Two More......

The hard part of being a part of a community where recovery is essential for life, is when someone dies.
The facts surrounding the death of someone who came through the program are not important, as it is too late to argue any pint. You simply desire that those who come through here find that relationship with Jesus and walk out their days clean and sober.
Some do.
Some don't.
When I read where someone who came through our program dies, it affects me.
Could I have done something more for them while they were here?
Did I miss something that I could have shared with them?
Did I pray for them enough?
All legitimate questions, but in the end it all goes to "did they answer when salvation was offered to them?"

Two men who came through the program died this past week.
I don't know spiritually how they were when they met their end.
I pray that something that was said here or was prayed over them might have awakened before they died and they were able to answer "yes" to God.
I don't know.
All I do know is that these two now fully understand the truth of what they claim to believed.
Beliefs that were lived out through their lives.
They now stand on the other side of eternity, a place that I will follow to.
The decisions that I make here on this side, determine my place on crossing over.
My submission to God and following Him affords me life with Him.
My rejection of God and stubbornness to follow my own sinful desires and wants affords me hell.
I must make a choice.

I pray that God would comfort the families of these two men during this time of grief.
I pray that God's Spirit would come and draw those among the families into an awareness of the need for salvation.

It is a sad day for me...
A sad time....
One for reflection....
and
for a renewed commitment to share the gospel.

God on you........
mb

Peak-A-Boo

Yep! That's me. The guy who keeps Greene Street Letters up

and running.

I just wanted to leave a little note for those of you

who stop by here occasionally to check us out.

My name: Michael Bynum

Married to Vicki Bynum (37+ years...happily I might add)

I serve as Chaplin/ Pastor/ Counselor/ and

whatever else may need doing

at Rapha Ministries.

What's a "Rapha Ministries?"

It is Alabama's largest faith-based drug and alcohol program.

We believe that people don't have drug/alcohol problems....

they have a living problem.
They have a broken relationship with Jesus Christ.

This broken relationship manifests in a number of ways

as the inability to cope with life, or the refusal to cope which

drives people to seek comfort or escape in the "substance of choice."

We do not claim to have any magic answers, magic bullets

or magic whiffle sobriety dust.
We simply believe that getting rigorously honest with ones self

and allowing God to work is the answer.

The big book of AA states that "rarely have we seen anyone fail

who thoroughly followed our path (or the steps of recovery)"

We have found that Jesus can do for us what we could not do

for ourselves.

Our sin nature (flesh or whatever you choose to call it) causes

someone in addiction to seek the easier, softer way.

There isn't one that leads to freedom from addiction.

What I write here on the GREENE STREET LETTERS

is applicable to all

but specific for those who are either in recovery or looking

for answers to leave their addiction.

I hope to download some music and the message from our

Saturday night meetings here at the

Church@Rapha

Feel free to listen or download for yourself.

Please don't hesitate to send an Email or comment here

on the blog page. We'd love to hear from you.

Freedom from addiction begins with a very simple fact.

The desire to quit....

Why not today?

God on you.......

Michael Bynum

Voyage To Gennesaret by Don Francisco

Because He has laid hold of me.....
I lay hold of Him.....
To follow...
To find life in.....
To listen to....
To love....
To die for.....
To win for the lamb the rewards of his suffering.

It's All True!

I love this sign. I love the message because it is so not what my religious mind would come up with. I would want to paint a "spiritual" picture with flowery, King James words ( those who defend the KJV as the only word, don't be offended by this). Is there a danger in this message?
There could be. I think I know what the minds behind it were trying to say..that God is a loving God, and that he totally knows what trouble our humanity gets us into. The one thing missing is that he doesn't excuse bad behavior ( or in this case goofy behavior).

God is patient. God is long suffering. God is totally for all people to come to a saving knowledge of who he is. Truth is, you and I both know that this isn't going to happen. Due to our goofy humanness, some will continue down a path of self-centered, I-am-the-captain-of-my-own-ship life. Does God love those who choose this way any less? No...but his love is balanced with a truth that scares us at times. God is God! That means that he really does hold all the cards. We get into heaven by his permission and his way. Sounds harsh but not when you really stop and take a look at it.

We, humanity, are dying of a terminal disease. Sin! It has affected our brains and has caused us to think in ways that are contrary to God's plans. Sin has affected our hearts and created in us desires for things that are not good for us. Things that will destroy our bodies, our minds, and worst of all, the eternal spirit placed inside of us by God.
God realizing the destruction that sin brings to his creation, came up with and implemented the plan to restore and save humanity from this sin disease. Knowing that sin was so powerful and that it would take perfection to break the power of it, God sent his Son, Jesus, to pay the price. I guess you could call Jesus the ultimate scapegoat, paying for something he didn't do. Jesus left the best digs ever....the throne room of heaven, to come down here. He took on the form of man and lived among us for 33 years. Scoping everything out and teaching in our time and space, Jesus spoke about a place beyond anything our minds could comprehend...heaven. He laid out the plan on how to get there. He shared how this new Kingdom would operate and what would be expected of us. He also read us the fine print of what we could expect if we continued on in our selfish-sin-centered lives. (Note to self: Hell is not that appealing).

Jesus became the door or entry way into this new life. Even though heaven was the destination, the journey was the most important part. Living life here on this planet, Jesus said we could have life abundant. Abundance not measured out in dollars and cents or denari and pennies or what ever the currency du'jour is. He went on to say that those who accepted this plan (a term he called being "born again") would receive direction through an imparting of someone who would come and comfort us and guide us through the pitfalls of life here. That someone would be the Holy Spirit. Wow! Not only are we saved! Not only do we now have the right to enter through Jesus into the heavenly realm, but now we are given a spiritual compass and guide who will teach us and show us how to live a "zero-sin" life. How cool is that?

That is why for the past 49 years I have chased this life daily (not always successfully I might add). Through dark times and dark places where I got off the road and in glorious times where faith and emotion collided to the point that I felt like could explode. Jesus has been and will continue to be the one constant in my life. He alone possesses the power and ability to pull me back to center when I drift off course. He alone has patience with me when I wander off to look at the trinkets and baubles of the world.
He is God.
I am not.

Sweet Revelation!

God on you......

mb

The Spirit

How is the Spirit to me?

He swells and crashes like a great wave

that o'erwhelms me and engulfs me

and lands me on sunny shores

Where I watch the Water of Life in effervescent splendor

rock my world with light shows most spectacular.

Fireworks!

Infinite sparks bursting ...

eternally swelling and increasing.

Like a grape so sweet, bursting with eternally increasing sweetness

in my mouth.

Water from a brook....going in

Impurities flowing out.
Made closer to perfect with each passing year...

Jesus

This poem was written by David Weaver.
David is currently doing an internship here at Rapha

and has compiled a number of his poems

in a book he has entitled

The Wind In The Tempest

I hope to post more of David's work here at Greene Street Letters.

mb