Great times!

 

This past weekend, Marleen and I attended a wedding in Ohio.  Friends came from North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Ireland, and Romania.  What a thrill to see a sweet Christian couple make a lifelong commitment to one another.  And, one of the fringe benefits was visiting with my family.  I love to see my children, but I love, love to see my grandchildren.  But now I have a great-grandson!  I suppose I love, love, love to see him!  Ha, ha!  And the best part is that his sweet parents take him to church each week!  What a blessing to grow up in a Christian home!  I did!  And now Titus is!  Psalm 127:3-5 “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them ,,,”

Little Jimmy

 

Sometimes you have to go with what you have.  Let me explain.  I used to go over to my cousin’s house in the summer and spend the night with him.  Gene was the only son with two sisters.  I’m not throwing off on sisters, mind you, I’m just saying that Gene liked it when I came over.  Their house was on the side of a steep hill with a driveway running down the hill to the house from the hard road.  Which leads me to “go with what you have.”  Georgie S. from next door would come over and we would play baseball.  But we always had to bat across the driveway because hitting the ball uphill or downhill was a problem.  Often a rolling ball would go into the culvert that ran under the driveway. Since the driveway ran straight down the hill, the culvert going under it was almost level and the ball would always get stuck, and usually in the middle.  And there was only one kid in the neighborhood small enough and spunky enough to crawl into the culvert: Georgie’s little brother, Jimmy.  But Jimmy was wise to us older boys, and he would negotiate BEFORE retrieving the baseball from the culvert.  Jimmy’s only condition was to let him play ball with us.  Jimmy was too little and too slow and couldn’t hit the ball and couldn’t catch the ball, but we needed him to retrieve “culvert balls”.  So, Jimmy got to play.  We realized that we needed him, and we had to let him have his way.  Hey, that’s the way I am with the good Lord in my life.  When trouble comes my way, I realize that I need God.  I am reluctant and proud, but eventually I realize that it is ME who needs HIM.  But don’t judge me; you need God too!  Whether you realize it or not, someday soon, you will need the good Lord.  And God has only one condition: turn your life over to Him.  Let Him control your life.  Paul said in Philippians 2:10&11, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, … and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Hey, trust God and let God have your life.  You’ll never be sorry that you did.

Bargains

 

I like bargains, don’t you?  So, a while back, I went into Tractor Supply (my candy store) and found that they were discontinuing my favorite jeans.  Bummer.  But because they were being discontinued, the prices were slashed.  Cha-ching!  I found two pair that were my waist, but two inches too long.  No problem; I can cut them off.  They were marked down from $24.99 to $14.99 WITH an extra 25% off the ticketed price!  Now, that’s what I call a bargain!  But I have an even better bargain than that!  God gives us eternal life for free!  Jesus Christ has already paid for it.  All we have to do is accept His free gift.  But wait, that’s not all (do I sound like an infomercial?).  Then God gives us the Holy Spirit to motivate, empower, and direct us.  Again, for free!  And when we get to heaven, God will give us a reward for doing what He empowered us to do!  We get everything for free PLUS He gives us a reward in heaven!  Now that’s a real bargain!  I Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”