THE BRIDGE BUILDER
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT:
Ecc. 4:12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a three fold cord is not easy broken.
Living Bible:
Ecc. 4:12 And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated. But two can stand back to back and conquer; three is even
better, for a triple braided cord is not easily broken.
Psalms 142:2 I looked on my right hand, and behold, but there was no man that know me; refuge failed me; no man
cared for my soul.
LIKE A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS, I WILL LAY ME DOWN.
Have you ever watched COPS on TV?
There is a time when the law officer knows, I must call for BACK UP.
Both my sons are law enforcement officers, they have a criteria for knowing when they should call for help, for back up.
Not every situation needs back up. In some situations back up would be a waste of manpower, yet in other situations they will
not approach the need without back up, or at least knowing back up is near.
This battle is not yours. We need help. We need each other.
Dealing with real people is not always rewarding. Just say NO to some child and watch their face?
Wonder where they get that from? Just say NO to an adult and watch the tempers flare.
We do not always see the whole picture? We do not always understand the motive?
Many people are trying to use their power and money to control and manipulate.
When I was a teenager, we lived in Jellico, Tennessee. I-75 goes through Jellico.
The state line divides Jellico in half, part is Kentucky and part is Tennessee.
While living there, we could not afford a lot of things.
One boy in the neighborhood was rich, by our standards.
He had a basketball, there was a basketball goal in the edge of the cemetery.
He owned a softball, a bat, and several leather gloves. He owned a leather football. He owned it all.
We would play basket ball, if he fouled you and you called him for it,
he would take his leather basketball and go home. If he missed the shot, you had to let him shoot again, or he would take his
ball and go home. If he took his ball, we could no longer play.
We would play softball in the edge of the cemetery, if he took a third strike, he would get mad and say he tipped it.
He would get four, five, ten strikes. If you ever called him out, he would take his ball, bat, and gloves and go home.
If he hit a fly ball and you caught it, he would take his ball and go home.
This was so unfair, but what do you do? To get to play, you had to let him manipulate the game.
Need I tell you, he had few real friends?
When we were at school, the coach would not play ball his way.
The coach had rules, the controlling boy lost his control and would throw down
the school equipment in anger.
I do not know what happened to this boy, we moved away to Springfield, Illinois.
I often wonder, what happened to this controlling, manipulative boy as he turned into a man?
I fear the world would not play his game his way?
Since that time, I have seen many people try to manipulate their family, their school, and their church to bend the rules or force
my way or the highway. Many times people do not know all the facts, many times distorted emotions, many times words spoken
out of a sense of control, uses others, and the crowd does not know what is really going on behind the scenes.
I saw a child in a Toy Store. He was crying as he wanted an expensive toy.
His Mom leaned over and explained, Honey, Mommy does not have the money this week. She explained there was groceries
and the car was broke down and need to be fixed. He started screaming and throwing his fist.He hit his Mother in the face,
her glasses fell to the floor.
Finally, she gave in and told the boy he could get the expensive toy. I saw them at the check out, I saw a worried looked on
the Mother’s face. The boy just hugged his Mother and said, Momma, I love you!
I say, HOGWASH, he did not love her by demanding his way. I say, she did not love him by giving in to him.
He was old enough to understand, Momma can’t afford this.
I will tell you sooner or later, there comes a day when Momma will not be able to buy her sons love. What then?
As a pastor, I often would have loved to told others the real facts that they did not know, but my hands were tied, legally or in
protecting innocent parties. But I could not allow all I knew to become public knowledge. I have been attacked, and just had
to keep my mouth shut and my faith in gear. God knows!
Maybe we will never understand another until we walk a mile in their shoes?
We need the Holy Spirit to teach us, God has a plan. God has a man.
We need an office to be seriously taught within the church.
We need BRIDGE BUILDERS! God grow me into a bridge builder.
WHAT IS A BRIDGE?
--- a connection over or across
--- a time, a place, or a means of connection or transition
--- a structure carrying a path over an obstacle
--- rapport
--- to become joined or fastened
--- relationship marked by harmony and accord.
Will you read this poem?
Please take this to heart? My Dad loves this poem, and down through the years I have grown to love this.
THE BRIDGE BUILDER
UNKNOWN
An old man, going on a lone highway,
Came at evening tide, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast and wide,
Through which was flowing a swollen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him.
But he turned when safe on the other side,
And BUILT a BRIDGE to span the tide.
"Old Man," said a pilgrim near;
"You are wasting your strength in building here,
Your journey will end at the ending of day,
You will never again pass this way.
You have crossed this chasm deep and wide;
Why BUILD you a BRIDGE at evening tide?"
The BUILDER lifted his old, gray head:
"Good friend, in the path that I have come,"
He said, "There followed after me today,
A fair haired youth, whose feet must pass this way.
The chasm that has been naught for me,
To that fair haired youth a PITFALL be...
He too, must cross in the twilight dim."
"GOOD FRIEND, I AM BUILDING THIS BRIDGE FOR HIM."
It is my desire to be like Jesus, it is my desire to be a BRIDGE BUILDER.
I see so much division and hurt and bitterness.
I see this division for what it really is ---UNFORGIVENESS.
I see many that want to go to heaven demanding and manipulating situations and they cannot see the slippery
slope leads to hell.
We see a deep truth:
John 13:35 By this shall all men KNOW that you are my disciples, IF YOU HAVE LOVE ONE FOR ANOTHER.
WHY SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR A PERFECT CHURCH?
If you find a perfect church and join it --- it will not be perfect any more.
Many people disguise their strife and unforgiveness behind pretty masks.
We must steer a straight course from the cross and to receive forgiveness,
we must give forgiveness. Who are you mad at today? Who have you been mad at for sometime?
One of the most important factors and part of this race is that we finish and never take our eyes off the goal.
We measure not with words, but with behavior. Don’t tell me, show me.
Your children know if you are mad at someone? Jesus knows?
We hear a cry today, You are darn right I am mad, and I have every right in the world to be mad.
Often times we can look back over our past trail and see a clear path of anger following for many years.
I know someone that will not talk to their neighbor, they will not talk to their siblings, they will not talk to their ex’s,
they will not talk to their children, they will not talk to their old friends, the trail is always to new friends ---
until there is an explosion, and buddy you are not as spiritual as you claim, -- you are off my list.
I just will never speak to you again.
Ask Jesus what he thinks of this control and manipulation?
Say no once, and I will cry and be gone?
WE NEED LOVE TO RETURN! WE NEED FORGIVENESS AND UNDERSTANDING?
I had two women I pastored for years.
They lived across the street from each other.
They would not look at each other, not talk to each other.
Seems the one woman said something about the other woman’s dead husband.
The wife said, It’s true, but she should not have said that.
They could not ride to church in the same car. My wife would have to go get the one and drive her to church,
yet they lived 50 feet apart, no I am lying, they lived 1000 miles apart.
They sat for years on the second pew, and would not shake hands with each other. They would sing and raise their
hands in worship. They would not look at each other. I was pastor there many years, I preached over 1370 sermons,
I could never get them to forgive and love each other. They loved the Lord, they just couldn’t love each other.
I will not judge the case of angry people, but before I move to the next point,
I ask you to consider the word of God? Will you consider this? Other people are watching.
1 John 4: 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen.
Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strifes: but love covers up all sins.
Wow, would it be sad to attend a church, get mad and attend another, get mad and attend another,
turn your nose away and be bitter, and miss it all?
LET US LOOK AT SOUL TIES.
I will begin this by saying, HE AIN’T HEAVY --- HE IS MY BROTHER.
Col. 2:2 That their hearts might be comforted, being KNIT TOGETHER IN LOVE!
Living Bible: KNIT TOGETHER by strong ties of love.
David had a friend, Jonathan.
Jonathan and David laughed together, they cried together.
But what ever you want to say about Jonathan and David, you have to say they were TOGETHER.
After Jonathan’s death, David found Mephibosheth, one of Jonathan’s relatives. Mephibosheth, was cripple
and was not allowed as a cripple to approach the King or enter the King’s castle. But for Jonathan, David’s friend,
David invited Mephibosheth to be a forever guest in his home.
See, because of David’s soul tie to Jonathan, David changed the rules. Mephibosheth was loved and welcomed.
We must have the kind of love that reaches to crippled friends.
The person that needs your love the most, deserves it the least.
Invest, forgive, reach out, BUILD A BRIDGE!
There were two brothers. They had not spoken for many years.
The Father had given them adjoining land, they had built houses and farmed their land and raised their families
together.
BUT! There had been hurt and pain and disappointment and misunderstanding between the two brothers.
They had not spoken to each other in many years.
When they were out on the front porch they could look across the creek bed and see each other, but they would
not look toward the other one.
One day the one brother won the lottery. It was not the big lottery, but enough for the brother to take his wife to
Hawaii and then he had a plan for the rest of the money.
He talked to the local carpenter and told him to build a big fence between his property and his brother’s.
The brothers had not talked since their mother died.
The local carpenter was also the pastor at the little country church down the road.
The pastor carpenter knew the old man and the old woman and knew they would want them to be friends and family.
The angry brother ordered the wood and then flew off to Hawaii for a vacation.
For many days the pastor, carpenter built. He started building a bridge across the creek.
Slowly, each board went together and soon the bridge was finished.
The angry brother pulled in his drive way from their vacation in Hawaii, and his other brother walked across the bridge
and greeted him on his return.
They hugged and cried. They talked and remembered their old gray haired Momma and Daddy.
The brother started back across the bridge and said, COME on over, eat with us tonight.
The brothers lived several more years, brothers, yes, FRIENDS --- yes!
If the old pastor had built a wall, they would still not be talking to each other.
By this shall men know --- LOVE!
I was standing looking into some art work the other day.
For the first time I realized this painting was a bridge into the artist’s mind.
I hear music and realize music is a universal bridge into the hearts of others.
When I was a young man, the neighbor was building a back porch.
The neighbor gave my brother, cousins and I the leftover wood and scraps and some nails.
We all talked about what would we build?
We ran and got the hammers and started building...
as we nailed the wood together, we were building a space ship and we were going to the moon.
A few days later, I stepped on a nail. Momma made me soak my foot in kerosene, and I limped several days.
Today, life has stole my dreaming.
I no longer build space ships.
I quit. There is no use?
But let me tell you, we dreamed for several days building our space ship.
We dreamed of being the first man on the moon. We dreamed of fame and wealth.
Well, I am so sad to tell you, this old gray haired man doesn’t dream about the moon any more?
I don’t even dream about hitting mud puddles?
But my heart is dreaming --- CAN I HELP YOU?
CAN I BUILD A BRIDGE TO HELP THAT FAIR HAIRED YOUTH?
Why do I write? Why all this time at the computer? Is there more fun out there?
No, MY FRIEND I AM BUILDING A BRIDGE!
If I consider the smallness of these hands, I would go lay on the couch and watch TV.
If I surveyed the impossibilities of my capabilities I would crawl in a hole, eat a worm, and die.
WHO CARES?
My heart breaks for the writer of Psalms 142:2 I looked on my right hand, and behold, but there was no man
that know me; refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
The cry of the King, the Prince, and the pauper is the same ---
DOES ANYONE CARE?
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
I have known the cold, loneliness of heartbreak? I have know the pain of rejection?
I have disappointed others? I hang my head in shame.
But, I also know THE ENEMY DISTORTS...
The pen of the writer was discouraged, he was seeing a distortion...
Somebody loved him! Somebody cared! He couldn’t see clearly.
The enemy was trying to isolate him and kill him.
The big bad wolf wants you to leave the safety of the fold, you will be his next meal.
MY HEART IS BROKEN, MY TEARS FLOW LIKE A RIVER.
My towel is wet, will any one build a bridge?
God I have busted dreams, no more space ships, reality smothers me...
BUT I CAN --- I CAN BUILD A BRIDGE.
There is a bridge between the living and the dead... there is a lovely bridge ----
LOVE and MEMORY.
But God teach me how to build to the living --- God teach me to BUILD A BRIDGE ---
AND WHEN I GET DONE TO BUILD ANOTHER ---
I need you! You may not need me, but I die, I need you. The church needs you!
Recall this old song? (writter unknown)
I’m building a bridge across the Divide, I’m building it strong,
I’m building it wide. God gave me the plan, I’m following through,
I’ll make it some how, Brother, how about you...
The draw bridge is down,
COME and let us GO unto the House of the Lord TOGETHER!
Forever TOGETHER!
His servant,
Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
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