Are you sleeping well at night?

     The days are flying by.  September 10^th and still almost 100 degrees up in the country.  I hear that cooler weather is coming our way.  I’m ready.  Aren’t you?  We had another great day this past Sunday (8^th) meeting with fellow Christians and guests (139) studying the Bible, remembering Jesus in communion, honoring God, and having our faith strengthened in worship.  I hope you are putting first things first.  God should always be first in life and living.  Life is simple.  We are the ones who complicate things.  We want too much.  We try too hard.  We make mountains out of molehills and molehills out of mountains.  We often say “Yes” when we should say “No.”  Then we say “No” when we should say “Yes.”  We speak when silence would have been so much better.  We are silent when a word fitly spoken would have been so right.  Now be honest.  Just how much of our precious time do we spend “surfing?”  You know what I’m talking about.  It could be “channel surfing” or “internet surfing.”  What about Facebook, Twitter, or Ebay?  Note that I wrote the word “we” rather than “you.”  It could be that couples forget how to communicate with each other because…really…how can two people communicate with her on one computer or Nook or IPad or IPhone and him on another all while the TV is noisily booming in the room.  What would happen at your house if you turned everything off, the TV, the computer, the cell phone (at least silenced it), the videogames, and any other electronic device.  When was the last time you heard silence.  What would you do?  Would you think to pray?  Would you look, actually look at your husband or wife, or at your children to love them and appreciate the beauty of the people around you, the people who love you and whom you love?  Would you think about God?  How blessed you are?  It could be that this is exactly what you and I need to do to clear our minds and our lives of all the clutter that makes life so complicated.  Try it.  Don’t be afraid.  Not too long ago I was in my office and had one of our Christian brothers stop in for a little advice.  He told me that he wasn’t sleeping very well at night.  He said that it took him several hours to get his mind settled so he could sleep and even then his sleep was often restless.  I asked him what he did just before he retired to bed.  His answer was his problem.  The last thing he did before he retired to bed was watch the evening news.  Now don’t get me wrong.  We need to stay informed about the world around us.  I suggested that he watch the morning news or maybe the early evening news and then before retiring to bed that he rest his thoughts on what is most important in life.  To me I often think of my grandchildren.  I think of Saturday’s soccer game when my seven year old grandson scored five (That is right) five goals.  I was there and enjoyed every moment of the game, even though it was 99 degrees in the shade.  I think of my eight year old granddaughter who just lost her second front tooth.  The image of her big smile will forever be etched in my mind.  I think of my 3 years old granddaughter has she rushes into my arms all the while yelling “PopPop, PopPop, you love me so much.”  Now that is the way to retire to bed at night, thinking of the precious, priceless, most important things in life.  As you can see, I sleep very well every night.  Sin always stands in the way of our peace and happiness.  This coming Sunday morning our sermon series will continue on “The Facts of Life.”  We have already looked at two facts of life; Life is Short and Eternity is Long.  This week we will look at Fact #3 – Sin is Terrible.  Sin IS terrible.  Sin will take you further than you wanted to go.  Sin will keep you longer than you wanted to stay.  Sin will cost you more than you were willing to spend.  When you are ready to let go of sin, sin is not ready to let go of you.  When you or I look at sin, we see power, prestige, position, or pleasure.  When God looks at sin, he sees His Son hanging, dying on the Old Rugged Cross.  Oh, that we would realize just how terrible sin really is.

Enough for tonight.  Know that Jesus Christ is the answer to sin.  John 3:16-17 is so simple and so wonderful.  I am a Christian.  Please think about becoming a Christian too.  It’s not complicated.  People complicate the plan of salvation.  God simplified it.  Believe in Jesus Christ.  Repent of your sins that have caused you so much trouble.  Confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Son of God.  Be baptized into Christ, immersed in water so that sin will be washed away.