Month: February 2025

Lord willing, I will celebrate 82 years of life on March 16th and begin my 83rd year. My cancer surgery seems to have been very successful, so my home care should be sufficient for a while. I have been blessed with strong resistance,  a clear mind, healthy heart and healthy lungs. So I don’t want this to sound like a death bed post. It’s just that once you sail past eighty, your thoughts naturally turn to the next life and anything of value you will leave behind as a legacy for others.

I have heard many times that the most valuable gifts you can give someone are your time and attention, because they are part of your life that you can never get back. Those gifts become even more valuable when the time you have left becomes shorter. Ironically, it is now that I understand the value of the time I have left that my desire is strongest to give it to everyone who needs it.

What will my legacy be? I have no wealth or valuables to leave and no heir to be disappointed. No, my legacy won’t be material at all. It will be the imprint I have left on the hearts and minds of my brothers and sisters in Christ, friends, and you, as you read my posts. If you feel that my writings have touched you in any positive way, praise God, because it is the fruit of His Holy Spirit. I’ve been told there are 780 posts on this website, including this one, written by me over an eight year period. Can you imagine the time, attention and love invested? I don’t regret one single second.

For the last 70 plus years, God’s Holy Spirit has been both my comforter and guide. I have said many times that when the Holy Spirit prompts me to say or do something I only have two options; do it or regret it. At first, I thought I had enough regrets, so I tried to find a teacher who would be less harsh. I read somewhere that experience is the best teacher, but I quickly discovered the lessons of experience were even more painful and full of regret.

It was then I found a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt (not my first source of theological truth, but a wise woman). “I learn from the mistakes of others, because i can’t possibly live long enough to make them all myself.” Wow! Lessons without pain or regret? Not exactly! God quickly informed me that as His son, through faith in Jesus Christ, my obedience to His Spirit is still required AND since I am so interested in others’ mistakes, my calling will be to warn as many of them as possible; two reasons this blog was created.

What is the role of a church in my Christian life?  Active church membership does not reserve a place for me in heaven or even make me a Christian. Only  my faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross through God’s  mercy and grace will write my name in the Lamb’s Book of Eternal Life and will reserve my eternal home in God’s presence when my life here is complete. A Spirit-filled Christian church must provide a spiritual maternity ward for those going through the process of spiritual rebirth and a spiritual ICU ward for those recovering from addiction or other sinful problems. Even spiritually mature, healthy Christians need the Christian fellowship, prayer requests, praise reports, and just spending time in prayer and worship with brothers and sisters in Christ.

In the Old Testament, there was a special room in the tabernacle or temple for God to wait for worshipers to bring tithes and offerings to be presented to Him by  priests. In the New Testament, Jesus tells us that God’s Spirit will dwell in the hearts of believers. We can pray  to or worship God anytime and anywhere as long as we do it in spirit and in truth.

About nine years ago, I was invited to a men’s group that would meet every Wednesday evening in a second floor meeting room at church. We had food brought in so we could come straight from work (I was retired but still driving). At the first meeting, I asked for prayer to relieve my chronic sciatica pain in both hips for 8 years. They gathered around me, laid hands on me and prayed. The next morning, I awoke with no pain and it has not returned. At the second meeting, i praised God for answered prayers. That increased everyone’s faith and started a long chain of answered prayers including one for my wife’s brother in Missouri. Tom’s wife texted me that he was in the hospital in a coma and she was falling apart. The following evening I asked the men to pray for his recovery. The moment I got to my car after the meeting I sent a text to her that 50 men just prayed for Tom’s recovery. I will never forget her immediate reply. “God was listening. He is coming home tomorrow.”

One week I was the first to arrive and I felt the Holy Spirit moving in that empty meeting room and I thought that He had been anxiously awaiting us all week. Then I realized that what I felt was God’s Spirit within me eagerly anticipating the meeting along with me. God no longer waits for us to visit Him, because we bring Him with us to church and wherever we go. Not only that, but Jesus promises us that where two or more of us meet together in His name He will be there with us. We are truly blessed!