Personal Note to
Gerry – Included at his request.
Thoughts
for you
Good afternoon Gerry,
Here are a few of my thoughts for you. Each paragraph is a separate item. I
hope you find them interesting and useful.
Blessings,
Paul
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Like you and me many of our friends, acquaintances, and contacts are getting
older, weaker, and fragile. With this comes the loss of motivation, energy, and
effort needed to maintain active relationships. The relationships seem to just
slip and slowly fade away over time. It just happens without any malice. Also,
illnesses and deaths are calling these folks home to be with the Lord as we all
age. For me at almost four score and three years of age, I am blessed to be as
active as I am.
As you indicated in a recent letter - As we age we find that in the Autumn
years of our life we find that our longing for heaven may become increasingly
greater. With this longing our past and present life grows strangely dimmer at
the sight of His glory. True!!
As I pray much of my prayer is verbal expression to the Lord about things which
I see in my mind’s eye - mental visual images. Often words are not there for me
to use. Hence, my prayers sometimes become like "wordless
groans." Here I believe the Holy Spirit is interceding for me. I find this
most often occurs when I bring my petitions before the Lord. I don't share this
about my prayer life because it is not understood and it is thought by some
folks to be in clear violation of the Second Commandment.
I believe God is sovereign in all aspects and details of our lives. This being
the case we are exactly where we are supposed to be. There we are to be doing
the work as directed and enabled by the Holy Spirit. We are the instruments God
uses do some of His work. The Bible is loaded with many examples to consider -
Jonah, Paul, David, Solomon, Joseph, Moses, and on the list goes.
I feel most akin to Biblical Job as I think you do also. Like Job our challenge
is to remain faithful and trusting in the Lord and Him alone through every
aspect of our life. This I believe is a most powerful witness to the watching
world. The question is this - Does our observable life match the words of our
mouth?
Seventeen years ago I was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. The prognosis was that
I had less than a 35% chance of surviving 5 years. God has been most loving and
gracious. I am still here after this and many more subsequent health issues.
When I think about this two things often come to mind: First, my prayer like that
of James Boyce when he was dying is - Lord as I go through this I pray that I
remain a good and faithful witness. Second, as I have gone under general
anesthesia almost a dozen times in the last 17 years my prayer before going
under has been - "Lord into your hands I yield my spirit."
One of the more difficult things we as believers have to do is give thanks in
all circumstances (1Thess 5:16-18). Also, all things work for good for those
who are called.
(Rom 8:28)
Blessings/benedictions are important to me. As you know I end almost every
email with me saying blessings. Here I'll end with the Aaronic blessing -
"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."
' -- Num 6:24-26