Unique

I feel like a pressure cooker full of steam. It seems like I have a hundred things I want to write about, and I'm not where where to start. However I may burst if I don't write. Just to get the words flowing, here is an excerpt from a recent church service where Jim Andrews, a 30 year missionary to Peru, spoke to us:

Great harvest means great responsibility in the people - no pew sitting. "You stand on the front line of freedom." -Ronald Reagan to the troops between North and South Korea. This is true of us as well. We in the body of Christ - the church - are there to share the message: Jesus saves! He is the only way of salvation. His resurrection is unique. NO ONE else died and rose again to pay for your sin!

The world is incarcerated in death. There is no way out except receiving the sacrifice of Christ's death. Religion has trapped people in a system of trying to pay their own way.

Rom 4:25 - when our acquittal was secured then God raised Christ from the dead. IT'S PAID IN FULL!

Even after we've been freed there is a pull to go back into those religious ceremonies.  JESUS is the only life. He is the true life

I am Christ's personal representative. That living Christ who lives in me wants me to loose Him on humanity.! DO IT.
We're NORMAL, but NEVER nominal.

Another one of our instructors recommended Who Moved the Stone, by Frank Morrison as a good read about the truth of the resurrection. It's one of the books studied by Josh McDowell before he wrote Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Both of these men were atheists who decided to prove the resurrection was a hoax and in the process became believers themselves. Both books are going on my summer reading list. In the past I have been a good, pew-sitting Christian, and though I'm not that way anymore I want to keep fueling my fire to save people who are lost.

I challenge you to do the same.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. -Luke 19:10

No Fear

Winter holds no fear

for each one in her household

is clothed with scarlet.

-Proverbs 31:21

Day 8 without electricity. 48 hours to come up with $400 in tuition. Rent extremely past due and not sure which avenue it's coming from. Laptop forgets it has a network device, so no internet. Calling Mary Kay customers at the last minute...again. Perfect time to get a phone call about my grandpa. The cancer they thought was curable with chemo is not. Grandpa's diagnosis: 3 weeks to 3 months without treatment. 6-8 months with treatment.

Gut level - I'm not ready to say goodbye to my grandpa. He's the closest thing I have to a father. He gave me away at my wedding. I lived with my grandparents for five years during college. My first five years were spent with them, in the same house they live in now. Many would say living to your mid-eighties is a long time, but in my family we commonly live to ninety and beyond. That's what I want.

The hardest part is, as much as I love my grandpa and it tears my insides apart to say it...I'm not sure of his forwarding address. I know he's a good person, active in his church and community. He's a wonderful father and grandfather who loves his family more than anything. He went to every ball game and track meet and still does when he can. He's full of funny stories. He's the best pinouchle player. He's completely devoted and still in love with my grandmother who was his high school sweetheart. But...is he depending on all of that to gain access to heaven or is he depending on the only way - the risen Christ.

If I had that assurance, my goodbye would be much easier, though still painful. Without that assurance, goodbye is impossible. There's nothing good about it. So, my prayer is this: Father God, preserve my grandpa's life until his forwarding address is heaven - whether that's in three weeks or three years. He's not allowed to leave until I know we'll both be with You in heaven. Period. And I do have scripture for that.
Genesis 47:11-13

Joshua 2:18-21, 6:22-25

She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

-Proverbs 31:21

Rahab and her entire household (it says "her father's household") were saved from destruction at her request. She was old covenant. I've got even better promises! Glory to God.Joseph saved all of his father's household and preserved them from death during the famine. That's a old testament picture of salvation. Hallelujah!