'd realize, 
>there really were not any fish in the tank.  Then they'd wonder, 
>"Why do you have water in this fish tank and no fish living in it?"
>
>I compare this to the average Christian life and relationship with 
>God.  I wonder if you agree.  Most of us, even as born again 
>Christians, try our best, even when things are going poorly, to act 
>the part of a Christian.  Some people refer to it as performance 
>based Christianity.  Oh, we would never admit to such behavior in 
>our relationship with God but in all my ministry years, pastoring, 
>and before that, traveling to churches around the country as a guest 
>speaker, it's common in the Body of Christ, and lest you think I 
>boast, I identify such thought behavior in my own life all the 
>time.  Why?  Because the truth is the only thing worth 
>believing.  Many times the Lord will call it to my attention by 
>saying in my mind/thoughts, "What are you doing that for?  I'll tell 
>him why but then He will say, "But I've already done that for you so stop it."
>
>For example, a few years ago, I was praying two hours every day.  I 
>had a list of 60 people, or more, for whom I prayed but when I broke 
>it down one day, that meant only 2 minutes for each person.  I 
>thought that was a puny amount of time to be praying so I switched 
>to praying in tongues for the same amount of time in order to allow 
>the Lord to sort it all out.  One day, after walking from our deck 
>into our living room, going to get a drink before I returned to our 
>deck swing and my praying, I heard a voice in my head say, "What are 
>you doing?"  Well, Lord," I began, "I'm praying, you know, for these 
>60 people and for everything else you want me to pray about.  You 
>know, I'm an intercessor so I'm doing what intercessors should be 
>doing."  He said, "I never told you to pray 2 hours a day."  I took 
>the hint and stopped the 2 hour per day ritual.
>
>This all reminds me of Elijah running from Jezebel.  After the 
>greatest victory of his ministry, calling down fire from Heaven and 
>slaying 850 evil prophets single handedly with a sword, a woman 
>threatens to kill him and he literally headed for the hills and 
>finding a cave, he hid. depression set in.  You know the rest of the 
>story.  God asked him, "What are you doing here, Elijah."  The old 
>prophet figured God hadn't heard so he explained it to Him in detail 
>and even said he was the only prophet left in Israel to preach to 
>the people His Word.  He didn't know God had 7000 other's throughout 
>the country doing exactly what Elijah was already doing.  God 
>invited him out to the opening of the cave to give him an object 
>lesson.  The wind blew so hard, it split boulders.  That's a pretty 
>stiff breeze if you ask me.  Then there was a mighty 
>earthquake.  Take my word for it; you don't want to be cooped up in 
>a mountainous cave during an earthquake but that's where Elijah was; 
>exactly in the wrong place and thinking the wrong way about 
>God.  Then we also learn there was a fire.  What burned in this 
>mountainous fire?  It appears Elijah was above tree line so was it 
>just the air, or rocks, or ground that caught on fire?  Then God 
>asked him again what he was doing in this little cave.  Elijah 
>didn't change his mind set and answered in the exact same 
>way."  Why?  Because he felt God had let him down following his 
>greatest sermon ever.  Of course, Elijah found out God was far from 
>done using him.  How did Elijah know?  Because each event, the wind, 
>the fire, and the earthquake, the Bible says, "but God was not in 
>the wind, or earthquake, or fire."  Then where was God if that 
>wasn't Him in each of those amazing miraculous events?  God was in 
>His quiet still voice where Elijah, due to his discouragement, fear, 
>and depression, had forgotten just to listen for the Lord's voice.
>
>So, what does an empty fish tank have to do with any of this?  Have 
>you ever felt, as a born again Christian, that you have everything 
>but what you truly need from the Lord?  I mean, we have the Bible, a 
>source of great doctrine, theology, and peaceful comfort.  We have 
>prayer so we can commune personally with the God of the universe 
>even if He is busy, you can leave a message and he'll eventually get 
>around to calling you back.  Jesus is our friend now even if we have 
>no personal friends with whom we can fellowship.  We have Christian 
>broadcasting to listen to when we just can't take it any longer.  We 
>know, or at least are pretty certain, what little money we put in 
>the offering plate is going to multiply and pay all our 
>bills.  Right?  Sure, the Bible says so, at least that's what the 
>preacher says in his sermons.  We have the promise that nothing is 
>impossible with God yet we have physical issues that are right down 
>monotonous and at other times so painful, we spend most of our time 
>crying.  If that isn't bad enough, it feels like we might just die 
>from it all.  Look it up.  Elijah was suicidal.  Read it for 
>yourself in 1 Kings chapters 18 and 19.  Yet, with all these pretty 
>things to brighten up our tank, even fresh air pumped into the cool 
>water and a light overhead to show us the way, we are flat out empty 
>inside of real life.  So how do we get it.  I'll talk about that next time.
>
>Phil.
>Living His Name
><http://www.SafePlaceFellowship.COM>WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.COM