Let's start with Scripture ... "It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it" (Proverbs 10:22). I start with Scripture because it is amazing to me that the Lord of all creation, the sovereign God who created you and me, who knitted you and I in the womb of our mothers (PS 139:13) chooses to bless us, daily! Not only does He bless us richly beyond what we know to ask for, but also He does so even in light of each and every one of us having cried out, “Crucify! Crucify!” as along with the angry mob of Jesus’ own day, as Pilate offered Him to them.
In light of this, life itself is a new blessing each and every day, and it is God that ordains our breath and heart to beat at night while we sleep!
Anyway, back to blessings.
First, my folks are now in CR! Of all places in the world for their church in Birmingham to take a trip, the Lord is so good to bring them to the country where I am currently living! I was there at the airport at 1 AM Saturday morning to pick them up. They are not here visiting me, but rather the whole group is working with friends I know in San Jose – the Longs (http://longfamcostarica.blogspot.com/), they work with Christ for the City San Jose, CR … I can’t begin to describe how awesome and wonderful that family is! So, I got to hangout with the whole team on Saturday, including some good time with my folks. But what’s more than this, is that next weekend I get to hangout the whole weekend plus Monday and Tuesday with them! I will be back with their team this coming Friday and Saturday, until they leave back for the States. Afterward, my parents and I are going to get a hotel and hangout Saturday and Sunday. Then, its back to the base, and time for them to get a taste of what their son’s life is like on the farm! I can’t wait! It will be fun! So, it’s just so gracious of the Lord to let my parents and I to be in the same foreign country at the same time, and in close enough proximity to actually be able to hangout! Further, on the topic of parents, I must say, I have the most loving and amazing parents! One of the greatest blessings of my life are my parents. Not only are they great parents, but they are best friends to me too! We get along like I get along with my brothers, with friends from college, etc … that is truly a blessing from the Lord. Some might even think it a miracle based on their relationships with their own parents!
Another blessing of life is … life. On Saturday, two of our three pregnant goats gave birth! Dotty gave birth to 3 baby goats, Kami to two, and Ginger the third pregnant goat is probably going to give birth to three more – ANY MOMENT! I must say the “circle of life” in the animal world is amazing. Just this past week I met two, two day old calves. They have some way of being cute that I don’t know how to explain! And for the 5 new goats, they are very cute. It is a shame that they will grow up to be unruly and stubborn goats! Its also a shame they can go from being so cute to so … well, grown goats are just not cute or lovable in anyway! What a shame! Also, maybe a month or more ago, Amber our gold retriever gave birth to three puppies. Two were bought and are no longer here, but Creamita (Little Creamy) is still here and she is a joy to play with. She is still very floppy like puppies are, and so she is funny in that way too. She is so loving and lovable too!Lastly, and by far the most important blessing I wish to share is God’s love. Call it a cliché to write about, but its UNDENIABLY true. God’s love is the greatest gift we can ever experience in this life. The fact of the matter is this – God loves you better than you love yourself! He loves you perfectly, with His eternal, infinite, and infallible love! I can attest … I love me way too much, for I am so selfish, self-centered, prideful, and egocentric! And despite all this love for myself, God loves me infinitely more than I could ever! This insight came about today in my time with the Lord.
As we conversed this afternoon, He encouraged me to be totally honest with myself. I mean totally and brutally honest. And what came up is that there are parts of me, if I could, that I would change, parts of me that I view as imperfect, or not “up to par.” Not only is this sin, for I am rebuking God of His design, but it is also robbing God of the praise due Him for His workmanship called Adam! He created me just as I am, nothing is missing, and nothing is needed in addition. I am just the Adam He designed, and therefore I am a good creation, rather a perfect creation. We know from Genesis one that He creates nothing bad … and that includes you and I! But, before moving on, lets be sure we are straight, I am not a perfect creature … I am cursed with a hearth disease called SIN, but I am a perfect part of God’s wondrous creation!
And before I leave you with all this, I must share one last thing. Everyone who receives this email is a close friend or is family, but not everyone who gets this is a child of the God of the Bible. Not all of you are Christians, and I cannot in good conscience leave this email without encouraging you! First, you must know I love you very much, and the best way I can share my love for you is by offering a simply exhortation for you to seek out the truth about God, revealed to us in the Bible – God’s very spoken word. At the core of it all, is an unbelievably compelling story of love. It’s of a God who does not demand perfection, but rather seeks our abandonment to Him … it is not bondage, but freedom!
First, we must recognize that because of the first humans, Adam and Eve, that we are a cursed race, cursed so that sin and disobedience are our natural course! We are hostile toward a perfect – or holy – God. And because of His perfect nature, by virtue of it, He cannot allow sinful people to be in relationship with Him, or for that matter, spend eternity in heaven with Him. So, the immediate dilemma is clear, we as sinners are sentenced to hell for eternity, because sin is in our DNA!
But, as it seems hopeless, in His infinite storehouses of grace, mercy, and LOVE, He provides the means for our relationship with Him to be restored. He offers the gift of salvation! God the Father sent Jesus, God the Son to live in the form of humans, on the earth. The Bible speaks of Him as becoming to men “the very image of the invisible God” … Jesus is how we can know God now! As He lived and walked the soil of earth, He was given over to be crucified – all a part of God’s plan. As He was hanging on the cross, crucified and dying, because He is both God and man, full in both regards, He lived perfectly – or a totally holy life – a life that perfectly reflected the standard God has. As Jesus died, He took upon Himself the sin of all men. As He did this, He took upon Him the eternal judgment due to men who would spend an unending eternity in hell paying for his or her sin-filled life. What you or I could never pay for in an eternity in hell, Christ Jesus paid for in 3 hours on the cross, as He bore the full wrath of God. He died and was buried. Yet, as He is God, He not only conquered sin for man, but He conquered death – don’t miss this – He defeated death by coming back to life! That’s insane … and better yet, so unmistakably true!
He tells us in His scriptures, the Bible, that the man or woman, boy or girl who trusts Him to forgive his or her sins will indeed be forgiven, and given eternal life through faith in the Christ, that He died and rose again! In the book of Romans, in chapter 10 it states, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "(WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED … WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED" (v9-13).
If you have read all of this, thank you so much. What an honor that you would spend so much time keeping up with me, my life, and my thoughts and prayers!
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