Tuesday, September 26, 2017

I choose to kneel

Right now, in this very moment, I am choosing to kneel.  I am kneeling in prayer to the God that offers the only hope for the broken me and for the broken world.   I am praying that any person who feels that they have been treated unfairly and taken advantage of can find the support they need from the people around them so that they can be strengthened and encouraged.  I am praying that those people can be healed quickly.  I am praying for the people who feel pressured into taking a stand for something that they may not agree with in order to protect their job or their position.  I give thanks for the men and women who designed and formed our country giving me the ability to make this prayer today without fear of being imprisoned or worse.  I am praying for the service men and women who have offered their lives to protect those rights which were made available to me over 200 years ago.  I am praying that our president becomes more able to lead, encourage and solidify our people, and that people around him will help and encourage him.  Please kneel with me, and when you are done kneeling, let's walk into the world being lights that will reveal the full glory of our God.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Submission

Our Connect Group from church met last night for our first session focused on improving our marriage.  Last night we focused on the husbands.  Many men like to skip directly to the last half of Ephesians 5:24 where it says:  "wives should submit to their husbands in everything", conveniently skipping the surrounding verses.  It turns out that we are responsible for giving our wives something worthy of submitting to, and that is no small order.  Paul directs us to love our wives like Christ loved the church, and it just so happened that Christ was nailed to the cross for the the church, and for each one of us.  Now, I believe that many men would say that if they had to die to save their wife's life, they would do it, and I believe many would.  But the death that each of us must face is a daily death - a death to our own wants and desires with intense focus on what it is that our wives need.  I am sad to say that I fall short of this every day.  I know I have some serious work to do before I could ever expect to be worthy of my wife's submission.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Get Connected

We had the first meeting of our Fall Connect Group season last night.  Seven couples from The Vine Churchare meeting to learn about how to make our marriages stronger.  The group is being led by one of the members, and we have some literature to help lead us through.  I look forward to learning and to getting to know the other couples better.  I would encourage you to have a group of people that you can meet with regularly and be encouraged.  Let me know if I can help you get connected.

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Work It Out

For my first 20 years out of college, I worked in information technology sales.  I achieved success in the eyes of my employer, but there were many times when I didn't fully believe in the products I was bringing to my clients.  My jobs provided a salary, but not much more.  When I started selling real estate at Lake Hartwell, I believed from day one in what I was bringing to my clients.  I trust that my enthusiasm for and commitment to the lake is one of the primary reasons that my clients have trusted us to help them.  I love Paul's encouragement to the Thessalonians, and to all of us: "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. "  I hope and pray that you have work that satisfies your soul.