Deanna is very excited about my trophy and wanted to show her enthusiasm to all!!!


This past weekend was amazing! We were all together and got to enjoy it! We heard from many who were remembering with us, and that was a significant blessing!

Our culture is ripe with people who believe that death is final. Final for the one who passes and final for those left behind. It is neither.

Death is part of life, but is not the end. It is, rather, a transition which reveals our eternity.

We each have choices in life. Those choices will determine where our eternity is spent.

When we choose to follow our way, pursue our goals, and define success on our terms,
we are making our choice for the future. We may live well in the now, but our future will be one of torment, save surrendering all to Christ.

'Living well,' means bringing glory to our Lord. It does not mean, pursuing a bigger house, a newer car, or more fashionable clothing, and ignoring what Christ calls each of us to do.

It does not have to be either or, but few can manage wealth and a thriving, intimate relationship with Christ, well. This is why Scripture teaches us that we cannot serve both God and money. Most of us believe we are in control of this. Few of us actually are.

We believe our wants to be needs. I know I struggle with this and I am often wrong.

Death brings finality to what we see of life, but it is not the end. I feared death until I was at my father's bedside, when he passed. He was a godly man and his eternity was sealed.

I was also at my son's bedside when he slipped away. His absence from us guaranteed his presence with Christ (according to his salvation and what Scripture teaches).

They have both gone on to be with the Lord. We are left to deal with life apart from their presence. One does not just move on, easily. The loss of a parent is in order. The loss of a child is not.

When they leave you, you want and need to know their life mattered. Beyond that, you want to know they are with the Lord.

We must make choices that will assure that this is the case. Had Deanna and I ignored the issues of salvation with our children, and believed them to be grossly personal between them and the Lord, it is not likely we would have lived in such a way that their lives would ever have been impacted by Christ in us.

We must choose to live for Him in ways that reflect His glory and presence into the lives of not only our children, but others.

We play a part in the eternity of others, if we "answer the call and get uncomfortable for Christ." If we simply choose to let them look like the world and all it's allures, we are not doing our part.

If we live life, embracing these same allures but try to teach our children different, they see right through us, and realize that the incongruity reflects a "religion" they are not interested in. If it were enough, parents would be changed and more surrendered to what they say they believe.

I do not fear death. I know that I fail in life, but my eternity is sealed.

I may struggle in life with the loss of other loved ones, as I desperately miss them, but I have the promise of knowing we will one day, worship Him together again!

We each must choose.

The way we live our lives will reflect those choices. There is no pretending.
It's time to "Raise a Revolution" for Jesus.


dad