The Best Story About Rocks!

I bet you didn't know you had so many stories rocks!

One of my first camping experiences was with my family in Wisconsin with some friends. I remember marshmallows on a stick and painting rocks. We would find special rocks down by the lake then paint on them (flowers, pictures, and words). The marshmallows we ate.  My mom still has one (a rock) with a daisy on it from that trip 40 years ago.

One day strolling in the woods with my girlfriend (now wife of 20 years) at their home in Gatesville I kicked over a rock. On it was inscribed “Rudy and Jennifer True Love 4 ever” The first of many crushes and boyfriends she has had.

Out in the woods in Connecticut we had a place in the cliffs where we kept things hidden. It was under a huge rock. It took 2 of us to lift it.

Of the many places I have traveled I have often brought home an object to remind me of special times, places and events. 2 of the most prominent stones are from a backpacking trip in Colorado and Isreal trip at the Dead Sea.

Of course I even have had the pet rock – the ones you decorate and name and take care of and hope for good luck! (so important in my life I can't remember any of the names)

Last week a phrase from the Bible ”struck” me (rock pun intended). The White Stone (a small rounded stone worn by the action of water). Did you know in the ancient world ….
• a white stone was used as an admission ticket to public festivals
• was referred to as the pebble of acquittal in Greek courts
• was worn on breastplates and important people
• signified days of victory, success, and celebration
• judgment and private messages were written on them

Of all the rock to have. Revelation 2:17 speaks of a white stone with a new name on it. A stone representing a cleansing and the old worn away. A stone of entrance to heaven, to everlasting life, access to the presence of God, to a new name given by God our Father Himself, and to a judgment given-but punishment and debt paid for by His Son - Jesus.

How about Rock Music:  Check out "Pocket Full of Rocks"

Golden Bowls Full of the Prayers of the Saints

I love lucky Charms cereal – the sweet marshmallow flavor mixed with the crunchy frosted oats. They have been my favorite since childhood (however there was a cereal out for a brief time while in college called “Circus Fun” Lions, Tigers, Hoops, Rings and balls… it was just like Lucky Charms just different colored and shaped marshmallows – I used to have a circus fun cereal watch that I got from saving box tops!) Anyways…When I eat lucky charms I love a big cereal bowl, with big spoon, heeping the cereal til they start falling off the edge, then pour on the cold milk til it dribbles over the edge. I eat every morsel even the ones that fall onto the table. I hold the bowl up to my mouth and drink up the last bit! The look, the smell, the taste, I get excited when I see them in the store, sometimes they are a craving, I even know the song….Frosted Lucky Charms, their magically delicious! They have changed over the years with different marshmallow shapes, colors, and tastes. And at first the oats weren’t even sugar coated! Did you know that when they first came out instead of marshmallows they were brachs circus peanuts! WOW! (never knew til today that marshmellows were spelled “marshmallows”- kudos to Sandlot – making smores…first you take the “mallow”)

Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Revelation 5:8

Sweet and delicious and good and special (so special He puts them in one of His valued bowls) and full are the prayers of saints because…
• the Father loves to hear his children
• flavored with Spirit
• flavored with Christ
• flavored full with devotion, faith, belief, desire, passion, love
• they are many (saints)
• they are real not just a reading, litnany, but honest from believers, living it (saints) from many places, times, peoples, circumstances
• they are fresh, full, intentional songs many of them new

Many of us pray without much energy, but God wants
• to hear us
• to converse
• to answer
• us to believe
• to hear from His children
• to hear about His Son
• to know we are connected to the Spirit
• us full
• us know that are prayers are heard and cherished (precious and valuable) and shared
• our prayers voiced (believe in heart, confess with mouth)


Our singing is a prayer, prayer is a song. It is magical.  Music is sensory-beautiful-creative-harmonious (good with others). Let’s make it big… a full bowl of good stuph, His favorite stuph. May He want all of it, my there be plenty to overflowing, mixed with other good stuph and people.

God know’s how to make a great bowl of cereal. 
For a second bowl… here’s a snipet of what Charles Spurgeon had to say… (Sermon 1051)

He helps each Believer’s infirmities and makes for us a mixture of all choice Graces so that when we pray our pleadings are accepted as sweet incense because they contain an harmonious amalgamation of all the things which are sweet to the Lord God of Sabaoth.

These persons love Him, praise Him, bow before Him with solemn awe! They lift their whole souls up in adoring love—these are they who can offer sweet incense—their thoughts, their desires, their longing, their confessions, their pleading, their praises—these are sweet to God! This is music to Him! This is perfume to His heart! This is delightful to His infinite mind, pleasant to His sacred Spirit—for God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth—and after no other fashion is a spiritual God to be worshipped!

the Holy Spirit is the Believer’s Apothecary. He it is who knows the proper quantity of each

ingredient in prayer—how much of faith, how much of love, how much of repentance, how much of humility there ought to be in every supplication.

Ah, Brethren, here many men’s prayers fail! They are correct but cold, excellent but lifeless.
They lack life, vigor, earnestness—fire!

Do I ask Him to bless me? Then I adore His power, for I believe He can. Do I ask Him to bless me? Then I adore His mercy, for I trust and hope He will. Do I ask Him to bless me because of such and such a promise? Then I adore His faithfulness, for I evidently believe that He is truthful and will do as He has said. Do I ask Him to bless me not according to my request, but according to His own wisdom? Then I adore His wisdom. I am evidently believing in His prudence and judgment. I say to Him, “Not my will but Yours be done”—I am adoring His Sovereignty. When I confess that I deserve to suffer beneath His hand, I reverence His justice. When I acknowledge that He does right evermore, I adore His holiness. And, when I humbly say, “Nevertheless, deal graciously with Your servant and blot out my transgressions,” I am reverencing His Grace. We do not wonder, therefore, that through Jesus Christ the prayers of the saints should be precious to God, since they are a homage to the Supreme of an eminently practical kind.