Bob & Bonnie Horning

I want to take a few minutes to share a vision my wife had the other day. The more I ponder it and recall it, the more it speaks to me and I believe is very relevant for our times.

Bonnie was floating down a lazy river type water ride, much like one up the road at Hershey Park. Sitting back in this comfortable tube, slowly floating down stream, she looked to her right and noticed Jesus was riding beside her in another tube. She also noticed that He was holding her hand loosely. It was just the most peaceful place and time she could ever imagine. Looking up and watching the fluffy clouds rolling by, she started to notice people appearing up on the banks overlooking the river. They seemed to be in stress and were calling out for help and were very anxious. She wanted to help them and looked over at Jesus. He didn't seem to notice and wasn't even looking their way. She was becoming a little disturbed and started wondering if He heard them. He didn't seem to notice her asking about it either. He remained peaceful and calm.

Then there appeared some in the water close to the banks stuck in the mud and they were trying to reach out and grab for them both as they floated past. She wanted to help these people as they seemed very distressed but yet Jesus still didn't seem to lift a finger or care. After a time, she about had enough of His apparent lack of caring and turned to ask Him why He wouldn't help them. Jesus and His tube were gone. Now she was really becoming panicky and in looking all around for Him, she noticed her tube was gone and it had turned into Jesus's loving arms. He was holding her up and had replaced her tube.

It was then she calmed a little bit as there were still people trying to reach out for them... so she just thought "Why doesn't Jesus notice these people in need?" That's when Jesus said, "I see them, I feel their pain. I can't help them, they don't want my help yet." "I can only help those who want my help. They aren't at the end of themselves yet"

That's when it dawned on her... He was helping them by not helping them.

Many times we help people when it's not His plan but ours. When we do that, we delay the work He is doing to perfect them. It is so hard to not do something, anything for someone in need. But if we look to our Father first, we'll see if it's His heart or our heart in trying to help. We must risk looking cold and reserved to those who just want their problems fixed without learning what it is God wants to do for them through the trouble and pain. Man is good at killing pain but the problem that started the pain to begin with is still there. If we let Him do it His way, the problem and it's roots will be exposed and fixed permanently.

I was made keenly aware of this very premise today, while viewing an expose on the huge problem of prescribed painkillers that become addictive. A solution meant to help one problem of pain, leads to a much larger problem of drug addiction that hurts more than just one life. This is just one of the ways this vision has spoken to me. Please let me know if you hear something else yourself.

We still have such compassion for those who hurt and we hurt with them, but we should all take everything to the throne first to see if it is His will to help at this time.

Matt. 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

One of our favorite pastors... Francis Frangipane, River of Life Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 30 Minutes of a midweek uplifting... enjoy.

The end of my music career had come 5 years before the day that time stood still for me.

The Day the Music died...

I had spent the last 7 years or so playing with a regional band that had been together for a long time. It was Pentagon w/Rich Claar along with our 50's show and alter egos Rico & The Ravens. We did really well for a part time band and it was time consuming. Along with running our business it got to be too much and also I was really sick and tired of old rock and roll. It just got long in the tooth. If I had to play another Rolling Stones or Beatles tune... I thought I would die! So I "retired" from music. When many of my musician friends thought it was a temporary break, I assured them if I was ever going to pick it up again, it would be something totally new and different. Wow, the prophetic word there was incredible.

When I quit, I really quit. When someone would ask me if I still pick up the guitar much I'd reply "Yeah, sometimes I need to get something out of the closet and I have to pick it up to get it out of my way." I really didn't touch it for 5 years.

As I stated much earlier, we were attending a church on a semi regular basis. If it were up to my selfish desires, we would attend St. Mattress or Church of the Inner Springs every Sunday, but the family seemed to like going and it really wasn't that bad... besides I liked playing for the softball team. It makes me wonder how many people go to church every week and have absolutely no idea just who God really is...

I was starting to change inside, in the last few months since the incident with our daughter's friend, I was slowing down on my drinking and already I was convicted of the language I was used to using... outside of my kid's earshots... they still overheard a few vulgar words at times. When with friends, I would say 5 curse words to say 10 english. The last party we had, celebrating a friend's 50th birthday, in a drunken stupor one person accidentally exposed his naked back side to our eldest daughter... a sight she says she'll never forget, and thankfully she laughs about now. The Holy Spirit goes before to prepare hearts...

Then the email that would be the catalyst for the greatest change of my life came... Our worship leader at Community Fellowship Church, Rick called me and said:"I hear that you play guitar." I know where he heard that, as a close friend and Godparent to our children attended this church. To back up just a bit, the church was having a Marriage Retreat weekend in Inner Harbor, Baltimore that particular weekend. Bonnie wanted to go because she's never seen Inner Harbor and she thought it might be fun. It was the last place I wanted to be, surrounded all weekend with a bunch of goody two shoe Christians and I whined and complained enough that I wormed my way out of it. The reason that is important is because Rick was pleading with me that he just needed someone on guitar this week only because all the others were at the retreat. Oh man... I tried unsuccessfully to plead the case that I hadn't played in almost 5 years... I don't know the tunes... I was running out of excuses. As Rick said, "if you play with one hand and 3 strings... it will probably sound good." Sounds like someone was pumping me up to him! As it turns out, selfish as I was and with my wife denied what she wanted for the thousandth time, I agreed and figured it wouldn't be that bad. It was just one Sunday.

I received the original music and charts and proceeded to prepare. I noticed a couple of songs in particular that sounded really good. I was surprised at how good these songs sounded... and with my out-of-shape fingers already starting to hurt, I did my best... the ego kicked into gear and I decided if I was going to do this, they would get my best effort. And, they did. I "sold" the music just as any good showman would. I remember coming off the platform and the pastor saying "Boy you were full of the Spirit today, that was awesome." or something to that effect. I remember thinking to myself... yeah you Christians are so easily fooled. I wasn't full of anything other than myself and it felt good to have the old ego stroked again.

Once we got home, it was a different story. Bonnie was a little distant and feeling uncomfortable with the whole morning. Then the phone started ringing and people from church were starting to praise me more and tell me I should be on the worship team, they need me and all that. I really knew at that moment it wasn't going to happen but still it bothered Bonnie more with each passing moment. We had an argument about it as she thought I might be entertaining the thought of doing it even though I was a complete athiest. Which reminds me how strange it must sound to hear that an athiest would go to church on a semi-regular basis... as my pastor David said later on... I wasn't a very good athiest!

That evening is when every cell in my body was suddenly and abruptly changed! (See previous post) After having words with my wife, I went for a drive to smoke and cool off. That's when the power of God fell upon me in a most unexpected way. I don't remember pulling out and I don't remember pulling back in. It was what some would call a "Damascus experience". I left the house a Saul, and returned a very confused Paul. I was given a gift no man can give, a heavenly vision. In a matter of minutes, I met Jesus, He showed me the beginning, the end and all the answers to all the questions I ever had about God. The funniest thing I remember Him showing me was Nike sneakers... and the question He asked me was "How did my Word spread throughout the world in a time when the most common mode of transportation was leather thonged hiking, not to mention the whole world wanted to kill anybody speaking of Me... they didn't even have Nike sneakers, and yet My story spread like a wildfire in California during Santa Ana winds! The only answer was it was real. He then showed me 3 things that were going to happen to me. Number one: I was going to tell my father all about this. (Yeah right, the scariest guy in the world I knew, a lifelong athiest- or so I thought) Number two: Start practicing my guitar and learning songs because I would be leading worship soon... not just helping out. (Yeah right, fat chance... I retired and besides we had a worship leader at our church) and Number 3: This life is all about relationships. I was going to start healing relationships from my past and He would make it happen. (Remember, I hated people!- That would be a miracle!)

OK, deep breath time! I was sitting in my garage and the only way I knew I was back and not just leaving... I smelled like smoke. I was thinking one of two things just happened... either I just totally went bonkers and lost my mind or God is very real. I went with the latter. I've seen the psychiatric wards (visiting not residing). I was more sane than I've ever been in my life and I can't remember ever feeling so warm and fuzzy, shaky but yet at peace and more full of joy than a thousand bong tokes ever did for me! I felt so loved.

Next: Sharing it with my family and others...

ACTS 2:¹⁷" 'In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.

We've all heard the expression, "The truth hurts". It's only the receiver it really hurts though. I've learned that a true friend, the kind you never ever want to cut loose from your life, is the one who will tell you the truth regardless of how much it may hurt. A seed planted in the ground must first die in order to become what it is to become. There is no life until there is death. That is the truth.

We did alot of boating for quite a few years... our friends, the Hubers, moved to Illinois as I previously explained, took our favorite boat with them and we bought our own. We kept in close touch, writing lots of letters and we went out to see them and their new home. We arranged and met for boating vacations in a lake called Buckeye Lake in Ohio which was about the midway point between us. We stayed fairly connected regardless of the distance.

We quickly outgrew our first little boat and found another better boat for skiing. The pictures show John and myself in the bow of our second boat. You might notice if you saw all the pictures we have of those times that we always seemed to have a drink in our hands.... seeing a pattern here? Well, we boated, we skiied and we drank. We were good at it. I could probably drink a half a case in a day and still function "normally".

John and Judy were two of our closest friends and we enjoyed each other's company very much. So we were thrilled to find out after a couple of years in Illinois that John took another position out here and were moving back! We were thrilled... since we were Realtors at that time, we helped them find a new lot and builder as they built their new home. So we could boat together again and more often.

It wasn't long after they were back when we noticed something was different. John's new position meant more travel, more work and less time for fun. We didn't see them as much as we'd like. It wasn't the same as when we lived across the street from one another. That's about the time when tragedy hit them.

Their eldest son, Lance was tragically killed in an extremely violent truck accident. We tried to be there for them during these very stressful and grief filled times but we weren't properly armed and ready for anything like this. Nothing ever seemed the same between us after this event. We saw less and less of them, and their interest in boating seemed to be replaced with a new hobby, motorcycles. Soon after, John decided to quit the seed business (this will be a prophetic sign to remember later on) and move to Minnesota to help an ailing brother in his trucking business. Of course John turned that business around quickly and made it profitable as well. They built a new home again and settled in to their new place. We really started losing touch with them and the 19 hour travel distance seemed too much. Along with the change of Lance's death. We just drifted apart. We talked or wrote a few times a year... but nothing real heartfilled.

Their daughter Lonna had married and had children and stayed here. So once a year they would stop in while visiting the grandchildren, but it wasn't the same and always felt like a wedge between us. They kept asking us to come out and visit them and selfishly we decided it was too far to go. Sad isn't it. This is where God started getting involved.

This is the strangest part of all... and purely God. We had heard about other friends the Hubers had around here named Rich and Karen. John and Judy always said we'd really like them and we actually met them once or twice but only to say hello to. Now this next part starts getting a little involved, complicated and might seem totally unrelated.

Our eldest daughter Gretchen was trying to help a girl at school. Gretchen was a born again Christian. She found the Lord at an early age due to occasional weekends with her very religious grandparents (thank you, thank you, thank you Dean & Eileen) and because of that we were taking them to church... some Sundays. She was trying to counsel a girl with many problems and didn't seem to be making much of a dent in the situation. So she suggested that she ask someone at her church to help. Which she did and as it turns out, it was Rich & Karen. Strange coincidence?? I don't believe in them anymore... I call them God-weaving. So in talking with one or both of them, they found out the girl's name, Gretchen Horning at school who suggested this avenue and it rang a bell in them. The story that came back to us through this young girl was that she should first sever any ties to Gretchen because they knew of her parents and that they were bad people. We were wild party people, druggies and just very worldly humanistic heathens and Gretchen is bad seed from bad trees. Why would they think this of us, they didn't even know us and why would they be spreading these lies?

When this first got back to us, I wanted to go right over to where they lived and confront them! But the Holy Spirit (Bonnie) talked me out of it and forget it. I couldn't forget it. How dare somebody who doesn't know us say these things about us. That's when the Holy Spirit came into my life and started opening my heart... a kind of open heart surgery started taking place unbeknowst to me.

So meanwhile, living in this party house we built... just having the whole basement finished, complete with my life time dream of my own english pub with my custom built bar, started to lose a little of it's luster the next party we threw. There were a lot of drunk people but I hung back and restrained myself a little compared to the past. I started to notice our children hanging around, witnessing it all and then seeing ourselves making everything that was allegedly said about us seem more truth than fiction. Then the sneaky little trip up to my offices to smoke a little weed and it all hit me hard. I WAS exactly what was said about me! The truth hurts and cuts like a knife. But this is only the half of it... yes, the truth sure hurts and thank God for those bold enough to speak it forth!

Psalm 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.