Those to whom I owe apologies include many. Please check to see if you are one of these who may have been offended.
I wrote some unkind words about: Jews; non-Christians; Christians, who like me, are not what they ought to be; Hispanics; Blacks; Lutherans (I was one myself); Italians; the physically overweight; the well educated; the wealthy; medical doctors (not all); Health Maintenance Groups; those superior to me in places I worked; those "not too 'swift'"; Pentecostals/Charismatics; those who are more attractive physically than I (that's almost everyone); the unsaved; mothers-in-law; fathers-in-law; and the list goes on and on (as well as homosexuals!).
If I didn't write what I have written as I saw things, I could easily have used words of praise for all of these listed. Yet, it wouldn't he honest of me to do that. I needed to show how "rotten" I am as an individual so I could also show and tell that there's a way out for others like me. What is that way? Glad you asked!
No matter what my sin (or yours), the God of the Bible promises to forgive every shortcoming (sin) of everyone who comes to Him in repentance seeking forgiveness, and allowing Jesus Christ to come into his or her life. He alone can heal; He alone can forgive; and He alone can say He paid the penalty for your sins and mine.
You've seen how horribly I've handled my life. Maybe yours is even worse. Or maybe you haven't led such a sinful, negative life as I have. Yet, if you have never dealt with the hereafter and eternity, if you have never sought the forgiveness only Christ can bring, He simply asks that you come to Him in humility and to allow His shed blood on Calvary's cross to cover all your sins—as He has done for me and for untold numbers of others.
Life doesn't end for everyone at some given age, such as sixty to eighty. Some very young (even infants) have been taken from this life very unexpectedly, long before "their time (as we think of it) should have come."
Maybe you are into sin which you feel is too great for God to forgive, and you are accepting your fate as eternity in hell. Don't believe that lie of Satan! God is waiting with outstretched arms for even the most vile sinner to come to Him and accept His plan of salvation via the Lord Jesus Christ. When you are "in Christ," you are clothed in His righteousness. God will then see you as He sees His only begotten Son, pure and holy.
Won't you at least consider His offer? Eternity is a term we humans sometimes think of as being the duration of a lifetime; but, my friends, it goes far beyond that! It's everlasting death in hell or everlasting life with the God of the Bible in perfect peace. That word everlasting means there is no end—of either eternal bliss with God or eternal damnation with Satan and his angels. Your soul does not go out of existence when your body dies. That, again, is Satan's lie.
My life has not been a very good example of what a Christian ought to be. I knew right from wrong every time I did or thought to do things contrary to God's commands of how Christians are to live. I still think wrong things today, some of which would make today's headlines in the tabloids look like Sunday School material. Yet, God forgives me as I ask for forgiveness. He leads me by way of His Holy Spirit as I allow Him to work in me.
Have you heard of those who say "God wants you healthy, wealthy and wise"? Don't believe it! God wants you, all right; but He wants you to come to Him for all your needs, trusting Him in whatever circumstances He allows into your life. The apostle Paul asked God to grant him relief from some "thorn in the flesh" which troubled him. He asked more than once, but God's response was "My grace is sufficient for you!"[1]
If God wanted everyone who believed in Him to be healthy, wealthy and wise, would He have allowed so great an evangelist as the apostle Paul to go through life with that "thorn in the flesh"? Once you come to Him, all He asks is that you depend upon His love, grace and mercy, trusting that no matter what befalls you, you'll know you are in His will. He will only cause or allow those things into your life which will be for your ultimate good. He loves you more than any earthly being ever could—so much, that He sent His only begotten Son to suffer the pain and shame of the cross at Calvary in order that "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He gave His Best in order that you and I might share His bliss eternally.
The sermonizing is over, and I'm going to conclude by being embarrassingly honest again.
My lifetime has been filled with many and dissimilar occupations. I did not consider the long term future by planning on one day retiring. That's how I placed our financial future in jeopardy, and that's also how I learned a good lesson in trusting the Lord to have us go where He will.
If you can't get a job after you've tried diligently, if you can't sell your home figuring on moving elsewhere, if your finances continue going from bad to worse, if sickness befalls you, if these and/or many other circumstances prevail in your life, give it all to the Lord. He promises to take care of us as we trust in Him. Why worry when God is in control of all the circumstances of your life if you are doing what He asks of you? I keep plugging away trying to use what talents and abilities He has given me to set my ship aright. Sometimes He has to direct us by not giving us what we ask for, however. And I (and Eleanor) am ready to accept whatever He has in store for us.
I have two brothers and one sister[2] who are still living. They and their wives and husband have made provision for their financial future, and I applaud their ability to stick to budgets and to lean-living when things were rough. I have never been too thrifty or sensible about the future, and I'm paying the price in a way by humbling myself in even telling of this.
Two of my sons are also wise in their expenditures of hard-earned wages, and I thank God this is so. One son has had some problems (he's more like I am in that regard), but he has something many don't have. Jesus is his Savior and Lord, and he knows where to go for strength to bear his infirmities and shortcomings.
All three of our sons, the wives of the married sons, and our grandsons who are old enough to want to commit their lives to Christ, have done so. This is worth more than "all the tea in China" or all the gold at Fort Knox to Eleanor and to me!
When I was much younger I had the idea I was not worthy to live longer than Jesus had lived when He was on earth. So 33 was in my mind's eye as being "it." Yet that wasn't God's plan for my life, and I'm still here at 68—heart surgeries, heart attacks, near-death events in my life, etc. You won't live any longer than God wants you to be around. And even if one ends his own life, God knew what that person would do before he did it. Some who are "saved" commit suicide, though I doubt they do it when in their right mind. And those who are not saved who do likewise, are permitted by God to do it. For He can see the future and knows who will and who won't reject His Son Jesus.
The years have rearranged my once-firm body. My hair has come and gone (to a great degree). My memory has taken flight. But my waist line has grown. Seems I have the "keeping" and the "losing" mixed up, doesn't it?
Well, God bless you in whatever your circumstances in this life. I trust some of what you've read has been worth your time. But most of all, I pray you will find perfect peace in Jesus Christ "Whom to know is life eternal!"
In order to keep myself off the streets or in places I shouldn't be, with God's permission, and if He leads, it is my intent to follow this writing by a book on "Simplified Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling—the Sedory Way." [Editor's Note: It appears the author was unable to follow through with such a book.]
I thank God He has allowed me to complete this writing, for there were times I didn't think I'd be around to finish it.
A Christian cliché, if you will! "I don't know what the future holds, but I definitely know Who holds the future!"[3] And I hope you do or will, too.
 Chapter 36 |
 TOC |
Footnotes
1[Return to Text] 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NASB); the "thorn" being mentioned in verse 7.
2[Return to Text] Marie passed away June 26, 2007 in Glendale, Arizona.
3[Return to Text] This is most often quoted as: "I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future." or as "I know not what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow." and is based upon passages such as Matthew 6:34 (“So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.”) and Psalm 31:15a (“My times are in your hand;”). And has been attributed to many different people back to the late 1800s.