Pray...Live...Work and Keep on Keeping on...

     Welcome!  Can you believe that this Lord's Day (29) marks the last Sunday in January? Our new president, Donald J. Trump will have been in office for nine days.  He has been given a great and awesome challenge.  It is the privilege and responsibility of every Christian in America to pray, live, and work “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior” (I Timothy 2:1-3).

     P-R-A-Y!  Let us accept the challenge to pray for those who serve us in Washington D.C. as well as in our state and local government.  The men and women who serve our nation certainly need our prayers to God on their behalf, prayers for God’s provision and protection for all of us.  God asks us to pray for the governing authority.

     L-I-V-E!  God has blessed us with the stewardship of His great riches.  Let us accept the challenge of living every day generously, faithfully, and completely using our time, talents, and treasures in the most effective and efficient way possible. 

     Sometimes it is difficult to balance living generously and living conservatively. Having the correct value system in place in our lives helps us to know when to “open” and when to “close”.  When it comes to God and the opportunities that come our way to serve others who are in need we should live our lives generously with our all.  However, when it comes to the things in life that are outside these priorities, we must live our lives conservatively.  At the beginning of each day we have a limited number of “yes’s” and “no’s” to give.  We all are limited in time, talent, and treasure.  Our task is to live generously saying “yes” whenever we can while at the same time understanding that after we have used our “yes’s” we only have the “no’s.”  After using all the “yes’s” for today we tend to begin borrowing “yes’s” from tomorrow.  Can you see where we often get into big trouble?

     W-O-R-K!  Now there’s something about that word that is scary to some, difficult for many, and almost unheard of for a few.  Yet any endeavor requires it.  Every accomplishment is achieved by it.  Our country was founded on it.  America has survived these many generations because of it, and will continue to thrive through it.  We will be judged by it one day (Revelation 20:12).  Jesus worked (John 9:4, 17:4).  Paul worked.  He fought the good fight.  He finished the race.  He kept the faith (II Timothy 4:7).  We are commanded to work (I Corinthians 15:58; II Thessalonians 3:10-15).

     Let’s remember God’s command in Philippians 2:14; “Do all things without complaining and disputing.”  And let us pray, and live, and work.  God will answer, and provide, and strengthen.

Happy to be Alive and Well in 2017 - God is Good!

We are now a week into 2017 and life is rolling along as it has since God spoke those famous words, “Let there be light.”  Spring into Summer into Fall into Winter and back around.  I’ve been making this circuit for the past 57 years 6 months 14 days in Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina, and now in Kentucky.  Plans are to keep on moving forward, onward, and upward though as the years progress the move has slowed a bit. 

My moto has always been “110%.”  However, after a bout with high blood pressure (The ER nurses measured mine at 243/134 on the day of my awakening) in May of 2016, that number has been reeled into a more realistic “99%.”  I told the church not too long ago that living life at 110% can kill you.  And I know.  Only by God’s grace and mercy am I sitting here today writing this blog strong and healthy and still serving the Lord as His minister and messenger with the good church at Watterson Trail in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. 

I am thankful for my Chiropractor brother Dr. Michael Burleson in Daphne, Alabama who woke me up to “the silent killer” that was trying to take me.  He all but came to Louisville and took me to get the help I needed.  I am thankful for my Christian brother Dr. Anthony Remson who opened early to measure my BP and send me straight to the ER for measurements, tests, the medicine I needed, and a better way of thinking to keep me balanced.  These two doctors were supplied by God Himself to save my life for God’s glory and honor.  I am thankful. 

2017 will be and is a grand year simply because I am alive and able to see and experience the glorious blessings of life.  I can feel the warmth and the cold of the seasons. I have my wife, my children and grandchildren, and my family and friends around me on this side of heaven.  I have a work to do for the Lord Jesus Christ that is vibrant and full of passion, wonder, and excitement.  2016 was a year of change for me.  What will this new year hold?  I don’t know, but I am certainly happy to have it and will gladly face any and every opportunity and challenge with a smiling face and a joyous spirit.  God is my refuge and strength.  He supplies our every need.