Unconditional Love Lifted Me

By Lorenzo Keith

This book is for readers who are experiencing life's heartaches and pains, who are undergoing spiritual battles that surmise no hope. However, after reading this book and listening to the inspirational message of an old soldier, one may find there is still hope on the moral high ground of life. No matter how big or small your battle is, know that Jesus is waiting on you to hand over the burden that you bear. He is a burden bearer in your time of need. The words in this book will educate and nourish your soul.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468551969

Lorenzo Keith

Lorenzo Keith is an Arkansas native born 9 August 1951. He entered the US army in April of 1972 and served with distinction for 28 years 2 months and 2 days retiring with honorable service. He is inspired by God to write his thoughts down for readers. He graduated from G. C. John High School in 1970. The Army divisions he served in were first, second, eight, ninth and his wartime division was first armor. He held every leadership position from Team leader to Command Sergeant Major of largest initial training brigade in the US Army at Fort Jackson South Carolina. His military education started when he graduate from the primary leadership course. It ended as a graduate of the US army Sergeant Major Academy and Command Sergeant Major Course. He believes education is a continued process, which led him to achieve 2 degrees (AA and BA) from Limestone College in Gaffney South Carolina. Additionally, he achieved a duel Master of Art degree from Webster University in May of 2005. His majors are Human Resource (HR) Management and Human Resource Development. Lorenzo is a life member of several military associations which include: Association of the US Army, Noncommissioned Officer Association; The Retired Enlisted Association, and Veteran of Foreign Wars. He is a life member of the Noncommissioned Officer Museum at Fort Bliss Texas, Disable Veteran Association, and the First Armor Division Association. Additionally, he is a life member of National Infantry Association, America Veteran Association, Vietnam Veterans of America Association, and Combat Infantry Association. He is a member of the American Legion Association and a member of the Church of Christ the Son of God. Lorenzo currently lives in Hopkins with his wife Myrtle and enjoying the life of retirement. They have four adult boys and one girl. He is dedicated to his family, God and Country. He believes in the power of prayer. His favorite child is his daughter, who graduated from the University of South Carolina with a major in Accounting and graduate with a MBA Dec, 08 from Webster University. His favorite passages of scriptures in the bible are: Psalm: first, eighth, twenty-third divisions and the gospel according to John the first chapter. The scripture that rules him is Second Chronicle seven chapters and fourteenth verse. Lorenzo has always believed God plus one is the majority; a spirit compelling one to do what’s right standing-alone with God.

Book preview

1

A Storm In Your Life

How many of us can truly say we have had a storm in our life? A storm is defined by Mr. Webster as being a disturbance of the atmosphere marked by wind and usually by rain, snow, hail, sleet, or thunder and lightning. There are some key words in the definition of a storm we would like to call your attention to and that is a storm defined as being a disturbance of the atmosphere. Let us look at the atmosphere of our lives and see if we can recall the similarities in a disturbance caused by a storm in our lives.

How many of us know some people who have moved from church to church? Their reason for moving is that they are tired of that old preacher every Sunday telling them they need to start attending Sunday school and begin taking an active part in the service. They further state that they are tired of hearing that old preacher say that the bible training unit needs your attendance there to help the church carry on Gods’ program. This same old preacher is calling them up on the telephone early Sunday morning asking them to come partake in the church choir rehearsal tonight. Again on Tuesday morning, this same old preacher wants to know if they are planning on attending the school mission tonight. You would think he would be discouraged by now, but on Wednesday morning this same old preacher is bugging them about attending the prayer and teacher meeting. So you see those people have a disturbance of the atmosphere in their lives; which is the definition of a storm.

The thing to remember is that there is always a reason for everything to happen the way it does. All the time it’s not going to be within our own limits of thinking ability. So you see, that person was saying they were tired of that preacher causing a storm in their life and their solution was to go to another church, only to find that they were going to be faced with another preacher causing a storm in their life. Someone should have told those people that the preacher did not cause the storm, but rather the storm was caused by their lack of devotion to duty when they made a vow to the Lord; or when God calls you for a certain mission and you refuse to respond. You know every church member ought to be willing to do all they can to carry out God’s program without causing a storm in their lives. But, you know there are those in our midst that are constantly having storms in their lives.

There were those in Biblical history that God himself judged and placed storms in their lives. Some because of their unwillingness to do God’s will. There are those in our midst who take it upon themselves to try God’s patience and do what they feel like doing rather than what God commanded them to do. Pharaoh tried God’s patience when he refused to hearken to God’s commandment, to let his people go so that they may serve him in the wilderness. As a result, God sent a storm into his life by the rod of Moses which was one of the ten miracles used against Pharaoh. My bible says the Lord told Moses what to do and Moses stretched forth his rod toward Heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail…….And the fire fell upon the ground and the Lord reigned upon the land of Egypt. My bible states that when the hail came that there was fire coming down from Heaven. However, there are still those in our midst that will call that miracle a lie. We all know that ice, better known as hail automatically turns to water when mixed with fire. Let’s be honest with ourselves, fire and ice don’t mix and that is a fact of life. But, in my mind there were two things mentioned about hail mixed with fire that makes me call the fact of life a lie. First, the bible states that fire and hail came down from Heaven. That makes a difference. When things come down from Heaven, that opens my eyes to one thing…..And that is God Almighty sent it. And that is a fact from Heaven. The power of God sends that storm in your life. If you ask Jonah about God’s power he will probably tell you the following: When the Word of God came to Jonah, God commissioned him to preach to the Ninevites; a great Pagan city which was noted for its many corruptions. Jonah’s disposition wouldn’t allow him to preach to the group of Pagans. He would have rather seen them destroyed by God for their wickedness without them having a chance to repent for their sins before God. So right away Jonah became ignorant and went to Joppa and found a tarnished ship. He boarded the ship and slept below the deck to hide from our God. But, my bible tells me the Lord sent a mighty wind thus causing a storm in Jonah’s life and as the wind troubled the water, the crews because afraid and feared for their lives. The shipmaster began to tell every man aboard to call upon their God in hopes that one God will save them.

So you see church, we are going to have to close this message; but first there are a couple of lesson we should learn behind this storm on the sea that day sent from our God from Heaven. First, in the midst of a disaster you should only have one God to call on, and then you won’t have any doubt about who will save you. Another thing that we all should learn about the storm in Jonah’s life that we as Christians should never let a storm enter our lives before we feel a need to call upon the name of Jesus. Because we might get confused and not know who’s name to call upon.

I don’t know the name of the many Gods that were called upon the day that storm came, but I have to imagine that some probably called upon the name, Ash’-to-reth; the goddess of the Zido ni-ans. I have to also imagine some probably called upon Mil’-con; the God of the Am’monites. And if you ask Elias he would probably say some called upon Baal; the God of the Canaanites and Phoenicians.

But….My bible tells me that the sea master went down in the haul of the ship where Jonah was sleeping and woke him thus finding out that the only true and wise God in this world is the God from Heaven who made the sea and dry land.

That same God of our Father, the God of Abraham,

the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob that goes by the name Jehovah, but is also known as God Almighty.

He is the same God that planted his seed in the Virgin Mary in the city of Bethlehem of Judea. The same God that sent an angel to visit Joseph in a dream and said unto him, Fear not thy son of David to take unto thee Mary as thy wife. Because that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and she shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

The same God that so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not parish but have every lasting life.

We as Christians today must not let a storm come into our lives before we start calling upon the name of the Lord. Those men in that day of the storm were in bad shape. It is a sad situation to call for help and not know where help is coming from. They all called upon many Gods that day but my bible tells me that none heard their cry. Despite Jonah’s disposition, he knew that the only God that had the power was the God from Heaven. Jonah told the shipmaster and crew what they needed to do in order to be saved. My bible says, He said unto them take me up and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. You know church it’s good to have someone around that can tell you how to be saved. But don’t fool yourself, Jonah was not being a hero and looking out for the lives of the crew on board. Jonah wanted to die rather than go down to Ninevah and preach to a Pagan city for repentance of their sin. God let him know that he alone created life and he alone can take it. My bible tells me that God prepared a great fish to come alone and swallow Jonah when the men finally threw him overboard with God’s permission. The great fish kept Jonah in his belly for three days. My bible tells me while Jonah was there he was near death, only to realize that God didn’t want him to die until he did God’s will. Jonah prayed unto the Lord by reason of affliction. Acknowledging that, he recognized that God placed that punishment upon him for his disobedience to do God’s will.

My bible tells me that God heard Jonah praying and spoke the word to the great fish. Church, I believe we can safely say that dumb animal seemed to obey God’s will better than humans (man). Because God spoke the word to the fish, my bible says the fish obeyed him and vomited Jonah up on dry land. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, Arise, go unto Ninevah, the great city and preach unto it the preaching that I gave you in the beginning of your first call. My bible tells me that Jonah preached for three days, telling the people that God himself said that their wickedness has come up before him and that they must repent before God. If they didn’t repent within 40 days Ninevah would be overthrown by God. But the people of God heard Jonah’s cry and harkened unto God’s will. The king himself stepped down from his throne and pulled off his royal robe and put on sack cloth. The people repented before God all of their sin. God heard their cry and was pleased with their unity in fasting to sacrifice. They demonstrated that they were willing to give up all the pleasure of the world to serve God Almighty, alone. Some of us today are much bolder than the great city of Ninevah when it came to doing God’s will. We as Christians receive the word from the Lord through the man of God, but we do what we want to anyway. But my brothers and sisters, on that day God is going to