Happy Wednesday!

I began my final paper today. With it finished, I will be caught up with the work I missed during the week I was not in class. I hope to complete this paper tomorrow and then begin on the reading and writing for next week. Thank you all for your prayers which are helping me to concentrate on the assignments that are due. The paper I am currently writing is about loss I have experienced in relationships and how it has affected me. I am also to speak about the support I have received during the grief from the loss as well as how the losses have affected my future. All of this is to go into 4 to 6 pages. Please keep praying. Thank you.

Prayer: “Lord Jesus, I ask you to full me with Your Spirit and help me to handle anything that comes my way today with Your strength. May I walk in such a way that people are pointed toward the Cross and drawn to You. May I praise You through not only the good times in my life, but also through the bad times. Use the valleys in my life to bring me closer to You and to draw those who don’t know You to their own “mountaintop meeting” with You. Amen.”

Acts 16:31 “So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

A very long time ago Bruce and I were in our pre-marital counseling. The minister who married us asked all of the standard questions and then he asked us about our spiritual lives and our relationship to Christ. Brother Johnny and I had known each other for a long time and he knew about my relationship to Christ, but he had never met Bruce until the day of our counseling. Brother Johnny asked Bruce about his relationship to Christ. Bruce told Bro. Johnny that he was a believer. Bro. Johnny then told Bruce that he believed that it was Bruce’s responsibility to make sure I got to heaven. At the time I thought this was somewhat of an archaic idea, yet tonight I read this scripture.

The context of this scripture is the persecution Paul and Silas suffered in proclaiming Jesus as Lord and witnessing lives being transformed by this preaching. They were in jail because of their power preaching. In this story, at midnight there erupted praise and worship in the jail and the jailer received Christ as Lord and Savior. Then the jailer’s family received their salvation after the jailer got home. All of this happened because Paul was bold in his preaching and belief that when one receives the transforming power of God’s love through the crucified and resurrected Christ one cannot rest until they have shared the story of salvation with those closest to them. Yes, it is an invitation that must be accepted by each of us individually, but someone must tell us the story.

As wives, husbands, mothers and dads it is our responsibility to share the gospel of grace and salvation to those who are closest to us. Maybe Bro. Johnny was a little old fashion about the husband being responsible for the wife’s salvation, but scripture demands that we take the responsibility for sharing Christ with our families.

So I guess the question for the night is…Who in our family needs to come to know Christ?

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.