Alex and Jefferson are doing so well due to great adoptive parents. We are so proud. I was hoping to have photos but evidently I could not receive them via email.
Larry & Sue are coming back to Casa even before Dottie & I return. So they will be there for the peak season when teams come.
We are having problems with the car as we drove from Sarepta to Ruston. Both services were wonderfully received.
Candy emailed say one of the younger boys in her dorm, age 12, has blood pressure at 180/100 so telemedicine gave 3 options. Pray for him.
The heart is the seat of everything according to the Word of God. What is in our heart will be the way we live our lives. Paul tells us that we AND WE ALONE must put on the breastplate of righteousness. No one can live our lives for us. Jesus told us that what is in our heart is the way we will speak and perform.
Psalm 14:3 says that NO ONE does good no not one. There is no other person that you can look at and think that you are better than they are. We are all sinners and therefore we all are in need of protection. In Romans 3:23 God says that we are ALL sinners. There is no comparative righteousness. I use to hope that I would be behind Hitler and in front of Attila the Hun at the judgment seat but my sin is as terrible as theirs.
As a pastor I heard men say “I am not going to your church. I am as good as those deacons you have there”. To compare yourself and rank your righteousness is foolish and without merit.
Genesis 15:6 says that Abraham believed the Lord and God counted that for righteousness. There is a standard by which we must live. It is God’s Word. I cannot live up to the standard of God’s Word.
But praise God there is a fourth righteousness. It is when we realize we are sinners and we seek to live in accordance with God’s will for our lives. We no longer look at others and say as Peter did about John ‘What about him?’
I am saying one thing—LIVE A LIFE OF LOVE. The heart is where love flows from and that is why the breastplate needs to be in place. Protect your love life. Loving those who are of your family ordear friends is easy. How about loving the unlovable? How about loving your enemies? It is here that we lower the breastplate and Satan stabs us.