2024
January
Rejected by God? by Bill Stough
February
Standing Before God Forever by Patricia Manning
March
Reading My Own Obituary by Bill Stough
April
The Gift of Life by Bill Stough
My Redeemer Liveth by Cynthia Saladin
January 2024
Rejected by God?
by Bill Stough
I crouched down in a ditch in a Chicago park, trying to not be seen as the police shined spotlights over my head. This ditch was now my bedroom, and I knew the danger I lived in. How could this happen? I couldn’t imagine being in this situation. Only two weeks before I was a student at Ambassador College in Pasadena, California and now things had come to this! I had to remain very still to avoid being seen and hoped I would not snore when I slept for that could draw people to me. This ditch would be my new home for several weeks. Anyone who found me there could have taken what little money I had and probably have killed me. I don’t know what the Chicago police would have done, but I didn’t want to find out! I believed I had turned my life over to God, and now I wondered about whether God would have anything to do with me. If he was with me, why had he led me to this low state?
As I crouched there I wondered if God was rejecting me, as some ministers had at least implied. I was fighting for my eternal salvation but it seemed I was now only a bum. Does God let a person become a homeless bum as an answer to prayer? How could God be working with me if he let me get into this demeaning and dangerous situation? Why was I now homeless and hungry? I had given up my career and put all my goals into God’s hands – but it seemed God didn’t want a person like me. None of what was happening to me seemed to fit what I believed would happen to a real Christian. Do you ever feel that God doesn’t care about you or that he has rejected you? I hope my story can help you.
There was an underlining belief that at that time (summer of 1963) that God would easily reject us. He wanted only certain types of personalities. At Ambassador in 1963 it seemed God was always “beginning to reject” this person or accepting another. There were some of us that didn’t have potential to become what God wanted and were encouraged to get out of “God’s college.” All except me did not return the following semester. But what is the truth about God ‘s acceptance or rejection by him?
“All that the Father gives me will come to me and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.”(John 6:37) KJV
“All that the Father gives me will come to me and him that comes to me I will never drive away.” (NIV).
Here are some lessons we can learn from experiences like mine:
First, God may lead us into unusual places and situations, and we may have trouble believing we are following his will. Secondly, God works strongly with us when we are young. Thirdly, God is molding us and is concerned about our latter end. Fourth, God is not in the business of rejecting people.
I was in Chicago that summer to try to change my basic personality to a type God could accept. It involved seeking work in areas that didn’t fit me, but I did it anyway. As it turned out my basic personality did not change, but God did work in me and made me unafraid of almost anyone or any situation. I learned much that summer. When I returned to Ambassador, I was shortly called to a meeting by some ministers to inquire why I had come back to Ambassador. My reaction to them astonished them.
I told them that in no way was I going to leave, and that they couldn’t make me. I told them my grades were good and that I had broken no college rules, so they had no basis for kicking me out. They sat there not knowing what to say. Apparently no one had ever spoken up to them. So they didn’t challenge me, and I was allowed to finish my Ambassador education. My basic personality was the same, but God had put confidence and conviction in me. God had indeed molded me that summer in Chicago. We might not think God works through letting us know homelessness and all the other things I went through that summer – including having five jobs! It was a summer to remember.
❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
"If you feel pain, you're alive. If you feel other people's pain, you're a human being.” - Leo Tolstoy
February
Standing Before God Forever
by Patricia Manning
As far as I know, the Bible records three people that have received a promise from God to “never lack a man to stand before Him”, meaning presumably that their descendants will continue until Christ returns. Take a moment now. Can you name these three? Much more importantly, do you know what they did to deserve such a distinction? Perhaps by studying their example, we as God’s people can more deeply understand what God wants from each of us.
The first of three was David. David fought Goliath while giving the credit to God. He also wrote music (psalms) giving praise to God. David led the armies of Israel under Saul, became the second king of Israel, and desired to build a house for God’s name. Solomon was his son as was Jesus Christ our Lord.
The second was Levi, one of the thirteen tribes that came out of Egypt. When Moses asked who was on the Lord’s side at Mount Sinai, they were the only ones who stepped forward. They chose to follow and obey God above love for their Israelite relatives (Deu 33:8-9). They gave up any inheritance in the land to serve as intermediaries between God and His people (Deu 18:1), and they provided service to God. For example, they were responsible for carrying the frames and accessories of the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Num 4). Of David and Levi God says, “Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers.” Jer 33:20-21. The tribe of Levi shares many similarities with Christian disciples who, likewise, are devoted to God more than their relatives (Luke 14:26), renounce all that they have (Luke 14:33), and carry the cross of Christ (Luke 14:27).
The third was Jonadab. Our introduction to Jonadab is found in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah had the irksome task of telling the house of Judah that they were destined for captivity in Babylon. In fact, their three-tiered deportation occurred during his forty-year watch. During Zedekiah’s reign (the last king of Judah) God arranges for Jeremiah to meet the descendants of Jonadab. The story is found in Jeremiah chapter thirty-five. Of Jonadab God says, “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.” Jer 35:19
What did Jonadab do to obtain such honor from God? He raised obedient children. Wow! Did you know that raising those little tykes to be obedient is one of the most important things you can do to worship God? Did you know a progenitor who can raise obedient children is on the same level as David and Levi? I didn’t.
Perhaps I should have known, though, because God says to the children of Israel many times concerning His commandments, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deu 6:7 ; Deu 11:19; Deu 4:10. God said something similar of Abraham, the friend of God, “For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” Gen 18:19.
Hopefully all of us can benefit from the examples of David, Levi, and Jonadab. I hope we are encouraged to continue in their spiritual lineage - doing righteousness and justice as they did. May God give us confidence to endure in teaching our children and grandchildren to do the same.
🧵 🪡 🧵 🪡 🧵 🪡 🧵 🪡
One day on the way home from church a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, the preacher's sermon this morning confused me."
The mother said, "Oh! Why is that?
The girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?"
"Yes, that's true," the mother replied.
"He also said that God lives within us. Is that true too?"
Again the mother replied, "Yes."
"Well," said the girl, "if God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn't He show through?"
March
Reading My Own Obituary
by Bill Stough
The sign on the marquee outside the funeral home in St. Clair, Missouri, read: “William Stough; graveside; Jefferson Barracks.” It had been posted July 13, 2007, and stayed there until Monday, July 16. In a town where I am well known, this created quite a stir. Phone calls were being made to friends of mine asking what had happened. There had been no indication that anything had been wrong with me, but people can die very suddenly. That occurs commonly and can happen to any of us.
The obituary was actually referring to my 95 year-old father, who had just died and with whom I had been spending extensive time as his death approached. But in this community I am the one who is well-known, and he is not. His name is also William, although I go by Bill. When a store in adjacent Union, Missouri, inquired
if I were dead, I told them (as Mark Twain was once said to have declared), “The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
Nonetheless as I read that marquee, I thought about how that could be me. Indeed, one day I will be joining him.
We don’t like to think about it, but a wise person will occasionally meditate on the fact that death is in our future. It is wise to make our days count.
It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart (Eccles. 7:2, NIV).
God wants us to have our heads screwed on straight and seek him while we are alive. Note what Solomon writes in Eccl. 12:1-2, 5-7:
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; . . . because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets; or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
I once made a service call to a recently retired man, and he was showing me about his home and pointing out all the improvements he was making. Then he suddenly stated, “I wonder if I shouldn’t be putting some time and effort into God and eternal life rather than just this house only.” He caught me by surprise, but we had a good discussion following that. Shouldn’t we all listen to my customer’s concern?
It’s easy to get snared in the here-and-now, and Satan would love it to be that way. In Matthew 13, Christ gave the parable of the sower and the seed. He describes being overly concerned with the cares of this life (verse 7-9 and 22). It is compared to thorns choking the growth of a plant. Always remember that this life is short, and something far more important lies ahead. Put efforts there and not just into the cares of this life. We each need to be a praying person and be involved in helping others. Use your gifts. Don’t let fear paralyze you. Don’t be stopped by the fact that “someone else can do it better.” Do things anyway. We don’t have forever in this life. Make it count.
What good is pursuing money? I have known so many who did nothing but that. But they died, and how did that money help them? What will they have when they come up in the resurrection? And what good is pursuing power and recognition in whatever personal form it takes for us? All these things will be gone when it is our name posted outside the funeral home.
Jesus wants us to seek him and his righteousness and let him be the provider (Matt. 6:33-34). If we do that, we don’t have to be obsessed with what it takes to survive in the here-and-now.
David brings out the motivation an older person should have in Psalm 71:17-18: Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come (NIV).
Jesus knew he had a short time to do his work. He died before he was 34 years old. “As long as it is day I must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. while I am in the world, I am the light of the world (John 9:4-5, NIV).
We too must work on things that matter while it is day. When we die, it is night. Your name will at some future time be posted outside a funeral home.
God remembers us and what we have done. Job described it elegantly in Job 14:14-15: “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made” (NIV).
💐 🌷 💐 🌷 💐 🌷 💐 🌷
April
The Gift of Life by Bill Stough
There was a time when you and I did not exist Then suddenly we were! We have no personal memory of what it was like years before we were born, for we were not. Then suddenly, with no planning of our own, we were given life.
A child in a good home has a deep love of life. He enjoys playing, skipping, running, and many more things. I can vividly remember getting up in the morning when I was a child and how much I enjoyed eating, and I still do. I would go out and run up and down my neighborhood in San Francisco. My neighborhood friend (Roy) and I would build forts out of bushes. We would dig holes and hide in them. Why we liked all that is hard to explain other than it is a love of life.
As we got a little older, Roy and I developed a desire to climb every fence in the neighborhood. If it was a difficult job, then we worked on techniques until we could do it. There was something inherent in us that made us want to be able to do what seemed hard to do. The neighbors probably didn’t like us climbing their fences, but they usually let it go without complaining.
Roy and I wanted to explore everything. We played hide-and-seek with kids in the neighborhood. We liked jumping off of wood piles and anything else we could find. My boyhood friend, Roy, with whom I maintained contact until his death, remembered all the things we used to do and marvels at how much we were into life. And all these things are merely types of what is planned for us by God. Life is worth so very much. It is our greatest gift.
Why are we the way we are? We were made to want to learn, to experience life, and to do new things even if they are difficult. God put that in us. I could see that there was some kind of drive in me that wanted to overcome obstacles. That too is something God has put in people. God put it in us because he is that way too. We are, after all, his children, and children are very much like their parents in some ways, even from birth.
Roy and I used to dream about what it would be like to explore the universe, and we’d talk about it. Before we were even yet teenagers, we’d imagine what an incredible thing it would be to stand on the moon. We’d walk around in spacesuits, examine features, and look at the Moon Mountains. And what was Mars like? Nobody had seen a clear picture of Mars at that time. We wished we could go there and find out. This was how we talked in the early 1950s, long before space flight. There was something in us that seemed to know no bounds. Our minds were not tied up in knots. We had been given minds that were creative and that could think in vast ways. That, too, tells us something about God and the kind of mind he has, for all we have comes from him.
I see the love of life in my grandchildren. They become excited and enthusiastic about so many things. Sophia and Ethan love running through puddles barefooted. Do you remember how much fun it was to go running around barefooted? All this would not be possible if we hadn’t been given life and the innate love of life that is just somehow inside us.
What are we to learn from this?
This life and our desires to fully experience the good things of life is merely a shadow - a prototype - of what God intends to give us. It also tells us something about him.
God has given us a desire to live forever. We are driven to love life forever. But the love of life that we have now is only a foretaste of what kind of a life is ahead for us as spirit beings (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). And just as a child who is born didn’t give himself that life, neither can we give ourselves life. But it is something Jesus and the Father want to give us, and they can.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full . . . My sheep listen to my voice: I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand (John 17:1-2).
There is a time period in this human life when many, if not most, people want to have children. In effect, they want to give life. And when they do, the child is precious to them. They will guard and look out for their child and seek to see that he has a full, abundant life. All of this tells us something about God, for we are given our human desires by God. And this life is nothing compared to the type of life that lies ahead. So many of the desires we find in ourselves were put there by God and tell us something about what he is like.
I described how Roy and I had some innate craving to overcome obstacles, to accomplish, to create. We also wanted to build things. (Roy, incidentally, became a building contractor.) It may seem trite at times to say “God is Creator.” But it is a profound truth, and it is not just what he has done in the past, for he continues to create. After all, that is his nature. We like to build, do things, and accomplish things. That tells us something about what God is like. He does things. He doesn’t sit on a park bench waiting for things to happen. The Father loves life, and he has put those inclinations right in us.
We must not become discouraged by trials, for a kind of life is ahead that will dwarf the one we know now. And our Father will get us there, for he is not put off by our difficulties. He doesn’t quit, any more than Roy or I would give up when we set our minds to do something. The gift of eternal life lies ahead, so we should not grow weary in well doing.
Think about what God is like in the ordinary things of daily life. Remember God when you see children playing in puddles. Love life now, but know that an even more dramatic, exciting, and fulfilling life lies ahead.
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
My Redeemer Liveth
by Cynthia Saladin
I got the phone call that my Uncle Dick died early this morning. There is grief because Uncle Dick was a great guy (as human beings go) and his family loves him so much. But there is also relief because his last two weeks were especially rough; he is now no longer suffering. And overarching all of the mix of emotions is our belief that he will be resurrected again - because of what Jesus did on our behalf (John 3:16). We look forward to seeing so many of our loved ones again because my Redeemer liveth!
Job knew this! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another (Job 19:25-27).
Jonah knew this! yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. . . . But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord! (Jonah 2:4, 9)
Martha believed that Lazarus would live again! I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day (John 11:24)!
But this hope is predicated on the assumption of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter what great works you do or how holy you think you are, if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter (Matthew 7:23). That’s why what we do this month is so important! The communion service is that time of coming before God, having examined ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-28) and having reaffirmed that we need Jesus Christ to save us (1 Corinthians 7:24-25), and reaffirming our covenant with Him in Christ (John 13:8, Matthew 26:26-28). It’s followed with our obedience - having just renewed the covenant telling Him that we would obey Him!!! - of celebrating the Days of Unleavened Bread and eating unleavened bread for seven days. It’s an unmistakable picture of taking Jesus Christ into us; in obedience, of hungering for Him and subsisting on that Bread of life so that He exudes from every pore of our being.
This is not just some religious festival. This is Life! And this is not just about our physical life in this world; it’s about eternal life with the Creator of the universe. The stakes are incredibly high; why would you devote less than your full attention to preparing for these days?!
There’s a saying: “You only go around once in life, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Doing it right HAS to be founded on Jesus!
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
by Bill Stough
The sign on the marquee outside the funeral home in St. Clair, Missouri, read: “William Stough; graveside; Jefferson Barracks.” It had been posted July 13, 2007, and stayed there until Monday, July 16. In a town where I am well known, this created quite a stir. Phone calls were being made to friends of mine asking what had happened. There had been no indication that anything had been wrong with me, but people can die very suddenly. That occurs commonly and can happen to any of us.
The obituary was actually referring to my 95 year-old father, who had just died and with whom I had been spending extensive time as his death approached. But in this community I am the one who is well-known, and he is not. His name is also William, although I go by Bill. When a store in adjacent Union, Missouri, inquired
if I were dead, I told them (as Mark Twain was once said to have declared), “The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
Nonetheless as I read that marquee, I thought about how that could be me. Indeed, one day I will be joining him.
We don’t like to think about it, but a wise person will occasionally meditate on the fact that death is in our future. It is wise to make our days count.
It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart (Eccles. 7:2, NIV).
God wants us to have our heads screwed on straight and seek him while we are alive. Note what Solomon writes in Eccl. 12:1-2, 5-7:
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; . . . because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets; or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
I once made a service call to a recently retired man, and he was showing me about his home and pointing out all the improvements he was making. Then he suddenly stated, “I wonder if I shouldn’t be putting some time and effort into God and eternal life rather than just this house only.” He caught me by surprise, but we had a good discussion following that. Shouldn’t we all listen to my customer’s concern?
It’s easy to get snared in the here-and-now, and Satan would love it to be that way. In Matthew 13, Christ gave the parable of the sower and the seed. He describes being overly concerned with the cares of this life (verse 7-9 and 22). It is compared to thorns choking the growth of a plant. Always remember that this life is short, and something far more important lies ahead. Put efforts there and not just into the cares of this life. We each need to be a praying person and be involved in helping others. Use your gifts. Don’t let fear paralyze you. Don’t be stopped by the fact that “someone else can do it better.” Do things anyway. We don’t have forever in this life. Make it count.
What good is pursuing money? I have known so many who did nothing but that. But they died, and how did that money help them? What will they have when they come up in the resurrection? And what good is pursuing power and recognition in whatever personal form it takes for us? All these things will be gone when it is our name posted outside the funeral home.
Jesus wants us to seek him and his righteousness and let him be the provider (Matt. 6:33-34). If we do that, we don’t have to be obsessed with what it takes to survive in the here-and-now.
David brings out the motivation an older person should have in Psalm 71:17-18: Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come (NIV).
Jesus knew he had a short time to do his work. He died before he was 34 years old. “As long as it is day I must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. while I am in the world, I am the light of the world (John 9:4-5, NIV).
We too must work on things that matter while it is day. When we die, it is night. Your name will at some future time be posted outside a funeral home.
God remembers us and what we have done. Job described it elegantly in Job 14:14-15: “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made” (NIV).
💐 🌷 💐 🌷 💐 🌷 💐 🌷
April
The Gift of Life by Bill Stough
There was a time when you and I did not exist Then suddenly we were! We have no personal memory of what it was like years before we were born, for we were not. Then suddenly, with no planning of our own, we were given life.
A child in a good home has a deep love of life. He enjoys playing, skipping, running, and many more things. I can vividly remember getting up in the morning when I was a child and how much I enjoyed eating, and I still do. I would go out and run up and down my neighborhood in San Francisco. My neighborhood friend (Roy) and I would build forts out of bushes. We would dig holes and hide in them. Why we liked all that is hard to explain other than it is a love of life.
As we got a little older, Roy and I developed a desire to climb every fence in the neighborhood. If it was a difficult job, then we worked on techniques until we could do it. There was something inherent in us that made us want to be able to do what seemed hard to do. The neighbors probably didn’t like us climbing their fences, but they usually let it go without complaining.
Roy and I wanted to explore everything. We played hide-and-seek with kids in the neighborhood. We liked jumping off of wood piles and anything else we could find. My boyhood friend, Roy, with whom I maintained contact until his death, remembered all the things we used to do and marvels at how much we were into life. And all these things are merely types of what is planned for us by God. Life is worth so very much. It is our greatest gift.
Why are we the way we are? We were made to want to learn, to experience life, and to do new things even if they are difficult. God put that in us. I could see that there was some kind of drive in me that wanted to overcome obstacles. That too is something God has put in people. God put it in us because he is that way too. We are, after all, his children, and children are very much like their parents in some ways, even from birth.
Roy and I used to dream about what it would be like to explore the universe, and we’d talk about it. Before we were even yet teenagers, we’d imagine what an incredible thing it would be to stand on the moon. We’d walk around in spacesuits, examine features, and look at the Moon Mountains. And what was Mars like? Nobody had seen a clear picture of Mars at that time. We wished we could go there and find out. This was how we talked in the early 1950s, long before space flight. There was something in us that seemed to know no bounds. Our minds were not tied up in knots. We had been given minds that were creative and that could think in vast ways. That, too, tells us something about God and the kind of mind he has, for all we have comes from him.
I see the love of life in my grandchildren. They become excited and enthusiastic about so many things. Sophia and Ethan love running through puddles barefooted. Do you remember how much fun it was to go running around barefooted? All this would not be possible if we hadn’t been given life and the innate love of life that is just somehow inside us.
What are we to learn from this?
This life and our desires to fully experience the good things of life is merely a shadow - a prototype - of what God intends to give us. It also tells us something about him.
God has given us a desire to live forever. We are driven to love life forever. But the love of life that we have now is only a foretaste of what kind of a life is ahead for us as spirit beings (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). And just as a child who is born didn’t give himself that life, neither can we give ourselves life. But it is something Jesus and the Father want to give us, and they can.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full . . . My sheep listen to my voice: I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand (John 17:1-2).
There is a time period in this human life when many, if not most, people want to have children. In effect, they want to give life. And when they do, the child is precious to them. They will guard and look out for their child and seek to see that he has a full, abundant life. All of this tells us something about God, for we are given our human desires by God. And this life is nothing compared to the type of life that lies ahead. So many of the desires we find in ourselves were put there by God and tell us something about what he is like.
I described how Roy and I had some innate craving to overcome obstacles, to accomplish, to create. We also wanted to build things. (Roy, incidentally, became a building contractor.) It may seem trite at times to say “God is Creator.” But it is a profound truth, and it is not just what he has done in the past, for he continues to create. After all, that is his nature. We like to build, do things, and accomplish things. That tells us something about what God is like. He does things. He doesn’t sit on a park bench waiting for things to happen. The Father loves life, and he has put those inclinations right in us.
We must not become discouraged by trials, for a kind of life is ahead that will dwarf the one we know now. And our Father will get us there, for he is not put off by our difficulties. He doesn’t quit, any more than Roy or I would give up when we set our minds to do something. The gift of eternal life lies ahead, so we should not grow weary in well doing.
Think about what God is like in the ordinary things of daily life. Remember God when you see children playing in puddles. Love life now, but know that an even more dramatic, exciting, and fulfilling life lies ahead.
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️ ⛵️
My Redeemer Liveth
by Cynthia Saladin
I got the phone call that my Uncle Dick died early this morning. There is grief because Uncle Dick was a great guy (as human beings go) and his family loves him so much. But there is also relief because his last two weeks were especially rough; he is now no longer suffering. And overarching all of the mix of emotions is our belief that he will be resurrected again - because of what Jesus did on our behalf (John 3:16). We look forward to seeing so many of our loved ones again because my Redeemer liveth!
Job knew this! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another (Job 19:25-27).
Jonah knew this! yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. . . . But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord! (Jonah 2:4, 9)
Martha believed that Lazarus would live again! I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day (John 11:24)!
But this hope is predicated on the assumption of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter what great works you do or how holy you think you are, if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter (Matthew 7:23). That’s why what we do this month is so important! The communion service is that time of coming before God, having examined ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-28) and having reaffirmed that we need Jesus Christ to save us (1 Corinthians 7:24-25), and reaffirming our covenant with Him in Christ (John 13:8, Matthew 26:26-28). It’s followed with our obedience - having just renewed the covenant telling Him that we would obey Him!!! - of celebrating the Days of Unleavened Bread and eating unleavened bread for seven days. It’s an unmistakable picture of taking Jesus Christ into us; in obedience, of hungering for Him and subsisting on that Bread of life so that He exudes from every pore of our being.
This is not just some religious festival. This is Life! And this is not just about our physical life in this world; it’s about eternal life with the Creator of the universe. The stakes are incredibly high; why would you devote less than your full attention to preparing for these days?!
There’s a saying: “You only go around once in life, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Doing it right HAS to be founded on Jesus!
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