The End of a Long Road

Today I conclude a 15 year ministry at First Southern Baptist Church. It has been a great time filled with excitement, growth, challenges, rewards and fulfillment. Words cannot fully describe and express all that I feel about this day.

When we came to the church my family was young and now I have three grandchildren. Shelly and I have spent over half our married life serving in this place and have enjoyed many good things as well as difficulties. All these years of serving have proved to be the greatest time in our lives and yet we sense that we are not finished and we have great friendships that I hope, in some way, will continue.

I am uncertain of what is next but God is not. God sees all things past, present and future. He knows everything so with that I will trust Him, follow Him and serve Him.

I am planning to continue this blog and will continue to share about this life on a regular basis. This change and transition will come to pass and there will be a new normal soon.

Happy New Year!

Change

When you hear the word change many things probably come to your mind. For some it might be a bad word. For others, they embrace change and enjoy the challenges that change can bring. For me, I am in the middle. I don't particularly care for change but then on the other hand I see that it is sometimes needed and seek to go with it and make the adjustments as needed.

Our family is embarking on a new journey. We have resigned our position at our church and are moving to another state. This means we are leaving our home of 15 years, our oldest daughter and her family, a ministry that has been fruitful and beneficial and a host of friends. It is not easy packing up my office or my home. In some respects it would be easier to just stay and not change. But, the Lord is leading us and we are getting somewhat excited to see what the Lord has for us in the future.

Change can be scary but it also can be exciting. If we don't change we will never know what we might do or become.

Where's the reset button?

I remember when we had our first home computer. After awhile, the dreaded blue screen would appear and we would have to do a system reboot and restore the computer back to factory settings. After that was completed, we could then start over in our use of the computer.

Have you ever wondered where the reset button is for life? At times, we find ourselves in situations and surrounded by circumstances that we wish we could just hit the reset button and everything would be cleared up and out and we could just start over. I know that I am not alone in having regrets and wishing to could go back and do something over or not do something altogether. We all make mistakes; it's a fact that we all live with.

So, when we come to that point in our life and realize that we need a time to reset, what do we do and where do we turn? The easy answer is turn to God and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. He can take our brokenness and turn it into praise. He is the answer.

Our reset button is found only in Christ. He is the One who makes our sin that is red as scarlet and makes it white as snow. When we confess our sins, He is the One that is faithful to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There are no mulligans or do overs or clearing the table or resetting back to factory defaults. But today is a new day. His mercies are new every morning - great is His faithfulness. He doesn't condemn nor condone but is ready to forgive. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus - the Author and Perfecter of our faith - and keep walking with Him in His power and strength. We need to be filled with the Spirit afresh and anew each day.

I wish there was a button to reset things but there isn't one. The good news is that instead of a button for us to push to reset things right, we have a Savior that came and gave a perfect sacrifice for our sin so that it would not remembered anymore and would be separate from us as far as the east is from the west. God is the One who restores us and He does it through Jesus Christ our Lord.