SPAM in Parenthesis Part One

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SPAM in Parenthesis Part One
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”   Matt 6:31-34 (ESV)
 “The Lord has given you a parenthesis” Pastor Tony Cuellar had said to me as we made our way to lunch. Tony knows this place in Vineland N. J. that serves a killer Hispanic lunch (for the record…I love Hispanic cuisine) and I had just got done telling him that I had lost my job. As I drove home from that lunch I was comfortable with knowing that, at times, our heavenly Father puts us in a set of parenthesis to give us rest. For those who keep up with Freedom Fighters, you might remember that I had written about losing my job back in December and how a message appeared on my smartphone letting me know that God was in control. It is an awesome promise of God that we find in Luke 12:29-31.
Well at the beginning of the parenthesis things just clicked. Christmas was provided for and it seemed as if the New Year was going to start off with blessings. But all these little mole hills started to appear on my nice, pristine narrow path and I would trip over them once in a while. The first one was when I found out that a brother-in-Christ was hired to replace me. Wasn’t his fault, we talked it over, praised God for His wisdom but it didn’t sit well with me. I got over it as time went by and then came the letters from the N.J. Department of Labor telling me I needed to go to these gatherings at the New Jersey One-Stop.
They were not easy to sit through I can assure you of that. If you want to hear how much the secular world can complain about so little…go to the One-Stop. I would rather poke myself in the eye with a broken plastic fork than to go back and re-hash my experience there, so enough said on that subject. I will say that during this time period I was blessed with the privilege of serving in Housekeeping at America’s Keswick and by the fellowship with the men of the Colony as well as the Keswick staff. But it was time to get to work on looking for work and that’s when the mountains formed from the mole hills. I wasn’t as braced for the kind of impact that was going to not happen…actually finding a job.
Don’t get me wrong, there were offers but they all seemed to take me out of the ministry work that God had placed me in. Dear brothers tried to assure me that by taking one of these jobs it would only be for a season but it just didn’t sit well with me. Then it flat lined and I was slowly sinking into discouragement with the wonderful world of job searching. The classified section was like reading the comic’s and I would look on these new online employment websites, place my resume and then receive offers to sell insurance. They would tell me how I had all the requirements for the position but I just couldn’t do the math on how a guy with a manufacturing background could sell insurance.
Well that’s all I can cover for this Freedom Fighter today. But what needs to be conveyed here is that the promise God made was the God promised kept. During this time period God still provided. Sometimes it came at the eleventh hour but it still came. And no matter what was put on the table or how close some of the bills came due…God provided. I will finish this tomorrow but I want you all to know that out of that provision our family was still able to tithe. Who was I to hold back, but I will admit this to you all…it was a hard thing to do. Until tomorrow then? – Bill Welte is the President and CEO of America’s Keswick
GPS – God’s Positioning System: 2 Chronicles 34-35; Psalm 22:1-18; Proverbs 25

Compass Pointers: “What is the promise for? A promise is given to me so that I may know intelligently what God has planned for me, what God will give me and so what to claim. Those are the promises and they are intelligent directions. They rest upon the character and ability of the One who made them.”  The Tozer Pulpit Set                                                                                                                       Volume 1, Book 3

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 30:5-6; Level 2: Proverbs 30:5-9

Anchored to the Rock: It’s so easy to promise to pray for people, or just plan to pray for people, and forget. So many afflictions, so many tragedies or desperate hopes that cry out for intercession. Only an instant of my time, only a few works, a thought – and who knows? It may be the only word of prayer that person will get. – Marjorie Holmes

Confession of Faith

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Confession of Faith
I came across this “Confession of Faith” in the back of the “Praise” hymnal published by Zondervan.
I believe, O Lord, in You.
Father, Word, Spirit, One God;
that by your Fatherly love and power
all things were created;
that by Your goodness and love to man
all things have been gathered into one
in Your Word.
Who, for us men and for our salvation,
become flesh,
was conceived, was born,
suffered, was crucified,
died, was buried,
descended, rose again,
ascended, sat down,
will return, will repay;
that by the forth-shining and operation of Your Holy Spirit
has been called out of the whole world a peculiar people,
into a commonwealth of faith in the truth
and holiness of life,
in which we are partakers of the communion of saints
and forgiveness of sins in this world,
and in which we look for the resurrection of the flesh
and the life everlasting
in the world to come.
This most holy faith once delivered to the saints
I believe, O Lord;
help my unbelief,
increase my little faith!
You are reading this on Sunday morning. I am writing this on Tuesday morning. As I was typing this, the words were jumping off the page because I am in the midst of a very discouraging morning and I needed these words! Thank You, Lord.

Have a blessed Lord’s Day. I appreciate you, my brothers. – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick

 GPS – God’s Positioning System: 2 Kings 22-23; Psalm 21; Proverbs 24
Compass Pointers: Don’t pray to escape trouble. Don’t pray to be comfortable in your emotions. Pray to do the will of God in every situation. Nothing else is worth praying for. Samuel M. Shoemaker
Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 30:5-6 ; Level 2: Proverbs 30:5-9
Anchored to the Rock: Until we believe that prayer is indeed a real and highly significant activity, that it does in fact reach beyond space and time to the God who is actually there, we will never acquire the habits of worship and intercession. In order to gain these habits, we must make a conscious effort to overcome the part of us that thinks that praying is not a natural part of life. Gordon MacDonald
Join us this afternoon for a concert featuring Brother in Grace, a southern gospel quartet. 2:30 PM is the hymnsing followed by the concert at 3:00 PM.  Tonight is the beginning of Victory Week #2 — Pastor Bob Alderman will be sharing God’s Word at 7:00 PM.

The Prayer of a Father

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The Prayer of a Father
Build me a son, O Lord, who be strong enough to know when he is weak,
and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid.
One who will be proud and unbending in defeat but humble and gentle in victory.
A son who will know that to know himself is the foundation stone of all true knowledge.
Rear him, I pray, not in the paths of easy and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenges. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm … here let him learn compassion for those who fail.
Build me a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men. Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high. One who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep. One who will reach into future, and yet not forget the past.
And after all these are his, add, I pray, enough sense of humor so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself seriously – a touch of humility, so that he will always remember the simplicity of true greatness – the open mind of wisdom, the meekness of true strength.
Then, I his father, will dare in the sacred recesses of my own heart to whisper – “I have not lived in vain.”
Great prayer for our sons, men! I am so thankful for my four sons – Josh, Zach, Jon and Garrett! – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick
GPS – God’s Positioning System: Nahum 1-3; Psalm 20; Proverbs 23
Compass Pointers: It is idleness that creates impossibilities; and where people don’t care to do anything, they shelter themselves under a permission that it cannot be done. Robert Smith
Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 29:5; Level 2: Proverbs 29:22-27
Anchored to the Rock: Ultimately there is no better index of one’s spiritual state and condition than one’s prayers. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Investing in What Will Endure

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Investing in What Will Endure
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” 2 Peter 1:4
This is a great teaching on how we view our relationship to the world. I really appreciated the insights that Dr. Glyn Evans shares in his daily devotional, Daily with the King:
The disciple of Christ must eventually come to terms with the world. By “coming to terms” I do not mean compromise; I mean a way of dealing with it.

First I must recognize what the world is; and then I must learn how to conquer it. What the worlds IS can best be described by defining what is NOT, it is “not from the Father” (1 John 2:16). The world’s basic motives, instincts, and attitudes do not originate from God. The world’s BEHAVIOR, therefore, cannot be of God. If I have been born again into the family of God, I should not be surprised to find that this world is “no friend to grace.”

As to conquering the world I must remember that “the world and its desires pass away (1 John 2:17). That non-durability is a characteristic of the world. Many aspects of the world are sinful and temporary, but many other aspects are good and temporary. The only way I can conquer the world is to invest myself in something that will endure.

The “eternal life” of the Bible is more than endless existence; it is qualitative existence as well. To have eternal life is to “know … God” (John 17:3). But to know God in the Bible sense is to be personally acquainted with His qualities such as love, mercy, and righteousness. Those are qualities that have NO limit, not ends. 

To say that I own three houses means that one day I shall have to leave them; but to say I am filled with the love of God means that I have something that will last forever.
The Bible urges me on to possess that which I cannot leave or lose. The biblical “fool” is always the man who sacrifices the “far off” for the near at hand. Wow! The opposite is shining victory. “To him who overcomes [the world], I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of Paradise.” Revelation 2:7

Wow – I don’t want to be a “biblical fool” that is willing to sacrifice the “far off” for the near at hand. That is certainly something to think about today. – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick
GPS – God’s Positioning System: 2 Chronicles 32-33; Psalm 19:7-14; Proverbs 22
Compass Pointers: Some Christians seem to think that all the requirements of a holy life are met when they are very active in successful Christian work. And because they do so much for the Lord in public they feel a liberty to be cross and ugly and un-Christ like in private. This is not the sort of Christian life I am depicting. If we are to walk as Christ walked, we must be in private as well as in public, at home, as well as abroad. It must be every hour, all day long, and not as stated points or certain fixed occasions.
Hannah Whitall Smith
Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 29:25; Level 2: Proverbs 29:22-27
Anchored to the Rock: EVERYTHING we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Not Good Unless Endorsed

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NOT GOOD UNLESS ENDORSED
“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God –and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”  (1 Corinthians 1:30
            In the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Proverbs, the term wisdom is often used to refer to the character of God.  In the New Testament, there is further clarification of it in terms of its being invested in the person of Jesus Christ.  “For it pleased the Father that in Him (Christ) all the fullness should dwell.” (Colossians 2:3).  Our theme verse indicates that this wisdom invested in Jesus Christ is for us.
            It is possible to paraphrase the verse to say in effect that Christ Jesus was made over to us and for our benefit.  This One in whom the very wisdom of God is deposited is now delivered over to us who are in Him.  In terms of a banking transaction, this would be a divine deposit made payable to us in the person of Christ (“In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”).  From the divine standpoint the deposit has already been made and the benefit is available to all who are in Christ.  However, before the benefit of this can be realized, we must endorse it by faith.  A check may be donated based on a sound deposit, but if it is not endorsed by the recipient, it is of no benefit.
            How can the benefits of the wisdom of God be described?  There are three elements listed:  righteousness – the status of being right with God, sanctification – the status of being set apart to God, and redemption – the ultimate release and deliverance awaiting us on the basis of the price paid at Calvary.
            Have you endorsed by faith the deposited riches that God made payable to you in Christ? Today’s devotional was written by the late Pastor Bill Raws, grandson of the founder of America’s Keswick. Yesterday was the third anniversary of Pastor Bill’s graduating to heaven. I miss you, Dad!
GPS – God’s Positioning System: 2 Kings 20-21; Psalm 1:1-6; Proverbs 21
Compass Pointers: However many and however great and burdensome your sins may be, with God there is greater mercy. Just as His majesty is, so likewise is His mercy.
Tikhon
Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 29:25; Level 2: Proverbs 29:22-27
Anchored to the Rock: I have many times been driven to my knees by the utter conviction that I had nowhere else to go. Abraham Lincoln

The Nature of Discipline

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The Nature of Discipline
“I beat my body and make it a slave to that … I myself will not be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:27
We don’t really like the word discipline, do we? There are two concepts of discipline in the Christian life: the loving discipline we receive from the Lord that brings correction and a return to living life HIS way, and then there is the area of discipline – the training our minds and bodies to live life HIS way.
I recently read this quote: The world is full of naturally brilliant people who never rise above mediocrity because they will not make the sacrifice which superiority requires. Without discipline we are not disciples, even though we profess His name and pass for a follower of the lowly Nazarene. In an undisciplined age when liberty and licenses have replaced law and loyalty, there is greater need than ever before that we be disciplined to be His disciples.

In his book, The Man Who Makes a Difference –10 Keys to a Life of Impact (Harvest House), Dr. Jim George shares 10 principles about the nature of discipline:
  1. Discipline is a spiritual issue – EVERYTHING doe to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)
  2. Discipline has no shortcuts – no quick results.
  3. Discipline has no reserve – self-control must be reinstituted tomorrow.
  4. Discipline begins with little things – like picking up your dirty socks!
  5. Discipline tackles the difficult thing – easy requires little.
  6. Discipline starts with the mind – “I will.”
  7. Discipline proceeds with a mandate – “I must.”
  8. Discipline never gets distracted – “This one thing I do.”
  9. Discipline never takes a vacation – it’s for life!
  10. Discipline is ever-changing – growth requires new disciplines to meet life’s next and latest challenges.
At 57 I find that there are areas that still need work – discipline! Wow! I know the areas I MUST work on. How about you? – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick
GPS – God’s Positioning System: Isaiah 64-66; Psalm 18:25-50; Proverbs 20
Compass Pointers: Paint Jesus Christ upon your canvas, and then hold Him up to the people; but hold Him up so that not even your little finger can be seen. Edward Payson

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1:Proverbs 29:25; Level 2: Proverbs 29:22-27
Anchored to the Rock: You can more than pray, after you have prayed, but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed. A. J. Gordon

Right Thinking

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Right Thinking
Join us today as Dr. George Murray (9:30 AM) and Dr. Charles Zimmerman (7:00 PM) share God’s Word. Watch live: www.americaskeswick.org
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Do not always turn what the Scriptures say around. It nowhere tells us to think “Lowly” of ourselves. What causes most of our problems in the Christian life is the way we think and what we think.
Have you ever wondered why you find it hard to forgive another person when you have been forgiven for so much by God? It is easy for God to forgive us, we think, because our sins are not so bad. When we line ourselves up with others we are not too bad.
            If we stand next to Christ we will see how really bad we are!
As much as we need forgiveness, we need to forgive another. We do not need for them to seek forgiveness from us (although we need to ask forgiveness from God) it is in forgiving that we can feel forgiven. It is hard to feel God’s forgiveness when we are so unforgiving. 
    
Notice that we are talking about a feeling. When we begin to forgive someone we may not necessarily have the feeling that should accompany the act.
We may have to forgive many times because we keep on hurting. Each time we forgive we may feel good until the memory of the act afflicts us again. Then we will need to forgive again. But constantly forgiving should bring peace which is what we seek. Peace is what God promised. Joy is often a gift that accompanies peace but not always. It is a fruit of the Spirit.
When we know how we stand in God’s sight and how God has made us His child we can be humble enough to forgive without feeling less.
I may not like the hand that God has dealt me
            I may seem like a losing hand
Until I turn the last card over
            And suddenly I can stand.
For God had dealt me what I need    
           To the purposes of life it blend
For the ACE that God has dealt me
            Is His Faith that will keep me to the end.
Pastor Van is a Christian Counselor and is serving as our summer campus Pastor at America’s Keswick 
GPS – God’s Positioning System: Isaiah 59-63; Psalms 18:1-24; Proverbs 19
Compass Pointers: If I slip into the place that can be filled by Christ alone, making myself the first necessity to a soul instead of leading it to fasten upon Him, then I know nothing of Calvary love. Amy Carmichael

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 29:25; Level 2: Proverbs 29:22-27
Anchored to the Rock: It is staggering to even begin to realize that the whole process by which God’s will is done on earth depends on an interceding church. Jack Hayford

His Radical Purpose

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Join us today as Dr. George Murray and Dr. Charles Zimmerman share God’s Word at America’s Keswick. Morning sessions at 9:30 AM and evenings at 7:00 PM. Can’t join us live? Live-streaming available: www.americaskeswick.org.

His Radical Purpose 
 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:16-18 (ESV) 

I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to reading books but when I find one that captives me it can get a hold onto me for a while. I also have been known to juggle through as many as three books at one time. But for the summer season I have scaled that back to just one. I have been prayerfully reading A.W. Tozer’s book titled, “The Radical Cross.” And I must tell you that from what I have read in there, it is just as right now as it was during Tozer’s lifetime. It really hit me right between the eyes when I got to chapter ten aptly titled, “Christ Came for All People.”  

We seem to cling on to the idea that the geographical term “world” encompasses what we wake up to every morning. You know, the sun shining, the grass growing; the birds singing and the like. But, as Tozer suggests, Jesus Christ didn’t just come into that natural world only, He came into the world of the human race. And not just the human race that had been living in the distant land of what is now called the Middle East, No! He came to live among us, a race of people that, because of Adam’s sin in the garden, need to be reconciled with The Creator. Because just as God’s Word simply puts it, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” 

When you look at John 3:17 you don’t see any expectations either. For me this would mean it doesn’t matter who you are. Once you understand that Jesus came to all human beings, those lines that separate state from state and nation from nation have no real use anymore. It will not matter if you are blind, crippled or in the best of health. It will not matter if you struggled in school or your I.Q. was at the top of your class. Jesus will not ask you how smart you are, how rich aren’t or how many times you got caught breaking and entering. He just wants you to believe and trust in Him and it doesn’t even need to be in a religious sense. Think of Nicodemus… 

When Nicodemus, a man of the Pharisees, made his trek through the night to meet up with Jesus we can only guess that either he was afraid or ashamed to be seen with Him. But whatever the case may have been, The Savior welcomed him anyway and Nicodemus was part of just one of the many redeeming teachings of Jesus. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God…unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God…we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.” Even Jesus knew that His baptism (Matthew 3: 14-16), an outward sign of inner change, had to be done to please ABBA, Father, “and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
We shouldn’t ask why God would send His only begotten Son to this stew pot of a human race. We were made in His image and He has not forgotten about it. We, on the other hand, have had our momentary lapses of reason and think that there is a palatable theory that will give us all a warm, fuzzy feeling. We ain’t doing too good in that area are we? Tozer begins closing this chapter by writing, “Like a prodigal son in that most moving of all stories, each one of us must come to grips with our own personal need and to decide and act as He did: “I am hungry. I will perish here. But I will get up. I will go to my father. I remember his house and his provision” (Luke 15:17-20) He said, “I will go”—so He got up and went to His Father.” Yep…Jesus has a radical purpose, doesn’t He? – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a regular Freedom Fighter Contributor

GPS – God’s Positioning System: Isaiah 54-58; Psalm 17; Proverbs 18
Compass Pointers: “We humans do have a tendency to use generic terms and general terms and pretty soon we become just scientific in our outlook. Let us cast that outlook aside and confess that God loved each of us in a special kind of way so that His Son came into and unto the people of the world—and He even became one of those people!” The Radical Cross  A.W.Tozer

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 29:25; Level 2: Proverbs 29:22-27
Anchored to the Rock: God shapes the world by prayer. E. M. Bounds

All Glory to Jesus

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All Glory to Jesus
God can do anything you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within is. Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes! Ephesians 3:20-21 (The Message)
Ephesians 3:20-21 is one of my favorite verses! I love how Eugene Peterson paraphrased the verse in The Message. All glory goes to Jesus! That thought reminded me of a great hymn of praise written by John W. Peterson. It is a shame that this hymn has been lost and not included in new hymnals:
All glory to Jesus, begotten of God,
The great “I AM” is He;
Creator, Sustainer – but wonder of all,
They Lamb of Calvary.

To think that the Guardian of planets in space,
The Shepherd of the stars,
Is tenderly leading the church of His love,
By hands with crimson scars!

The King of all kings and the Lord of all lords,
He reigns in glory now!
Some day He is coming earth’s kingdom to claim,
And every knee shall bow!
And every knee shall bow!

Today is the Lord’s Day! Worship Him! Give all glory and praise to Jesus! – Bill Welte is President and CEO
GPS – God’s Positioning System: Isaiah 49-53; Psalm 16; Proverbs 17
Compass Pointers: The Father wants us to be filled only with His Christ. Will you let Him deal so thoroughly in His love, until you are consumed with Him, having to continually depend upon Him, instead of anything of yourself? For God to take you deeper into Himself, He must expose all in you that is not of Himself. I hope that, as He shines in you, you will take Him as Grace, to deal completely, so He may possess you wholly, and bring you into His fullness in your lifetime. Dr Yu. (Chinese Martyr – 1956)
Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 29:25; Level 2: Proverbs 29:22-27
Anchored to the Rock: Prayer is an all-sufficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky obscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings. Chrysostom

Never Separated from His Grace

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NEVER SEPARATED FROM HIS GRACE

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,…shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 8:38, 39)
            At age nine, I accepted Jesus as my Savior when an evangelist, Jack Murray, was at our church.  He used John 3:16 to make things plain to me.  I soon knew that verse by heart.

            At age sixteen, I joined church and our pastor chose for me the above verses, Romans 8:38, 39.  He always prayed before selecting a life verse for new members.  That didn’t seem to fit into my happy lifestyle.  The “things present” were very acceptable and life was good.

            By seventeen I started working and also attended evening Bible school.  Later, I married and had three sons and was in full-time ministry with my husband at the church where I accepted the Lord and became a member.  Proverbs 3:5, 6 says, “He will direct your path,” and He did!

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            By age thirty-three, the “things to come” began to happen!  Two of our children went through surgery, and we had a near-death experience of our 9-month-old son – choking.  I thought these things caused weakness for me, but God had plans to use me through a muscle illness, myasthenia gravis.  May I insert here: the ministry of “helps,” given to us by so many people, are never forgotten!  God needs us all in helping each other; we do it unto the Lord!  However, one requested I ask: don’t say to someone who is ill, “If you just had faith, you could be healed!”  I was concerned about my faith, but not considering it was His will.  I did see God use this illness, the trials, the heartaches.  I still see it today as I have had this disease for 37 years.  I am serving the Lord at America’s KESWICK with my husband.  Nothing has been able to separate me from the love of God; in fact, I’ve grown even closer!
            Jeremiah 29:11 is another verse I have claimed.  He does not have plans to harm me, but to give a future and a hope.  He says, “I know the plans I have for you.”  I do want His plans, not mine!  His way is not just for good, but for a purpose!  — For 18 years Dottie Noel served at the Colony of Mercy with her husband, Chaplain Jack Noel. Dottie went home to be with Jesus on May 21 of this year.
GPS – God’s Positioning System: 2 Kings 18:9-37; Psalm 15; Proverbs 16
Compass Pointers: “The cross of Christ is a revelation of the love of God, for it reveals what that love is prepared to suffer for the one loved.  I believe that the presentation of the death of Christ as substitution exhibits the love of the cross more richly, fully, gloriously and glowingly than does any other presentation.  It gets nearer to the heart of that love than any of the other pictures that the New Testament contains.” J I Packer

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 28:9; Level 2: Proverbs 28:6-10
Anchored to the Rock: Just as the business of tailor is to make clothes, and that of the shoemaker to mend shoes, so the business of the Christian is to pray. Martin Luther