Dear Ones,

     In the course of life we are exposed to loss continually.  In some ways it is like our employment.  One works with a co-worker week in and out for years and then they retire, transfer or quit.  It is hard to imagine their being absent at first but work continues and in no time at all our old colleague is a fading memory.  The new folks on the job don’t remember them at all and being preoccupied with work, we remember them less  ourselves.  I think that this is what Solomon meant in Ecc 1:11 when he declared, “There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.”  We are threatened by this.  We erect headstones, build monuments etc.  We make fine-sounding pronouncements about people’s deeds being immortalized and promptly forget.  There is the old joke about a little boy seeing a plaque on a church wall and who asked the pastor what it meant.  The pastor replied that it was in honor of those who died in the service.  To which the little boy asked, “The first or second service?”  I have walked through many churches and seen such plaques and wondered if anyone attending remembered these folks?  Even so do we pass out of this life.  Make your calling and election sure!  Seek the Lord.  (2 Pet 1:3-11) Know that He knows you; that He is not the God of the dead but of the living.  When I am absent from this body, I will be with Him.  I am with Him now, but life presses in and makes it hard to focus.  Do you know who you are?  Are you focused on things of eternal value?  It is a good thing to daily evaluate priorities.  I want to invest in things that last.  How about you?  And long after this life is a distant memory, I will be with the Lord and with His people.  I rejoice in the certainty that He knows us and will never forget us.      

Dear Ones,
     It seems that we are finally at a point where the long dry cycle is breaking.  The forecast for the next week promises rain and snow.  The thirsty ground will soak it up!
Every time the wind blew it raised dust at our home.  It reminds me that although it has been acutely dry, it will be wet again.  And no matter how wet it gets in the foreseeable future, it will eventually be dry again too.  
     How is it with your soul?  Some of us are growing, rejoicing and living with the sense of God’s presence.  It is exciting, and enjoyable.  Some are “dry” as dust and hanging on by our fingernails.  And some of us are in between.  In scripture we are exhorted to live by faith, not by sight.”  Not to go with strictly how we feel but with what we know.  It needs to be the way we deal with things but it isn’t always easy.  The testing of our faith and the place where solid growth takes place is for me most often found in those dry times.  Abraham sought God for years when it seemed as if his prayers would never be answered.  God called him at the age of 75 and informed him of the pending answer to his prayers when he was 99.  In proverbs it declares that “hope deferred makes the heart sick.”  It must have been tough.  We compress the story of Joseph into a few chapters.  In one he is in prison, in another he is prime minister to Pharaoh.  It is easy to forget that he was an exile from his home and family, a slave and then a prisoner for 13 years.  How he must have suffered from discouragement!  Yet he sought the Lord.  When I see someone who is being used mightily of God I know that they have most likely sought Him over a long period of time.  Times with both highs and lows.  God prepares us in the droughts.  As we seek Him even while feeling empty and out of touch, He works in us.  Anyone can enjoy the heady mountaintop times.  But to seek Him in the “valleys” is an act of faith.  
     Are you seeking Him?  Do you persist even when you feel dry as dust?  Do you walk by sight or by faith?  God will be found by us when we seek Him with all of our heart.  
It is an act of faith to pray, to be in the word, to seek out the fellowship of others when we do not feel like it.  It is an act of faith to run after God when He feels distant.  
    It is supposed to snow and rain!  It is inconvenient but so needed.  Cindy and I planted a lot of tulips this fall and winter.  I want ’em to grow, bud and bloom.  I hope to get a glorious Spring show out of them before the gophers discover them.  Although it was dry when we planted them, we did so in faith that moisture would come.    Rejoice 

              

Dear Ones, 
     Dates on a calendar are merely humanly contrived ways to measure time.  There is a cyclic rhythm to its passing.  In some cultures people just live without consciously marking anything but the present.  They remember past events but dates matter little if at all to some.  But the remembrance of past events and the conscious awareness of time’s passing is a very biblical thing to do.  “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Ps 90:12).  “Remember Him - before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well…” (Ecc 12:6).  We are exhorted throughout the scriptures to remember God’s past faithfulness and to seek Him in the present.  I always profit from a review of my life thus far.  It prompts me to praise the One who made, called and has sustained me to date.  As redeemed people, it is good for us to both purpose to remember God’s faithfulness and to seek Him now, in the moment in which we are living.  Days, months, years, decades, holidays and life spans will pass, yet He remains constant in all the seeming order and chaos.  Let’s see - I am in the middle of my 57th year.  Not counting the time since my last birthday that gives fifty seven times 12 equals 684 months, or 20,805 days (not counting leap years).  Holidays, birthdays, events get blurry in one’s memory and things run together.  Yet in all this there is a constant - God!  His mercy flavors my memories though tough as well as triumphant times.  In all the transient happenings of our lives, this exhortation never changes although it can be expressed in a variety of ways: “Keep the faith,” “stay the course,” “run the race,” fix your eyes on Jesus.”  Dear one, now is the appointed time!  Today is the time of God’s favor.  Seek Him, serve Him, enjoy Him.  God is the Lord of eternity, the “Potentate of Time.”  While to us it may seem that our lives are running through our fingers like a handful of sand it is how we are spending that which He has given us that matters, not the mere fact of its passing.  Each day when we arise praise Him for it.  Praise Him for one more opportunity to serve, know and live as His child.  A time is coming when time shall have no further relevance to us, when we shall simply be as He is and always has been.  And eternity will be all the more enjoyable because we will be there together.   
     On another note, we are starting a new bible study on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 PM on "Bible Basics."  It will meet at the parsonage and will begin at 7:00 PM and end at 8:30 PM.  The study begins next Tuesday (the 9th).  For more information call 530 249-0923.