One reason that every garden is different is that there are so many decisions to be made, from the choice of plants to layout and design of the garden. In between is the ever-changing waning or waxing of individual plants and their bloom cycles. Plants that don’t do well might need to be moved, while others need to be thinned after their exponential growth encroaches on other vegetation.

This summer’s drought has reminded us exactly where the septic lines are, and not in a good way. The grass over the stripes has become brown and crunchy, and one of them looks as if it goes under the rock border and right through the spot we had so carefully chosen for the memorial tree commemorating the life of Gary’s mother.

Sure, that bed had grown little by little as I moved the rocks outward and planted more inside, and we never noticed the Kwanso daylilies or the yellow coreopsis having any trouble. So the tree was inadvertently planted in a spot where it won’t get much water in a dry spell.

Only a year ago I found the “Hearts of Gold Redbud” on sale at a local seller, and jumped at the opportunity to replace the one that didn’t make it three years ago. This spring, we kept marveling at the wonderful placement of this magnificent tree, as the morning sun shone through the golden leaves.

Now the questions are, “Do we move this tree?” “Should we be root pruning now to prevent transplant shock later?” “Do we just enjoy the tree while it survives, and look for a good bargain on a new one?” “What possessed us to plant so close to the lines in the first place?”

Okay, that last question is just rhetorically beating ourselves up for an honest mistake. But it is clear that this decision that we congratulated ourselves over is not going to end well. Horticultural heartbreak will inevitably be involved.

Questions. Decisions. Good ones. Bad ones. There is no one answer that will be guaranteed to work. We have no idea if the weather this fall will be conducive to new plantings, and if root pruning now will weaken the tree so badly it will die as we wait for cooler weather to move it.

We will just have to settle on a course of action, and go from there. Life is like that, for sure.

“The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps”
(Proverbs 16:9, NASB).

Looking back on raising our children and working in various ministries, there are things we would have done differently, and life questions that we would have answered better. Like this beautiful but doomed tree, we cannot now change them. We can only proceed forward the best we can.

This is an even worse scenario when we attempt to answer questions of fellow Christians, questions that they might not have even asked of us. Those who point fingers with “shoulda, coulda, woulda” are not helpful.

Our $32 redbud tree cannot be sufficiently watered with our tears of regret. But fingers pointed at our foolishness would not suffice in moving the tree to a better place, nor digging out its sorry remains when it dies.

Yes, there often is a “right” and a “wrong” way to do things. That is the whole concept of sin, and why we needed a Redeemer. Once we are in a bad place as a result of that sin, we need support and wisdom to proceed forward and get out of it.

Let’s all un-point our fingers to get those work gloves on. There is digging in to be done!

Christine (Tina) Berglund

Let’s work together, always together to bring peace to everyone on earth.

Let’s build each other up with kind words leaving us all with a feeling of self-worth.

The more we show our love and support to all our neighbors and friends everywhere our hearts will overflow with joy that we will want to share.

This world will be a better place when peace, love and joy abound in the hearts of men everywhere.

It can make a difference that is so profound.

Mark 14:8 – “She hath done what she could …”

Debora Robbins

The wife of one of our elders asked me recently if I had ever studied a certain book on hospitality. I told her I had not. She said that the ladies had studied this particular book in the congregation we now attend. She wanted to use it because she said many Christian women do not understand that hospitality is a command. I have been thinking about that statement, and I have to admit, I think there is a desperate need to study this subject with Christian women.

I began thinking about the various examples in both the Old and New Testaments of women showing hospitality. I didn’t have to think long or hard to come up with several.

“The Six Gifts of Hospitality” is a wonderful study book on all aspects of hospitality. Laurel Sewell uses Matthew 25:32-40 as her text for describing what these gifts are. They are: the gift of nourishment, the gift of service, the gift of shelter, the gift of benevolence, the gift of comfort, and the gift of companionship. All acts of hospitality fall into one of these categories. When you read the text, everything Jesus mentions fits into one of these categories. If we want to go to heaven, we must be hospitable.

I can speak personally of Laurel’s hospitality. My husband and I have been the recipient of her hospitality more than once. Her husband is the instigator of a lot of their hospitality. He invites people to their home, out to eat, for overnight stays, and devotes much of his time to making people feel like they are special. She is the same way. Time spent with them is always a pleasure. We always leave feeling good about ourselves. What a gift they have!

Laura’s husband, Milton, reminds me of Abraham. In Genesis 18, Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent. Three men approached, and “he ran from the tent door to meet them” (verse 2). He didn’t wait, hoping they would pass by, but rather went to welcome them. This is a great lesson for us. It is a way to show hospitality immediately—greet the visitor at worship, introduce yourself to a stranger, look for ways to let someone know you want to be friendly.

We know that Abraham was entertaining angels and the Lord when he washed the feet of these men, fed them, and provided a place for them to rest. He called himself their servant. That is the way we need to see ourselves.

We have the opposite of hospitality in a man named Nabal. First Samuel 25 relates the story of King David’s request for some food for his men, but Nabal refused. He had a reputation for being harsh and badly behaved. Thankfully, his wife, Abigail, was the hospitable one of the family; and she was able to repair the damage done by her husband and avoid disaster for their family and their servants.

There are many other examples of hospitality in both the Old and New Testaments. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus opened their home to Jesus. Zacchaeus, Aquila and Priscilla, Simon the leper, and others served as welcoming agents to Jesus, the apostle Paul, and others.

Paul told those in the church at Rome, “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13 ESV). Notice that they were to seek out ways to show hospitality.

Paul specifically identifies hospitality as one of the qualifications for being an elder (First Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8). What would the church be like if the elders were not willing to show hospitality?

Just showing hospitality is not enough. Peter says we are to show hospitality without grumbling (First Peter 4:9). One can show hospitality without wanting to do it, and that means it is not really hospitality. Some people do things to gain attention from others. That is not real hospitality either.

Compassion is key in hospitality. That is why we are never more like Jesus than when we serve others. Jesus felt compassion. Though weary from teaching and healing, Jesus felt the physical distress of those He encountered. He saw their physical pain and their spiritual need.

We can’t teach those we do not care about. They have to know that we care about them as individuals before they will listen to the Gospel. The wrong attitude about doing for others will give us away and make our attempts fruitless.

There are benefits to showing hospitality. We can create memories that will last a lifetime. We become examples to others in opening our hearts and homes to others. We teach wonderful lessons to our children. Our greatest blessing is that we become more like our Savior. Peter talks about being special in the sight of God.
We have been chosen. We are precious. We are a holy priesthood. Peter says, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people”. Know that doing good puts the disbeliever to shame, and it makes us more like Jesus.

Sandra Oliver

Three young, Hebrew men were brought in before King Nebuchadnezzar for refusing to pay homage to the golden idol that the king had set up on display for all to bow down in worship of it. Consequently, the monarch of Babylon angrily addressed them with the threat of being burnt to death if they dared to resist again. Daniel 3:16-18 gives us their response to that prideful king.

…O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. (NKJV)

Notice the faith of these Jews in the phrase of verse 18, “but if not.” In the face of imminent death, they not only informed the mighty king of the most powerful empire at the time that the God of Israel could deliver them from the fire, but also, that since their God is All-Powerful and All-Knowing, He may allow their lives on this earth to end in that furnace. Either way, they would not bow down to false gods, and the One, True God would be glorified!

We must ask ourselves if we have faith as displayed by these Israelites. The world is still full of idolatry to which many succumb (Romans 1:18-25; Colossians 3:5). As Christians, we must realize that our allegiance to the True God is being pulled in every way further from Him by the influences of this world. Therefore, we must continually fight against evil, striving every day to keep the faith and encourage our brethren in their walk (Ephesians 6:10-12; Hebrews 10:25; Revelation 14:12).

The Christian life is not an easy one, and certain circumstances in our individual lives may make life even harder to bear. We may pray for and expect certain things in this life: a faithful spouse, healthy children, a good job, etc., but in all reality, we may not be given such blessings. Is our faith such that when loss, hardship and disappointment happen in this life, we trust fully in God and lean on His understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6)?

Knowing that without faith, we cannot please our Lord (Hebrews 11:6), may we resolve to fortify our commitment to Him. May our prayers of petition to our Father include, “But if not, I will praise and glorify You.”

Emily Fisher

hrough my recent studies of God’s Word, I’ve come to a fuller understanding of how God views marriage. Unfortunately, I think the church has failed to understand this concept, at least during my lifetime. Churches are filled with divorce, cohabitation and unlawful marriages. Yet, many, including some elderships, believe this is okay. However, does God believe it is okay? “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4 NKJV).

God created marriage in the very beginning. Now, here is what many miss; from the beginning, marriage was a foreshadow of God’s relationship with man. Adam was put to sleep, his side was opened, and he woke up with a bride (Genesis 2:21-25; 3:12). Sound familiar? Maybe not. Think about how Jesus went to sleep, had His side opened up, and then he woke up to obtain a bride – His church.

The world tells us that marriage should be happy and perfect. God tells us marriage should be holy and complete us in our service to Him. People are so concerned with being happy that they honestly believe it is a commandment from God! If this were the case, the church never would have grown. Think about all that Paul endured for the bride of Christ. He was abused to the point of death and was then later put to death. I don’t think I would be “happy” according to worldly standards going through those difficulties. Based on extra-biblical church history, all but one apostle was murdered for Christ’s bride. This is a beautiful and perfect example of the love we need in our marriages.

While Christians have gotten wrapped up in this idea of being happy, we have neglected what makes our marriages holy. This has created unions between believers and unbelievers wherein they frequently are “unequally yoked” (2 Corinthians 6:14). This more often than not causes the believer to abandon the faith for a happy marriage. Further, the pseudo, manmade doctrine of happy marriage has also been the catalyst for many unbiblical divorces. We hear, “God wouldn’t want me to remain married because I’m not happy” or “My spouse doesn’t meet my needs.”

The church also faces the plague of cohabitation. Some churches ignore or fail to address couples who shack up while they decide if they would be good fits in marriage. Usually, the only discipline the church does in these cases is not hosting a shower, but plenty of individuals still give lots of gifts and blessings for these individuals who have never repented of their sins. Lastly, we have unlawful remarriages. Some churches don’t expect a confession of sin for unlawful divorces and also have no issue with subsequent new marriages. Nevertheless, the words of Jesus Christ remain. “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery” (Matthew 19:9). Contrary to contentions otherwise, the apostle Paul did not alter or dismiss our Lord’s directive. “Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife” (1 Corinthians 7:10-11).

If the church actually saw marriage as God does, these would not be issues. The problem is, one learns more about how God views marriage primarily through the lens of the Old Testament, but Christians today refuse to learn from these books because “We are not under the old law.” God unites Himself in marriage with those He has called to be His chosen people. God fully understands what it means to be cheated on. His people were constantly committing spiritual adultery against Him by practicing idolatry.

“Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the Lord. Then the Lord said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God, And have scattered your charms To alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord. “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” (Jeremiah 3:8-14)

This is why many believe God allows the innocent party to remain when a spouse is unfaithful. God knows and understands that feeling.

Our marriages need to mirror what Christ set forward for us. Husbands are to love their wives to the point that they would die for them (Ephesians 5:25). They should be willing to sacrifice for their wives. Wives should be willing to submit to the will of “their own husbands” (Ephesians 5:24). Even when we do not want to submit, just the same as when Jesus submitted to the will of the Father in the Garden, wives need to submit to their husbands (Colossians 3:18). We must deny ourselves and follow the authority of the husbands we chose (Titus 2:5). This is where many argue that we can leave our husbands if they are unfaithful to God or are not Christians. This is contrary to God’s Word. According to Peter, we are to continue to live our lives pleasing to God and in this set the example for our husbands. This is how we bring them to a faithful relationship with Christ (1 Peter 3:1-6).

Elderships need to ensure that husbands, as wells as teenage and adult men generally – who may become husbands in the future – hear in the classroom and from the pulpit the biblical responsibility – what God expects – of husbands. Likewise, wives, as well as teenage and adult women – who may become wives in the future – need to hear in the classroom and from the pulpit the biblical responsibility – what God expects – of wives. If elders become aware of troubled marriages within the local congregation, they ought to express their concern and offer to convey biblical and helpful teachings about marriage openly for all and privately as needed. “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. …Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you” (Hebrews 13:7, 17).

We must stop seeing marriage through the eyes of our culture and see it through the eyes of God! Persons in marriages that are not pleasing to God are lost. Anyone failing to repent of sins, including divorces for unbiblical reasons, remain lost in sin. Church, we need to do better! God has called us to do so.

Jenny Choate

I read a story recently about a young father who was working one evening, unable to get home in time to say goodnight to his children. His wife took the children to see their father at his office before bedtime. The father sat and talked with the children for a short time and then, anxious to get back to work, he hugged them and rushed them out the door. While his wife was telling him goodbye, his little daughter found a small piece of sheet rock in the trash. She took out the sheet rock and wrote this message: “I love you even when you are mad at me”. The child evidently felt the anxiousness of her father; and to her, it appeared to be anger. Later he found the message and realized that he had failed to let his children know that he was under pressure, not upset with them. He said that he failed to let them know he loved them.

It would seem to me that we may all be a little like this dad, not just with our children, but also going about our daily lives. We brush people off because we are in a hurry. We ignore our children when they are trying to tell us something that, to them, is the most important information in the world. We are short with our spouse because we are busy with life.

This story particularly makes me think about the children in our Bible classes. We enjoy teaching those children that are eager to learn, remember the stories when we review them, and tell them to their parents with great enthusiasm. But what about the children that are not so eager to learn? What about the ones that don’t read well? What about those that have trouble remembering? Do we become frustrated or busy with the “smart kids” and forget to show that we care about the others?

Many years ago, I attended a luncheon meeting where a young woman read a story called “Letters from Teddy”. It was the story of just such a child as those we often have in our Bible classes. This was about a school teacher, but the story applies to our Bible classes as well. The child was slow, and this young teacher was impatient with him, marking the mistakes on his paper with a red pen. The boy’s mother was very sick and eventually died. He was left with a dad who was trying to be both father and mother.

The story continues with the little boy giving the teacher a half-empty bottle of perfume and a rhinestone bracelet with part of the stones missing. When the teacher opened the gifts, dabbed on some of the perfume and put on the bracelet, Teddy told her she smelled just like his mom. At that point she realized how she had failed this child. She made a commitment to do everything she could do to help him the rest of the year. The boy was successful, graduated from college, and eventually from medical school. The teacher was overcome when he wrote her and asked her to come sit where his mother would have sat at his wedding.

What a difference we can make in the lives of other people. Surely Jesus had to be patient with the disciples as He worked with them day after day for three years, teaching and training them. Ananias had to be patient with Saul as he taught him about the Lord and how wrong he had been to persecute Christians. Paul shows his patience as he teaches Timothy and Titus what they needed to do to be preachers of the gospel. The list is endless from Scripture, and all are great example for us as we live day to day as Christians teaching others and living the Christian life.

In our hurried lives, we often convey the wrong message. We text and email, and it is difficult to interpret feelings and attitudes through this type of communication. It is easy to mean one thing and convey that message in another way, one that leaves the receiver feeling hurt or even angry.

There is no way to know the good we can do if we take the time to care about the people around us. This applies to our families, our friends, our enemies, and those with whom we come in contact each day. Christians are supposed to be different, not like the world around us. We are not supposed to dress, talk, or act like the world. There is no justification for being anything but what God called us to be. May God help us to communicate only that which is good, and may we do it with love for God and His Word.

Sandra Oliver

Sometimes, only when it’s time to move on to another passage, do I have my fullest (yet) understanding of the passage I’m having to leave. It’s that way with this months’s dig in John 16. So many of my friends say things like “I made this decision and I feel a peace about it.” (Sometimes the decision is in direct opposition to the Word of God.) From John 16, I understand that my peace (or lack of it) is not the test of my righteousness or even of the wisdom in my decisions. The test is whether or not my decision accords with the Spirit. That clarity shines from the teachings about the Holy Spirit in John 16. As we leave this study for another one that we will love as much, let’s take some blockbuster truths that help us decisively overcome our sorrows in this life, because He has already overcome the world (John 16:33).

1. The Holy Spirit’s new work, as the Comforter promised to the apostles, began in Acts 2.
2. That work was to convict men of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16: 8-11. Here, the reason for each prong of the Holy Spirit’s convicting message is given.)
3. Signs (miracles) brought attention to and verified the message of the Holy Spirit and were completed when the apostles no longer were laying hands on Christians to impart them (Acts 8:10-15; 1 Corinthians 13).
4. The message of salvation—the convicting of sin, righteousness and judgment— was always communicated in words (I Corinthians 2:6-14).
5. The message did not cease when the miracles ceased, because it was preserved in words in Scripture for all time (2 Timothy 3:16).
6. In every instance in the book of Acts where detail is given about the preaching or teaching, we see these three tenets of the convicting message of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2, Acts 3-5, Acts 7, Acts 24, etc.)…
7. Thus, prior to receiving the comfort, the gladness, the boldness that the Spirit brings, we must heed the words of the three fold message; being convicted of personal sin, believing that Jesus is righteous and accepting his method of making us righteous (the washing of baptism and faithful living), and being sure in our conviction of impending judgment on those who reject Christ. (This last one is one of the strongest motivators to spread the gospel.)

   Cindy Colley

Recently, my sister-in-law was driving her granddaughter home, when they passed a billboard that was turned upside down. The billboard is an advertisement for an insurance company, and it was put up several weeks ago. My great niece had not seen it before, but she did see it on this trip and began questioning her grandmother as to why someone would put this picture upside down. When my sister-in-law told me about the incident, she said she felt there had to be a spiritual lesson in all of this. I agreed and began thinking about just what that lesson might be.

I did a little research and discovered that this avenue of advertising has been around for quite some time. It is deemed an attention getter and is used by all types of businesses. Car dealerships were one of the first to utilize this method of advertising. This was their reasoning. They wanted to catch people’s attention. They wanted to make a point. They wanted to say, “we are different from everyone else.” In those three reasons is our spiritual lesson.

If a company advertises that they will do certain things and then doesn’t follow through, all the future advertising they do will be useless. Their reputation will be ruined; and whether right side up or upside down, their business will probably fail.

Christians are walking advertisements. The big question is, “are we engaged in false advertising? That depends on the follow-through. We can tell people all day long that we are Christians; if our lives don’t show it, we will have failed.

When God declared that He had chosen a people as His own, this is what He said.

 “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel” (Exodus 19:5-6 ESV).

 “This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared today that the LORD is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised” (Deuteronomy 26:16-19).

In these passages, this people, the Jews, had declared that God was their God. God tells them that He has rules they must follow. If they follow these rules, they will continue as His treasured possession; and they will be raised up in fame and honor above every nation in the world. Moses and Aaron followed up this conversation with a reminder that the people had to keep all of God’s commandments. He had to be first in their lives, in every aspect, wholly and completely devoted to Him.

There are two New Testament passages that follow this same thinking. Paul told Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14).

 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (First Peter 2:9).

 Both of these passages convey the same ideas that God proposed to the people of Israel. In the Titus passage, the King James Version says, “purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” That word peculiar means “unusual, particular, special.” It conveys the idea that the Christian will not look like, act like, talk like, dress like, be like everyone else. Christians are to catch people’s attention, make a point, and say to others by our lives, “we are different from everyone else.” But we don’t want to be different. We want to look like, act like, talk like, dress like, be like everyone else. When we do that, our advertisement is false. We say we are Christians, yet we show that we are just like the world.

We often think of being peculiar as a bad thing, but Paul told Timothy that is the way God wants us to be—different. He doesn’t want us to be like everyone else. So, how is your advertising? Is it just like everyone else’s, or is it upside down?

Sandra Oliver

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 16:13 [NAS], “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”
Stand firm. Thirteen times this phrase appears in the New Testament. Twelve times it was written by Paul, and the other one by the Apostle Peter.
I imagine there are many people today who will be offended by such a statement as “stand firm in the faith” and “act like men.” But the truth is the Holy Spirit of God, Who inspired Paul to write these words, isn’t interested at all in politically correct speech or thought. He isn’t concerned about whether or not someone’s feelings or sensibilities are offended. What He is concerned about, however, is the condition and salvation of our souls.
You see, Jesus wants soldiers in His army. He wants people to be committed truly to Him, and He expects men to be men. Paul also writes, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. ²The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. ³Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:1-4 [NAS])
Jesus doesn’t want fickle people in His service. He doesn’t want people, especially men, to leave Him just because the going gets a little bit rough. This is why He Himself said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62 [NAS]).
Standing firm in the faith and standing fast in the grace of God are key to maintaining one’s salvation. Paul reminded Timothy, “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:16 [NAS]).
Finally, James, the Lord’s brother, tells his readers that the ultimate prize awaits all who stand firm to the end. He writes, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the Crown of Life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12 [NAS]).
Stand firm, be alert and on the watch, act like men, and be strong in all that you do, regardless of the slings and arrows which our great enemy Satan fires in our direction throughout our service to the Lord in His army. The Lord WILL reward you with eternal life for your faithfulness to Him!

– David R. Ferguson