Happy Saturday!

Today Bruce and I took a simple Christmas wreath with a red bow and put it on the grave site of Rev. Lt. Richard Lee Russell. The DFW National Cemetery is a lovely cemetery with well kept grounds and a strong sense of honor. As you enter the grounds, there is a welcome building with a kiosk where you can type in the name of the person’s site you wish to visit and then it prints a map so you can find it. We saw a number of grave markers with wreaths placed there. It was our joy to do this for our friends.

Prayer: “Lord, help me to make Your love for the church the pattern for me to love my family. Thank You for my biological family and my church family; may I be a blessing to both. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Ephesians 5: 25, 26 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify, and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.”

This passage of scripture speaks so strongly about love. My daddy always told me the two best things a wife could ever do when raising her children was to love their daddy and make them mind. So in my morning prayer I pray this, “Thank you for the family who raised me and thank you for the family you gave me to raise.”

We are commanded to love. Love is not just an emotion. It carries a responsibility. Just as the husband is commanded to love his wife, we are also commanded to love the Lord. That same love calls for commitment. Jesus was so committed in His love and obedience to God that He submitted Himself to the cross for His bride, the church. Remember the love commitment that Jacob had for Rachel? Jacob loved Rachel so much that he sacrificed fourteen years of labor to her father to be able to have and hold her.

The cleansing of love is a part of the marriage ceremony. In the marriage ceremony the husband is set apart to belong to his wife and the wife is set apart to belong to her husband. This cleansing love provides purity to commit to only one other for life. In salvation we are set apart to belong to Jesus; new are cleansed by His blood to wash away sin. Jesus modeled this cleansing when He washed the feet of His disciples.

In just a few more days Bruce and I will have been married 31 years. We have been through life altering circumstances in that time. When we got married those 31 years ago we had the scripture from Matt 7:24-27 that speaks of the house built upon the rock. It was because of our commitment to each other and God’s commitment to us that we have been able to weather the storms of life without ever thinking that being apart was the answer. We hope we have modeled a godly marriage to our children and have showed them the command, commitment and the cleansing power of a marriage built on the Rock of Jesus Christ.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes because shopping requires sturdy comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Advent is presenting its Christmas music in the morning at 8:30 and again at 11:00. You are all cordially invited. 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.

Prayer update: Tatum is still in the hospital and, so far, is enduring treatment well. They have asked for prayer for a little friend named Liam who is losing his battle with a childhood cancer. They have allowed him to go home to spend his last few days. Please pray for this precious child of God and his family as they walk this very sad and difficult road.