He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it isn’t looking for Him and doesn’t recognize Him. But you know Him, because He lives with you now and later will be in you.” John 14:17
I like Murray, Kentucky for several reasons. First, some of my tribe live there. My middle daughter and her husband and two of my eight grandchildren call Murray home. Now that alone is reason enough. Oh, and for the record, Murray is just a cool town with a southern vibe and lots of good places to eat…which leads me to the second reason I really like Murray. In a word…donuts.
Now, there are probably several places to get donuts in Murray but there is only one place that bears the name Murray Donuts and trust me…they are incredible. You can tell a good donut place by the length of the line and how soon they sell out. Well, it seems that this place always has a line (that moves very quickly, thank-you) and they would sell out quickly, but they do a great job of keeping those wonderful doughy designs coming out of the grease.
Well, the other day, my wife Judy and I were down visiting, and we decided to take the grandkids to school with a stop off at Murray’s for a few donuts. Well, we got into line and before you could say, “cholesterol” we were at the counter. I had a single sour cream donut, though I wanted more, James had two maple covered donuts and Ellie had a long John with chocolate icing and white cream in the middle. Yummy. Well, our lady told us they were out of the long John’s with the white creamy stuff, but she would be glad to make us one. Smile.
She walked over to the counter, grabbed a long John, and then walked over to a cool little machine with a long, pointy thing sticking out. She stuck the long, pointy thing into the long John and mashed this button and before you could say, “Shoot that thing” we had a long John with chocolate icing, filled nicely with white cream in the middle. Now I just thought that was pretty cool. I always wondered how they did that and now I know.
As I watched her do her magic, it occurred to me how she took something that was awesome and made it even more awesome by putting something very special inside—white, fluffy cream. Well, believe it or not, I almost instantly thought about God and the Holy Spirit. See, He takes people that He loves, forgives their sin when they choose to ask Him to and believe in His Son Jesus—and that is great. But that is not all. When a person becomes a Jesus follower, God gives them something else—His Holy Spirit and He doesn’t live on the outside—He lives on the inside—just like the cream in the long John…well, sorta anyway.
So, the white creamy stuff makes the long John better and the Holy Spirit living within us helps us be more like Jesus—which is always a really good thing. Of course, God doesn’t just make us better—He makes us new. So, if you have never put your faith in Jesus…I hope you will today and if you already have, well, don’t forget that God also lives in you in the personhood of His Holy Spirit. He, the Holy Spirit, does so much for us (including making us sweeter) but He also reminds us that no matter what, our Dearest Daddy is always there for us. We don’t need to worry because, “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 