The Holy Highlights

Recently, my twenty-three-year-old son and I have had the blessed privilege of traveling out-of-town together on two occasions (and to be honest we have a third one on the calendar). While all of our roadtrips are sporting event destinations, I can honestly say that "the journey has been the destination" in each instance.

Indeed, on the highways and backroads to and from the sporting events, the totally vulnerable and heart-warming hours of sharing between daddy and son about earthly life, eternal life, and especially the marvelous mysteries of the Mind of Christ have been the holy highlights. Yes, the journeying conversations together have been much more full of wonder than the actual destinations.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (NIV) -- (5) Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (6) These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (7) Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (8) Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. (9) Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

My Faithful God, I am humbled, grateful, and speechless for Your blessings in my life. In the Name of Jesus, I desperately pray that future generations of our family will be told about the Lord. Let me stay in the Destination Conversation with my loved ones. Most of all I desire that our family circle will be unbroken in-the-sky, Lord, by-and-by. Amen.

Future generations will be told about the Lord. -- Psalm 22:30 (NIV)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

"Help My Unbelief!"

It was just before midnight. Because of snowy roads, I was driving my 22-year-old son to his night shift at the local radio station in my four-wheel-drive. We had a sacred and soul-searching talk about the Lord as we rode. Just before I dropped him off, and in light of our conversation about faith, my son asked: Dad, why do we tend to struggle trusting God concerning the future when He's always been so faithful in the past?

Mark 9:24 (NKJV) -- Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

This is my prayer and desire for me and my family, Lord:

For Your present and future favor, we ask!
In Your past and present faithfulness, we bask!

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Take Time to Be Holy

Today is my precious Mom's 68th birthday. I just talked with her on the phone. After I had spoken well wishes and given thanks for her life, she, as always, tenderly turned the conversation away from herself and to our Lord. She said. "Son, I haven't been able to get the words of that old hymn, Take Time to Be Holy, off of my mind."

Lord, I am so grateful for the gift of a Christlike Mom. Help her eldest son to saturate day-by-day in the words of the holy hymn that's on her mind today. In Jesus' Holy name, I pray. Amen.

Take Time to Be Holy -- William D. Longstaff, 1822-1894

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
abide in Him always, and feed on His word.
Make friends of God's children, help those who are weak,
forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
spend much time in secret with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy guide,
and run not before Him, whatever betide.
In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,
and, looking to Jesus, still trust in His word.

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,
each thought and each motive beneath His control.
Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,
thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful