Announcements:
- Remember to pray for the future ministry of Harbor House. Spend some time this week in prayer, thought, and imagination. We'll be having a meeting soon to discuss some new ideas and exciting opportunities for ministry.
Updates:
- Aaron is back from summer camp and had a fabulous time!
- Dwayne’s recovery from surgery is coming along nicely.
Praise Reports:
- Elaine is thankful for her goat getting better.
- Amber has been transferred to the Walmart in Jane, MO, much closer to home.
- Vanessa had a niece get married last week.
- David and his staff were blessed with a good auction.
Prayer Requests:
- One of Shelly’s alpacas is in very bad condition.
- Roy and Shelly—may God bring them closer to Him
- Pam—as she struggles with her mother’s death
- Aaron—that he would grow spiritually and make wise decisions
- Levi—military training in Nebraska and future deployment
- Preston Hayes—comfort for his family after the loss of their loved one
- Kyle Kirkland—mobility, strength, and love of the Lord
- Ken and Joyce—their travels in Iowa and Minnesota
- Mary—health and wellbeing
- The Allens—strength, wisdom, and grace for Brenna as she starts school
- Our Nation
- Sulphur Springs and its leaders
Solitary Confinement at Alcatraz, a photo by Derek Purdy on Flickr.
Have you ever met someone and formed an opinion of them,
only to have it completely reversed upon getting to know them better? Sometimes
we react to first impressions without actually taking the trouble to get to
know people. Everybody has a story, and learning that story can help build
quality relationships. This takes work, and many of us are afraid of what is
unfamiliar. It takes effort to get to know people so we won’t mistreat
them—every stranger is an opportunity to show God’s love.
Let’s look at John 17:1-3. It speaks of eternal life—a
rather ethereal concept. But these verses spell it out very clearly: eternal
life is just knowing God.
If you were in prison—in solitary confinement—what would
you do? You would probably spend your time reading the Bible, praying, and
getting to a deeper spiritual level. The question is, why aren’t we doing that
now? Why would we wait for something horrible like a prison sentence to make us
take the time to get to know our Father better?
Now imagine this: you’re engaged to be married to a stranger—in
30 years. You have 30 years before you’re bound to this person for all
eternity. How would you spend that time? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to build
a relationship with your future spouse so that you’re not completely clueless
on your wedding day? You need to get to know the person you’re going to be
spending eternity with.
We know that our first impressions of people are often
misperceptions, and it takes work to get to know them. It takes work to get to
know God as well! Maybe you have a false perception of Him right now and don't
even know it because you don't know Him.
Eternal life is not just fire insurance—it is for here
and now. We must get to know the Lord while we have time. Why waste your life
doing other things, only to reach the wedding feast hardly knowing your
bridegroom? What is so important right now that you can't take time out of your
day, or maybe just think of your day in a new way? Will your job, house, car,
or hobby be with you in eternity?
A big step in the right direction is simply being
conscious of the process. Every day, even in the midst of our busy lives, we
can be looking for God and listening for Him to tell us more about Himself. He's
speaking to us all the time in different ways, but are we hearing Him? We must get to know Him, that is eternal
life. So have your antenna up—make sure that all of your activities relate
somehow to your final goal. Could you survive in prison? Start acting like that
right now; take your thoughts captive and go deeper with God. Approach life
with the idea of not just presenting God to the world, but trying to find Him in the world. Become a skilled knower,
and you will be richly rewarded with all the blessings of eternal life.
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