Philippians 2:13 ".... for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

On the left, Danielle's Mr. Bentley. On the right, our Mr. Bentley.

Hello and welcome to today's edition where we will be observing Monday, January 13, 2020. We were so blessed to celebrate our love and appreciation for our granddaughter Danielle last Thursday evening. She prepared dinner for us and her parents. The short version of her story, Dannielle was adopted out at birth but she has been a part of our lives throughout her 28-year sojourn here. She has the most wonderful parents anyone could hope for. We always enjoy such wonderful fellowship with her and her folks. Life doesn't always work out exactly how we might want it to, but, God is always there and He has been abundantly gracious in His provisions for Danielle and for us. We thank Him for her and for His goodness. Amen.

We got home last Friday evening from the Bible conference around 10:30 p.m. We had been on a storm watch here in our area all afternoon. We were thankful to have not experienced it yet by the time we got home even though we did drive through some heavy rain on our way home. When we came through the back door our son said the latest information put the timing close to midnight. We had a snack and watched the end of Live PD. We were worn out from a long week and soon went to bed. Right on time, a huge gust blew in around midnight. It was powerful. It blew around the wrought iron furniture on our deck like they were toys. The power went out immediately. The wind was howling and the rain was pounding. Maybe for thirty minutes or longer. I heard Mr. Bentley stirring in his nighttime kennel. Who could blame him with all the rock and roll going on outside? I think our power came back in about three hours. At daybreak, I carried Mr. Bentley out. I was worried some about what I might find. Our neighbor had a tree down in her yard. (The chainsaws got started in earnest around 6 a.m.) We had quite a bit of debris scattered around but no large limbs down and the roof was clear. I mentioned to Mr. Bentley how blessed we were to have made it through the storm as well as we did. He was more interested in all the new little sticks that had fallen in the yard overnight. Blessed. Blessed. Blessed. Amen.

As for our last week's Bible conference, I came away with a whole lot more convicting 'oh me's' than amens. The photo was taken after we got home from the conference on Friday evening. The wife mentioned it wasn't that often we were dressed in similar colors. We had not planned it that way so she took the selfie with us both wearing pink. There was a time, mostly while we were courting, that we did coordinate our dress and wore things alike. This photo depicts what I am talking about. Enough said.

If I can summarize the theme of the messages we heard at our Bible conference it would have to do with how time is short, people are lost and on their way to hell, and, our first responsibility is to tell others how they can know God and escape hell. Simple enough. Essentially, we do a lot of stuff that is religious, but, how much of what we do is directly targeted towards seeing others come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? Very convicting. Very convincing. And, sadly, the lack thereof, very obvious. We left with a boatload of conviction and that is a good thing because every man, woman, boy, and girl have as their greatest need, a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. He did His part by dying and being raised back to life to save us from our sins. We left with our hearts pricked with the question, 'what will we do?' Amen. ....More later.