Here We Are At the End

of a wonderfully relaxing weekend.

I woke up in time for early service this morning! This was good, because we started lunch with the family at noon... which is before 2nd service gets over. It was on the last half of Hebrews 12, the end of a book basically dealing with how Christians should respond to persecution. We're supposed to respond by having peace, and holiness, and by clinging to God's mercy, and finally by worshiping him, "where we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." This surprised me greatly, as I have just come off a long study on worship this week. The pastor talked for a moment about acceptable worship of God, which is what that long series of sermons that I read were all about! What perfect timing! I really shouldn't be shocked though. The Lord had this all planned. He is teaching me that I need to make a conscious decision to worship him acceptably every day. And I do that by obeying his commands to love him and my neighbor... and in doing that, and in thinking about his word, my heart should overflow with thanksgiving not only on Sunday, but often times. And this is what I desire: to worship him because he is holy and good.

We only had an hour or so after lunch was over before we had to take my brother back to the airport. It was certainly sad, but it is encouraging because he is planning on coming home so soon. I hope his leave goes through alright. Oh! and he is getting promoted on Tuesday to Lance Corporal (E-3) because of his time-in-service! :) He has a hard time though, because he is so lonely down in Yuma. And he feels like he isn't doing much in the way of "serving the country", but we continued to remind him that it is a great service to sacrifice his freedom to do whatever he wants. I hope he was encouraged.

Goodness! I was tired today! After eating a bit of pie and watching a bit of NFL when we got back, I fell asleep for 2 hours! Yikes! And the weather today has been nice... it was dry this evening, so I took the dog for a walk... and I didn't need to prod him along. I guess he doesn't care much for walking in the cold and rain either. :)

Jp