Pastor’s Corner

Well, all of you had some great guesses, however, these majestic animals, the Giraffe's tongue measureas 18 inches long, the perfect length for reaching the leaves & branches of tall trees, which they spend most of their time grazing on.

Thursday 8/24

Eccl. 3:9,10 "What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all."

After Solomon goes through these 14 positive & 14 negative stops to evaluate the outcome of all of these efforts. Then he comes to the conclusion that they all have little real benefit. Tomorrow we will continue to look at his conclusions.

It is really important for us to recognize that Solomon through his efforts of his time has failed to recognize one thing. There is an eternal essence to life, but unless we come to grips with that truth, we will become overwhelmed with life as a whole.

Solomon in all of his glory & wisdom sets on the very precipice to the issues that really matter. He had failed to keep his mind, heart, and soul focused on the eternal viewpoint. You see to fail to take this into account will result in the outlook he is in. When we allow the natural efforts of life to take control of our being, we will fall short of those eternal matters that He seeks to help us keep focused on.

Tomorrow we will recognize the outlook that matters for all of time & eternity.

In this life it is so easy to get caught up in these natural human efforts, and forget the eternal side of life. The things that truely matter, for which Solomon sits on the edge of understanding.

My grandfather Rhoades told me his life story over our vacation time as a young teen boy. Our parents would take one vacation traveling to Indiana where I was born, in order to help us come to know moms family. When all of the beds were full, I would be given the privilege of sleeping with my grandfather, for whom I was given his name Earl as my middle name.

I can still remember laying in bed and grandpa telling me the many stories of his life. Being raised on a farm that's sole effort was raising a corn crop & sustaining 12 children. Upon meeting his wife my grandmother Goldie, and getting married he moved into the city of South Bend, Ind. They hadn't come to know Jesus as their savior, yet but upon purchasing a gas station franchise for Mobile Oil, he began working 7 days a week to provide for his family of 7. Six boys & my mother who would join in on that effort of running a gas station each week-end.

Sometime on one Sunday their neighbor moved in next door, and in the frigid winter invited the kids to church. They were the sunday school teachers for all of my family, Earl would begrudgingly let them have 2 hours off from the station, of pumping gas, cleaning up the mechanic bays, sweeping up the parking lot, etc. Upon my grandmothers strong encouragement they would come by the station in their station wagon pile all of the kids in and head to church.

After a few weeks my uncles began to come to understand just how much God loved them, and slowly each week one after the other began to accept Jesus as their Savior. This transformation began to be seen by my grandparents, finally the whole family of kids were invited to be baptized. This was quite a day, Earl had his partner run the station while he and Goldie went to church and during that service found out also of God's love for them, my grandfather went forward to trust Jesus, this decision caused a landslide of events.

We will talk about this more tomorrow.

So God With God His love for us will change everything. That was the message that I fell asleep with that night in the middle of my grandpa Earl's story. I'll tell more of that story tomorrow. Don't forget to put your trust in Him for the outcome, it is always of richer in content than we could ever believe. My dear one look & live. Israel learned that valuable lesson. It is no less powerful in our lives. Look & live.