Cool Morning

I slept, but my heart was awake,
when I heard my lover knocking and calling:
“Open to me, my treasure, my darling,
my dove, my perfect one.
My head is drenched with dew,
my hair with the dampness of the night.” Song of Songs 5:2

July is ending much the same as it began with cool mornings. It seems that in Solomon's time folks got up early to court; we tend to look upon it more as an evening pastime. Much of our lives might be spent looking for that perfect mate, perhaps we are searching during the wrong time of the day?

I thought last night that if I were somehow to find this woman who is not quite perfect, as only God is perfect, then just short of perfection as she may well be, she certainly would not want to entertain the likes of me. My only hope in such a situation would be the old opposites attract thing.

My hope of perfection lies in Christ the Lord, for in my own strength I will quit, give up, put it off 'til tomorrow, slack off, goof off, or just find it too exhausting. Of course there is the view that as an imperfect, fallen man I will not even apply my meager and weak efforts in the right direction to begin with!

Imperfection can hardly perfect itself, and that is why those of us who are given the gift of understanding how fallen we have become will surrender daily to the Lord our God.

Have a grateful new Monday in Christ,

Bucky

I Do Not Know You

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 1 Corinthians 1:21

Late in the evening I saw you. Yes, you! You know who you are. For everyone else, I must mention that your cape looked just spiffy, and those blue undies worn on the outside were quite the fashion statement. The two crooks you carried so easily to the waiting police van didn't stand a chance against such strength and speed. You are quite the superhero, almost comic book quality! I realized at once that I didn't know you quite so well as I had thought.

That may be a bit of Friday silliness, but it is also quite true that I do not know you. Your innermost thoughts are not available to me; those private parts are kept hidden from public view. If I cannot know my fellow humans so well, then how can I know God whose thoughts are higher than my own as the heavens are above the earth? And we know of course that without His revelation to us in His word and in the heavens and other places He chooses, I have no chance of knowing God. And yet, even in a foolish message such as this one, I can say, "We are saved in Him!"

Paul told the Corinthians that God was pleased to save us by belief: belief in His Son of course. We know in whom to believe also through His word and all that foolish preaching. The world may think the message foolish and by association the preacher just as far gone into foolishness, but we know through His wonderful word that this message is life to those who will believe in our Lord Jesus.

Have a great weekend in the love of God!

Bucky

A Job To Do

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:1-2

If our salvation can be likened to the plant world, it is that cracking of the seed and bursting forth into the air of that little plant. Now, we are like the little plant that finds great joy in that bursting forth, and then hopes that is it for the pain and suffering. We would rather grow at our own pace and in our own way because the old shell and pieces of shell of that former life in the flesh still cling to this little plant. However, we have a plant's job to do, and that is to bear fruit for the kingdom.

The rebirth in Christ for us was just the beginning. As each act of faith, love, or righteousness makes us grow more in Him, so will more testing come, which is the pruning mentioned in our scripture for today. We also come to know that each of us must become a branch of the true vine, who is Jesus Christ our Lord. If we started from a seed apart from Him, it must not remain that way or we will quite fail to grow and produce fruit. I simply cannot imagine billions or even millions of little plants growing into the true vine, but our Lord Jesus put His great work of salvation and sanctification into these garden terms so that we might have some understanding.

The great thing is that I don't have to understand completely all of His work or word, only that I can trust in Him completely to work it all out in me and you. My job is to believe in Him!

Rejoice in His work today,
Bucky

When God Makes Promises

Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.” Genesis 13:17

Land would be quite important for a man promised descendants greater than the number of stars in heaven. Oh, that was another promise of the Lord our God.

Abram was one man, an old man, with one wife, also of that age where birthdays are no longer mentioned, and he owned no land in this new place the Lord had shown to him. Canaan, the land Abram was to take a hike through its length and width, was not exactly a suburban lot. Yes, the Lord made promises that only He could fulfill.

We are given equally impressive promises in the Word. A living man would lay down His life to save us and then raise Himself from the grave on the third day. That's an impressive promise. But, He then promised that He would one day return from Heaven to receive us from this cursed Earth. And, oh by the way, He also promised to make all things new. There are Galilee boatloads of other promises made to us by the Lord in His word. All we have to do is wait on Him!

The promises of our Lord are far beyond the capability of man, and He gives them to us. Gives? What have we done to deserve all of this divine magnificence? Nothing, but giving is what our Lord does for those who will believe in Him.

Peace to you this day in Christ our Lord,
Bucky

My Strength Is The Sand

“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand." Matthew 7:26

Back in the day, I built a few houses on the sand. When that great fall came and I looked upon the wreckage of my former houses, I realized that my strength was the sand. Any strength of mine, emotional, physical, financial or otherwise, has been quite thoroughly washed away by the tides of this fallen world. And I was glad for that washing! No? Okay, I learned in the power of the Holy Spirit to be glad of that washing.

The danger in my strength comes in placing my faith in something so easily swept away by whatever tide may come along. My strengths were never so great as I had thought them, and thus my houses were easily put down. In this world there are those who have achieved great success and it is them I pity most. If anyone might come to believe in the ability to save oneself, it is those who have the applause of the world to listen to as they go to bed. How can that person come to realize his or her need for the Lord when they have so much fame, fortune, or physical ability?

Therefore, before we moan overmuch about our condition and the wreckage of those great houses we built on the sand, perhaps we should take a moment to thank the Lord for the knowledge that we all must have His salvation and depend upon Jesus Christ alone for life eternal. I like it! My strength turned out to be far too little for this life; I'm glad to have His strength for this life and the next.

God's love and grace to you on this fine Monday,

Bucky

A Prosperity Gospel

​“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
​​And do not return there,
​​But water the earth,
​​And make it bring forth and bud,
​​That it may give seed to the sower
​​And bread to the eater,
 ​​So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
​​It shall not return to Me void,
​​But it shall accomplish what I please,
​​And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:10-11

Now there's a prosperity gospel I long to hear! God's word going forth and prospering in the thing for which He sent it. What good news! What a delight to read! And it comes with God's guarantee.

When we send out a message many of our methods are by no means guaranteed. A letter from back in the day, thanks to the efforts of our postal service, almost always arrived in the hands of the addressee. However, simply addressing, stamping, and placing the letter in the hands of letter carrier was not a guarantee. Electronic means of today are even less guaranteed as e-mails are, digitally speaking, pretty much flung out onto the Internet and routed to the intended recipient. A number of failures could happen along that information road, though they do not happen very often. Other connection methods, cell phones for example, may be even more tenuous in their connection. On God's message comes a personal guarantee from the Almighty Himself.

The Word of our God shall not return to Him void, and it shall accomplish what He pleases. That is quite a guarantee. I could say that, but no message of mine would bear such a warranty. What is the difference? Oh, that is such a silly question! The guarantee of the Lord is backed by the Lord. Mine is backed only by me, and I'm just another message flinger without any means to assure the delivery and return. Yes, there is the tough bit, the return. God's assurance also guarantees the return shall not be void. Anyone might speak or write a message, but who besides the Lord can guarantee accomplishment and return with full accomplishment of His will?

As our Lord says, "I am God, and there is none like Me." (Isaiah 46:9)

Love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior,
Bucky

Measured Wrong

For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Matthew 7:2

Myself approached the judgment throne and Myflesh showed the parade of deeds both good and evil. The deeds of evil trooped before the Judge in a powerful show of warriors mounted and fully armed; black was their armor and black were their horses in an array of cavalry too many to number. Myself swooned at the numbers and strength of those evil troopers as he saw their captains and corporals, rank and file led by a fierce colonel named Pride. Myflesh felt that pride as he looked upon a life going by that he had lived in the world.

Finally the good deeds came at the end and Myself was shocked to see a cartload of filthy rags pulled by a single broken-down nag of such an ugly appearance that he had to turn away. What was this? Where were the favors and loans, gifts and gratuities? Surely in a life of 80 years he had done enough obedience to the Law to be saved?

"Perhaps you measured wrong," a voice said, "those were all the things that were left behind at the Cross. These do not belong in this place."

Myself took a step back and Myflesh fled shrieking into the wilderness with his legions of evil warriors. I looked and beheld a glorious wonder, a man both bright and clean, of such purity that I trembled to look upon Him.

"Use My measure," He said to me as He handed me a measure labeled simply, Grace.

Bucky

A Constant Temptation

Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13

It is for us a constant temptation to think of the Bible, God's Holy Word, as a work of man. It is the same temptation the Serpent offered up to Eve. Since that time we have desired to go our own way in the flesh, and one way to accomplish that is to dismiss the Word as a mere work of human imagination. Without the Word, so the temptation says to us, we have no consequences for the worst of sins, or for any sin at all. Without the Word we have no Christ.

For some this may seem an advantage, but to those of us who believe it is the very tragedy of life on this earth. No Christ? Without our Lord Jesus we have punishment for sin without mercy, life without grace, and no salvation. Oh, I see, the believer in the goodness of humanity sees that without the Law there is no sin and therefore he can do whatever he wants without consequence. Hmm, if I recall a story of a man named Job, to take away the God-inspired Word of the Bible is like taking away the four messengers from Job's home. Poor Job would still have the consequences of the Devil's assault, but he would be in ignorance.

The Word of God tells us that our sin is not the only sin. Job was righteous, but he still suffered the consequences of the Adversary's sin. Without the Word of God, the soldier may have armor and a shield, but no weapon to fight the enemy. Without the Word we have no comfort when the consequences of sin land upon us. How could a man such as Paul come up with the concept of a saving grace earned by Christ the Lord on the cross...without the grace of God to inspire this idea in his writing?

In Christ the Lord,
Bucky

Choose Now, The Midnight Cry Comes Soon

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Matthew 25:1

From instruction received in the Word we know the tale of the ten virgins and their lamps. Don't be foolish like the five who brought no oil for their lamps we are taught, and so we strive to keep our cupboards full and our refrigerators stocked. Does this parable teach us to be selfish with our oil? For at the exact moment of their greatest need, half of the bridesmaids were refused any sharing. As is the case with our Lord's parables, it is not so simple as that. We know from other teachings from our Lord about God's provision, and this is not about provision.

The world teaches us to accuse, kind of goes with the title of the prince of this world, aka the Accuser of the Brethren. We easily are moved by the flesh to find fault with the prepared virgins for not sharing with the foolish virgins. However, the parable is about a choice we all must make. Note that the ten virgins go out together to await the coming of the bridegroom. He appears to the virgins to be late, delayed by what they do not know and does not come at a decent hour. (Odd how the flesh seems to forget to accuse the bridegroom in this case.) Also, all of the virgins lay down to sleep together and all of them trimmed their lamps together. Caught unprepared at the midnight cry, the five virgins run to the store, at midnight no less, to purchase oil for their lamps. All the ten virgins did things together except in this one thing: choosing to take oil in their vessels with their lamps.

The choice is to believe in the Son of God or to be caught unprepared when His time comes. It is not about sharing, for there was always plenty of oil for all in the story, it is about being prepared while the door to the wedding hall is still open. A time will come when the gates of Heaven are shut up and closed down. The wedding of the Lamb and His Bride will take place and there will be some people left out. The parable is about those who want all the benefits of Heaven, but do not want to acknowledge the ruler of Heaven, the Son of God, as their Savior and Lord. The foolish virgins want to go their way and refuse His way until it is too late. The midnight cry sounds and they are found outside. We live in the time of choosing, but it will not last forever.

Our Lord wants to save all ten virgins; we who believe in Him want all of us to be there for His great wedding; the Holy Spirit of God works tirelessly to spread the oil of Christ around to every lamp. Choose now, before the midnight cry.

Love in Christ,
Bucky

Tempted By Little, Tempted By Lots

“All small animals that scurry along the ground are detestable, and you must never eat them. This includes all animals that slither along on their bellies, as well as those with four legs and those with many feet. All such animals that scurry along the ground are detestable, and you must never eat them. Leviticus 11:41-42

The Law as written in Leviticus did not feature mouse pie on the menu it seems. Not messing with the slithering things was probably not a problem for most of the Israelites though. However, it seems from my observations that there are two times in life when eating the forbidden critters might be a problem. One, a famine and people are starving hungry. Understandable to us, we don't like to be that hungry either. The second time though is perhaps less easily excused, and that is when people are rich and well-fed. Yes, we are in such a time for many right now, and what do they want to do in this time? Yes, to try every sort of food.

You and I may find the second totally alien to us in that we have never experienced that sort of wealth. This is not the big bonus at work, so let's go have a steak dinner kind of wealth that many of us have done, but the wealth where money rolls in so fast that we can't spend it all and we move to the house on Easy Street and get bored with even the finer things. It is interesting that the two worst temptations to the forbidden are total absence of a necessity and overwhelming abundance. In neither condition do we behave very well when left alone.

When it appears that a necessity will not be fulfilled we easily fail to maintain our faith and trust in God. When there is so much of a necessity that we have no reason to worry, then we get bored with even the good stuff and reach for the exotic, especially if it is forbidden. It is funny that the time of plenty is exactly what we pray for when things are a bit short. Yet, when we are overwhelmed with plenty, we never pray for a time of doing without. In the flesh, it would seem, we are never to be satisfied. In God's place we might be well be tempted to throw up the hands in disgust and walk away. Thanks and praise to God that He is not like us!

God sent His Son to save us because we do not have it in ourselves to simply be grateful for His provision without a profound change within that which we call the self. Always we would be running from one temptation to the next, and falling for all of them, if it were not for a new spirit born within us of the Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord. In Christ, we are no longer temptation's plaything, and it is time we remember that as He leads us on toward home.

Kind of a long-winded day there, I hope that your weekend is just as long! Love and joy in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

One For You

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble;
​​May the name of the God of Jacob defend you. Psalm 20:1

Diligent in my seeking in prayer after my needs, I lifted up my head to find a little time to request one for you.

It is true that our needs for ourselves are always right there, in the face and on the mind, and first at most times in our prayers. It is hard to ignore those immediate pains for example. A bit harder is to recall the needs of others and to send up a prayer for his or her need. Here we see the king offering up a heartfelt prayer for something that perhaps has not yet arrived. For each person, the day of trouble will arrive, and we do well to remember before the need is too great to ignore. It is that proactive prayer from King David, perhaps centuries before the word became a business buzz word.

Today, it feels good to offer up one for you, not that I wish a day of trouble upon you today, but that the Lord may bless you in this day and all days.

In the love of Christ,
Bucky

Trust Begins...

“They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you." Deuteronomy 28:52

I have been known to bring my requests to God with a burden upon them, the burden of what I think is the best answer. It struck me last night that trust begins not when the Lord does what I think is best, but when I give my request to the Lord and wait on whatever answer He knows is best.

Now, with the power of prayer in mind, this technique seems to be fraught with peril. The Lord might not do what I want in this thing I have requested! The Lord God may provide for my need through a channel I had not thought of during my request. He might provide in a way that had never occurred to me. Dare I put it into words? The Lord may even say no!

Yes, trusting completely in the Lord's response is the beginning and where we may go from there will cause us in the fullness of time to declare Him wonderful. In time we will even name the Lord Wonderful, says so right in Isaiah 9:6. So, how does today's Bible verse relate to this?

This verse is a part of the curses on disobedience of the Law, but it also shows within itself where that disobedience was: they were trusting in earthly walls instead of the Lord! Indeed to begin our journey toward full trust in the Lord, He may have to knock down some earthly walls in which we have placed some trust. Does life seem unfair in the moment with a job lost, financial setbacks, health failures, or other pains and sufferings? Mayhap God is pulling down some of those trusted earthly walls we don't need anymore.

Trust in the Lord Jesus our God and Savior.

Bucky

Learning Our Place

And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ Luke 18:13

Tax collectors in Roman occupied Judea did not enjoy a wholesome reputation. In the minds of the people they were the worst. Not soldiers who had conquered, their attitude might be understandable, but betrayers from within - Jews who sold out their nation for a profit. The tax agents had a master in Rome to satisfy, represented by the governor, and a people not to upset so badly that rebellion broke out. The Pharisee sect enjoyed a rather different reputation.

The Pharisees were the rule keepers heroes. They kept the Law of Moses to the letter and added a few hundred traditions on top which they also kept to the last jot and tittle. The Pharisees in some or perhaps all cases were also rather proud of themselves and liberally awarded themselves pats on the back for their piety. If human effort alone could save a man, these would have done so and proudly told God all about it. Then Jesus came.

You know the rest of the parable from Luke 18, the tax collector lives with God in our memory as the humble sinner who knew his place much like the repentant thief on the cross. The Pharisee carved a place for himself at the top of society and religion, and was a hero of the law in his own mind, a real self-made man. However, our Lord's opinion of the Pharisee was not one of approval.

It is tough to learn our place before God. Some will never admit that they need help to be saved, much less that salvation is the work of Christ alone. I had to be humbled first and so did you in order to ask Jesus to save us. How do I know you did? Well, all have sinned and pride will not come to the cross to be saved. Pride stands before the altar and proclaims how good he is. Humility stands before God and admits our need for His Son.

Have a great new work week in Christ!
Bucky

Giving Up Control...To the Lord

Take control of what I say, O LORD,
and guard my lips. Psalm 141:3

Most of us have watched a medical drama episode where the young doctor wants very much to solve the problem and goes too far in saving the body while losing the patient. The patient for their part ends up brain dead and connected to what we call life-sustaining machines. There is debate over whether this is life or not. Most careers involving problem solving have similar situations, though perhaps not involving a human life.

The story of my first laptop repair while here in Julesburg goes much the same, and I have probably told it before. For those new to this daily devotional, I get to tell it again. For the others, you can chalk it up to me practicing to be an old man, if you wish. A new friend had suffered a financial disaster in his life, and presented to me a dead laptop. (Presented, heh, watching too many medical videos.) No question, it was a dead laptop.

I had the owner buy a replacement battery. Nope. Then I began digging into the problem in earnest with no stopping point except to fix the laptop and give the man some good news in the midst of his financial and now legal and personal disaster. Before I quit, I spent about $300 of my meager funds and put at least $1,000 in labor into a dead laptop. My friend could no way afford this sort of bill in his condition and I never invoiced him.

In learning from this lesson, I realized that what I wanted was control, not over his life of course, but over mine. The focus of that control in the moment being that particular dead laptop. It still does not work and I still have the thing in a plastic tote down in my basement as a reminder. Even from strictly worldly terms it did not make sense to expend the effort and money that I did since the thing could be replaced for $200 with a refurbished model of the same brand and size on EBay. Sending my friend after a new replacement laptop would not cost anywhere near what I put into the dead one, though he could not afford to do that at the time. Problem solving can become an idol if we nudge the Lord aside by not listening to Him and by forcing control on that which we many have no control over.

The thing was dead and I could not fix it; deal with it and give up control to God our Father. And indeed once I quit sinking money and expending effort flogging the proverbial dead moose, the Lord provided a laptop of a larger size that someone no longer wanted which I sold to my friend. Wait, what? Provided, sold? Yes, by that time my financial situation was no better than my friend's and he would have in no case accepted charity from me. I hope that the lesson of that first laptop sticks with me, because in any career there is the danger of letting that which we think we have control over deceive us into thinking we have control over all things. That is called humanism and you will see it presented in many an entertainment and educational vector. Like that doctor in the show, we could also do harm with a manic grasping after control over life or death, and I do believe that God calls the shots on those things and many others. Perhaps that is why we know Him as Sovereign and Almighty.

Have an out of (your) control Saturday, give up control to God!

Bucky

Sport To A Fool

​To do evil is like sport to a fool,
​​But a man of understanding has wisdom. Proverbs 10:23

We can easily see the first line of this verse by thinking of a group of young boys. That's all it took, right? The script goes much the same: one of the boys suggests to another some act that the parents or elders (or even the law enforcement authorities) would disapprove of without delay. Others of the group may join in suggesting that the second boy is not all that he should be if he does not perform this act, and it is typically one of cruelty toward another. We can see that the parents of that boy are soon to be embarrassed. The group of boys will laugh about it until word of the deed spreads. Young boys tend toward the foolish like ducks to water; to them acts of cruelty can easily become sport if such things are not stopped and punished.

I passed through this phase of life without incident of course and can give no stories of my own to support my point. Mmm, hmm, sure I did. The problem is rather an overabundance of examples to choose from and a firm upbringing in the church and morals by my parents which saved me from many more stories of the regretful sort. So, how do we grow up and gain understanding to have wisdom?

Those we hurt during the growing up often remind us that such actions are not loving and kind, but these actions also store up a wealth of regrets along the way to wisdom. One would hope for an easier way or if easy is not the way at least one that manufactures no regrets along the way. You and I know already that our God is the source of all wisdom, and He gives for the asking. And, as our Lord would rather we not hurt each other, I'm thinking He will give this wisdom generously too! That is of course no startling deduction for my part, words and examples throughout the Bible show how generously our Lord gives to us His love and wisdom.

Rejoice in our Lord's loving generosity this weekend!

Bucky

Apocalypse Ready?

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John. Revelation 1:1

The Apocalypse comes from the Greek word for an unveiling or revealing. God gave to Jesus, His Son, knowledge of how this world will end, and our Lord gave this revealed story to John and sent him to us. This came to mind this morning when I saw an advert for an apocalypse-ready rifle. That caused a laugh. What are they planning? To shoot the wrath of the Lamb earthquake? Blast away at the oceans turned to blood maybe? This humor may be unintentional as there is this zombie apocalypse which is an invented and imaginary thing, whereas the Apocalypse is real, very serious for all of humanity, and coming soon. I have to wonder though, are we as God's redeemed people apocalypse-ready?

We believe that the Rapture will occur before or as a first step in the Apocalypse, or that which our Lord called the Tribulation. Therefore we might easily forget our neighbors who could be the ones left behind to endure seven years of judgments poured out from the Lord. Can any believer be truly apocalypse-ready if a neighbor remains unbelieving and unsaved? Yes, because our Lord Jesus makes us ready, but our love for our neighbors will lead us to share the good news that a person can be made ready for anything. Even made ready for that crazy neighbor who grabs his apocalypse-ready rifle and blazes away at the stinging locust demons from the bottomless pit. Yikes! duck and cover, everyone!

Rejoice in the Lord's day!
Bucky

A Larger Work By Far

The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind;
​​The lightnings lit up the world;
​​The earth trembled and shook. Psalm 77:18

The fireworks began last night, but they were overruled by the thunder. Man's works sure sound puny when compared to God's like that. The works of our Lord are larger by far than what we can produce. The Revelation is good for showing that as the works man has built up over the centuries are shaken down, burned up, and lost at sea. The huge population near the end that mankind may take credit for will be reduced in huge swaths even as final decisions are made by many. With God so powerful compared to us, why do so many come against Him near the end?

It must be a deception of such complexity that even the wise are fooled... or at least we would hope so, but it is more likely that the deception will be rather simple and as old as Eden. Adam and Eve did fall, and so have we all, but the larger work by far was done by God in His Son, Jesus Christ. Man sinned, Jesus saves!

Rejoice in our Lord this Independence Day!

Bucky

The Valley of Decision

Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision.
There the day of the LORD will soon arrive. Joel 3:14

Have you ever met someone who knows about Jesus but refuses to make that decision one way or another? Of course you have, for there are many in that valley and they are comfortable there as long as no one presses them to decide. In Joel, the Lord sends word that their time will not last forever. He warns that His day will soon arrive.

Two thousand and some hundreds of years have gone by since Joel wrote and published the word from the Lord. One can easily see the folks in the valley of decision thinking there will be thousands more before that great and terrible day of the Lord arrives. As with many things in this life though, it will soon arrive.

Nations have lasted for centuries, and certainly many lived and died believing their country would last forever. Rulers have handed down the reign to sons for generations, and no doubt some in the middle felt the solid foundation of the monarchy would last and last. In this age, companies have grown to such a size that it would seem they will last forever. Around these parts we know that last one is not true for every company. In other parts of the world, they know that boatloads of kings and queens are dead and their kingdoms forgotten. And even the mighty Roman empire has gone into the dust of history. That day of the Lord looks closer all the time.

We will make mission trips into that valley of decision, and there we will find the undecided. In love we will warn them that the time is soon to arrive when they must decide to go their way or His way. As there is only one Way to the Father, and His name is Jesus; the other must be the way to destruction, and we don't want those we love to go there.

Happy Independence Day week!
Bucky