A fair amount accomplished today, Father. I was also able to get started on getting my bus routes in order. We sure need Your help this year – all kinds of things going on! Work through Your children, that Your will might be done. Amen.

Luke 13:1-5 (<<click here to read the passage)

With the pandemic’s impact life has changed on many fronts. One thing that we had talked about but had yet to get up and running was developing an online presence for my one church in particular. We attended a conference last fall and a couple of us took part in a session that addressed doing so. It was on the back burner, as such, but on March 29th of this year, we dove in – sink or swim!

We have been amazed at the impact we have had but there is a fair amount of preparation to pull it all together – and that is just from my living room! For me to be ready most everything needs to be in place the night before. That includes setting up the equipment and everything that gets it where it needs to be. I have to pull our curtains because the light reflects off our television screen. There is a lot to get ready!

There have been a couple of times when parts and pieces were not in place – so technically I wasn’t ready. Just this past Saturday, I finally crashed on the couch about a half-hour before we headed to bed, thinking I was ready to go for the next morning. As we got up to go to bed, I realized I hadn’t made sure our old laptop was set up with the service’s PowerPoint – without that no words to sing by!

A couple of months back were within minutes of our service starting and I realized I hadn’t connected my HDMI cord to our modem to ensure a good solid internet feed. I have to run a 30-foot cord from our office, down the hall, around the corner, through our dining room, and into our living room! I had to move quickly to get everything in place. Again, for everything to be as it should, I have to be ready!

I speak a lot about being ready both here on the blog and from the pulpit, too. Many times, I speak of being ready for Jesus’ ultimate return…for we do not know the day or hour when He will come back. But, just as important, is the necessity of being ready for our own departure from this world.

Death is a certainty for us all (unless Jesus should return before we experience it!) and it is another one of those things that for the most part we do not know the day or hour. But for both, we need to be ready!

The good thing is that as long as we have breath, Jesus, again and again, gives us opportunities to ask forgiveness and get ourselves right with Him. In today’s passage, Jesus sternly calls for repentance on our part. The Amplified Bible spells out what is meant when He says we must repent. We are to change [our] old way of thinking, turn from [our] sinful ways and live changed lives.

Just as long as we find ourselves in the position I found myself in with my HDMI cable we can take care of things so everything will be as it should be. I now make sure to leave the cable in plain sight, so I don’t forget again. When we know we have an issue, we can put it out in plain sight so as to avoid it being an issue again…our hearts will remain pure as we avoid what can take us down.

Lord Jesus, may we freely come before You when we fail. May we not hesitate. You will not reject us, but You will forgive. Though we may fail repeatedly, You urge us to never stop coming to You. May we strive to keep our hearts pure in Your sight. You are our mighty Savior and Your patience and love are beyond measure! All praise to You! Amen and amen!

Aug 17th, 2020, Mon, 9:01 pm