Happy Saturday!

I think today Bruce has worked his last for a while. The surgery will be on Tuesday. We will find out a time on Monday when he goes in for pre-op registration and labs. He will be in the hospital for 5 to 7 days. He cannot drive for at least 3 weeks and cannot pick up anything over 10 pounds for three months. That effectively will put him out of work until around mid-October. I ask you to pray for him to have the strength to withstand the surgery and the healing that is to follow. Thank you.

Also, please pray for my Daddy. He has announced his retirement. At 78 years of age he still works a full day in a sheet metal shop. He is also having a nuclear stress test on Monday. Please pray for him. His name is Jerry Helvey. Thank you.

Prayer: “Dear God, thank You for Your love for me today. Scripture says that You reveal Yourself as love and that You have proven that love by giving Jesus, your only son, so that the world can be completely forgiven and redeemed back into a relationship with You. I ask You to deepen my understanding of and appreciation for this truth today. Thank you in advance for what You are going to do today! Amen.”

Galatians 3:6 “Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Abraham was an extraordinary man of faith. God would tell him something and Abraham would accept it as truth. When God told Abraham to fold up his tents and move Abraham never questioned it. He gathered his flocks, herds and family and moved. Without complaining or questioning Abraham was confidently, faithfully obedient to God. Because of Abraham’s faith in God, God declared him righteous. Abraham, with his simple daily faith, did right things as God commanded. God made promises to Abraham and Abraham fully trusted and rested in everything God said.

How is our righteousness attained? Do we receive righteousness from God through working hard or proving something or even trying to be faithful to a task? If you are a Lutheran then you know the answer to that one. It is the first Godly principle that we learn, we are saved by grace and not by our works. There is nothing we can do to please God in the “natural.” (note: this is a Joyce Meyer reference meaning “by ourselves without help... by our own will, etc.) The way we please God is when we surrender to Him all that we are and all that we have and with trust and faith allow Him to work His will in our lives. Abraham trusted God as a child trusts a loving father.

We, as believers in Jesus, are offered the same loving relationship with a faithful trustworthy God. God offers His gift of righteousness to us through Jesus. God asks us to believe in Him and in the One Whom He sent. When we believe in Jesus we believe God and all that He offers to each of us- redemption and forgiveness through the crucified Christ.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Believe God today and share His work in your life with someone. Thank you again mighty and faithful prayer warriors and wonderful friends. Love you all and see you in worship, 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 moved only by what I believe and I believe God.