I am praying for God to create more and more middle-aged and elderly people who have a deep burning desire to make an impact for Jesus to the up and coming generations.

Who are the 30, 40, 50, and 60 year olds who are faithfully telling the children, teens, and 20 somethings about the glory and faithfulness of God? Where are they?

Check out these verses from Psalm 71:17-18:

“O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.”

If you are 30 years old or older, please consider this. What are you doing to tell the next generation? How is God using you to tell the younger folks? Someone has to tell them. Lets consider how to be used by God. Get involved.

Go do it! Go proclaim God’s might to another generation! It will be the most thrilling thing you have ever done.

That will make you think!

This morning in our Thursday Ladies Bible study, we spent 2 hours digging through most of the Book of Revelation. Verse 1:7 caught our attention and made us think.

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”

That lone verse will really make you think.

“He is coming.” “Every eye will see Him.” “All… will wail.” “Even so.” Wow!

Think about that verse along with Second coming teaching from 1 Thessalonians 5 and Acts 1, and it is enough to have you examining at how ready you are!

I love Crystal Lewis’s words from years ago “People get ready, Jesus is coming! Soon we’ll be going home.”

Josh Honeycutt:

“So…who is the blessed man of Psalm 1?  Taking into account the numerous lexical ties between Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, the blessed man of Psalm 1 is the Son of Psalm 2.  Well…who is the Son of Psalm 2?  He is the Messiah—Jesus Christ.”

Wow!

Josh Honeycutt’s blog is Dynameno.wordpress.com and this post is an excellent full of good insight with reading the Bible. This post is called ‘jeremiah 17’.

You can read the rest of that great post by clicking on the link below.

http://dynameno.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/jeremiah-17/

I love being a part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at local schools. This picture was taken at Fairdale High School today.  The F.C.A meets on Thursdays after school at 2:30. In this picture, FCA staff person and former University of Louisville football player, Scott Long is speaking to the students. The FCA at Fairdale High is led by teacher/coach Loren Renfrow. God is using Coach Renfrow in many ways at the school.

Galatians 6:14

“But far be it from me to boast except in THE CROSS of our Lord Jesus Christ”



To anyone who may be discouraged today because you know of people who need to be saved that continue to refuse to come to Christ;

To anyone who has lost their zeal and fervor to joyfully tell others about God’s saving grace and Jesus’ redeeming work;

To anyone who has not spoken of God’s love and Jesus’s cross in a long time;

Remember these words from Jesus (Luke 10:2):

“the harvest is plentiful”

What an encouragement! Those four words make me smile today.

I preached this past Sunday on Jesus’ temptations from Luke 4. You can hear the sermon here.

Jesus is tempted three different times by the devil.

• The first temptation is for Jesus to turn a stone into food. Jesus responds by saying “It is written, ‘Man shall not live bread alone.’”  Jesus was referring to the Old Testament. Moses wrote that in Deuteronomy 8:3.
• The second temptation is for Jesus to worship Satan and receive the authority and glory of the kingdoms of the world. Jesus responds by saying “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” Jesus was referring to the Old Testament again. Moses wrote that in Deuteronomy 6:13.
• The third temptation is for Jesus to test God by throwing himself off of a very high place. Jesus responds with “It is said ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus was referring to the Old Testament yet again. Moses wrote that in Deuteronomy 6:16.

Very impressive! Jesus practices what he preaches. He walks what he talks. Did you see that? Jesus’ first response to Satan was that even though he was very hungry (40 days without eating) he still found obedience to God better than sin. He says his sustenance is not food so much as it is God. Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.

Here is my point. Jesus then proceeds to counter every temptation with a passage of Scripture. It is as if Satan is trying to get Jesus to give in and sin, but Jesus replies all three times by saying “But God’s Word says this…”.

Wow. What a commitment to the Bible! It really is alive and powerful. Let the reader of Luke understand that Jesus found the Word of God to be so very valuable to his life in the midst of the temptations of the devil.

This past weekend my sons and I enjoyed watching so much good basketball. Can you guess who they were pulling for?

What is that you do? We all do something? Many people have a very specific skill set or giftedness and they use it well. Like an athlete or a public speaker. But I am talking about something a little bit different.

I am talking about whatever it is that you do.

For instance, just recently while doing the graveside service for a funeral, an older gentleman who has been in the funeral business for many years introduced me to one of the best grave diggers around. This older fella was bundled up in coveralls and his health is beginning to fade, but he has dug thousands of graves over the past 50 years. Thats what he does. He may not be able to do much more. He may do so much more. I honestly have no idea. But he does know how to dig graves.

Another example is a lady I remember from high school who is a teacher. She is such a good true and faithful teacher. She cares about the kids. She knows her subjects. She is very professional. She does teaching well. Thats what she does. She teaches.

Another example is my father. My dad has been in the box-making-business since he graduated high school. He is about to turn 60. He began at age 18. He is going on 42 years of making corrugated board. Thats what he does. Now I know my dad well, and I know that he can do many things well. But I also know that he would never ever like public-speaking. He would never ever like shopping or being into fashion. He would never like to be a teacher. There are many things he does not do. But when it comes to making boxes, boy can he do it. Everything there is to know or do about corrugated board, my dad can do it and do it well. Thats what he does.

What is that you do? Do you even do anything?

Here is the point I want to make: I am learning more and more that often life and faith is not so much about what we are doing but instead how we are doing it.

What is that you do? Whatever that is… maybe you are a dentist, a janitor, a coach, a carpenter, a mentor, a weightlifter, a receptionist, an accountant, a stay-at-home-mom or dad, a lawyer, a teacher, a student, or maybe you are even unemployed, or whatever is that you are doing…

DO IT WELL! DO IT WITH ALL YOUR HEART! AND DO IT FOR GOD’S GLORY!

That is so essential life. I know a grave digger who does it well. I know a teacher who does it well. I know a box-maker who does it well.  So think about this…. What do you do? But more than that… Do you do that thing well?

“Whatever you hand finds to do, do it with your might” Ecclesiastes 9:10

“Whatever you do… do it all to the glory of God” 1 Corinthians 10:31

“Whatever you do, work heartily” Colossians 3:23

I am thankful for a mom and dad who taught me to never do anything half-way or half-heartedly (you may have heard folks say another half-____). And now that I am follower of Jesus, I am thankful that God tells me the same. Whatever it is that I do, do it with all I got.

Like many people, prioritizing comes as a challenge to me.  Or maybe it is just laziness. I am not sure. Or maybe laziness is the reason I do not prioritize.

Here is what I mean, I can go days or weeks without straightening, cleaning, or organizing the things that I need to. And then whenever I finally get around to it, I go overboard. I spend too much time on it. I stay up too late, and I neglect other responsibilities. I should have just straightened sooner.

Or like with March Madness. This coming Thursday there will be 32 two-hour basketball games on TV. I will watch so many of them. As a husband and father, if I watch that much b-ball then I will probably be neglecting some things and then my priorities are out of focus.

I know what I want to prioritize, and I long to get better at it.

One of my top priorities is good, focused, quality, nothing-gets-in-the-way time with my boys. Like this weekend when the weather was great, I took JJ and Eli for a walk. We stopped by the creek. They asked if we could get close. So we did. I assured them it was too cold still to get in. JJ and I went swimming in the creek a lot last year. Eli was too small. So time at the creek is new to Eli. They love skipping rocks. So we did that for a while. Then we left and kept walking to the gas station. They wanted cookies and M&Ms. I bought both. They had eaten all the cookies and most of the M&Ms by the time I had paid.

Or like when I woke up the other morning and those two were shooting basketball in their bedroom.  As I went to see them, JJ asked “Do you want to play basketball with us?” Thats a dream come true to me. I dropped my Bible Studying immediately and went to shoot ball with them.

Or like Sunday afternoon when they wanted to play in the yard. I was teaching JJ to hit a pitch and Eli to hit off the Tee. The ground was wet from all the rain recently. When Eli would fall, it surprised him because it was the first time he ever had wet, dirty, grass on his hands. What a moment!

Or like the walk back from the store when I am teaching the boys one of my favorite Bible verses: Proverbs 1:7.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

JJ and I have been working on memorizing that one. They are kinda some bigger words for JJ, but he is slowly getting it.

My priority is for my sons to know how much I love God and them. I pray that they would really believe Proverbs 1:7. But also I pray that they would really see and understand that I really believe Proverbs 1:7.

May God continue to mold me into a Dad who fears the Lord, possesses knowledge, and does not despise instruction. And may I more and more prioritize my sons.