Skip to main content

New Beginnings

It seems I'm in a time period of new beginnings. What I mean by that is that there are several areas where I'm either involved in, or initiating something new.
First, I'm doing a bunch of weddings in both June and July -- hence new beginnings for couples to begin their married life. I love doing weddings. I love seeing beautiful brides and dashing grooms smile, celebrate family, and solemnly lead them to realize the vows they are saying to one another.
Secondly, Linda and I are involved with Retrouvaille -- a ministry for marriages in crisis. These are couples who are separated, divorcing, or actively struggling with the whole idea of staying married. Retrouvaille was a powerful place of correction in our marriage, and giving back by being involved and helping others seems so right to do. This last weekend 26 couples came to a Retrouvaille weekend...nervous, wondering if it was going to help...and when I came on Sunday afternoon to help wrap things up, I noticed two couples standing out in the parking lot, smiling...together...sharing life...It was a new beginning time.
3) Lastly, I'm enjoying immensely the new status of Grandpa. Little Jack is a joy to hold, smile at, talk to, pray over, bless, etc... If I knew it was going to be this good I'd have married them off 10 years ago...well, not really, but it is good!
I love God...He creates all things new...over and over again.
Oh by the way, Retrouvaille is at www.retrouvaille.org - if you need it, try it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday, Day 25: Christmas Eve - God Loves Us (So We Can Relax)

For Kids: There’s a lot of things we have to do each day. Get up from our sleep, Get dressed, Eat Breakfast, Get ready for School, Listen to the teacher, play with friends, eat our lunch, and after it’s all done, go back home. There’s time to play, Then we eat our supper… And eventually we have to get ready for bed and go to sleep! And then we do it all over again the next day. Sometimes there’s a vacation - like right now - and we get more time to play, to have fun and not have to do work at school. Our parents are good at helping us know what time it is and what we need to do next – even when we don’t want to move on to the next thing.  God is also good at helping us know what time it is, and what is next.  He doesn’t shout at us, or yell, or even scream…he does it peacefully, quietly.  He wants us to understand that he does it, most of all, for us. Christmas can be quite busy and there’s lots of things going on at once…but l...

Joy to the World - Help is On the Way

It’s the first day of Advent– while you prepare for Worship this morning at church take a minute to ask God to direct you through this season that you might be prepared to “receive your King”. In the first week of Advent we celebrate the PROMISE of His Coming. His promise is based on our need. We were made in his image, but there is emptiness in our soul that is the result of the Fallen nature of sin. But why did Jesus come? What in his coming announces God's heart? His desire for us to know and experience? 10 BUT THE ANGEL SAID TO THEM, "DO NOT BE AFRAID; FOR BEHOLD, I BRING YOU GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY WHICH WILL BE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE; 11 FOR TODAY IN THE CITY OF DAVID THERE HAS BEEN BORN FOR YOU A SAVIOR, WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD. GREAT JOY! Did you know that God is Joyful? 1 CHRONICLES 16:23-27 (NASB) 23 SING TO THE LORD, ALL THE EARTH; PROCLAIM GOOD TIDINGS OF HIS SALVATION FROM DAY TO DAY. 24 TELL OF HIS GLORY AMONG THE NATIONS, HIS WONDERFUL DEEDS AMONG ALL THE PEOPLES....

The Gospel of Matthew - Coming: An Exposition and Devotional on the Life of Jesus

Preface  I just finished writing a daily devotional of the book of Matthew with an emphasis on expositing the text and bringing some daily devotional thoughts to the text.  It will be a 40-day journey reading the book of Matthew and the things I wrote within it. Why do it?  Well, first of all, I have loved reading the Scripture for over 50 years now.  I taught the Scriptures on multiple levels from Sunday messages in a Church, to Bible Studies, to Young Adults' discipleship formation, to lectures in a college setting.  I love the Scriptures because it is the Word of God delivered to us from God through human authors, and as Paul reminded Timothy, “it is profitable”. Matthew was a disciple of Jesus, also called Levi, he was not like most of the other disciples. Many of the disciples were middle-class, some commoners, and several were fishermen by trade (which made them middle-class commoners).  We don't know what all of them did, but we do know what Matthew ...